I am writing today about Excellence. I think that if you are involved in something that is worth doing your should do it to your fullest. People will make mistakes and everyone accepts that, but if you put in no effort, then why do it? Think about church for a moment. At church I run the technical ministries. If there is a week that I am on to run the service, and I slid in at 9:45 in the morning, do you think the service would be the best it could be? I would say no. I need to set levels during band practice and run through the sermon to get the flow before the service starts. Do you think I could do that if I skated in under the wire? Nope.

Some people may say that Excellence is unattainable. Perfection is unattainable, but doing the best you can with everything you do is not. I am tired of excuses. I think it's OK to check people who are not doing their best. If you have someone who you are counting on, and they fail do you let them skate by and make them feel good or do you tell them they made a mistake? If you are on a baseball team and your pitcher decides to not practice and come at the last minute, do you think you have a chance of winning?

The thing people do not get is that you have 20 other people who put in their all. They are busting their butts to put in 100% and then one person takes the ship and drives it of the cliff. EVERYONE ELSE'S EFFORTS WERE NEGATED BY THE ONE PERSON. Now sure there will still be some good plays that happen despite the person, but the team will get no where close to where they could have been. Is that fair to the team? Is it fair to the person who was there 3 hours before the game to wash the bats and groom the field?

The "ahhh it was alright" attitude is not OK. Do you think that a team will get anywhere when key people have that idea? Do you think anyone behind them will give a rip about what they are doing? If "OK" is where you want to set the bar, then why have a bar? Is it incredibly hard to hold people you call your friends accountable, but will they grow if you don't?

Dreams are a funny thing. At church this week we have bee talking about God invading our dreams. I thought I would share how God has effected me through my shattered dreams.

Ever since I was little I dreamed of being a DJ. I memorized station ID's (one of my favorites is from WIXX, "Broadcasting from Title Town USA, today's best music WIXX"), legal ID's ("WIXX DePere, Green Bay, Fox Cities. A Service of Midwest Communications") , and how DJ's would segue between songs. At the time I thought that this was what I was going to do for the rest of my life. God had a different plan.

I was failing out of High School. I went the the Mahtomedi Alternative Learning Program (ALP). At the ALP I was able to complete the work I had been failing for the last 2 years in one hard year. I then had the opportunity to go to College on the states dime. I jumped at the chance to go into the Radio Broadcasting program at Riverland Community and Technical College (RCTC) in Austin, MN. I got down to college and loved my radio classes. I got a job working at KWEB as a board operator in Rochester ($5.25 an hour). I was also working at KAAL as a TV Production Assistant ($5.00 per hour) .

I was in Austin for a few weeks and I thought I should go looking for a church. I found New Life Christian Vineyard Fellowship (NLV). I was freaked out the first Sunday there. It was very charismatic and I was very not. I did go back for some reason though after a couple weeks and started going to youth group. I was 17 at the time so I barely made the cut off. I started hanging out at events and things like that. One of the people there, Rachel Lunde (now Strouf), was working at the Austin Auto Truck and Travel Plaza(AATTP). I was getting a little low on cash so one day when a few of us went there after youth group I applied to work there also. I got hired as a weekend overnight manager ($9.50 an hour).

I had really come to love the people at church, but I felt less like doing Radio as a career. I gave up the dream one night while I was working at AATTP. I just had received my paychecks from my jobs ( I worked all 3 somedays) and the AATTP paycheck was a lot bigger than the other 2. I started to take a look at my future job options in radio, and I was not liking any of them. I would be working at KHIC in Tumbleweed Nebraska for my first few years, and that did not excite me. I decided that I would drop out of college and head back home. I quit my jobs and was done with Austin. So I thought.

Fast forward a few years and I went back to Austin to check out the Extreme Youth Center at NLV. I loved it. I went to church there again and I loved it. I started driving down to Austin every weekend to do church. I then started to run the Extreme youth center at the church with my now wife, Sara.

The whole point of my dream was not for my radio career. It was so I could get to where I needed to be for God's plan to work. I would not be at Journey right now if I hadn't tried radio. I would not be with my wife, if I hadn't tried radio. My life would be in a whole different place without my shattered dream.

