Clelebration!!!

This is blog number 100!!
This Holiday season seems to be going by very slowly for me…I like it. This Holiday season has not been a total happy occasion for everyone. I just got word this morning that my Grandfather (on my Dad’s side) has passed away. We were told the day before that he was in the final stages of his life and he wouldn’t be around much longer. He had been suffering form Alzheimer’s disease for the past five years and it took his life at six o’clock Thursday morning. My grandmother said he this must have not wanted to wake up at six in the morning anymore since he had been doing that for most his life as a teacher. My family has been taking it well and are all gathering together after the New Year for his Memorial Service. It’s interesting how a family that lives so far apart can come together so easily when we need each other. That’s a true family. I never knew him in his younger years. I only knew him as a retired teacher and a grandfather who loved me. I’m finding out more about the man he was know. I asked my Grandmother if she thought he was up in heaven doing what he loved, teaching. She said although he loved teaching more than any other job he was a natural dancer. And’ he probably swing dancing with Sinatra by now. He’s no longer suffering but he’s as young as ever and probably enjoying himself more than he ever had in this life on Earth and that’s a thought that can bring comfort to anybody. But with his death we also found out that one of my uncles gave his life to Christ this past week. After years of denying he called us up and told us that he had become a Christian and had his life headed in the right direction. The count is one uncle saved and two to go. So there are two reason’s for praising God this Holy Season. Halleluyhwh. Have a Holy and Happy New Year.

Happy Holy Day!!!

Lately in the news I’ve been hearing a lot of stuff about people wanting to be “politically correct” this Christmas season by saying Happy Holiday rather than Maeery Christmas. They don’t want to offend someone that celebrates Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or doesn’t believe in Christ by saying Merry Christmas. Political correctness (if that’s even a word) is trying to please everyone at once by taking out every thing that even slightly assumes that someone belongs to a specific group. It’s becoming ridiculous. I was thinking about the term Happy Holidays and I have decided that I don’t mind anyone using that term. In Webster’s Dictionary the very first definition of Holiday is Holy Day. So essentially when you say Happy Holiday you’re saying happy Holy Day; a.k.a. Merry Christmas. It’s has the same meaning just in a different form. No matter how it’s said the true meaning of Christmas is going to be revealed. I think that's revelatory.

We bow down and worship him now...

Philippians 2:10-11 “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This was or focal point of our Christmas Sunday service. Though there’s still some confusion as to whether that Christmas Sunday was Christmas Sunday or if this Christmas Sunday is the real Christmas Sunday…no one really knows. That doesn’t really matter though. What does matter is that we had an really amazing time to just meet with God an bow down acknowledge him as God the Father. It was a chance to focus on him and put our hearts above our heads, which is something that we may not let happen enough during this time of year. Bowing is something that shows more reverence and adoration that just taking a few seconds to say a quick praise the Lord and going about your life. Bowing involves exalting Christ and humbling yourself. It puts your entire body into worship; your whole body says what your lips have been saying all along. Why wait. You’ll have to do it eventually “every knee will bow”. When someone says every knee it doesn’t sound like anyone will get out of it, whether you believe it or not. If you have nothing below your knees then you’re already there 24-7 so you’re a step ahead of the game. Whether you believe it now or not everyone will come to that realization Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Why Wait? When is that last time you bowed humbly before our God?

I'll be home for Christmas...

Well, I'll be at a home for Christmas. I get to see my parents in Naples, Florida where the weather is always nice. Besides that I get to attend a camp staff reunion at Camp Keystone for News Years Eve. Our old DYS Major Willis and Major Barbara Howell will be our special guests. It’s very exciting. So on my vacation I get to get warm see my family see most of my friends and see part of Detroit, Michigan (the airport part). This is going to be one of the greatest vacations ever conceived.

