Thanksgiving Outreach

My kind of choir...

It gets really good at about the 3:20 mark...

Did you vote?

I did. I got to City Hall just as Sarah was leaving. All the news people were just starting to pack up. While I was waiting in line, 4 or 5 Secret Service guys came out of a side room.
After watching the video on CNN of Governor Palin voting, I realized that I used the same voting both as her... I'll bet we voted the same way on at least one of the candidates.

Best song, ever...

Wasilla Assembly of God 2008 Coat Outreach

Here it is... The video from our annual Fall Coat Give Away... Shane Nelson was the master video creator on this one.

Goodbye fall, hello winter...

Snow!!

It was snowing this afternoon!! Nothing stuck, but it was coming down for at least a half hour... I'd better get our plowing contract signed and faxed off!

Can you see what day we became famous?

Two posts in one day...

I'm on fire!! But, I just took a look at the stats for our churches' website. Good or bad, we've gotten some attention. Take a look...



Average hits for August, 348 a day. Average hits in September, 9964.

Why I live here....

I woke up to a beautiful fall day in Alaska... I was going to dig up a camera take a picture, but the Frontiersman did it for me...

Long time, no post....

Life has been a little crazy since the last post. Governor Palin's announcement turned our little town into a media circus. And since she once attended church here, it's been crazy. You would not believe the things that have been written about us. We've gotten some nasty emails. Oh well, if there are people out there that are seriously that in need of a life, let them have their fun. Most of them probably live in their mom's basement.
It's a beautiful fall day. Yesterday we went a wedding at a friends house. Let me see if I can get a pic up here...

I love these commercials

Things to not say...

Things You Don't Say To Your Wife - Watch more free videos

An outside view...

Thank God the mice are safe...

POTTER VALLEY, Calif. — A Mendocino County woman who was trying to kill mice in her trailer with a gun ended up shooting herself and another person.

The 43-year-old woman pulled out her .44-caliber Magnum revolver after she saw the mice scurrying across the floor of her trailer on Highway 20 in Potter Valley, sheriff's officials said.

But she accidentally dropped the gun, which went off as it struck the floor. The bullet went through the woman's kneecap, bounced off the keys sitting on the belt loop of a 42-year-old man in the trailer and grazed the man's groin before ending up in his coin pocket.

Authorities did not release the shooting victims' names.

The mice escaped the shooting unharmed.

Someone is NOT having a good day...

A cruise ship that went aground in Glacier Bay. Bummer. Read the story...

Heroes...

This video is from a church we work with in Big Lake. They are doing incredible stuff to reach their area. They aren't big, but they are doing HUGE things...

They found a cure...

For dad...

I love You Tube...

Poor kid...

A great quote...

A quote from a blog I had never read before:

The Church was not commissioned by Christ to meet your needs. You ARE the Church, and you've been commissioned to meet the needs of the world.

Because percussion is cool

New Airline Rules

NEW AIRLINE RULES

Attendant: Welcome aboard Ala Carte Air, sir. May I see your ticket?

Passenger: Sure.

Attendant: You're in seat 12B. That will be $5, please!

Passenger: What for?

Attendant: For telling you where to sit.

Passenger: But I already knew where to sit.

Attendant: Nevertheless, we are now charging a seat locator fee of $5. It's the airline's new policy.

Passenger: That's the craziest thing I ever heard. I won't pay it.

Attendant: Sir, do you want a seat on this flight, or not?

Passenger: Yes, yes. All right, I'll pay. But the airline is going to hear about this.

Attendant: Thank you. My goodness, your carry-on bag looks heavy. Would you like me to stow it in the overhead compartment for you?

Passenger: That would be swell, thanks.

Attendant: No problem. Up we go, and done! That will be $10, please.

Passenger: What?

Attendant: The airline now charges a $10 carry-on assistance fee.

Passenger: This is extortion. I won't stand for it.

Attendant: Actually, you're right, you can't stand. You need to sit, and fasten your seat belt. We're about to push back from the gate. But, first I need that $10.

Passenger: No way!

Attendant: Sir, if you don't comply, I will be forced to call the air marshal. And you really don't want me to do that.

Passenger: Why not? Is he going to shoot me?

Attendant: No, but there's a $50 air-marshal hailing fee.

Passenger: Oh, all right, here, take the $10. I can't believe this.

Attendant: Thank you for your cooperation, sir. Is there anything else I can do for you?

Passenger: Yes. It's stuffy in here, and my overhead fan doesn't seem to work. Can you fix it?

Attendant: Your overhead fan is not broken, sir. Just insert two quarters into the overhead coin slot for the first five minutes.

Passenger: The airline is charging me for cabin air?

Attendant: Of course not, sir. Stagnant cabin air is provided free of charge. It's the circulating air that costs 50 cents.

