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the favorite i've thought of so far- "Warning: all snowmen caught trespassing will be decapitated"

been thinking about- non-profits

Recently, I tivo'd an occurrence of "Good Morning America." I usually do not watch this show, especially on a Sunday morning as it was. However, I had turned the television on while eating breakfast and saw that one of the stories they were going to cover that morning was regarding televangelists, non-profit organizations and the way they spend their money.

In short, this segment explained that apparently the government and governmental officials have been concerned about the way that non-profit organizations- particularly the multi-million dollar ones- many wrapped around televangelists- are spending the tax-free dollars they rake in. They showed, to hit one particular, a televangelist who petitioned the watchers of his program to donate 20 million dollars to buy a private jet for (essentially) him to use. He pledged that it was only going to be used for the glory of Jesus Christ. Shortly after buying the jet, it was used to fly him to a conference he was speaking at in Australia. On the way there- multi-day layover in Maui.

Boy, it sure stinks to suffer for Jesus.

They all claim, however, that they operate within the legal tax limits and laws.

So, as I watched this, I thought- shame on them. I'd welcome any comments on this, please- but I can't help but think how the Bible calls us as Christians to live lives that are above reproach. How much more so for leaders of such large ministries should they be above that. If the government is going to be launching inquiries or auditing these companies because of supposed illegalities, it does not matter any more if what they have done is legal! The standard set by the government of legal or not is considerably less than what most Christians would consider to be right or moral. So, if the government is concerned that their rules are not being met, how much more should heads be hung, apologies be offered and confession and repentance be made.

a question for those who look for something specific to which to respond- Just because the law allows it, does that mean that the non-profit money these organizations take in is being spent in beneficial ways for the Kingdom?

Bumper Stickers- the good ones

Usually, I am not a fan of bumper stickers. My religious, political and moral beliefs do not fit easily into the small statement that usually are found on bumper stickers.

I ran into this, today, however- and it made me laugh, and, despite not wanting an non-removable sticker on my car- almost want one.

"When Jesus said, 'love your enemies,' I think he probably meant, 'don't kill them.'"

Defining "Teen"

While watching television this evening, I watched an odd commercial.

It begins by saying "this game is rated 'T' for 'Teen.'" The advert then goes on to show two obviously pre-teen boys (as in like, 10 years old) playing the game on their Wii.

What message does this send about the video game rating system?

Serving God

This thought has been swirling around my head for a few days as I ponder things that I hear in Christian circles. Often, we sing songs and pray prayers and talk about how we want to serve God. I wonder, in light of passages like Matthew 25:31-46, do we realize this plain and simple fact: Serving God means serving others.

and not just Christian others. serving other people. Often times, we spiritualize passages like Matthew 25, or Isaiah 61. but, as much as we can find spiritual comparisons to the types of people listed, but they are quite possibly talking more about the literally poor, oppressed, needy, sick, imprisoned. after all, Jesus himself served people with literal physical afflictions as well as spiritual.

i would welcome any thoughts on this subject- should any of my readers feel the desire to, or should you desire to direct others here, as well.

terrorists- of the ultimate kind

"Satan is {like} a terrorist." and later "...he is a terrorist"

Douglas Kelchner- in his sermon 10/14/07

Our 'New' Cars

Since the untimely death of our Camry (still one of the saddest days in history, which began one of the strangest weeks ever- see “God Has a Sense of Humor”), I have waited until the car situation was totally settled before adding the update here. So here’s the quick story and specs on each of our ‘new’ cars.

Car #1

1995 Nissan Maxima
• Color: white
• Miles: 112,000 (when we bought it- a month ago)
• Automatic transmission
• Power windows, power seat (driver)
• General feelings: it’s not quite as gas efficient as the Camry was, but it’s also a larger car with a larger engine. I’ve been driving it to and from Lancaster for 2 weeks for work- it’s got a lot of good qualities, but our Camry was simply a sweet car and we miss it. It’s ok, though- no complaints, no worries.

Story: We had picked out this car on the Friday following Labor Day weekend. We had been to a few guys we know in the auto business to see if they could keep their eyes and ears open for us for something specific. We knew we were going to refinance the Camry to include a second car and we wanted to feel as though we were getting something we’d be able to keep for a while. We found this as we just decided to take a quick look on a used car lot with a good rep.

Funny thing is: we had taken care of all the financing options at the bank that Friday night, but it needed a manager’s approval to cut us a check- and there wasn’t going to be one till Monday morning. Through the rest of the weekend, Rachel and I figured out what was going to work best for us to get the car sometime before Tuesday night (when the dealership insisted we pick it up by) and decided that coming to Lancaster after work on Monday and doing the paperwork Tuesday morning would be ok- Rachel would be late for work Tuesday, but better Tuesday than Monday she decided. Then the Camry caught fire on Monday AM on the way to work, and despite this- the bank still let us refinance- so we got the Maxima (and it went along with our rental car on the insurance company’s dime). Story finished with car #2…

Car #2

1998 Mitsubishi Mirage
• Color: Grey
• Miles: 100,700
• 5-speed (standard transmission)
• Manual everything- windows, door locks, seats, side mirrors- everything. No frills.
• Cassette player
• 2-door DE Coupe
• General feelings- I’ve really missed driving a standard!! When we had gone looking for a #2 car and decided on the Maxima, I was sad because I had really been hoping for a standard! It’s a small car, however. A bit smaller than my first car- a ’93 Subaru Impreza Sedan. But it reminds me of that, too. And as long as I can fit (which I do), i can live with it.

Story: We heard from the insurance company on Friday- actually, from the adjustor who had looked at the car (as opposed to the claims adjustor who was the overseer handling our claim) and he told us what he valued the car at. MUCH more than we had anticipated. With this in mind, we sometime talked to the guy at the bank who had approved the refinance of the Camry and he told Rachel that the bank would release the title for less than the insurance company would pay, so we would get the difference. Slight misunderstanding there, however- as what he really meant was that the insurance company would have to send the bank the whole check, which would be applied wholly to the newly refinanced loan, and we would get a loan giving us the certain amount, and the rest of it paying off what was due on the other loan- basically, refinancing that loan to give us some to buy a 2nd car, but still pay off a good chunk… much more complicated- added a middle man, but whatever…

The REAL problem came in the insurance company taking forever to do stuff. We even told our claims adjustor that we would overnight the paperwork from us to her to speed up the process. That didn’t stop her from taking a week to do anything with that paperwork, then lying to Rachel about sending paperwork to the bank- she said she’d sent it a week earlier, then her assistant told Rachel that it had been faxed to the bank that day.

All that’s the side story. This car came across our plate from someone at church- she worked with a girl who was having her 2nd child and she and her husband needed a larger vehicle then as the Mirage would not take 2 car seats. We kinda dismissed it- not because we weren’t interested, but because at first, we thought we were going to have to finance something again and even though the price was good for this car, we really wanted to get something a bit more if we were going to be paying for it over the next 5 years.

Then we found out we were going to actually have money in our pocket to put a sizeable downpayment (or simply buy outright if it was less- which this was), we revisited the information that had been passed along to us. So, we set up a test drive of the car, which went very smoothly. We had a small side conference, and that evening we told them we’d take it- as soon as the insurance company cut a check and we had the money to pay for it. And this weekend (the first weekend of October, 2007), we transferred the title and picked up the car.

Not Against Flesh and Blood

Ephesians 6:12
"For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places."

I’ve been thinking about the topics of politics and religion recently. These are, as any sane person will tell you, the two topics to stay away from discussion regarding. Everyone’s opinion is usually very strong, and people are so charged- yes, driven- by these two topics, it is hard to hold a calm discussion about them without having it quickly escalated. A problem arises when discussing either topic of the two of them. Imagine trying to discuss both!

I’ve been thinking about these topics recently as I’ve done some reading. It has been a struggle for me to see what I have seen so commonly among, particularly, God’s people regarding these two subjects. The struggle has been so intense in me- seeing things that I know that God’s Word would not promote being taught and perpetuated so much. Jesus Himself would very strictly reprimand this behavior, I believe- based on his own reaction to a similar dilemma.