Release the grease...ewwww

I put on my greasy shirt with my greasy name tag then my greasy pants and my greasy shoes and tied my greasy shoe laces. I put on two coats and stuffed my greasy hat in my pocket and headed out the door. I arrived at McDonald’s. Tired and still worn out from yesterday. I took of my freezing coat and put on a greasy apron and my greasy hat. I flipped greasy hamburgers and chicken until I thought I might throw up. I thought about using them as Frisbees to lighten up the mood in the restaurant a bit but I don’t think the managers see things the same way I see them. I see fun they see money going down the drain…with grease. I looked through a grease newspaper and saw that the Tampa Bay Lightning aren’t doing as well as I thought they would do. They’ll improve. I feel like I have grease on me constantly until I take a shower it’s so gross. I don’t know how people stay and work there as a career. I couldn’t do it and I won’t. What I will do on the 19th of December is get on a plane form Portland, Maine and head down to Naples, Florida. I get to visit my family and friends for the Holidays and spend some time relaxing and getting reenergized for another round in my boxing match me vs. darkness. I’m winning. I am also extremely tired. I have been for a few days so this vacation should be wonderful. It will also get me out of this single digit weather. I have a new definition for stupid cold. Earlier in the month I said it was stupid cold. That’s when it was only 22 degrees outside. I walked past the Penobscot River today and there was no water moving in it. A huge river is frozen. Ice and snow are the top of it.…That, my friend, is stupid, stupid cold. Maybe I should pray for God the Send The Fire in more ways than one. Ba ha ha ha. I know it wasn’t funny but I tried and thats all that counts.

500,250, 600 minutes...

You know trust is a funny thing ba ha ha ha. It comes and goes so quickly. Just ask Aurora how it can disappear seemingly over night.
Now, onto a different subject…I was working at McDonalds today. It gives new meaning to the term release the grease. I feel so greasy after my shifts. Almost like a greasy hen (That’s sounds like fun). I’ll just try to convince myself I’ve been deep frying in the Holy Spirit. I got to go to Powerhouse all greased up and ready to go. Anyway the real highlight of my night is that I got to go see RENT. It was an awesome movie. I love this movie. It was amazing. All I knew about it was that it is a musical (I like music) and I knew it was about these people trying to pay (been there done(ing) that) rent…hence the name. I have heard other people say that it’s a play all about AIDS and homosexuality. It most certainly is not. It has so much more that that. It’s about real people in real situations with real problems in a real world who need real help. It shows people living their lives and enjoying it even though there being run out of there homes. It shows people with HIV enjoying every moment of life and not letting this disease control them. It shows a group of people coming together and experiencing authentic community, and working together for one specific goal. They share their problems and try to help each other through them. They play off of each other talents and expect nothing in return they live life and love it. They try hard no to show their weakness and problems but they’re always there. Theses people are around us all day. They’re pretty good at hiding their problems (some better than others) but they do exist and sometimes they can’t escape alone. It’s about faith hope and love and love never fails.

What Brian Wilson is alive???

Aurora and I just got done watching the lighting of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. They made an announcement before hand that would be performing, these include: The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Rod Stewart, Sheryl Crow and Brian Wilson…I thought Brian Wilson was dead. I distinctly remember someone telling me he dies from a heart attack a number of years ago at like age 48. Apparently he’s not dead, unless he was resurrected to play in New York for the lighting of the Christmas tree; it could happen, but I doubt it. He didn’t really look old either. So it may be a while before he kicks the bucket…I wonder how many more people may be alive that I think are dead…JFK…hmmm? Besides just being confused by a lively Brian Wilson I was very pleased with the songs that were sung. For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with the news there is a huge dispute about the words …one nation under God… in our pledge of Allegiance, copies of the Ten Commandments have been taken out of our court rooms and someone recently tried to get an engraving of “In God We Trust” taken off a Federal Building in Washington D.C. For the past few years people have been trying to keep God in Church and out of everyday life and it’s sickening. It makes me absolutely furious when I hear about someone trying to take God out of something else. Well, at The Lighting of the Christmas tree (remember that’s what this is all about) a few of the songs that were sung included Silent Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem, and Joy to the World. It wasn’t frosty the Snowman or Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer for a good part of it Christ was kept in the performance. Praise YHWH that neither God nor Christ will ever be taken out of Christmas. Christ’s birth and life always has been, and always should be recognized and celebrated during Christmas.

