The Rest of the Story - Part II

I decided I needed to talk to my pastor about the recurring dreams. He is also the president of the board for Love INC -Fairbanks. I told my wife I was not going to mention the dreams unless he spoke of the organization first. I had other issues to discuss with him about the job I was holding at the time.

A funny thing happened next. As we began our meeting, my pastor said, "you know, I was having breakfast with someone today that was asking about you." Come to find out, it was the executive director of Love INC. I left the pastors office and went straight to the ED's office.

Talking with the ED it seemed a no brainer for me to return to work for Love INC. I was being invited into a new position as Special Projects Manager which covered everything from special events, fundraising, grant writing, and a host of other stuff.

In the 20 years of Love INC being existent in Fairbanks, they had done very little in the public eye. When I came on, I was determined for this to change. The first public event was the Golden Days Parade, held annually to celebrate the founding of Fairbanks. There is also a Street Fair following the parade. We participated in both and received a tremendous response from the public. The next event was the Tanana Valley Fair.

We as Love INC decided very late in the process to have a booth at the fair in August. So late in fact, we were placed on a waiting list and told our chances for aquiring a spot were slim to none. Two days before the fair was to start, they called us and offered us booth space. My boss and I both went to see where we would be located and pick up the necessary paperwork.

While we were being shown our place and being told all the particulars, my boss asked who our neighbors would be. We were surprised to hear that one of them was to be Planned Parenthood. We both looked at each other in disbelief and and proceeded to complete our introduction to the fair.

Back at our office we started discussing things like "what should we do with our booth having P.P. as our neighbor." One idea was to buy every box of LIFE cereal and hand them out to the crowd. Before long we remembered about the newly established 'unofficial' Bound4Life team here in Fairbanks. We contacted them and offered them an opportunity to share our booth.

The first several days of the fair everything went fine. We did have one surprise. P.P was at a completely different locatoin. This did not stop us. Our booth looked great. 1/2 was all about Love INC and the services we provide. the other was all about Bound4Life. They had recently done a 21 day stand at the local Federal Courthouse and had some great pictures (you can see in the pic above) that caught the eye. Some of the group sat at the booth and wore the LIFE tape.

The fact that the LIFE tape was being worn became an issue with Love INC staff, the board and some of the churches Love INC represents. The board ended up having a discussion about all of this and how to appease the masses. I went to bat for the youth that were involved in the movement and sitting with me in the booth. Years ago, I too was a teenager with passion for Jesus in my heart only to have a pastor, elder, or person in authority come along and dump a bucket of cold water on my zeal. I was not going to let that happen here. As it turned out, by the time the 'official' word on the decision about Bound4Life came down, the fair was all but over. I was proud of the youth being bold enough to stand their ground. I was also very thankful that God provided a way for there to be a stand for LIFE in a place that is littered with immorality.

Next Up - October thru December :) Stay Tuned Folks

The Rest of the Story - Part I

This picture was taken on the way home from Wasilla in April '05. This is the Nenana River looking south just north of Cantwell if memory serves.

In early 2005, my wife and I attended a conference in Wasilla, Alaska with Jason Upton, Randy Clark and Shawn Bolz, hosted by Northwind Ministries. I was attending the conference not to draw closer to God, but to get a break from work and my kids. It had been a long time since my wife and I had any type of date and out 12 year anniversary was only a couple weeks away. We figured this would be a great pre-celebration.

As it turned out, the conference was awesome. Jason Upton and his band were amazing, and the messages by the speakers were profound. Looking back, there were two key parts of the weekend. First, my wife and I talked more about God than perhaps we ever had, and second, I was reminded and touched again by something that was said over me many years ago, "When you bow, you'll see wow."

Those words came to mind again during one of the sessions of the conference. That phrase had been given to me many years ago and kept rolling through my mind over the weeks, months and years as I put God in my back pocket as I like to call it.

As I was standing there watching and listening to the conference this past April those words kept coming to mind. Finally, I got on my knees, bowed and prayed. When I got up, I felt like I had been hooked up to an electrical circuit. God was there, no doubt.