First, I want to take a look at Jesus response when asked to get into a discussion on politics. He was asked about paying taxes. A dilemma of the day among the Jews was whether or not they should pay taxes. They did not want to recognize Caesar as their ruler, but to stay out of trouble, they had to pay. Jesus was asked whether they should pay taxes.

Of course, they were trying to trap Him- if the answer was yes, then they would say he was supporting the Romans, something most Jews strayed away from- and certainly those who rallied around Jesus would. If the answer was no, then he was supporting anarchy and they could have had Him arrested by the Romans. The answer, however, was more complex and said so much more;

“Who’s face is on the coins?”
“Caesar’s”
“then give to Caesar what is His, and give to God what is God’s!”

In essence, that what he was here about was more important than the questions they were asking. His mission, which was clearly defined as bringing about the Kingdom of God, was more important than politics, not “wrapped up in” politics.

Ephesians 6 tells us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and principalities of darkness in the spiritual realm. I like the way the New Living Translation puts it: “we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies”

To the Christians out there who feel that God’s Kingdom will be brought about on earth through a particular nation, people group or political party, note this- those are flesh and blood “enemies” that we have focused on.

Our struggle to bring about the Kingdom of God is not against any of the following:
- Islamic people/nations (very cafeul- I specifically am noting the people!)
- Terrorists
- Communists
- Liberals
- Conservatives
- Homosexuals
- Abortionists
- Tree-huggers
- Harry Potter books
- “Family Guy”
- any other people on the face of the earth.

While we may wrestle with other religious worldviews (and perhaps the evil powers behind them), we are not to be wrestling with one another. Our enemy is not flesh and blood. Allying ourselves with any particular political view too closely will inevitably wear off on us saying that these ARE our enemies. We must resist that temptation!

These thoughts have been brewing in me for a while, and articulated as I began to read a book by Gregory Boyd. Stay tuned for my reaction to and summary of the first few chapters, as I’ve been reading them on lunch break at work.

God Has a Sense of Humor

As of Wednesday, this week was shaping up to be one of the worst that either Rachel or myself have experienced. On Monday, something happened with our car and we ended up with a hole the size of a baseball in the engine of our 2001 Toyota Camry with 72,000 miles on it. See my previous writing for some more info on that.

On top of that, the rental car company (which is covered by our insurance- as I had the foresight to realize that if our only car dies, we'd need another one) had no cars. It was 11 am (after the 7:20 fire under the hood) before they were able to pick us up and get Rachel off to work. Long story there, as well.

As if that was not enough with the rental car company, when we wanted to trade in the truck they gave us for something more economical, and within the budget assigned by the insurance company, the guy treated Rachel like a child and kept trying to make a little extra money on our misfortune. Of all the potential positive points, I would not rent from Enterprise again- and would advise anyone else to consider how much treating customers right matters, because they have not treated us well at all.

Rachel had been scheduled for surgery on her wrist on Thursday. A ganglion cyst that she had previously had removed with a 10% chance of return had, in fact, returned. So, on Wednesday, she called our insurance company to make sure that pre-authorization had taken place for her surgery. They hadn't gotten it or any of the referrals except for the MRI, so they were requiring her to get all that from our "family" doctor, who is only listed on our policy and not actually our family doctor, in order to ok her surgery. So Rachel called them, and they would not simply call the doctors who had done the work- they required her to leave work and go see them so they could look at her wrist and say, "ok, we can give the ok to the insurance company."

All frustrating things.

On the other side of things… After much searching, the prior Friday, Rachel and I had found and decided on what we were going to do for a 2nd car- a 1995 Nissan Maxima. We had gone to the bank for our financing- to refinance the Camry loan and roll the Maxima into it. They had pretty much ok'd, but required approval of a manager. With the Camry engine blowing up/catching fire on Monday morning, and us not having signed the papers, we were VERY concerned that this may not go through.

Talked to the guy at the bank- wasn't going to say anything, but felt that I should out of honesty. He told me that he could either forget I told him what happened, or they could deny us financing for the Maxima alone because it is too old to hold the title as collateral. We decided to go with the first option, as the Camry is still ours until the insurance company buys it.

We had planned to sign that paperwork on the loan and the car on Tuesday morning, so we made plans to visit a couple apartments on Monday night. One of them, we really liked- a lot. But with this week's luck, what's going to happen, right?

Rachel's surgery on Thursday went well- as well as could be expected. We spent the day uneventfully resting after that- having had to get up early, and Rachel being tired from the anesthesia.

Friday, we got a call from the auto insurance company- they'd sent an adjustor and finally got back to us. They valued our car at almost DOUBLE what we had expected based on the Kelly Blue Book value. WOW!!! Then, as we were at Borders waiting for our table at Olive Garden (meeting with some of rachel's friends from YWAM), I got a call from the apartment. They wanted to rent to us, but wanted to ask a few more questions to be sure first. ???

So, the beginning of this week was abysmal. Had to look at the positive, but overwhelmed by just about everything going wrong that could go wrong! The middle of the week, things started to look up and the worst case scenario that looked like it might be happening was not actually happening. And as the week ended- even with Rachel having her wrist immobilized, things started to look up!

So here we are- going to be moving- a little later than we'd hoped, but still this fall. we have a car- we were hoping for a second, but the insurance money will almost completely pay off our loan for the 2 cars. Rachel's still got a job- i'm still looking. and we've got our church- the reason for moving and most important of all.

The Death of a Camry

today is a sad day. It is the day that, as I was driving to work, our Camry was unexpectedly and prematurely taken from us. I was driving Rachel to work in this wonderful car that had taken us back and forth across this great country and had a measly 72,000 miles on it. We were passing a truck that had been slowing us for quite some time (and had a trailer loaded down with junk- scraps of junk stuff)- he was going 35 in a 55. as the "safe passing" zone came, i picked up speed to go around him. either something fell off his truck or a huge rock caused a large thudding sound in the front of the car, and i saw smoke trailing us, the low oil light came on and so we got over (as i had just gotten around him) and pulled off the road...

as we got out, i popped the hood button, but decided not to open the hood as rachel saw fire on the ground and assumed it was in the engine as well. just as we were preparing to watch the car blow- the flames had crept over the hood) a gentleman stopped with a fire extinguisher and put it out.

as we were able to look under the hood, everything was fried, melted and charred.

there was a gaping hole in the engine looking at me.


the terminals on the battery were melted. the air filter was melted.

there was oil all over the place, including a huge streak on the road.

and so... our camry is a memory. the insurance company will more than likely determine the car to be a total loss.

But, Rachel and I are both ok. physically, anyway- although emotionally, this and so many other things (most not blogged) have just left me feeling defeated and feeling like we just can't win... on the other hand, we had just found a car on friday to be our 2nd car, and had procured the financing. we're picking it up on tuesday morning after we sign the paperwork at the bank. so... at least, we have one car, but that does nothing for me having transportation to a job and leaves us even again...

keep us in your prayers, if you would. and see more pictures if you want.

All Action Saturday

While driving to work this week, Rachel noticed that the drive-in was showing The Bourne Ultimatum and Rush Hour 3 this weekend. Both of them being movies we were interested in seeing, we decided to go to the drive-in on Saturday night.

This weekend is also the first weekend we've spent at home since the next to last weekend in July. It is a strange feeling for us. To be able to be home on saturday was very relaxing for us. Rachel opened her scrapbooking stuff up and spread our all over the coffee table, I had the laptop on and we popped in the Bourne Identity, and then the Bourne Supremacy. I always seem to forget how good the Bourne Identity is- partially I think because I saw Supremacy first, and then watched Identity. The hand to hand combat is better in the first one, I believe.

I still had placed Supremacy as the better of the two movies- something that is often NOT the case. A sequel not only equaling its predecessor, but surpassing it. I was hopeful that the Bourne Ultimatum would match that, because, after all- with a word like Ultimatum in the title, it ought to be good.

