Paul Asay

Our 5-year-old grandchild was spending the night, and my wife Sherrie asked him: what makes you happy? His answer had to do with monster trucks, dinosaurs, and riding four wheelers. I have a feeling yours and mine would be a bit different. Besides, when I think of dinosaurs I think of Jurassic Park, not a happy place in those movies.  For as long as I can remember back my family loved vacationing at Anna Marie Island. So, if you were to ask me what makes me happy, a day at the beach in Anna Marie would be very close to the top. It no longer requires a two day car ride from Indiana, it's just 45-60 minutes down the road from Sun City Center. If you go, I have a couple of suggestions. First, go early, or go late, but not between 10 am and 3 pm. Much less trouble finding a parking spot, and your favorite place to park your beach chairs. Second, if you go early, I highly suggest breakfast at Ginny's and Jane E's Cafe. It's in the old downtown section o...

  If you know me, I would think you would consider me an affable character.  However, did you know I spent days in Juvenal Detention?  As Paul Harvey would say, here is the rest of the story. Have a particularly good friend Nick whom I’ve known for decades.   From riding local mountain bike trails to mission trips in far off, and crazy places.   We have seen and experienced a lot together.   Now days Nick works as a carpenter extraordinaire, and has a contract with a local interior design company.   He installs high-end closets and pantries for mostly new home construction in particularly nice homes.   These installs are constructed of large and heavy puzzle pieces, and that’s where I enter the story.   I help him as a part-time assistant installer.   This past week instead of working on new homes, we have been installing closets and a pantry in the local juvenal detention center.   We have been working up close and personal ne...

If you’re a fan of The Lord of the Rings, or perhaps The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien you would have come across a land called The Shire. In Tolkien's fiction, the Shire is described as a small but beautiful, idyllic and fruitful land, beloved by its hobbit inhabitants. They had agriculture but were not industrialized. The landscape included downland and woods like the English countryside.   Families lived in a close community of friends and neighbors, often celebrating and having meals together.  He envisioned The Shire as a place of refuge in an otherwise chaotic and often dangerous world.  Sometimes I view The Shire a bit like living on South Lake within Sun City Center proper. Tolkien himself experienced chaos and extreme danger as a soldier in the first World War.  Barely surviving the Battle of the  Somme, spending months in recovery from Trench Fever.  The battle was one of the world's bloodiest battles, with one million casualties.   Withi...

  Becoming Aristotelian in 2025 Several years ago, I took one of the free courses provided by Hilldale College called “Introduction to Aristotle’s Ethics”.   Sounds rather high-brow, but it turned out to one of the best college courses I’ve ever taken.   The course condenses Aristotle’s deep dive into ethics to examine one question: How Best to Live. Turns out in its most simple form, Aristotle would likely say he who lives the most virtuous life lives the best life . So, who exactly was Aristotle? He is considered one of the three most famous philosophers from ancient Greece along with Socrates and Plato. He was born in 384 B.C. and became the authority on everything from philosophy to mathematics, politics, metaphysics, ethics and much more. He also served as the personal tutor to Alexander the Great.    What if we took a look at his key virtues and tried to apply those to ourselves for 2025? What would the outcome be? Some of his cardinal ethics/virtue...

This team stand here today among friends We may have been born in different countries, but we are the same Today we are going to talk a little bit about Jesus defining sermon It’s found in Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7 It explains how a Christian should conduct themselves It sets a very high standard for all of us to follow This conduct is for every man, woman and child that professes to be a Christian No more important words have ever been spoken on earth before an audience At the start of this sermon Jesus mentions 9 specific Beatitudes A beatitude is a way to be blessed by God Do you want to be blessed by God, I do These blessing may not happen on this earth, but they will happen in heaven The sermon begins by Jesus sitting on a quiet mountain side with just his disciples So lets read the story: Read Matthew 5 1-12 Verse 3: blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven: which means you feel broken and can go no further Verse 4: blesse...

October 22, 2019 Pele Wala Village Sierra Leone Took the long way into the village and passed where we turned in before. Road we took last year was impassable. The greeting we received was just like last year, but even bigger. This time they did a native dance and drums. Overwhelming for sure. I quickly saw Fatmala that is sponsored by Ken Baker. So glad to see a friendly face among a few I knew. The local construction crew had the church walls up, and were working on the school as well which is right next door. Both just passed the well that was put in last year. We had introductions again under the big tree, couple of speech’s then walked down to where the school was under construction. Santos is the foreman leading the construction and the walls for the school was about half done. After that they had lunch for us and played with the kids. Watching the kids eat lunch was crazy. They went for the food like they haven’t eaten in a week. No knives, forks or spoons, they eat wi...