Acts 29 or 30?

I went to my first all church prayer meeting at Seaside Church on Wednesday and learned that the plan is to start a new church in Sequim or Port Angeles. I learned that Seaside Church is a place of rest for me and other people, and that if we deserve a rest, other people do too. The text was from Joshua chapter 1. Oh yes, and the Hood Canal was considered analogous to the Jordan River and all of us at Seaside Church were considered analogous to the tribes to whom God gave land on the east side of the Jordan River. This church is to be planted out of Seaside Church, so I wonder if this church will be considered an Acts 29 church or an Acts 30 church. Oh well, I am looking forward to it because I have never before been part of a church plant that has not been planted out of discontent, and neither has my father. I guess that I don't know that I will be a big part of this church plant, since my ministry at Seaside Church doesn't seem to be going away, but it is still kind of fun to think about.

My first Acts 29 retreat for men 2

On Saturday morning the first thing I said was, "That depends on how fast you eat," or something like that because someone in the room in which I slept was asking someone else, "how long does breakfast last."

I was able to find food to eat for breakfast and to eat it, but not in time to finish building a power point presentation for the morning worship song set and set up the projector, so all of the attendees has to wait while the computer was rebooted. The computer had an apple on the front of it and it has a touch pad mouse that is not terribly sensative and it seemed to slow me down. After some time and "help" from people who volunteered their advice, we finally made it work. The first teaching time was from Romans chapter six about four things:

1. Know
2. Consider yourself (i.e. apply knowledge to yourself)
3. Turn from
4. Turn toward(s)

If you didn't go, don't expect to understand this, I have placed it here as a reminder to people who attended, but may have forgotten already. This teaching was followed by a meditation time (considering the power and provision of God (which are known) with respect to ourselves and how we can turn from them and toward obedience to Jesus) which was of appropriate length. This was followed by a sharing time about the meditation time and the determinations made during it. This time was too short because of the lunch thereafter.

During the afternoon I played frisbee golf and ultimate frisbee! I lost both games, but I don't remember previously having the pleasure of playing both of those games on the same day. I guess I learned that Frisbee is bigger in Portland than on the Kitsap Peninsula, but still not as big as it is in Pullman. I think this because I had to play frisbee golf with men from Red Sea Church, and only one other person from Seaside Church played ultimate frisbee with us.

I got my act together on the power point presentation for the evening worship song set so that there was no significant delay at the front end. The last teaching was about a number of things, some of which have been included below:

1. Knowing that you are a warrior
2. Knowing your enemies: The world, the flesh, the Devil
3. Knowing your weapons
4. Knowing your brothers

This was followed by another sharing time in groups made up of whole churches. Seaside Church got done before Red Sea Church got done. I learned some interesting things there which I won't share with you because you may not have been there. If you were there, you probably remember them. If you want to find out about these things, show up next year.

Ryan found another way back to Bremerton to hang out with his parents for a bit. Pat rode back with me on Sunday morning and decided (temporarily) that my driving had improved markedly. We entered the Seaside Church building and set up for the first service, and we did it all apart from our lead pastor (gotta love compitent and qualified elders and elder candidates and church planters).

Can Smashing (or my first Acts 29 retreat for men 1)

These are pictures of a can that I smashed a few minutes ago inside of my own home. I took a picture of this can and then I smashed it and then I took another picture of it so that I would have pictures with which to illustrate this blog entry.

I went to Black Lake Bible Camp last weekend and while I was there, I lost four games of chess to Alex from Red Sea Church in Portland Oregon. I did not win any games of chess, but for every game of chess that I lost, I smashed a soda can with my two hands. The integrity of the can failed due to excessive compression. I have no doubt that some people think that I did so out of frustration, kind of like a particular young lady must have assumed when she saw me smash such a can directly after she told me that no, I was not to be allowed to ask her parents if I was to be allowed to ask her if I could go out with her. In actuality, I just smash these cans because I can (what a pun!). I figured out that I could do it while I was living at the Embassy.

Fortunately, these four chess games and smashed cans were not the high points of my weekend.

The drive from my parents house in Monroe which I had been visiting because of a stormwater product seminar and the birthday of my younger brother was exceptionally lengthy (with respect to time, not distance) because of the high traffic load with which interstate five was burdened. The unpleasantness of the excessive duration was offset by the pleasantness of the company of Ryan from Mars Hill Church in Seattle who used to be the worship leader (as opposed to worship pastor) at Seaside Church in Bremerton. I had a nice time conversing with him about Jesus, church, music, simple theology, and of course, traffic. I managed to input bad data to my computer mapping program, so we were ten blocks off of our target at the end, but Ryan was wise and asked directions and got us there before the electrical system of the Illuminate 2 became overloaded by the frequency modulator transmitter, the frequency modulator receiver, the electrical inverter, the audio amplifier, the cabin and forward lights and the engine's demand for spark while we were driving around slowly and looking for the camp site. We did arrive before 1900 when I was told that the gate would be locked and a nearsighted guard would be posted with a shotgun.

After I parked the Illuminate 2, I unloaded and joined the music worship team (provided by Seaside Church) in the chapel area and soon found that there was lots of power available and every reason to use it. The music sounded good, and I got to use a graphic equalizer that had controls for even more than three bands! Dinner was good, but the chess games were not so fun. At least I didn't throw my chess pieces all over the room.

Pithy terseness

During the meeting of my community group on Tuesday, the topic of God's specific will came up and I managed to get a word in edgewise which met with some resistance. I didn't back down and transmitted an aggressive little electronic message to the group about it the next day.

It sort of sums up a bit of what I learned from the Discovering God book by Henry Blackaby, but the references were pointed out to me by David Andrews who was the "leader" of the house at which I once lived in Pullman. These references were pointed out to him by someone else, but I pulled them out of the house meeting documents that I had built so that I could include them in the electronic message about which I am typing.

I have received so much good feedback about this electronic message that I have decided to include its text below:

Subject: Getting started on God's will

God's will for your life is God's will applied to your life.

1 Thess 4:1-12
Romans 12:2
Ephesians 5:17
1 Thess 5:16-18

I am Joshua

More Alcohol

On Monday night the Seaside Church elder candidate who is my community group leader picked me up in the Illuminate 3 and drove me to the Bremerton waterfront to a place called Frtiz European Fryhouse where I consumed some beer with many other men of said local church body. I blogged about that previous time upon which I consumed alcohol with my community group leader, so he told me that I needed to do it again this time. So here you go Eric:

Fritz European Fryhouse is owned by Andy who also attends Seaside Church. We have all been told that the group won't be back unless Andy's tithe check increases in magnitude as a result of these monthly Monday night meetings. I really don't think that beer is my thing, but I ordered the third of my life and got it down anyway. I think that soda would have been more fun.

