Deeper Life Weekend

The Deeper Life weekend with the Gillingham’s was beautiful. It wasn’t an extreme, in your face, cut to the heart, fall on your face, everyone is prophetic time. They spoke on mercy and Social Justice. Something the Salvation Army should be and was created to be well equipped to do. We spent some time with them Saturday morning listening to them teach on the mercy that Jesus portrayed and how he met the needs when he saw them. We took action with the Micah 6:8 commission to “do Justice and love mercy and walk humbly with our God”. We went into the Soup Kitchen that the corps is running and served lunch and ministered to the people that came in. Elaine brought up an interesting point about the soup kitchen, she said, “Everyone always talks about getting people here to the corps and doing something to bring people inside when in fact it’s happening every day in the kitchen. The people are always coming in to the corps and we need to be there to bring the Gospel to them.” It couldn’t be any easier than that. We then of course had a debrief those are always fun and we had some time to pray for each other and listen to what God wants to do in our hearts. What he wants to see change in order for us to have a heart that breaks for the lost and hurting people in our city. To have a heart that wants to see a change. We should want to feel what Christ feels when he sees his children so we can see the need and need and then take action to meet that need.

On Sunday Elaine took the preaching position. She spoke in the covenant that all the soldiers signed when we became Soldiers of The Salvation Army. She asked us to recite some of the standards we agreed to live by when we signed the Covenant. No one could, except the agreement to abstain form alcohol and drugs. There is so much more to our covenant, but it seems most people don't really think about it. We may think that other church members don't know that I'm not living up to my covenant. They shouldn't care; it's not a covenant between you and the other soldiers, or you and the church, it's a covenant between you and God. We've all grown accustomed to thinking that being a christian is easy because we've taken the easy route our whole lives. We think that because The Slavation Army as a whole is doing great things we personally are living up to our covenant. To me it seems if you're not striving and working to live like a covenanted soldier then you may not be living like one. Elaine alsom mentioned that as solider we are in a community it should be our job to fight alongside our commrades and keep each other accountable to living up to our covenant. We live in a community as soldiers, and that community should be living up to covenant that it agreed to rather than just part of it. We are a covenanted community lets live like it.

Back in the day God killed people for breaking a covenant with him.

The prayers are appreciated and needed

Thank you everyone who prayed for me on Thursday. The interview went very well and I will hopefully be getting a call in the next week for a second interview, as long as the first one went as well as I think it did. I had to take a really odd test after the interview. Part of it was math which makes sense but the other part was a test that was for my personality and common sense I think or maybe to make sure I don’t have any screws loose (ohh man I hope I passed). It asked me questions like “would you describe yourself as an enthusiastic person?” or “Would you say that you are almost never mad?” Then it got a little strange with question like “Would say that lying is the only way to get a head in a job or do you see every job advancement opportunity as a cut throat competition?” Then it just became ridiculous “Are there fifty hours in a day?” Can you read well enough to complete this exam?” There are only eight days in a month” It was really strange. It’s kind of disturbing to know that they need to put questions like that in the test. Anybody who doesn’t know that there are only fourteen days in a month should never be hired for a job.

Halloween is coming and that was our theme at Powerhouse. All of the volunteers and most of the teens dressed up in some sort of costume. All I had was a wig that made me look like I had long hair. I was going for the metal rock star look but everyone else said I looked like a pot head (I break that off in Jesus name). Everyone was really creative with the costumes (except me) there were hippies and gangsters, Cinderella’s and someone dressed as a pizza, another was a leprechaun, and we even had an ATM machine that handed out Monopoly twenty dollar bills. We had a cake and a band perform and at the end of it we got to beat the candy out of a piñata. The Gillinghams and Aurora and Jenn Burr are here right now…well not here with me but they are in Bangor. We get to spend an entire weekend with them and siphon some wisdom form them and get some insight into making a successful MMCCXX outpost. I even get to see Jeremiah (not the bullfrog). Please continue to pray for favor at my job and that I hear the Lord’s leading there.

