God Made Iowa Too

Alright I give in. God made Iowa too. :-) Sarah had decided a while back that she was going to organize an Iowa appreciation trip for a few friends, and that's where I was this weekend.




Packed her car with five of us. Pete and Amanda needed someone to keep them separated.







The only deep thought of this post comes from our music selection on the way there. Francesca Battistelli is a new and upcoming Christian female vocal artist. I've heard a song of hers on the radio recently, "Free To Be Me", and of course took issue to it. We had a great discussion revolving around the question, "Does this song indicate that some people tend to bury, forget or avoid past mistakes where other people would seek out their own failure in order to correct it, be challenged by it and make themselves better for it?" The question was more complex than this, but you get the idea. Great discussion, and I might have actually learned something from it!

We passed through poopie town USA so that Bjorn could get some designer shades.


Just before crossing the river, Sarah pointed out how last year's flooding left Gulfport, Illinois a ghost town.
Next stop was Sarah's home. Her family's farm was knocked out by the flooding and still stands, to be torn down very soon.

I felt kinda stupid(er than usual) for closing the door behind me when we came in.


It was very sad walking where Sarah had so many memories. I visited this house briefly two years ago and it was beautiful!

The farm life intrigues me. Everyone else was very familiar with farms, but it's a rare treat for me. So we went on a little tour, including a very old barn.


Last year I got to ride in the combine driven by Wayne during harvest time. He commented on how many questions I could ask about the inside of a combine in such a short period of time.


Wayne is the father of another one of our Iowan friends who took us on an Iowa appreciation trip a while ago. Speaking of Wayne - he has be become a bit of a wine making fiend. We didn't get a chance to try some of his homemade stash last time, but he quickly offered it up this time, and sent me home with a bottle! I can't tell you how excited I was.



Took a quick tour of the farm equipment. Thank you Sarah for giving us as much farm exposure as possible!




Both farms were more like ice skating rinks outside. Kim and Amanda stuck together for support, but almost brought each other down several times.




Don't forget Grizzy!


On to Sarah's fam! Sarah's parents moved into a normal house in a nearby town soon after last year's flooding. They live very close to their other children, who all joined us to play after totally awesome lunch by Edra.



We then traded stories about Sarah with her brothers, to be published in a later post titled "The Sarah we Didn't Know"



I found shamelessly stole a picture of Sarah's family from facebook. These are all the folks we got to hang out with for half the afternoon, and it was a blast. I figured it was ok since the fam was all dressed up and looked very nice. It could have very well been taken while we were there. The same decorations are still up. :-)


AUGH! It got late on me again! Can't finish tonight either. Well, enjoy this much.

Beth With An 'S'

Tonight I was given the opportunity to experience the hospitality of the Germans. Dan, Elke and Elisabeth.


Dan's fam was a fantastic part of our 2008 New York Trip team from church. They have since moved on to our church plant church about half an hour away, and I do not get to see them much!



Elke prepared an excellent pasta dish (not sure if it was German), and both her and Dan whipped up the German desserts and tea. The meal was superb guys, thank you!!






Both Dan and Elke are from German families, and Elke actually grew up there. Dan is a pretty serious motorcycle buff and both are fired up for the Lord. Before dinner, Dan and I spent some time paging through his big atlas of Europe (written in German) and it reminded me of when my Grandmother used to whenever she heard of a place she had not seen before.

Don't be fooled, Arka is a huge old puppy. They named her Arka because that's what Beth called her when she was two. I know this because I asked and conversed. Another amazing tidbit from my "Biblical leadership and grown-up relationships for DUH" handbook.Beth with her friendly and talented hamsters, Wiener and Beaner I think? Does that look like a hamster to you? Maybe THAT'S the pet I should be thinking about.




(too tired to fix the formatting)

Beth was a terribly entertaining and joyful part of the NY trip. She rarely did anything but smile It became a game to try to see if I could get a picture of her not smiling. She almost won.




For most of the week, I got this nagging feeling that something wasn't right as we walked the streets of New York in the afternoons and evenings.


Nope, nuthin' here...

...nuuuuuthin there

Well there's your problem right there.


Sometimes when Elisabeth wasn't around, the signs that she had been there were still clear!

Thank you friends for your encouragement and graciousness!

