The last week + has been a whirl-wind!
It started two Fridays ago with the festivities surrounding the wedding of the summer of Dave and Anna. It was an amazing wedding and the first one that Jess and I have both been in together. I’m told that eventually there will be pics of it on their site.

The day after the wedding we packed up the family and headed up Hwy 36 to staff a Jr. High Summer Camp. Jess was the camp nurse and I (along with 4 others) led worship for the week. It was the most playing I’d done since I was in YWAM -two sessions a day. The kids definitely got into the music and had a lot of energy which made it even more fun for us. We ‘Christianized’ the song Crazy, which (along with every song that had motions) was one of the hits for the week.

Now we switch gears and get ready for Thailand. This has been a busy summer!

Just rolled back into town after spending a week at a Jr. High Summer camp. Updates will be forthcoming.

The other night Jess was eating some delicious Strawberry Yoplait yogurt and noticed an ingredient called Carmine. Since I had my laptop out she asked me to look it up.
The old cliche “ingnorance is bliss” is so, so true.

So what is Carmine? Here’s a clue:

That my friends is the (male and female) Cochineal Beetle. It is used to produce a nice red color in foods, fabric, and also in a lot of womens makeup. Anytime you see the ingredient Carmine it is in fact, ground up beetle. So the next time you see “All Natural” on the label of your food, consider what that may mean. On the bright side, if you are ever in one of those conversations about gross things you’ve eaten… you can say you’ve had beetle.

This last weekend I was sitting on the front room floor playing with Jude, when the doorbell rang.

We get Jehovah’s Witnesses occasionally, so I thought it was going to be one of them. To my surprise it wasn’t the JW’s at all but a salesman. And guess what he was selling? Steak!

Yes, a door to door steak salesman. A purveyor of beef, a bringer of meat, was at my door. I thought the whole door-to-door sales thing had died out a long time ago. But here this guy was, offering me the choicest cuts of beef. Needless to say, the allure of buying a box of meat out of some guys van - in the end - wasn’t to appealing. Especially when I asked how much and he said, “Make me an offer.”

I’ve got two strikes against me.

Strike number one: I’m a Christian
This is a big one, because depending on one’s own experience with Christians, it could denote a lot of things. Most often with non-Christians it’s negative.

Strike number two: I’m a Minister
This essentially means I’m paid to be a Christian. Not a good thing if you don’t like Christians to begin with. What’s even worse, because of a title like “Minister” I’m supposed to be more holy than the average Christian. I’ll save you the examination, I’m not.

These two strikes have been major sticking points in my relationships with people who don’t have the same worldview as I do. It can be downright annoying, not to mention sad, that people view me as anything more than a regular dude because of stupid labels or titles. I guess were all guilty of this to some degree, but in today’s culture these two strikes are really tough.

There are a few things about who I am that help to offset the stigmas of my religion and my profession.
1. I have earrings. I had them before I became a minister and decided to keep them after. This isn’t typical of a minister. (more…)

Things have been crazy this week!

I had one of those everything hit the fan days last Thursday. Everything that could happend did and at the end of the day my saving grace was rolling around on the floor with Jude.

Tonight we had our last meeting with our Thailand Team and we are as ready as we can be. We leave in just a couple of weeks and while there is quite a bit of pressure on Jess and I (leading a team of 17) we are excited to go. It looks like we’ll be doing a good mix of hands-on service and relational ministry. One place we’ll be working at is an orphanage of around 100 kids with AIDS, that will most likely never be adopted because of their condition.

This weekend will be busy as we celebrate with two of our best friends Dave and Anna, as they get married - to each other! It should be a rocking time and it will be the first wedding that Jess and I have been in together, besides our own.

This last Sunday I spoke at church about love. Just saying this word can conjure up a hundred different thoughts, memories, and images in your mind. I started by asking the question what is love?
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While it’s true for any religion that the faith involved is highly subjective, my latest reading looks at some very objective reasons for believing in the Christian faith.

Who Made God? is a short (200 pages) Christian apologetics book, that deals with various questions that are often asked by Christians and to Christians. While many of the questions asked are only touched on - as far as the answers in the book go - it’s a good starter for anyone who is wanting to see the more factual (objective) side of their faith and in the back of the book there are resources for the reader who wants to dig deeper.