Hey!! This rain hurts

I was hanging out at the Bangor corps yesterday (like I am everyday) talking and waiting for a couple other people to get here so we could start our cell (they never showed). It had been raining all day long so I had gotten accustomed to hearing the sound of it. Then the sound changed; it was much louder than before. So I says to myself, “self go to the window and see why this rain sounds like it’s going to break a window.” So I did, it wasn’t rain it was sleet. Ice pellets coming down form the sky. I’m just glad it wasn’t fire and brimstone. I couldn’t believe it we got the remnants of Hurricane Wilma in the form of wind and sleet. It lasted a few hours. Then I woke up in this morning to go to work at the Family Store again (I’m the truck driver) and I started my walk in the rain. It wasn’t so bad because I got used to walking in the rain in Vancouver, then I noticed some of the rain drops were hitting my sweater and sticking and some of them were bouncing off my coat. It was sleet again!!! And it was cold. Luckily it was also rain so the roads didn’t ice up. I still had to drive the truck around in the snow and rain and sleet for about an hour until our truck kicked the bucket. It died, checked out, breathed its last, expired, ceased working, it’s broken. It refused to start. I had some words with the truck but it refused to listen so I had to call the store to get someone to pick me up and cancel the rest of the pick-ups/deliveries for the day. I wasn’t too disappointed it was really cold in that truck anyways but then I had to work on the dock of the store which is even colder, but I didn’t have to deal with the rain/sleet. I think this is going to be a long stupid cold, wet, winter. Hey I might have my first white Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Year Day, and Birthday. Apparently it stays cold and snows for quite a long time, so I could have snow on my Birthday in March. Yes I will be here in March. For those of you that I haven’t told yet I’ll be staying here until April and then I go to Charlotte North Carolina. If you want to know why just ask God, he’ll tell you. I also had a flashback to Vancouver today. I was walking down the wet street, because it had just rained, it was cold, and I walked by this tri-city pizza place and I could smekll the pizza outside and it brought me abck to XL pizza on Hastings. The best pizza you could get for a dollar. All I needed werew three people offering me pot or crack and I would have felt right at home.

On a quick side note I have a job interview tomorrow at one o'clock please pray for favor.

Two Sundays of bloggable stuff

Hello, everyone I’m still alive and kicking (holes in the darkness). I know I haven’t blogged in a long time, but I have a semi good reason for it. Actually it’s not really a good reason at all. I was going to post blog talking about the past two Sunday meetings. I heard an awesome sermon by Major Frank Kirk, and then this last Sunday we had an amazingly powerful service. Both were bloggable. Since Doug records all the services I was going to listen to the sermon from two weeks ago in order to refresh my memory but for some strange reason it wasn’t recorded, and neither was last weeks. So this blog will be stuff entirely from memory, and possibly stuff that never happened but I only think they did. Major Kirk’s speak was titled “What we can Learn form disasters”. Usually you hear a title like this and you might think it’s about Faith, or Relying on God, or praising him when everything seems to be falling apart. All of those are great things to do, but there was a different approach used. The Scripture focused on was Matthew 16:1-12 (this is where the Pharisees and Sadducees demand a miraculous sign from Jesus). The main point (I think) was made in verse three “…you are good at reading the weather signs in the sky, but you can’t read the obvious signs of the times!”(NLT) The Tsunami in South India, September 11, hurricanes, Katrina and Rita, earthquakes in Pakistan, the signs of the times are becoming more and more obvious every day; are we recognizing them?

Just this past Sunday was an extremely powerful service. The Holy Spirit hit this church like a fat kid on a box of Cheez-its. The last song we song during praise and worship was one that I have never heard before but the Holy Spirit used it to speak to a number of people this morning.
Break our hearts O God, break our hearts
For this sin in our lives, break our hearts
Break our hearts O God, break our hearts
For the sin in our land, break our hearts

And we cry out, we need your help
Come and heal our land
And we confess we’ve lived in sin
Please show your power once again

During that song Major Debbie Burr was moved to speak about the love that had grown cold in this corps and how it’s had a lack of sincerity in our lives. One of William Booths most famous phrases was put into action and it worked “Try tears”. A number of the people in this church were drawn to the altar in repentance, and more tears fell. God definitely answered our prayers in the song. He broke some hearts for the sin in our lives and in our land. Everything that was done seemed to be in perfect synchronization. We moved with the Spirit and he moved us. Maybe a little more than we expected but well deserved. After Major Doug Burr spoke about caring for the poor we were left with one of William Booth's quotes ringing in our ears "Do something".

Going once...Going twice...SOLD!!