We had planned on going to the drive-in for most of the week, and most of the week it was cool, cloudy and kinda rainy. Saturday, the heat and humidity turned back on, and by Saturday evening, it was HOT, HUMID and scattered thunderstorms rolling through. Not exactly drive-in weather- the money saved at the drive-in would surely be lost in having to run the car to keep the A/C on so we could be semi-comfortable.

so we decided instead that we only really wanted to see Bourne, and that Rush Hour 3 was only a fringe benefit. We decided to go to the theater in Carlisle and let them provide the air conditioning. However, the rolling thunderstorms that were going through caused some major damage and power outage in much of Carlisle, including the movie theater. And every other theater around had either already started their show, or it started at the same time.

so with the sun going down, the lights out all over Carlisle and the rain cooling it off a little, we headed down route 11 to Newville and the drive-in. On the plus side, we arrived just as the movie started, so our normal routine of arriving early to get a good spot didn't leave us waiting. And for some reason, it wasn't crowded.

Anyway- down to the movie reviews. SPOILER WARNING!! for those who haven't seen the move, stop here and just know that I think that Bourne was amazing- perhaps the best movie I've seen this summer. It makes me question whether or not Supremacy was supreme. Rush Hour 3 on the other hand... could have waited till video had the Carlisle theater had power.

Ultimatum was filled with action. So much action, I almost thought it impossible to put that much in and not wear the audience out. Car chases, fight sequences, hand-to-hand combat, foot chases... Wow! It was fantastic.

What probably surprised me the most, however, was an hour and 15 minutes into the movie, I saw a VERY similar scene. In fact, it was the exact scene that ENDED the Bourne Supremacy. I probably would have noticed it anyway, but definitely because of watching Supremacy that afternoon, I knew that it was the exact same conversation- with a little more added to it. I was VERY impressed with how they wrapped it all in together.

In essence, the Bourne Ultimatum ended literally hours after the Bourne Supremacy. Basically, after he left Russia, but before he showed up in NY was where Ultimatum picked up. Very good writing, and very surprising. The other thing I liked was that there were times when i just expected something to happen, but didn't want it to happen- and basically just couldn't figure it out. it was great to be kept guessing the whole time.

Rush Hour 3 was disappointing. it was not bad, per se. But it was so unnecessary. It was another heart wrenching villain for Jackie Chan's character. It was another supposed friend who turned out to be a betrayer. It was another movie of Jackie Chan doing some real work and Chris Tucker running his mouth (although he has learned some marshall arts and while the final fight between Chan and the villain is taking place on the Eiffel Tower structure, Tucker is taking on 4 lackeys in the restaurant).

There was an overly-long, mostly unnecessary scene with women in underwear for a show in Paris and Tucker's character is posing as costume designer. Simply not necessary.

There was a bright spot, however. This came at the end, when the bad guy who pretended to be a friend was about to end the movie and evil was about to win and the Frenchman who had been picking on Americans for half the film, then pretending to be one the other half only to be disappointed by his wife- he ended up shooting the bad guy before he could shoot Tucker, Chan or the woman.

So, as is often the case, the drive-in costs less, we get two and are rarely disappointed. This particular double feature was well worth it, even if only for one movie.

why are you looking?

Rachel and I went to Borders tonight just to get out- and of course, we both love reading and love books. So it was a natural idea. Anyway, on our way home, we were talking about church searching some, because we were trying to decide where we were going to attend this coming Sunday.

I realized that through two lengthy blogs on this, I still had not covered everything. surprise, surprise- there's probably too much to talk about on this subject. But we were talking about this and I have decided to add it to the discussion.

Why someone would be looking for a new church makes a huge difference on where he/she would choose. If you're looking for a new church for a noble or acceptable reason, then you are looking for a church to plug into still. Usually, I’d advise people to be aware that in a mega-church, there are often times already a number of volunteers as well as a sense of being a nameless face. Unless you know lots of people there, and even then sometimes, it can be very anonymous.

However, in cases like Rachel's and mine- we've been burned by a couple churches now and the reason we're looking for a church is not to be ministers, and not even to spend all the efforts we have serving there. We are in a state of needing to heal, needing to be ministered to (as we have been taken advantage of and burned to the point where we're pretty empty), and needing to not be as involved.

Personally, I’ve taken a liking to smaller churches, and even see a LOT of value and benefit in them- maybe even more than large churches. But for this particular case or need- why we're looking- a larger church is a place to go. The church of 40 we visited will likely not be a good place for us because it is so small. But, then again- everyone is different, and the sense of family that is present in a smaller church may be just what healing people need to have. If we were in Lancaster instead of Shippensburg, we'd be going to a church of 100-125- because we know so many people there, there's no awkward "not knowing anyone" feeling, and those people there genuinely care about us. so... yeah

and if you're looking for a new church because you left your last one for reasons like music, or a personal conflict with one other person there, or because you simply are not able to sit still and can only be in one church for a few months at a time, you need to DEAL with your issues and stay put. At least, until God gives you the release to leave.

anyway. I’m not sure if I have much else- I’m not thinking of too much else just yeti. Keeping on keeping on.

finding a new church home

first, as a supplement to my previous blog and to this one, I offer this link. Please use it to check out the book- view the free preview of "look inside"- then maybe even head down to your local Chrisitian bookstore (you might even find it at Barnes and Noble or Borders) and pick it up. it's a smaller book, and it's thin. But it's so worth reading.

Quick refresher- Rachel and I are looking for a new church. this is the first time that we have looked together for a church in a non-ministerial capacity. So this is not so much a "here's how everyone should find a church." this is the path we're taking and i'm opent to comments or suggestions.

We have visited 2 churches that are relatively close to us. they are both Brethren in Christ denomination- the denomination Rachel grew up in and I'm fairly familiar with due to their connection to Messiah. so as for doctrine, I know that I agree. That's important to know- if the doctrine of the church is not something you agree with or can support, then you don't belong there! Often times, we won't know what that doctrine is, which is why it's important to try and talk to the pastor or one of the pastors, if it's a bigger church. It would not work very well for Rachel and I to be a part of a charismatic church because our faith would not be identified by the charismatic doctrines. (look it up on wikipedia if you don't know charismatic)

We also have decided that it is very difficult to make any decisions on a church based on visiting a single service. we plan to attend each of the churches we've visited at least one more time. There are things that can be out of place during the first visit- case in point- we went to a church on July 8th because the senior pastor is a former assistant of my first senior pastor (who is still a close friend). However, the pastor was out of town on vacation with his family that weekend, so what we got in the service was not a good taste. Some of it may have been normal, but obviously, the preaching was not normal.

Preaching is obviously important. A senior pastor is primarily a teacher, and teaches through the pulpit. We have been at churches in the past where the senior pastor did not challenge us. We would go for weeks without getting any kind of spiritual food in the services because he either a: dumbed it down because he thought the mental capacity of the church was not very high (a likely option, as the teens in the church would often tell us that he talked to them like they were 4 years old); or b: would preach irrelevant things from the pulpit. perhaps he felt it was challenging- which sometimes he would say he was challenged by preparing. but we were not challenged. And this led to us not paying attention during the preaching- because the one purpose of that section of the service- to be challenged, to meet with God and to grow- was not being accomplished. so the preaching, and the preacher- are important.

Now I'm also wrestling with what my place would be in a church. I have served for 3 years as youth pastor, and as worship pastor (and for a while as young adult pastor, too). i've got musical gifts, leadership gifts, a love and knack for teaching, an ability to connect with young people, and a knowledge of current ministry trends, etc. But where do I belong. it would be a shame to not use my musical talents in a church because they already have enough talented musicians- espcially with the churches that are out there that are lacking in that area. But is that where God is calling me to use my gifts right now? perhaps one of these things has been a source of pride for me and i need to sit on the sidelines for a little while until some humility can work its way in.