I would like to first start off by apologizing for the rant that is going to follow. Some may say the following will seem insensitive. It has been on my mind for quite awhile what I am going to write about. I figure if I put it out there someone can either benefit or get upset with me about it or help me process it.

1. People in need. I see certain people who appear to love to be in need. They are always broke. They are either emotionally broke, or monetarilly broke. But there is no helping them. They reach out for help but they never take any steps themselves.

I will first address money. If you look at every paycheck and you never have enough money to pay your bills and take care of yourself maybe you need to re-examine your current place. Now I am sure someone just yelled that I am being self-righteous. "Bill, you have no freaking clue what it is like!!" I do however know what it's like. I have been on the edge of bankruptcy. I had 2 houses foreclosed upon. I almost lost my job, my sanity, etc etc etc. I had nothing. I have been there. I have had to ask for help myself. But there comes a point where you need to pull yourself up by the bootstraps. I didn't just sit around saying woe is me, I made changes. If you have more bills than paycheck then something has to change. Do you really need everything you have? Do you really need to live where you live? If you answer yes to both of these questions, then there is only one other possible option. You need a better paying job or a 2nd/3rd/4th job. That is it. It is really that simple. You say, "But Bill, I could never work that much!" Then you will need to see one of the first options I gave. I know someday I will be faced with the same choices again, but I hope it will be easier to figure out for me the next time. I am tired of seeing people who hit the same well time and time again with no self-responsibility. YOU NEED TO HELP FIX YOURSELF.

Now for people who are emotionally broke. If you would like to seek help from other people, at some point the people will get tired of you talking about the same problem that you can not deal with. I can talk about your issues all day long, but until you want to do something about it, it will never help. I have seen no one ever just sit and talk about their problems without a solution coming up either. This may seem scary to some people, but sometimes the solution is not a fun solution. You made need to move from where you are at, stop seeing someone you care about, or make other harder choices. If you are willing to help yourself you can be healed. People say that God will heal me when he is ready to heal me. God will definitely help you become whole again but he usually is waiting on you to really want to be healed. I was emotionally broke and stuck in a horrible relationship. An old friend and I had a relationship that had ended. I hoped beyond hope that it would start again so I sat around driving my heart father into the ground. It never happened. I had to eventually let go. God had a better plan for me once I did.

2. People who are just playing the game. People come around all the time just lusting for attention. Everything is always wrong. They hunt for things to be wrong. If nothing is wrong with them, their co-workers brother's nephew's cousin got hit by a bus and needs stitches. It is ok to bring up prayer concerns and things like that but not when you are just grasping at straws people will get bored with you. If you want me to help you with anything I am here for you. If you need something to just throw-up on all the time, there are trash cans for that.

3. People who expect you to devote all of your resources to the bug up their butt.
If you come up with a killer idea that you want to take on, take it on. Don't say, "Yeah I have this great idea that you are going to help me with!". I am not going to take a project you thought up and make it happen for you. I will however help you if I can. If I can does not mean I will be replying to any request telling me I will help you and how I will help you. I am my own person. You may have to get others to help you.

4. People who don't even want help, but expect you to be their crutch. I am still trying to figure this one out. This one is very hard for me, because I was taught to be a nice person. The only way I think these people will change is if I start being a dink to them. These people hunt me down like dogs. They can sniff out that I am the weakest person in the group. I think these people have an instinct that tells them this. They are like a lion waiting for one Zebra who appears to be weak and they pounce! I think as a church we are especially susceptible to this. Would Christ turn these people down?

I am no theologian, but I think at some point Christ would tell these people to take some responsibility for themselves. Your thoughts?

I have decided to post my online shoping tip guide online. I got a bunch of e-mail thank you's so here you all go!

Spoofee.com has a list of coupons and offers on their main page, but if you click on the free offers tab you can get tons of free samples and other stuff.

Dealspl.us has some great buys on a wide verity of things.

Deal Taker This site requires some more work to read, but has a bunch of great deals.