This past week everybody around here (but me) has been going nuts trying to pick stuff up and get a van to do this that and the other thing to get the annual (two day long) Fall harvest Auction ready(everybody said this year was a lot easier than it has been it the past). The Bangor corps, every year, gets a bunch of donations from furniture stores and other random places around the city (gift certificates, merchandise, and produce, slightly damaged stuff) to put in the fall Harvest Auction. All the proceeds go to the Bangor Corps Youth program (I think). They sell food and auction off a ton of really awesome stuff to help raise money so the teen group can do…stuff (great scam genius). Couches are sold for $400, entertainment centers are sold for $150, mirrors are sold for $80, it was my very first auction and it was so much fun. I was assigned to help run the items to the auctioneer and then show it off too people while he took the bid and then run it to the people that forked over the most money. When I wasn’t doing that I was helping out in the kitchen. I was on grill duty, but I wasn’t really needed because it seemed like they always had someone to do the job instead of me. They don’t know what they were missing; they never tasted the burgers I grilled up at the 614 bar-b-que. So most of the night I was running items, lifting tables, and doing the stuff no one else could/wanted to do. I still had a blast though. I actually bid on a 48 piece dish set and got it for $23. I now have more than two bowls in my house for cereal and ice cream...if I could afford ice cream. Yes I’m still looking for a job but I recently applied at Radio Shack and I think I got a pretty good chance of getting hired there for the Christmas season. If not then it’s going to be a cold, cold Christmas…well, it will be whether I get a job or not; which is why I also bought a wool blanket for $7 at the auction. I was bidding on a three piece leather couch set but it went past $250 and that’s just to rich for my blood. I actually should have stopped long before that but it was so comfortable I had to make a run at it. So I saved $270 but I still don’t have a couch for my bachelor pad. I will get it stocked up and ready for winter though. So cells can be going on and out and people will be raised up to lead other cells and it will be great place to have a Super Bowl party WOO HOOO!!!

It getting colder quick

It’s getting colder and I’m still Floridian. I don’t know how I will be able to stand this winter. I was fine in Vancouver. But it never went twenty degrees below zero in Vancouver. It hasn’t gotten that cold yet but I’ve been told that there are weeks when the temperature is twenty below. To me that is stupid, stupid cold. I am again wondering why this place is called Vacation Land. I know there are tons of Lakes and it’s a wonderful place to be in the summer but the warm weather lasts for like four months then the rain and cold comes in. So in the next few months if I have a blog that is just burr, burr, burr, burr, burr, burr I’m not totally enamored with the Burr’s. It’s just ridiculously cold here. I remember swimming in Sebago Lake when I first got here but that was only 52 degrees and I got used to it after a few minutes. Then I remember going to Lynn valley Canyon and jumping off the rocks and that was ridiculously cold although I think I’m the only one who realized it. So I’ve been in really cold situations before. I think this may be more difficult than any spiritual; warfare I’ve ever encountered before in my life…or not. It may just make life here a little more difficult, but I praise God that I have a bed and a roof and a few walls to keep me warm.

Does anyone know if this constitutes as grumbling or complaining. I need to now if I need to repent for this or not. Ba ha ha ha ha.

It's getting there/ we're in his hands

I've been working at my house for the past few days trying to get things cleaned, sanded, and repainted. It's nasty work but it's coming along. The worst part has been a banister that I' ve been trying to clean for the past two days. It obviously hadn't been cleaned since...well never. It's taken a lot of scrubbing and a lot of chemicals. I've also managed to wear out two sponges on this banister. The layers of dirt and grease and grim on it was absolutley disgusting. I've had to scrape and scrub away at it in orderto get to the real wood. The stuff that I'm suppose to be working with, not all the gunk on top of it. I guess that's just another part of living in scripture. When Christ starts changing our hearts he has to clean away all the junk that's been building up over the years so he can can get to the meat and make a real change rather than just a quick surface change. It takes time and can be annoying but it's always a better result.

Yesterday (Sunday) we had a very interseting service. It started out with some praise and worshipand a normal scripture reading and all that, but rather than having an actual message we went quaker style. Rather than having something planned we all sat and listened for what God wanted us to do in that meeting. It was a stretch for some of the members in the congregation but no one was offended or seemed annoyed or nervous. Of course the nervousness may have been hidden by the ones that didn't speak, but then again the Holy Spirit doesn't always have to speak to every singel person, so we got through it wihtout any problems. I think it was definitley a step away from comfort and a little more towards revelatory sunday service's. Sound's like fun.

One of the words that was spoken to a lot of people was Phill Laeger's song "I'm in His Hands"
I'm(we're) in his hands
I'm (we're) in his hands
Whatever the future holds
I'm (we're) in His hands
The days I cannot see
Have all been planned for me
His way is best you see
I'm (we're) in His hands

It's always good to be reminded that God is in control plaaning out all ofoour steps for us and we will never slip through his fingers. Halleluyahweh.