The bottom line with service is that TRUE service does not say "i'll do A, B or C. But do not ask me to do D, E or F- because i won't." if we are not gifted in an area, we need to trust the church to evaluate it and not ask us to work with kids if we get very frustrated with kids (or something like that). Service is not selective- it is offering our whole selves to Christ and saying "whatever you need- use me." Steven Curtis Chapman wrote an excellent song called "Whatever".

Everyone makes such a huge deal about music these days. But honestly, music may not be the real issue. We're not looking for the most recent music, or the best. One church we visited was quite large, and the music was very good from a quality standpoint. And i'm sure there were a bunch of people there that connected with it. But, i wasn't feeling it as much. maybe the new environment, coupled with the newfound freedome to actually sing harmonies again... Mix that together and make me feeling a little abnormal anyway (again, a good reason to visit a couple times). What music boils down to is that it's the most common way the Church in America does "worship". what is more important that music or styles is the heart behind it- the worship of our lives and of the lives of those around us. that's what's important about music. at least, for us it is.

Community. The early Church was all about this- not simply having "faith", but sharing that faith together and living that faith together. Rachel and I discussed this with some friends of ours a few weeks ago. The guy was saing that church is supposed to be about meeting with God and too many churches only go to meet with one another. I got the impression he'd rather go, worship, hear a message and leave. Those are two extremes- either there for God or for ourselves. The truth is a middle ground- our faith is about God and our worship gatherings should be about Him, but we are not alone! the people that we see, the people we attend church with, the people in our Bible study, the prayer meeting at school- whatever. that's our community. And to try and "do" faith or life without these people is simply ludicrous.

I had a community of friends even before i realized to call it community. Friends at school- we prayed together every morning before school. friends in youth group- we met weekly, but hung out together, shared our faith with friends together and were quite close. I went to a men's prayer group- these men became more than just other Christians- they became mentors to me. Men whom i felt were living examples of Christ to me, but also men whose lives i could model mine after because their faith was an important part of their lives. God's plan for us is not going solo- it's to live our faith in community with others. This is a VERY important part of what we feel God has laid on our hearts for finding a new church home.

and drawing a blank on another thing to put here that we are wrestling with, i will add this little tidbit. We are praying about going on the mission field. Right now, just praying about it- i don't want it to be simply reactionary to being fed up with church ministry in the US now becasue of having been burned by my last two churches. But God has given us both hearts for wholistic missions that are beneficial to the people we're trying to serve and go against some of the traditional, but outdated ideas of missions. However, we're praying about what direction that will mean for us. And that's huge in finding a new church, too- if we're going to prepare to be on the mission field, we want to find a home church that will be able to support us in that. We will plug into the church while we are there and hope for them to invest in us when our time there is up and we go on the field.

anyway- not sure how to end this, so i'll just say... you've just read the articulated version of just a fraction of what we are going through in trying to discern God's will for our church home for this next step in our lives.

What Bothers Me About the Church in America

For the last two Sunday mornings, and for who knows how many Sundays in the future, Rachel and I will be spending time in different churches looking for a church home. I hate this. For a couple reasons. First- it gives us this impression that finding a church is like finding the right pair of shoes. Or the right computer. There are so many options out there, all we need to find is the one that fits us. Consumerism America tells us that if we’re not happy with something, go find something else.

One of the unfortunate side effects of this process by which people find a church after re-locating is the changing of churches without re-locating due to unhappiness of some kind. I am not going to hold this discussion today of what are the good and bad reasons for leaving a church, and when is too much too much.

I’m going to have two main topics to this rambling rant, I believe. The first is the current church hopping/shopping state that we find so prevalent. Joshua Harris wrote a book called “Stop Dating the Church”, a book that I bought and found to be worthwhile reading for any Christian. It is worth reading because too many Christians are not plugged into a home church. They drift around, going from one to another. The youth ministry I worked with while in college would see kids in and out- later to find out that our youth pastors talked with other youth pastors and found the teens drifting from youth ministry to youth ministry.

God’s plan for reaching the world is the Church. Not as an institutional structure, but as a living body focused on reaching the world and discipling the believer. And ultimately, it is for the good of our own souls, argues Harris (and convincingly) that we dedicate ourselves to a single local church. I know it’s hard for so many people because instead of seeing the positive of the potential of a church, we only see the negative. It is important that we move beyond that.

I think the problem comes in looking for a church based on what it offers us. While it is important to plug into a place that you can call home, basing a church decision simply on what we can get is selfishness. Instead of what it offers us, perhaps we should look on what we can offer a church. Our talents, gifts, ideas- even our age or connections with non-believers could be a huge benefit to a church!! Not that we should feel we are saving a church of that it could not survive without us, but the call of the Gospel on our lives should be service!!

Case in point- Rachel and I visited a large church this morning. I have been in both large and small churches and know there are positives and negatives of each. But what I have found myself wondering today as we consider this church is what we may be able to offer to the church.

But ultimately, beyond what we can get or even what we can give- is God’s calling to a church! I know, though- I can hear it now- ‘how do I know if God’s calling me here?’ or even worse, someone using ‘God led me to a different church’ as a excuse when leaving a church for a less than Biblical reason. And of course, no one can argue with it because then we’re not saying that the person is wrong, we’re saying that God is wrong. So, the way we hear God is through this process of evaluating some of these more natural things we can see around us as well as discerning the Holy Spirit speaking to us.

Sometimes, we can misinterpret. Sometimes we can interpret or understand differently than others do. Rachel and I just experienced that with the church in Shippensburg where we felt led, didn’t feel a variation in the calling, yet the board felt it was not destined to be for us to be there. So, we must pull all of these things together and ultimately take a leap of faith. And when we take that leap, when we break our comfort zone, we must be willing to give it time. Just like a marriage must survive fights, disagreements and more, plugging into a church must survive doubts, unhappiness and disputes. If God has led us there, then either He must have changed His mind or led us differently if we are to leave.

I suppose this has become very long. So the second part of what I was going to talk about I will post tomorrow. But to give everyone a preview, it will deal with, for the most part, the practical things of finding a church- and the experience Rachel and I are going through in the middle of this now. Consider this the ideological or the “theological” and tomorrow I will be posting the “practical”. Stay tuned.

personally...

i don't get it, but my employment was effectively terminated tonight after 2 months due to reasons that the board was unable to quantify, at least not to me. i do not get it, nor has anyone approached me regarding these irreconcilable differences. Apparently, it's not personal- it's just that the congregation is feeling like it's not a good fit...

this leads me to my rant. i have gotten away from blogging as an output for my rants and things that bother me. back to it i come. i am so sick of the phrase "it's not pesonal". especially in this case- i can't stand it. i'm a person, it involves me- that makes it personal!! moreso, when it comes to church, the church is my life. i don't leave the "work" there at the office. and for rachel, it's what's outside of work for her. church is our lives!! and if there's something wrong there, it may not be against my personality, but it is personal because i'm a person and it's MY life that's invested. so take the it's not personal and stop using it!

i'm BACK!

yesterday(Monday- Memorial Day), Rachel and I packed our things up from her parents' house and the storage unit and moved them from Lancaster to Shippensburg!! We are so excited to be in our new place!! today comcast showed up and turned on our cable and internet, so I'm back online!! I have been dealing with unpredictable amounts of internet usage basically since moving, so i have been sporadic at blogging, myspace, e-mail, homestarrunner, askaninja, IM, and many other things. but now, i'm hooked back up. so, while no promises for more blogs, i will be around a bunch more. and hopefully flickr some photos of the new place after we get unpacked and get rid of our boxes.

anyway... long paragraph. just wanted to share all that and i hope to hear from people, and promise i'll get back more quickly now that i'm back on track.

The latest news

Hey blog readers! for those whom i've not connected with yet with the following news, I share the following. After moving back to PA from Oregon, Rachel and I met with a pastor and his wife from Shippensburg, PA. we felt good, so shortly following that meeting, we interviewed with the board of the church. they understood we wanted to spend a sunday visiting the church, but with that in mind, they wanted to offer me the job- which is a position doing the youth and worship ministries. After visiting the church on April 22, we accepted the offer and my first official sunday was this past week- April 29.

