Hot Dog Commercial from the "Hot Dog Truck"

I found this at the "Hot Dog Truck". I enjoy his blog - well, the unsolicited posts. This is just fun.

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Meet Me at the River

Here are some pics of our service at the river on Sunday.

The crowd.

Lori and me leading . . . worship?

Justin on the guitar.

All the food
Eating and Fellowship after.

River Church

We had a first for our church on Sunday. At least I don't remember anything like this ever before. Our second service was held away from campus at a private camping lot next to the Susquehanna River. Pastor Paul had a special Memorial Day message and then we had hot dogs over the fire and all kinds of good food. The fellowship was really good. I heard a lot of good comments about the service and the day. I am sure it will be something we will consider for the future. I will post some pics soon.

Our Internet

Our internet isn't really fixed and yet it is working?? The technician says he can't fix something that isn't broken. I guess he is correct.

Quick thoughts . . . More Later

We have had internet problems here the past few days. . . We had a really nice Memorial Day Service along the Susquehanna River on Sunday. More about that later. . . Memorial Day was a good day. . . Won't have 100% internet until later this evening - hopefully. . . A lot of things to blog about and yet I have to wait.

Blog Your Blessings Sunday #2

Yesterday I was a groomsman in my friend's wedding. The best man, the groom's brother, will soon be finishing the final three treatments of chemo-therapy. As he and I have talked over the past year or so, he never complained about his treatments. Yesterday, for the first time, he just said, "I didn't know how great it is to wake up healthy, until I spent months feeling so poorly." This statement was in response to my question about how he was feeling - not a complaint. It made me think how blessed I am to be able to go to bed knowing that, most likely the next morning, I will feel pretty good, no matter how early I get up.

God has blessed me with so many things that I take for granted and today I would just like to say thank you to Him for 41 years of pretty good health.

$50 Gas Card Giveaway!

Hey, if you are anywhere close to Central Pa during the months of June, July & August, you might want to know about this:

Price of Gasoline Putting a Crimp in Your Travel Plans?

Route 104 Businesses Announce Summer Gas Giveaways

With the unofficial start of summer coming this holiday weekend, families and couples are anxious to get in the car and take a road trip. But, as the price of gasoline continues to skyrocket across the Valley and the entire region, travelers are beginning to wonder how they’ll be able to afford explore new and exciting places.

A regional marketing group made up of local businesses along Route 104 have come together to offer a promotion for the summer months. In June, July, and August, the “Explore Route 104!” group will be giving away one $50 Sunoco gas card per month. Participating businesses include:

· Cruisers Café
· Irvins Country Tinware
· Meiserville Inn
· Penns Creek Pottery
· Shade Mountain Winery

All five participants will have entry forms and a red bucket at their place of business so patrons can easily enter to win the free gas cards. The gas giveaway is open to local residents as well as visitors. The purpose of the summer promotion is to encourage people to explore Route 104 and try their luck at winning one of the gas cards, which will be raffled off monthly.

Consider exploring Route 104 this summer with your family and friends. For a map of Route 104, and information about special events, sales, live music, festivals, and car shows along the 104 corridor, please visit www.Rt104.com

Five More Added

We have added five more states on the quest to have a visitor from every state view the "Bunch of Stuff" blog. The new state are:

Connecticut
Washington
Hawaii
Arizona,
North Dakota

That makes 36 states! There are only 14 states left. (I have the ability to state the obvious.) Next week I will let you know what states we still need. In the mean time, tell your friends and have them tell their friends.

Ark Almighty Conference Call

I just hung up from a conference call with the Ark Almighty people. They have signed up over 4000 churches so far in this campaign. I really like this idea. Hopefully it will be a "Giant PR Campaign for Christianity." I also received two tickets today to a private screening of Evan Almighty on June 6 in Baltimore, MD.

128 Joel Snyder's

Thanks to Jana Grant's Blog for this. It is just kinda fun.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 128 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

The case of the Missing Dutch Days Meat!

A while back I wrote about our bank being robbed. Well, another robbery took place over the weekend. No, the bank wasn't robbed, thank goodness! However, I understand that the pork for our annual Dutch Days Celebration has been stolen! I don't have many details about all of this. And I feel a bit like the town gossip. I really don't know what type of person would have done this. This wouldn't have been just a little bit of ham.