Deal News same as above

Woot! They offer one item per day at a smoking good price. Even if you do not buy anything from them, their item descriptions are worth the time spent reading them! :)

For those of you on dial up, there's an easy way to check these everyday with one trip to a web site.

If you set up a Bloglines account you can add all of these to a Bloglines page and they will update in the back ground and you can access them all from that site. You can also add most any other web site you go to daily like foxnews.com, cnn.com, http://captainslappy.blogspot.com/ (Shameless plug for my blog) etc. and it will keep you up to date as well.

There are great deals on high speed internet right now for you country folks Midwest Wireless or for you city folks Qwest
There you all go. Happy Shopping!

Today is the longest day I have ever had at work. I am on this special do nothing sort of project. I do e-mail and chat with special customers. I can't disclose what it really is on my blog but ask me I will tell you. Anyway, The only redeeming thing about today is that WOOT.com is having a Woot-off. They basically get rid of left overs and it is kinda fun to watch. I realize that some of you may say that I have nothing to gripe about having a slow day, but this is painful. I'm very ADD and today is not good for the ADD. I took Rich and the family to the airport this morning. They need a break and it is great they were able to go.

I have come to the end of my rope. I heard the other day some one who did not take the time to figure out who to vote for, gripe about who won. IF YOU GAVE A DANG ABOUT THE OUT COME, YOU SHOULD HAVE FREEKIN' VOTED!! Since you did not vote sit down shut up and watch what happens. I there heard the same person talk about how we are not able to communicate what we really stand for. SHUT THE ....... Never mind. You are not worth the effort.

40% of the country voted in this election. The minority got to choose what happens to the majority of the country. Too many of our ancestors have fought too hard to be lax about the responsibility to vote. I am not so upset about who won. I have come to accept that I will have less of my own money, and there will be more people sucking on the tit of the government. But then again, The "Conservatives" have been acting like "Liberals" for the last few years anyway. So does it really matter? I hope that someone somewhere gets it. The conservatives that were running as Real Conservatives (Michelle Bachmann) got reelected with no problem. There's my voting rant! Anyone else have any thoughts?

Rich talked about this at small group, but I think this is an important think to post. (lifted from KTIS' online blog)

After the Election… What’s Next?

Dr. Paul Virts
Northwestern Radio

Political campaigns seem to bring out the worst—and sometimes, though seemingly less often, the best—in people. Candidates and their followers often turn to personal attacks to harm their opponents and to advance their own cause. They use partial information or outright distortions to gain votes. Emotions often run high—and sometimes out of control. The electorate becomes deeply—almost hopelessly–divided


So with all of the heated debate leading up to an election, how should a Christian respond to election results? Gloating—if your candidate wins? Or, despair—if your candidates loses? If we truly believe God’s Word is true and want to please Him, we should engage in neither.


In everything we say and do—whether before, during or after elections—God expects us to give evidence that His Holy Spirit lives and works in and through us (Galatians 5:22-23). We are to honor God in all we do and say (Colossians 3:17). Let’s please Him in our response to the election.


Whatever the outcome of the election, one thing remains certain—God is sovereign over all the affairs of people. Paul tells us that all governmental authority is established by God (Romans 13:1). God knows everything, is present everywhere and is supremely powerful (Psalm 139). We can revel in the awesomeness of God (Psalms 46 and 47). We never ceased to be amazed at His power (Psalm 24 and 95).


Several years ago a well-known preacher admitted that when the presidential candidate he opposed actually won the election, he awoke the next morning under a blanket of discouragement. Then, he recalls, God spoke to him, “Your candidate (who seemed to be more principled yet lost) was not able to usher in the Kingdom of God, and his opponent (who appeared to be less virtuous yet won) will not be able to stop it!” Joy returned when he moved his gaze from politicians to his sovereign God.


God also uses what appears to us to be good—and even evil—to accomplish His purposes. In hotly contested elections, it is easy for us to see one candidate as good—God’s obvious choice—and the other as evil. We convince ourselves that the good candidate must win and become disappointed when that doesn’t happen. We forget that even the “good guy” is a sinner and can mess up (read about David—II Samuel 11-12) and that the “bad guy” sometimes gets it right (Saul in I Samuel 11).


