Funny but true....

Girls

Recently my 5 year old has been on a kick where he doesn't like to sit by girls on his school bus. He doesn't like girls. The other day while riding in my van he asked me "do you like girls?" To which my 11 year old looked up from his video game and answered "no, we don't support gay marriage." I guess with the recent protest he has this issue on his mind. I then explained to him that Darrian was talking about girls as friends. So yes I like girls. As friends. And Darrian still doesn't.

Supporting Missions

This month is missions month at our church and our Pastor from Sri Lanka was here on Sunday to speak about the support of missions. He was saying that 27 years ago the church sent missionaries to plant a church in Sri Lanka and today they have 3000 members. He was saying how investing in souls has a payoff vs putting too much faith in investing in the future of the economy. He also said "Fannie May, Freddie Mac, Lehman, where is that investment now." Good point.

The Richest Fool in the World

Jesus wanted his followers to understand this, so he did what he usually did when he really wanted us to understand something: he told a story. The story is found in Luke 12 about a rich man whose priorities were completely mistaken:

And [Jesus] told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Evil Keneval

park

Hope this made a statement

My pastor rented 10 buses for this rally and all were full with everyone on them dressed in red. Civil union opponents rally at state Capitol
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Associated Press - February 22, 2009 10:04 PM ET

HONOLULU (AP) - Several thousand civil union opponents rallied at the state Capitol ahead of this week's Senate vote on a bill that would legalize the alternative to gay marriage.

Protestors held signs saying "We affirm traditional marriage" and "No to same sex marrage" while listening to speakers in the Capitol's open-air rotunda.

The large crowd spilled onto the grass fronting Beretania street. Others gathered in the back.

Rally volunteer Julia Sula came to the demonstration with 200 to 300 other members of her Waipahu church, the Lighthouse Outreach Center, on buses after their Sunday service.

The 65-year-old retired state social worker says she believes in traditional marriage between a woman and a man.

Target

We are finally getting a Target here on Oahu. We have 5 Walmarts and a few K-Marts, but until now, no Target. The opening is set for March 8th and it is right down the street from my house. So thats the big news here on Oahu for now.

Target in the news.

otherwis known as The Surrender

I'm Lucky this is what the praise in worship in my church look like. Not quite on this scale, but 400 or so people. It always wakes me up and prepares me for the sermon. 1. THE BIBLE SAYS TO DO IT!!!

Psalms 134:2-NIV Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD.

Lamentations 3:41-NIV Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven

Even if it doesn't make sense to us otherwise, the Bible says to do it so we might as well do it.

Coincidence

I heard this on tv the other night and thought it an interesting quote that made me think:
Einstein said "Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous."

The Boys

Thrift and Big Woop!

I was watching a show the other night on thriftiness. I consider myself pretty thrifty since my hubby is in the Military and I stay home so we are used to living within our means. I guess right now though the Army is a pretty stable job so we basically haven't felt too much of a crunch, but you never know. Anyway I have a little tip that I use every summer (year round here in Hawaii). I think you might call this a stay cation. I always buy water park passes, which I am doing today, for around $320. Quite good considering that a vacation would cost thousands. It's really about spending time with the kids anyway so what kid wouldn't like the water park. You can choose activities from your town, like year round amusement park passes, zoo passes, children's museum passes, and the list goes on. I find that kids enjoy this a whole lot more than going somewhere exotic and it keeps them busy the whole summer for pennies (since we pack our own lunch). I pray for all my friends who are going through tough times right now and in the future that things stabilize. I do believe it is a new way of life, and that the old standard is gone, but the good news is this can be a more fulfilling life. When I lived in Germany the Germans were able to live well on salaries much less then ours. My daughters friends who are from Sweden said they don't spend a lot on stuff. They are amazed by American tv's. Since they grow up watching very little tv if any at all they are used to spending time outdoors and hanging out with family and friends. Maybe this is the way it should of been all along. I notice I am seeing more neighbors outside and at the parks then before when everyone was going from activity to activity. Maybe the change will end up being a blessing.

On a side note. My mom used to say "big Woop" whenever she did something boring. like if I asked her what she did today, she would say "I went to the store, big woop!" Well yesterday I am glad to tell you all I bought a new laundry basket. BIG WOOP!!!!!!!!

God's touch

Today at church we had a Pastor from Ireland who is visiting for 10 days speak. He was wonderful and reminded us of what a missions church we all belong too. About 5 years ago my Pastor had a vision to plant a church in Ireland and after a year of planning sent missionaries to plant this church. 3 stayed a year and 2 stayed for 3 years. They met this young man who was one of the few attendees at the newly planted church and he then became Pastor of this church. The church has become huge and this Pastor came to speak to us and to thank us for sending and supporting the missionaries who started the church he now Pastors. It was kind of strange because our misnister was telling us today that Hawaii is pushing a bill through that recognizes homosexual marriage and that gives them the same rights we all have under marriage. This bill passed the Senate before anyone in the state new it was happening so our Pastor is renting buses that are going to bus us all down to the Capital next Sunday so we can join in a peaceful protest. Anyway the Pastor from Ireland said he just had to comment on this. He said that this was serious because like in Northern Ireland, where it is under British rule, they have this kind of law and the law does affect the church greatly. He said that in Northern Ireland if you preach in your own church against homosexuality you can be thrown in jail for discrimination. If you refuse to hire on the church staff a homosexual you can be thrown in jail for discrimination, if you refuse to marry two people of the same sex you can be thrown in jail discrimination. I think this really brought the issue into a clearer light for people. It was amazing that this Pastor, who has experienced this first hand, was at our church the same week this law passed the Senate. Let's hope with so many rallying that this law does not go through.