GOOD NEWS

Check this out nineteen women were rescued from a brothel in the UK. I think this falls under the setting the captives free category. Halleluyahweh!!!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4296412.stm

Acts5:41 Your Thoughts

“So they went on their way from the presence of the council rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for his name” Acts 5:41

Peter and John were flogged for preaching the gospel. They were whipped. I’ve never been whipped but it’s not something I want to experience anytime soon. After enduring that they went out rejoicing that they had the privilege of enduring the shame of being flogged. I don’t remember the last time I started to rejoice because I was enduring hardship or I had to do something difficult for Christ. I’ve tried to make experiences fun but I don’t recall ever rejoicing. I really don’t remember ever seeing anyone rejoice after experiencing shame or being embarrassed. These guys did. They were flogged and it was meant to be embarrassing for them but they were happy, they were excited about it. How often do we shrink form an opportunity form fear of embarrassment? We don’t even attempt something because we’re afraid of what other people will think of us when we fail. Peter and John preached the gospel, suffered the consequences, that were supposed to be embarrassing and demeaning, and they rejoiced over it. They didn’t walk away hiding their faces or try to hide the pain. They probably showed their scars not caring what other people thought. Whatever it was that Peter and John had, I want. I want the ability to rejoice when I’m facing adversity or enduring pain. I want to thank God for the hard times in my life. I don’t want to fear what other people think if I screw something up. I want to be able to speak boldly about Christ to someone and not fear whatever questions they might have. Whether it was faith or unending joy or just ridiculousness, I want it. Shouldn’t we all want it though? Lets give the spirit of fear and embarrassment a good kick in the @$$. Suffering shame and enjoying it woo hoo!!!! Sounds like a party.

Hey Steve is this considered a revo devo ???

My apologies...it's all good

I must apologize if I brought anyone down with in my blog from Monday. I was just experiencing some serious depression that night (which is odd for me). I think it was bit of culture shock from being surrounded by community 24-7 and then all alone in a house. It just got to me a bit, and I needed to vent some feelings and it came out in my blog. I praise God for the prayers though; they’re always welcomed. Since then I have been blessed immensely by everyone here. Doug and Debbie and I have gotten things from the Family Store to furnish the house a bit (well at least my room). I have gotten tons of food to cook and stuff to make my house a home. It’s still being fixed but it’s looking better. That is one thing I love about the Bangor corps: They are blessed with an immense amount of stuff in order to bless others with it. I am one recipient of only some of those blessings. I’m back to my normal consistently happy ridiculous self. I love this place and praise God that I am here.

I sort of reverted back to normal Wednesday adventure of driving the truck for The Family Store. It was fun to be doing that again. I would venture to say that I missed it somewhat. It was really quite easy. Couches, recliners, mattress, and chairs; that is all I had to pick up. That stuff is easy. It’s only difficult and annoying when you have twenty other boxes (sometimes the boxes aren’t even there) of stuff that people want to give to you that they could easily take to the store themselves (or throw it away) and you see that a lot of it is junk that will be thrown away. I still think I should get a John Deere hat and forget to shave that day so I have a five o’clock shadow; then I really look the part. I guess my Piping Hot hat (thanks Xander) will have to do for now.

In other news my bachelor pad is looking very nice. I have my dirty clothes strewn about the room and it looks very good. Actually my clothes (not the dirty ones) are still in my suit case. There is still a good bit of work to be done on the house. We will be ripping out more carpet, painting floors and the walls (I thought I was done painting for a time), destroying a hornets nest (yikes). All that needs to be finished before I can start having guests and cells and all that jazz. It will turn out nicely though. I have one roommate in line to be with me in this house and a couple other possibilities. I have found out from the owner (Charlie) that I'm living in Scripture(those are my words not his). The foundation of this house is a dirt foundation so the floors and doorways are crooked and slanted and angled. It’s actually really funny. We’re trying to fix that now by cementing the basement, but if the rains and floods come I’m out of that house; I know how the story ends. So things, here in Bangor, are truckin along with God wearing the John Deere hat, taking the wheel, never hitting the brakes and shifting gears (yeehaw).

Someone send me an update of how things are going in Vancouver.

Plans are broken again!!!!!

