Month: September 2021

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Blogging Driving Food Nature Photography Scripture Shopping Travel

Wichita Falls Texas

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we return to one of my favorite cities in the great state of Texas – Wichita Falls. It’s one of my favorite cities for one main reason – I have 5 family members (and their pets) who live there. I visit them every year.

And if you haven’t already guessed by now – I was there last weekend ! #Vacation

I was there from last Thursday morning through Monday morning (96 hours). I spent quality time with family and pets, and we celebrated my Aunt’s & Uncle’s 65TH anniversary together with a quiet spaghetti dinner at home. (Normally we go out to eat dinner at a nice restaurant (usually a steakhouse) to honor the occasion, but this year we decided to go “low-key”.)

As I wrote about last #TravelThursday we embarked on our traditional Saturday road-trip of a few hours away from the metro area. We went eastward this time along U.S. 82. We stopped for Lunch along the way at Tres Niños – a Mexican restaurant in Nocona. It was pretty good. I enjoyed my plate of a sour cream chicken enchilada, a beef enchilada with chili, a guacamole tostada, rice, and beans. Eating Mexican food has become a tradition within the tradition. I didn’t know that we were going to eat Mexican food on our road-trip, but I had a pretty good idea of it. Once something works – we just keep doing it, and the tradition continues to grow.

Nocona is about 52 miles east of where we started on the south-side of the Wichita Falls area. (We previously visited Nocona on our 2015 road-trip.) From there we proceeded another 22½ miles southeastward to downtown Muenster Texas (our final destination for this road-trip). Muenster is a very German-Catholic town of a little over 1,600 residents. More than 90% of its residents are of German descent. It was founded by settlers 132 years ago. It’s named after Münster Germany. They host German festivals year-round, and tourists come to visit to enjoy the eating and drinking fun. Much of the architecture of Muenster looks very German:

That’s actually a Glockenspiel. Read more about it.

On the return trip back from Muenster we drove the backroads through “Wine Country” where multiple vineyards dot the picturesque hilly landscape. We also drove through the Henrietta area, and we visited a couple of large gift shops / “tourist traps” adjacent to gas stations along the highway. (This has also become a tradition of our road-trips.)

It was a fun 4-day visit to the #Texoma region along the Red River. The sights and sounds on the road were fun as usual. The food was abundant every day. But most importantly I got closer to my family there. Above all – family always comes first.

Join me next #TravelThursday as we visit another location on the face of this earth.

They keep you safe on your way, and your feet will not stumble. You can go to bed without fear. You will lie down and sleep soundly. You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked, for the LORD is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap. (Proverbs 3:23-26 NLT)

All rights reserved (c) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Summer Of 2021

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back 40+ years. But this week it’s a special chart of my Top 10 hits of this past Summer. Here’s this Summer’s chart:

COUNTUP MINISTRIES FOR THE SUMMER OF 2021 15 WEEKS
RK PK WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 15 Yes He Can Cain
2 1 15 When We Fall Apart Ryan Stevenson Ft. Vince Gill & Amy Grant
3 1 15 Gospel Song Rhett Walker
4 1 11 Be Alright Evan Craft X Danny Gokey X Redimi2
5 1 9 Fires Jordan St. Cyr
6 1 7 Help Is On The Way (Maybe Midnight) TobyMac
7 1 8 Into The Wild Josh Baldwin
8 4 10 Until Grace Tauren Wells Ft. Gary LeVox of Rascal Flatts
9 2 6 House Of The Lord Phil Wickham
10 5 8 What If Matthew West

# 1 Summer Of:
2020 – “No Impossible With You” – I AM THEY
2019 – “Raise A Hallelujah” – Bethel Music
2018 – “Do It Again” – Elevation Worship
2017 – “Wonder” – Hillsong UNITED

WHAT A SUMMER ! – 15 weekly hit music charts and 22 positive and encouraging hits (4 less than last Summer) have created this cumulative hit music chart of my Top 10 hits of the Summer Of 2021 based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay. This past Summer season is defined as U.S. Memorial Day Weekend (last Sunday of May) to U.S. Labor Day Weekend (first Sunday of September). This chart is an End-Of-Summer tradition for me.