Moving on up, to the east side...

Well, moving is true enough. I can never seem to stay in one spot. I don’t have a twitch, but I am moving again. All my life being a salvo’s son I had to move. All through Florida then up to Arkansas and Oklahoma and back to Florida again. Then I go to TWC. I get to room 705 then I need to move to room 406 then after Christmas I head to room 108 then to room 402 and then I head out to Bangor I have the opportunity to stay in one room for more than three months I go back to Vancouver and I’m in room 402 then I need to move down the hall to room 406. Then I move back to Bangor. It never ends. I’m in a house right now and enjoying getting stuff moved in but I need to move to the front apartment because me living there by myself isn’t cost effective. Then in April I will be moving to Charlotte. Maybe I can find some consistency in living arrangements in North Carolina. I now know how the Nomads felt; I wonder how they got used to it. One thing I know for sure is I’m very good at moving know. I can pack up any truck and move furniture through any door. I wonder if that’s a spiritual gift?? Maybe I am destined to live a life of constant changing locations. Hmmm…

Happy Turkey Day

It’s still snowing!!!!
Okay, I get to blog today. Happy Thanksgiving unless you're Canadian and already had your turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and the stuff thats there, but you don't know what it is, but you eat it anyway because it's thanksgiving, and corn and rolls cranberry sauce and pie and more turkey and more pie and...I'm hungry. I’m done.

ITS SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT’S SNOWING!!!!
Those were the two words I yelled when I opened and quickly slammed shut my front door this morning. It was (and still is snowing). I wanted to stay in my house, but I had to venture out in the snow to get to the Family Store to make a little money. Yesterday it was raining; the temperature dropped about eighty degrees, and the rain changed to snow, lots and lots of snow. So I put in my time at The Family Store and went to my next job. Yes I have another job. I work at McDonalds. It’s not the greatest job in the world, but with this job I can make enough money to pay rent, buy food, tithe, use for ministry purposes, and have a few bucks left over for cheez it’s and ice breakers. My first day is Friday a few prayers would be appreciated. Apparently I wasn’t the only person there who took McDonalds as a last resort job. Two of the other guys said they couldn’t find work anywhere else either. I’m hoping to eventually find another job in the next month or two. I have two prospects that look very promising. Hey does anyone remember my presentation on “on the job ministry”? 614 McDonalds!! Sounds like cool beans. Anyway, I got trained up and a uniform at my orientation, and I go in for my first day on the 25th of November, also known as black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. So everyone will be doing there shopping and eating fast food and I’m going to be thrown into training that day. Sounds like fun. I will be trudging through the snow to continue the decimation of hundreds of livers and kidney’s and getting paid for it. That’s exactly what happened to the guy in “Super Size Me”. So the snow is covering the ground now and still falling and I got to get home. I’ll blog again when I’m thawed out, and if I don’t get to you tomorrow, Happy Thanksgiving.

Prayer Power needed

I just got finished with a very interesting cell. It was a time with all of us getting to know each other. I don’t understand how that one aspect can be so easily overlooked. We’ve been having a cell meet every week for the past three months and we are just now getting to know about each other. I hate that. For the past three months we’ve been together and haven’t been digging into each other lives (in a good way). Aurora and I know each other really well but I realized I know only a few things about Alberta and slightly more about Nicole. Please pray we experience authentic Christian community. I also would like for everyone to pray for a job for me and Aurora. I have been looking and applying but I don’t have any bites. This past Sunday the Corps prayed for the two of us and I figured if I could also get everyone else who reads my blog to pray for favor and a job then the managers would have no choice but to hire me. The power of prayer would compel them to say YOU’RE HIRED!!!!! I’ve also realized that one of my main tasks while I ‘m here is to plow the ground. The soil is very rough here and I believe one of my tasks is to break up that hard ground to be soil that can be worked with. So that the seeds that are planted here will not be snatched away or choked out by this world but that it will grow and be firmly planted with deep roots with just the right conditions. It is very tiring. I have noticed that at the end of the day I always feel very tired especially if there has been a lot of warfare and having worries of a job isn’t helping the situation at all. Please pray that I have more energy (who would think that I would need that) and perseverance. Getting into a rut here is very easy and I can’t always recognize it when I do so also pray that I have eyes to see. I just want to end by saying “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…”