The spiritual discipline of the month was evangelism. The leader indicated that a fascinating question to ask people would be, "If you knew that I was a Christian, which hyporisies could you point out as a result of your observations of the way that I live my life?" or something like that.

I'm leaving the comment field here open for all you non-Christian people who know me to answer that question. If you need to say any bad words, perhaps you should just say them to my face or send me an electronic message.

Superbowl Sunday

The Seaside Church building seemed quite empty to me yesterday, but two services were held in it on that day anyway. I became kind of excited because of the talk about another church being planted out of Seaside Church! No one seems to know where this church is to be planted or who the leader will be, but I have been told that we don't want to just sit around and make Seaside Church look shiny.

I spent yesterday afternoon sleeping and then walking to my community group leader's house and giving all of the parents there a hard time about how I got to take a nap and they didn't. I was probably less than gracious, but I did offer to take care of the three sons of a married couple in their own home (i.e. married to each other) so that they could take a nice nap in my apartment. The husband said that that seemed to be too good to be true. I'll see if he takes me up on it. Observing all the little kids there was at least as fun as watching the super bowl, a good third of which I missed (o dear).

Oh, on the way home from the Seaside Church building I used my debit card for the second time ever. I bought fuel this time. I didn't even have to type in my personal information number. That just makes me feel ultra-secure. I tried it last week, but at that time I seemed to be incapable of interpreting the instructional illustration correctly, so I inserted the card incorrectly and could not make the card reader function. This reminds me of the Luther movie, There is but one proper interpretation of Scripture, and of my favorite way to twist that saying: There is but one proper interpretation of the cookbook: That which your mother has established.

Tonight I'm off to drink beer at spiritual disciplines class with the elders of the church. Maybe my parents are right to be worried about Mars Hill Church and the Acts 29 Network, but I am not worried yet.

Funny comments

During the meeting time of the community group that I attend, I received a request to include my comments in the main part of my blog so that they can be seen by all of my visitors who don't want to press their mouse buttons just to see them. I received this request from my community group leader who likes to post his comments twice. Unfortunately, I can't seem to figure out how to do that. If you know about this, please comment and I will make sure that everyone sees it (but only if you really do know and communicate it well).

So one day while I was attending that very same community group, a man who was sitting to my right said of his fiance who was present, "I never did any dating before I met her." To which I responded, "Really? I didn't do any dating before I met her either!" What a coincidence.

Addition: So then the hostess tried to clean up my mess by asking, "Joshua, have you done any dating since you met his fiance?" I had to respond with something like, "Well no, but that is beside the point."

Seaside Church building

I had a killer good time at the Seaside Church Building yesterday. There were probably a few reasons for this. I'll try to guess what they were:

1. Being in less sin than I was in the week before
2. The ("symbolic") baptism during the second service
   
3. The wedding during the second service
4. Getting a new volunteer for the ministry team that I lead (50% increase!)
5. Sunshine
6. The irony of listening to the first sermon of my community group leader who used to not want to sit through sermons
7. Patting myself on the back for remembering to change my cellular telephone ringer mode to vibrate so that it didn't ring loudly when the worship pastor called it during the prayer of the lead pastor to give me instructions regarding the unrehearsed baptism ceremony
8. Two FULL services (if we keep this up, we'll have to go to three services, or plant another church or something)!

There you go: a few (which is eight (1 Peter 3:20 (NKJV))).

Distinguishing one big word from several others

A couple nights ago, I decided to lay in bed and listen to the eleventh sermon in the Mars Hill Church Christ on the Cross/Atonement series. This sermon is about expiation, which is what Jesus can do so that sins are exported and souls are cleansed, so that Christians don't have to walk around with all the effects of their forgiven sin inside of them. Early in the next morning, I added another verse to the stack that Mark Driscoll had presented and came up with a more clear (for me) way of understanding one component of how expiation works alongside propitiation and redemption.

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

This is redemption.

James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

This is expiation! I am sure that expiation can also be related to many other verses, some of which were mentioned in the aforementioned sermon. Maybe I should make a list.

Oh well, I decided to listen to that sermon and even to bring that up here because God forced me to be rid of some sin this week.

Further evidence of my poor driving skills

I got my company truck stuck on Wednesday. I was backing up to leave and I drove the truck right off of the stabilized construction entrance so that all four wheels of this dinky little two wheel drive pickup sank into the mud. My only excuse is that I later determined that the soil sample that I took from the site showed that the soil is worthless as far as drainage is concerned. The great thing about construction sites is that they have big machines that can pull really hard and that rarely slip so that my company truck didn't have to be stuck very long (just long enough for me to take these pictures for you).

illuminate_commander@hotmail.com

I thought that you might like to look at some pictures of the Illuminate. When I saw Star Trek III for the first time, I decided that I needed to name my car. I was going to call it a roadster, but then I found out that roadsters have open cockpits and bench seats. The final (corny) idea was to call it the L.L. (Lord's Limousine) Illuminate, but that first part sounded corny and didn't really go well as an electronic message address (which still works, by the way), so I haven't mentioned it in a long time.

Here is a picture of the Illuminate 1 after it got smashed.

The Illuminate 1 is a 1998 Ford Taurus that I purchased for $10,300 out the door in September of 2000. I hadn't always been expecting to get such a nice first car. One afternoon, my dad told me that I needed to and visit my grandfather who lived very near my home. I asked my dad if he was sure because, "I already did some work for him today and he could have talked to me then." My dad told me that he was sure, so I walked over and my grandfather offered me $5000, promising to provide it as soon as I knew which car I wanted.

I wrecked it in my first at-fault accident as I was determining a route away from Mars Hill Church in Seattle on June 26th of the year 2005. I had taken an acquaintance to hear Mark Driscoll preach from Genesis 38 about how God is able to save even those people who are so bad that they themselves know that they are bad and deserve His judgment. Unfortunately, my acquaintance was not such a person. After the service, I failed to yield the right of way and was smashed there on the starboard side, just forward of the door.

So used the Illuminate 1 during all of Junior College and for most of my time at the university. It depreciated at only ~10% and I received $4700 from the insurance company.

Here is a picture of the Illuminate 2 which I purchased in December of 2005 because I knew that I would be wanting to go to job interviews and perhaps dating/courting (whatever you want to call it) and I did not want to be late like some of the rides that I had had during the previous five months without the Illuminate 1. I decided to go without the car for those five months because I didn't really think that I needed it and I thought that I could save money. Walking and later biking the three miles to work and back every day that summer was good, and I really didn't need a car at school, since I lived so close to campus. Also, I had recently determined that I probably wouldn't have a girlfriend (what I would now call a VIP) anytime near that time.

In as much as imitation is said to be good flattery, I am including a picture of my community group leader's car, which he calls the "Turbo Taurus (Illuminate 3)."

