Life in the Big Potato

Well, I needed a post to replace the goofy picture of me that Jana posted.  So I thought I'd let you know how things are going.  All of the snow is melted down in the valleys, and the mountains that surround us are slowly losing their snow as well.  It hasn't really warmed up, but the sun is shining. Speaking of the sun, its been coming up earlier and earlier each day.  Jana and I have fortified our bedroom against the encroaching rays.  However, our daughter's room has been much more susceptible to light leaking through the window.  This is bad news because she will wake up at any clue of daylight.   Our mornings have been starting at 5:30, 5:15, 5:00.  Our first attempt to thwart the sun's rays was to put some beach towels over the curtain.  That had a limited effect.  Next Jana used a huge blanket that covered most of the window.  She went further and bought some blackout material to add to the curtains.  Unfortunately, the sun is still sliding right through the edge...

111 is the number of people attending NorthStar Church this past Easter Sunday.  Around 28 of those were children birth-sixth grade.  It is the most people I've seen in our worship room in a long time.  It was very encouraging.  I know it was Easter and you expect big attendance on Easter, but we have been averaging 65 or 70.  We weren't doing any special Easter presentations.  We didn't publicize other than on the website .  We didn't even put pressure on our congregation to go out and invite everyone they knew.  In fact we expected our number to stay about the same since we had 10 or 15 regulars who would be out for travel or sickness.  By my estimation we were about 70% above our average. Why am I bragging about numbers?  I hope you see why.  Its because we didn't do it .  Yes, we have been obedient to God in lifting Christ in worship, preaching the scriptures faithfully, praying for God to work, and following his urgings in some small things.  But from a worldy ...

where did my egg go? somehow she put it there!

Many people ask me about the industry and employment in our area.  Kootenai (koot nee) County has around 140,000 people.  As you can see from the list below employment is pretty divers among the largest employers.  There is no one industry that dominates the list, and this list only represents maybe 10% of all employment in the county.  In fact if you take away governments and government institutions there are very few employers in Kootenai with more than 200 employees.  Most people work at places that employ 100 people or less. Largest Kootenai County Employers Employer Type Employees Kootenai Medical Center, Hospital 1,650 Coeur d'Alene School District, Public Schools 1,380 Center Partners, Customer Service Center 1,100 Hagadone Hospitality, Lodging 1,100 State of Idaho, State Government 940 North Idaho College, Community College 930 Coeur d'Alene Casino, Amusement and Recreation 840 Kootenai County Government, County Government 730 Post Falls School District, Public Schools ...

Dear Friends and Family, As Easter approaches we wanted to take a moment to give you an update on all that is happening in our lives. First off, I know you are probably most interested to hear that Laurel Day is doing wonderfully. She’ll be 9 months old on April 9th. She has four teeth, a head full of dark hair, and an infectious sense of humor. She is eating “solid” foods, creeping all over the house, pulling up and standing by the furniture, and making sounds that sound a lot like “mama” and “dada.” She enjoys being around people and going all over the place with her mom. I know you probably want to hear more about Laurel, but I really think there are some other things you need to know about. The biggest news is that our church has called a new lead pastor to replace the one that left about 16 months ago! After a long and difficult process of searching through hundreds of candidates, our search team found a man unique enough to fit the situation of NorthStar Chu...

It is worth your time to go read Screwtape on Southern Baptists at the Kingdom People blog by Trevin Wax.  Here is a snippet. At the local church level, I am convinced that the more you blind the people to their hypocrisy, the better off we will be in the long run. Make sure their temperaments run towards judgmentalism and not repentance. You can do this by keeping them focused on the sins of the increasingly decadent culture (by the way, aren’t the new developments delightful?). As long as the Baptists focus on the actions of those in our territory, they are less apt to repent of the actions of those in their pews and pulpits. Let's not play into the enemy's hands.  Please pray for God to continue to work among Southern Baptists.