On The Jordon Road-Haiti Sending Service, Lunch and Baptism

Dear LAF Family and Friends:

This is an open letter to explain what will be taking place next Sunday the 21, as well as invite you to be a part of it.

As you may or may not have heard next Sunday August 21st starting at 11 am Lost and Found Church will be gathering at the Jordon Bridge Park on Jordon road in Arlington going through Granite Falls for a Community Sunday. Three things will be taking place, a time of Worship including a sending service for our Haiti mission team that will be leaving next week. A cold cut potluck. Then we will conclude our time together with the first Baptisms in the history of Lost and Found Church. Yesterday I had a chance to go and visit the area and this is what I found. We will need to brings chairs or blankets to sit on. The area where we will be will be a sandy area. To get to that area involves some walking. First over a suspension bridge, then down some very large steps with a hand rail. The area itself has no hook ups what so ever, so worship will be an ole fashion camp meeting which begins at 11 am. Included in the worship will be a sending service for our Haiti mission team. After service we will play and eat or eat and play. So if you have games or cards feel free to bring them. Speaking to the meal itself, we will have to bring everything in, I am thinking chicken, salads, sandwiches and fruit. LAF will supply the drinks and eating utensils. After eating we will be having a Baptism. Our first as a Church. Baptism will conclude the formal stuff, but you are welcome to stay as long as you would like. I realize that some of you have places of worship and you are just planning on coming to the meal and Baptism. We will not start eating until 12:30, I promise.

Directions to Jordan Bridge Park 14300 Jordan Rd Arlington, WA Turn off Highway 9 right on to Highway 92 Granite Falls and follow it until you reach the first light after the roundabout. Take a left at that light on to Jordan road. Follow that road for about 6 miles. One thing to watch out for is the roundabout that you will come to, it is the second right to continue on Jordan.

One other thing, please be in prayer for the 21st.

God Is Pro Choice

Yesterday during the sermon, I mentioned Hell. (yes, there are still some Christian Churches that still mention Hell during a service) But I digress, at the end of Church one of our newer teens was hanging around while I was talking to some other people. I finally got to her and she asked me a question that has plagued many a believer. "Why does a loving God condemn people to Hell?" A loving God does not send people to Hell I reassured her. We (meaning people) send ourselves to Hell. If God had His way no one would ever go to Hell, but He loves us so much, that He lets us make our own decisions. Then He allows us to suffer the consequences of those choices. You see God gives us free will. That is what makes Christianity unique among all the world’s religions. God says I gave you a brain now use it! It is known as free will. I went on to explain that a lot of other religions want you to check your brain at the door. Turn your mind off as you head to nirvana. If I were God: I told her; the first thing I would do is take away free will. She looked at me with a shocked face that only teenagers can create and said, “That would be terrible, then all we would be are puppets!” “Exactly! God does not want puppets, He wants living thinking followers. Who came to Him and stay with Him because they want to.” One of the hardest things I have to do as a Pastor, I explained to her is work with parents who raised their children in a Godly manor, giving them free will. Then those kids take that free will and make horrible choices, becoming jerks! I have to reassure those parents that they did their best. God is the same way, He gave us the gift of free will and every day we have to decide how we are going to use it. When we make poor decisions it hurts God, the same way those parents are hurt watching their kids make wrong, hurtful decisions. No parent wants to see their children suffer. Our God does not want to see His creation suffer. Yet there comes a point where both parents and God stand out of the way and allow that which they created make choices that could lead to their destruction. For the earthly parent, it may be death. For the spiritual parent it may be Hell. But those are the consequences of the gift of free will.