With all that in mind, Rachel and i have already done the hunting and found a place to live- which we will be moving into on June 1. However, we do have new contact information now- cell phones and address (we can begin receiving mail there immediately). For those of you who would like, leave a comment or e-mail me and I'll pass that info along (but as this is a public forum, i'm not actually posting any of it here).

So, with that, i may soon begin blogging again and sharing stuff again. then all the peopl will rejoice.

a few refelctions on being "home"

I am now in the state that I called home for more than 6 years of my life. 4 years at college and another 2 not more than an hour from college when I was at my first ministerial position. There have been a lot of things going through my head as these past few days have progressed- particularly as we joined New Hope Christian Fellowship Wednesday night- and I’m going to process them here. Some thoughts are more refined than others- and most have been bounced back and forth between Rachel and myself.

We walked into church for the holy week service, we were warmly greeted by almost everyone in the room- some of them surprised- but all of them seemed glad to have us there. A little reflection left me thinking- this is the first time in a year and a half that I’ve come to church and felt that people actually cared that I was there. And not only that, but feeling that the people who are there actually care about Rachel and I. In other words, it was the first time we had felt at home in a church in that time.

That’s kind of sad. I know that some of the people cared that we were at Grace and cared for us there. But there were not many, and most of them were teenagers, who, as much as I love them, are not very good at showing gratitude. Not our group specifically, but teenagers in general. They do not show appreciation much, so as much as I knew the cared that we were there, they did not often express that.

We also listened to some good preaching. We listened to sermons from Doug at New Hope as we drove across the country, and it was nice to hear him share a little at the service. It was not laden with nonsensical references or with a “hook” that often had little to do with the message. He was not even “preaching” per se, but he shared with us a good word regarding footwashing in particular. I noted the following to remember. Hearing Doug preach, I feel confident in my faith and, for lack of a better word, “proud” of being a Christian. Hearing my last senior pastor preach almost always made me feel ashamed of being a Christian. I felt completely edified by Doug and the way he lifts up the Body, even when chastising them, using words to encourage them and spur them on to do better. my last church, I felt belittled, berated and torn down- almost trying to tell us how terrible we are in order for us to do better. similar to the way a coach will tell his athletes they are nothing to try and get more from them... except that doesn't work all that often.

Another random reflection- for as spiritually dry as I have been for this time since going to Oregon, I realized that I can fake pretty well. There will always be tell-tale symptoms, and of course, I never fooled myself or God, but after a certain point of pouring out, I had nothing left in the tank and was not being fed replenishment. I went from ministering out of overflow to ministering out of habit. And my faith and life became very dry and cracked. And yet, I kept the face up and did not let us because I was a pastor, and I already had felt as though my senior pastor, instead of encouraging me, would belittle me.

Good Friday songs for reflection

I was listening to these songs thursday night while falling asleep and found them to convey the reflections I like to make as I think upon the death and resurrection of my Savior. I wanted to share them with you and invite you to reflect on these lyrics as well.

and i know it's not Good Friday anymore- but I wasn't home to post these yesterday.

How Deep the Father's Love
How deep the Father’s love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That he would give his only Son
To make a wretch his treasure

How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns his face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon his shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from his reward
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

In Christ Alone
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This corner stone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, and strivings cease
My comforter, my all in all
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save

Till on that cross, as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
for every sin on him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

Here in the ground, his body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave he rose again

And as he stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am his and he is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from his hand
Till he returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

OR to PA (day 4- the finale)

Ok, so… Rachel and I talked last night and decided with the possibility of rain and our overwhelming feeling of “we’re so close, let’s just finish” that we had, we skipped going to Chicago. We were going to get up and get a 7amish start from the hotel, but I woke up around 4 and couldn’t sleep, and Rachel woke up, too- so we were out the door by 5 and on the road at 5:20 (after gassing up and getting McD’s breakfast). We set the clock to EST (a few hours early) to get ourselves on the same time and got going.

and... long story short, we arrived back in PA a little before 7pm EST. we were just tired and wanted to arrive here... and to be honest, i've typed myself out. not e-mailing or blogging for a few days. note how short this is- i've typed all these days, i've also done a lot of typing to help process. so... yeah.

anyway- thanks for reading- after we get the PC set up, i'll post some pictures and maybe video- keep looking for it.

later, all- leave comments, messages or even phone calls- all are welcome.

OR to PA (Day 3)

4:45pm (Central Time) We welcomed Nebraska with a hearty “thank you” yesterday afternoon- leaving behind Wyoming, and hopefully, the worst of the weather related traveling delays.

For those of you who have not experienced Nebraska, you may be thankful. It is straight, flat and ultimately- purposeless in the life of the traveler. I know something about growing crops and stuff… things like that. For that, it may be “essential”, but for this purpose, worthless. For the traveler, it is empty space between you and your destination. There is very little you may actually care to see in Nebraska- perhaps the “Pony Express Station” that is off one of the exits. Or maybe one of the dozens of small towns just off the highway that probably only have any sort of business because of the highway. There are those unfortunate enough to have Nebraska as their destination- and that is a sad place to be.

Nebraska, for driving, however, was a breeze. Despite a few showers here and there along the road, we found it to be uneventful, non-picture worthy and ultimately, a 75-80mph blip on the trip-o-meter.

Now, before we left at 7am (45 minutes before crossing into Central Time), we watched the weather channel and saw some precipitation in Iowa- and the potential for some heay stuff. As we crossed over into Iowa, the clouds betrayed that prediction. They were light and speckled through the sky- leaving us in mostly sunshine weather. This could be nice, right?

Wrong. Oh so wrong! The clouds eventually darkened, and off in the distance to the north, east and south, we could see heavy rain. And eventually, we hit that. There were some areas of heavy, major rain! Lightning striking in the distance, as well. Having lived in Oregon for a year, I almost forgot that lightning storms exist! Most of the kids in our youth group had only ever seen lightning if it was really hot in the summer, and only up in the mountains. A “thunderstorm” would completely blow their minds!

I also had almost forgotten how much I love thunderstorms. They truly are an amazing display of God’s power and I revel in my Creator at the beauty of His Creation. However, I remembered how much I hate driving through heavy rain and such, too. Rachel took on the lion’s share of driving today- whereas I had driven the past 2 days straight and she would have ripped her hair out to just sit in the passenger’s seat one more day. So, at one point, she felt it necessary to stop at a rest area because she could not see the vehicles in front of her.

All of Iowa’s rest areas on I-80 are wireless hotspots. So, seeing as we could not connect to the internet last night (thank you very much Motel 6), I pulled out the laptop to check mail and look at the weather. So, getting on weather.com, I pull up the map of Iowa. There is a red outline around most of the state, signifying a “tornado watch” and I see a line of very severe storms (red, orange, yellow color on the Doppler) moving through the state. Approximately at our very location on the highway- about 50 miles outside of Des Moines. So much for leaving weather disturbances in Wyoming. At least rain, even heavy rain, doesn’t close the highway. Although the accidents that created a small traffic jam just after we returned to driving, did cause us to get off the exit and get back on the highway at that on-ramp. At least it happened between the off-ramp and on-ramp, thus allowing us to just cross the road and get back on the highway.

As I type this, the rain is bearing down on us. Not as heavy as it has been- maybe we’ve passed through the heaviest stuff. Maybe not. Maybe we’re traveling right along with it. But I do know this- each time the lightning strikes, my heart leaps. In a positive way. In the most positive way.

