Ravenscraft.org

For those who didn’t know, I’ve just returned from a four day cruise. Yes, Stephanie and I just got back from Great Exuma Bahamas with our daughter McKenna. That was an incentive trip that our agency won with Grange Life Insurance. The cruise I am returning from was an incentive trip that we won from State Auto Mutual. Believe it or not, I have yet a third trip coming up shortly to Washington DC, another Grange Life incentive trip.

No Stephanie and I have not won the lottery. Our insurance agency has just been writing a lot of insurance policies. All these trips are all expenses paid trips and are quite a nice perk for working in the insurance industry. I thank God for blessing me with not only a job that I really love, but also a job that has such great rewards for working hard.

Anyway, about this trip that I just went on. Stephanie stayed behind with all the kids. We didn’t want to take McKenna onto a cruise due to the closed confines of a ship with so many international passengers. So instead, I took my friend Robert Johnson from Florida. It has been more than five years since Robert and I had got together for a few days to just hang out together.

The reason for the title of this post is due to the fact that Stephanie and I stayed at the Atlantis Resort just a few years ago. We had taken so many awesome pictures and were excited to view them all when we got home. However, someone had stolen our camera out of her purse while we were on the phone at the Atlantis hotel. Since our cruise was diverted from Cozumel Mexico due to Hurricane Emily and we ended up going to Nassau instead, I decided I would take several photos from the Atlantis Resort.

I have pasted 118 photos in the photo gallery. PLEASE CLICK HERE to see the photos in a slideshow presentation. Please note, you can click on any picture to see a larger image. If you would like to have a copy for yourself, simply right-click and save the picture to your desktop.

Tomorrow, I may post a few movies that I took with my digital camera. They are rather large files, so I’m still debating it. If you happen to be reading this post or checking out the pictures, would you mind leaving me a comment?

Thanks!
Cliff

Traveling away form home is much different today than it was in the past. It seems no matter how far away from home I travel, I’m no farther than an email or internet chat away from those back home. Of course everyone knows that I like to use my blog to share stories and pictures from my trips.

However, the trick to staying in touch is making sure that you can find an affordable place to hop onto the internet. Right now, I’m on board the Royal Caribbean “Empress of the Sea” cruise ship and they have an online café. However, this is where the “affordable” part of it comes in. The ship charges a hefty 50 cents per minute to browse the internet if you can imagine that.

The good news is that at almost every tourist place you visit today, you are bound to find an internet café where you can access the net at a very decent price. Today, In Key West Florida, I located the “idea” internet café.

Pictured above is the entrance to the Sippin’ @ Java Joes Internet Café in Glorious Key West Florida. Of course as I walked through the Key West, we passed a few stores that had a computer or two set up to get onto the net. However, as we walked a bit further into the town we found this “TRUE” internet café on the corner of Eaton and Duval Street.

As I stepped into this café, I was immediately refreshed by the air-conditioning. The atmosphere is exactly what you would expect from a café. They had state of the art computer systems, a T-1 connection to the internet and fine chairs to relax in. Of course they also sold a variety of gourmet coffee and teas, sandwiches, and desserts.

While at the café, I got to meet the owner of the café, Onett Johnson. It turns out that he just recently purchased this internet café and made a lost of cosmetic changes to the inside. Mr. Johnson… Bravo! So what does an owner of an internet café do all day? Of course I found out as I caught him reading everyone’s favorite blog, ravenscraft.org. (Pictured Below)

I wanted to post my photos that I’ve taken up to this point in my photo gallery, however, I didn’t take them with me to the internet cafe. I will attempt to upload my photos tomorrow evening when I get to Nassau. Check back tomorrow night.

If you’ve been following the discussion on the Celebrity Deathmatch Post, you know that I’ve picked the “Choose The Life” book back up. In fact, I’m really excited about studying this book as a ministry and especially the topic of “Training v/s Trying” when it comes to the spiritual disciplines associated with Following Christ.

One discipline that I had decided to tackle was the discipline of waking “early in the morning” and spending time in a solitary place. My initial goal, set about three months ago, was to get up at 6am every morning. I “tried” to do this for weeks and failed miserably for the most part at first, only able to wake as early as 7am two days a week on average. But I didn’t give up! I continued ask others for support in prayer and accountability and I pressed on. Eventually, I was getting up at 6:30 about four days a week. This was still not where I wanted to be, I continued to press on and eventually met my goal on a consistent basis after about two months.

Spending solitary time alone each morning with God has not only helped me to have a better focus on my day but has given me great clarity and direction in my personal life, my career, and in my ministry efforts. In fact, having this time has actually become so enjoyable that I’m often finding myself waking at 4:30am on a regular basis to get even a greater start on my day.

Where am I going with all this? Am I just patting myself on the back? Honestly, I can’t say that I’m not excited about where I’ve come in this area. But the reason I share it is because of something I read in the “Choose The Life” book recently. Many times we fail at spiritual disciplines such as prayer, studying God’s Word, fasting, stewardship, etc. because we simply “try” to do better in these areas of our lives. The fact is that “trying” is not enough. We must set a goal and then “train” for it.

Several years ago, my wife did the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon. If she would have simply “tried” to do the 26.2 mile trek when the time came, she would have failed miserably. She may have made it about five or even six miles, who knows, maybe even ten or so miles before she could simply go no more. However, that’s not what happened. I’m very proud to report that my wife made it the WHOLE TWENTY SIX POINT TWO MILES that day! She walked the WHOLE THING!

How did she do it? SHE TRAINED! She set a goal (26.2 miles) and she began to train for that goal on a daily basis. She started out with a mile. In a few weeks she was going five miles. She hurt at first. She became discouraged at several points, but she didn’t give up. She kept pushing herself, one step further, knowing that by doing so, she could accomplish her goal. And She Did!

Bill Hull write in the “Choose The Life” book that we need to quit trying to be disciples and begin to get serious about training to be disciples.

What spiritual discipline are you training in?

FYI- My next spiritual discipline that I am training in right now is being a better steward of my physical body. I’m seeking wisdom, prayer, and accountabilty in the area of physical activity, eating healthier, and finding a biblical method to handle my stress to avoid eating as a coping method. I’d value your prayers in this area of my life.

In Christ,
Cliff