Easter is always a time of reflection and re-commitment for me. While stationed at Fort Greely, Alaska in 1987, I bought a Bible for my 21st birthday(I also bought a case of Michelob for which I was not carded
). My older brother Rod had gotten a bible on his 21st birthday and I thought I would get one too. I figured I would read it and be able to tell anyone who asked, “Yeah I read the Bible.” At the time, I had a very devout United Pentecostal roomate and I think he kept me in my prayers and I kept him on his knees
. After reading in the Bible for a few months, I came to realize that God’s capacity to forgive was far greater than mine. I couldn’t forgive myself for certain things(dealing drugs in my parents home being at the top of the list). I was humbled by His love and knelt beside my bunk one night and prayed a simple prayer from the back of a Gideon’s New Testament and dedicated myself to following Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. That was during Easter season of 1987. I am so thankful to the new creation that was brought about in my life. Old things passed away and life became new. I have never regretted praying that prayer and have had quite a journey with the Lord since then. While I may not be as confontational about my faith as I once was in my zeal to share what had happened in my heart, I am no less devoted to Him. May you know His love and forgiveness forever and always. I cherish them.
Attitude of Grattitude
I have a co-worker that can be counted on to complain about almost anything and everything. Almost everyday, they arrive with curses and complaints about someone cutting them off or some “idiot” that did something to them. I kid them and welcome them with “Hello sunshine.” It really is our decision what we do with what happens to us. We can choose to accentuate the positive or dwell on the negative. I hear the doom and gloom spilling out of the tv and remember I have a loving wife and a job. I have good health. My son may play his music loud in his room, but he is home and not a runaway. I may have bills, but fortunately I don’t have bill collectors banging on my door. I may not live in a mansion, but I have a roof over my head and utilities that work. I am not homeless and have food to eat. I remember doing mission work in the mountains of Mexico and seeing how grateful the people of the village were. They had dirt floors and drafty dwellings. Their church was made up of rocks and the pews were nothing more than 2 x 4s, but they were happy. Philippians 4:11 says ” I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.” For the majority of our 19 years togehter, we were vagabonds for Jesus. One year in Kempner, TX after we got married. Two years in Dallas, TX for bible school school. Four years in Aledo, TX as youth pastors. Three years in Tulsa, OK for college at ORU. Four years in Wilmore, KY for seminary and then work. We now have a place we aren’t renting and though it isn’t our dream home, it’s ours. We may have a teenager that can be moody or rude at times, but he is also principled and willing to go against the crowd when he thinks they are wrong. I am grateful to the Lord for the life he has given me and the wonderful things in my life.
What has happened since February?
A month with no blogging and now twice in a week. Go figure. On the 13th, we celebrated Renee’s birthday. I got her a Bluebell T-shirt and plush since we don’t have any Bluebell Ice Cream in CA. We took her to Mimi’s Cafe for dinner and then had some cake and ice cream when we got home.
Her parents arrived from TX the following Sunday and then the rain came down. We ended up taking them to the Route 66 museum in Victorville on President’s day. We drove Route 66 to Barstow and ate at Idle Spurs. The next night, Renee and I celebrated our 19th anniversary with her parents at Dinapoli’s Firehouse in Apple Valley. A few days at the house was enough for her folks so I took the rest of the week off to drive them around. On Thursday we went to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Grauman’s Chinese Theater. We even got back through Cajon Pass before traffic got bad. On Friday, we went to Calico Ghost Town and stopped for an early dinner at Rosita’s. Saturday we drove them to the airport and I caught my pinky in the door as we unloaded. OUCH! I quickly wrapped it in some napkins and we saw them to the terminal.
On the 24th, I got older. Enough said. Renee insisted we go to dinner so we went to Mama Carpino’s in Apple Valley. Last weekend, Jesse and his youth group went to camp in the San Bernardino Mountains. With him gone, Renee and I enjoyed some Chinese food which he doesn’t like and finished her Columbo DVD. If you want to see any photos, join Facebook and friend us.
My blog feels like a blahg.