Two weeks later, our home church, Door of Hope, held the "Worship, Prophetic, and Intersession" conference with 7 Thunders from the International House of Prayer. This was the first time that I had ever heard of "IHOP" as it is affectionately reffered to. Kirk Bennet was the leader of the group and they also brought up Tim Reimherr of Merchant Band. Tim went to IHOP from our church. My mom used to be his teacher at our local Christian school and I even taught him P.E. back in the day. It was incredible to see what God was doing in Tim's life.

This conference was also incredible. The passion and love for God these people showed was exhilarating. Rachel and I were deeply touched by what was being said particularly when it comes to abortion. The group Bound4Life was a part of there message. The statisics of abortion are shocking. We were blown away with some people that go to our church had to say on this issue. This particular movement/group would begin to point us in a direction later in the summer of '05.

I had been working for a year as the 'Director of Finance' at a local fast food chain. I was working long hours and often wondered where my job was headed. I thoroughly enjoyed the job, the owner, and all of the people that I worked with, but was it the will of God? How do we know what is His will anyhow? The good part of this job is that the Admin team were all Christians, and we were all experiencing fresh encounters with God via different directions.

In May of '05 something unsettling occurred. I had a dream. Twice. I dream a lot, but rarely do I have a repetative dream, especially only days apart. The dream was that I was waling in the door of Love INC for their morning devotions everyone was happy to see me, shaking my hand and asking me to stay awhile. I was stunned by having a dream twice in a week. I wanted to talk to my pastor.....

Selling and Sorting

What a diffence a week makes. A week ago today was my last day at work. My wife and I then decided to sell off stuff and head for KC with our children. We had no idea we would be successful at selling our stuff or that it would be pretty much sold in a matter of 24 hours. Her car sold really without it being listed, almost of our furniture has sold within 1 day of it being listed in the newspaper. On one hand that is great, on the other, that means my phone is going to continue ringing all weekend with nothing to sell.

The sorting of our stuff is a fun task. We were talking last night and we thanked God for preparing us to do this chore. About this time last year, we had our house listed for sale. We sorted and packed up everything except essentials only to decide a few months later that we were going to stay here for a while longer. That process eliminated literally truckloads of 'stuff'. Now we look at what we have left and it really isnt that much. In fact, we decided to take a 5x10 Uhaul trailer and our Durango with us. We are packing he majority of our precious belongings in 18gal. Rubbermaid containers. We figure we can get 36 in the trailer. We may throw an ActionPacker or similar on the roof of the SUV and some road stuff inside. All in all, we are going with very little.

I cannot tell you how excited I am at the possibility of being in a place with next to nothing. It is sort of a whole new start for us. We have looked at a few homes online and scopped out some apartments as well. This is going to be a huge adventure for us that is for sure.

We went by AAA earlier this week and plotted our course for the trip. It is going to be a blast. Probably the highlight being the West Edmonton Mall you all should go there and look at it. It is going to be a blast, and a great 1/2 way point of our trip.

I am still wanting to tell you all "The Rest of the Story", but I havent finished writing it out yet and I have been so busy that I havent even been watching TV or surfing the net. I have to say, I am missing my nightly online golf matches via Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06, not to mention all my blog reading.

Gotta get back to the painting and fixing of the house. Only 10 days to go!

We have a date!

After much deliberation and prayer this weekend, we have decided to be headed south by or even on March 6th. We are furiously packing and selling off stuff, repainting the interior of our house so that it is pretty for buyers, and tying up loose ends.

I hope to be able to lay out how all of this came together later tonight. If for no other reason than for it to be recorded somewhere other than my sketchy hard drive.

Resigned, Rejoicing!

Yesterday was my last day at Love INC. This was my second stint working there and I cannot thank the staff there enough for all they did and who they are to me.

For the first time in my working career, the job ended with everyone's head held high, prayers and blessings over me and them and even a last day lunch. What a blessing!

God is calling my family on to greener pastures. I mean that as a pun. We are moving to Kansas City within the next 3 months. Very likely sooner rather than later. We are going to become a part of the International House of Prayer and their school of ministry.

To some reading this, it may come as a shock or a surprise, to to others, they saw the writing on the wall long ago. I can tell you that God has moved and continues to this very instant to be moving in ways truly unimaginable. We have sought out counsel on this decsion, talked at great length to friends and family and we know this is the direction to go.