Has anyone ever felt like a puzzle piece that is trying to be put into the wrong place? That is pretty good at describing how I feel right about now. I was in Vancouver doing great, most things were going great. I was comfortable, happy(which could be why situations changed). Stuff was happening, I was seeing results then Bangor hit me. I took a trip to Seattle with Regan, got on a plane, landed in Portland, got on a bus, and came into Bangor. Everything was planned and ready to go until the circumstances concerning my living arrangements changed and I was homeless. Not really homeless we just had to change plans. The apartment I was going to be staying in didn’t work out, so I am staying in a different apartment that really needs a lot of work. I was planning on helping Charlie (Teen center director) fix up this apartment I wasn’t planning on living in it. The shower is almost as bad as The Empress. Nobody planned on this happening so now I have to buy all this stuff (hopefully I can just scam it all from the Family Store) to furnish this house. I don’t have food provided and everything seems to be going bonkers. I am not having fun, and I don’t like it. I'm really irritable right now because I’m hungry, and it’s raining. So I’m getting out all my frustration on my blog. I’m trying to get things straightened out here and hoping that everything with the living situation works out. If everyone who reads this can pray for me a lot that would be wonderful. Everything seems to be held together by one thread and if it breaks it’s all going to come crashing down on me and I can’t deal with that. I’m having community withdraws and I’m trying to see why God is saying all this is a good thing. God is God and I’m not. He is God I’m the man. His plans work mine fall apart. Pray that I have faith to let god be in control and that I have eyes to see a glimmer of hope…soon. Also pray that I would be working towards God's plans and not my own, and for peace lots and lots of peace. I feel so lost right now.

Leaving on a jet plane...

I don’t know if I’ll be back again…

I never thought it would be so hard leaving. I knew I would be leaving eventually, but I didn’t think I would be so much a part of a community in two weeks time that I would hate leaving and seriously almost cry over it. I almost never cry. I had to have a long discussion/almost argument with God over this. Seeing Craig cry while he’s giving me a word of encouragement form the Lord didn’t help at all. I see am impact and a memory that I made on these guys and they’ve done the same for me. I know you can never get used to leaving people you love but, someone else may need to do the driving to Seattle and to the airport, ‘cause I don’t think if I’ll want to do it. I was okay with leaving two weeks ago but I have loved this new Holy____ session of TWC that I don’t want to now. I know there is a community in elsewhere waiting for my return, but it doesn’t make leaving any easier. I also know that God has amazing plans for me in Bangor, more wonderful that I could ever have hoped or imagine and I can’t wait to get started on those things and see what the Holy Spirit has in store. See ya later Vancouver (in 2010 if not sooner). Keep fighting the good fight in Jesus name.

No Fear

Before I start I would like to say this is a milestone blog. Number 75!!!!!! (cheering, clapping, shouts, whistles and few halleluyahweh's)

I just got back from "drill". The time we have set aside for all of the War College students to get together and do something physical. It's usually either Ultimate Frisbee or Soccer. I believe they're thinking about dodge ball when winter really sets in. Running on frozen astro turf probably isn't the safest thing in the world. Ba ha ha ha. I'm usually no to crazy about Soccer, but tonight I really enjoyed it. We played against the ESL (English as a second Language) students. I think they may have just started classes (or were terrible students) because they didn't understand a word I said to them. At the beginning some of us thought we would be run into the ground, because we saw these guys play Saturday morning and they looked really good. We have like three guys, in our session, with us who have (seriously) played Soccer before. We mixed up the teams a bit but it was pretty much 614 vs. ESL. We held our ground every well. We did a three game series. We lost two out of three but the game that one game we won it was a shut out. 614-2 ESL-0. It was beautiful. i never thought I was as good at Soccer as I did. It must have been the Holy Spirit playing for me because I have never done as well as think I did tonight. I knew I could run and keep up with these other guys, but I actually made some awesome picks, passes, and sets. I impressed myself. i think if we had Steohen and Danielle Aaron and all of 614 out there we could take them down. if God id for us who can be against us? Lets do it!! Anyway, I think the jerseys may have been part of the intimidation factor they had, but they were just jerseys bought by the school for them and us to use. They weren't really a team or anything. They were still good but they were no David Beckham's.

It's interesting how un intimidating something can be when you see what's really in the core of a threat. Once all the uniformity and outward surface bulk is stripped away and you see what's really behind it all (just a short Asian guy who can't speak your language) there's nothing to fear. How much more intimidating would we be to the Enemy if we had uniforms and wore them into battle...oh wait we already do. We got the intimidation factor in the fights against the Spiritual forces in this world. Lets use it. Tunic Tuesday!!!!

We are Dead to self

The last two Holy Terror students arrived Thursday night. So they’re all here and absolutely awesome. I don’t know if the Martyrs session started out like these guys are but this should be so awesome. I’m almost disappointed that I’m not going to be here to see it all. But I know that the plans that are set for me elsewhere will be just as amazing as what’s happening here.