We Be Geeks

Nuthin' much new I'm allowed to blog about. A little attention is due my buddy James (pictured). He runs the IT department at Peoria Christian School and has solicited me to work with him on a fun side project. That's been fun, but what's more cool is that he's been trying really hard to get me hired on full time with the school. It's very exciting to think about, so I'm trying not to. In this picture, I caught him at the tail end of a rant about how much he hates technology. Sounds like a sweet job :-)

Today was an opportunity to help out the teachers in some IT areas. One gal got a huge smile on her face when her computer fan stopped sounding sick (sound familiar Mom?). Another, not so happy. She's subbing for a gal at my church who just had a baby, and killed her hard drive on the third day.

Initiation

Today was my initiation. Boss man Ken was very excited. The middle school, a separate building a few blocks away, had a sick kid with a special talent for blowing puke halfway across the bathroom. Turns out there's a special absorbent powder just for such a job, basically garage floor mess stuff. I went through three bags of it. He also put me on traffic duty outside in the morning. What a turd. :-)

So anyway how are you? What was your day like? Okay, I'll keep talking, but don't let me flood you consistently with stories about myself every day.

(sigh) Forgot to tell you about the big sad news at work my first day. After an hour on the job, Ken had managed to introduce me to most of the office staff at school, but none of the elementary teachers. I only went to high school there, so that's all I know. Finally had to ask, "When are you going to introduce me to all the young single elementary teachers?" His answer was a depressing "I don't think we have any, the few left are all getting married." Sure enough, there is a noticeable shortage of "Miss" signs outside the classroom doors. Oh well. Maybe I just need to find me a couple of friends who are much more interested in hookin' up their desperately single friends rather than trying to build up, challenge and encourage me in Christ. I mean, honestly, what good are you if you put my maturity and focus ahead of my joy?

Also forgot to mention the encouraging goal that Lavone had left me with. I love seeing and taking in new places and experiences. As I walk the halls of the elementary school, it's exciting (to me) to think of all the time and fun put into teaching these kids. The kindergarten wing has several classes where each corner or wall is for a different purpose. One wall has a chair and rug for story time. The other is a play loft for toys. Another is for telling stories with puppets. Another is for special rewards. Check out stories about these cuties at their school. Well anyway, Lavone finds that it's important to her to do a good job (sweeping, vacuuming, taking out trash) since these teachers work so hard at pourin' alota love into these kids. It really does work too, even though none of them are single and my age....

Yeah! Real work

First day on the temp job was a blast. Alright, don't tell the old guy, but I was kind of exhausted and sore at the end of the day. Ya, I realize that's calling Doug old too. I'll deal with that when it comes around. It's pretty simple stuff. Set up, tear down, set up some more. Be available for odd jobs that my old teachers now have to ask MY help for (snicker snicker). Mrs. Hauter totally used improper wall adhesive! I wonder if I should tell her that I remember she was the only teacher to ever give me a detention. :-) I met one of my best friends in that detention. She's actually one of my favorite teachers though. We just had a bad day. I was kind of a teacher's pet (without the good grades and with an honest appreciation for them) so it was very enjoyable to be hanging out with my favorite people again.

When bored, go harass Mrs. Bachman. My boss has a knack for scurrying off quite a bit, so when no one is asking for help, you gotta find somethin' to do. The only person from highschool who might be more memorable than the infamous Mr. Fay, is Mrs. B. Hey, hey! See the water leak stain on the wall behind her? Of course you don't, I cleaned it up!! FYI, that was a pose, not a surprise.

Mrs. B keeps pictures on her wall from all the students who give her senior photos or other special ones. Every time I visit, I find mine on the wall. We have a serious problem now though. It is nowhere to be found. She has until next Friday to "find" it or else she will NOT be getting any flowers this spring! :-)

Need to ask what the guy I'm filling in for was doing, because the last few hours of the day were spent helping out someone who normally doesn't get this much help. But what a surprise blessing. Lavone has been performing custodial duties at the school for nearly 20 years. I definitely remember her from my days, but never really talked. I come to find out what her job fully entails and about some stuff that's happened in her life recently. It was SOOO rewarding to find that it's normally a rare thing for her to be so ahead of schedule and able to slow down a little since I was there. She works the 12-8 shift and still had alot to do before I left. FYI again, that was a pose, not a surprise.