I realize today that I have missed REAL weather in the worst way. Living in Medford, we experienced basically two seasons, summer and winter. It drizzles and rains and is cloudy in the winter (with maybe a snowfall or two) and it is sunny and hot in the summer. There’s a little bit of in between in May and October, but it’s hardly anything to speak of. I have missed heavy downpours, spring mud, fall colors, snow- but surprisingly, not humidity! ;-)

9pm (Central Time)- we’ve stopped in Peru, IL for the night. In case Luke is reading, yes, that is the same town we stopped in on the way to Oregon. The heavy rains continued and actually got worse through a good portion of the afternoon- made it tough driving some of the way. When we got almost to the border of Iowa/Illinois, it was raining heavy. We found a weather forecast on the radio and found that we were right in the middle of some majorly heavy rain showers and tornado warnings! The clouds were wicked dark and it was just crazy. But we kept going. And eventually found our way out of the dark clouds into Illinois, where it was not raining hard.

When we arrived in Peru for the night, the guy at the counter of our hotel told us the storm we were going through was headed our way. And, sure enough- and hour after we got here, it began pouring and was totally windy. Crazy stuff…

So, we settle down for the night…

from OR to PA (day 2)

posted a day late due to not being able to get to the interenet last night... posted while we are stopped at an Iowa rest area due to heavy rain.

We shall never speak of this day again. It shall be removed from the records of history and cease to exist!!

We woke up a little before 7 in Park City today and checked the road report. Large portions of I-80 through Wyoming were closed. Updated just after 7, there were a few more. So Rachel rolled over and decided we’d check again around 9 or so to see if it’s just because it’s early morning. So, me, unable to sleep- did some internet. And around 8, I found out that all of I-80 was open and that there wasn’t supposed to be any inclement weather. I let Rachel sleep till the alarm and we got on the road around 9:45am.

That’s a pretty late start time, however, we did about 150 miles extra on Thursday, so we can wait a little. However, getting into Wyoming turned out to be the worst thing one could imagine!! The weather was a little shaky as we crossed from Utah into Wyoming and through nothing collected on the road, it slowed traffic. We got past that finally, but not before we hit 2 traffic jams, one which seemed to have no purpose and one that was because of an accident. But, we’re in the middle of nowhere- the “no reason” jam was so infuriating!! At one point, we’d done like… 200 miles in 5 hours!! Crazy!!

By the end of the state, we had hit 6 jams- with only 2 accidents and 4 seemingly reasonless. But what was bothersome on top of that were the tractor trailers. I felt almost run off the road a few times, have never used the horn more in one day before in my life and found them to be passing other tractor trailers by barely crawling by them. It happened so much and I was getting really frustrated! At one point, I even annoyed Rachel because of my muttering about the other drivers around me. We had already started late, lost a lot of time in jams and then they weren’t even allowing me to go the speed limit!!

It was so much that I almost missed a lot of the beauty of the state. I realized, however, that I had glorified Wyoming the last time I drove through. It has a lot of mountains and a LOT of beautiful stuff, but it’s still pretty bare- and 400 mile state to drive through!! And, due to the storm, everything was totally covered in snow. It was really quite beautiful.

As the day drew on, we moved our destination from North Platte, NE to just getting into Nebraska!! But, the skies cleared, the traffic thinned (thanks to no accidents or jams) and we began to make some better time. We came down out of the Rockies into Cheyenne, Wyoming’s capital. And we kept going and hit Nebraska. We thought we’d shoot for Sidney, where we stopped in Nebraska on our way West, but we passed it, still feeling in good shape and the sun not quite down yet.

We decided to shoot for Big Springs, NE- another 50 miles or so. When we got here, we found only a Motel 6 (and as I tried to connect, I found that they open their access to all the truckers who stop too, and so I, who am paying for a room, lose out because someone else who isn’t paying connected first. Actually, apparently a LOT of truckers and other connected before me- so I can’t get internet. A rough end to a VERY rough day.

Final statistics for the day:
miles, 550
time- 9 hours
Times I wanted to scream- more than a dozen!
Times Rachel and I just laughed- a couple dozen

OR to PA- the reverse! (Day 1)

Note: Luke has already archived our pictures traveling out to Oregon from Pennsylvania. We are not taking as many pictures on the trip back, although they’ll be posted shortly after arriving in PA. We are taking video, however- and will likely make something out of that, as well.

4:30am- wake up. Roll over, roll my eyes, etc. Not the most comfortable night sleep I’ve had, but… oh well. It’s on to driving now.

5:00am- we’ve gotten the bags and stuff out and are out of Dave & Kassie’s driveway on our way.

5:10am- stop at Dutch Bros drive through coffee stand for our last drive through coffee for a while. I’m not usually big on coffee, but with a long day ahead planned, I’ll take it.

5:20am- on the 5 heading south. Up over Siskiyou Summit and beyond. It’s too early, still- very dark and not even expecting to see the sun for another few hours. Rachel has brought up the SNL: commercials that I downloaded for our iPod for the trip. That will be a useful device, I’m sure.

9:10am- stop in Susanville, CA for breakfast. 230 miles gone, through the mountains of northern California. Susanville is as the base of the mountains. Last time, we saw the sun going down as we traveled on these. Today, the sun was rising up over the frost covered everything. If it was possible to be more beautiful than last time, this was the way. Absolutely amazing. Stunning.

12pm(ish)- though still having a quarter tank of gas, we decide to stop and fill up. Because it’s Nevada- and who knows when the next gas station will be! Signs literally saying “no services for 60 miles” are up everywhere.

7:45pm(Mountain Time)- we stop at Park City, Utah for the evening. The sun is just about to go down and the low gas light has been on for a few miles. So it’s time to stop. We saw a sign that I-80 is closed at Evanston- on the UT/WY border. So, I checked it out on the internet- there’s this storm going across the country that’s in Wyoming. Tomorrow, it looks as though it may be ok, but… we don’t really know. Instead of staying an extra day in Chicago, we may stay an extra day in/around Salt Lake City (and Park City).

A little more recap of the day. Nevada is just as I remembered it. These beautiful mountains that we get close to and go around, but so much flat desert. It’s a high desert running over 4,000 feet. There’s a LOT more snow on most of the mountains this time than last, but none on the ground. Which is totally cool. So, for Luke- I know why when we drove into Nevada it seemed as though we were going up and up and up forever. There are 2 summits between the UT/NV border and Wells, where we stayed the night. One of them is 5900 feet and the other is 6900. Holy Crap!

We saw, but didn’t visit, our favorite tiny town- Mill Creek, NV. Population of 29. and all of them work in the gas station/convenience store/subway/mini-casino/hotel. And the house in the middle of nowhere about a quarter mile off the highway. We saw that, too.

This time, we got to see the salt flats in Utah. They’re pretty neat to see coming down out of Nevada, but… they’re nothing too special. Also, we didn’t realize last time, but we were weaving around mountains for about 60 miles outside of Salt Lake City until getting to the flats. We also saw the Great Salt Lake- a pretty spectacular sight to see.

Well… keep checking back- I intend to keep this running daily at the end of each day. As long as the weather cooperates tomorrow, we’re going to finish Utah, get through Wyoming and hopefully into Nebraska.

i hate packing

i'm not sure that there's much more to say than that. i've been packing stuff for the past 3 weeks or so- while rachel was at work for a lot of it, but then a LOT more as the time for our travelling drew closer. i think we've got everything packed- the truck is ready to go and the car is full (it will not stay full, but i had to make sure everything we were taking in the car would fit...

now it's a matter of throwing a lot of things in the garbage, and giving a bunch of things away to goodwill or salvation army. but... grrr. i'm not liking it- i feel so exhausted. i'm glad we're taking wednesday to clean/hang out/relax. because i need to rest a little before the extra long trek ahead of us

well, suppose that's all for now- we leave thursday. be looking for the cross-country journal (and pictures- maybe even videos) of the upcoming trip.

the next step

Ok, so one more life & stories category blog for now. Wanted to let everyone know who reads this and may not already know- Rachel and I are going to be moving back to the East Coast. Pennsylvania, to be exact. At least, for the time being. We don't have too much lined up for there, but...

there is a poor job market here in Medford, and if we wait, we will not have the money necessary to move. While we've connected with some people out here, generally, we don't have too much in the line of friends and family. those who have been so for us- thanks so much! But we have a need to be back near family at this point in time.