July 31sr The Unoffical Last Day of Summer

As I write this, it is the evening of July 31^st, the year does not matter for come this date every year there is sadness. The sadness is caused by the day slipping into night. It is as if a curtain is coming down on the play that we call summer. For you see today is the unofficial end to the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. Days that are filled with nothingness, nothingness that crates a joy that comes from just enjoying the season. This joy comes from getting up and deciding just what you want to for this day and this day only. There is no future, there is no past, there is just this day that stretches out before you. If you are a kid, you think of kid stuff, playing, swimming, shooting hoops. If you are a stay at home parent, your only concern is getting through the day without going crazy. You are not worried about tomorrow; all you want is just to get through this day. If you are a working parent, all you desire is getting your kid through the day. So you fill it up with day care, or camp or Vacation Bible School. Remember the old adage that there are no atheists in fox holes. Well during the summer there are not atheists in neighborhoods. Keeping your child busy is all that matters, he or she may be a Baptist this week and a Methodist next week.

But alas, all that ends when daylight returns to the earth on the first of August. For it is on this day when you awake, no matter what your age and realize that you have survived another summer for school will be starting soon. Now more than a time or two in your day, you will think of school. For the child, his or her mind begins to wonder who they will have in class. Will they like their teacher? If they are older, in the next couple of days they will receive a letter telling them how best they can prepare for whatever fall sport they are in. So a part of their day will be filled with getting in shape for the August practices. Parents start looking at back to school ads in newspapers. They wonder about what they should budget for clothes. They begin to inquire of their children if they remember what they did with the class supplies list for the coming year. For the rest of August all that will be done or thought of. will point in some way to the start of school. For the Church what that means all those kids who came to Vacation Bible School are nothing more than a memory. "You say you want me to have my child there at what time?" That same Church that helped that parent get through the long summer day is now regulated to a memory, kind of like the hot weather we never had, or the Mariners being only a game and a half out of first place in early July. After all, my child has soccer on Sunday morning, or that is our family time when we all sit down to a big breakfast and watch Football.

Yes the lazy, hazy, crazy, nothing days of summer are gone for another year. May they rest in peace.

Charlie, Two And A Half Men and Moral Turpitude

For the last week, I have been caught up in watching and listening to CSI, including its various spin offs. You know CSI-Charlie Sheen Insanity! I have read, listened and learned all about Goddesses and Tiger Blood. But yesterday was the breaking point for me in all this mess. What is amazing is that it did not come from Mr. Sheen, but from the studio that produces his show Two And A Half Men, Warner Brothers. The studio fired him from the show in part for violating the “moral turpitude” clause in his contract. Moral Turpitude, are you kidding me. This Warner’s produced show has been nothing but moral turpitude since it premiered back in 2003. But I guess if you are the one doing the moral turpitude it’s okay, especially when your company can make millions of dollars doing so. I remember when CBS was trying to get this show off the ground; they showed clips of William Demarest’s “Uncle Charley” from My Three Sons interspersed with clips of Sheen’s “Uncle Charlie” as the announcer encouraged us to watch “an Uncle Charlie for the 21^st century.” I admit I watched a few episodes and the plots boiled down to wanting to have sex, having sex or having had sex. What is amazing to me is not one of the characters have had to go to the doctor to be checked out for an STD or AIDS, nor have they ever had to take penicillin for their sexapades. I remember a few years ago, I was on a plane sitting next to a missionary who was retiring back to the US and an episode of Two And A Half Men was playing in the cabin. The missionary looked at me and asked, “Is this a popular program here in the states?” I replied in the affirmative, pointing out that it was one of the most popular and watched shows in the country and it had been renewed for another two years. He looked at me saying “Oh dear, the country is in trouble.” Warner Brothers is making so much money on the moral turpitude of Two And A Half Men, that they were paying Mr. Sheen two million dollars and episode. So as the studio rushes to try to save their cash cow, they no doubt will try to sex up the yucks even more with Mr. Sheen’s replacement. And don’t get me started on the amount of profanity included in the lines. I have never seen such laughs gotten as one character refers to someone as a s—of a b-----. What is even more disconcerting is that with “men” now syndicated, it literally plays from morning until night. Teaching a whole new group of viewers, how you can have sex with out consequences, while swearing all the while. That my friend’s is true “moral turpitude”.

