Must I be a Leader?

I was just listening to a sermon about spiritual gifts, during which the preacher loudly proclaimed that people are not leaders without followers. I heard him say that and I thought to myself, "I must not have the spiritual gift of leadership."

So the sermon ended, I finished my video game and there was an electronic message waiting for me, directing me to this page.

Perhaps I am a leader after all. Why don't you go ahead and comment on that (just click on the radial button labled anonymous if you have no acceptable digital identity)?

Ammendment: Here is another new blog, one which may or may not have anything to do with me.

Yet Another Wedding

This is kind of funny; I am sitting here inside of the Silverdale Public Library, trying to download a sermon (which is coming very slowly) and until just a minute ago, I was watching a dressed and tagged member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints read comic books. Isn't that interesting?

I attended yet another wedding on Saturday, August 26th in Bellingham WA. Bellingham is located nearly 17 miles south of the borderline between Washington and British Columbia. This wedding had been a long time in coming. I think that there were some who thought so five years ago, even so, I do not think that the groom had been negligent.

This wedding was much more expensive, but not much larger than the wedding which I attended on the preceding weekend. Unlike another large, expensive wedding I attended years ago, the expense of this wedding was appreciable. I think that the reason that this wedding was so appreciable was the engineering; the church building was more than large enough to accommodate the attendants and the reception area was landscaped very well with appropriately located trees and patios and grass and restrooms. The temperature was perfect also. There was dancing and music and food and some of us were halfway expecting Jesus Himself to walk along and join us all!

More Reflection on my trip to Brandon's Wedding

Well, I have finally decided to change my template because a very sharp and somewhat educated individual was unable to find the speech link in my last posting due to a lack of contrast. I do like the darker colored template better, but like I always (sometimes) say, "Functionality before style."

I remembered more stuff regarding Brandon's Wedding, so I have decided to type it here.

Sometime after I arrived in Spokanistan, Brandon let me help him out with his to-do list, which included some dinky little things like replacing pots and pans which he had earlier damaged with excessive heat.

He also had me drive him and this kid that he had been ministering to to the social security office. This kid had been named Allan. Allan needed to go to the social security office because he needed to get a social security card because he needed to be able to get a job. Brandon informed me that lots of kids could be working but are too lazy to get off of their rears and get jobs, but because of particular ministries, Alan was trying to do so, and I think that Brandon was right. Allan looked as though he had been born in the US and I was right. The problem was that his parents either could not or would not locate his social security card for him even though they had been keeping it for him since he was born. When I found out about that I decided to be thankful that my parents were able to keep track of things like that because if they hadn't, I would probably be just like Allan; hanging around some neighborhood in Spokanistan, and maybe, just maybe being ministered to by two young single guys. Instead, I get to do the ministering. Unfortunately, the social security office seemed to be giving Allan the royal runaround and he was not able to get his social security card even though it was his second trip there that day. So thank you Jesus that my parents were as organized as they were. If you want to read more good things about my parents, be sure to read my posting about my parents.

Oh, my digital camera has been found and I decided to just replace my cellular telephone battery charger because it was about shot anyways. I got one from radio shack that is supposed to work on other cellular telephones which may be economically helpful for to me after the cellular telephone that I have becomes worn out. As a result of my camera being found, I have begun dialogue with the people that found it, which is quite nice, so perhaps really am quite happy about the whole thing!

I got to be the Best Man

I spent Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday on the wedding of my friend Brandon in Spokanistan. He is the same Brandon from far away that you may have read about in my last entry. Soon he will be even further away because he is on his way to Boston. I won't go on and on about how I know him because you can read a bit about that in the notes that I wrote for the speech that I was privileged to deliver as Brandon's best man.

As I typed, I arrived on Wednesday, at about 11 in the morning. I got up early because I woke up early and had packed everything on the previous evening. After I arrived, Brandon and I went over to see Virgiliana who had been sleeping, but seemed to be happy to see us anyway and we argued about whether DVDs are really better than VHS videos (which I am sure that they are). We all went out shopping for a suit for me. I think that it was on Wednesday night that we watched the first two thirds of Fiddler on the Roof.