We also need to be in a place where we can heal and hear from God, and unfortunately, here is not a place for us at this point. we don't have a church, and only have a few close friends.

beyond that, being on the East Coast will allow for better job searching in churches and such.

There are a number of reasons that have led us to this decision, some of which i've noted, some of which i haven't. but after some consideration and prayer, we believe this is the direction we're feeling led now.

thanks to all for your prayers, love and support! We're going to be moving at the end of this month- probably around March 28th.

feel free to ask any questions or anything. and... yeah.

San Francisco Weekend- the pictures

enjoy!


Rachel and I on the boat to Alcatraz.


island of Alcatraz


Dave & Kassie on Alcatraz


cool tree on the walkway up to the prison


cell block


City of SF from Alcatraz


Hard Rock Cafe for dinner


BB King- excellent


Beatles, anyone?


Rachel and Sonia


Driving down Lombard


Golden Gate Bridge

you can click here for the full photoset. Also, stay tuned on my youtube for a video from the weekend.

San Francisco Weekend- Day 3

The end of the Road, and the “must-see” of Frisco.
First off, early in the morning I awoke. We didn’t have early tickets to anything on Sunday morning, but I just couldn’t sleep. It could have everything to do with the fact that our rooms were not very large and not well ventilated. AKA- the ceiling fan that’s supposed to cool the room down- doesn’t actually work. I mean, at least it gets a breeze going, but it’s still really warm in there. Don’t get me wrong, though- we paid $65/night for this hotel that is right in downtown San Francisco. And on the weekend of the Chinese New Year parade.

I took an absolutely frigid shower at the hotel. The hot water was somehow off for our floor when we got to showering. It reminded me very much of my Ukraine experiences when there was no hot water and I showered for weeks in cold water. Ice cold water. Apparently, I was the only one brave enough to actually step into a cold stream of water. Everyone else did “bucket” style showers.

We left the hotel at a good time, giving us time to do a couple things without needing to feel rushed. Those couple things may be obvious now, as you’re asking yourself where was our Golden Gate Bridge trip. And on the way out there, we decided it was time to DRIVE down Lombard St. It was a fun experience, and not as hard as one might think. It’s fun to drive down, but Rachel hopped out to take pictures of us going down.

We next followed our noses out to the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s really cool- and fun to drive across. But, to be honest, the Bay Bridge is much longer, though certainly not as cool. Because it’s a suspension bridge, and due to the need to withstand heavy winds off the ocean, it has the ability to horizontally shift up to 27 feet to keep it from collapsing. That’s totally cool. And the huge wires that hold up the supports and all- 36 ½ inches around, I think. Majorly huge.

So, after going across, and going back across for the fun of it, we decided that it was time for us to head home. So we head back into San Fran, only following our logical sense thoughts to get back to I-80 to head toward Sacramento. Reminder here- we haven’t had breakfast yet, or coffee, or anything. So, as we get out of San Fran and pass Oakland, we stopped in Berkley to go to Denny’s.

Continuing on after breakfast, it’s a rather uneventful drive back. We saw the Del Taco/KFC again. And one of the coolest things was seeing this sign that we were not able to get a picture of. It is a miles-to sign- telling us that Ocean City, MD is 3073 miles away. Ocean City is where Rachel and I have gone to the beach before when we lived in PA. Check our pictures here and here.

Our conversation on the drive back ranged from so many different topics. At one point, it was discussed that urine can smell like coffee if nothing else is in the bladder. Funny part- hours later, Rachel is sharing about a social worker friend of hers who has one client family that doesn’t brush their teeth because they believe it to be a conspiracy. When asked about it, Rachel said, “oh, well, this is also the family that drinks their own pee.” And me, the comedian I am, answer the obvious question of “why” with, “because it smells like coffee!”

Overall, the weekend was excellent! We had a wonderful time, and got to spend some really good time with friends that we will be all too soon leaving. Anyone with the chance, find your way to Frisco. It’s a great place, with lots of fun things to see- and of course, way too much to do in just one weekend.

And as I close out this series of blogs, I really want to do this: here’s a list of what I can think of in television shows and movies that take place in San Francisco. I would love to entertain comments of other things missing from the list, or corrections on things, too.

- Big Trouble in Little China- great Kurt Russell movie. And, as I watched it again for the first time since I was young, I discovered that this movie had “Matrix” style moves way before “The Matrix” ever came out. I guess one less thing they’re original on…

- Full House- “what ever happened to predictability? The milk man, the paper-boy, and evening TV…”

- The Rock- of course. Connery, Cage- what more do you need to make a movie work?

- (Rachel, Dave and Kassie all seem to agree that this one is in SF) Who Framed Roger Rabbit- I remember something about the RedCar (trolley) being dismantled…

- So I Married an Axe Murder- “woman, wo- man. Wooooah- MAN”

- Mrs. Doubtfire- “see that Nattie- that’s called liposuction.” The classic “Dad dressed like a woman just to be a part of his kid’s lives but then his older kids find out and can’t tell the younger one and it all blows up in a restaurant when he’s supposed to be himself and the woman at the same time, but gets a little drunk and forgets himself and ultimately ends up all coming back in his face type” of story

- The Parent Trap- is primarily based in the California Wine Country- which is the Frisco area.

- Just Like Heaven- one of Rachel’s new favorite movies.

I’m sure there are more. Help me out, people!!! Also, bonus points for anyone going back to see how many different terms I use to refer to San Francisco. And super-bonus points if anyone knows of any variations that I have NOT used.

Thanks for reading my running commentary. I’ll get back to some of my ranting and hopefully get some thoughts relating to spirituality or something out soon.

San Francisco Weekend- Day 2 (part 2)

End of the day:

Midnight+: This is the 3^rd blog. So apparently, this will be a 4 blog set. It’s another late night now. We’ve been out late doing what we do best- hanging out with people and just loving on them and being real. But I’ll get to that soon.

This morning, as Rachel and I ate breakfast, we saw these couple people go by- in wheelchairs. They were talking on cell phones and, funnily enough- using their legs and feet to move themselves up and down the street. Later, as we went out to shop before dinner, we saw the one guy sitting there begging for money.

Other random thought- Rachel and Kassie found themselves resisting the biggest temptation a girl will ever face- looking down the loaded barrel of a Louis Vuiton Store and not spending any money (or even asking to).

So, we left the hotel to go shopping before dinner, except we really didn’t plan on spending money. Just going into stores we didn’t have in Medford and enjoying being in a city. But after a little while of that, we decided to try and catch a cab to the Wharf where we intended to eat dinner. Honestly, the gene that allows people to catch a cab- it’s not in either Rachel or me. She may love cities, but we can never live in or near one because we can’t catch a cab to save our lives. We spent a half hour in NYC on our honeymoon trying to catch one. We spent a good half hour walking around- heading toward Fisherman’s Wharf in order to be closer when we caught one. But, man, it was so hard to get one. The whole “Chinese New Year” parade. Which, by the way, I did find out the Chinese New Year wasn’t this weekend- they just had the parade today.

Decided to do dinner at the Hard Rock Café. Good decision- I’ve never been to one before. Despite having been in a number of cities in my life, I’ve never been to one of these before. A few funny anecdotes from all this- we sat in a table underneath a hat that had belonged to Michael Jackson. Very funny for us for a number of inside joke type reasons. Near us was a jacket once worn by Sting. Eddie Van Halen had signed a guitar for this Hard Rock. They had a guitar signed by Journey, which was amusing because I’ve had the song “Don’t Stop Believing” in my head most of this weekend- and singing it out doesn’t actually relieve me of having it in my head. Sometimes, it intensifies it. Finally, a guitar signed by George Harrison. Good stuff, good stuff.

