February

February 1

1981 - Sunday evening Art to Heart as part of leading "Encounter" at First Baptist Church in Batesburg, SC February 1-4. "Encounter" was the word we used for several years to describe our series of not-very-traditional services instead of the more traditional "revival" description.

1987 - Sunday evening Art to Heart at Trinity Baptist Church in Cayce (Columbia) SC after doing a Friday - Sunday ski retreat for the youth in Boone, NC. Thank you, Bruce Deming.

February 2

1975 - Sunday evening Art to Heart at "Oakcrest." Calendar details are skimpy, but I'm guessing this was Oakcrest Baptist Church in Greenville, SC. Only other thing calendar says is that a trio of us did music. Don't know who the other two were. I was at Furman at this time and could guess, but a good handful of possibilities. One of them was definitely not Kathy. We had not yet met.

February 3

1985 - Sunday evening Art to Heart at Gateway Baptist Church in Irmo, SC after leading a Friday through Sunday afternoon retreat February 1-3 for Gateway and other churches at White Oak Conference Center. Thank you, Tom Ruotolo.

1988 - Wednesday evening Art to Heart as part of leading Sunday morning through Wednesday night revival services January 31-February 3 at Chapin (SC) Baptist Church. Thank you, Ken Kelly.

February 4

1983 - Did Art to Heart as part of Maryland associational youth conference February 4- 6.

2024 - Sunday morning Art to Heart at Pelham First Baptist Church in Greer, SC. Thanks to a great load out crew, after the service we tore down and loaded up in 47 minutes (I consider an hour to be good), which meant we got to the Furman basketball game at Timmons Arena with five minutes to spare. (It helped that we almost always wear purple in some form or fashion when we do Art to Heart. Thank you, Patrick Clark.

February 5

1975 - First year of an almost annual tradition of doing Art to Heart at WInthrop College (now University) Baptist Student Union in Rock Hill, SC. This was during my senior year at Furman where I was very involved with BSU, which contributed to doing chalk drawings at quite a few other colleges around the state. For a number of years, this almost annual tradition was something I always enjoyed and usually included dinner (I seem to remember a lot of good spaghetti) at the Baptist Student Center. Thank you, Bob Porterfield and Dena Lucy.

2024 - Art to Heart for “Ladies Night Out” event at Riverland Hills Baptist Church in Columbia, SC. I love doing the chalk drawing, drama, music, and speaking but what made the night especially special for Kathy and me were the people that we got to see. RHBC was our home church during my years on staff with the SC Baptist Convention many years ago. We had heard from some friends who were coming, but we wondered if we'd see many people that we knew, especially since the church has probably grown tenfold since our time there. The answer exceeded our expectations. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to see not only RHBC friends and SCBC friends but friends from other parts of our life as well. We also got to meet a lot of new people who were wonderfully gracious, kind, and encouraging with their response and comments.

February 6

2008 - Wednesday evening Crossroads Art To Heart at Salem Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC. Thank you, Kevin Davis. Kevin has to be close to the top of the list for bringing us into the most different church to do Art to Heart. We appreciate it.

February 8

2009 - Sunday morning Art to Heart at Westside Church in Simpsonville, SC.

February 9

1985 - Did Art to Heart as part of leading Yazoo Baptist Association youth retreat at Camp Garawa February 8-10 in Clinton (Jackson), MS. Thank you, Ken Hall.

1987 - Tuesday evening Art to Heart for Baptist Student Union at Smith College Student Union at Francis Marion College (now University) in Florence, SC. Thank you, Dena Lucy.

2013 - Saturday evening Art to Heart at Ashley River Baptist Church in Charleston, SC. Thank you, Kent Williams. Also preached at ARBC the next morning. Thank you also to Matt Peet for videoing Art to Heart and other help.