This past Friday we had one our first debriefing sessions which is a new idea that the leaders have started in order to beat the information overload and burnout. This first session was a time for all of us to die to ourselves. Some students this year and last year had to lay down some old identities and old labels we were holding on too. We had a funeral for everyone. Everyone came into a small room and we lay down on a black sheet we were then covered by another black sheet. Then we laid down our old identities of the things that we needed to die to in our lives and declared that we were dead to ourselves. Then it was that declared we were alive in Christ. We rose up and came into our new lives. Jeni gave everyone a new name from Christ. It’s funny when Christ shows you some things you need to lay down; it’s sometimes things that you think are essential to your lifestyle and essential to who you are, but Christ shows you how it can interfere with what he has to put in place of that. From his identity you can gain an even fuller experience with him and cause you to be a more effective tool used for his will and his plans. “but God being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgression, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in ages to come he might show us the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-7. Who are you in Christ Jesus?

Week in review...could have been better

This past week is definitely a week that I will remember for a long time after it's gone, though I may not want to at times. I did a lot of painting, and it wasn't prophetic art either. It started at The Command Center. I primed and then painted the doors, frames and window frames all white...not the most exciting color in the world. That was easy. Then we moved on to the Balmoral Hotel blahhhh. I don't think I could stay a year in a hotel that stinks as bad as that place does. The Empress only stank when our neighbors were getting high (which is why our hotel is also known as the Hempress). The occurrences of that has decreased quite a bit since we have been there. There were three rooms in the Balmoral we needed to paint and when we did that we also changed the smell form rotten cheese and old socks too, paint and old socks...It was an improvement. We also ended up painting the carpet as well but I think it looked better when we finally finished. The hotel managers were planning on changing the carpet for us anyway. Well, I don't know if they were planning on it, but after we asked them, they agreed to change it for us.

After that we had to start cleaning the rooms at The Shaldon Hotel. This hotel is actually a nice slum hotel. Every room has it's own bathroom and shower and there are community kitchens. I don't think TWC students will be doing much cooking, but the kitchens are there. It's more than what the Empress has. The rooms we got were really nice except for one room. This must have been a storage room for the hotel over the years. It was filled with junk. No mattress, a few chairs, clothes everywhere. I don't think anyone was ever planning on cleaning it up they were just waiting to rent the room out to some one and have them clean it out. We had that privilege of doing this Jesus job. All we could really do was bag the clothes and take them and the other stuff worth saving to the basement and throw everything else in the dumpster. Among the clothes I found a crack pipe and a box of used needles. Needless to say the manger was not impressed but oddly enough very surprised. Anyway, that took a few days and I tried to have as much fun as possible but between sneezing and being disgusted by almost everything in the room fun was very scarce. On top of all that we had problems with credit cards, War Van insurance, getting a van towed( shhhh don't tell anyone), and some of the few Martyrs left were sick, but we persevered and made it through the week without having any stressing our selves out to the point of burnout.

After every improvements we've made in these rooms I can't help but wonder if we're making it a little too much to help out the next session. It's not supposed to be easy for anyone. This is the War college not the Tea Party College. That's just a random thought I had.

614 vs the couch

I never knew a couch could be such a beast. I have moved plenty of furniture in my lifetime but this couch was the first piece of furniture that I spent over an hour moving. It's not that it was ridiculously heavy; it was just a really fat couch. I don't mean just large I mean this couch needs to lay off the twinkies for a few...years. The large love seat was difficult but we were better and smarter, but this couch out up a fight. Aaron, Rachel, and I were able to maneuver it down the hall (that was a challenge by it self). Then came the doorway. If we had two more inches in width it could have been a walk in the park (then again if the couch was one more inch wider it would still be stuck halfway out the door). We twisted, turned, pulled pushed, lifted, and bent this couch every way possible. It wasn't moving. When we originally got it in The command Center we had to put an enormous hole in the wall to make some extra room. The hole was patched up three days earlier, we didn't want it to be a waste of time and a blessing. Finally we sent Robin on a mission to get some tools. The butter knife wasn't working for us. So armed with a hammer and a flat head screw driver we were able to knock the door off it's hinges, get our extra three inches, and slide the couch right on through. It was like we gave the door some ex-lax and it passed a couch...ewwwww. Anyway, it was a walk in the park...on Hastings Street after that. As we carried the couch to it's new home I mentioned to Aaron that in another city seeing this would be really strange, but the people here have seen stranger things, so we fit in...almost. We actually had a guy walk along side of us and give us tips to make it easier to carry. No furniture will ever defeat me!!!! 614 wins!!!!