Passenger: I don't have any quarters. Can you make change for a dollar?

Attendant: Certainly, sir! Here you go!

Passenger: But you've given me only three quarters for my dollar.

Attendant: Yes, there's a change making fee of 25 cents.

Passenger: For cryin' out loud. All I have left is a lousy quarter? What the heck can I do with this?

Attendant: Hang onto it. You'll need it later for the lavatory.

A letter from Grandma

HONK IF YOU LOVE JESUS

Got a letter from Grandma the other day. She writes...

The other day I went up to a local Christian bookstore and saw a "Honk if you love Jesus" bumper sticker.

I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting, so I bought the sticker and put it on my bumper.

Boy, I'm glad I did! What an uplifting experience that followed!

I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, just lost in thought about the Lord and how good He is... and I didn't notice that the light had changed.

It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus because if he hadn't honked, I'd never have noticed!

I found that LOTS of people love Jesus! Why, while I was sitting there, the guy behind started honking like crazy, and then he leaned out of his window and screamed, "For the love of GOD! GO! GO! Jesus Christ, GO!"

What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus! Everyone started honking!

I just leaned out of my window and started waving and smiling at all these loving people. I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love!

There must have been a man from Florida back there because I heard him yelling something about a "sunny beach"...

I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air.

Then I asked my teenage grandson in the back seat what that meant, he said that it was probably a Hawaiian good luck sign or something. Well, I've never met anyone from Hawaii, so I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign back.

My grandson burst out laughing...why, even he was enjoying this religious experience!

A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking towards me. I bet they wanted to pray or ask what church I attended, but this is when I noticed the light had changed.

So, I waved to all my sisters and brothers grinning, and drove on through the intersection. I noticed I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again and I felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared, so I slowed the car down, leaned out of the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good luck sign one last time as I drove away.

Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks!

Grandma

Why we love Bill...

Here's Bill tearing it up on a new set of drums... For those that don't know Bill, he's a friend of ours who is a Native American minister and a crazy drummer.

2008 Shoe Outreach...

Okay, we just got the video up, and this is the first place it's publicly available...

Stupid Al Gore...

He may have invented the internet, but his global warming idea is a bust. Proof in point: Wednesday and Thursday: 60 degrees. Friday: One foot of new snow. On April 25th.
So, now where did I store the snow shovels...

Lazy dog...

A rough day for Kermit

Turtles who try...

The little turtle climbs the tree very slowly, very painfully. Then she crawls along a branch, to the very end, and when she finally gets to the edge, she jumps. And she falls. But she doesn't get discouraged.

So she walks to the tree, she climbs the tree, she crawls along the branch, she gets to the edge, and she jumps. And falls to the ground.

Again, with a stubborn look in her face, the little turtle walks slowly to the tree, she climbs the tree, she crawls along the branch, she gets to the edge, and she jumps. And falls.

In a nearby tree a couple of pigeons are looking at the little turtle. Walk, climb, crawl, jump. Fall. And all over again.

After a while one of the pigeons ask the other, "Hey honey, don't you think its time we tell her that she's adopted?"

Can you spot the mistake?

Can you spot the mistake?

Easter...

Wow... We had a great Easter. Simply awesome!!
You can read the report here...
And you can view some pretty snazzy photos here...

Here's one of them for now...

Too much time on your hands...

I found this on Tim Steven's blog...

How to fit in...

I found this on the MMI blog...

Shine On...

Christy found this video, and I thought it was kinda neat... Enjoy!

Home!!

After 3 weeks on the road, I'm home. The first week was in Los Angeles with the MC on a missions trip to the Dream Center.
Two weeks of it was in Vero Beach, Florida, staying at the beautiful Vero Beach Inn. It was awesome being directly on the beach. We were there for Pastoral Staff planning summit, and it was very fruitful. We also participated in the Encounter Retreat offered by Central A/G.
This retreat was especially great because our wives joined us for the last half.
We watched the lunar eclipse from the beach, and saw the Space Shuttle streak by as it headed for a landing at the Kennedy Space Center.
On the trip home I got to spend an hour or so with Mom, Dad, Tycen, Sonja, and Levi in Seattle.
But, it's great to be home!

Wow.... Simply wow....

