Tag: Birthday

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Celebrate with New Passion on Our Birthday

Hey, friends and family and anyone else reading this! I would love to have you join us at New Passion Church this Sunday, September 11, to celebrate our 2nd Birthday! God has used our small church to make a big impact in people’s lives in just two short years, and we want to celebrate his faithfulness. From 9:10-9:40 am enjoy a pancake breakfast. Immediately following the worship service (begins at 10 am), we’ll have birthday cake and inflatable bounce-houses for the kids.

Invite others to join you this Sunday, we’d love to have you celebrate with us! You can get directions to Patriot’s Park on our website.

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Reflections on 30 Years of Life

Well tonight at 9:35 p.m. (and not a second earlier) I will enter into the infamous old man’s club, as I enter my third decade of life. I want to use this post to reflect on some of my memories both good and bad over the last 30 years, so enjoy a little bit of my life….

  • I remember that first evening at St. Joseph Hospital in Augusta, GA. It was cold, I really wish they would make hospitals a little warmer for new babies, however, that could not take away from being the best looking baby born that night December 16, 1980. I remember the doctors saying out of all 25 babies born that night, I was also the best behaved, and I looked the most like Jesus. They were so kind!
  • I spent most of my childhood with a chipped tooth. In most of the pictures where I am smiling as a child you can see it. It really didn’t bother me, it was kind of like a badge of honor. I was kind of sad the day it fell out.
  • I used to not be able to pronounce the “R” sound. I would say it like a “W” – My fourth grade speech therapist threatened to cut the little thing under my tongue. I learned to say the “R” sound.
  • I was convinced for a LONG time, like up until last year, that Santa Clause was real, because a dad dressed up and sat out on his porch at the corner house on Heard Ave. peering into his child’s bedroom. Wait…I hope it was the child’s dad.
  • I used to love going to the Mall and eating at “Corn Dog”  and getting an Orange Julius. Those were great times.
  • There is a seafood restaurant in Augusta called T’s. I liked going there because I thought “Mr. T” owned it.
  • I loved watching Knight Rider, the A-Team, the Fall Guy, Air Wolf, CHiPs, The Justice League, Transformers, their poor man knock-offs the Gobots, and I loved Saturday Cartoons along with USA’s Cartoon Express.
  • I love(d) Superman.
  • I am Superman.
  • I collected all of the Justice League Characters.
  • I wasn’t allowed to watch the Smurfs growing up. My dad was a very strict for a while, until we took him to a Third Day concert.
  • I grew up in some very legalistic, fundamental churches.
  • I am still in therapy.
  • Honestly: I am thankful for the Christian heritage and foundation that God has given me. I am thankful for every Church and Christian who has invested in my life. I believe that it’s through those churches and people that I have found God for who I know him to be today. I love what Acts 17:27 says, “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us.” I believe He placed me where I could find him best.
  • I used to love going to my Granny’s house on Friday nights. Most of our family would be there. We grew up together and all of us are very close. We dressed up and performed songs for our family, we played together in the play room, and it was awesome when Granny would open “K-Mart” (the back room where she kept the toys she found on clearance) to give us a special toy. My cousins always put me up to asking Granny to open K-Mart, even after my dad told me in the car, “Don’t ask for anything!” So, Granny would open K-Mart, give us a toy, and then I got to stand in the corner. I think my Cousins owe me.
  • My Granny died one early Saturday morning after one of our visits on Saturday night. I miss her.
  • I love(d) going to my Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Covington, GA. I’d go up for week’s at a time and I would help my Grandparents work and Grandma would take us shopping at Sears. They took me on a tour of parts of the U.S. from Georgia to Florida to Illinois to New York City, and then another trip to Cherokee and Santa Land. Those were good times!
  • I am thankful for great parents who raised me in a Christian home. For a mom who stayed at home to raise my brother and sisters. She was doing backyard Bible clubs with my family and cousins before they were cool. I am thankful for a dad who at many times worked multiple jobs to make it possible for my mom to stay at home with us and to do Backyard Bible clubs.
  • We used to have a Sky City right behind our house, so we would walk to it during the day. I would ALWAYS get a free coke out of the coke machine. My cousins would even go bang on the machine before me to try and get one first. It didn’t work. It only worked for me. It was crazy! My family was poor, so me and my sister and all of my cousins (8 total kids) would cram into this little machine that played a quick cartoon for .25 cents.
  • I was a Coke-a-holic. I hate drinking water, so all I used to drink was Coke.
  • My parents tried to limit my intake of Coke.
  • It didn’t work. I was 50 pounds overweight three years ago, mainly because of Coke.
  • I lost 53 pounds and went from 193 lbs to 140 lbs, I am now around 145.
  • I knocked myself out in Middle School. I was running and tripped and landed with a curb up my ribs. My girlfriend (not to be confused with the love of my life mentioned next) cried, she thought I was dead!
  • In 6th grade I met the love of my life. She didn’t know it yet. In fact I had to persuade her to be my girlfriend with a box of chocolates.
  • I broke up with her a couple of weeks later because my best friend dumped her best friend.
  • She practically begged me to take her back when I was in 12th grade. We’ve been together ever since.
  • I have the most beautiful, stubborn, kind, hardheaded, patient, hardworking, frustrating, and loving wife. I have been honored to be married to her for a third of my life (10 years for the math challenged).
  • She won’t leave me alone and I can’t tell her no, so God has blessed us with three amazing children, Gavin, Tristan, and Hailey.
  • I attend the greatest church in the world, New Passion Church. We have one of the greatest looking pastors in the world! We are on the brink of seeing God do amazing things through our church. I can’t wait to be a part of it!
  • It would be a mockery of God to not acknowledge that I am truly a blessed man. God has done great things in my first 30 years, I cannot wait to see what he does in the next 30 years.
  • If you are reading this and you know me. Thank you for being a part of my first 30 years! My memory may fade and I may not know you after today (you know us old people) but I am grateful for you.
  • In honor of my birthday, you can help make memories for people in Africa that do not have clean water. A donation of any amount towards my birthday campaign will help provide clean water for many people who may not live to see 30 without it!
  • http://mycharitywater.org/nickcarnes
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Depends and Bifocals