Friday and Saturday were also busy. A neighbor of mine, who has some mental problems, opened her door to the MP's on Friday and was told if she didn't clean up her quarters CPS (Child Protective Services) would be by on Monday to go in and possibly place her kids. She was very upset so me and my two friends Sara and Brandon told her we would help her. Yes the house was a mess and it took the three of us plus her two kids my 3 kids and Sara and Brandon's son 2 days straight to get it in order. But we did get it done. My friend's husband Brandon who works at my church and really walks the walk of a Christian life was able to get her talking about what was going on. It was very emotional at some points. She admitted that growing up she had nothing and that she never wanted her kids to lack for anything so that is why she hoarded things. I can't imagine what would of happened to this family if CPS was there to take the lead. Instead we got her hooked up with a church charity who is going to come in and assess the house and provide help, counseling, and try to get this family back on track. The three of us also volunteered to help her each week to make sure things were getting better and that if she needed us to help keep it up to standards we would. So it was a really awesome weekend seeing how God can have his church come in and impact a family who would of been left out in the cold. To top it off her husband who is in Iraq was relieved to find out she had the support of us to help her when he couldn't. My friend Sara had been inviting her to Bible study and although this friend is a Christian she has been away from the church for awhile, but after we helped her she then expressed interest in trying out our Bible study. I think finding that people will help you and not judge you went a long way in her longing to go back to the church, but in not knowing how to go about it.

ballons and Denny's

Big Daddy Weave

He made the lame walk
And the dumb talk
He opened blinded eyes to see
That the sun rises on His time
Yet He knows our deepest desperate need
And the world waits
While His heart aches
To realize the dream
I wonder what life would be like
If we let JESUS live through you and me

Don't forget to pause mixpod to hear the video

cell phone mishap

Sway
Decoy
After walking my three mile morning walk a few days ago I put my shorts in the wash and later realized that I had washed my pink razr phone. After drying it out for a few days I found out it was toast so I went over to Verizon to pick a new phone. I did not come home with a phone since I liked two of them and now can't decide which one to get. I am going to try to decide by Friday if any one has any suggestions. The two phones I am choosing between are the Sway and the Decoy. I am a little bent toward the decoy because it has a built in bluetooth (very convenient), but the Sway is prettier and it is kind of a neat phone. So far I just can't seem to decide. I must admit I went to the Verizon store to look at the sway and see if I liked it, but I made the mistake of bringing my 16 year old son, who picked up the Decoy and said "look mom this one comes with a bluetooth built in." "Gee thanks Brandon." Now I like two phones.

Playground chit chat

We have a playground in the middle of our housing that get's very busy. My friends husband Brandon always brings out some sort of religious book he is reading and somehow we always start conversing about it. There are usually 5 or 6 adults and it seems almost like an impromptu Bible study. Yesterday he brought out the book above Mark's Story. The day before we got into a conversation about The Shack. This book tends to be a little controversial and we all had questions about different parts. Brandon turned to me and shrugged his shoulders and said, "this is what The Shack" is all about. You either loved it or hated it and here we are talking about it. If anything it's a great religious conversation starter." I actually liked the book a lot. We did end up with some really good conversation. Same as with Mark's story. Then most things written by these guys are pretty good. I wonder what today will bring.

Busy Sunday

This morning we had a very active day at church. 2 guests. One was Dennis Rogers a grandmaster strong man. He said at 5'11'' and only around 150 lbs. you know the power is from God and not from something he is doing. Check out Dennis
The other guy was Pastor G.F. Watkins who was awesome and preached a strong message. Check out G.F. Watkins website here
Last but not least it was home to watch the pro bowl. I love this event and it says Hawaii no matter what way you cut it or where you put it. After next year, where it will be held in Miami, they are negotiating to put it back where it belongs.
Today I leave you with a song which our church does in Somoan and also in English. We did this one today and the guest speakers always get a kick out of it and pick up how it's sung rather quickly by looking up at the screen.

Friday Funnies

The Pope, Billy Graham, and Oral Roberts were in a three-way plane crash over the Pacific Ocean. They all died and went to heaven together.

"Oh, this is terrible," exclaims St. Peter, "I know you guys think we summoned you here, but this is just one of those coincidences that happen. Since we weren't expecting you, your quarters just aren't ready... We can't take you in and we can't send you back...."

Then he got an idea. He picked up the phone, "Lucifer, this is Pete. Hey, I got these three guys up here. They're ours, but we weren't expecting them, and we gotta fix the place up for 'em. I was hoping you could put them up for a while. It'll only be a couple of days. What d'ya say?"

Reluctantly, the Devil agreed.

However, two days later, St. Peter got a call.

"Pete, Lu. Hey, you gotta come get these three clowns.
This Pope fellow is forgiving everybody,
the Graham guy is saving everybody,
and that Oral Roberts has raised enough money to buy air conditioning."

from Alicia Coop (acoop@integrityonline30.com)

For more Friday Funnies go over to Kim's blog here

Fireproof

What I'm Reading

Has anyone read this book yet? It is quite large, but very good if you like the subject of Christian apologetics. My friend recommended it to me at our net group and then I found it at the library. I knew anything written by Josh McDowell I would probably like anyway. Any opinions?