Today

Since late in the afternoon of Friday, 5th (fifth) day of this January, I have been inspired (or inaudibly commanded) by God to set myself up to be hospitable for reasons that I have made up because of my ignorance of the real reason. Somehow or other, on Friday, I came up with this great idea: I can easily set my self up to provide protein to my guests. I am a phenyleketonuric. This means that I am allergic to phenylalanine which is an amino acid. I understand that amino acids are building blocks for protein, so I must take care to ensure the exclusion of protein from my diet. Consequently, I am quite ignorant of the proper methodology that is commonly applied to the preparation of protein-laden foods. All of that is to say that when I realized I could add protein to my meals through things as simple as cans of Campbell's chicken noodle soup and boxes of Macaroni & Cheese, I thought to myself, "Why didn't I think of this earlier? It is so simple!" So I went out and purchased such things. Amazing are the problems that a man can solve if he puts his mind to their solution, but I wasn't even thinking about this problem when the solution came to me!

This morning I woke up sometime a bit before 5:30 and I determined that I was likely to be visited today by at least a couple of particular people, so I rose and began to clean my home. Fortunately, I had already purchase everything that I would need for the stir-fry two days ago when I thought that I was supposed to, and of course the protein food was still remaining.

So I got all set up and went to church and my ministry there went quite well, perhaps better than ever before. I even got around to talking to a person with whom I had not previously managed to converse, but the particular people about whom I was thinking did not show up and I did not think that these people had sufficient information to just show up at my home, so I decided to invite the drummer and his wife to my home and the whole meal (even the protein) went over quite well. The picture below illustrates our activities:

1. Eating
2. Chess playing (un-timed)
3. Chess playing (timed)
4. Video watching (on computer)
   

Don't you wish that you had been there?

I wonder if my cooking skills are being built up to the point of actual hospitality or if they are just to be used for the purpose of facilitating fellowship.

I still seem to be having difficulty with blessing my neighbors in any way other than prayer. I don't mind leaving the women alone because they could lead me straight into trouble, but I am sort of bugged by the fact that I can't seem to make any kind of connection with the single man who lives next door. I'll read your suggestions about this if you type them for me.

Really Fast

If you have ever left my presence and any particular informal setting at the same time, you have probably heard me say, "Drive really fast!" If you're like most people, you made what my mother and dear sister (not the one that is married) call a mental footnote and you thought to yourself, "Joshua must drive like a maniac." If you actually take the trouble to ask me what I mean, I will probably tell you that what I really mean is, "Be sure that you drive faster than I can run," thereby telling you that I think that I can run really fast. The reality is that I do not know that I have ever quite run a six-minute mile (isn't it the four minute mile that lots of people can run?), but I like to think that I can run really fast anyway. Perhaps I should go to some trouble to determine whether or not I can run a five-minute mile (after some training).

But back to the driving. I have recently discovered that I am a poor driver. I had previously been under the false impression that I was a good driver because of some people's praise (those who thought otherwise were ignorant) and because of the fact that I had been in so many collisions that were not my fault. But one night, not too long ago, I found myself sitting on a four-lane road with my left hand (or left foot) turn signal on. Presently, a vehicle approached the front of the Illuminate 2 and stopped ~15 feet off of its nose. I then figured out that I was not in the center lane (because there was no center lane), but in one of the lanes that was supposed to be utilized for travel in the direction that I did not want to go. I moved back to the side of the road corresponding to the direction that I wanted to go (more or less) and turned left a bit further down the road. I continued to drive along to my worship pastor's house, and as I did, I determined that good drivers don't get themselves into situations like the one I just described and that I must not have been a good driver since I got myself into such a situation.

I find these things quite convenient:

1. My worship pastor has been trying to convince me that I am a poor driver ever since his first trip in the Illuminate 2 which was to the Red Sea Church in Portland.
2. My worship pastor is a professional driver
3. My worship pastor has offered to help me improve my driving skills

Let me tell you about how I finally accepted my worship pastor's help: A couple of weeks later, I was at his home again and I was told to make a list of my list of strengths and a list of my weaknesses as a prospective husband. In as much as I began with the strengths list, and in as much as I was having such a good time with it, and in as much as I don't like thinking of my weaknesses as much as I like thinking about my strengths, my strengths list was much longer than my weaknesses list. Even so, bad driving was at the top of my weaknesses list because I remembered at that moment that my mother had also told me that I should learn to drive in such a way that a woman riding with me would begin to think of herself as precious cargo.

Wouldn't you know that at the end of the meeting, my worship pastor informed me that the next meeting time would be spent on discussion regarding the termination of the items on the weakness list and that he would be willing to help me to put an end to my bad driving and that he could have begun to do so during our trip from Portland to Silverdale if I had been willing to listen. So I took, several days to think about it and determined that I would have to accept his help.

I am a bit annoyed because I still don't think of myself as a poor driver, or even a person who can learn anything about driving from my worship pastor, but if I am going to be at all committed to truth, I have to look at the logical conclusion that the facts are pointing to: I am a poor driver.

Also annoying is my tendency to try to explain away all of my problems, which my instructor observes. I can totally see myself moving backwards and becoming an ignoramus regarding my own problems.

Have you ever noticed that the last person to notice his own problems is the person who possesses these same problems? No, I don't mean his wife.

I realized this when I was still a teenager, so obviously, I won't have any problems left after I terminate this last one.

Ignoramus.

End/Beginning of Year Activities

I have noticed that my most recent blog postings seem to be rather mundane. They probably are not very interesting to people who are not very interested in me. Before this I have managed to type about things that are of some interest even to people who do not know me so that they think to themselves that I might be a bit interesting as well. For some reason I have not recently been able to relate what I have been experiencing to particular philosophies or to truth in general. Well, either that or I am unwilling to type them here for the whole world to read. I hope that this is because I am busy doing what I think that I am supposed to be doing and not because I am becoming hardened by sin so that I can not pay attention to what is going on inside of me anymore. If you think that this is the case, do tell (me, not everyone else--yet)!

On Saturday and Sunday I visited with Brandon and Virgiliana (the lady with the name that I really like) in Duvall at Brandon's parent's house. We talked about some of the things that I have been unwilling to blog about. We talked to Brandon's mother about politics. At least none of them believe that the United States Government blew up the World Trade Center in New York City, New York with pre-installed explosives. On Saturday we went on a little hike in a park in Carnation. We ate food that was bad for us at a place called Small Fries. Then we viewed Snoqualmie falls from the lower viewing area which I did not realize was available. To access this lower viewing area, pedestrians must pass by a building in which are several hydro-electric generators. Some water is diverted from the falls to make these hydro-electric generators do their job. We went shopping and bought food and Brandon built a stir-fry for me. Then Virgiliana realized that she had become ill. We tried to watch the Walk the Line movie about Johnny Cash, but someone had turned the sub woofer up a lot and then lost the remote control for the sound system so that we could not make the movie sound very nice, so decided to not watch the movie after we had tried to make it work for a long time. Then I entered the Illuminate 2 and drove home. Oh yes, we prayed for Virgiliana to cease being ill and for a couple of other things.