Job updates

Had an interview with State Farm today. I wasn't sure which position it was that they were interviewing for at first. There were a few I applied for and a couple of them were stretches. That plus the idea of working for a huge company wasn't giving me the warm fuzzies anyway. But the interview went well with just a few conversational questions about my previous job, and I later found that this is the position which is very relevant to my previous experience. Shouldn't be a mindless coder or database admin, like so many out there.

That's the good news. The great news is that I start a job tomorrow! Just part time for two weeks, no biggie on the job security front. It gets me out of the house and working with people I like alot. Peoria Christian, my old High School, has this old dude that runs all their maintenance. While some of his help is out for a couple of weeks, they're letting me step in and give the guy a hand. Cleaning up kid's puke ain't glamorous and doesn't pay well, but I'd pick that over Rose bud any day now. Thanks Ken. It's a huge favor and blessing.

I also put in for morning stocking at Menard's today for when the PCS stint is over. Getting my rear out of bed and supplementing unemployment is the name of the game until something full time comes around.

"Special" Chili

After church hopping, it was off to a gracious friend's lunch party! Holly, who's parents have gone to my parent's church for ages, had some of her friends over to start the year off healthy with a special meal. The main course was her family's "Special Chili", some flax seed cornbread and a fruity pudding dessert. I'll let you in on the secret. She made everyone guess the flax seed, meat substitute and the use of cocoa in the chili. It was considered special because for years, Holly's dad was convinced it was a meat chili, but in reality, it was just a secret soy substitute. Cat's out of the bag now though. Dad, you can tease a little.


Holly broke out the secret soy ingredient on us eventually. When Charly arrived, he was stunned that someone would cheat him out of his usually dead-meat meal. It wasn't too tough though, because he's got a new years bet ridding on his ability to go vegan for a week. He wasn't banned from adding all his favorite spices, including an abundance of chili powder.

We have a running joke that everyone needs to watch what they eat when Abe is around since he owns a fitness center that some of us go to, and might give the evil eye if he sees anything unhealthy going into your face. No worries today.







Healthy as lunch was, the holidays are taking their toll on my diet. So I was very excited for the opportunity to to jog off lunch with Charly and Joanne later.





Evening church last night incorporated a family activity before Pastor Joel's awesome message. Church Jeopardy!!





Our A-team!


The...other team


(Z-team not pictured)

Tale Of Two Churches

This turned into a rant about the churches I love. So how about I recommend that you skip it if you get bored with my rants, and move on to the rest of Sunday in the next post when it's up?

First, I almost forgot to update those who care about the court date last Friday. The charges were expanded somehow to at least one more of the kids that broke into my garage, and the main kid was still changing his story every minute (from what I'm told). I was a couple of minutes late, having no respect for the court system after the last experience. The assistant states attorney told me later that they almost dismissed because I wasn't there yet. But almost an hour later, after having done nothing but sitting out in the hallway, the assistant states attorney told me that they were given court supervision as punishment. Not much punishment, but it was their first offense, and the kids mother and teacher were telling him over and over again about the concept of bad choices, so I really wasn't hoping for more. One of the other kids was pretty stupid and immature though, he could have used more.

Saturday - Wasted most of it, but there were a few hours of productivity with Josh's mandatory house cleaning scheduled for the morning. We didn't get to everything that crazy man wanted to get to, but the master bathroom, kitchen, living room and refrigerator were in the worst condition and are now well cleaned.

Sunday was church (duh), but two doses of it this week. I planned on going to Bethany Community Church in Washington because of the lack of responsibilities in Peoria this week, and friends I had going as well. Pastor Ritch continually reveals that all you need to preach about it Christ glorified. 1 Corinthians 12 talks about the purpose and use of spiritual gifts. The benefit of these gifts is for the entire body of Christ, and therefore there was a bit of a theme of unity. But also a simple refocusing of our purpose on that of glorifying God and bringing joy to others. It's easy to figure out what gifts you don't have, but we are strongly obligated not to shy from whole heartily using the gifts that we do have. Again, not something I was really convicted about until the last couple of years. If you have a thoughtful, observant, outgoing, loud and boisterous personality, I don't know what all your gifts are, but if you don't either, there's a good indication that you can use those qualities to encourage and build up other people in a meaningful way. Uuuuuuuuuther people. That's one of the habit roads I've talked about in my life. When I decided to try to start focusing on other people, I found that my attitude and endurance for it fluctuated quite a bit based on how I was letting things go in other areas in life, but I'm glad to have a genuine taste of fruit that will not go away easily.

