This past Sunday I preached on psalm 6 and the main message that I saw as it related to our lives is that "Confidence is found in the mercy of God." Whether it is physical suffering or spiritual affliction, the confidence to respond in a way that please God is available because of God's mercy and specifically through what His Son Jesus accomplished on the cross for us. If you would like to listen to this sermon, click here.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Beautifying Underwood
This Saturday my wife and I participated in "Beautification Day". A bunch of people from the community got together to improve the looks of Underwood. Originally the plan included installing a new highway sign and planting rows of trees from the highway into town. Both of these projects had to be postponed until a later date but we were still able to do quite a bit to beautify Underwood. My wife and I spent time collecting trash, preparing large flower pots to be dispersed around town and plating trees in some empty lots downtown. Even though some of our plans had to be changed, I believe we accomplished a lot and had fun doing it.
Well, I thought this week was going to be a quieter one, after finishing my basketball coaching duties. But on Sunday night I heard that a family in town who tragically had lost a member a year ago, suffered another loss. If any of you remember a post of mine from last April you may recall that I was asked to officiate a funeral for a family in the community because I had a connection with them through basketball. Believe it or not, but it was the same family that suffered this loss. How do you even begin to minister to a mom who's lost two children, a sister who's lost two siblings and children who have lost a mother and now a beloved uncle? Even more so that the funeral a year ago, this one proved to be immensely more challenging. I was able to visit the family each day last week and the funeral was held on Friday. Please pray for my ongoing ministry to this family in their time of unimaginable grief.
Last night I joined a bunch of other guys for some basketball at the school gym. Each Sunday night high school guys and guys my age and older get together for some hoops. Let me just say this: my legs are quite soar today after playing for nearly two hours straight last night! I had a great time re-connecting with some of the high school guys that I helped coach last year and getting to know some other guys from the community.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Well, I thought this week was going to be a quieter one, after finishing my basketball coaching duties. But on Sunday night I heard that a family in town who tragically had lost a member a year ago, suffered another loss. If any of you remember a post of mine from last April you may recall that I was asked to officiate a funeral for a family in the community because I had a connection with them through basketball. Believe it or not, but it was the same family that suffered this loss. How do you even begin to minister to a mom who's lost two children, a sister who's lost two siblings and children who have lost a mother and now a beloved uncle? Even more so that the funeral a year ago, this one proved to be immensely more challenging. I was able to visit the family each day last week and the funeral was held on Friday. Please pray for my ongoing ministry to this family in their time of unimaginable grief.
Last night I joined a bunch of other guys for some basketball at the school gym. Each Sunday night high school guys and guys my age and older get together for some hoops. Let me just say this: my legs are quite soar today after playing for nearly two hours straight last night! I had a great time re-connecting with some of the high school guys that I helped coach last year and getting to know some other guys from the community.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Swinging Into Spring
This past Saturday my wife and I participated in Underwood's "Swing into Spring" event. This event was put together by one of our economic development organizations and included a free meal, info about upcoming economic development opportunities and Swing lessons and dancing. It was a ton of fun as many couples from the community came out for free food and to work on their dancing moves. My wife and I had taken a dance class at a community center a few years back and so it was a great refresher for us and opportunity to enjoy some social dancing. Now I know dancing is not for everyone but I can think of few activities as beneficial to marriages than dancing.
Well, if I had to describe this week in a nut-shell it would be "driving to Bismarck and back." We were in Bismarck for some part of five days this past week. Remember, Bismarck is 50 miles south of us, so we spent a lot of time on the road this past week. Our final trip to Bismarck was on Saturday to attend Child Evangelism's "Big Event Carnival". My wife and I help out with the Kids' Club here in Underwood and the regional director organized a huge gathering of families at the Bismarck Civic Center. There were three rows of carnival games hosted by various churches and ministries and the walls were lined with inflatable bounce house games. And they had about 2200 people in only four hours!