On Sunday I did my normal church work. I was glad to see some good progress being made in the training aspect. I was invited to three different parties, so I chose one and had a good time with it. I began to play chess with this one guy and because of his threats, I decided that a draw would be the best ending (that and the fact that I did not think that I could win). That was kind of fun.

On Monday I got to wake up at a decent hour and travel to the home of my mother's parents for a visit with them and with my brother-in-law and with my parents and with all of their children except one. My mother's parents fed us all quite well and gave me a nice shirt. Those of us who are not ladies put together a carport which was made out of metal pipes and a tarp and fasteners. We all had a nice time talking together, but my mother's parents thought that the whole thing was too short, perhaps because in the past, we have come for more days at a time. I left at 3:00 pm in anticipation of another meeting which didn't happen, but everyone else was leaving then and I have plenty to do. I made sure to get lots of sleep on Monday night.

Christmas 3

Visiting my dear sister's home -- the one that her husband prepared for her to join him in this past summer -- is always pleasant because so many things inside of it are as they should be. It is inspiring!

My dear sister's home has a floor area on the order of 450 square feet, yet she was better able to host her eight Christmas guests on Christmas day than were our nearby relatives who's home has a floor area on the order of 3000 square feet (and greater ceiling height).

Amazing is the cumulative force of all of the correct relationships between the people and things inside of that home. If you have experienced such a thing, you probably know what it is that I have been describing. If not, perhaps you'll know it when you see it.

On Tuesday I did go for a walk with my mother and I did pack up all of my things and I did drive from my parent's home to my own in Silverdale while listening to #2 in the atonement/Christ on the Cross series by pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church. There's nothing like that sermon to make me want to run to Jesus (at least not that I can think of right now). I did arrive home safely.

Maybe next time I'll talk about my driving.

Christmas 2

On Monday I arose later than I had in a long time and after a while we all went off to Denny's for our Christmas breakfast. There was quite a line, but my dear sister and her husband did most of the waiting for the rest of us. I had a good old time sitting next to one of my dear sisters and talking on and on and enjoying the fact that we both have the same diet and didn't have to listen to people talking on and on about how terrible it must be to be as oppressed as I am and so on. The only problem with the whole meal that I can think of was how rude and obnoxious I was to my dad who was trying to make sure that I got something to eat.

But I did get something to eat and I did get around getting my father's forgiveness a day or two later. The rest of the celebration was spent at my dear sister's house. My gifts went over very well and I believe that I can use all of the things that I received (except the drill press which my dad just wanted to get out of his garage), particularly the new pants that fit me (I have may never have been so happy about receiving new clothes in my whole life). Then we all played a game which was somewhat similar to Apples to Apples (which I did not win) and then I took a nap and then we all watched a movie which I did not want to watch called Ice Princess. It was actually not boring (probably because the star was a young woman). It made me think thankful thoughts about how my parents managed to control any worldly desire they may have had about having their children fulfill their parent's dreams for them. I did bring myself to wonder whether or not this might be an issue that Disney took to the extreme, i.e. maybe it is alright for parents to inspire their children and push them to do certain things. After this was all over, we loaded up the gifts and drove home.

Christmas 1

I got out of worship practice without trying and the wireless internet signal that I use at home is back, so I have decided to type something here.

I left Sliverdale (Silverdale) on Friday the 23rd of December. I left a bit after 8 pm because I wanted to avoid the worst of the traffic. I succeeded for the most part, but I was slowed down by a convoy of cherry picker trucks around the junction of 520 and 405. I am glad that they were out fixing power connections though.

I arrived at my parents home around ten thirty and did some talking to my dad about various things, kinda like I did when I visited him for the thanksgiving holiday. He was positively impressed with some of the writing that I had done along those lines (no, I don't mean the thanksgiving blogging).

I spent most of the next day with my friend whom many people would label as ultra-conservative. We didn't do a whole lot, but he convinced me to give Christmas gifts to members of my family instead of going with my interpretation of Proverbs 22:16. Oh yes, we did do something: we got all muddy by successfully trying to fix a water pipe for his apartment building because he is the landlord. So that was Saturday.

On Christmas Eve Sunday I got up during the morning and took my shower before church, and as I was exiting the shower or shortly thereafter, I realized how little affection I have for a whole bunch the saints at my home church. Of course, I think that this is a bad thing because of the first chapter of Philippians 1, but I did have my dad pray about it on the way and I think that I managed to not bite anyone's head off while I was in the church building. At any rate, I don't remember finding myself being judgmental about particular things that people did in the past (these things aren't usually even sinful, so I know that I am just trying to make myself feel like I am better than them (evil!)) so that is something.

After church I accompanied my dad to his mother's apartment and we visited with her for much longer than expected to. There was some discussion about where the Christmas celebration would be held the following day. I am told that this discussion had been going on for some time. I think that the basic idea was that everyone except my grandmother had decided that the bulk of the celebrating would be done at my dear sister's home, but that my grandmother was still sure that it should be done at her own home, even though this majority was supposed to have been explained to her numerous times. So someone (I actually don't know who) must have got the idea that we should show up at her apartment on Christmas Eve in an effort to make her feel better. The problem was that she was quite tired and didn't really want to see us all right just then. Even so, my dad and my grandmother and I all waited around for the rest of my family to be show up with cookies and such. I didn't know about all of this when I walked in the door and I was quite hungry the whole time and then all there was to eat were candy and M&Ms.

There was also the UNO game which had all sorts of new rules that I didn't like and I began to behave in accordance what Paul Adams told me is passive-aggressiveness by drawing many, many cards from the draw pile whenever I was made to draw. I did this in an effort to make people feel bad, but it didn't work. I did finally manage to decide to control myself and learn the new rules and play the game right. I wonder if that had anything to do with the sermon which was about self control. I don't remember thinking about the sermon very much that afternoon.

Lots of exciting things to not talk about

You'd think that since so many exciting things have been happening to me, I would be able to type about them. Well, I guess that you probably wouldn't think that since I haven't typed any of them for you to know about. I guess that I will just tell you about my visit from my friend Brandon who visited me on Saturday and Sunday. Please note that this is not the Brandon who visited me several months ago and was married to Virgiliana (I still think that Virgiliana is a killer good name!).