What practical steps can we take in the wake of an election? Let me suggest a few.


· We need to pray for our newly elected—or re-elected—officials so that, in the words of Paul, “we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness” (I Timothy 2:2). When Paul wrote these words, Nero was the Roman Emperor, arresting many Christians and burning some alive publicly! Paul clearly believed we should pray for our leaders whether we agree with them and whether they are good or evil. Newly elected leaders have many important decisions to make and officials to appoint and need God’s wisdom to do so. We need to pray for peace and unity in our nation after a sometimes bitter and divisive campaign.

· We are to submit to government authorities, whether we like them or not (Romans 13:1). Again, the diabolical Nero was the Roman Emperor when Paul penned this command.

· We should respect and honor our political leaders (Romans 13:7), again whether we agree with them or not. Our human tendency is to honor and respect only those we favor, but God’s Word grants no such exemptions. Jesus (Luke 23) and Paul (Acts 24-26) exhibited respect for secular political authorities. Yes, Jesus called Herod a fox (Luke 13:32) and reminded Pilate that his power came from God (John 19:11), but there was an underlying tone of respect for their positions.

· Whether we approve or disapprove of our leaders and whether they are good or evil, God calls us to be salt (as flavoring and preservative) and light (shining the light of the Good News of Christ) in our decaying and dark world (Matthew 5:13-16).

· Since our eternal citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), let us in words and actions tell others the Good News of God’s love and help them mature in their relationship with Him with as much passion as we have spoken about political issues and candidates recently.


While we live with our feet firmly planted in a sinful and needy world, we live with an unquenchable joy, knowing our God is in control.

I found this great website called Spoofee. it has some smoking good deals. You should check it out.

UPDATE! The guy at the Lenny Becker's Very Nice Korean Cardai dealership that jerked me around got released from the company. I feel bad. :)

I found this list of what we should think about when we look at who to vote for on KTIS's web site. I also think that everyone who can should vote. If you do not vote, I do not want to hear any griping about it! If you do not want to be part of the system, then you have no business talking about the result. There are lots of good resources for voter information. If you do not find what you are looking for, contact the canidates. The Secretary of State's web site will show you who is going to be on your ballot. Pray before you go, and take part in the freedom we have to choose who will represent us. If your person does not win, we are still a nation where you can help make a choice. We're all still brothers and sisters living in the greatest nation on the planet.

Here's the links:
The League of Women Voters
Minnesota Family Institute
Secretary of State

Here's my new car. I did not buy it from the car dealership I previously blogged about. (Some people did ask) I bought it at Money Creek Auto Sales in Rushford. He's a great guy and has some great buys.

So I got a responce to my recent horrible experience. Here it goes:
Bill,

First of all I want to apologize for the delay in getting back to you, I was out of the state for most of last week. I wanted you to know that I did receive your email about your experience at our dealership. I can assure you that we did not become Minnesota’s # 1 volume (Very Nice Korean Cardai) dealer by doing business that way, and that is not the way I want my employees to treat our customers. I will not offer any excuses but I want you to know that I will speak to all parties involved to ensure that this does not happen again.

I hope that this experience does not alter the way you feel about the Lenny Becker Automotive Group. I have personally worked for Mr. Becker for 12 + years and I can assure you this was an exception to the way we do business and not the norm.

Again I apologize on behalf of my employees and I thank you for taking the time to comment and help us improve the way we do business every day.

General Manager
Lenny Becker's (Very Nice Korean Cardai)

I accept their apology.

