It is a very interesting time in our family.

My sister and her husband had their child taken away this weekend. This shouldn't have surprised me, but it did hit hard. It's sad that their little girl had to live in filth for the last 7 months.

Sara's grandma is in the last stages of her life. She can no longer talk, and an not eat. She is fading quickly. Please pray that the Lord will calm her and help ease the transition into her eternal life.

It's also been a hard time for myself. I have been dealing a lot recently with getting on a plan to get healthier. It's insanely hard for me. I have been overweight my whole life and I even had Lap-Band surgery to try to correct this. Well as it turns out I shouldn't have had the surgery so now I am really stuck. It's really hard for me to talk about. People that aren't like me don't get it and most people who are overweight seem to be ok with it. I try to accept the way I am, but it gets old. I wish I could just get to a size where I could by close at Wal-Mart. I was almost there before my surgery, but now that's a distant memory. If you all would pray for the steps I shoudl take next, that would be great. Thank you.

Here's a link to a story I read this morning. I threw up a bit in my mouth. I have a problem critisizing other ministries, but this requires some comment I feel. I think people are missing the point if you have your own private jet as a pastor. People point to this to show Christians are focused on the wrong thing. Imagine the amount of money that a jet costs added to the budget of any other church. Most churches would have their worlds rocked by that. With that amount of money, you could feed most of the homeless in Rochester, or purchase and fix up cars for every single mom in town. It's just sad to me.

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Matthew 14:30

If you say go we will go
If you say wait we will wait
If you say step out on the water and they say it can’t be done
We’ll fix our eyes on you and we will come
(Words and Music: Diane Thiel © 2002 Mercy / Vineyard Publishing)

Are you going to to focus on what God is calling us to do? Are you afraid?

Journey Vision Night

02-09-08 6pm

Four days until Journey 2.0 (Vision Night). Be READY!

Another day in the brickyard. ;) I have a couple things that are on my mind so this will seem random I am sure.

First off, I live in Minnesota. When I choose to keep living here after I left home, I understood some basics about the state. We have crappy weather about 9 months out of the year. It's 90+ and humid during the summer with tornados and severe thunderstorms, and It's 40 below in the winter and it SNOWS! This may come as a shock to some people, but I know that it will snow. Yesterday there were storm warnings and the sky is falling alerts splashed across everywhere, because we were going to get 4 inches of snow. I would like to be the first one to point something out. FOUR INCHES IS NOTHING! We can all go stack up for supplies when there are 12+ inches coming, but really FOUR INCHES ?!?!? I would hope that if you have choosen to live here you would have more than one day's food on hand. Perhaps I am the only one that goes to the store and purchase more than one days food, but I doubt it. And worst case senario, pizza places will still deliver. As long as they have power, they will bring you food!! I get tons of phone calls from caring people saying the sky is falling and I should not be driving. I have spent the last 11 years of my driving life driving in this state. I appreciate the thoughts and prayers, but I will make it. If I end up in he ditch, I will call for help and eventually someone will come. I don't drive on empty during the winter so I should be fine. I also am fully aware that their are other less intellegent people on the road with me, and I keep my eyes open for them too.

Second, I have been thinking alot about commitment recently. People have a really hard time with commitment and I wonder why? Are you afraid you will fail so it's easier to not commit to something? Have you been hurt before by a commitment? Is it easire to wonder through life without being a part of anything? I am completly opposite of this so it is really hard for me to understand. I figure if you are going to expend energy doing something, why not do it like you mean it? Why not commit? I think a lot of people do not look at the positive side of commitment. Commiting means that you will be supported. This includes support when you think you fail. It means we will help clean the dust off of you after you hit the ground and get you back running again. Once you really start seeing commitment from every side I think most people will want to commit.