Brian's Babble

November Already???

2009-11-03T08:52:00.003-09:00

Here we are on November 3rd and we have NO SNOW!!! Isn't that awesome?! We did have a little dusting one morning, but it was gone that afternoon. It has been an amazing fall. That came on the heels of an incredible summer. I say all of that because...we've got pretty high chances of snow for the next week. It could be white around here in the next few days.

It has been cold though. In the teens in the mornings. In the 30-40's by the end of the day. And then there's the sunrise/sunset thing kicking in now. You can tell winter is on it's way. Which is great because I'm getting excited to play some Christmas music. I just don't feel like I can do it until we get some snow.

Many of you know November is "Birthday Month" at the Wahl house. Three of the six have November birthdays. Oscar turned 5 on the 1st, Grace turns 7 on the 10th, and Oliver turns 3 on the 16th.

Oscar had a cowboy themed party. His new best friend Ty came over with his family for supper and cake/ice cream. Chanda does an amazing job planning parties. Even with little time and a small budget. I SO married out of my league.

For all of you who have snow already...congrats. Guess you can start listening to that Christmas music any time now. Maybe I'll go pull up Bing on the ipod...

The Link

2009-10-23T13:16:00.003-08:00

Sorry about the Kodak link. In the words of my two year old son, "I look like a doofus." In order to share them with you on Kodak's site, I need to send you the link via email. Seems like a dumb way to do it, but then they didn't ask me.

So, if you would like to see the pics, send me an email or post a comment and let me know.

Something else

2009-10-15T08:48:00.005-08:00

Something I left out of that list of all the stuff that's happened over the last 6 months is that both my office computer and Chanda's home computer (with all of her business, children's ministry, and family files) crashed. Failed. Shuffled off this mortal coil. Let us down. I would add this to the list of excuses reasons for the absence of any blogs. No, it's not the sole reason, but it didn't help.

The good news is they're both running now. We did however lose a whole bunch of stuff. Family pictures, addresses, sermons from the past year, business invoices...some rather needed stuff. We've replaced what we can. And life has moved on.

On a much happier note, let me tell you about the remodel of the building over the last 6 months. Like I said, we closed on it Good Friday (first week in April). Because the next week was Easter, not much of anything was done in that first week. Then we started painting and ripping out walls and adding new walls and more painting and repla

cing lights and building stairs and more painting.

We were fortunate to receive a loan from Wesleyan Investment Foundation for remodel expenses. We also received cash and material gifts from individuals and churches. AND, the remodel never could have happened without the work teams that came. Over 3 or 4 weekends professional contractors and laborers came from the Wesleyan churches in Anchorage and Wasilla and did work that would have cost us tens of thousands of dollars and taken weeks to do. We were able to do it for the cost of the materials and feeding the crews. Which was no small feat.

It's truly a God-thing to have the ministry tool we have in this building. We've already had outside groups use it for meetings, we were able to do

a VBS last summer, and every time I walk in I think, "Man I love being in here."

Our goal was to create a space that was warm and welcoming for anyone, no matter their church experience. If they've been in church their whole life, hopefully it feels different than any other church they've been in. And if they've never been (or it's been a long time) hopefully they feel like they could spend time here and want to come back.

Here's a couple of teaser pics. But here's a link to an album of before, during and after pics. Check it out. http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/photoPicker/albums.jsp

Your right...

2009-10-13T11:07:00.002-08:00

Either post something or take it down. No, I haven't actually heard those words from anyone, but I'm pretty sure those are the thoughts going through minds. Some of you probably thought we fell off the end of the earth. Close. I think you have to get to Barrow for that to happen though.

There's so much to catch you all up on, but I'll try to do just a little bit at a time. Let me give you the summary of some of the things that have gone on since last April (my last post) and then I'll try to give you some more detail about each one in the coming days (I know, I shouldn't make promises I can't keep).

On Good Friday we closed on the church building. That began a flurry of work...no, more like a windstorm...no, must have been a typhoon of work over the following weeks and months. We did a ton of remodeling and painting. We had work teams come From Anchorage and Wasilla and did work that would have cost us tens of thousands of dollars and taken weeks. They came in and did it over three weekends and all we paid for was the materials, and some food.

We had our first Sunday in the building on May 17, our very first Vacation Bible School (more on that later), we had our dedication service at the end of July, another work team from Sioux Falls, SD, we've had family Sundays, cookouts, work projects, ordering equipment and supplies, building sets for Discovery Land and the Worship Service, a guest financial planner for a week during a series on money, both sets of grandparents visiting, and not nearly enough salmon fishing. But remind me to tell you what Chanda caught on our very first dip netting expedition (it wasn't a fish).

And things just keep happening. God has been leading us and blessing this ministry so much. Last Sunday (10/11) we had our first baptism service in the building, and the first one in quite some time for Birch Ridge. IT WAS AWESOME!!! We had 5 people baptized and what an incredible celebration service it was. The testimonies of what God has done and is doing were amazing. The whole spirit of the service and the day was beyond words. God is good. All the time.