Brandon and I used the same room for sleeping during a particular school year in Pullman when both of us were undergraduate students at Washington State University. After Brandon was recognized by a particular person at Seaside Church and he found out that I had managed to live near Brandon for a whole school year, he told me that his respect for me had increased, as though I had just gone to war in Iraq with a contentious woman as my close companion.

What this Seaside Church attender didn't know is that the reason that I met Brandon was this: I was attending a Christian college group for the first time and I offended his roommate so much that he became weary of speaking with me and referred me to Brandon. All three of us can get along great these days, but I was the person who couldn't experience anything marginally unpleasant without exclaiming, "Sue!" I had been living by myself for a school year before I moved into Brandon's room and I needed to learn how to come home from school and think about someone besides myself (I could write a blog entry just about that). Brandon could see that I needed a lot of help, and that is why he decided to put me in his room as opposed to someone else's.

My, wasn't that fun? Let me also mention that if cleanliness is next to godliness, I don't want any part of it because godliness is a unit. Why in the world would you want to go doing things outside of godliness (that just sounds evil)? If you have godliness you should be content with it and enjoy the profit (1 Cor 6:6).

So Brandon and I ate dinner and watched Pride and Prejudice because it is a killer good movie and he hadn't seen it yet and then we walked to the park in the freezing weather and had two fights (the latter of which I won!) and we read 1 Timothy and we read 2 Timothy and we prayed and we slept (in separate rooms). Oh, I forgot to type that we walked back from the park in the freezing weather?

I had some pictures taken at church, but they look quite lame, so let me refer you to this old picture.

Spiritual blog #1

My spiritual posting on my church's pastor's blog.

http://wakingthesleeper.blogspot.com/2006/12/while-thy-servant-was-doing-his-own.html

Messages

On Friday I decided to leave work a whole half-hour early. I was glad that I did so because as I was driving home, my cellular telephone informed me that someone was trying to call me and I decided to answer it even though I didn't know who was trying to call me. Sometimes the people who call my cellular telephone are hoping to communicate with the person who posessed my cellular telephone before my grandparents purchased it from at a garage sale and gave it to me for my birthday. The text messages that they send me are kind funny:

"hey babe I miss u i wish i could b there to watch moview with u and charles"

"Hey wuts us bey go sorry i was such a jerk but the only reason i was being puff was because well u were being very rude as well for no apparent reason an"

"d i was just trying to defend my self i think we could be nicer to each other"

"y arnt u talkin back to me"

"this is chris if u couldn't figure that out"

I think that some poor teenager had her cellular telephone confinscated by her parents who sold it because of her (possibly worthless) friends wouldn't leave her alone. Oh well. I think that talking to these people and telling them that the cellular telephone is now all mine is kind of fun.

I was actually being called by Alan from Seaside Church who was calling to invite me to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Pacific Science Center which is in Seattle. It seems that Luke and Jamie from Seaside Church had purchased tickets from Jamie's employer or something like that, and were unable to use them because of a schedule conflict.

So on Saturday I drove to Alan's house and we boarded a ferry and traveled to Seattle for the display which was difficult to see because only dim lights could be shone on the documents, and then intermittently.

Unfortunately, I have never been to utilize the hebrew language in any direct way. A lot of the writing wa quite faint and may have been difficult to see, even in good light, but there was a big long peice of psalms with perhaps five entirely intact columns which was nice to see, and the annotations beside the artifacts were quite well done so that people who had enough time could figure out which verses of english text corresponded to a particular line on the scrolls.

If you are entierly ignorant about the Dead Sea Scrolls as was a lady whom I met in Junior college who had determined that the Bible had been corrupted by the Catholic Church in the middle ages so that we could never know what God wanted to tell us, please go and find out about them. I won't pretend to be smart enough to tell you all about them, but I am telling you, "It is worth your time."

I got syndicated

Well, sort of. Alright, not really. But I did get invited to type into one of the blogs that my pastor uses, which is also linked to my church's cultural links page. I started it out with links to several of the posts which I built for this blog.

Because of this new blog, it is likely that my future blogging which turns out to be directly related to spiritual things will be appear at:

http://www.wakingthesleeper.blogspot.com

Plug plug plug

On Tuesday I received a telephone call that I never expected to receive. This call came from a pastor of Adult Ministries in Pullman who is named Ceasar Paul. Strangly enough, I worked under him as a children's church teacher at the Evangelical Free Church of Pullman which I attended for three years while I also attended Washington State University.

The reason for his call was inquiry regarding my employment, spiritual development, general well being, etc. I am still suprised that a pastor of a medium-sized church which, last I checked, was short on leadership, in a busy university town where people are coming and going all of the time, had time to make sure that I hadn't forgotten about Jesus even though he had no particular reason to think that he would ever do ministry with me again.

So let me go ahead and advertise for this local church body thusly:

It is most convenient that WSU, which was the only University that I wanted to go to (for reasons pertaining to my major, the amount of money that I wanted to spend, location, etc.) was the only University that would accept me (by the time that I got around to applying to universities, the University of Washington wasn't even looking undergraduate engineer's applications). All of that is to say that I didn't go to a bunch of different Universities and visit churches and rank them. All that I could really do regarding my spiritual leadership was to pray. And I did pray because I had heard enough stories about people attending colleges, even "Christian" colleges and falling away from godly behavior and spiritual disciplines and fellowship with Jesus for various reasons. These reasons included not having a decent church to attend.

God did answered my prayer just the way that I wanted Him to (it must have been a good thing to pray for huh?). The man who was the pastor at my local church body in Monroe at the time told me which church to visit first and I was able to determine immediately that I did not need to go church shopping. I found out later that the Evangelical Free Church of Pullman is not the only local church body in Pullman that seems to work, so there is no excuse for college students in Pullman who somehow manage to forget about Jesus while they are there.

Oh, let me brag about the Senior pastor there for a minute (Lead pastor for you Acts 29 people) who is truly a pastor's pastor--both in practice and in qualifications. You may have heard Pastor Mark Driscoll tell the story of Porno Boy Vs. Hebrew Man toward the beginning of a sermon series from 1st Corinthians which was called Christians Gone Wild. I don't know exactly which Porno Boy Pastor Mark was talking about, but I do know which pastor he was talking about, and it is just amazing to me that this hyper-educated (both in science and in theology) person has whatever it takes to run around and teach loads of Bible studies to biblical ignoramuses, many of whom can't see their own ignorance (particularly some of those King James only people).

So don't skip church when you're in Pullman. Oh, and look for the Foundations for Marriage class on Tuesdays @ One Way books.

Oh, let me also say that having an elder of my church sitting just a few rows away from me during my graduation, decorated so that everyone could see that his academic acheivments were quite extensive was quite a pleasant suprise for me. I think that Christians should be everywhere.

Thanksgiving 4 (shortness)

I am quite thankful (to Jesus) that I get to work for a company that let me leave work two hours early today because of the blizzard that fell upon Poulsbo suddenly so that I could avoid wrecking or being stuck at work all night.

Thanksgiving 3 (lengthiness)

On Saturday the 25th of November, I observed some more of my father's work, which he pointed out to me. After this I took my brother to my church's other annual thanksgiving season event: The Cranberry Sauce Bowl.

The Cranberry Sauce Bowl is a soccer event which is generally set up for kids who are not often called children. It usually takes place at a city park. This year the city park fields were closed because of unusually high amounts of precipitation and saturated soils, so the game was held on the land of a family of church members who lived on relatively well-drained soil. I usually play the whole game through, but this time I only played for two points because I wanted to converse with my dear sister during the whole rest of the time. I am speaking of the dear sister who was became married this summer. She had just returned that morning from a visit with the family of her new husband. His family lives in Colorado. I have been told that this family is still duly (i.e. positively and with great magnitude) impressed with my dear sister. My dear sister told me that being married to her new husband is better for her than not being married to her new husband. She also told me that sex is heavenly, so I am quite happy for her. We discussed the topic which I discussed with my dad so late into the night and she cut the hairs on the top of my head so that they became shorter than they were before she began to cut them.

On Sunday morning, I arose at about five and loaded the Illuminate 2 and drove back to Bummertown just in time for work in the Seaside Church building. I had no idea that I would be driving in snow which slowed me down and impared my vision so that I read a roadsign incorrectly and took a wrong exit. I was somewhat distressed about the increased possibility of wrecking, but somehow, I arrived safely.

I suppose that that is the end of my thanksgiving trip story.

Thanksgiving 2 (lengthiness)

This post contains a description of the activities in which I participated this last thanksgiving weekend.

I left work on Wednesday about 1/2 hour early and drove to my home in Sliverdale (Silverdale). I was quite tired because of a critical mistake that I had made the night before (running/walking ~4.5 miles to my community group in the dark, the cold, and the rain), so I went to sleep for a couple of hours. While I was sleeping, traffic conditions in the region of the road trip I had planned improved as multiple cars became reached their destinations.

Let me warn you: A bed is like a time machine; you climb into a bed and close your eyes at one time, and when you open them, you find that you have traveled in to the future! If you don't believe me, check your alarm clock at the beginning and end of your next bed rest. You will find that I am right, so be careful with your bed.

When I awoke, I cleaned my dishes and loaded the Illuminate 2 and drove it down to Bummertown (Bremerton) and loaded it with fuel. Then I travelled in it through Gag Harbor (Gig Harbor) to Monroe where my parents and my sister and my other sister and my brother and my other brother live. I determined that my car traveled ~30 miles for every gallon of gasoline that it had burned and I was quite happy about that.

Upon my arrival, my mother and brothers were in bed, but I talked to my dad about how in the world God might give me a wife. I won't tell you much about that conversation because I am annoyed by men who think that they know who they are supposed to marry when they really don't (did you hear the story about the lady who was approached by five or so different men, each of whom told her that God's will for her was to marry him (thereby implying that anything else would be disobedience)?). I will tell you that my father and I do not seem to conflict regarding what I should be doing regarding this matter. Oh, let me tell you a funny little thing that my dad said to me years ago: "You've gotta get married sometime--If you're gonna get married."

The next morning I arose at seven or so and ran about a mile in a loop (no particular destination). To run in daylight and without much traffic was nice. Upon my return I ate something and played multiplayer video games with my younger brothers until my dad wanted to show me the pictures of some work that he had been doing. During this computer time (for my dad's pictures and music and videos are inside of his computer) I noticed that the time of the meal was drawing neigh, I decided to begin housecleaning, for my mother had been working on housecleaning and the meal since the beginning of the day. The housecleaning was not completed even as my father's mother arrived from Monroe. We were joined by three other ladies from the same town for eating. After the meal, I drove my grandmother home and spent the rest of the evening doing visiting with my family and staying up way too late continuing to talk to my dad because we weren't through with the exciting topic of the night before.

Upon Friday morning I arose at seven or so again because I am used to rising at six. I remember that a particular church event took place on this day. It is an annual event called the "Pizza Bowl Split." It costs thirteen dollars. It involves eating normal pizza, which I can not do because I am a phenyleketonuric, and it involves bowling, which can be fun if I am with people whom I really like and who like bowling. It also involves helping children have fun, which I am not generally good at unless I actually know a fair amount about the children who need to have the fun. I have been to numerous children's camps and other children's activites and I always find that I am most helpful doing support work, especially technical work, or utilitarian setup/demo work (as opposed to decorating, cooking, craft time setup, etc.). So instead of going bowling and eating with my brothers (who weren't going because of reasons of their own), I decided to spend the time with my mother who was driving around the cities in which the Pizza Bowl Split took place because she carries the church credit card. Um, that means that I was traveling with my mother because of her company and conversation, not because of the church credit card. During this trip I found out that neither Target nor Mervyn's carry cheap slacks in my size.

This activity took longer than I expected it to, but I have found that I can bestow honor upon my parents by considering their activities worthy of my observation and consideration, so I consider that time as well-spent.

I believe it was upon Friday night that I watched Walk the Line with my father and oldest brother.

Thanksgiving 1

My worship pastor has a consistent tendency to include somewhat rhetorical questions with the list of worship songs which are to be played in church. I have included several of these questions below:

"Do we have anything to be thankful for, I know it sounds trite, but when was the last time you truly felt thankful? Is it because you've nothing to be thankful for, or are we all still lying on the grocery store floor blue in the face to get our way? God loves a grateful heart."

I have included this one because quite a number of us have seen children who fail to respond well to the goodness of their parents, and we think to ourselves, "The ungrateful little whelp, after all that is done for him! I am glad that I don't throw temper tantrums like that."

But you've got to think:

2 Peter 3 says that people somehow manage to forget the previous judgements of God so that they can say that God is slow in bringing the judgement which is hanging over them, even though God is being patient for their benefit. So if you are not a Christian and you know that God is calling you to humility and gratitude for the sacrifice of Jesus, go to those both of those places--at once!

On the other hand, if you are God's child, do not be ungrateful by denying God's:

1. Wisdom--by telling Him that you know what you need better than He does
2. Power--by assuming that you don't have what you think you need because He can't give you what you think you need
3. Love--by thinking that God is withholding good gifts from you because He wants to punish you for sin or to see you suffer (Hebrews 12 indicates that suffering is discipline which is to result in your sanctification, not punishment for sin which has already been laid upon Jesus).

Additionally, it occurs to me that anything less than gratitude toward God is idolatry, which is evil. God has described idolatry as adultery for the purpose of showing us how evil it is.