Evan Almighty and Ark Almighty

Here is the trailer for "Evan Almighty". It will be in theaters June 22. Youth Specialties, Willow, the International Bible Society and others are promoting this movie along their "Ark Almighty" web site. Here is what they say about Evan Almighty:

When audiences met Evan Baxter (Steve Carell) for the first time in the 2003 hit comedy Bruce Almighty, he was a tortured Buffalo news anchor competing against a higher power for the top job at his station. This summer, Carell reprises his role in the follow-up comedy Evan Almighty, which follows Evan as he bids farewell to his old career to pursue an illustrious life as a congressman in suburban Virginia. But things take an unexpected turn when God himself (Morgan Freeman) hands Evan the unusual task of building an ark that will save mankind from a flood of epic proportions.

With no choice but to follow God’s orders, Evan sets out on an adventure of a lifetime that tests his faith, befuddles his family, and serves as the ultimate act of random kindness.

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RC in the FLC

Here is a new video from the Richfield RC Track in the FLC at RMC
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Blog Your Blessings Sunday

I would like my first "Blog my Blessings Sunday" to say how thankful I am for my parents. I am sure I will blog seperately about each one eventually, but for today, I will just say they are the best. That's enough for now.

ArkAlmighty

Our small groups at church have been discussing "Changing Your World Through Kindness" by Steve Sjogren. In this book we have talked about how small things done with great love can be used as spiritual warfare. I have been struggling with putting what we have learned into action. Today I picked up snail mail from Youth Specialties that has been around here for a couple of days. In the envelope was a flyer for ArkAlmighty.com. Youth Specialties, Steve Sjogren, and others have teamed up to produce this website and organization. This is being produced in advance of the movie "Evan Almighty"(opening June 22), the sequel to "Bruce Almighty". In the movie, "Evan sets out on an adventure of a lifetime that tests his faith, befuddles his family, and serves as the ultimate act of random kindness." I was a little leery at first but I have really enjoyed the small group discussion and now I hope to implement it at Richfield. Here is what http://www.arkalmighty.com/ says about the program.

ArkALMIGHTY is a good deeds program that matches up the needs in your
congregation with the talents and skills of the members of your church.
Gathering the needs of your attendees, these requests are compiled on a website
administered by your church. Then, the members of your church can easily search
through the needs and find ways they can help.

The ArkALMIGHTY.com website is designed to enable youth groups and
churches to easily get involved in practical and tangible volunteerism. There
are countless needs out there that, up until now, have had no way to be met. But
now they do, thanks to ArkALMIGHTY. By searching your church's ArkALMIGHTY
webpage, your congregation will soon see just how much need there is in their
midst – and that they can be the catalyst for change.

So head on over to ArkALMIGHTY.com and sign up today. Act fast and
you'll receive a FREE Ark Kit to help launch ArkALMIGHTY in your church.

ArkALMIGHTY - Get on Board!

Gearing Up For Football

Less than three months until football pre-season!!! 89 more days. Have I told you how much I enjoy coaching football. It is a lot of fun and a great way to give away part of my life with teenagers.

Check out www.tigerfootball.cc for more information on the team.

An Experiment

I was reading a new (to me) blog this weekend and went back to it again tonight. It's called the Hot Dog Truck. Check it out for yourself. Anyway, I noticed a link that said "Advertise on my blog" and I clicked on it. I don't know how many of you do that, but I probably do it more than I should. The site that came up was http://www.blogsvertise.com/. It was a little intriguing to me. They claim that I can earn a little money by writing about companies and sites - even if I don't like the company and tell you so.

Therefore, I am going to try this Blogsvertise to see if it really works. I will donate to my youth group fund with money that comes from this endeavor. I hope it works!

If it doesn't work, I haven't lost anything except a little bit of my time. So, Blogsvertise, here I come.

Dr. Jerry Falwell

As most of you know, Jerry Falwell died yesterday. I wasn't able to be at my computer yesterday afternoon and evening, so I haven't had the chance to post about this until now. Although being controvesial, I admired Dr. Falwell for what he has done for people around the world. I was able to attend Liberty University, founded by Falwell, and had the opportunity to sit next to and talk with him. It was at a basketball game at the Vines Center. He had just come from an interview or interviews and still had makeup on his face. I had just asked if I could say hello and shake his hand to thank him for the opportunity to study at Liberty. He asked me to sit down. Our conversation wasn't long, but he looked me in the eyes while he asked and answered questions. I was thankful for that short time. He was mortal, but he passionately did what he felt God would have him do. I need to be more like that.

Perry Noble has a post that I liked concern Dr. Falwell.