Ok, there's the teaser. Now it's up to me to fill you in on all the details. I'll see what I can do. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures on this computer, but I'll be posting some here and give links to some photo albums too.

Thanks to everyone who's been praying for us. We're still here, were still alive, and God is good.

Spring is coming...somewhere

2009-04-01T14:02:00.004-08:00

When we were telling people (a year ago) that we were moving to Alaska, we caught all kinds of grief for moving to the "snow and cold". I find it...humorous to see what kind of weather Spearfish has been having over the last week. To all of my friends and family there, my heart goes out...I can't do it with a straight face. I'm laughing like crazy!

Ok true, you've had warmer weather already than we might have all summer. And true, all of the snow you've gotten in the last week will probably be gone before our October snow is gone. But we...ummm...we will....let's see, we've got more daylight than you do now. So we can see our snow longer than you can.

Actually, it's a beautiful spring day here. Melting, bright sunshine, blue sky. And a volcano that keeps spitting stuff into the air. Wish you all were here.

And as a sure sign that spring is coming we saw this guy walking past our fence the other day. Notice the small round protrusions above the eyes. Those are the antlers coming in. Spring is springing!

Introducing...

2009-03-27T13:55:00.004-08:00

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Brian. I'm a pastor of a church in Soldotna, AK. No, Alaska. Arkansas is AR. Some of you may remember me from previous encounters and a brief sporadic stint at blogging. But to many of you (if anyone is reading this) it may appear that I've dropped off the face of the earth. To dispel those rumors I thought I would post something here in the hopes that a few people would read it and perhaps news would spread. We're still alive.

Here's a nutshell of the last couple of months...we've been sick (several have been sick more than once), we've been under a volcano alert (and more importantly ashfall alert), we're still in the process of closing on the building for the church (which should be done next week), our daylight has increased to the point that we have more daylight than most of you reading this (unless you're farther north than we are), the kids had spring break, lots of work has/is being done for the church. Basically, life has continued.

I know most have you have given up on this blog thing. I haven't totally, but I'm not going to make any rash promises. If you want to check out some pictures of Mt. Redoubt and the eruptions this week, go here: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php.

And here's a picture of where we went sledding on spring break. It's up Hatcher's Pass north of Anchorage. (No, this is not the volcano. Although it kinda looks like one come to think of it...)

A New Experience

2009-01-29T22:25:00.002-09:00

Chanda and I both grew up in South Dakota. We were accustomed to different kinds of meteorological warnings and events. Things like blizzards, heat index, tornado activity. We've experienced all of those things.

But we're in the middle of a new experience for us. A Volcano Activity Alert. That's right ladies and gentlemen, a possible volcanic eruption.

If you're not familiar with the geography of Alaska there are a number of active volcanoes in this area. Most have been (or are currently) not doing anything. But in the last couple of weeks Mt. Redoubt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Redoubt_(Alaska)) has been "building up" to a probable eruption. The experts are saying it's not a question of if, but when.

Now before you freak out, look at the map. Redoubt is nearly 60 miles away across the Cook Inlet. The types of eruptions it has had are not the stuff they make movies of. It's a whole bunch of ash and steam and smoke sent up into the air. There's really not a danger of lava getting to us in any way. But at the same time, it's a little freaky.

The ash is a pretty serious thing. I was ignorant about this stuff...until this week. I just thought that volcanic ash was like what's left in the fire pit after a campfire has burned out. Not so. Volcanic ash is made up of glass and rock. So you can't breath it in, it can ruin vehicles, and it can build up on rooftops and make them collapse. Exciting, huh?

So, as you might guess, there's a certain sense of anxiety about this. But at the same time it's kind of exciting. I mean, how many people can say they've experienced up close and personal a volcanic eruption?

This does pose another problem for us though. We are planning to fly out of Anchorage Sunday night to be in Rapid City for a pastor's conference next week. If it erupts, there's a really good chance the airlines will shut down until the air has cleared. That could take a little while. And even if the airlines didn't shut down, getting there could be impossible because you're not supposed to drive in the ash.

But suppose we were able to fly out there's another issue. According to some, if it's a prolonged eruption (meaning it happened over days and weeks) the airlines would remain shut down. Meaning we could get out, but couldn't get back in.

So many things to think about!!!

Here's a link to the Alaska Volcano Observatory page that is keeping us informed on the situation: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php

Just thought you all might like to know. Like I said, this is a totally new experience for us.

We're Doing It!!!

2009-01-13T10:50:00.002-09:00

On Sunday we voted to go ahead and purchase the building for our church!!! It's so exciting! This is a huge deal for our church. This will be a turning point for us; a stake in the ground, so to speak.

And while one step is complete, we have a mountain ahead of us to climb. This can ministry tool can open so many doors and opportunities for us, but it's also going to require everyone to take it up a notch...or two or three.

The paperwork started yesterday and there will be a lot more, but the process is started. And there's lists to be made: wants and needs, work to be done, ministry options, who's involved, and on and on and on.