CAIN IN THE SUMMERTIME – Cain reined this past Summer, as “Yes He Can” was my # 1 smash of the season by a wide margin. It was 1 of 3 hits that spent all 15 weeks of the Summer on my chart. That’s 3 weeks at # 1, 5 weeks at # 2, 3 weeks at # 3, and 4 weeks at # 4. “Yes He Can” is Cain’s follow-up to “Rise Up (Lazarus)” which was my # 4 hit of all of 2020. It actually debuted on my chart on the 2ND-to-last-week of the Summer Of 2020.

RYAN REPEATS – Ryan Stevenson repeats on my End-Of-Summer chart. “When We Fall Apart” is his biggest and longest-running hit thus far. He was # 6 last Summer with his hit “Amadeo (Still My God)”. Ryan also had a Summer Of 2018 hit (# 10) with “No Matter What”.

BACK TO NORMAL – My regular hit music chart returns next Monday September 27TH 2021.

This blog is # 34 worldwide on the Top 80 Christian Music Blogs and Websites in 2021 chart. Thank You for including us Feedspot !

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again this upcoming weekend – with 4 new entries on Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday. I don’t blog on Saturdays. That’s my day of rest.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. I’m also on Twitter and Flickr.

Be blessed my friends !  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All rights reserved (c) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday September 19TH 2021, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.

Ever since that first Sunday that I walked in to a church building for the first time in my adult life – I haven’t missed too many Sundays of church service.

I probably average about 4 or 5 missed Sundays per year – mostly due to vacations but a few due to sickness. 10 Sundays in a row were missed in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic during the initial lockdown. That was by far the longest stretch of missed Sundays since the beginning.

I’ve been part of church leadership for the past 12 years now, so my attendance, participation, and assimilation on Sunday mornings must be high. You don’t become a church leader by attending whenever you feel like it. The church body relies on you to be there for them, and to lead them closer to our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.

When I’m not with my church body on a Sunday morning I feel somewhat out-of-place. When I’m on vacation and 11 AM U.S. East Coast Time strikes I think about what I would be doing back at home with my church body – whether it be singing, praying, listening, learning, or preaching. And then there’s the post-service fellowship Lunch.

I will actually miss 3 Sundays in a row this November, as I’ll be on a long 18-day road-trip vacation. On 2 of those 3 Sundays I hope to check out 2 local area church services to experience how it’s done there (at my destination). I encourage current and future Pastors to visit other church bodies to see how it’s done differently. I used to do this more often than I have recently – including a Saturday night or Sunday morning church service as part of my vacation experience. I need to get back to doing that. Sometimes the Pastor or someone on his leadership team will introduce themself to me and welcome me to their church. That’s always a wonderful feeling. If the conversation continues on then I’ll introduce myself as a Pastor visiting to experience worship and to also gather new ideas and concepts. Sometimes I’ll even get a mention from the Pastor as part of his sermon. A few times I’ve been invited up on stage to lead the church body in prayer and to say a few words. It’s always an honor to do that.

So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock – His church – purchased with His own blood – over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders. (Acts 20:28 NLT)

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

All rights reserved (c) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Categories
1990s Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1991

Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 25, 30, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 3RD Friday of the month, so I go back 30 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday September 22ND 1991:

  1. “Shiny Happy People” – R.E.M.
  2. “I’ll Be There” – The Escape Club
  3. “Wind Of Change” – The Scorpions
  4. “It Hit Me Like A Hammer” – Huey Lewis And The News
  5. “Every Heartbeat” – Amy Grant

For this edition of RETRO I wanted to highlight the one song on my Top 5 exactly 30 years ago that I don’t remember. It’s because I haven’t heard it since 30 years ago when it spent 19 weeks on my chart. I’m talking about The Escape Club’s “I’ll Be There”. You probably remember their biggest hit – “Wild Wild West” – from 1988. You may even remember its immediate follow-up hit – “Shake For The Sheik”. I remember both. But I seriously didn’t remember “I’ll Be There”. That is – until I went on YouTube to watch the music video for it.

Now I remember it. Good song. Good video. It’s almost like a pop anthem for that time-period. It can easily bring tears to your eyes. That was their final song. It was their 3RD of 3 Top 40 hits here stateside. They were a British band out of London England, but they never charted in the U.K. with any single or album. They did achieve some success “down under” in Australia and New Zealand.

I just bought the single on iTunes. YES – I still buy music. Now THAT’S RETRO !

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 35 years ago to September 1986.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

All rights reserved (c) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries