The Rest of the Story Part 2

I have been wanting to finish the story of how/why we came to Kansas City, but with moving into the new house and everything else going on, it has taken a lot longer than I had hoped. However, here I go to try to wrap it up.

I last left off with Dec. '05 and Rachel and I having listened online to the Children's Equipping Center do the Christmas presentation for the church here in KC. We were shocked and moved by the way these kids were full of the power of God and we wanted desperately for our kids to experience this too.

We were determined to move to KC, but we had no idea how or when. I remember one night laying in bed with Rachel and we put a 30,60, and 90 day plan together. We had a 1000 thoughts and concerns of what all had to take place in order for this move to happen not the least of which was that our house had to sell. Understand that nothing sells in Fairbanks in January or winter for that matter.

We began preparing for the move by cleaning up the house and getting things sorted and widdled down. The previous summer we had painted the house and redone the floors so really, it should've been a slam dunk. Silly us. Right about the time we signed the paperwork with a realtor to list our house, our forced air oil fired furnace cracked the heat exchager. When this happens, the nasty, sooty exhaust does not vent up the chimney like it is supposed to, it 'chimneys' into the house. This was also during weather that was -40F (no wind). We were in panic mode. We stayed at a hotel the first night and came home to a house that had become soot covered. You could tell where all the nails were used on the drywall because the soot gathered particularly well on the nail heads making them look dotted.

For almost a week we had to live in a hotel while we battled the bad furnace. The Saturday before the Super Bowl, the guys came to install the new one. They were there early and said it should be no big deal and that they would be out in a few hours. Silly us. They got the new one installed, fired up and went around to check the vents to make sure the forced air part was functioning properly. Nope. After I pointed out to them that the air was blowing the wrong way out of the furnace, they scratched their heads, muttered a few unmentionables and admitted they had installed the wrong furnace. The following Tuesday, they were back with the right one and we were finally all set. Only thing was that we had to repaint the entire house beginning with an oil based Kilz (super stinky). The house was a mess.

It was during the whole furnace dibacle, that we were still looking for answers as to the how and when of moving to KC. We had thought that we would like to move down after the school year in June. There were so many unanswered questions. After talking to many people and not really nailing anything down, I decided to do my first ever fast.

A fast is basically denying yourself (usually eating) so that you can press into God for clarity. I had never done a fast before, so I asked around how to do one and even looked online. I found a great line going something like this, "A fast is not something you choose, it chooses you when you can find no other breakthrough". When I read that I thought, "this is it!". But I was chicken. I wanted a sign that I was supposed to fast. I prayed, "God, if you want me to do a fast, then it needs to be -45F (no wind) in the morning so that my work is closed, if so, then I will do it." Next morning, sure enough, work was closed.

I chose to do a fruit and veggie fast meaning that is what I would eat. I read a bit out of my Bible and then I was sitting there wondering what else to do. I saw my journal. I began flipping through the pages and came to the month of Oct. holloween night to be exact when I had two dreams. For the sake of space, I wont type them out, but the point of them were that I got two sets of numbers. 1816 & 242. When I had the dreams I wrote them in my journal and wrote, I should look up scriptures with those referrences. I didnt then, but now that I was fasting and had nothing else to do, I figured this was as good as time as any.

I went book by book through the whole Bible.
For 1816 I landed on Luke 18:16 "Jesus, however, called for them and said, "Let the little children come to me, and stop keeping them away. For the kingdom of God belongs to people like these."
For 242 it was
Act 2:42 "They continually devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to times of prayer."

I was so excited when I read those scriptures. Not only because I got the referrences from a dream, but becasue they were speaking so pointedly about the journey was family was about to go on. it was as if there were a huge bell hanging over my head and these two verses were the sides and the bell was claning side to side while God said "Do you hear it now?"

While this was pretty cool, I wanted more. I wanted to know for sure that God wanted us to do this move. a few nights later, I ahd another dream. I dreamed that i was sitting in a conference room. My grandmother who passed away years ago was sitting next to me and we were catching up on everything. It was so good to see her again. we were having a great time talking to each other, but at the front of the room there was a man standing and speaking that just would not be quiet. He was huge. He seemed like he was 8 feet tall and about that wide. I kept loking at him through the corner of my eye wheil talking to my grandma wondering who he was. He was wering a robe that looked like burlap and it had a redish brown sash across the chest. I kept ignoring him, wishing he woudl be quiet, all the while talking to my grandma. Fianlly after getting thoroughly annoyed, I turned and looked straight at him and thought, "who is this guy?" I no sooner thought that, and he was stading directly in front of me. His finger was pointing at me, actually pressing into my eye, I could feel the pressure. He said, "I am John the Baptist, and your ministry is going to be more!" I woke up, looked at my watch and it was 3:16am. I was so stunned I did not know what to do. It was by far the most real and intense dream of my life.

A few days Rachel and I were laying in bed and I told her, wouldnt it be a miracle if our house actually sold before we left. The very next day, while were repaintign after the furnace experience and our house was a disater area, a guy and his wife came in, and made us an offer. A few more days later, our realator bought our boat and drove it away in the middle of a blizzard. God had prepared the way and all we could do was obey and keep moving forward. There were tons of other experiences and confirmations tht played out over the days and weeks before we left Fairbanks. Throughout the whole ordeal, God instilled such a huge portion of faith in us that we are so thankful to have. Now that we are here in KC and things are falling into place, it is nice to be able to have the faith to say that God will provide.

Line of The Day

Daughter - "Mommy, what's for dessert?"
Mom - 'Toothpaste"

This was spoken while playing Monopoly with our friend Brenna from Alaska. We had a great time with her today helping us finish up the planting we had to do. She did such a good job we even grilled hamburgers and fed her. All the fun ended when I hit "Free Parking" on Monopoly and won the pot, thus making everybody envious wheil I hooted an hollered and danced around the living room making sure that everyone saw that I was a terrible winner :)

Painting Round Three and Other Household Duties

I had a brief moment of feeling like Leonardo Dicaprio in Titanic today. I was king of the world. Why, you ask? Because I changed the bathroom fan. This was no easy task. It involved demolition, risk of electrocution, and reassembly with no parts left over (my dad, the expert mechanic knows all about extra parts). All of this was accomplished with a tiny bit of help from my blushing (or is that sunburned) bride. We also have put our neighbors minds at rest and have begun to plant all the plants that have been sitting outside the front of our house for about a week. We are planting a variety of bell peppers and tomatoes, as well as a plethora of other veggies and flowes too numerous to mention. The trees we stuck in the ground last wekend seem to be alive still, but it is anyones guess if they will survive. Worst case scenario is that they are covered under a warranty for up to two years.

We are charging ahead to FINISH the painting in our house tonight. The kitchen and hallway are going to look like the color of Boston Cream Pie. Which frankly, right now, even I would like a slice that is about 35 degrees.

So I am off to finish the painting and the rest of the projects. It is our goal to be able to sit and do 'nothing' this weekend but remember those who have fallen to keep our country free. To my own Veteran, my Dad, I say thank you, now go catch me some fish to drop off on your way back south :-)

Settling In Nicely Thank You

Okay, for the record, should I ever move again (and I do plan to butwho knows what God really wants) I vow to not volunteer to man a booth at some obscure public event until I am completely settled in to the house.

Today we went to what is affectionately known as Truman Days in Grandview, MO. Now I have nothing against Grandview, Truman or MO., but this street fair was weak even to Fairbanks, Alaska standards. Counting the IHOP booth(s), there were maybe 20 other booths more than 1/2 of which were BBQ or something similar. We were also a bit perplexed as to how we got roped in this thing to begin with since we barely even know what we are doing when it come to IHOP. Oh well, it was intersting to see how they do things here when it comes to this sort of stuff.
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Today we also planted 3 trees. An apple that is actually 4 different varieties on one tree, a bing cherry, and a peach. We are really looking forward to harvesting some fruit. We are also going to be working very soon on our garden. We have sweet peppers, herbs, tomatoes and a few other things as well, and those are the ones we bought as starters. It doesnt even begin to count all the seeds we have.

We have our new furniture. We love it too. In one of the pictures you can even see the terra cotta wall we are doing as an accent too. I am also posting a pic of my family, my dad and step-mom. KP#1, 2, &3 all in one picture. Also someone talked about my WIFI antenna above the fireplace so I thouhgt I should you all that too :)

Staining, and Burning

I am pretty sure that the past couple days I have worked harder than I have since last year at Chitina. For you non-Alaskans, Chitina is a place that Alaskans go to dipnet Copper River Red(sockeye) salmon. A family can get 30 salmon per year. I have been there at times when the fishing was so good that we got our family limit in about an hour, I have been there other times when I stayed up for nearly 3 days straight fishing non stop. It is back breaking work regardless of speed, but te rewards of sockeye salmon are great!

I have climbed ladders over and over again cleaning gutters, stooped and bent like a catcher playing baseball abot 200 times while I stained a deck, porch and other outside wood. Today though, I topped it all off with the assault on the critter living in the bathroom fan.

We had been hearing some disturbing noise coming from the region of our non-functional bathroom fan, ad then today, we even saw something sort of reach through the vent with what appeared to be a foot of some sort. Now I ask you readers, what on earth would possibly scare someone that goes out hunting where bears potentionally hunt you? Creepy, crawly, crtitters that I dont see coming, that's what. As it turned out, it was a HUGE roach of some sort that freaked out the ladies of my house. I have to admit, I was rather proud of my exterminator accomplishments.

All in all life is good and getting on a more permanent routine. Please send up rayers taht Rachel and I are able to nail down jobs. There are a lot available, but we want the 'perfect' one that He wants us to have.

Gutter Cleaning and Other Chores

Coming from Alaska, I had not experienced the joy of cleaning gutters until yesterday and today. I am here to tell you, it is not easy. all sorts of things are found in gutters, among them were a spiderman toy, a sock, and a snake skin. Not only did I clean the gutters on our new house, but did the ones at the place we were renting too. They needed it BAD. Maple trees have a seed that falls in the summer that I used to call 'helicopters' when I lived in Omaha as a boy. They make a mess. I bet I could have filled a wheelbarrow with what I took out of te gutters.

Some of the other chores have consisted of cleaning up the mess the movers made when they packed up the previous owner, arranging furniture over and over again, unpacking boxes like a mad man, and BBQing. Our neighborhood is having a garage sale for the whole neighborhood this weekend and anyone that wants to participate can. We are hoping to have gone throguh our stuff enough by then to get rid of a few odds and ends.. and perhaps one particular waterbed.

Yesterday was my sweeties birthday and we did our traditional thing of visiting nursieries (for plans not humans). Thing is, that in KC, they dont mess around. The one we visited has golf carts for you to drive around on because the acreage of fauna is so vast! We were looking for fruit trees and came home with 2. One is a 4 in 1 Apple tree it has Fuji, Gala, and 2 other types on the same tree. The other tree is a Bing cherry. I love bing cherries, and I love cherry pie :-) I am not sure if it is going to prodice this year, but it will be fun in time. We also bought a week or so ago, a peach tree. So, we should have some fruit to pick and we plan to plant the garden over the next week. A little late for here, but hey, at least we get to play in the dirt.

I have to run along now and go grocery shopping. Rachel is battling a migrane and I am batling the kids. :-)

Massage Please!

We are officially in our new house. I am typing this at 11pm or so, sitting in the Great Room as we call it (because it is so great). I am super tired and sore. Rachel is already passed out and the kids are headed to bed (really late after celbratory pizza and the SpyKids movie via our laptop entertainment ceter).

We worked really hard from 930 this morning and dropped off the UHaul trailer at 630pm. This included 2 stops at people's homes that we had purchased items from over the past couple weeks. This brings up a good point. We bought a washing machine and a gas dryer for 100. They appear to be in great shape, the owners told us that they had used them regularly. Point I am making is that A. They are not new, and B. the washing machine must have a weight over 400lbs. I am pretty sure the bucket the clothes goes in is cast iron. After Rachel and I busted a gut moving it out of the basement of the previous owner, we proceeded to go back to Uhaul and rent the appliance dolly to put the machine in our basement. We are so glad we did. All that said, does anybody out there have a clue how to hook up a gas dryer? We thought the one that was here previously was gas, but ... NOPE. Looks like handyman (right) Ken is going to have figure this beast out too.

We also spent about 6 hours last night painting in our room. We are doing a sponging technique with terra cotta and yellow. It is looking great. I think we are spending Mothers Day in the yard and on the deck, but we still have more painting to do.

Happy Mothers Day to my mom.
She was not just the lady that gave birth to me, but was there through the life threatening injuries as a child.
She counseled me through the dark days of my youth and helped mold me into a young man that she was willing to let live in her house at least 1 more day.
She held my hand through some of my darkest days and never once gave up praying or believing.
She has been able to see her first and only grand-daughter born, and her 4th grandson.
She has been able to see her son grow into all she believed and perhaps even beyond expectations.
My mom, can look at herself in the mirror and know she did a great job. Happy Mother's Day mom.

Closing Day

Yesterday we signed all the documents to close on our new house. We are really excited to see this as our new home. We have begun picking out paint, some furniture, and other tid bits. We will be moving in over this weekend. Please be praying for us that all goes well and we are able to be settled so that we feel we can finally be ...home.

Today is closing day for the "The Rest of The Story" too. I left off last time in October...

October '05 saw Rachel and I go to KC to attend the ONETHING Leadership Summit. We were really touched by what all we saw and encountered. We really had no idea what to expect, but what happened was 5 days of refreshment. We heard messages from people like Dwayne Roberts, Mike Bickle, and Allen Hood. They challenged us, provoked us and made us think. They presented this thing called Christianity in a light that we had never heard/seen before. We loved it, the IHOP Prayer Room was/is tremendous. We were completely blown away by the music, the messages and the people we met.

All my life I have felt like I was called to preach. Not necessarily from a pulpit, but usually in small groups and over coffee. I have known this since I was a child of 5 years old or so. However, all those years I put that notion in my pocket. Until October while we were in KC. During the summit, we attended one of the regular church services. Like alot of churches, they have informational tables set up around the perimeter of the sanctuary and one of those tables said "Forerunner School of Ministry". When I went to that table, I saw a card that said "Apostolic Preaching School: Redefining Theologic Education Through Night and Day Prayer". When my eyes landed on that, it was like a beam of light hit those words. I have nothing against theology, but a true ministry, in my opinion begins and ends with an intimate relationship with God. I thought, "THIS IS IT". While we returned from KC to Fairbanks, we thought for sure that we were going to move to KC. But, it wasnt that easy.

We got back to Fairbanks, and we saw relationships growing deeper, some starting fresh, and ministry happening left and right. We were intern leaders for a cell(home) group, and for the first time in our marriage we were having guests over regularly. This all made us take pause and really pray abot what God was trying to tell us. We got to a place that had us believing that we couldnt just uproot the family from a life in Fairbanks and move to KC just for me to go to school. There had to be a better reason.

Fast forward a couple months to December and the answer came. In mid Decemeber, we listened to a service performed by the Childrens Equipping Center online. The kids ages 5-12 gave testimonies and sang songs and shared about what the CEC has done in their lives. Rachel and I sat on the couch and were stunned. We couldn't breathe, we had tears from the power and authority these little ones had in their hearts. When that service finished, we knew that we had to move to KC to raise our kids in the CEC. We were tired of the kids being babysat while at church. We dont want to see coloring pages and puppet school, we want to see them praying with authority and power to see God answer. For an example (sorry Jackson) go take a look at this young man of god's site. His name is Jackson Bohlender, he is 13 and has a heart for God that is incredible, and yet, he is still all boy and full of life and fun.