February 10

1985 - Did Sunday evening Art to Heart at First Baptist Church Yazoo City, MS, home of legendary comedian Jerry Clower. We set up all of our controls for sound, lighting, and special effects in front of the first row pew, and Jerry and his wife sat right behind us on the second row. Throughout the first part of the service, Clower complained quite audibly about having to stand up and sit down so often during the hymn singing (which we were not leading). I thought "Oh, great, he's in a bad mood before we even get started." Part of his comedy routine was not liking much anything new, so I had no idea how he would react to Art to Heart. No need for concern. He responded quite enthusiastically to say the least. His classic, well-known Jerry Clower hooting and hollering reverberated throughout the sanctuary, especially when we got to the drawings' main special effects. We appreciated his great excitement during the service and his sincere encouragement afterwards.

The service almost didn't happen as planned. Two days earlier while doing a youth retreat for the Yazoo Baptist Association, I realized that I didn't have the reel-to-reel soundtrack for Sunday night's drawing. I called Kathy's dad and directed him to the tape in our office, and he quickly got it on a plane to Jackson, MS. I made two trips Sunday afternoon to the airport where I was told our shipment hadn't arrived. The second time I told the guy in shipping that I was sure it was there and told him how important it was that I got it immediately. I nicely begged for him to look for it again, and even offered to help him find it. Amazingly he let me help look (that would obviously never happen today) and I quickly found our soundtrack. Trips to the airport greatly cut into our set up time, but we got ready in time and had a great night. Thank you, Leon Ballard.

February 11

1989 - Did Art to Heart as part of leading ski retreat February 10-12 at Sugar Mountain in Boone, NC for Dunwoody Baptist Church of Atlanta. Retreat theme was "The Road." Also did "One More Chance" three-screen multi-media presentation the night before. Thank you, Stewart Wiley.

February 12

1977 - Art to Heart at Union Bleachery Baptist Church in Greenville, SC.

1983 - Probably did Art to Heart as part of leading retreat February 12-14 for Berea First Baptist Church of Greenville, SC. Thank you, Floyd Parker.

1984 - Did Sunday evening Art to Heart as part of leading retreat February 10-12 in Gatlinburg, TN for Central Baptist Church of Americus, GA. Thank you, Charles Hunt.

February 13

2000 - Sunday evening Art to Heart at Vineville Baptist Church in Macon, GA. Thank you, Ron Holland.

2005 - Sunday evening Art To Heart at Polkville Baptist Church in Polkville, NC. Thank you, Dale Byrd.

February 14

1975 - Spoke, sang, and did a chalk drawing for a Valentine banquet at Roper Mountain Baptist Church in Greenville, SC while a student at Furman University. Fellow Paladin Maurine Morrow went with me to help with music. Among the music we did was a great song that Maurine wrote based on the old hymn "Love is the Theme." I remember it to this day. My memory is not always that good. Years later I was at Roper Mountain Baptist Church with no recollection of having been there before when I spotted a framed chalk drawing hanging on the wall of the fellowship hall. It of course grabbed my attention so I walked toward it to see if I could figure out who did it. Halfway across the room I stopped in my tracks when I suddenly realized that it was one of mine (and I then remembered doing the Valentine banquet program there). Seeing one of my earlier works was a combination of embarrassing and encouraging to see how much my drawing had improved.

February 15

1992 - Did Art to Heart as part of our X:SPECTRUM conference February 14-16 at Summit Lake Conference Center in Summit Lake, Maryland. Mark Cable did music. Mark was a popular Christian musician in that part of the country, and we teamed up several times many years ago when I was up that way. I'm happy to say he's also still going strong. Thank you, Mark Adams.

2015 - Sunday morning Art to Heart at Murdock Baptist Church in Port Charlotte, FL. Pastor and good friend Ron Tipton claimed probably the all-time prize for most ingenious simple way to darken the sanctuary. After doing Art to Heart we were originally supposed to stay as long as we liked in the church's missionary home on the beach. The much needed leisure time in the warmth of southern Florida would have been nice, but because of a bad winter storm with extremely cold weather that was heading for our home, we sadly did the same right after packing up following the service.

February 16

1978 - Art to Heart for Baptist Student Union at WInthrop College (now University) in Rock Hill, SC. As mentioned earlier, for years this was an annual tradition. Thank you Bob Porterfield and Dena Lucy.