We do not plan to be gone from Fairbanks forever. Our family is Alaskan and there is no getting around this fact. Our heart is to see our children emerced in the Children's Equipping Center at the House of Prayer, for myself to attend the Apostolic Preaching School and to be used by God as a place for restoration, comfort and re-energizing people that may come from Alaska to be at IHOP for awhile. In the end, returning to our home church and sowing back in to our congregation all that God places in our hearts.

God is good and together my family is pressing in to all that He has for us. Please be praying and reading this often for updates as the story unfolds.

This is probably my favorite picture of my family. During this day we hiked all over this glacier and had a great time.

Today is the landing of one journey and the takeoff of another. Look for more on this later today and in the days to come. Stay tuned.

 

Lift Up Your Heads, Oh Ye Gates!

On January 28th I attended a Men's Dinner at our church. You had to be a man to attend this function. Not because of the rules, but because it was -40 F outside with no wind. About 25 people showed up and we had a great time. I wanted to take the time to share with anyone reading what Pastor Al (yeah you can call him Al) had to say. He spoke out of Psalm 24.

For several months now I have really enjoyed Jason Upton's song Psalm 23. On this particular Friday night I got "the rest of the story". I suggest you go here and read Psalm 24 for yourself before proceeding. Leave the window open to refer back to it as I continue.

Pastor Al titled the brief message Lifting up the Gates of Our Life

Verses 7-10 in Psalm 24 is a picture of an approach of royalty. Imagine the ancient castles and the massive iron gates, it is interesting to note that one man, using a system of ropes and pulleys could lift the gates...or not. If the gatekeeper chose to lift the gate for the herald, then the king would soon follow along with his army.

The lifting up of the gates of our life allows for an entrance for the King of Glory. We discussed 6 different gates.

1 - The Head The place of annointing of oil and encouragement. The head bears the resposibility of leadership. By lifting up the head we are encouraging ourselves and our Maker to come in. What is the first sign of discouragement? The head drops and the chin touches the chest.

2- The Heart This is the gate of emotions and resolve. There are many times that we need to feel the emotions of God's presence. Women aren't overly emotional, men are under emotional.

3- The Voice We need to use our voice in expression to God. God can hear silent prayers, but a voice was given to us for a reason. Use it to pray and sing to God, edify one another.

4- The Hands Clean hands need to be lifted up to God. A posture of prayer is taken by lifting up the hands. This is an expression of blessing to God. Clean hands speak of integrity and character formed by Godly discipline.

5- The Eyes We gather the beauty of God with our sight. There is plenty to behold that God has created that is beautiful. Be careful to guard what we take in this gate so as to not poison the soul.

6- The Soul This is the gate of strength, life and willful choice. By lifting up this gate for the King of Glory, we are inviting the Holy Spirit to come and help guide us along the path of life.

This message was delivered in about 20 minutes and I believe that Pastor Al could have sepnt an entire sermon on each point. We were also challenged to search the scriptures for each one of these gates and to do a study of the gates surrounding Jerusalem during the times of Jesus. I have not found the time to follow up with those challenges yet, but I am excited to start. I pray that these thoughts help you too.

Furnace Update

GOOD NEWS
I have heat in my house via a new furnace.
I can breathe in my house again.
I dont have to spend another $80 at the hotel for night #4.
I get to watch the Super Bowl at my house with my surround sound (christmas present)
My house didnt burn down and my dog didnt die.
I can be at home to post this blog, kick on the IHOP Prayer Room and cook some dinner.
I now have 3500 more airline miles.

BAD NEWS
The new furnace is not what was ordered. It blows out the bottom vs. top like needed.
They have to come on Monday to swap out the furnace they put in today.
My walls, drawers, every surface that air gets to is coated in soot.
I will be cleaning my house during the pregame of Super Bowl XL.
I am missing church and the chance to chat with a friend I wanted to speak with.
This whole thing cost my family $3500.00 that we didnt want to spend.

Not so Super - Super Bowl Weekend

It would appear as though we are having to replace our furnace. Two days ago the house started getting filled with a nasty sooty smoke. I did the normal Mr. Fix It stuff, but it didnt do what we wanted. Today we had a fella look at it and we discovered that the heat exchanger is no good.

We are headed to the hotel for night #2 of who knows how many. Hopefully we can get all this sorted out in time for the big game Sunday. I have a 10lb. ham and a bunch of chicken wings to cook.

Talk to you all again soon.