Blog Your Blessings

I am planning to join this group of people this Sunday and following Sundays by sharing a blessing for the week. I think this is a great idea.

Woman Gives Birth to Grandsons

Found this, and other interesting things, at the Daily Telegraph:

A 52-YEAR-OLD Greek mother has given birth to her two grandsons, after getting legal permission to be a surrogate mother for her daughter, a doctor in Crete said.

Here's the whole story. Let me know what you think.

Cockeyville's Gas

I paid over $3.00 for gas for the first time in my life on Saturday evening in Cockeysville MD! The exact price was $3.039

My Quiznos Experience

On my way home from Kansas City, I stopped at a Quiznos Subs during my layover in Charlotte. There is a new Quiznos close to Selinsgrove and I hadn't been to it yet and thought this would be a good time to visit one. I have often wanted to stop on our way to one of the youth group trips we take, but I have never got a really good reaction when I suggested it. Most of the kids and leaders, unlike me, would rather stick to something the know. So, I am glad I was able to check it out this weekend.

Now, I assume (and I know what happens when you assume) that they are all basically the same. I had the "Traditional" sub and a Chocolate Chip cookie. While I have nothing bad to say about my experience, I also can't say that I would try to convince anyone to stop by a Quiznos. It wasn't any better than similar places I have eaten. Toasting the sub didn't make it better for me!?! So, If you are hungry and a Quiznos is close by, go for it. If you get to choose, stay with what you like.

I would like to say that I will stop at another Quiznos and give it a second chance. I don't think opinions should be made upon only one visit.

Five More States Added to the Union

Hey, we have added 5 new states this week! I am pleased especially compared to last week. The five new states that people have visited from are: Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Mississippi, Nevada! Please keep telling people. We have 19 states to go for our goal of all 50. This blog is just a little over a month old, so that's not too bad.

Yahoo for Yahooz

After realizing what an idiot I really am, (I don't want to even get into that) I spent an enjoyable dinner at Yahooz with 5 new friends from Seattle I met at the Beeson Institute for Advanced Church Leadership. We sat outside, which was nice. They are a fun bunch of people. I will post more about them later, hopefully. The Kansas City steak was really good! However, I am not sure it was any better than Tuesday night's meal at the Hereford House. I liked the peppercorn sauce tonight but I think the KC Steak at the Hereford was more tender.


I did get to meet a couple from PA - Dillsburg to be exact- while at Yahooz. His father is a member of the Jacobs Brothers - a local PA gospel singing group. They are here for the Beeson Institute as well. Small world.

Misc. Stuff from Beeson

I got to hear a bunch of successful pastors and teachers the past two days. Adam Hamilton, Dr. Lieth Anderson, Dr. Jim Jackson, and Miles Mcpherson all did teaching on Healthy, Winning Staff Teams. Here are just a few tidbits from Wednesday and Thursday:

• You can never hire enougth staff to carry on the ministry.
• The board should set the rules of the game and boundries of the playing field.
• The purpose of an organization is to "free" and not to "bind".
• "Don't waste your shot on those who fight for sixpence a day. Save your shot for the epaulet men."
• There is no spiritual gift called "sitting in church".

Renewed

For those of you who were concerned, I renewed my driver's license this evening! Now pray that another Baltimore police officer doesn't stop me on the way home.

Great Mid-Western Steak!

I got to eat a great Mid-Western steak at the Hereford House. It made up for the lack of food this morning! Very nice.

Turn Off That Cell Phone

They showed this video today at Beeson. I turned my cell phone off immediately.

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Beeson Training - Better afternoon.

Well, the afternoon today went much better than the morning. I got to the Church of the Resurrections for the Beeson Institute for Advanced Church Leasdership modul and found a few friends. This module is Healthy, Winning Staff Tems. We heard from Dale Galloway from the Beeson team and Mike Breaux, teaching pastor at Willow Creek. Some highlights:

"Master Plan for Staffing" From Dale Galloway . . .

Eight major comcepts you need to know in order to build your dream team:

1. Choose people who have the same philosophy of ministry as you have
2. Hire persons who are ministry centered rather thatn performer centered
3. Select someone who either can do something you can not do or who can do something better than you can; otherwise, you don't need that person
4. Put the staff person over an area of ministry. Give them ownership and responsibility to grow as large as possible.
5. Everyone should have the same "#1" job description: To recruit, equip and train lay leaders in your area of ministry.
6. Recruit the strongest staff leader you can get to join your dream team.
7. You have to change a grow every time there is a new staff person so you can help the new staff person be successful.
8. Staff should have areas of specialization as well as common ministries that all staff will be responsible.