Well, moving on to Bethany Community after that found more blessings than I expected. First, I guess I wasn't such a genius for using this week as a visit week to our church plant in Washington, because everyone else from Bethany Baptist decided to visit as well. Even without them, it was the exact warm and welcoming experience that the BCC church plant folks had been shooting for. At Candlelight and Carols, the front hallway at Five Points Community Center was perfect for funneling everyone through a gauntlet of happy faces waiting to thank you and wish a Merry Christmas on your way out. Well...it works as you're coming in to the building too! Great job Gary and Chris, the first of several in the gauntlet :-)

A few similarities in the service. We sang the same rarely used song at BBC and BCC that morning. It was mentioned, however, that at BBC it must have been a lower key. Durham knows Fred too well.

Pastor Daniel was also speaking on church unity, but from another aspect, Ephesians 2:14-18. Bonus!!! I highly recommend downloading this sermon (when available), which, like Pastor Ritch's sermons, addresses the history and meaning of scripture, as well as the loving, glorifying and inspirational intent and application.

And just like pastor Ritch, Daniel announced that "you may see three points listed in your bulletin, but we will only have time to get through one of them." Unlike Ritch, he walks around alot with his Bible.

Well, this turned into a rant, so how about I recommend that you skip it if you get bored with my rants, and move on to the rest of Sunday in the next post? Oh, a little late isn't it. Okay, we'll put a warning at the top too.

Hobbit Habbits

11 hours and 23 minutes of Middle Earth awesomeness. That about sums up the first day of 2009 for me. II Peter hosted A Lord Of The Rings Marathon and I was NOT the only fool to attend. Kind of ironic after a semester spent studying "Don't Waste Your Life". I'm trying not to think about that. :-)


In years past, my buddy Matt would run a Tom Clancy movie marathon consisting of "The Hunt For Red October", "Patriot Games" and "Clear And Present Danger". So the concept isn't new, but the neck ache is. Big difference in length. One possition all day, not so much a good idea.

I already gave a short rant not too long ago about my favorite character, Aragorn, so there really isn't much else to be said. Well, there was. Having seen the movie so many times, I'm not distracted so much trying to follow things, and instead can make observations. I had a ton of MST3K riffing on the tip of my tongue, but with a sore throat and the only person assured of being entertained (Josh) not around for most of the movies...I kept it to a min

So, do you think I can get away with a segway into habits from hobbits? Sure. The bigger question is, is that how you spell the word for a conversational topic change?

I've heard it said in Sunday school class multiple times, that you can replace bad habits with good habits. I think that is exactly what true change would appear like. In the Bible, Paul describes the ultimate change - "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." 1 Corinthians 5:17. And I believe the same is true for habits, attitudes, etc.. In a transformed habit, you will see a new one grow in it's place, or an old one come back like a weed.

When I moved into this house over five years ago, I had alot of talks with my landlord and friend, Rodney, about my bad habits, and how difficult it's been to change them. He told me something that took years to mean anything to me. He simply told me to ask Jesus for help and trust that He will do so. I am grateful for such a simple goal, though difficult as it is. When you admit your need, when you commit to the God glorifying change of habit, you will see His avenue (not just a new me-street) of actions and thoughts meant for our transformed lives, even though it's still up to us to take it. I still see myself in my bad habits alot because I often take the wide road even though I see the narrow. The question is, do I really understand and intend to stay on a better road?

Smell My Feet!

New Years at Chris and Jerelyn's! The only non-hoodies were a really cool couple that Cole and Christy know very well. Cole and Kristi will be moving into our hood this spring. Christi was my left arm. No clue how to spell her name, so you get all three until I do.






The engineers had to catch up on test results for each of their products and swap stories about marriage.






Trey Time!



Food Time!



















It's been a while since I've had Chris' brownies. Definitely took some home.




The freezer was packed to record capacity. Plenty more brownies on the top shelf :-)








We spent about three hours just hangin', then two playing a new (to me) game, "Would You Rather..." Very good game in my opinion. At least with this crowd. Thanks for letting me be on team Stuber tonight guys!


Jerelyn was very passionate about the game, especially when smelling feet was involved. I think at 8am tomorrow, Chris's wake up call is going to be a shoe in his face :-)


Joyous and Jon were silent but deadly winners of this mind game of sorts.

Happy New Year!!