Then there was seven...

I just back from a two day unintentional vacation in Seattle. I would love to say it was all part of a genius plan that Jeni, Sue Ann, Linsay, and I invented, but it was all part of a mistake that turned into a blessing...which makes it all the more impressive, I would suppose.

We headed out to Seattle to send off Jeni and Sue Ann the next morning. We were staying at Agnus and Ross Hailes home for the night. We had planned to wake up at 4:00am and so they could catch there planes which left at 6:15 and 6:05. We woke up at 6:00. So we did an emergency evac. from the Hailes residence and headed to the airport in an attempt to...I don't really know if we thought they would then make the flight but we were definetly in a rush to get there. So we arrived in record time of twenty-five minutes (it usuallay takes more than thirty minutes), parked the car, and started walking to the check-in desks, praying for favor the whole way. Jeni was able to get a stand by ticket for the next flight which left in forty-five minutes. Halleluyahweh!!! Sue Ann was not as fortunate though. The next few flights were already over booked by twelve and twenty people (why an airline would do that I still haven't figured out). So rather than waiting at the airport for possibly an entire day she got a ticket to be booked on the flight that left at the same time the next day. We called Agnus to let her know of our perdicament and she said she was more than happy to let us stay another night. So we said good-bye to Jeni and hugged and cried (not me...I don't cry) and watched Jeni run off into the sunset..uh...security check. The rest of us stayed another day in Seattle doing a bunch of nothing. We helped out with the dishes and a puzzle and some laundry but other than that we did a lot of lounging. We broke a mental sweat (well I did) by playing a game of Scrabble but that was as active as we got. We weren't really lazy we just didn't know what we could do for free or really cheap. So we woke up the next morning at 4:00 (I voted for sleeping late agian, but Sue Ann was not a fan of the idea), took Sue Ann to the airport, said good-bye, and drove back to Vancouver. I realzed during that trip that the War Van gets really good MPG. The number here is slowly dwindling (we have the perfect seven left) as the Martyrs are heading off to our appointed assignments and taking some time off before The Holy Terror arrives. I am very excited to see what the Holy Spirit will be doing with this session, I almsot can't wait, though I won't see much since I will be heading to my own appointed place. I know I will probably be having just as much break through there as they are here. It's excititng. Fun Fun Fun!!! I think I'll end this blog with a Quote from Richard Collier's "William Booth The General Next To God" "Make your will, pack your box, kiss your girl, be ready in a week." Sounds good to me.

MY HAIR!!!!!!!

This is very important. If anyone has seen my hair can you please call me and tell me where it is. I miss it very much, and I want it back...it's about five inches long, a beard should be with it, it's brown, ans looks like it belongs to Keith Green. Ha ha ha ha. I cut my hair, no I didn't...but seriously I did. I actually shaved my beard and mustache off about ten minutes befor I went to the graduation ceremony, and two days later I cut my hair...all of it. It's all gone and I miss it a bit. Now instead of worrying about eating my hair with my food I have to worry about my head getting a sunburn. I didn't just get it cut to make it look presentable; I went the whole nine yards; it's all gone. Aurora did the initial cut so it was real short then I took the clippers and a razor and took it all off. I wish I knew how to put pictures on my blog so you guys could see me. I like it. A good number of other Martyrs, who haven't left yet, like it as well. I actually realized I missed a few patches in the back so I need to fix those soon. I do actually feel cooler, but that could be because I'm sitting in front of a fan. I miss being able to shake my head when it's wet and have water fly everywhere, that was fun. But apparently I was the only person who enjoyed that. No one enjoyed it when Jono and I did that after Street Combat when it was raining. We thought it was hilarious,and we were all alone int that thought process. I think everyone was jusr jealous of our curly locks...bot they were most likely just really annoyed. Now everybody in the Martyr session has cut his or her hair at least once through out the year. It's almost like it's the end of an era; it's very sad in a way...oh man, I think i'm having withdrawls, that's not good. Anyway, I will keep everyone posted on how the grow back process is playing out. As a fore warning if anyone calls me baldy or baldhead I will open up a can of Elisha on you. If you didn't understand that at all pull out your Bible and read 2 Kings 2:23-24. I got to go shave again.

Graduation...as we go on we remember...

