Life in the Big Potato

The Sidewalk Someone's car is under there Tom's truck Credit for these pictures goes directly to our music minister's wife and her family. I stole them off her Facebook page, and if she get's mad at me for posting them I will quickly take them down. There are some more cool pics from some friends in our adopted town at http://breshblog.com/2008/12/winter-crazy-land.html . P.S. Go to www.krem.com or www.khq.com to see our local news with more pictures. They are reporting using Skype and pictures emailed in because they just can't get out there to film it for themselves!

Ok, so we left CDA yesterday at around 8 am (once our plane finally took off). Before we got off the ground it began to snow. Since then it snowed for the next 30 hours with more on the way. This is not normal. There's been over 30 inches of accumulation. No one has seen anything like it, ever. Everything is shut down. Please pray for safety. I'll post some pictures as soon as I steal them from Fondra's Facebook album. In the meantime we are in Mississippi with 68 degree weather. I'll post pictures from there too. mobile

Rathdrum is where we live. That's NOT Celcius.

As someone who is working as a minister, I hate to waste money.  Two reasons: 1) There is never enough money to accomplish everything we want to do in ministry.  2)  Wasting money is addictive and leads to a cycle of materialism that is hard to break.  So I thought it would be good to give our readers some giving alternatives that are guaranteed to not be a waste of your gift-giving budget.  The items that made the list did so because they are great deals or because they have ETERNAL significance. 1.  Gift-a-Verse Cards The Wycliffe translators created a spin-off company that has the goal of translating scripture into every single language on earth as quickly as possible.  Wycliffe has very strict standards of translation and often takes years to complete an authoritative translation.  In the mean time OneVerse is trying to get "good enough" translations into the hands of missionaries, pastors, and lay people for the purpose of sharing the Gospel.  You can pay for your favori...

**This text was originally meant to appear along with the first Dec. 5th post that included a picture of Coeur d'Alene I took while hiking on Tubbs Hill.** That is Coeur d'Alene. The two-humped mountain in the middle of the horizon is Rathdrum mountain near my house. Up here I am by myself, but it is impossible to feel alone. I do feel more connected to God, but I also feel more connected to this community. It's as if I feel, by seeing this scene, that thing which everyone is looking for. And so we are bound to each other by our searching, by our homelessness in a strange and beautiful world of pain and peace. We all are toiling day after day with a lump in our throat and excitement in our chest vaguely aware of all the possibilities--distracted by choice or by necessity, from that something that we know needs our attention.

This morning I am walking along the top of Tubbs Hill.

In celebration of living in potato land, I wanted to post this yummy potato soup recipe for all of you soup lovers out there. This came from my mom-in-law's kitchen. And it's the best. 4 Large Potatoes 2/3 cup of butter 3/4 tsp of salt 4 green onions 1 1/2 cup of cheese 2/3 cup of all purpose flour 6 cups of milk 1/2 tsp pepper 12 slices of bacon 1 8 oz. carton of sour cream Wash potatoes and bake at 400 for one hour. Let cool and scoop out pulp. Melt butter, add flour, and cook one minute on low. Add milk, cook on medium until thickened stirring constantly. Add potato pulp, salt, pepper, green onions, 1/2 of bacon, and 1 cup of cheese. Cook until heated thoroughly. Stir in sour cream. Add extra milk if necessary. Serve with remaining cheese and bacon on top. 12 servings