Sick of it All

This has been a long week. As I write this I am laying on the couch in my basement. I am the latest victim of the flu. My wife and I suffered through lots of messy diapers as both of our little ones felt the flu explosion. Jen felt it Sunday, but I stayed strong. Invincible and head strong, I would not give in, but I did.
This week was just to much for one person to take. You see we also had Christmas Eve service, family over for Christmas, a wedding rehearsal and a wedding. These in themselves are often enough to make us sick, but non of these are the reason I was brought to my knees this week.
This week a young lady from my church passed away. She had struggled with a brain tumor for months. Christmas Eve she took a turn for the worse. We prayed and prayed and Christmas day she went to be with the Lord. I just wonder what it was like to celebrate Christmas face to face with Christ. She must have been overjoyed because she had never made it a secret that she loved Jesus and now she is with him always.
The hardest thing to remember this week was that we do not morn for her loss. We morn for our loss. We are the ones who have lost fellowship with her. She has perfect fellowship with God.
So why am I sick of it all? I am sick of this world, of sin and suffering, sick of death. I'm sick of being tired and strained, but this is good.
It's good that I'm sick of it or I may have to wonder if I've grown complacent. You see we often forget that this world is not as is should be. You may be thinking, "no I don't", but really we like to pretend that life is fine. We forget that this world is not as God intended it to be. We and this world both suffer from the same problem, sin. Sin that takes us out of fellowship with the perfectness of God. That relationship with our Creator that is meant to fulfill us.
We tend to forget that we need God. More then anything or anyone we need Him to complete us.
This young lady understood this. She also knew with all her heart that relationship with God can only be gained through Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, the baby that didn't stay in a manger, who bled and died for our sins. This is not a fantasy it is reality. She understood this and lived her life expecting to see Jesus and right now she does. This is the thing we forget, the reason I get sick of it all, because I forget that this isn't all there is. There is so much more and it is found in Jesus Christ. Consider this verse.

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Email, Email, Email and More Email!

Normally I get about 100 emails each day that have nothing to do with work. About 20% of those are from friends or family or friends of friends or friends of family, and they are not personal at all. You know those emails that have a story of theme with a deep profound meaning? If you don't then you have no friends that care about you. Anyway I normally read through them (if I haven't received them before) and delete most of them, but on occasion I find one that is worth the forward or save. This one for some reason (I was laying sick in bed when I read it) made me smile. So merry CHRISTmas AND GOD BLESS US EVERYONE!

I have not edited my answers:

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends.
Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!!
Just copy this entire email and paste into a new e-mail that you can send. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person that sent it to you... 'Tis the Season to be NICE!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? gift bag because I'm lazy
2. Real tree or artificial? real

3. When do you put up the tree? asap after Thanksgiving
4. When do you take the tree down? after the Super bowl
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes but it makes me sick

6. What about Fruitcake? love it!!!!! We should have it year round
7. Favorite gift received as a child? big guy power construction set

8. Do you have a nativity scene? Zoe has a little play one
9. Hardest person to buy for? Jesus

10. Easiest person to buy for? my wife
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? it's the thought that counts!

12. Mail or email Christmas cards? if i remember

13. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas Story

14. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I've already done most of it
15. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? as far as I'm aware, yes,yes,yes
16. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? home made cookies ...with coffee

17. Clear lights or colored on the tree? white

18. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night

19. Travel for Christmas or stay at home? home
20. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? dancer, prancer, donner, blitzen, commet, cupid

21. Angel on the tree top or a star? star
22. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? eve/morning, two weeks before

23. What is the one present you want most this year? cash
24. Most annoying thing about this time of year? the lack of true CHRISTMAS
25. What I love most about Christmas? Christ

Josie and the 14 Hours Waiting. She is here and all she does is sleep.

I am just fine with that. Sleeping Beauty

Greetings From the Hospital

I am sitting in a nice comfortable recliner, so don't worry about me. Jen is doing all the work and feeling all the pain. We are here in anticipation of our second daughter.

All this hospital talk has made me really think about the future. You see a few months ago I started on a........ lets call it a quest. This quest, not to be confused with the amazingly awesome Sunday children's ministry at HBC (www.hillcrestbiblechurch.org), is about my personal goals.

A different type of quest. A quest for healthy living. I took a look in the mirror one day and realized that I had officially lost my chiseled youthful look.

What? How can this be? Well let me tell you it didn't happen over night. It kind of crept up on me while I was generally taking my health for granted.

As you can see from this picture its not that I need to look better because in my case big is beautiful. I just needed to feel better and stave off any possible health risks after all I will soon be the father of two little girls, and will need all the energy I can get.