Celebrate good times come on!!! Ba da da da da da da dah woo hoo!!! Yes I know that song is older than I am and it’s weird that I’m typing in the horn parts on my blog but I have reason to celebrate. For those of you who don’t know yet The Martyrs graduated yesterday. The ceremony was held at a restaurant called One. There was an open bar and everyone could get as many free drinks as we wanted. I got to have a Tequila Sunrise and a Pina Colada and some other special drink that the bartender concocted right in front of me. Of course none of these drinks had alcohol since I am a Salvationist, and if they did have alcohol I would have been breaking my covenant and that would be a sin. I didn’t realize that all a Tequila Sunrise contained was orange juice, Tequila and some red stuff. I had a glass of Orange juice with red stuff swirled in it. That was pretty boring. The drinks were not important though. What is important is that we all graduated. Colonel Don Coppell presented us with our certificates and then we had to give a seventy-five second testimony. I think Beracah was the only one who filled up all Seventy-five seconds. We got our certificates and Colonel Coppell had a word from the Lord for each of us which was really cool. There was a presentation of some Scholarships earned by the students. We then sat around talking and mingling then they brought on the food. We had our choice of pizza, a sirloin burger, chicken and prawn fettuccini, and some veggie filo thing. The chicken and prawns were exquisite. It was good times.

After our ceremony we all changed out of our uniforms for the celebration part of our graduation. We headed to the Command Center wearing our brand new Martyr shirts. We danced and sang and praised God for a good three hours and then Jonathan Evans did the preach and pitch. Then Stephen and Danielle anointed our feet with oil and gave each of us anther word from the Lord and we walked out of the Command Center as a prophetic act of being sent out into the world; then we came back in…that part wasn’t prophetic. We stayed and worshiped some more and when it was over the cleaning began, but that didn’t take long at all. Everything was done by Eleven o’clock and we all hung out in the Command Center for a while eating pizza and talking and some people were crying because they were leaving. It was one of those Michael W. Smith moments. Friends a friend forever if the Lord is Lord of them, and a friend will not say never...you get the idea. Most of us were to tired to do anything else it was weird. I figured since it was our last to be together he time wouldn’t have mattered and we would want to spend as much time with each other as we could…well, that’s what I felt, but I guess for everyone else 1:30am was too late to hang out. So now I’m sitting here watching people leave; knowing that soon there will be only a few people left with me, and then I get to leave woo hoo!! I can’t wait. I graduated!!!!! How cool is that??!!

I'm Baaaaaaaaack in Van again

I have a lot of catching up to do so here it goes.

I’m still happy, saved, and free, back in Vancouver. It was an awkward plane trip back. Some how Alaska air changed an eight hour trip into a five and a half hour trip. I stayed at the Vancouver airport longer than I wanted to because Darren misread my e-mail so I had to make some phone calls to get his number and get a ride to the Empress. I could have spent the night at the airport but that would have been weird…for more people than just my self. I’m happy to announce this was the first time I have flown into Vancouver and it hasn’t been raining. Every other time it’s been raining when I have come in but this was my first dry flight into Van. We started classes yesterday and I’ve been hearing the tales of triumph from the other Martyrs. I don’t get to entertain the martyrs with my legend until next Monday. Almost everyone is here. Jono is the only one who hasn’t returned (slacker). It’s okay though no hard feelings. No pressure. It’s okay that we don’t have our full community yet because we’re waiting for you. There’s grace, but seriously hurry up and get here.

I am very excited because Ultimate Frisbee has been put into our schedule. It’s a genius idea I don’t know why we didn’t do it earlier. I love Ultimate Frisbee (I think I said that like a million time already). I played Ultimate Frisbee yesterday and I had a blast. It was the longest game I have ever played in my life but it was fun. I learned that usually height beats numbers. I was the second tallest person on our team and we lost. Stephen Bell was the tallest. Our team had to guard Stephen Court, Aaron White Jeni Parsons, and Regan Lipsett. We are not taller than nay of them (Josh Ivany, Phil Marriot, Danielle Strickland, Stephen Bell, and myself, there were more people but not as many people would read this blog because it would look way too long ). It was like David versus Goliath but David didn’t do so hot this time. We tried so hard, and put up a good fight; we started out strong and had the lead most of the game, but in the end height prevailed. 28-26 we were so close. I wish this had been done earlier in the year it was awesome. I can’t wait till next week. Most of us are really sore right now but that’s a good thing. Some of our muscles needed to be worked. We get to play Soccer tomorrow night. That’s exciting. I’m not real good at Soccer because I’m American, but I can hold my own ground.

I just want to let all of my adoring fans know that I my blogs may not be as frequent as they have been because I won’t always have the time or computer availability here. So don’t think I died or stopped blogging. It just may take longer than usual. It’s cell time so I’ll see you guys later.