The Integration of Choice and Election (simplified)

I used to be quite confused because I couldn't understand how anyone could be to blame for failing to choose Jesus (which the scripture clearly teaches) while at the same time God receives glory for being gracious and choosing the people whom He is going to save, excluding all others (which the scripture also clearly teaches).

During my first year at Washington State University, a calvanist minister came to the house that I later moved into and admitted that we all get to choose Jesus or Satan, sin and death! Now is when you are all supposed to draw your breath in quickly because of your suprise. After he said that, I began to think of this little line of reasoning, and before long it was finished.

I know that this line of reasoning is quite simplified and that is has been torn apart by sharp people like James (whom I haven't had the pleasure of speaking to in some time) and Warren, but I don't remember how they did it. Perhaps they will comment.

It works like this: We all must choose. Choosing Jesus brings glory, honor and immortality. Choosing pride, sin, or anything else brings well... Satan, sin and death in Hell.

Now a believer might read this and think to himself, "Well then, why doesn't everyone just choose Jesus right away?"

Inconveniently, this choice is not a free choice because all of the people who are making this choice now are influenced by sin which has been programmed to preserve itself by the one who knows that Jesus will smash sin if He is chosen (Yes, I know that He will smash it later anyway). So the sin inside of people is a serious impediment to logical decision making -- so much so that the choices which are made can be predicted correctly in every instance. I.e. because of the sin that is in them, people will always choose pride, self, Satan, sin, death, anything but Jesus. But Jesus is not to blame because Jesus did not choose Satan, sin, or death or anything else for anyone (alright, He did choose death for Himself once, but not for anyone else).

Conveniently, Jesus has decided to be nice to some people whom He chose beforehand. These people are sometimes called the elect. Jesus opens the eyes of these people so that they can see reality (kinda like the eyes of Elisha's servant were opened) and they are given wisdom to know where pride and sin and so on will take them. Then they choose Jesus and they are translated to the kingdom of light.

How it is that Jesus is able to save people is another topic.

Helmsman Strategies

I typed most of this entry several days ago and hesitated to publish it because it sort of assumes that I know things about driving that other people do not know, but Chris from Seaside told me this morning that he thought that I should publish it, so here it is.

Although my driving has a number of critics (e.g. Josh from the UCBin Pullman, Pat from Seaside Church, Chris from Seaside), I have been informed that I have had the benefit of a superior driver's education class (i.e. superior to the driver's education classes of those complimenting mine). For this reason, I would like to share several driving tips with you:

1. When driving at night, avoid directly into headlights which are attached to cars which are traveling toward you. Instead look directly at the white line to your right. Try to keep your car just to the left of it. Of course, if you are tailgating the car which is in front of you, be sure to pay attention to its brake lights too. Oh, and watch out for traffic control signals and signs.
2. When waiting at the front of a queue in a left had turn lane, keep the all the wheels and tires of your car pointing straight ahead of you. Restrain yourself so that you do not point the steering wheels to the left until after you have already driven the car into the intersection. This increases the distance between your path and the car parked in the left hand (or left foot, for that matter) turn lane of the street you wish to enter. This can also keep you out of the path of the oncoming traffic to your left if you are rear ended.
3. If your car is covered with snow or ice, be sure to clean this ice and snow off of the transparent surfaces so that you do not become the next lazy, yet destructive person to smash into a pedestrian because he was unable to see out his car window.

Of course, this leads to the following obvious question: Where is your favorite speed bump, and what makes your favorite speed bump your favorite speed bump?

Which Button Should I Push?

The other day I was walking by a lady who works in the same building that I work in. She was staring at her computer and speaking out loud, "Which button should I push?"

In as much as I am always trying to be funny (kinda like now) I seized the opportunity thusly:

"Well, if you want to be married, you should probably push the big button marked 'COMMIT.'"

"Oh, and if you are a conservative or a pro-lifer, you should probably not push the big red button marked 'ABORT.'"

I suppose that I should have ommitted that last conditional.

Go therefore and do likewise... After you have read all of my other blog entries.

Churchbuildingdock

Chris Swan: Notice that this blog posting's title is not "Churchdock," which sounds better than, "Churchbuildingdock."

On Friday the 28th of October I drove the Illuminate 2 all of the way to Red Sea Church in Portland. I have been told that Portland is the least churched city in the United States of America. This means that the church building corresponding to Red Sea Church has a large part of its mission ahead of it, although it has been in dire need of a refit.

I became the least part of this refit which took place on the date mentioned above. ~70 men of the Acts 29 network spent ~400 man-hours on this building which had appeared as yet another part of a disfunctional neighborhood.

Upon my arrival I was quite pleased to hear that one of the men who was a pastor of mine at the Evangelical Free Church of Pullman while I was in Pullman was in attendance with the elders of Alathia Community Church which began with them in Issaquah Washington. He reminded me that I was the only college student who came into his church and immediately asked for a docrinal statment, remarking that this was beautiful for him to observe. I had not realized what an impression I had made.

To see so many men working on so many different parts of a semi-symmetrical structure with multiple levels made me think of the battle-damaged Enterprise starship getting fixed up in spacedock for another mission, hence the title of this blog posting. These parts included

1. Painting of many rooms with multiple ladders and multiple paint colors in each room
2. Construction of two counter tops with framing and sheetrock
3. Construction and wiring of one sound booth with a platform, framing, and sheetrock
4. Installation of eight ceiling fans utilizing one one man lift
   
5. Much landscaping
6. Much demolition of visually archaic furnature
7. Demolition of crack shack (quite common in this neighborhood)
8. Plumbing for new sinks (with new counter tops) in four restrooms
9. A fair amount of pressure washing
10. Other things

Seeing the success of the mission, which was almost without conflict through the submission and proper reception of instruction that must have taken place, made the accompanying aggrivation seem small.

Even so I have determined that I am quite happy that I have an engineering job which does not require any skill regarding paint. I spent most of my time there doing interior painting while standing on a ladder. I am not particularly proud of my work, for it was slow and its results were often sub-par, although they did improve. I don't know why the leader pointed that job out as "unskilled."

On the bright side, the Illuminate 2 managed another 350 wreck-free miles, dispite my allegedly poor handling, which a spiritual superior has had the effrontery to point out; it must be quite bad, but I am yet unconvinced. The man paid me an extra 25% for the drive, most likely this was a tip for not wrecking. What do you think?

Gag Tract

The wife of one of my better friends wrote this tract, which utilizes St Anselm's ontological argument. I realize that this represents a rather poor and ineffective evangelism methodology which should never be practiced, but I think that it is quite funny. Don't feel bad if you don't understand it the first time through; I didn't even realize that the tract was making fun of itself until just recently.

This file was set up to be printed and folded, so you may want to begin reading with the far right hand column on the second page and then continue on to the far left column of the first page.