So back to the quest. I started on a quest to get back to that "healthy" look. Is has been an up hill battle but as of today I am 25 pounds leaner for the year (pictured below).
As you can see I have engaged in a more active lifestyle and also lowered my calorie intake. I am hoping to lose another 25 pounds by my birthday in a few months. Impossible you say? Well I don't need your negativity!!!!!! So get out you negative ninny.

I will be healthy and will live to play exciting games with my daughters and scare their boyfriends! This quest will not be stopped by the fast food lobbyists or the lure of Monopoly game pieces. That's right Ronald I know your tricks! You and the King can just back off, scram, skedaddle or meander away. Yes go, but leave the chihuahua. He reminds me of times that make me not want to eat. Awe the memories.

Well I have been gone for a long time. I'm planning to get back into blogging now that the summer has passed. Here's something I am pretty excited about. On e of my favorite bands has a new album coming out tomorrow .Here is the cover art to the new Thousand foot krutch album.
The album is due in stores on Sept 18, 2007
myspace.com/thousandfootkrutch

Well this last month was very busy.

The church is full of life and growing in Oregon, Wisconsin.
June saw us involved in Oregon's Summerfest where Hillcrest Bible Church runs the Children's Activity Tent Thursday through Saturday. The some week we also had two floats in the parade. The first was celebrating our Vacation Bible School, which is happening next week. The theme this year is "Special Agents" which works well with it being the 007 year. The second parade entry celebrated our "MOPS" or mothers of preschoolers ministry, which Jenn takes advantage of with little Zoe. I am still trying to get "POPS" started, but papas of preschoolers just doesn't draw the same crowd.

On June 24th we also said goodbye to our lead and founding Pastor. Scott Ziegler served faithfully in the area for almost 20 years and we are sad to see him go, but we are excited to see what God will do at his new church in the Chicago area. "Da Bears!" Sadly he has no window in his new office so the staff gave him a special gift to bring some sunshine into the room.

So change has been in the air and we moved right along with it. Literally we moved in the middle of it. A short move in a short time from one side of our duplex to the large side. The added space is already being enjoyed, and the room will help us adjust to the new baby due inn October.

Now that Zoey is going to be a big sister we have asked her to step up and help around thehouse. We did have to answer some questions for her, but I gave her a book to help her understand. So she jumped in with a great attitude and help us move. Here she is hooking up the gas line on the dryer.









She also takes care of her pet sock monkey, moves her chair around, opens windows and ups the cuteness around the house! Don't worry though all the hard work has not changed Zoe. She still thinks she is a princess and when she wants daddy to hold her, she gets her way

Public Service Announcement

It's summer, summer, summer time and you may have your lazy days all planned out, but I have a few things you should consider while you're maxin' and relaxin' outside in the pool. If I could give you one piece of advice it would be wear sunscreen. This is very important especially for all my fair skinned friends. The second bit of advice is to always remember that................

For them summer is just nuts, nuts, nuts and they don't care who gets in the way. Just look at the crazed look of sheer determination on that smug little mug. That's not healthy! That's not even remotely normal. It's like they're just cute and happy and then they snap. Pray that you don't find yourself caught between a squirrel and a nut.

I can tell you're not taking this serious so let me explain it this way. Have you ever seen that one guy? You know the one in the little brown suit, with the over grown bowl hair cut.

No? Nothing? Doesn't ring a bell? The page boy! The one the dances and sings, "Berries and cream, berries and cream. I'm a little lad who loves berries and cream!" This guy.....

He's the kind of guy you'd never let date your daughter because even though he has a steady job and is really polite, you just never know if he's just going to nap at any second. Yes, we all know someone like that. We may even find it funny. See that's the thing. Lots of stuff is funny when you see it coming or at a distance, or when it's happening to someone else. That's life!

Just like squirrels. They are cute when you see them coming and when you're at a distance, but when one comes flying out of a tree going for your nut bowl that is just wicked scary!!! I don't even want to get into the fact that squirrels have been waging gorilla warfare on cars for almost a hundred years. I mean to be fair they think that the cars are predators that are consuming the people that feed squirrels nuts at parks. It is totally understandable that they would try to save us if only to continue the nut feeding cycle. Possums on the other hand are just ornery.

So take a look at this face and ask yourself one question.
ARE YOU PREPARED?!!?!?!

No, you're not! That's what I thought. I would expect nothing less from a generation the grew up believing that Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers were really here to saves lives. Well don't believe the lie! Those little guys have more in common with this rabbit then they do with Mother Teresa, and that rabbit's dynamite.

So be prepared because you have been forewarned. Also keep an eye on that garden gnome. He always made me a little nervous.

Rage takes place every 1st and 3rd Friday.

Mini-golf Rage Style

May 18, 2007

This year our Middle and High School small groups were faced with a challenge.

Create the best mini-golf hole!

More pics and info about DV8 Student Ministries at
www.oregonstudent.org

We're Making A Movie!!


