The “Amen” Person

It seems like everywhere I go there’s a church that has an “Amen” person. I lived in Nashville for 16 years and sure enough the church I attended most regularly had a person who was known for this. A great guy, most importantly! People knew him for his “Aaaameennnnn!” during the sermons.

Now, in Florida, he’s got a rival. I attended church this morning and there was an “Amen” woman! I would guess there was anywhere from 25 to 30 amens from this woman during the entire sermon, even belting one out that sounded more like a personal opinion than a word of support for the point made by the pastor. In a single word, with a vibrant delivery, everyone knew how she felt about what the pastor had just said…even drawing chuckles from a few folks.

I’m not saying either Amen-er is too eager to express themselves, if you know these folks you just get used to it. I don’t believe they’re seeking attention either. It’s probably good to have an auditorium saturated in Amens.

I suppose it could be distracting, I mean, I AM writing an entire blog post about it without mentioning the sermon was on Psalm 100. And it could be worse — *ahem* that guy who said “A-woman”… Right?

How do you feel about these loud listeners? Chime in below, and thanks for stopping by!

-,Out of the Wilderness

Osprey bird photos

I should’ve taken photos of the muddy ocean water I had to sludge through — well, I was about to brag but I didn’t *have* to walk through the slimy mushy ocean bottom but I’m just stubborn enough to not say no. Gosh, that sounds like a humble brag, doesn’t it? Let’s just say I am stubborn and leave it at that!

Why did I get my feet so dirty? Well, there was an Osprey up in a tree and I had to get on the sunny side to get a colorful photo of the giant bird.

I snapped way to many photos but here are a few. The last one instantly became my favorite. I love the details of the plumpy feathers and the clarity in it’s eye.

This is off the gulf coast of north Florida. Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

Big Sky Episode 4 Music

We’re on episode 4 of season and the music was not quite as prominent as previous episodes (episode 1 music, episode 2 music, episode 3 music) but nonetheless, here are the songs from the show!

“Coming With the Hellfire” Extreme Music – Dark Country 5

“Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go” Trentemoller

Thanks for stopping by…

-Out of the Wilderness

Manatee Seas

There’s a little beach off the coast of north Florida I’ve been going to since I was a wee little sea cow, and during a recent visit there were some wee BIG sea cows – manatees!

It’s rare for manatees to be in the ocean but with creeks, rivers, and springs near this beach, manatees are becoming more common.

I floated in a kayak near a spring and sure enough there were two manatees. As slow as they swim it was still not so easy to get photos…but I managed to get a few.

Isn’t it amazing the different types of wildlife one can encounter on any given day?

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

Eye Eye, Captain! A story about a dangerous close call with a near-eye injury.

Have you ever had an experience where something was about to go dramatically wrong, but you didn’t know till it happened?

This was my experience recently in a garage as I put an attic ladder back into place. It is the old springy kind. The attic door wasn’t retracting back up to the ceiling because the arm spreader was caught. I used a small ladder to get closer so I could hold the spreader arm as I pushed the attic door up. The only thing is… when I pulled the spreader arm, the spring (which I didn’t even see) popped and came shooting out… directly at my face!

It all happened so fast that I didn’t even know what happened until after it happened. The metal spring ricocheted off my right hand and missed my right eye by a centimeter. It caught the outer edge of my eye area, the bone surrounding the eye ball, and spiraled down to the garage floor.

For a few minutes one finger hurt, as did the side of my face where the spring hit. Such a scary moment! If that flying metal would have hit my eye, I am very sure I would have spent many months in recovery IF my eye could recover at all.

For the rest of the day and even now I am appreciating what DIDN’T happen, grateful to have both eyes working as they should. What an answer to a prayer I hadn’t even prayed yet.

What stories do you have? Chime in below and thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness