I just found out today that Ken Arrand passed away about 3 weeks ago from a sudden heart attack.
Ken and his wife Jo hosted my first outreach as a staff member, in the Philippines. He was an incredible man, and husband to Jo and will be missed! Pray for Jo as she deals with her husbands sudden death.

A friend and I were talking the other day about the Terri Schiavo case over in Florida. I'm not about to comment on the case as a whole, but there is one thing in particular that I think is wrong.
First though, the big question I have is, are the people that are doing the prayer/protest praying that she'll be healed or praying that her feeding tube will be replaced? What would be better? Praying for her feeding tube to be replaced makes as much sense as giving a thirsty person a cup of water instead of showing them the faucet. Thankfully Jesus didn't die to make our lives good. He died so that we would have eternal life free from sin.
Second, I love this country and the right we have to protest and the fact that often times protesting injustice truly makes a difference. But I think coupling public prayer with protest is flat out wrong! Thinking about it yesterday I was reminded of this passage out of Matthew 6:5:

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full."

When we pray, let's pray in a way that God would be glorified, not us, and let's pray expecting miracles not mediocrity

Some details of my blog post (two down) have changed. Apparently Muddy Waters was contacted by the police today and told they can no longer have live music in their venue.
The venue has now been changed last minute to Old Town Coffee and Chocolates for Sunday @7pm. There is now no cover so hope to see you all there!

This Sunday night at Muddy Waters Cofee Co. my best friend in all of Oregon will be coming down for a special live performance. My Dad will actually play an opening set starting at 8:30pm and then hold on to your butts for some awesome acoustic, rousing pub songs, fun covers, and a possible guest appearance by me.
For a taste of what's to come check out Standing in the Middle.

You heard it here first:
I predict that within the next year or so Roller Skating is going to come back from the grave of the 70's and have a strong re-emergence in pop culture. MTV will most likely jump on this and play a strong part in helping to bring it back to the mainstream. A contemporary version of Roller Disco will be born, with roots in the old disco days but more in line with the current urban hip hop culture. This movie will also help.

I was just thinking that it couldn't hurt to occasionally put information on my blog that may inform the reader to the current happenings in my life. So in brief here is the latest:

My lovely wife is currently in the thick of her nursing program which she'll be done with this fall. She's working 3 days a week in a local Hospital where she has all sorts of medical experiences that I really don't want to hear about. It's been wierd to say the least knowing that she has put a tube other wise known as a catheter, into another man's hoo hoo. I guess better his then mine.
Because of her demanding school schedule Jess hasn't been working this semester. She did just pick up some part time work making jewelry for a friends company which is a hobby of hers as well.

As for me I'm still working Tech Support/Software Testing for a small but growing company. Also I'm fairly active in my church leading a college/career group, occasionally leading worship, and part of a network of college groups in the area. For a small area some cool things are stirring in the church, although mainly with the younger people in the church who tend not to be territorial or as insecure as a lot of "seasoned" senior pastors. God has been teaching me a lot these last months. It's been an exciting and growing time and there are some hints of change in the air...