1989 - Thursday evening Art to Heart at Friendship Baptist Church in North Charleston, SC. Former summer staffer Anna Hutto went with us to help with music. Thank you, Tom Smith.

1992 - Sunday evening Art to Heart at Redlands Baptist Church in Derwood, MD. Did youth leadership training before doing Art to Heart for evening worship service. Thank you, Mark Adams.

1993 - Tuesday evening Art to Heart for Baptist Student Union at Francis Marion College in Florence, SC. For second time on this date, thank you Dena Lucy.

2020 - Sunday evening Art to Heart for First Baptist Church in Newberry, SC. Service was held at Boundry Street Elementary School. Thank you, Albert Allen. This was the first time Kathy and I led our original song "Draw Me Closer" even though I hadn't finished writing it. We decided to do it while the church was having a business meeting before the service began. It was a long meeting which gave us time to make lyric cue cards and rehearse it a few times. This was the last Art to Heart we did before COVID completely shut down all of our traveling ministry. We did not do another Art to Heart until June 6, 2021.

February 17

1987 - Tuesday evening Art to Heart at University Baptist Church in Lancaster, SC. My calendar says that Ron Barker of the Home Mission Board was also speaking, so this was probably a Baptist associational meeting. Thank you, Glenn Strickland.

1990 - Did either Art to Heart or our three-screen, nine-projector multimedia production "One More Chance" at Gardner-Webb University. Thank you, Buddy Freeman.

1995 - Did Art to Heart as part of leading associational youth retreat February 16-18 at Skycroft Conference Center in Middletown, Maryland. Thank you, Mark Adams of Redland Baptist Church.

February 18

1980 - Did Art to Heart for Valentine banquet at First Baptist Church in Greer, SC.

1983 - Probably did Art to Heart as part of leading Friday evening associational youth rally in Palm Lake, FL.

1984 - Did Art to Heart as part of weekend Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) college retreat February 17-19 at Awanita Valley near Marietta, SC for several upstate SC colleges and universities.

1995 - Did Art to Heart as part of leading DiscipleNow weekend February 17-19 in Tallahasee FL. It was a very full weekend that included us doing one of our three-screen multimedia productions Friday night, chalk drawings Saturday night and Sunday morning, and GNN Eyewitness News production Sunday evening. The GNN presentation means that Mike and Kim Blackwood and probably Michael Lord also went with us on this trip. Thank you, Brad Branson.

2022 - Did Friday evening Art to Heart at Sardis Baptist Church in Swansea as part of weekend youth conference February 18-20. Also spoke Saturday morning and afternoon and presented "Peter: Once a Fisherman..." Sunday morning. Thank you, Adam Fitzgerald.

February 19

1989 - Sunday morning "This Little Child" Art to Heart as part of two-day ministry with First United Methodist Church in Lexington, NC February 18-19. Did "Homecoming" three-screen nine-projector multimedia production Saturday night. Thank you, Ron Lytle.

1995 - Did Art to Heart as part of leading DiscipleNow weekend February 17-19 in Tallahasee FL. It was a busy weekend that included us doing one of our three-screen multimedia productions Friday night, chalk drawings Saturday night and Sunday morning, and GNN Eyewitness News production Sunday evening. The GNN presentation means that Mike and Kim Blackwood and probably Michael Lord also went with us on this trip. Thank you, Brad Branson.

2000 - Saturday evening "This Little Child" Art to Heart for banquet at Catawba Baptist Church in Rock Hill, SC. Thank you, Fred Rudder.

February 20

1983 - Did Sunday evening Art to Heart as part of leading Sunday through Wednesday revival services February 20-23 in West Palm Springs, FL. Before the service, the pastor warned me about an older lady in the church who didn't like anything new or different. He told me that I'd probably hear from her after the service, but not to worry about it. Sure enough after the service, she approached me and I prayed for wisdom to handle the blasting that was about to come. I remember her comments well: "Young man, I've been a member of this church for (a lot of) years, and I've hardly ever missed a service. In the entire time I've been here... (she paused and I prepared for the worst) "... this was the best and most meaningful worship experience I've ever had." She went on to tell me all the things she liked about what we had done and how God spoke to her through various parts of the program. As a then still relatively young minister, it was another wonderful reminder that we shouldn't stereotype senior adults and sell them short. Even though a lot of what we do was originally geared toward teenagers, over these 50 years senior adults have consistently been among the most encouraging about Art to Heart. Thank you minister of music Terry Davis, who was our music leader the first summer I was camp pastor for Centrifuge.

