May

May 1

1983 - Sunday evening Art to Heart as part of leading Friday through Sunday revival services April 29-May 1 at First Baptist Church in Lebanon, TN. Thank you, Chris Kraus. Somehow we found out that Chris and I were both big M*A*S*H TV show fans, so we challenged ourselves with M*A*S*H trivia questions throughout the weekend.

1992 - Did Art to Heart as part of our X:SPECTRUM conference May 1-2 at First Baptist Church in Cary, NC (suburb of Raleigh). Thank you, Mike Strickland. A big memory of this weekend was arriving in Cary in the middle of the night in fog so thick we couldn't see a thing. Had to stop the van and trailer and get out to try and figure out where we were.

May 2

1986 - Art to Heart for Chesterfield Baptist Association youth night at First Baptist Church in Pageland, SC (or maybe even Jefferson, SC).

2007 - Art to Heart for CMCA (Christian Meeting & Conventions Association) Annual Showcase May 2- 3 at Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC. Thank you, Jayne Kuryluk.

May 4

1977 - Sunday morning Art to Heart at First Baptist Church in Piedmont, SC.

1980 - Sunday evening Art to Heart as part of leading a weekend of ministry at Wesconnett Baptist Church in Jacksonville FL May 2-4.

1986 - Sunday morning Art to Heart at Calvary Baptist Church in Bishopville, SC. Thank you, Lonnie Watford.

May 5

1985 - Sunday evening Art to Heart as part of leading Sunday through Wednesday revival services May 5-8 at Fort Mitchel Baptist Church in Fort Mitchell, KY.

1991 - Sunday morning Art to Heart at Matlock Baptist Church in Jackson, SC. Thank you, Marie Weathersby. Marie was a wonderful lady who headed up the youth ministry as a volunteer. We also did a program for just the students that afternoon, and I had a chance to talk quite a bit with Marie. She told me that, after months of trying, she recently had gotten a certain teenage guy to come to church. But while there, an older woman chastised him for being so disrespectful as to show up in church wearing jeans. Marie said it had nothing to do with lack of respect - it was all he had. She was of course incredibly disappointed that he was treated that way. Marie very sadly lamented that he hadn’t been back since and she didn’t know if he would ever come back. On this date it was Art to Heartbroken.

May 6

1995 - After a marathon drive to Canada, we did Art to Heart as part of doing our X:SPECTRUM conference for the Atlantic Baptist National Youth Conference sponsored by the Canadian Atlantic Baptist Convention May 5-6 at Atlantic Baptist College in New Brunswick, Canada. In addition to a chalk drawing, a three-screen nine projector multimedia presentation, and other sessions, X:SPECTRUM (theme was “There’s No Place Like Home”) included an opening production that was a take-off on the Wizard of Oz. For this we needed Kathy to play Dorothy, but we didn’t want her to be away from our school-age kids for too long. The solution was for her to fly in and out to be with for part of the time in Canada. Mike Blackwood and I put in several very long driving days before picking up Kathy at an airport in Maine for the last leg of the drive into Canada. After the weekend she was driven back to the airport in Maine by two of the Canadian Baptist convention directors while Mike and I stayed in Canada for another week of ministry. Thank you, Buck Booker for recommending us to do the Canadian national conference and for hosting us for another Art to Heart at his church. More to come tomorrow...

May 7

1980 - Wednesday evening Art to Heart as part of leading Wednesday through Sunday revival services May 7-11 at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in Easley, SC. Thank you, Dick Lewis.

1989 - Sunday evening Art to Heart at Pinegrove Baptist Church in Walterboro, SC. Thank you, Dale Lynch.

1995 - After leading program for Canadian Baptist youth conference Friday and Saturday, we moved on to a Baptist Church in St. John, Canada where I preached Sunday morning and we did Art to Heart that night. Thank you, Buck Booker. As is often the case, we needed a place to change clothes between setting up for Art to Heart and the evening service, so Buck directed Mike Blackwood and me to the church financial office for our dressing room. Weeks later, Buck called to let me know that because of suspicion of financial impropriety by a church worker, unbeknownst to him, a secret camera had been set up in the office in which we changed. Our changing was captured on video. I’m fairly confident that it was rated no worse than PG.