Since the start of the year, I have been slacking off on my blog. Last year I was pretty consistent with posts at least once a week and sometimes several in a week. My lasts two posts have reflected the melancholy feeling I have found myself in with regards to my blog. Maybe it’s because of the season of life I find myself in or maybe I just blame it on the time of year. Either way, I haven’t felt like blogging much. We really haven’t been doing anything of note since the holidays. I enjoyed hanging out with some friends for the Chargers playoff game and then for the Royal Rumble PPV. I have been doing a lot of reading and have finished the first few books of the The New Jedi Order series of Star Wars novels. We bought Renee the first season of Columbo on DVD and have spent several nights watching it.
One of the main things bugging me is the silence of our close friend from France. She last spoke to us in December just before Christmas. Since that time, we haven’t heard a peep despite many e-mails and voice mails. We continue to pray for her and her family, but we just don’t know what has happened to bring about this silence after 8 years of non-stop communication. This alone may be one of the reasons for my mood of late. We miss her and her family. I hope we hear from her or her family soon and will continue to pray in the meantime.
Where has the time gone?
Twenty years ago, Pastor Kirby Lack laid hands on me and commissioned me into the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the time, I was a single, young man serving in the US Army at Fort Hood, Texas entering the last year of my enlistment. I had asked Renee to marry me and we had set a date for the following year. I was helping Pastor Kirby in whatever capacity he needed. This included, but was not limited to, running the church bookstore, creating Sunday bulletins, coordinating Sunday school, cleaning the church and straightening chairs. Along with myself, there were a small corps of young ministers(David Hogan, Jerry Hamill, Ramon Uriegas, Mark Kinnamen, Doug Christensen, & John Pelizarri) serving Trinity Worship Center with Pastor Lack.
Two years later, Renee and I left for Christ For The Nations Institute in Dallas joining Michelle Daley for two years of Bible School. While there, we did door-to-door evangelism in Oak Cliff (at night I might add) and then became youth pastors at Aledo Christian Center some 50 miles away from the school. Many a meal was from the Burger King drive thru in Duncanville while we made the trip back and forth to Aledo. Thank the Lord for $1 Whoppers! After graduation in 1992, we moved to Aledo to continue our ministry there and await the birth of our son Jesse. We saw the youth group grow from 4 kids (Joni, Kara, Kristen, Kandi) to over twenty before shrinking back down to nothing before we left for Tulsa and Oral Robert University in June of 1996. At that point I was burned out and had no desire to minister again.
We attended Church on the Move, pastored by Willie George, and enjoyed just being a worshiper instead of a worker. In 1998, as part of my senior paper, I began working with the bus ministry at COTM thanks to Eric Moon and Randy Debell. I discovered that I still had something to offer in service after all. I served as Rear Door Guard on a bus of 40-50 kids and teenagers for the Saturday inner city bus ministry. Many kids just wanted somone to care.
After graduating from ORU in 1999, we moved to Kentucky so I could attend Asbury Theological Seminary. We found a home church at Bethel Harvest Church with Pastors Marion and Stephanie Dalton in Lexington, KY. We offered ourselves as volunteers in the Children’s Ministry with Tina Leslie and soon were overseeing the 1-6th grade children. By the time we left in 2003, we were holding two chapels services on Sunday and had over 70 kids attending. Also during that time, we befriended Julie from France who we met online. She was fighting cancer and was predicted to die by her birthday in 2001. With encouragement to believe and a lot of prayers, she passed that date and was still doing well last we heard from her this past Christmas.
The Lord prompted us to return to California in 2003, so we bid farwell to our church family there and loaded the household belongings for the journey home to Barstow. We spent 3 months living in Barstow before work as a Computer Tech/Teacher at Excelsior Education Center became available in Victorville. We moved and I began teaching web design/computers to high school and later middle school students. In 2006, turmoil occured as jobs were lost at the school, but the Lord proved faithful as a better paying job was obtained back in Barstow of all places. Ministry since returning to California has been mostly through friends rather than through a church. We look for a home church, but still haven’t found the right fit. For now, I feel like Paul back in Tarsus making tents. I do my job and minister His grace, goodness and love as the opportunity arises.
It has been 20 years since I first surrendered to the call of Christ to ministry. I have been fortunate to minister in Barcelona, Monterrey, the village of San Martin De Las Vacas, Copperas Cove, Tulsa, Tullahoma, and Lexington. I have performed marriages in Pismo Beach, Oak Hills, Killeen, Copperas Cove, alongside the Lampasas River and spoken at my grandmother’s funeral in Charleston, WV. I baptized my son in the creek at the family farm in Sissonville, WV while my Paw Paw stood by. Thank you Lord for the journey you have allowed me to take and the people that you placed in our path along the way. I look forward to what the next 20 years hold and pray that I can still be of service to your kingdom by touching others with your love and mercy during that time.