On Thursday morning, Brandon's bachelor party was held, which consisted of me and Randy and Brandon playing minigolf and frisbee and wandering around Spokane, although we did spend a few minutes talking about how Driscoll got kicked off of a particular radio show for failing to condemn oral sex as unchristian because he interprets Song of Solomon as encouraging it. We finished off that day with Virgiliana's family in the Mead area. I tasted my first wine there and then.

On Friday there was a little rehearsal and a big pizza dinner, none of which I should have eaten. Fortunately, the only thing that I did eat was one bread stick, so things could have been worse. After Brandon arrived at his house (which he had also opened to me), he felt somehow unhappy about all of the people who had arrived and decided that he needed to chill. Somehow or other he decided that we should have a devotional time instead of a beer drinking time, so that is what we had. It seemed to make him feel better, but that is probably because Jesus made him forget all about how miserable he was. Oh, Brandon would also want me to point out that his feet were quite warm the whole time.

On Saturday I felt sick, but I arose and used the internet to help me tie my own tie all by myself for the very first time. I haven't done it enough times to remember how to do it yet.

Brandon's other groomsman named Devin arrived and we all sort of headed off to church, which was half a block away. Two cute little girls from across the street kept coming over and asking if the wedding had started yet and I had to keep telling them that I hoped that it had not because I was not supposed to miss it.

I was somewhat distressed when I saw the color of the dress of the bride until the groom explained to me that it was a traditional Chinese wedding gown and that it had nothing to do with any lack of redemption, justification, sanctification, or expiation. On top of all that, it is very aesthetically pleasing and much more modest than the standard white American wedding gown.
I really liked the whole service, which Virgiliana planned, and the things that the minister said, and I had a good old time making everybody laugh during my toast which Brandon and Virgiliana seemed to be quite happy about. I downloaded all of the pictures from the father and sister of the groom so that I can share them with you. I left too quickly and now I don't know anything about the location of the digital camera that carried there with me. I left Spokanistan a bit after 7:30 pm and drove back to Sliverdale by 1:00 am or so on Sunday. Aside from losing my digital camera and my cellular telephone charger, I am very happy about the whole thing!

My first non-familial guests from far away

Brandon and Virgie visited me about two weeks ago. We had a nice time going to church and eating and wandering around the whaling days street festival and the beach and waiting for the ferry boat.

Actually, I didn't enjoy the eating part that much because there wasn't really any food that I could eat and Brandon paid good money for me to enter the Chinese Buffet. Oh well. We had a nice time talking about the differences between feasting and gluttony.

Notice my Bible Quizzing trophies in the picture there. I had been planning to throw them away in the dumpster (hard as that seems), but Brandon and Virgie decided to take them with them. I asked what they would do with them and was told, "we'll have them." I haven't the slightest idea what that means, but I don't really care because I got out of having to throw them away myself. If you are interested in this Bible Quizzing program, click here.

My Dear Sister's Wedding Picture

You may have noticed that my dear sister who got married commented on my previous blog posting regarding her wedding and informed me that I should go ahead and place a picture of her at her wedding up here. I visited her about a week ago and she mentioned that again, so here it is. I guess that she is a married woman and any relatives that don't like this picture here will just have to live with it.

My little brother took this snap shot with a digital camera from the front row with no tripod and a built-in flash. It is just amazing how photography has become easier for people who know nothing about science (that isn't supposed to say anything about my little brother). But yeah, there you go. You can see the blog of my dear sister and her husband here.

Speaking of weddings, I am to be a part of the wedding party for the wedding of my friend Brandon in Spokanistan on Saturday. That should be exciting. I'll have to make some mention of how it goes.

Today I had Pat from Seaside Church over for lunch because I had purchased food for other guests without a confirmation from them and they were not able to come and everybody else seemed to be busy. He is a Francis A. Schaeffer fan, so we had a good time.