Well. It’s almost here. At 9:35 p.m. tomorrow (and not a second earlier) I will turn the big 30! I guess I need to carve out some time Friday morning to go get sized for my new life of Depends. I probably need to go by Eye Glass World or somewhere like that to treat myself to a brand new pair of bifocals too. We’re going to Sconyers BBQ on Friday night for my birthday, so I really can’t delay getting these things done if I want to read the menu, and only God knows what will happen with my bladder and digestive system as of 9:35 p.m. tomorrow, so I definitely CANNOT delay with the Depends, those will be top priority. I would hate to have an embarrassing episode, but then again, I will be a rookie goldy oldie so I guess it’s expected.

I wonder if 30 among the elderly is like being a freshmen in high school. I fear being hazed by the older, older people. I guess I’ll have to keep a close eye on my dentures and walker so no one hides them. You know how our memory gets lost with everything else, I’ll never find them if they get a hold of them.

While my memory is still flickering slightly better than it will be at 9:35 p.m. tomorrow night. I must remind you, because I know everyone reading this is ringing their hands right now and are nervous that you have not bought be a birthday gift. So, you are thinking that you are going to have to go battle the Christmas traffic or the long lines to get me the very best gift in the world. But, do not be afraid! That seems to sound familiar. Although I know you were going to lavish me with wonderful gifts, I must decline. I am asking you to celebrate the 30 wonderful years God has blessed me with by blessing those in Africa who do not have clean water. Many children will not live to see this ripe old age of 30 because they don’t have usable water. Will you go give a gift of any size to this effort? Instead of going out and buying that pack of Depends for me, you may want to give the equivalent amount (approx. $13) towards my campaign, or if you are really feeling generous you can give $1 per year I’ve been alive, that will provide 1.5 people water for the next 20 years!  The direct link to the gift giving site is: http://mycharitywater.org/nickcarnes

P.S. Billy Wilson says he and Seree went to the Apple Store to buy me an iPad for my birthday when he pulled up my blog in the store and saw that I was  asking for water instead. So, they put the iPad back. Do me a favor and please go to Billy’s Facebok page, his Twitter, and/or his Email and help remind him and Seree to donate the equivalent amount of money for an iPad in a water donation to my campaign, since they were feeling so generous this Birthday season!

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Nobody Loves Me, Everybody Hates Me

In one week my life changes forever. I leave these glory days known as the 20’s behind for a much darker, scarier land full of broken hips, bad eye sight, and dentures. Yes, on December 16, just seven days away, I enter my 30’s. All I know is that it will be a depressing week!

What makes it more depressing is that I have recently discovered that the only people who love me is my sister and her family and (updated) my parents. See, they are the ONLY ones who have given clean water to families in Africa in honor of my birthday (insert guilt here). It is almost too much to bear thinking that those poor (literally) children will suffer because of people’s lack of love for me (insert more guilt here).

Or, maybe it’s the curse of my birth, being born in December. I remember those Christmas mornings where family members would tell me that my birthday gift was included in the same box as my Christmas gift, so I would tear into the package to see what I got, and somehow it was the same gift my cousins next to me got too. I guess my cousins were celebrating my birthday with me or maybe they thought I was too young to notice. I understand that December is a tight, difficult month for some, I guess people don’t need water in December, in fact they should just learn to wait until February, after all, someone needs another fruitcake or silly tie they will never wear while telling you it’s awesome (Yes, everyone without a December Birthday should feel guilty here)!

So, maybe God (or guilt) has moved in your heart and you realize you’ve found a little bit of love for me. Okay, maybe it’s not enough love for $30 ($1 per year of my birth) worth of water to provide 1.5 people clean water for 20 years, but maybe it’s $5 or $10 or $20 worth of love. If you have discovered that you love me in any amount, you can go ahead and send that love gift to Charity:Water on my behalf.

…Can you feel the love tonight?

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My Birthday is December 16, This is What I Want…

clean-water$30

In honor of my birthday, I am asking everyone who reads this to give $1 for every year I’ve been alive to help give life and sustain life for the multitudes of people who do not have clean water through Charity:Water.

While we worry that we don’t have the latest X-Box game or the newest album from our favorite artist or the newest article of clothing that’s hit the retail stores, millions of people around the world worry about having what’s actually necessary for LIFE. Clean, drinkable, usable WATER. God’s blessed me with a healthy family, a home, a car, food and clean water. This year for my birthday instead of getting more of what I don’t really need, I want to be the hands and feet of Jesus to help bless other people.

“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ Matthew 25:37-40

I’ve accepted the birthday challenge presented by Charity:Water at the 2010 Catalyst Conference. I’ve set a goal of $1,500, which comes out to 50 people giving a $30 gift to provide 75 people with clean water for 20 years. If we can raise $5,000 that will provide an entire village clean water. By the Way…this is HUGE…100% of your donation goes to provide clean water to the people in need, it does not go to administration fees or anything else. It all goes to provide clean water!

Check out Why Clean Water on Charity Water’s Site.

Except for when I was a child, I’ve never asked anyone to give me anything for my birthday, but this year I will ask you to give a $30 gift in honor of my birthday to provide people clean water. Will you do that? You can give that gift at my Charity:Water Birthday Campaign Site.

The direct URL to the site is: http://mycharitywater.org/nickcarnes