I just wanted to post this to make the world a better place. The names have been changed to protect the incompetent. There are not words to describe how upset I was but here was my best try:

To whom it may concern,
I went in to your West (2nd biggest city in MN) VeryNicedai Korea Car dealership to test drive a VeryNicedai Korea Car. I have never driven one so I thought I would check it out. I just started shopping for a new car. I had B.J.. as my salesperson. I told him I wanted to test-drive a used VeryNicedai Korea Car and maybe the Buick he had on the lot. He took me out on the test-drive, and I said it would be ok to evaluate my car to see what I could get for it on a trade in. We got back from test driving one car and he told me that I would not like the other car and if I would like to see the numbers on this car. I said I guess that would be ok, but I did want to see the other car. He then showed me the numbers and told me that I should sign the delivery agreement to see what kind of deal I could get. I told him I would not sign anything because I wanted to see the other car I had asked about. He then told me I could take home the car I test drove to show my wife, by simply singing the delivery agreement. I again told him I would not do that since I wanted to test-drive the other car. I asked him about the keys to my car. He said he would go get my keys. 10 minutes went by. He then had the Finance Manager Rteve come over to convince me the deal was a "great deal". I told him also that I wanted to see other cars and my wife would have to see any car before I purchased one. He laughed at me and walked away. Another 10 minutes went by. He then came back and tried yet again to close me on the car. I told him I would need to come back to take a look at it with my wife. ANOTHER 15 MINUTES WENT BY. Then the Used Car manager Dill came over to try to convince me it was a great deal. I then stood up and demanded the keys to my car. Rteve said no one was holding my keys from me, and he would go get them. The couple at the desk next to me got up grabbed their keys and left as soon as their salesperson walked away, after hearing what was going on with me. ANOTHER 5 MINUTES GO BY. I finally had to walk over to their little office and demand my keys before they would give them back to me. I have purchased other cars from your Stillwater Ford store and have never been treated so poorly in my life. I will not be purchasing a car from your VeryNicedai Korea Car dealership or any of your other Lenny Becker stores and will tell my friend to avoid your stores at all costs. THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO TREAT PEOPLE WILLING TO DROP GOOD MONEY ON A CAR. I would appreciate a note back on my experience.

Thank you,
Bill Ellingson

I was blown away the other day by something I read. I am sure you have all heard about the Amish school shootings in PA. I read an article: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/04/national/main2059816.shtml
The Amish have forgiven the shooter and his family. They have even set-up a fund to help the wife and children of the shooter.

Could we love like this? Could we go and start helping the family of someone who took so much from us? It's a hard question to ask yourself. I can answer with a resounding no. If someone took my wife's life, I think I would be filled with rage. I hope to never have the oppertunity to test this theory.

What are your thoughts?

I started a new Blog. I will be updating both blogs, but I figured I would seperate out my person life, this blog, and the funny things in life, the new blog. Check it out!

Flyleaf So SIck

Sometimes Screaming is the best way to express yourself. I have caught the video blogging bug.

What makes you important? Is it your job? Is it your car? Is it your super fabulous ______?
Does your little important thing, make you better 'cause you have your little thing and other people do not?

I personally think those things don't matter a rip. I was watching COPS the other day, and there was this couple. They were homeless living in the back of a U-Haul. The cop said he thought it was great how they were always so happy. He said he had seen them many times before but they were always just happy.

I am on this tangent, because I think maybe some people look down on other people because they see them in a different class. In Rochester there are a couple different class people. (You will need to do some googling to figure out this next part. I am sure you will find what I am referring to.) There are the Large Hospital Complex doctors and the Rather Important Computer Company engineers. Then there is this odd other class. It includes all the people in basically every other job in Rochester. Some people may say now wait a minute. There are lots of other people at Large Hospital Complex and Rather Important Computer Company. That is correct, but they are not the same. I work for a major telecommunications company, I am a customer care representative. I am not Dick Notebeart. I do not have a giant house or any reason to think I am any better than any one else I know.

This whole tangent really comes back to this: Do you think anyone you know is not worth your time? Think about it this way. If Jesus hung out with a hooker, are you too good to hang out with a hooker? Now this maybe a little extreme for some people so we will use a real example. Let's dust off that old Bible and go to John 4:1-42. Read that little encounter. Jesus was perfection. He was the only truly Holy Man to walk this earth. Yet sometimes we think we are perfect. We walk around saying, "I work at Large Hospital Complex and I think I should only talk to other Large Hospital Complex people because they are my people." What a sad broken life you will have. The joy of having friendships and being a Christ follower is the other types of people you end up walking with. Granted it is not always easy, but the reward is awesome!

