This is Mandy's grandma as she told her that if our child is a girl we are going to name her after her, Lucy. 

Winter Wonderland

In Cleveland at my parents house and there has to be two plus feet of snow on the ground, it's great! I just shoveled the drive way, boy was it hard. I got to see neighbors I hadn't seen in years while doing it. I almost got stuck coming back from Bob Evans this morning (they still haven't plowed our street) but thanks to my amazing snow driving abilities I got us out of a potentially nasty situation unharmed.

The Lost Letters of Pergamum

I just got finished reading "The Lost Letters of Pergamum" by Bruce Longenecker. It has to be my favorite book I've read so far in seminary. It's a must read as far as I'm concerned, especially for my friends who like planting house churches. It is a historical finction book about an early martyr of the church. Powerful stuff, it almost had me in tears as I finished reading it.

It really made me start asking what we are supposed to be as a church. Is our job to attract people to God or to be the people of God? What does it mean to be the people of God in the this fallen world? I asked some hard questions today and I think I'm begining to see some cool answers. I have a lot of hope, which is what Advent suppossed to be about. Eric and Kerri, you seriously need to read this book.

I love my church

Today was an odd day. I felt like I jacked up the final advent sermon for this year. It was the Christmas story from Joseph's perspective out of Matthew 1. I tried to talk about how we find our hope in a baby, which is an odd place, but it is where hope is found. I couldn't make it that simple and led our church all over the place this morning and never took them where they needed to go. So I was a little down (ok,a lot down) after service.

Well tonight in our home group we finished up by going around the room and taking time to affirm each person there. It was a special time and I probably had us do it cause I needed some affirmation. We were good to each other tonight, we gave lots of grace.

Probably not twins

The doctor told us today that we are probably not going to have twins based on the first heartbeats we heard today. But on the 26th of January we get our first ultrasound and they'll tell us for sure then, so we still have some hope.
The heartbeat was at 144, which they said was good. Hearing it finally proved to me that Mandy is really pregnant; I was begining to think she was pulling one over on me. Everything is just so odd! I still can't believe I'm gonna be a dad. Yesterday we went and visited some friends in the hospital who had a baby yesterday. It was the most unusual hospital visit I've ever went on. I just kept asking questions knowing that we would be there in six months. I think I'm a little wigged out by everything right now, but at the same time pumped silly. Eziekel DeWayne Peterson is starting to grow on me.

The first snow

Mandy woke me up this morning and told me that it snowed last night. That got me out of bed that much quicker this morning. It wasn't that much snow, cause you could still see the grass sticking through it, but it was enough to make me smile real big. Hank (my dog) loves the snow, so I put some boots and a big coat on and took him for a walk. It's a blast to watch him play in it. I took him back to this trail by my house that goes between a dike (sp?, sorry if I got that one wrong) and a river. It is probably one of my two favorite places in the world. The snow makes it perfect back there in my opinion.

Garbage disposal

I just got finished with a crazy busy week, I hated it. I hardly saw my wife, my dog, or any of my other friends. I spent my time either in class at Ashland, reading, writing papers, or writing sermons. I like doing all those things, but not doing only those things for 10-14 hours a day, it gets old. But as of this past Sunday things got better as Mandy and I went to go see the Messiah. Then Monday I replaced my garbage disposal all by my self. I was so proud until a friend told me to make sure that I take out the dishwasher plug. So I have to go home now and take care of that.

Odd experience yesterday: In class we talked about healing prayers and it really spoke to me cause I've been doing a lot of praying for the guy I blogged about a while back. After class we go to Ponderosa for lunch and I got to use the bathroom. There was an old guy using the urinal next to me and we started talking. He made some complaint about the weather and I said well at least it's not too cold outside. He then said he prefered the cold weather because he has lung cancer and the colder drier weather is better for him. I felt like I had to pray for this guy right then and there, but we were in the bathroom of ponderosa. I felt like are whole discussion was straight from the lecture I just heard in class. After we washed our hands I asked him what his name was and he told me it was Bill Isaac, so I told him mine and I let him know I would be praying for him. His face brightened up so much I knew I had to pray for him right there so I asked if I could and he said, "by all means." So I laid hands on him in the middle of a ponderosa bathroom and prayed for his healing. He said, "that just made my day." Before he left the restaurant I gave him my phone number so he could keep me informed. I'm waiting for the phone call to tell me he has been healed. I felt like I just had to pray for him. There was no choice, or very little, involved on my part.

I now know three people who I'm praying for that have cancer, Mariela Rodriguez, Johnie West, and Bill Isaac. Father, bring healing in miraculous ways to all three.