Friends are friends forever.
As we journey through this life, I find it interesting how some people are constants in our lives and others are there only for a season and then are gone. I have one friend that has remained a constant in my life since high school while others have drifted away. I have been in churches from Texas to Oklahoma to Kentucky and had some very dear friends I made along the way. As time and distance have separated us, some I could call and pick up right where we left off while others I will probably never hear from again. I am grateful for those that are, have been or will be among those I call friend. Thanks for sharing a laugh or cry. It is good to know that others are on the journey and we can help shoulder one another in times of joy and despair. Friends are friends forever.
Sympathy for the longsuffering fan.
Yesterday, I saw my beloved Chargers once again fall short of winning it all. It’s nothing new as they have never ended the post-season winning. My friend Marilyn, at whose house we watched the game, is a longtime Steelers fan. She turned to me afterward and said, “I know how you feel.” I had to correct her and say, “No, you don’t, because your team has won the Super Bowl.” Unless you are a Titans, Panthers, Falcons, or Seahawks fan you don’t know how I feel. Each of these teams have made one appearance in the Super Bowl and lost. On the other hand, I have no idea how fans of the Bills, Vikings, Bengals, or Eagles feel as they have been multiple times without winning it all. Then there are the fans of the Browns, Jaguars, Texans, Lions, Saints, and Cardinals that have never even been to the Super Bowl. Besides being a Steelers fan, she also roots for the 49ers which hardly seems fair since they have 10 Super Bowls wins between them. Every team in the AFC West has won a Super Bowl and a couple have won it twice while my Chargers have yet to win the big one. I appreciate the sympathy, but to be a fan of the Chargers is to know what it means to never win it all. I remember in the 90s hoping I would live long enough to see them make it there. They did and were smashed by the 49ers. Now I hope that before I draw my last, I will see the Lombardi trophy hoisted by my team since the days of Dan Fouts and Air Coryell, the San Diego Chargers.
Reflecting on years past.
A new year is always a great time to look forward and think on years past. In 1969, I was the baby of the family until October when my younger brother came on the scene. In 1979, I was in middle school and trying my best to be cool. In 1989, I was in the last year in the Army and engaged to Renee. In 1999, I had just finished with my degree at Oral Roberts and working at Walmart doing overnight stocking while working part-time as a web designer. That brings us to 2009 and it is amazing how I am back working in Barstow, a town I desperately wanted to escape as a teenager. I have been married to Renee 19 years next month. Twenty years after leaving the Army, I work as a contractor overseeing environmental websites for them. I don’t know what the next 10 years will bring, but I know in whom I trust. Thanks Lord for an amazing adventure filled with friends, family, a variety of locations, and your everlasting, unconditional love.
I will be watching the “Ed Hochuli Bowl” next Sunday night.
After a very dismal season where a blown call by Referee Ed Hochuli seemed to set them into a tailspin, the San Diego Chargers have a chance to make the post-season by beating the Denver Broncos at home next Sunday night. In the second game of the season, referee Ed Hochuli blew an obvious Denver fumble dead which ended up costing the Chargers the game. Now they will meet in the “Ed Hochuli Bowl” in San Deigo to determine the AFC West Champion. I sat mesmerized as San Deigo came on strong to beat Tampa Bay 41-24 in an early game. I then watched the ticker for the Buffalo-Denver score in the late game. Buffalo beat Denver to ensure a rematch with a playoff berth on the line. Thanks Buffalo. Go Bolts!
16 more shopping days!
It seems this year will be another year of last minute shopping. I know people that finish their shopping before Thanksgiving and I have never been able to accomplish getting mine done that early. Every year I have good intentions of getting it all done early and life seems to prevent it from happening. Bills come first and always seem to make things interesting come the holidays. If you have managed to get all of your shopping done, I applaud you. I just ask for you not to sneer too much when you see me out there at the last minute doing mine. We did get our newsletter done and will mail it out as the cards arrive. I will also post it to our website for those that want to read it. I hope everyone is getting their holiday cheer this year. Have a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year.