Gag Tract

Candy Party Memo

Seaside Church in Bremerton which I have been attending for a little while now has N missional community groups (where N is some integer greater than 2). The missional community group which I attend is called north. The Seaside Church north missional community group has decided to hold an outreach event called a Harvest Party on October 31st. I was asked to build the draft for a flyer. My draft has been rejected, but I was advised to post it here for your viewing pleasure.

Candy Party Memo

Getting By Without (various things)

This week and probably next week, I will be getting by without my laptop computer power supply.

Last week and the week before that, I got by without my cellular telephone.

The week or two before that I got by without my cellular telephone battery charger and received the last call that I needed to take an hour or so before all of the usable energy was drained from the battery.

Aside from the observation that I seem to be getting very good at forgetting about various things and leaving them at my parent's home in Monroe, I have also observed that getting by without things that I am used to having is an interesting mental excersize for me because it forces me to come up with new solutions to my problems which require equipment.

I suppose that the most outstanding example of this from my own life would be last year from June to December when I had decided to do without my car because I had just wrecked it. After all, work was less than four miles away from home and I really didn't need my car at Washington State University. So for a while, I just walked to work and back, but then I discovered a bicycle that my dad had purchased at a garage sale for $5. This bicycle was in pretty lame shape, but it sure made getting to work quicker and easier than walking did. I had a great time while rolling it down the bumpy hill driving it really fast. One Sunday I pedalled it to Woodinville and back (40 miles round trip). I was amazed by how a bicycle could add efficiency to my transportation system through the conservation of linear momentum so that it made up for it's own weight, even when being pedalled uphill. My dad told me that I would be suprised at the increased efficiency that could be bestowed upon me by a bicycle that fit me and was in good condition. I don't know if I will ever get around to finding out about that though.

Oh well, this week I am having a great time getting plenty of sleep and reading the Bible because I am not busy playing video games and watching DVDs from the local library. You should try it sometime.

Funniness

One of my readers told me Sunday morning that my last posting was funny and that his reaction to it prompted a reaction from those around him so that he had to explain his own. I then remembered how my friend Brandon always (often) says that some of my funniest moments come about when I am not trying to be funny. Come to think of it, I think that Paul Adams said that too. Perhaps they are right. I didn't build this blog in attempt to be funny, but it seems to have turned out that way. So in an effort to avoid continuing as the laughing stock of my friends and acquaintances, I will type out this next story which I think is funny, but maybe you will all think that it is profound and take me seriously:

On Wednesday, I failed to look carefully at a topographical map and determined that I needed to go to the field to perform a downstream analysis. This means that I needed to go observe the drainage path of stormwater from a particular peice of land to Port Orchard. If I had looked carefully at the topographical map, I would have seen that the peice of land was quite near a closed depression, even though it is also quite near Port Orchard and I would avoided much trouble and spared the expenditure of some company money. At least it was on my way home.

I got out there to about the place where the land was and started following the ditch adjacent to it. In as much as I did not realize that I was in a closed depression, I was having a hard time deciding how that water in the wetlands several hundred feet downstream from the land was to cross the road. I don't always feel good when I realize that my thoughts are disconnected from the way that things are. I did find several catch basins which I opened and looked into, but they seemed to be draining in the wrong direction.

I had left the catch basin opening tool at the office, foolishly not thinking that I would need it because I had anticipated open ditches, so I was using my bare hands to do the job and I was gettin them all dirty. This was all very well and good for the type 30 catch basins, but then I ran across a type 1 or type 2 catch basin which had a 48" lid and which I thought was for a sewer, but it did say "drain" on it, so I decided to open it.

It had only three small round holes in it near the rim, about ninety degrees apart. I tried to open it with my index fingers, but I had to use my middle fingers to get it off. I looked down into it to make my observation and was careful not to fall in because I was all by myself. When I put the lid back on, I used my index fingers again and carefully lowered the cover back into place on the frame, with the tip of my left index finger smashed between the manhole cover and the frame upon which it was to rest. I tried to lift that end up again, but I was unable. Some people had just walked by, so I asked for their help, but they were really unhelpful. They were about to try something that didn't seem to be very smart to me and that I thought would inflict futher damage upon my poor finger, when I managed to yank my finger out. My finger still has several blood blisters in it and some of its nerves do not seem to be working quite right.

So there is my funny story. Everyone and my place of employment had a good laugh over it and it caused my boss to remember several other stories involving similar situations.

To me, the most interesting part was wondering what sort of people were going respond to me after I called for help. I wonder if you ever thought that Jesus would smash you if you asked Him for help. I wonder if you thought that asking Jesus for help would be useless because you have always seen Him pictured as a wimp without capabilities.

Oh well. I am quite glad to be unstuck.

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. 

Alcohol

I was at my neighbor's house last night because of a community event called Sliverdale Whaling Days (Silverdale Whaling Days). It is kind of a street festival just like Duvall Days and Sultan Shindig and Seattle Seafair. I didn't know that people invited their friends over for parties in honor of said events (or the fireworks that precede them), but there I was. I had already met the host at the Seaside Church in Bummertown (Bremerton), and he offered me a beer that didn't say light all over it, so I accepted. While I was consuming this alcohol, my buddy from Pullman called me and I realized that the last time I had consumed alcohol was when I was with him at a party. Sometime around then I decided to try to come up with a list of occasions upon which I have consumed alcohol.

1. In Monroe with my friend Brian. Brian has acted as my friend for some eleven years. I think that I was 22 years old. He insisted upon taking me out for this blend of coffee and alcohol. I said to myself, "this is probably the cheapest way to determine that I don't like coffee and that I don't like alcohol." I didn't like that drink at all. It may have had something to do with the fact that the drink was supposed to be hot, but I let it get cold.
2. In July of 2004 I went on a little evangelism outing with a man whom I met at a college group in the home of the Claussen's in Carnation. We handed out the Ray Comfort type tracks and talked to people. We (I) had a great time. Afterward, Samuel (said man) bought me some sort of alchoholic fruit drink from the QFC there.
   
3. Then there was the time in 2005 that Dave at the Embassy said that I was invited to Applebees in Moscow ID and I had $10 in my pocket, so I surprised everyone by accepting. I ordered something called a Black Buette and surprised everyone by finishing it even though I ordered a small glass and a large glass was delivered.
4. One day in April of 2006 I went to a place on the hill in Pullman (I can't remember the name of the place) and had something called a Jeagermister. The music was loud and the place was quite crowded.
5. Last night at my neighbor's house while waiting for fireworks and cracking corny jokes.
   

So there you go (just in case you cared). O yes, as Driscoll once said, "WWJD? What Would Jesus Drink?) That reminds me that I should get around to trying some wine someday.