What a Sight!

When I woke up this morning I was amazed to see an incredible sight. The moon was in total eclipse and had a reddish brown tint to it. By the time I left to workout at Gold's Gym it looked like this. (above)

I love what God allows us to see in our lives. I wanted to run in and wake up my girls of which I have done in the past for other similar events, but I didn't.

When I was done with my time on the treadmill, I came out and the moon was just about in "totality". There was only a remnant of the shadow that was cast during the eclipse and it was still as magnificent.

But I have to be clear that although I have been amazed at the astounding beauty of this world and the unbelievable intricacy and detail in which it is fashioned, I worship the Creator and not the creation.

Romans 1:25 says: "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the creator -who is forever praised."

Join me in praising Him for all that He is - all that He does - all that He has planned - and lets enjoy what He has given us to enjoy.

-John

I participated along with hundreds of soldiers from across the country at Boise's Gowen Field for a "Warfighter Exercise." This type of training uses the latest technology to mimic real-life combat situations and allowed soldiers to practice operating a command center. The event lasted over a week and combined lessons from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. I, however, was present only on the final weekend with the National Guard unit from Twin Falls.

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When you step into the tent it feels as though you are stepping out of time and into another reality. There is a sense of busyness that captures the undivided attention of the soldiers as they communicate back and forth via laptop, radio and phone regarding strategy, position and actions that are displayed on a large screen as a simulated battle-field in progress.

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There is an emotional intensity evident and when you observe the soldiers doing their job and it is difficult to believe that there are not 'real' counterparts being captured, taken as prisoner, or encountering an IED (Improvised Explosive Device), until you hear someone mutter the phrase "Real-World" in their conversation. It then that you realize it's a training exercise.

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I had several "Real-World" encounters at the training exercise. It seems that a Chaplain is a coveted officer whether it's training or the real thing. When I showed up about 18:30 (6:00pm) on Friday, I was taken aside and briefed on a real-world situation relating to two soldiers that were in immediate need of their chaplain.

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I thank God for the ministry He has allowed me to have in the lives of these soldiers and their families. By the time I was finished with the weekend I had counseled with four individuals about 'real' issues in their lives.

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Oh, by the way, I was informed later that the Chaplain and Chaplain's assistant in the warfighter simulation were 'taken-out' . I assume that was not good. LOL

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We'll, like I recently said to my father-in-law, you can't win them all, especially if you don't win the first one.

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LOL

-John M

It's Monday

Well, you have to admit I am getting better at more-frequent postings. It has actually been less than a week. Well, 6 days is less than a week. ;)





Monday mornings have always been good for me. I am ready to get into planning for the Sunday to come and believe it or not, I am usually fresh despite how busy Sunday was the day before with only a few historical exceptions.





I am thrilled for our youth Canada ministry team. Last night Silas Thompson made a motion to the church at our monthly ministry meeting that our church "Partner" with the Canada Baptist Convention through 2010 to help in the process of planting a church(es) in the greater Vancouver Canada area before 2010.





Our church unanimously agreed. Woo Hoo! Now the work begins.
Here is a copy of the motion:

The "Youth Canada Ministry Team" would like to make a motion that Eastside Southern Baptist Church formally create a partnership with the Canada Southern Baptist Convention, The Point Church, Simon Fraser Community Church and Kelly and Jeanne Manire of Burnaby Canada, BC for the purpose of ministering through 'ministry and mission teams leading up to and through the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC as well as to partner in planting additional outreach ministries and or churches in the Canada Southern Baptist Convention in the greater Vancouver, BC area.

This was the awesome thing. Right after our church finished voting on the partnership, one of our members, Gen Ennis stood up and announced to us that earlier this year she had read that the Canadian Baptists were asking for people to pray for them to plant churches; she has been praying for the Canadian Baptists and now God has answered her prayer by allowing her own church to become involved in that very endeavor for which she was praying .





Be careful what you pray for Gen, you just might get more than you bargained for. Thanks for praying for the Canadians, now we can begin to pray for the Idahoans and the Canadians.





-John M

It's Tuesday

Well, this may sound strange, but I have decided to be a bit more regular in posting to my BLOG.

In the past I have typically made entries when there was a significant event or similar to report. However, I have realized that consistency is preferable.

So other than it's Tuesday, here I am to post so here goes nothing, literally. :)

This past week has held a great reminding lesson for me in the finer details of body chemistry. I have re-discovered the joys of lactic acid build up in my muscles. Saturday was filled with climbing Mt. Borah (Idaho's highest peak). Although I was exhausted when the 14 hour 21 minute climb was done, I was still in store for all the pain that ensues.

Monday was the worst. I felt like I was a candidate for the nursing home. I would sit down and not want to get up for fear of pain. I would stand up and not want to sit down for fear of not being able to get up if I sat down. uggh.

Although I did manage to stay free of blisters on my feet, I did end up with bruises on the balls of my feet. And the new hiking boots I took on the hike now look as though I have owned them for the past five years.

I decided to go to the gym to work through some of the pain and possibly work it out. All I accomplished was creating more pain. I don't ever remember getting and staying this sore for this long when I was a teenager.

Tuesday is better on the scale of pain factorability, but now my chapped lips from the day in the wind are ready to take me the distance. I should go look for some carmex, and some Ibuprophen.

-John

My Apologies

The world we live in today is rather socked in with sin. We have to navigate our way through deceit and deception and then we are even faced with the blatant as well.

But sometimes it is the subtle approach that is the most cunning of all. In the process of providing a BLOG site to be for our church to read about it's pastors, the site we use has within itself a 'backdoor' to the evil of this world.

We were informed that on the home page of our BLOG there existed a link to what could eventually lead a person to view inappropriate material on the Internet. Thank you to our observant readers and their quick response to us.

I want to apologize that this was even remotely possible through our BLOG and I sincerely apologize if you may have stumbled across this while reading the BLOG. However, the navigation bar where the link was located has now been removed and as far as we know, it should not pose a problem in the future.

-John

12,662 ft!

At the risk of sounding like I am bragging, --- I Did It!

It felt great and the view was well worth every step up and down the mountain. Thank you Pastor Paul, for encouraging me to participate in this year's WAM trip. Which one is Next?

-John