Missing Mayor Daly

So we got our first good snow of the season on Saturday evening and night. I was prepared to have to shovel our driveway and sidewalk Sunday morning but what I wasn't prepared for was that none of the streets in town had been plowed! They still haven't been plowed two days later! Apparently the powers that be in ND don't think that 2-3 inches of snow is enough to bother with (though the highways were plowed). It makes me long for our days in the Chicago area when Mayor Daly would have hundreds of plows out by the time the first snowflake hit the pavement spreading salt all over the place...at least we won't have to worry about the corrosion.

On Saturday morning the basketball team had some scrimmages an hour and a half away in Drake and Anamoose (and yes there is a cartoon moose on a sign leading into the town). The team looked pretty good and some points and not so good at others. They still have a lot of work to do to be ready for the beginning of the season (which starts Friday!).

Harmony and I drove up to Minot Friday evening to have dinner with the pastor of Trinity EFCA and his wife. We had a very nice time getting to know them. On Sunday I drove up to Minot again to meet up with the pastor and we drove out together to a conference in Fargo. Dr. Carson from Trinity's New Testament Department was giving a talk to pastors on the use of biblical, systematic, historical and pastoral theology in our preaching. It was very informative and practical. I also got to meet a number of the other EFCA pastors in my general area (e.g. Devil's Lake and Rugby). I rode back yesterday evening with the associate pastor from Minot whose from St. Louis and so we swapped North Dakote cultural stories during the four hour drive. For example, some of the women say phrases that start with "Oh for" like "Oh for cute" or "Of for geez." Some of the guys in making suggestions use the expression "A guy could..." We had lots of laughs to say the least.

This past Sunday I preached on 1 Peter 5:6-9 about the importance of Christians responding appropriately to spiritual realities (i.e. who God is and who the Devil is). If you'd like to listen to it click here (I'm having problems uploading it...sorry).