Elementary basketball is finally over for the year. It seemed like a shorter season that last year and even though I enjoyed working with the kids, I'm glad it's over. The sixth grade team (mostly fifth graders) only won one game but the fifth grade team (all fourth graders) won three times including their last game. I think this bodes well for the future of Underwood basketball.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Well, if I had to describe this week in a nut-shell it would be "driving to Bismarck and back." We were in Bismarck for some part of five days this past week. Remember, Bismarck is 50 miles south of us, so we spent a lot of time on the road this past week. Our final trip to Bismarck was on Saturday to attend Child Evangelism's "Big Event Carnival". My wife and I help out with the Kids' Club here in Underwood and the regional director organized a huge gathering of families at the Bismarck Civic Center. There were three rows of carnival games hosted by various churches and ministries and the walls were lined with inflatable bounce house games. And they had about 2200 people in only four hours!
Elementary basketball is finally over for the year. It seemed like a shorter season that last year and even though I enjoyed working with the kids, I'm glad it's over. The sixth grade team (mostly fifth graders) only won one game but the fifth grade team (all fourth graders) won three times including their last game. I think this bodes well for the future of Underwood basketball.
By God's Grace, Jeff
What you Say shows what you Believe about God
This past Sunday I preached on Psalm 5 in our church's series through the first book of the Psalms entitled "The Spiritual Life". The main point as I saw Psalm 5 relating to us today is that "what you say shows what you believe about God." If you'd like to listen to the sermon click here.
By God's Grace, Jeff
By God's Grace, Jeff
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Rocks & Vehicles
Now that the snow has melted and the waters (at least in some areas) are subsiding, farmers are chomping at the bit to get back into their fields. So I thought in honor of being at the cusp of another planting season I would share a couple aspects of farming that I have picked up on recently. The farmland in Central and Western North Dakota (maybe elsewhere too) tends to have quite a few rocks buried on it. So one of the first tasks that farmers have always had to perform around here is removing rocks from their fields before plowing them. Some rocks are easily dug up using tractors but others are too big to remove. In that case farmers will either designate the presence of a large buried rock by piling the smaller rocks they have dug up on it or they will dig a deeper hole next to the rock and shove the large stone into the hole thus burying it below ground.
It is also interesting to see how many vehicles there are on many farms. Notice I did not say "cars" and "trucks" but vehicles, which seems to be what they are commonly referred to around here. Anyway, unlike in urban areas where there is limited room for vehicles other than ones being used regularly, on rural farms there is plenty of room for older cars and trucks. So farms tend to be full of sedans and pickups that may or may not be running at a given time and may or may not have current registration but are nonetheless useful in a farming operation.
Yesterday my wife and I drove down to Bismarck to attend an orientation with the Northern plains District of the Evangelical Free Church. Now you may be thinking to yourself, "Hasn't he been there nearly two years?" And the answer to that is "yes." However, when we came out to Underwood, our District Superintendent himself was transitioning to another position and it wasn't until about a year ago that our current DS was installed. So there were some of us at the orientation who had been in the district awhile and others who are brand new. We had a good time fellowshipping with each other and the district staff, learning about the EFCA, the NPD and the culture of the Northern Plains, eating a meal together at the Golden Corral buffet and they set us up for the night at a motel in Bismarck. One interesting cultural tidbit that I learned is that rural folks tend to focus on natural resources and work independtly while urbanites focus on man-made resources and are interdependent.
Well, the elementary basketball season is winding down (one week left!). This past Saturday we had a tournament in Wilton and our sixth grade team (made up of one sixth grader and a bunch of fifth graders) won a thriller in the first game against Garrison. We were down 13-6 (low scoring affair) with under three minutes remaining. We had been playing great defense and getting good looks but nothing was falling for us. All of a sudden everything changed. We ran the same play (double screen for the point guard) each posession down the stretch and began scoring at will. Our lasg basket came off of an inbounds play with twenty seconds left and gave us a 15-13 victory (our first of the season!). Now we also have a fifth grade team made up entirely of fourth graders who have already beaten a couple of other teams this season. It has been nice being a co-coach this year and not having to control the kids all by myself.
By God's Grace, Jeff
It is also interesting to see how many vehicles there are on many farms. Notice I did not say "cars" and "trucks" but vehicles, which seems to be what they are commonly referred to around here. Anyway, unlike in urban areas where there is limited room for vehicles other than ones being used regularly, on rural farms there is plenty of room for older cars and trucks. So farms tend to be full of sedans and pickups that may or may not be running at a given time and may or may not have current registration but are nonetheless useful in a farming operation.