I started a new project. You can check it out at http://www.live365.com/stations/trubeliever. I created my own internet radio station. If anyone has songs they would like added just let me know. You can listen to it too. The more listeners, the higher I will be rated on Live365. I made some cool industry connections in the process of starting it so it will be neat to see what happens with those.

It has been a great week. There have been some real praises! I am thankful I have a good job and a great boss.

Ahh! It is a brand new day! I figured out something very important last night. I need to just go forward. I will figure out how to do that inspite of some other people. I will have to look outside of the normal to find the solution to this problem. I will do anything I can to plunge forward! LET'S ROLL!

I am at an interesting place right now. I don't know what I am feeling. I have a large amount of passion right now that I think I am not able to channel. I am getting a sense that I possible have taken too much ownership in something. I am starting to feel that I am fighting more than I should be. I am holding people to levels of living that I can not obtain. I am trying to give all I am for this one thing and I am starting to feel like I should not be. Maybe the problem is not the other people I look at, but myself. Maybe I can not accept that I might be called to more than some others who are close to me. I can not figure out what I am supposed to be doing. Some say I need down time to process what has been going on, but I don't think that is it. I feel this uncontrollable desire to run, but to where, and why? I want to figure this out. I am not coming to any happy conclusions. You probably think I am rambling. You are correct. I am trying to have a conversation with myself. For most of you who know me this will seem odd. I usually do not try to figure my things out. I usually just go on until they work themselves out. I feel like I can not this time. I feel an uneasiness, a restlessness in my spirit. I don't know.

The hard part for me is I am a leader. God has given me this for a reason, but for what? I am starting to feel like I am not able to lead in the small things. I want more inspiration, more wisdom as to what I am supposed to do. I am ending up with dead ends when I stick my neck out. Maybe the problems are related. I feel like I should be leading, but what? Where am I supposed to lead people?

The people I used to look up to have faded into the back seats of life. The people that have groomed me are gone. There is no one to look to but myself. They have set me free on this life adventure, but now what? Evidently I am strong enough now to figure this out. I hope I can listen to God enough to be able to get the message.

I wish I was not in the place, but it is not my call. I pray that God will help me sort all of this out. Thank you for listening to my thoughts. Let me know if you have any comments.

God Bless.

Well, it has been an interesting few months. I started my new job. I love it. I answer e-mails and chat with customers online at work. This is part of the reason I have not updated this in forever. I used to update my blog between phone calls in my old position. Shhh don't tell my old boss.

Rich got back from Germany about a week after my last post. I am sure anybody who reads this blog knows that, because they read his too.

It has been a great time at church. We're on fire and rolling forward. We had a leadership retreat and it was great. Jaime and I had just gone to the a great conference. Jaime and I left totally stoked. I processed that conference for a couple days and it actually turned me angry. I went to the technical break out session. They talked a little bit about ways to do things, but they are so much ahead of us that it made me sad. Not sad in a, "I wish I had all their stuff" way, but sad in the fact that I do not know why someone would invite people to see what they can do with all of their toys, with out giving a few back door tips to doing some things on the cheap as you grow. I could do a lot of things with the money they get to play with.

I pray that this Sunday we will rock the church. We are changing almost everything about the way we have been doing it. I hope people will feel the energy that this should cause. I pray that as we keep going forward, we will keep grabbing people and getting them to come along for the ride.

Sara and I have been doing good. We have started working on the house and currently are bidding out siding and a new roof. When we bought the house we got a good deal on it, because the roof was bad. We have been so blessed to be able to use our house for God. We are now having small groups on Tuesday nights. (7pm if you would like to come) Well, I am off to bed.

May God Bless all who read this.

What a weekend! Veggie Tales were coming out of my ears. It made for a long weekend. Rich is staying in Germany until Thurday. That means Sara is at Cyndi's until tomorrow night again. This living alone isn't what it used to be.

We're closing on our new house on Wednesday!!!! I am so excited. We're going to be moving on Saturday. If anyone wants to help that would be great. We're packing up in the cities around 9am and will be in Rochester around 12pm. Just let Sara or I know if you can help.

