Wednesday, December 31, 2008

A Day of Surprises

Tuesday didn't start out very well. I spent 2 1/2 hours shoveling snow between Monday night and Tuesday morning! My back was killing me...not soreness in the muscles, just joint pain. I digress. So Tuesday evening, before going home to clear the driveway for the 5th time in 18 hrs, I got a call informing me that 2 of my neighbors were clearing my driveway with their snowblowers! I was elated & relieved, especially my lower back :-) Thank you my kind neighbors! I should take them some cookies or something for their unsolicited kindness. Add to my appreciative back the fact that I also found out that 6 more of my Regent University credits will be transferred into my degree at Beacon, so I just have 6 credits left to complete it by May! HALLELUJAH!!!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Ice Sk8ing

Last night we went Ice skating with some of the students Radiate Student Ministries. There were only a handful in town, but we had a blast. It was also my first time ice skating. Fortunately I didn't fall or run into anybody. Probably because it felt a lot like rollerblading. My wife Sarah wrote more about it on her blog.
Afterwards we went over to the Russell's house for some hot chocolate and witnessed the biggest hot chocolate domino spill I've ever seen. One person bumped something that spilled chocolate on the coffee table which led to another person jerking their arm because they were startled and spilling it on another person who knocked over another drink (so on and so forth) until half of the students their had been affected by the spill. Unfortunate...memorable...but unfortunate. Thank God for carpet cleaner and towels...oh, and microfiber furniture!

Friday, December 26, 2008

Communicating for a Change

There are certain things in life that when I do them I feel as though I come alive...as if God called me to do them. One of those things is preaching or speaking. I love being able to communicate truth that results in transformation! In an effort to grow in that calling, I recently begin reading Andy Stanley's book, Communicating for a Change with my friend Chris. In it Andy proposes a plan for communicating that makes so much sense it's ridiculous. I won't summarize the book here, you'll just have to get it and read it. All I can say is that this Sunday I am going to preach my first message using what I learned in the book to guide my preparation and presentation. This Sunday I'll be talking about Giving More...and no, it's not a message about giving money :-)

What Andy suggests seems very simple, but I would DEFINITELY suggest this book to anyone doing public speaking. I did Ken Davis' Dynamic Communicators Workshop, and that was very helpful, but this gives you a strategy for becoming that better communicator from preparation through presentation.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Sledding

This Christmas some of our good friends from Valley Christian, Chuck & Laurie Bigwood, gave my nephew a sled. I can't say that it brings back Christmas memories of sledding down hills, but it kind of reminded me of those warm Christmas days at the BEACH body boarding waves...happy thoughts. Well, I just got in from sledding, so I'm gonna go get warm and think of my warm happy memories of WARM Christmases of long ago.

Merry Christmas!

I'm still sick so I'm awake waiting for my cough medicine to knock me out. I figured, since I'm still up, I'd be one of the first to officially wish my two or three readers a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I know others may have already said that to you, but they probably wished that to you THE DAY BEFORE! Not me, no, I waited until it really was Christmas so I could be hacking my lungs out while I wished you happiness and merriment! :-)

This Christmas I will be spending some quality time with my family...a little bit of sledding, snow shoveling (what, you don't do that for fun with your family?), hanging out with Mocha, FOOD, The Nutcracker Story...then a good NAP, and finally some games with some friends from Valley Christian and probably more FOOD.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

ONE24 Progress & Video!

Recently ONE24 hosted a funraising concert with Marcoux Corner that was sponsored by our local Bremer Bank. That night was a huge success, we aimed to raise $10,000 because of the concert, but we ended up raising $13,669.23 by the end of the week because of the concert!!! That was a huge help in getting us one step closer to completing this coffee house that will help connect our community relationally and spiritually.

At that concert we showed a video that a friend from Fargo helped us put together! We are very thankful for his expertise!

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even...
...a Bassett Hound wearing a funny sweater???

Last night when we were doing our, very late, last minute Christmas shopping we saw this dog sweater and decided it was time for Mocha to start celebrating the holidays in style. It doesn't seem to faze her and we all think she looks cute in it, so she may be wearing it the whole Christmas season!

Monday, December 15, 2008

"Let's Pack Up & Move to California...

...she's got lot's of friends out there. We'll never get bored 'cause we can go boarding! We'll let the sunshine take us there!" So go the lyrics to Hawk Nelson's "California" which was going through my head at 6:30 this morning as I shoveled out one side of the driveway that varied from 3 to 4 feet deep (the other driveway was only 2 feet at its deepest)! Oh, and it was -15* and the windhill was almost -40*. All to get Sarah to work on time, only to show up and see that none of the 5 a.m. employees were even there yet! Later on I got some help finishing the other side when Pastor Dean came over with a riding snowblower we had borrowed to clear the other driveway. A driveway and a half in less time then it took me to do half a driveway with a shovel!

(notice the mailbox)
It's at times like these that I wonder why we willfully put ourselves through this weather. I mean, what exactly were the first settlers of this area thinking? The first settlers in Breckenridge settled here in the WINTER! Now that is good planning right there! And they managed to settle on a small ISLAND in between where two rivers meet...that must have been an interesting discovery when the snow melted in the spring! So what exactly WERE they thinking?
..."let's pack up and move to California..." :-)