Yesterday my wife and I drove down to Bismarck to attend an orientation with the Northern plains District of the Evangelical Free Church. Now you may be thinking to yourself, "Hasn't he been there nearly two years?" And the answer to that is "yes." However, when we came out to Underwood, our District Superintendent himself was transitioning to another position and it wasn't until about a year ago that our current DS was installed. So there were some of us at the orientation who had been in the district awhile and others who are brand new. We had a good time fellowshipping with each other and the district staff, learning about the EFCA, the NPD and the culture of the Northern Plains, eating a meal together at the Golden Corral buffet and they set us up for the night at a motel in Bismarck. One interesting cultural tidbit that I learned is that rural folks tend to focus on natural resources and work independtly while urbanites focus on man-made resources and are interdependent.
Well, the elementary basketball season is winding down (one week left!). This past Saturday we had a tournament in Wilton and our sixth grade team (made up of one sixth grader and a bunch of fifth graders) won a thriller in the first game against Garrison. We were down 13-6 (low scoring affair) with under three minutes remaining. We had been playing great defense and getting good looks but nothing was falling for us. All of a sudden everything changed. We ran the same play (double screen for the point guard) each posession down the stretch and began scoring at will. Our lasg basket came off of an inbounds play with twenty seconds left and gave us a 15-13 victory (our first of the season!). Now we also have a fifth grade team made up entirely of fourth graders who have already beaten a couple of other teams this season. It has been nice being a co-coach this year and not having to control the kids all by myself.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Friday, April 10, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Back from Vacation
This past week my wife and I took a trip to LA where both of our families live. My wife had a cousin who was getting married this past Saturday and so we decided to use that as an excuse to escape the cold weather. We flew into LA (actually Long Beach) last Wednesday and got to meet my parents new Portuguese Water Dog, Isabelle (named after the queen who supported Columbus). We previous had a cat named Alexander (after the military leader Alexander the Great) who lived "up" to his namesake by being an "admire but don't touch" kind of pet. So I warned them about the wisdom of naming another animal after such a powerful world leader. But apparently they didn't take my advice and so now have a very precocious puppy who gets into anything and everything and doesn't have a problem ignoring the hand that feeds her or rolling her eyes when told she did something wrong. Though she is lots of fun and very cute.
The wedding didn't turn out as we had planned. I started coming down with a cold that morning (no doubt as a result of golfing for two days in-a-row, much of the time without a jacket!) and after sitting outside for an hour felt quite ill. So instead of enjoying the reception (that I heard was spectacular) we headed home early so that I could get some rest. I was out of commission for a day and a half which kind of put a damper on some of our plans. But we still got to spend quality time with both sets of parents and got to see my brother-in-law's new place. We also were able to dine at some of our favorite restaurants and catch up with our friends.
This past Tuesday we began our return by flying to Las Vegas. The airline that we take from Bismarck only flies to Vegas or Phoenix. But the nice thing is that we have friends in Vegas who we were able to get together with and had a great time catching up and encouraging one another. We also got to catch some rays by the pool of our hotel before heading back to the cold of North Dakota.
By God's Grace, Jeff
The wedding didn't turn out as we had planned. I started coming down with a cold that morning (no doubt as a result of golfing for two days in-a-row, much of the time without a jacket!) and after sitting outside for an hour felt quite ill. So instead of enjoying the reception (that I heard was spectacular) we headed home early so that I could get some rest. I was out of commission for a day and a half which kind of put a damper on some of our plans. But we still got to spend quality time with both sets of parents and got to see my brother-in-law's new place. We also were able to dine at some of our favorite restaurants and catch up with our friends.
This past Tuesday we began our return by flying to Las Vegas. The airline that we take from Bismarck only flies to Vegas or Phoenix. But the nice thing is that we have friends in Vegas who we were able to get together with and had a great time catching up and encouraging one another. We also got to catch some rays by the pool of our hotel before heading back to the cold of North Dakota.
By God's Grace, Jeff
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