Down With The Empire?

True Irony.
The real question is, Do you want to be breastfed Starbucks? No? Neither do I.

snow shoe new year

I haven't updated since LAST YEAR!!!

It is time to give you a little insight to the great Northwest.

It has basically been raining everyday since my last post up here...

Tara and I got to spend 3 WEEKS in Kansas. It was wonderful. Great time with Fam and friends, great food, and lots of disc golf and watching football.

Here is a couple of pictures of last weekend when we got to go with our friends Peter and Krista up to Mt. Seymour. Tara's first time and my first time in Canada.

The first one is of Peter and Krista. The second is of Tara and I.

2 year aniversary

Today is our 2 year anniversary! It has been a great day. We cooked up a little brunch and have been able to relax by the fire for most of the morning. We will continue to celebrate for the rest of the day...after doing a little studying.

Radiating Christ by Mother Teresa

Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus! Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others; the light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine: it will be You shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You in the way You love best: by shining on those around me. Let me preach You without preaching, not by words, but by my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You. Amen.

Mother Teresa

"A fitting honor"?

As I was looking at my hometown newspaper, I saw an interesting article about the former football coach of my high school. Larry Garman coached the Pittsburg High School dragons for 34 years and is now being honored by having a street named after him. I think anyone who has worked in the same place for 34 years should have a street named after them.

However, this does not seem to happen very often and shows what the city of Pittsburg finds to be important i.e. football...

Check out "a fitting honor" article.

Reading Week

It is reading week at Regent College. This means a week of no class and trying to catch up on the reading requirements for our classes. I am reading some great books such as the one above by Stott. I am about to finish a book called The Christ on the Mount by E. Stanley Jones. This book is a must read...simply amazing! Finally I am reading Biblical Healing and Deliverance by Chester and Betsy Kylstra.

Purpose Driven in Rwanda

I know most of us have heard of The Purpose Driven Life/Church. It almost seemed that the author (Rick Warren) was just riding a wave of popularity and trying to profit on what people wanted to hear. I was in a Purpose Driven small group and thought, "wow! This seems to be a fad like the Prayer of Jabez."

In my Sermon on the Mount class with DARRELLJOHNSON I found it fascinating to hear what Rick Warren was up to these days. Dr. Johnson told us about how Dr. Warren has had a change of heart and is an example of being light to the world. Specifically Dr. Warren has donated all of his salary from the past 30 years back to his home church. He is able to do this as a result of the popularity of his books. He also has been tithing 90% of the income from his book sales. A sign of a changed life.

To top it off he has joined with Bill Hybels of Willow Creek in Chicago to combat aids in Africa! Check out "Purpose Driven in Rwanda" in Christianity Today

Breaking the chains

This weekend we went to Burlington, Wa to a class named breaking the chains. It was good to get out of Vancouver and hear about Tierra Nueva's mission.

my twin brothers b-day

Yesterday was my brother Nathan's 28th b-day. He is in Pittsburg, Ks with his wife preparing for life in the Malawi Africa with the peace corps. Some day we hope to be able to hang out on our shared b-day.

However, it is always great to let other people know that it is "my brothers b-day today".

happy b-day nate

Grouse Grind

Today Tara and I went on the "grouse grind" with our friends Dave and Christy.

The grouse grind is a hike that is straight up a mountain. It took us about an hour but people can do it in half that time. The view from the top is amazing. To get down we paid $5 and took the gondola. However, it costs $30 to go up to the top on the gondola.

What do you want on your tombstone?

I just read about a new product called the vidstone. Apparently it is a solar powered television within a tombstone. According to the vid stone web site it plays, "...a 5-10 minute multimedia memorial detailing the most precious memories of your loved one’s life."

What video would you want everyone to see?

the cottage

Ok we are finally moved... Now we just need to unpack everything :@

Here are a few pics of the cottage we live in now.

Sunset

The night before we dropped Tara's parents off at the airport in Seattle we got to eat at Anthony's in Bellingham. They had the best Wild Salmon I've ever tasted. Cooked on a cedar plank and amazing.

Here is a picture of the sun that showed itself at the end of a rainy day. This was our view from Anthony's. It was our last meal in the North West with Tom and Julie. We stayed with our friend Deborah and she introduced us to the restaurant.

Our friend Deborah is the marketing director at The Firs camp and conference center in Bellingham.

Here is a picture of all of us at dinner. She is one funny gal!

moving day

Today is the first day of moving our stuff over to the cottage. I decided to do what is truly important and write on my blog. :) On Monday we saw a great movie that has been out most of the summer. Batman begins:

Our Canadian Grandma

We just got back from having dinner with our Canadian Grandma Margaret. She has helped make Vancouver a great place to be. Who knows, without her, we may have left Canada by now. Here are a couple pictures of her. The first one is in front of her house and the second is where we ate dinner tonight named Sun Sui Wah, an amazing place to eat Chinese food.

Sista's 30th B-day

Today is my sister Shannon's 30th b-day! Wow! She is officailly a thirty something.

Here is a picture of a water fall that is named after her.

Canada place

The Canada Place is a great place to look out on the city of Vancouver. Here is a traditional Canadian place view.

Tom and Julie are taking us out to a lot of fun places to eat and we are seeing a lot of Vancouver that we haven't seen before. It's good to have them around for another few days.












Here is a picture of Tom and Julie by the famous Gas town clock.

Galiano

We made it over to the beautiful Galiano island in the Georgia Strait. It was so fun to relax in a beautiful place. The Gay's let us stay in their cabin for a couple days and help us get ready to hang out with their kids for the upcoming school year.

We will be moving NEXT WEEK. It is hard to believe we will be leaving the East side of Vancouver.

We will be moving into a place where we will get to spend time with a cute puppy and some great kids.










RAIN - Our new best friend?

Swimming in the Ocean

Yesterday Tom and I got to take a dip in the ocean off of the rocks at the Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver.

Today we got to go on a long bike ride around Stanley Park and enjoy some cheap wings at Sammy Peppers.

Looks like the four of us will go to Galiano Island this weekend and get to hang out and relax.

Tara's parents

Tara's folks made it up here on Tuesday. When we picked them up in Seattle we got to hang out at the fish market.

We have been able to show Tom and Julie the beautiful city we live in and celebrate Tara's b-day together. Here is a picture of here parents under a big Douglas fir.

Finally here is a picture of Julie (Tara's mom) and Tara by our famous Kansas flower