This week I am in training all week at work. It's so boring. All repetition. I guess I shouldn't complain though. It makes for an easy week. Sara and I rushed Rich up to the Minneaapolis airport on Sunday night. He had to rent a car and drive to Chicago to get a passport to board the flight to Germany. It made for one stressful day. Rachel, Andy and I are incharge untill Rich gets back. Sara's down helping Cyndi with stuff while Rich is gone. I miss her. I guess sometimes you don't know how much you need someone until they aren't around.

I really can't thank everyone enough. i read the posts from last night and I cried. I thank God for all the people at Journey.

Ok I'm about to blow a gasket!! I am up past my neck in this Stupid housing stuff. I get a call today from our realtor. She says, "Well, the lender would like to close this week!" Which at face value isn't that bad. BUT, the catch is I would also have to pay them more money in interest! What a bunch of hogwash!! I am so tired of getting jerked around. SO, i told her I can close this we but I'm not paying a dime more and if the lender doesn't like it, they can lump it!! They will be making $100,000 in interest alone on me!! If they don't want my money, I will find someone else. I'm getting so tired of this crappy customer service every where i go. I have a feeling I'm a little more critical than others because I work in Customer Service, but this is rediculous!!!

Well, It's been quite the week. Sara started her new job at Kid's Come First in Rochester. She's been driving everyday and so far so good. I got a new job at Qwest. I will be working in our E-Commerce department.

Now before anyone goes posting about their billing problems or Qwest shuting your service off, which, by the way usually means you didn't hold up your end of the deal and pay us, I won't fix them. I can't. I can't work on friends accounts. ;) Sometimes i can have other co-workers help me though. I am usually afarid about being honest about where I work. Everybody blames me for their problems. I had some one come upto me and say it was my fault that they got shut off, I looked into it, and they hadn't paid in 3 months. I don't get the lack of responsability.

On another note I finally got the last receipt back from the collections people so we can move ahead with the house. I had a bunch of stuff left over from my foreclosure 4 years ago that i didn't even know about. I have gotten car loans since then and the bank never told me about anything!! I would have taken care of them sooner had I known! Oh well! Life happens!!

Church has been going great! Lots of growth in people. That's the best part to watch. I don't really care about the numbers of people, just where they are headed. It's a trip!! I went this week after an awesome smal group to talk with Sara's grandma about salvation and faith. That was a trip. I was at small group and I kinda felt the Holy Spirit tuggin at me to go see her. i was a little worried about what I would say. But, we have talked about Luke 12:12 ("for the Holy Spirit will teach you what needs to be said even as you are standing there.") at group before. It's an awesome verse and it happens when you obey the little voice in your head. She's in the Blooming Prairie nursing home. It was almost 11pm when i got there, but she had just woken up. We talked for about an hour. She said she felt alot better after we talked. She told me she was saved which put Sara and her aunt at ease. If you feel the Holy Spirit (aka that little voice in your head (the good voice not the bad voice)) gently prompting you to do something, try it. It will become a huge growth oppertunity. The more you listen the more he will give.

I figured I would show you guys a picture of the house we're fighting for. It just felt like home. Sara voted it off the island when we first started looking but then she fell in love with it.

Ok, so i didn't post quite when i said i would. It's been a couple days and I found a new lender. I haven't heard anything from him since Friday, but I think no news is good news. At least that's what I am hoping. I appreciate everyone who has been praying for Sara and I through all this mess. I wonder sometimes why things happen the way they do. For some people everything just kinda flows. Now before anyone jumps down my throat about me being ungrateful, I am very greatful for what the Lord has blessed me with. I just sometimes wish i didn't always have to walk the hard path. Can anybody relate?

Ok, so it's been a while since my last post. My Wife and I have found a home in Rochester, MN that we want to buy to be closer to our church family. The problem is now the credit union. I have been a memeber for as long as i have ad a checking account. They told me yesterday, after 3 weeks of them saying there are no problems that now they can't fund my mortgage. I will write more this afternoon. Please if you see this pray for us.