I will stop here and write another post next wek to detail the confirmation we got to make this move, how it all came to pass, and what the near future holds for us. For now, I leave you to go move to our new house, and maybe hit a garage sale or two. God is GREAT!

Seven Years and Going Strong

Today marked the 7 year anniversary of the house of prayer. September 19th marks the start of them going 24 hours. However, 7 years ago, on May 7th, at 6pm, this whole thing began. The story of how this all came to be is laid out in impressive fashion here (the 12 messages under Encountering Jesus.

Tonight the service was a brief worship set and then testimonyfrom people that have been with IHOP from the very first hour. These are people like Allen Hood, Misty Edwards, Stuart Greaves and Matt and Dana Candler to name a few. What they shared was moving and there were not many dry eyes in the house. If there were any, it was soon to change.

After the celebratory testimonies, they held a baptismal session. This wasnt just any 'ole baptism that you may have encountered. While the first part of the service was going on, the 60+, (yes I said 60+) people were getting prayed over by folks in the congregation. this continued through the whole service. It wasnt distracting, it wasnt loud, it was sweet. After the main service ended they transitioned into the baptisms.

The ages of the people getting baptised went from I would guess 6 to 60. It started with a handful of kids. The neat part at least to Rachel and I, was that they had set up a line of people to pray over the folks after they were baptised. They were to pray over them and speak words of encouragement to them. What a sweet way to finish up the whole experience.

Over this next week we are going to be moving into our new house. I will undoubtedly be busy, but I do have a plan to post "the Rest of the Story" that I started long ago. Go read it and catch up. You will be glad you did.

One other note. My Dad and Step Mom are coming to town tomorrow!!! That will be fun.

Stupider and Stupider

This past February, we sold off 90% of our belongings so that we could begin the trek to IHOP-KC. It was our prayer that the stuff we were getting rid of would bless the people that we sold items to. We sold things like our car to friends in our cell group, our couch to a lady whose husband was in IRAQ and had very little money or furniture. Our bed and most of the remaining furniture went to a pastor that recently relocated to Fairbanks from Kansas. In the process, he mentioned that he had a king sized, mahoganny, 4-post water bed that he would sell for $200. All we had to do was pick it up. All we had to do... haha

We had been trying week after week since arriving here in KC to make this happen. My pneumonia slowed us down, and looking for a home did too. Finally, yesteday morning at 7AM, we headed to the Uhaul place to get a trailer and drag it 350 miles to the place that the waterbed awaited us. No offense to Kansas, but to a guy that just moved from Alaska, I can't see why anyone would live there. We drove I-70 to a place called Hill City. Mind you, there wasnt really a hill that I could see, unless you want to call rolling prarie a hill. Either way, this drive was one of the most unappealing I have ever embarked on. There is nothing to look at. Hardly a tree to be seen, an animal to see besides some very lonely cattle and an occasional hawk. The worst part was, we had to drive back!

I told the fella we were meeting for the waterbed that I would call upon arrival and he could meet me. We did this and quickly found out that his baby (or was it grandson) was sick and he was 45 minutes away in a different city and it would be at least 2 hours before he was able to meet up. Thankfully, there was a Pizza Hut nearby.

We killed the time, and true to his word the gentleman was there on time. We commenced upon loading the waterbed into our trailer only to find that a 5x10 trailer was a tiny bit too small where the doors are to accomodate this bed. This meant we had to do some deconstructive remodeling to the bed to fit it into the Uhaul trailer. About an hour later, we were loaded and headed back to KC. All in all it was 14 hours and 700 miles.

Sad part of the story....we dont like the bed. At least not what we have seen of it so far. We both have been kicking ourselves for getting into this mess all day. We are out the 200 for the bed, the 250 for gas, food and trailer to pick it up, and now we have a big bed that we are going to have to do something with. At least the new house has a fireplace, and THAT puts a smile on my face.

So Valette, it aint all that bad :-)