Life in the Big Potato

I just received a phone call from one of my friends here. She told me that her neighbor just prayed to receive Christ. Here's the story... Sunday after hearing an incredible message on how God is at work, she went home, was getting ready to fix lunch for the family, when God said go visit your neighbor. She did, and God was already at work there. Today as she went to visit her again and take her a Bible God was still working as she surrendered her life to Him. Please be in prayer for Joanne, a new believer. Pray that God would reveal His love to her. Pray that we all would be this sensitive to God's leadership in our lives. He is at work all of the time.

In two weeks teenagers all around the world will gather at their schools for a time of prayer for their generation. On Wednesday the 26th of September I hope you will be praying with them. On that day I hope you are praying for the students in your community who face a world full of confusion and chances to make bad decisions. This week, why don't you take some time to pray for the students in my neck of the woods? Teenagers in North Idaho seem to face drugs, depression, crime, abuse, and violence to a much larger degree than our lightly populated and idealic setting warrants. Could be the lack of good professional jobs, could be the drug traffic through Canada, could be the cold dark winters, the lack of strong extended-family bonds, the deficits in education, the angry native-american spirits inhabiting our land. Could be those things. Of course, it could be a lack of hope through Jesus the Christ. What else could it be?

Please pray that our youth group would become strong. Specifically pray that some of them would begin to see themselves as leaders and servants. And that God would give them a passion for the Word that goes beyond explanation. Please pray for our Life Groups. Specifically that our leaders would really "get it" and be able to pass on the vision of NorthStar to their group members. Also pray for our Life Groups as we embark on a 40 day experience focusing on 7 truths from the Bible study Experiencing God . That starts September 23. Please pray for our association. There are some churches that have shown interest in joining our Baptist Association. Pray that all parties exhibit Godly wisdom as this process continues. Please pray for our pastor as he makes final preparations for a trip to Nepal. Pray that he can raise the needed funds, and that he can get all the details worked out that need to happen while he's gone. His trip is Sep. 23-Oct. 7. Plea

Toward the end of the video you hear me shout with pain and the camera points down a little. Something hit me in the chest. It felt about the size and weight of a quarter or a piece of ice. I don't know what it was. This show lasted like 45 minutes and it was almost all good. There were a few lulls when they were doing stuff on the ground. They showed the history of logging through flaming outlines of tug boats and lumber jacks. *edit. If it plays the audio twice in your browser, I don't know why it's doing that. Actual video ends at about 40 seconds or so.

This past weekend we were invited by a church family to go camping with them. For them this is an annual Labor Day weekend tradition. They go down to St. Mary's camp for a few days and watch the Paul Bunyan Days fireworks show. We had a wonderful time. The campground we stayed at is right on the St. Joseph river and it was beautiful. We stayed in a tent and spent our days talking, eating, fishing, swimming or just relaxing. St. Mary's is a town of about 2,500 people. So you may not believe me when I say that it was the best fireworks I have ever seen, but believe me, it was! I don't know how to describe fireworks, but there were tens of thousands of people watching with me so just ask them. Sunday we heard about prayer, specifically as it relates to ministers. It was really great. As a result, I really would like to work on our prayer support raising. I know we have many people praying for us, but we are not as connected to them as directly as we should be. In ot