1985 - Art to Heart at Etermal Faith Baptist Church in Maynor (Austin), TX. Thank you Stuart Sheehan, who was in our youth group when I served at Taylors First Baptist Church.

1993 - Sunday evening Art to Heart in Loris, SC. Thank you, Barbara Mills.

February 21

1978 - Art to Heart for Baptist Student Union at Furman University in Greenville, SC. This was the last time on my calendar that I referred to this presentation as a "chalk talk." Some artists do talk and chalk at the same time, but I don't, so I felt like "chalk drawing" was a more accurate non-rhyming description of what I do. Would be quite a few more years before we started using "Art to Heart" as the name for the whole production.

1988 - Did Art to Heart as part of leading a Thursday through Saturday DiscipleNow February 19-21. I know we did our "CrossWord Puzzles" theme, but I have no idea where for whom we did it.

February 22

1980 - Did early morning Art to Heart at Mitchell Road Christian Academy in Greenville, SC. Thank you, Drena Weaver.

1995 - Worked on building a new aluminum and steel (and plexiglas) chalk drawing board with Concoxions' staffer Roger Pryor and his friend who owned a machine shop company in Woodruff, SC. After 20 years of various wooden boards and frames, decided to go for a more high-tech look. The machine shop normally did incredibly intricate work. Wasn't used to measuring our boards in micro-millimeters.

February 23

1983 - Did Wednesday evening Art to Heart for concluding service of Sunday through Wednesday revival services that we led in West Palm Springs, FL. Thank you, Terry Davis. What I most remember about this night was the dinner Kathy and I had at the house of a sea captain and his wife that he had met on one of his overseas trips. She was a most gracious host and prepared a huge, very elaborate meal which she brought to the table and served to our plates one item at a time. After a nice salad we were served a large portion of roast pork that was truly delicious. Then came a big steaming dish of broccoli which we all said looked delicious - even though as a rule I don't like vegetables with three or more syllables. She was obviously proud of the elegant meal she had prepared and I didn't want to hurt her feelings, so I smiled and prayed that God would help me keep smiling while I tried to eat a few extra syllables. But the extra syllables didn't end there. Next up were amazingly gigantic stalks of asparagus. Everybody got six. Almost everybody. There was a 25th tree/stalk, which she put on my plate with a confident explanation as to why "the preacher" should get the extra one. English was not her first language, so I'm still not sure why the preacher get the extra asparagus. More prayer. Next she put a huge platter on the table and lifted the cover to reveal the biggest cauliflower I've ever seen in my life. It looked like what I think an elephant brain would look like. I'm thinking I could be a gracious eater with a lot of prayer and a lot of drinking to help wash it down. I took my first drink of something very exotic and cast a questioning look at Kathy who cast an "I don't know' look back. Neither of us drink alcoholic drinks and don't even know for sure what they taste like. Surely she wouldn't serve alcohol to a visiting Baptist minister, but then again, I wasn't sure what was appropriate in the culture from which she had come. I took a chance and continued to wash down a lot of extra syllables. It was seriously a challenge. I can't say it with 100% certainly, but in spite of this night, I don't think I've ever done Art to Heart under the influence.

1990 - Friday evening Art to Heart for combined Acteens and Royal Ambassadors State Conference at Township Auditorium in Columbia, SC. Thank you Robin Keels and Cliff Satterwhite.

February 24

1977 - Art to Heart for Baptist Student Union at WInthrop College (later University). If you've been reading these posts and it seems like we did a lot of chalk drawings for Winthrop BSU in the 70's, it's only because we did a lot of chalk drawings for Winthrop BSU in the 70's. Thank you (a lot) Bob Porterfield and Dena Lucy.