When we left St. John, Mike and I (Kathy had flown home) drove the van and trailer into the lower level of a massive ferry boat for a trip to Nova Scotia where I did a youth ministry training conference before heading toward home. During the youth conference the weekend before, we talked to a group from Calais, the border town we passed through to enter and leave Canada. They said they wanted to tell us goodbye as we were leaving the country and asked when we would be going back through Calais. We told them the day, but had no idea what time. They promised they’d see us before we left. Mike and I pondered several times during the week whether or not we’d see any of our new friends and agreed it was highly unlikely. We figured in a week’s time they would have forgotten all about us. As we drove through Calais we unsurprisingly didn’t see anybody, but still said goodbye. We pulled up to the border gate and all of a sudden about 40 kids from the youth group appeared from seemingly no where and completely surrounded the van. They were excited to see us again. We were shocked, amazed, humbled, and excited to see them. The border guards were definitely not enjoying our reunion. They put their hands on their guns and began shouting for everyone to get away from the van and trailer. They pulled us over to the side, ushered Mike and me inside the station, demanded an explanation, and started searching the van and trailer. To make matters worse, we learned that when we had gone from the US into Canada, we had not gotten proper documentation verifying that the contents of the trailer belonged to us. By law, they had a right to confiscate all of our sound, lighting, video, multimedia, and chalk drawing equipment. We eventually convinced them that all those kids really were a church youth group that we had met at a conference, and that we were not smuggling newly purchased equipment into the country. They kindly welcomed us home and let us continue the long drive back to South Carolina.

2006 - Sunday evening Art to Heart at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lebanon, TN. Also did a banquet and another program at the church earlier in the day. Thank you, Barry Ellis. Barry was in our youth group at Taylors First Baptist Church and for a while during his college years traveled and helped us out with music.

May 8

1985 - Wednesday evening Art to Heart as part of leading Sunday through Wednesday revival services May 5-8 at Fort Mitchel Baptist Church in Fort Mitchel, KY.

May 9

1982 - Calendar says Art to Heart at College Park. It's probably a Baptist church and it may be the one in Rock Hill, SC. There are others, so I'm not sure. We were there Sunday through Thursday May 9-13, probably leading revival services. Probably also did another Art to Heart Wednesday or Thursday. Thank you, Calvin Bryant.

1997 - Saturday evening Art to Heart for associational youth rally in New Bern, NC. Thank you, Kevin Davis. Have done Art to Heart multiple times in at least three states.

May 11

1980 - Sunday evening Art to Heart to conclude leading Wednesday through Sunday revival services May 7-11 at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in Easley, SC. Thank you, Dick Lewis. What I remember most about this week was not doing Art to Heart, but the night we did “Something Different,” a musical drama that I wrote. We did it with a band that included two guitars, bass guitar, and drums. None of those instruments had ever been used in a service at this church (44 years ago), but the pastor was all for it and prepared his people well. Early in the service he stood in the midst of our instruments and read Psalm 150 which includes “...Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord...” When he got to the word “lyre,” he strummed my guitar. On the word “strings,” he plucked the bass. He had the most fun with “cymbals” and, in the translation he was reading, “loud crashing cymbals.” The message was received - his and ours - and we had a wonderful service.

May 12

1982 - Wednesday evening Art to Heart as part of leading Sunday through Thursday revival services May 9-13 at “College Park.” Don’t remember if that was in College Park, MD or at one of many College Park Baptist Churches in the southeast. Wherever it was, thank you Calvin Bryant. UPDATE: Sad way to update, but found Calvin’s obituary and was reminded that he served at College Park Baptist Church in Rock Hill, SC.

May 13

1983 - Friday evening Art to Heart as part of weekend of ministry May 13-15 at Taylors First Baptist Church in Taylors, SC. This was three years after my five-year tenure there as minister of youth. Thankful that they kept inviting us back.

May 15

1982 - One of the crazier Art to Heart experiences in our 50 years took place on this date at the then very popular Ghost Town In The Sky amusement park in Maggie Valley, NC where we were invited to do several productions for “Ghost Town Christian Day” along with a number of Christian concert artists. The park is on top of a mountain and most people got there by riding the chair lift or inclined rail train. We got there by driving up a road so steep that I thought all of our equipment was going to burst through the back door of the van.

Our first show was a puppet show that we did at 11:00 am in the saloon beside where the old western town bank robbery show and gun fights took place. Art to Heart followed at 2:30 pm in the ice skating show theater. Our “stage” was several pieces of plywood that had been laid down on top of the ice in the skating rink. About halfway through the drawing I noticed that the plywood I was standing on seemed to be doing a lot of shifting. I looked down and was shocked to see that I was standing in water. The ice was melting - rather quickly. After it was all over, we figured out that earlier in the day when lights had been turned off to get it dark for the drawing (we use our own lighting), the freezing coils had also been turned off by mistake.