Saturday's with friends are always better

My Saturday was originally going to consist of me spending some time at the Corps watching football and eating Cheez It’s. I know it doesn’t sound exciting but I can watch football all day and not get bored with it and the Cheez It’s can make awesome situations even better. While I was on the last leg of my thirty minute journey I was met by Aurora and Alberta. They we’re on there way to visit me. They asked me if I wanted to go to Starbucks and I couldn’t resist a Satrbucks offer, besides the game I was waiting for didn’t start until 7:30. We spent most of the Afternoon at Starbucks. We had originally gone in to get some coffee and go but we saw a Now Hiring Sign and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so all three of us filled out an application (which took an unusually long time). The three of us then headed to the mall. It’s a very bad place to go when you’re low on cash and have debit card, but I practiced self-control (fruit). We took a walk around the mall looking at random neat stuff that we didn’t need much less could afford to have. We then headed off. We decided to make a quick stop at Blockbuster to see if there were any good movies out that we wanted to see, and then went to the Burr’s house (they were gone for the weekend) for dinner. After dinner I was busy checking football scores and eating Cheez It’s while trying to guard them so Aurora and Alberta wouldn’t steal them. Yes they tried to. It says on the box in big letters GET YOU OWN BOX! After they were securely stashed away we watched the movie we rented. I was able to get “Sahara”. An awesome movie about these three people looking for a WWII relic and they stumble onto this plot to destroy the world and the three of them have to save the world before it’s too late. It had all the markings of a great movie and it was. Aurora and Alberta got "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”. Yes I watched it. I was less than impressed basically these pants make these four girls have wonderful lives. These pants which amazingly fit all four of them and make all of them look good has some magic to make everyday they wear them an absolutely wonderful day. It was a cool beans day.

Job Hunting Fun Fun Fun

Shhhh…be vewy vewy quiet I’m hunting jobs hahahahhahaha (add the tremor). but seriously I don't like it at all. I don’t remember job searching being this hard…oh wait…I lied, yes, I remember it being this hard. I do know that in St. Augustine there were a lot more places where I could apply and have a good chance of being hired. Here it’s not so easy. Every store is taking applications but not all of them are hiring. Having a van to use today made it a little easier to get around to all the places. I put in three applications, and I have two that I will be filling out tonight and getting them to the stores tomorrow. Please pray for lots and lots of favor. I really need a job because my rent went up to $400 a month and my money in St. Augustine is dwindling fast. If I can’t pay the money then Chaz can’t pay his bills and has to give the apartment to his mother who would definitely kick me out of the house if I couldn’t pay and if I have no house and no money then I have no ministry. I also need help in one other thing. I have an assignment o find another instance in the Bible where someone was transported to another area (beside Acts). I almost positive it happened somewhere else but I can’t seem to find it. If anyone knows where it is can you please help me out, and if I just imagined it tell me as well. In other news PTB started again today. I had been planning on doing it but other things were getting in the way like apathy and sleep. Please pray that I overcome those obstacles and that they don’t hinder my ministry. Does anybody remember a guy named Jonathan Berkshire? Some people may remember him better by the name Jono. Is he still around? He doesn’t return my E-mails or update his blog whatever happened to that guy? I'm almost positive I miss hearing from him. Blessings to you all in Jesus name.

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.