God things from God's people.

Things went pretty well this weekend. Alasha had to close at Starbucks for her last 3 days of training and Jonah and I missed her. But other than that things went good. I have been deliberate about looking for God in the people I interact with daily. Things are pretty stressful right now and being God’s child I know He’s got my back. It just helps me to be able to recognize Him around me when my faith is being tested. Now I realize I could go into a lovely discussion on – “how do I know which things God had a hand in?” And I guess my smart-aleck response would be – “Since I believe He made the whole world, He must be involved in it”. OK, that was random, back to what I was saying. Here is where I saw God this past week:

Ø Allan and Jason coming into the PUMP house to do Micah Project work with big smiles on their faces. (2 computer geniuses together hmm.)
Ø Hanging out with Logan @ Cascade and Taco Bell
Ø Watching my son get very happy when Danni and Jessica come to baby sit
Ø Finding my Graul children seriously hanging out on Saturday morning with dad
Ø Watching yet another great performance by Visions from Cascade College
Ø Getting a big bear hug from Dave Astin every time I see him no matter where I see him.
Ø Watching Trinity and Conner come from walking with Kaelea and hearing them say, Hi, Big Steeeeeve!
Ø Watching the big smile on my beautiful wife’s face when we finally bought Jonah’s bedding and mobile and hamper and.. you get the picture.
Ø Watching Dante’s face light up when AP and I went into the hospital room to see him.
Ø Watching Jim Grace cry as we sang with him in the nursing home

I could keep going but I will stop here and say I have been blessed with a great church and friends and I love and appreciate all of you, though I may not show like I should. God is here in this place and I can’t wait until Jesus comes to take us all home. In the mean time let’s tell others how you see God in your daily life.

God Inspires Through Africa

I can still remember meeting Allan and Kristi White when I got to PUMP. They had a beautiful little girl with one of the coolest names – Trinity. It did not hurt that the movie “The Matrix” had been released and was the talk of many towns for a while. Anyway, it is amazing how God can touch us using people in ways you would never expect. I remember Kristi saying that her Brother Jeff Cash was a missionary in Africa and he and a couple of Ugandans, Kabito David and Kizito Ronald; were coming to the State’s to do some work and visit. At PUMP church we still had just one life group (we have 4 now – thank you Father) and Jeff and his friends came to fellowship with us. The life group was meeting at my house and my wife fixed her baked chicken and stuffing and some dessert that was “right”. Kizito Ronald still talks about that chicken till this day. Sorry I am getting ahead of myself. Anyway, so Jeff talked about how God was working in Africa and we visited with the gentlemen and had a great time.
Later on at Faith Quest (a weekend youth event hosted by camp Yamhill) I had a chance to talk to them more. All of sudden I found myself sitting down with a group of people and the words “yes I will go to Africa” coming out of my mouth. The next thing you know Kristi is telling me how much I will love it and showing me pictures. Ike Graul, one of my good friends and co-ministers, is also making the trip. The shots, reading, and fundraising ended with me walking off a plane in the most beautiful place I had ever seen. And I have been a few places: 49 of our United States, Europe, Brazil, etc. The real beauty came when I got to witness the work going on by the Cash’s as they are Jesus to their family in Africa.
I will stop for now, but trust me there will be more to come. God bless the Cash’s and all the others ministering in Uganda and all over the world.

World Series 2005

Man oh man what a World Series! I gotta tell ya I was glued to my TV set watching the games. It is amazing to think of the concentration and hard work put in by the teams that did not make the series not to mention the ones who did. The White Sox’s pitching was “ridiculously good”, from the starting rotation to the “crazy good” bullpen. I wonder what in the world Bobby Jenks has to do to throw a baseball 100mph and hit a glove just over 60feet away. I do know I would not want to have to hit that. I guess my friends and family say the same to me when I eat ribs and chicken and the bones look as if they have been prepared by an archeologist. :-) We each have our talents.
One day I will get the chance to see a playoff game, Lord willing. Until then I will play catch with whoever wants to and catch a game here and there. Cnograts White Sox and great job also Astros. And now on to the tipping of basketballs all around the US.

Perspective

Galatians 6:2 says, “Share each other’s troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ”. (NLT)
I have been doing some hard reflection on my life as a professional minister. I believe I was made to do this thing called ministry for a number of reasons. I must admit to you that the “reason” I like to cling to the most has to do with the fact that God sent Jesus to take the punishment for my sins and to satisfy God’s anger against me. That is something I get. I have a lot of friends that could take this passage and go really deep with it deciphering this word and that; making really cool applications, and that actually is a very good thing to do in quiet time and times of good group study of scripture. To me I read: watch out for others, help others, try and give others the benefit of the doubt, and when push comes to shove remember they are somebody bought and paid for with blood.
For a more in depth perspective check out Romans 14 and 15:13. Thanks Lord for the insight.

Just Sittin' Here

I could have a lot of things going through my head at any given and for some that could be scary. Right now, I am thinking about random stuff. I recently talked to Bret Testerman, a good friend and worship minister in Florida, and he was telling me about something that happened while he attended the 2005 ZOE conference in Nashville not to long ago. He explained to me how there was a lot of Acappella Alum (www.acappella.com) there and they decided to get together and jam instrumentally. He mentioned that it was spurred on by George Pendergrass and a good friend of his that played guitar. Bret told how Barry Wilson, Nick Dunbar, and others were around singing and having a good time. It made me feel good to hear him say that they were talking about I would have loved to be singing with them.
It might seem crazy that I would even relay this event, but it says to me that God followers can hang out, have a good time and still be popular. Now the word “popular” is relative, but I think those who know any of the people I mentioned will understand what I mean. Thank you God for inventing fellowship.

Ok. I am here listening to Bebo Norman's, " Nothing Without You", and I have not totally reached that place, but I am on my way there. There is something about the day that helps me to look forward to the next, because the next day brings me one more day closer to being with Jesus.

Alright!
Here we go. I am blogging. This is a cool thing. Of course, unlike my friends that do this, I am late to the latest computor thing. But that is me. Now if it has to do with music recording that is a different thing. I tell you what, the internet is a powerful tool and just in case someone who does not know me comes across this blog let me tell you a few things.
#1 I love God, now I am often frustrated by God, but there you go. I try to remember His thoughts are so far above mine that I am probably just as frustrating to Him. #2 I love my wife. It is not one of those things where "she completes me". I don't want to put that kind of presure on anyone but God. I tell what my wife does do: she works at loving me no matter what and that makes me want to work harder at loving her. I have to admit, we have known each other 14 years and been married 5 of those, and we still have puppy love going on. #3 My son, Jonah, is from heaven - directly! You can see picture's of him if you visit the bloggs of Emily Wallace or Amanda Peterson or visit www.pumpchurch.org. I would create one of those cool link thinggies to their bloggs but I haven't talked with my computor specialist, Ike Graul, for assistance. Well this is long enough for a first blogg! The World Series is on. Peace