1985 - Sunday evening Art to Heart at Haltom Road Baptist Church in Ft Worth, TX. Thank you, Emory Gaskins.

1990 - Saturday evening Art to Heart at Camp Marietta in Marietta, SC for a conference with the theme "Worship Through Creativity." Thank you, Phil Blackwell.

February 25

1983 - Did Art to Heart Sunday night as part of leading a weekend of ministry at Murray Hill Baptist Church in Jacksonville FL February 25-27. I was supposed to preach Sunday morning at the 8:00 and 11:00 services, but was feeling terrible Saturday night and took some strong cold medicine. In all our years of ministry, this was the only time I ever over-slept and missed a service. The pastor filled in at the 8:00 service and even preached from my scripture passage and sermon title. I got there in time to preach at the 11:00 service. I felt terrible about missing the service, but the pastor was incredibly understanding and gracious. Thank you youth minister, James Torro.

1984 - Did Art to Heart as part of leading weekend Associational Youth Conference at Summit Lake Conference Center February 24-26 in Summit Lake, MD.

1985 - Did two Art to Heart presentations per night for three consecutive nights at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano TX as part of new building dedication February 25-27. They had an all-star lineup of people on the program for each night with one exception - I was the only person on that program that I had never heard of. Thank you to Neil Jeffries for inviting us thanks to a recommendation from John West.

1996 - Sun evening Art to Heart at Winterpark Baptist Church in Wilmington, NC to wrap up a weekend retreat that we led February 23- 25. I think Mike Blackwood went with me to lead music. Thank you, Scott Kyles.

2015 - Did Wednesday evening Art to Heart as part of leading Sunday morning through Wednesday night revival at Four Holes Baptist Church February 22-25 in Orangeburg, SC. Thank you, pastor Tom McElaney and minister of music/youth R.L. Zeigler. (Sure do miss R.L.)

February 26

1984 - Sunday evening Art to Heart at Montrose Baptist Church in Rockville, MD.

February 27

1979 - Met with George Schrieffer and Bill Leach February 27- March 1 at First Baptist Church in Spartanburg. So what does this have to do with Art to Heart? More than I can say. George is the chalk artist who got me started. Bill Leach was perhaps one of if not the best chalk artists of all time. In his early days, Ronald Wells (minister of music at FBC Spartanburg when I was in youth choir) traveled full-time and sang and played while Bill drew. Bill was even best man in Ronald and Mary Jane's wedding. George and Ronald had been wanting to get me together will Bill Leach for quite some time. The time we spent together these three days were instrumental in much more to come...

1985 - This was the third night of doing two Art to Heart presentations per night at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano TX as part of new building dedication February 25-27. They had an all-star lineup of people on the program for each night with one exception - I was the only person on that program that I had never heard of. Thank you to Neil Jeffries for inviting us thanks to a recommendation from John West.

1993 - Did Art to Heart as part of our X:SPECTRUM conference February 26-27 at First Baptist Church in Mt Pleasant (Charleston), SC. Minister of youth Stan Stone was a great friend and co-laborer. We lost Stan way too soon. Ironically as I'm transferring some of these dates and information from my calendars to another file (I did a lot this while we were traveling with Kathy driving), we are driving past Gallatin, TN where Stan also once served. I think about him every time we pass Gallatin, which is often. And a lot of other times, too.

2000 - Sunday morning Art to Heart for college group at Vineville Baptist Church in Macon GA.

February 28

1986 - Probably did Art to Heart as part of leading weekend of ministry at Glasgow Baptist Church in Glasgow, Kentucky, February 28 through March 1.

2000 - Monday evening Art to Heart for Upward basketball awards banquet at Vineville Baptist Church in Macon, GA.

2016 - Preached Sunday morning and did "Crossroads" Art to Heart that evening at Hyde Park Baptist Church in Lancaster, SC. This was one of the few times in recent years that Kathy did not go with me as our daughter Shari's first child was due any minute. Grandson Asher was born four days later, so we both got to be there. (It was close for me because I led a youth minister training conference at Awanita Valley earlier that day.) Thank you Family Life Minister Chery Workman and Pastor Charlie Simpson.