NEVER ADD A STAFF PERSON TO REPLACE VOLUNTEERS!

"Leading through Transition" From Mike Breaux:

1. Know who you are.
2. Own the dream.
3. Share the Load
4. Communicat vision over & over
5. Three steps forward, two steps back
6. Refuse to let ANYTHING get you down.

Terrible Start to Kansas City, Kansas

Short post. LOOOOOOOOOONG morning. Left 38 minutes late for the airport (overslept); got stopped by Baltimore police (headlight out); Got warning for headlight but fined for my licence being expired ($60); two flights on tiny jets (no one sat next to me - thanks be to God!); realized I couldn't get a rental car with an expired driver's licence (paid $45 to get a shuttle) and the only food I have had so far was a muffin and diet coke on the plane. More later . . .

A Giant Fish Story

After church today I ate lunch with a couple of guys who had been in my youth group. One of them, Jeff Fawver (remember that name) has landed a TV show with a local TV station. Being an avid fisherman, Jeff and his buddy will be doing a show about, you guessed it, fishing. The show goes into production this summer. They will be doing 13 shows. (They are looking for sponsors) I will let you know more as soon as I am able. Jeff, I know you read this blog. I don't know if you have a title or not for the show. It would be great if you could comment here and let us all know.

Anyway, he was telling fish (get it) stories at lunch and mentioned this whopper, literally, of a story about a giant catfish. Click here to see the entire story. F.Y.I. I can't say that I endorse everything in the article.

Here is a snapshot:

The monster fish announced itself with four resounding whacks of its tail, thrashing against the net that had trapped it in the pale brown water of the Mekong River.

It was a fish called the giant catfish and it was the size of a grizzly bear, taking five boatmen an hour to pull it in and 10 men to lift it when they reached the shore in this remote village in northern Thailand.

More Women's Football

Here is more women's football stuff. ">

100 Days Until Practice

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There are only 100 days until the first official practice of the football season! The other day I was checking out my myspace friends and found this video that someone made. I found out it was a friend of one of the cheerleaders. The guys name is Pat. Enjoy.

Gettting My Football Fix!

I had to blog about this!!! I just received a phone call from the other assistant football coach. I had told him I was having football withdraw. Well, he called to tell me where I could get my football fix. He was at a NWFA game in Harrisburg, PA. National WOMEN'S Football Association. That's right . . . Women's football! One of his friends plays for the Pittsburgh team. Here's a news article and the "local" teams' website. I have to see this for myself!

Still 24 To Go

Here is the weekly update on getting at least on visitor from each state. This is kind of disappointing . . . This week we have not added any new states. :( While we have had a good number of returning visitors, no new visitors from the remaining 24 we are looking for. Maybe next week will be better. So far this has been an enjoyable activity. I hope you will continue to read.

National DAY of Prayer? ?

Although I love the fact that there is a National Day of Prayer, I really think we need a National YEAR of Prayer (or better yet YEARS).

Everything's Up To Date For Kansas City!

Today I made some final plans for my trip to Kansas City for my third Beeson Institute For Advanced Church Leadership module next week. The module, "How to Build Healthy, Winning, Staff Teams" will be held at the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS from Tuesday, May 8 to Friday, May 11. I have really enjoyed the other modules I have attended and have learned a lot. The days are filled with lectures on the topic for that module with "processing groups" following. These groups allow interaction to help sort out the things you have just heard. At the same time they try to work with churches who are prolific in the topic at hand. Some of the guys are taking the modules for their Masters degrees and a few are working on Doctoral degrees. The rest of us are just . . . there learning.

I will get to hear Miles McPherson from the Rock Church in San Diego, CA, Mike Breaux from Willow Creek, and others from successful ministries around the country.

I also like the chance to get out of Central PA and see different areas of the country. I always try to eat at local places that aren't available here. Also, the Royals are in town Tues - Thursday, so maybe I will get a chance to go to a game - they play the A's.

Then on Friday the module is over at 11:30 AM and I am taking my rental car across the state of Missouri to Saint Louis for one night to visit my cousins.

It will be a nice break and yet a great learning experience for me.

OCC Trip Video

I was moving files off of my laptop to a new 160 gig external hard drive when I came across this video we made of our trip to Operation Christmas Child last November. It's kind of long, but enjoy.