I said I was “shocked” to see that I was standing in water. When I thought about our set up, being literally shocked was my immediate very real concern. There were at least 10 electric plugs sitting on the same plywood right behind the drawing board just a few feet from where I was standing. They were not designed to be waterproof. Getting to safety and shutting off the power crossed my mind, but I continued on, wondering if at any minute the whole thing might start short circuiting - or worse. Thankfully and amazingly we made it through the rest of the presentation.

In analyzing how we made it (along with God’s protection), I realized that the part of the plywood sheet I was standing on was sinking the deepest and probably raising the other end of the wood where the plugs were. When I stepped off the plywood at the end of the drawing and went to the control box to run the special effects (meaning many more plugs were turned on), the plywood floated. After the drawing/special effects concluded, I finished up the program on a different piece of plywood, thankful that “Digger,” the Ghost Town undertaker didn’t have to drag me off to boot hill.

May 16

1980 - Friday evening Art to Heart at Fairview Baptist Church (not sure which one). Thank you, Dennis Lynn.

1989 - Did chalk drawing(s) as part of mission trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil May 15-23, but have no idea which day(s).

1992 - Saturday evening Art to Heart at Phillipi Baptist Church in Union, SC. Thank you, Tommy McManus.

May 17

1987 - Sunday evening Art to Heart at an unknown (to me right now) church in Drexel, NC. Also preached there, wherever there is, that morning.

May 18

1986 - Sunday evening Art to Heart at Northwood Baptist Church in North Charleston, SC. Thank you, Jack Channel.

1996 - Maybe did X:SPECTRUM, which would have included Art to Heart, somewhere May 17-18. It was on my calendar, but no other details. Maybe it happened. Maybe it didn't.

May 19

1985 - Sunday evening Art to Heart as part of leading Sunday through Wednesday revival services May 19-22 at Cinco Baptist Church in Ft Walton Beach, FL. Also did associational youth rally there the night before.

May 20

1995 - Saturday evening Art to Heart as part of NC Baptist Convention Youth Ministry Lab May 19-21 at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. Also did "The Great Show with Bill Cox" Saturday evening and preached Sunday morning.

May 21

1983 - Did NOT do an Art to Heart on this date. That’s because we did not do the Friday through Sunday weekend that was scheduled May 20-22 at New Hope Baptist Church in Mauldin, SC. That’s because we had Christopher, our first son on this date instead. Christopher’s arrival was not unexpected, so I had friends lined up ready to step in over a period of several weeks whenever the time came. Thank you Carlos Watson for understanding and to those friends who covered for me that weekend, not only at New Hope but also Saturday afternoon at the state FCA rally for which I was supposed to lead music.

May 22

1985 - Wednesday evening Art to Heart as part of leading Sunday through Wednesday revival services May 19-22 at Cinco Baptist Church in Ft Walton Beach, FL.

1986 - Set up Art to Heart at Brushy Creek Baptist Church in Taylors on Friday for Sunday morning service. Don’t usually set up two days in advance, but had to in this case because I was doing something in Birmingham, AL on Saturday. (I was also on staff of the SC Baptist Convention at the time, and I think I was asked to fly into BIrmingham for the day to get trained and certified to administer some kind of leadership testing.)

2002 - Sunday morning Art to Heart at St. John's Baptist Church, but I have no idea in which city or state.

May 24

1985 - Art to Heart for Dawkins Middle School of Spartanburg Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) meeting in Atlanta May 24-25. Thank you, Dick Cox.

2000 - Wednesday evening Art to Heart in Maryville, TN. Thank you, Kenny Crook.

May 25

1986 - Sunday morning Art to Heart at Brushy Creek Baptist Church in Taylors, SC. Thank you, Shields Cochran.

1991 - Saturday evening Art to Heart for Piedmont Baptist Associational youth rally at Calvary Hill Baptist Church in Easley, SC. Thank you, Tim Turner.

May 26

1984 - Did Art to Heart as part of Youth Jubilee May 25-26 at Gardner-Webb College (now University) in Boiling Springs, NC. (Also did our three-screen nine-projector multi-media production “Homecoming” on the other day.) I’m having to trust my memory here, but I think Dawn Smith Jordan did music on one or both days, and I think Buddy Freeman planned this event and invited us to be a part.