Dave and Kassie headed off to spend some time together and Rachel and I headed down the street to meet and old friend of Rachel’s from YWAM- Cheesecake. Explanation- this girl’s name is Sonia. Middle name Lee. Sonia Lee. Very similar to Sarah Lee- aka- Sarah Lee cheesecake. So she gets called “Cheesecake”. This is very similar to the girl who decided I get to be named “Grape juice” because my last name is Walsh- similar to Welch. And Welch’s makes grape juice.

So we just walked around for a while, sat down outside for a while talking. But we decided it was getting kinda chilly, so we walked around a little more trying to find a nice little café type place to sit down. We found one, after putting out names in at the Rain Forest Café’s waiting list. And apparently, while Rachel and Sonia were standing in line waiting to get coffee and I was resting my legs and feet, Rachel mentioned something about Family Guy and the Simpsons. And for some reason, that made a huge difference in the direction of the conversation, and, ultimately, the night.

See, apparently, she had not been saying much and watching what she said because she didn’t want to offend a “pastor”. And those of you who know me know I’m not the type of guy to get really offended at stuff and I realize that if people are going to offend me, I’ll have to deal with it if I care about that person at all. So, anyway, finding out from her that hearing I’m a real person who’s not an uber-conservative went a long way toward us just being able to have real conversation among the three of us and not just have trivial small-talk that so often pervades conversations of people who get together to “catch-up.”

She becomes the second person in a short span of time to tell me if I were the pastor of a church, they’d be there in a heartbeat. It’s good to hear things like this sometimes, especially after having received really “beat-me-up” comments from someone recently that have gone the contrary to that. It doesn’t matter who says it, hurtful things that are said still hurt people- surprise. So hearing things like this from the people who I would want to reach with the Gospel or have as a core of people means a lot.

However, not to be the only one receiving encouragement, after having talked to Sonia, she shares with us what an encouragement it is to have spent time with us because we’re not very conservative, and neither is she, but she lives with 3 roommates who are super-conservatives and so she has a hard time being herself around them without feeling judged. So we feel as though we’ve had a really good night, and though it’s really late arrival again, it’s been a good day. Long day- and very eventful, but very good.

San Francisco Weekend- Day 2 (part 1)

3:00pm- “Gentlemen, welcome to The Rock!” Woke up at 7am so that we could head out at 8:30 to reach our destination of the early-bird Alcatraz tour (9:30). We found that our hotel has short shower heads, a small shower and a very small continental breakfast. Muffins and bread for toast, juice and coffee were the options. So Rachel and I went next door to the coffee shop and enjoyed breakfast sandwiches.

We took a quick walk down the street to one of the trolley-car depots in town that would take us down to Fisherman’s Wharf. As we turned on Powell St, we saw bleachers set up and signs for the Chinese New Year parade. I thought that usually happened in February, but apparently the first weekend of March is it this year. We discover that the trolley just down the street from the hotel is shutting down at from 3-9:30pm. So apparently we don’t take that trolley back to the hotel if we need to get back between then.

The trolley ride is, of course, one of the things everyone must do when in San Fran. It’s one of those things that are famous. And this trolley ride took us right beside the famous Lombard Street. Presque Isle, Maine has its own Lombard Street. It’s a steep street on the northeast side of town. But it’s not curvy. And not THAT steep. Until I was in high school, I didn’t realize that street got its name from the famous one in SF. And, I think my earliest recollection of Lombard here is seeing it in the original Tony Hawk’s pro skater- and if you can get going fast enough, you can get a sweet combo for just jumping all the way down Lombard.

Back to Lombard in real life, it’s early in the morning, so nobody’s trying their luck getting down the street. If anyone wants to, this is likely the only chance you’ll get to try the street without a dozen cars in front of and behind you, thus keeping you from moving down the street very well.

I thought the trolley would let us off a little closer to Fisherman’s Wharf as it had that name right on the trolley. But it was a little hike for us to get to pier 43. But we were looking for Pier 33. It’s already 9:10 and we’ve got another good hike to the pier. I was walking fast- a good dozen strides ahead of the rest of them. I was reminded of being in Boy Scouts and how my step-father and one of the other scout leaders were fast hikers and walkers. It’s not that we couldn’t keep up with them, we just didn’t because we weren’t fast walkers as they are.

5 minutes before we needed to be there, Rachel asked what time it was and the answer made us hurry up. Reaching into her purse for our pre-paid, pre-printed tickets, we almost ran in order to get to the Alcatraz ferry. It’s 9:29- an easy 30 seconds to spare. No worries! Feeling fortunate to have even pre-printed the tickets so we didn’t have to stop at the window, we moved to the lower level, front of the boat and enjoyed the cool breezes coming off the bay.

Alcatraz is one of the coolest things you could possibly do in San Francisco. There are lots of “tours” that will take you by the island and let you see it, but only one ferry that will take you to the island (which is a national park) and let you walk around. It’s a lot of sloped roadways and stuff to get up to the prison and to different areas of the island (surprise, surprise- sloped roads in San Francisco). They have a decent video that has been produced by Discovery Channel for people to view.

No, they don’t actually show “The Rock”, but they do let you go into and through the prison block. It’s not like in “So I Married an Axe Murderer” where the Rangers escort all the tours (and certainly not having Phil Hartman referring to “Machine Gun” Kelly)- they now have audio tours (reminiscent of the audio tours at the famous castles I saw in Scotland) that will take you through the prison. It was very thorough and really cool. The Rangers do offer alternative types of… well, for lack of a better term, classes. More specialized types of tours of Alcatraz- stuff like “escape from Alcatraz” and things like that.

Anyway, after having had our fill of the whole island, prison and more, we got on the 12:15 ferry back to the “mainland”. As we got back to pier, we headed back to Pier 39, one of the more loaded piers with stuff at Fisherman’s Wharf, for a quick bite. We decided it that we would walk around and enjoy some of this stuff there while we were there. Just as we got back, Rachel had called her friend who lives in SF and made plans to meet her at Pier 39 this evening. And we’re planning on going there for dinner, as well.

There were lots of fun stores to look in and see cool stuff. I was totally taken by this one store Rachel and I went into- Field of Dreams. It’s got some amazing sports memorabilia- signed photos, framed photos, signed baseballs, and lots of other fun stuff. On the way in the door, I notice this large picture of the World Series Champion 2004 Boston Red Sox- signed. I figure, it’s gotta be just a copy or something, because, after all, the price tag only says $51.99. We look around- they’ve got signed Ted Williams stuff, non-signed less expensive stuff, but finally, at the prodding of the salesman, I’ve gotten the ok and decide to spend $52 bucks on something for my office wall. Well, just as we’re getting it to the check-out, Rachel notices that there’s no decimal in the price we had seen. That’s right, $5200. Oops- that’s just a small error on our part- sorry, we can’t afford that.

Feeling like a complete stooge and idiot, I decide it’s time to leave so that my embarrassment can subside some. As we leave, we met back up with Dave & Kassie and decide it’s time to head back to hotel for a little afternoon down time. Rachel’s feet are sore and we’ve still got a little hike back to the trolley. But as we get back to the trolley station, there’s a HUGE line. I mean, probably a half dozen trolley cars packed full worth of people ahead of us. After standing for about 15 minutes, we decide that it doesn’t matter if we got the all day trolley pass; we’re going to get a taxi. Because it’s not worth waiting in line, and in a half hour, they’re shutting down that line of the trolley.

By now, we’re all quite warm. Sitting in the sun, no breeze cuz the harbor is a few blocks away. I’ve donned my Red Sox cap since before the pier experience. And we’re all hot, a little sweaty and feeling kinda gross now. So, we leave the trolley station in search of an empty taxi. Finally finding one, we get a nice, albeit terrifying (going up and down the steep streets in a cab) drive back to the hotel.

Rachel is almost dehydrated, having eaten very little and had even less to drink. Dave is also quite tired- ready for a break. So, we grab some of our grub and eat, and drink and try to recoup a little before dinner and then hanging out with Rachel’s YWAM friend tonight.