My latest music purchase

Andy Mckee is a pretty amazing guitarist. I purchased his CD today, and am really enjoying it. I love when people can make instruments sing. Mckee is up there with Thile, Shimabukuro, Douglas, Shatz, Bela and Stewart. Enjoy this video: Keys to the Hovercar.

don't think, just enjoy!

My friend Joey shared this profound thought with our class the other day. He was commenting on how when we stop to think about the thing we are enjoying, we are no longer enjoying it. For example, when you're engaged in worship during a church service, and you stop to think, "Man, this is sweet, I'm really worshiping." you've just ceased to be worshiping since your thinking about yourself, not God whom you're worshiping. Then last Tuesday at Perspectives class, pastor John was saying we experience things of great magnitude and grandeur, it's usually accompanied with a strong feeling of insignificance and self forgetfulness, and that's OK and probably right. How can a man be full of himself when he reaches the pinnacle of Mt. Everest? He of all people should realize how small he is in regard to the things around him God has created, and God himself. I am so amazed how God, being so big and perfect, can love a worm such as I - Thank you Lord for Jesus Christ!

fun in the back yard

A couple of my students asked me to post this picture. Back when we used to get some snow in the winters, we would build jumps in the yard and pull each other around behind the snowmobile. In this picture we were using the four-wheeler because of a snow shortage. I hope that I can get home and partake of this fun activity this year. It's fun for the whole family...and it doesn't make my wife anxious at all!

go to your Father

Today I listened to a passionately spoken sermon by our pastor on prayer. He really hit hard on the theme of God being our Father. I don't know how many of you had good fathers, or bad fathers, but God is a perfect Father. The text being, "If you [fathers] being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask?" Our heavenly Father will never say, "Come back later, I'm busy." or, "What do you want!" He is always ready and willing to freely give out of the overflow of joy he has in himself. Our Father is Great! And it is good to be a child of God! So...go to God in prayer, He stands ready.

Jr. High Winter Retreat

Here's some photos of our worship team from last weekend. We lead worship at the Jr. High retreat. This was the first retreat the team has ever lead completely on their own; they did an awesome job, by the Lord's grace.

2007 Winter Retreat

It's good to be a Minnesotan

I always marveled at the Minnesota goodbye, while at the same time, enjoy them very much. For those of you who have no idea of what I'm talking about, allow me to describe for you a possible MN goodbye. Say you're invited to someones house for dinner. You arrive, you're greeted, all is well. The evening in progressing wonderfully and a good time is being had by all. However, hour is getting late so the party agrees to start the goodbye process. First, we would all agree that it has been a good evening, and give compliments to the food and hospitality that has been enjoyed. Perhaps even some formal goodbyes would be spoken as well as a parting blessing rooted in some past conversation from that evening. During all this, the couples are standing and moving in the directions of their coats. At this point, many different things could happen. The most common in the case of our family is we get side tracked. Perhaps I would notice a picture in the dining room and inquire about its origin while my wife gets detained in the kitchen trading cooking secrets. Next we usually get separated into gender groups. This goes on for a while until I see all the new toys and creations my friend has inquired since the last time we talked. The best MN goodbyes often include a trip to the garage. During this time things can often go deep since trust has been established by earlier conversation and one might share a deep struggle or pressing condition that would only be appropriate between men. I assume the same thing happens with the women, but will probably never know for sure. At some point, the couples reunite and continue their journey toward the door. Most of the time at this point a snack is in order, and since in many cases, you have to pass through the kitchen to leave the house, its only appropriate. Kitchens however usually contain multiple clocks, and is the room where this phrase is most often uttered, "Is it really _______ O'clock?" Here a strong commitment is made to leave swiftly out of respect for one anothers sleep needs. Perhaps a few conversational items will arise while stepping into ones shoes an putting on a coat like, "Hey that's a nice coat! Where did you get it?" "Oh thanks! I got it at REI. Do you two like camping?" "Yes! We love camping but we never have anyone to go with! Would you guys want to go sometime?" "Of course we would! Wow! Lets plan it out right now!" "Honey, we really have to go, it's 1:00 A.M." "Well, I guess it's time to go. We'll talk soon." And so on. At this point a cultural form of departing is exchanged, the door is closed, and this is usually spoken by both couples about the other, "They're great! We need to get together with them again soon. Time for bed."

So tonight I was chatting with a friend via Google chat, and I noticed that a MN goodbye was happening over the internet. I had to stop and chuckle...it's good to be a Minnesotan.

A week with Gus and Mari!

This is a little video I put together of the week we did some house sitting for some friends when they were in Cameroon. Enjoy!

The Lighting of the Fire!

Last weekend was BS 2007: the Man Weekend. The lighting of the fire is a sacred tradition. This year we doused a Christmas tree with gas, lobbed a gasoline filled beer bottle in the air, and shot it with a shotgun. I had the extreme honor this year of pulling the trigger. Blow the clip are URL's for other Man Weekend video clips.



Hets firing the SKS
Kris Crossing the Creek
Jeff's gas tree torpedo

To at least think about.

"The great grate grader graded grates gratefully to out grade the greatest grate grader greatly."
Created by Gus and philthecarl

Bigtime camera! Samsung NV3...

My wife and I bought this camera as a gift to ourselves, and we are very pleased with it. The sales rep didn't have much to say about it, but we thought we would give it a try. We were drawn to its functions as well as it's design. This camera is pretty sweet. This 7.2 mega pixel camera has four different picture taking modes, which allow for more than the average persons picture taking knowledge, an MP3 player, built in stereo speakers, head phone jack, video camera, video viewer (can download videos to the camera), and a document viewer. Also, the rechargeable battery charges while hooked in the computers USB port. This thing has everything but the kitchen sink. I bought two 2GB memory cards so I have a 4GB capacity. I have downloaded 20 albums, four 5 minute video clips, multiple text documents, and I can still take over 250 pictures at the highest resolution, and that's all on a 2GB card. I keep the second conveniently in my camera case. I've only had it for a week, but it has so far out preformed our expectations. If you're in the market, and you don't have an MP3 player, I highly recommend this camera. I think you definitely get more than you pay for.