So if you are anywhere near Oregon, Wisconsin on this date and can take direction and fit the criteria drop on by Hillcrest Bible Church . Just look for this guy!

Call me PB!!!

"Is this little kid too cute?"

That is the question, and what are this kid's parents feeding her to maintain the cuteness. If only we could bottle it and sell it to rich women looking to recapture their glory days. We'd be rich, rich I tell you. I have got to talk this child's father! Wait I am this girl's father and I am already rich.

Rich in Christ and rich in cuteness.

I hope you all had a happy Easter, and I hope you weren't to distracted by the cuteness of kid's on egg hunts, bunnies, little chicks, or even chocolate to see the true riches of the day.

I'm Soaring
"How High School Musical Changed My Life!"

Every once in awhile something comes along that touches the hearts and minds of all people everywhere. It brings the stars into alignment, calms the crying babes, and makes fortune cookies come true. A cultural event that brings such peace and clarity that even Carrot Top seems to stand in stunned silence, struck by the undeniable FACT that greatness is unfolding before our very eyes.

At first I was not a true believer. I simply thought that "High School Musical" was just another prefabricated, sugarcoated tween-pop-drama the likes of which have been churned out on a regular basis by the House that Walt built, but I was wrong! Oh, so wrong! HSM is a work of heart on par with West Side Story or Phantom. The Phantom Menace not Phantom of the Opera. I mean it's good, real good, but let's not loose touch with reality. Please!

Before the greatness that is "High School Musical" I was simply just another schmuck trudging through life with a song in my heart, but that song was hidden deep. I, like so many others among the down trodden, heard the small cry from deep with in that yearned to shout out like some medieval serf, "HELP, HELP I'M BEING OPPRESSED!"
Then, High School Musical, as if in response to this inner cry, unleashed from within me a flood of memorizes that at first threatened to paralyze me under the onslaught of what we'll call "Youthful Indiscretions", but most would just call the stupid mistakes teens make. After being pierced to the heart of my very being I came to this realization. I needed to get in touch with the long lost souls of my youth. Unfortunately most of those friends were not in my calling circle, but it’s the thought that counts. Sadly many of my closest friends and I have parted ways over the years. Some by distance, some by change of life style, and others by prison, the witness protection program, restraining orders and such. Sadly many of my former friends could not get over the little "Mac or PC" debate and we just can't talk civilly, and though I may not have those friends I still have my memories. Well I do have some of them, friends and memories except for most of my sophomore year and we're glad that is hazing aren't we. Oh yes we are!

Anyway where was I? It was this fresh zest for life that I contribute to High School Musical. How could I have lived so many years under the false memorize of High School being a horrible prison of peer pressure and angst. It was the contact with old friends that sent me into the singing, dancing fool that I now dwell in. You may ask "Why did it take High School Musical to release the passion from within?” and that is a good question and one that I have pondered long and hard. The answer: Cheese!

It was the cheesy out of my stupor. You see after high school most of us loose the cheese. We get older, more settled down, or stale if you will. The hardest part is that the cheese, when it does spring to the surface, is often harshlygoodness that so slapped me mocked by our cruel task master a.k.a. social conformity. You see the true rebel is not the tattooed, pierced outsider. They are the misunderstood hero of movies or the crooner of sultry song. The true rebel is the odd ball that dares to just be happy, joyful and content is their difference. The person who says, "I don't need to brood just because people don't understand me. I understand me and I like me, different and all." This is the person that I lost and the person that HSM brought back to me. So let's cut with the cheese and get back to the story.

Their I was swimming with the ghosts of High School Christmases past, when I was lifted in the swelling spirit of 90's nostalgia and forced to pull out my "old school" oh what were they called? Oh, yes that's it! "Cd's" So after minutes of painstaking efforts on my part they where imported into my itunes library. I finely I could express my "heart song" through the perfect mix. A mix I have so rightly dubbed "The New Cali-Wis Mix". Why "the New Cali-Wis Mix"? Well I grew up in California and now live in Wisconsin, and as a side note the cows seem pretty happy here too. Any more explanation then that about my transplant it will need to be saved for another day.

Back to the cheese and mix. This is the mix I turn on when the memory of my agonizing loss on American Idol sweeps in threatening to derail my day. The mix I turn to when the radio just doesn't play my stuff. The mix I drink coffee to. The mix that drowns out Fred on the phone. It is the sound track of my life and that means that you may not like it because it’s my sound track not yours and maybe you like cheese or maybe your lactose intolerant. After all one man's delectable snack is another man's gas. There was a point in there somewhere so whatever you feel about cheese you've got to find the song that fills you. I just happened to rediscover that song through High School Musical. So go ahead sing if you feel like it. You can dance if you want to you can leave the world behind. This is me happy so get used to it!