So, I'm in LA with our Master's Commission. I've been wanting to blog nightly, but we've gotten in so stinkin' late each night that it just was not happening.
We are down here with the Dream Center doing a short term missions trip. Basically we just plug into their regular ministries. They do crazy stuff. Today we want on Food Ministry to Compton/Watts. This is where the rights happened in '91. We pull up in a box van FULL of food and start handing it out. On the other side of the street from where we were set up is some flowers on the curb. The locals told us that they are there in honor of the young man gunned down at that spot earlier in the week. Our team leader, Alfred tells us if we hear shooting, just hop in the van or get down. Great advice. My team decided if it happened, they'd hide behind the biggest object, and then looked at me...
So, tonight is the regular mid-week service at the Angelus Temple. The worship is just awesome. They do announcements, and offering. I've been to Phoenix First a lot, so that all fit what I expected. So then Pastor Matthew gets up at says tonight they have a special guest, which they do most Thursdays. Now there's a guy I've totally been wanting to hear named Perry Noble. I've been following his blog for about a year now, and listen to his sermons online. His church is just ripping it up, growing from small bible study to over 13,000 people this Christmas. They had 400 people get saved in one weekend recently. They have a big conference coming up in March that I would kill to go to.
So Pastor Matthew says their special guest was recently named one of the top 15 young ministers in America. I'm thinking "Hmm... Perry Noble was just named one of the top 15 young minsters in America." Then Pastor Matthew says he preached at this special guest's church recently and they gave a great offering to the Dream Center. I'm thinking "Hmm... Pastor Matthew recently preached at Perry Noble's church and they gave a great offering to the Dream Center."
Then Pastor Matthew says tonight's special guest is from Anderson, South Carolina. I'm thinking "Hmm... Perry Noble is from Anderson, South Carolina." Then Pastor Matthew says let's give a big welcome to PERRY NOBLE. I'm freakin' out. It's PERRY flippin' NOBLE!! If you'd had asked me to name the one person I'd kill to hear, it would be Perry Noble. And now he's 40 feet away from me. And I didn't have to kill anyone to make it happen!

• Round trip ticket to LA: $610
• Short term missions trip for 3 days at the Dream Center: $30
• Seeing Perry Noble live: priceless
  

Viva la difference...

Here's the weather in Wasilla today....


Good thing I'm in Los Angeles, where it looks like this...

Brrr....

A screen shot from this morning...

At least it wasn't bees...

So, back in August, I blogged about our run in with bees while out geocaching. We haven't done much caching since then. Partly because of the bees, partly because life got really busy.
Since the temperature got up to zero today, we decided it would be a good day to finally get back into it.
So, the first cache was great. It's on an island in the middle of the lake. Since it's winter, the lake is frozen over, so we drove right to it. The next two caches were just as fun.
Then we get to what will be our fourth cache of the day. I don't really care for the location, we had to walk 500 feet along a very busy highway, trudging through the snow. We are right on the bank of Wasilla Lake, a few feet from the outflow. Because the outflow is squeezed through a culvert under the highway, the faster moving water doesn't freeze. I figured we were far enough away, that we'd be okay.
The good news is the water was only a few feet deep. The bad news is it was below zero out, and we were separated from the truck by 500 feet of snow.
In reality though, having all ten toes is overrated...

A sure sign of global warming...

The danger of making assumptions...

This story is one of the funniest, yet at the same time saddest, stories I've heard in a while...
According to FOXNews.com, a lady sees a help wanted in the paper, describing a job a lot like hers, with her bosses' phone listed as the contact. She figures he's trying to secretly replace her. So, she goes in to the office (it's an architectural place) and deletes 7 years worth of drawings and blueprints, representing about 2.5 million dollars worth of work. Way to stick it to the man!!
Problem is, the job listing was put in the paper by the bosses' wife, looking to hire someone for her separate company. Oops!
So, the lady has now been arrested for destruction of property greater that $1000, and she's been fired.
See what happens when you make an assumption...

We're famous!!! Or, at least no longer unknown...

One of my favorite new blogs is GoodURLBadURL.com. They examine how people and companies present their URL's. I was curious to see what he thought of how I was doing things, so I sent him a copy of our logo with our URL. Based on his feedback, we made a subtle change that has a definite impact. Take a look at his post on WasillaAG.org.

12 years...

Last Saturday marked 12 years since I moved to Wasilla. It's the longest I've ever lived in any one place. We moved around a lot when I was a kid. Dad was wanted by the law, so we had to stay on the run.
Just kidding... That would've been cool, though...

Hmm... Too close to home...

I just read a great post on a blog I've not been to before... The title is " You know your not leading when..." Some of them hit too close to home:

• You spend too much time talking about how things should be different
• You blame the context, surroundings, or other people for your current situation
• You procrastinate to avoid making a tough call

And there's one that drives me nuts when other people do it:

• You talk to others about the problem rather than taking it to the person responsible

You can read the full post here...

Great Quote...

I heard a great quote from Perry Noble today: "Christians are way too obsessed about the behavior of people who don't know Christ."
Why are we surprised that heathens act like heathens? What should bother us is when Christians act like heathens.

A sneak peak...

Here's a sneak peak at the 2007 Summary Video we'll be showing tomorrow...

Yep...