Waiting For Manna

Besides pastoring Lost and Found, I am also a substitute teacher. What that means when the regular classroom teacher is gone, I step in teach or babysit, depending on the lesson plan. But what I want to share with you is how I find my job for the day. I log on to a computer web site around 5 am and wait for a job to come up that I might be qualified for. But it is not just me, hundreds of people are on the same web site hoping to find work as well. So when a job comes up, if you want it, you press the accept button. Problem is, others may also be pressing that button. If you make it through round one, you get to press it again to confirm that you want the job. if you are too late, the computer tells you that this job is being held for another sub and you go back to square one and wait. This little game show could be over in ten miniutes or take as long as 2 plus hours. If you do not have a job by 7 am, chances are that you are not going to get work that day.
In reding this, you no doubt have figured out that I did not get work today. So why do I do this little ritchual day after day. Becuse I know that eventully i will get a job. If I quit looking, I will end up with nothing. Faith is alot like that. Sometimes we have to wait upon the Lord for His answer to our need. So I keep praying and believing, for I know when He does it will be what is best for me. If I get frustrated and quit, then I know i will end up with nothing but my continued frustration. So I continue on.
If you are in the midst of frustration, I would invite you to go to the Lord and share with Him your needs. Believe that He will answer you and look forward to it. Give it a try, to do nothing, leaves you with nothing.

The "Power of One"

At our Church's General Convention in Orlando this summer I had the privilege of attending a workshop led by Stan Tolar and Louis Bussel. The workshop was entitled the power of one, the subject personal evangelism. In the midst of the presentation Dr. Tolar spoke of a new personal evangelism program he and Dr. Bussel had developed that was being tested in four Churches in Oklahoma. He mentioned as an aside that he could use a few more Churches. After the meeting I went up to Dr. Tolar and chatted with him about Lost and Found. To make a long story short, Dr. Tolar selected Lost and Found to be a test Church for this exciting evangelism program. In fact just a few days after Dr. Tolar was selected a General Superintendent, he took the time to send me the material. The course is called "the power of one. "
For the past month we have been talking about selecting and then praying for five people that you would like to invite to Church. Are you one of those people? I hope so because if you have been hurt by the Church or just looking for a new Church. I would love to have you come and check out what we call the Lost and Found difference. What is that? It is a place to laugh, discuss, pray and most importantly heal. Not mention eat and drink coffee. We start every Sunday with the entire family worshiping our Lord Jesus that inculdes a children's moment before they go off to have their own lesson time.
The power of one means many things. Jesus has the power of one. You as His witness have the power of one. The world has been changed starting with one person having a dream, vision or goal. We as a body of believers have already changed the culture of Cedar Springs Camp where we worship by our bringing in golf clubs, one club at a time until they had enough putters to run a successful program. The Lord upon His return to the Father left us the greatest power of one, The Holy Spirit!
So we will see you this Sunday morning at 9:30 at Cedar Springs Camp 4820 Highway 92 in Lake Stevens as we together begin our fall journey. As we explore God's word learning about the power of one.

Kinda Makes Ya Wonder

Every once an a while, something happens that causes you to shake you head and wonder. One such event took place on August 20th in Minneapolis. The Evangelical Lutheran Church was in convention debating the issue of Gays in pulpit ministry. This issue itself could create numerous blogs. But what I want to talk about is the weather.
As the issue was being debated on the inside of the auditorium a tornado warning was in effect for the area. For many of us when we think of a tornado, we think of the Wizard of Oz and the one that picked up Dorothy causing her life to go from black and white to Technicolor. But things like that only happen in the movies, don't they? As the afternoon of the 20th wore on and the debate raged inside of the auditorium the tornado touched down. According to Christianity Today, the tornado touched down on the convention center at the exact time the ELCA were in debate the Gay clergy issue. The only damage occurred according to the Catholic Digest wire service about a block away from the convention center. Where the hosting ELCA church had their cross topple to the ground. Other than that, no other tornado damage was reported.
As Ripley would say, "Believe it, or not."