But we're so excited, have I mentioned that?

We don't know a move in date yet. Like I said there's paperwork and physical work and intellectual work to be done. We'll have a better idea in a week or two. But you're all invited. I'll put some pictures up here so you all have an idea of what it looks like. (and then we'll post some after the work we do too)

On a different note, we're thawing out. Last Sunday we finally hit positive numbers on the thermometer. About Christmas was the last time we saw those. And since it's warmed up now (it's in the 20's today!!!) it decided to snow. It's a trade-off.

We had a great Christmas. We spent the week up at Chet and Angela's and had an awesome time. New Year's was a more relaxed family time. We went swimming...indoors.

Ok, I've got to get back to work. More to follow...

Inspection

2008-12-11T12:17:00.002-09:00

Ok, so the "post more often so you don't have to post as much" idea is a good one. But it hasn't played out all that well in reality. I hate it when there's a good idea and I fail to implement it. But here's a new post anyway.

Building news: we've had the building inspected and found some problems that need an engineer to take a look at. That makes them sound pretty bad. But if I told you what they actually were, they'd sound even worse. The bottom line is that the building is safe and could be used immediately. There are some things we need to have an engineer look at to let us know what the future might be, and to know if there is anything that does need immediate attention. Our congregation is still excited about it, but we want to do our homework before we get in there.

And it's delaying things more too. Which nobody is excited about. When I spoke with the engineer we were thinking to have him come out this week (although I haven't heard back from him). It would be nice to know something before Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, is everybody ready? We went out and cut our tree last week. We've got lights up on the house (although I've got to get up there again because a strand went out), Chanda's done a great job of decorating the house, and she's pretty much got the shopping done...except for what I need to get for her. Yep, you're right. I've got it pretty easy.

Last night instead of "theme night" we did "Christmas Goodie" night. No, we didn't eat cookies and fudge for supper. We did a really simple supper and worked at making cookies and covered pretzels and peanut butter/chocolate balls and pumpkin bars and...some other stuff I can't remember. It was great.

I'll post some pictures of our house and the kids having fun baking (sorry, I don't have them on this computer).

Thanks to everybody who's continued reading this despite it's sporadic nature. Have a very merry time celebrating Christ's birth this Christmas season.

Counter Offer

2008-11-21T14:28:00.003-09:00

Here's where we sit with the building...

The church that is selling it came back with a counter offer to our original offer. I'm not surprised, they want to make sure they can get as much out of it as possible, while keeping it in ministry. That was last Saturday. I told our congregation on Sunday that we would spend this week putting together our current financial situation and what the estimated operating costs would be (yes, we'd done that to some extent already, but we needed to go further with it). This Sunday I'll present that information to the congregation and we'll discuss what we should do.

I don't foresee us "re-countering". I think even at the new amount this is an incredible deal, and I believe with God's help this new amount is reachable. It certainly will stretch us more than the original offer, but it's doable.

If you think about it, please pray for us this weekend. That we would have God's wisdom and guidance and we wouldn't be clouded with any human agenda.

I think...no, I know, I feel more strongly now than I have at any other time during this process that this is what we need to do. For the sake of our church and the future we need to take this step of faith and obtain this "tool" to use for ministry.

That's been dominating my time as of late. Making a lot of phone calls and dealing with numbers. Numbers...one of my favorite things to do. Let's just say I wasn't blessed with a great mind for numbers and analysis. And I haven't done anything to get better about it.

I know this will shock a lot of you, but we have snow. In fact, it's snowing right now. But it hasn't amounted to much yet. Just a few inches on the ground. It has helped with the holiday mood though. It seems like the last several Thanksgivings and Christmases we have had little to no snow and it just doesn't seem right. I'm not too worried about that this year.

We're going to head up to Chet and Angela's for Thanksgiving. They're going to have a houseful...should be fun!!!

I will try to post something about the building as soon as we know it.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

No news is...no news

2008-11-06T22:14:00.001-09:00

Many of you have been asking and all I can tell you is...I don't really know much. Surprised? Nope.

All we know about the offer on the building is that the other church has reviewed it and discussed it as a committee and it is now going before their church board. They will meet on the 12th of this month to be voted on. I really have no idea how they are feeling/leaning. We're just praying that God would continue to lead us and give us a clear direction. Outside of that, not much else to tell you. I'll keep you posted though.

Several of you have been asking about Theme Nights at the Wahl house. Well, they're still going strong although last night was a little bump in the road. Oh, theme night still went on as planned, but Brian had his first cooking failure for theme night.

For those of you late to the game, every Wednesday night we choose a region/country/area of the world and fix food from there. We also talk about the religious aspects of that area (in many cases it's been areas little touched by the Gospel) and we pray for them.

Over the last several weeks (since it's been a really long time since I talked about it here) we've done French night (very intimidating), Indian (east), Indonesian, Hawaiian, Moroccan, and last night was Scandinavian. Now, I grew up with very real Norwegian influences in my life. I've eaten lutefisk, lefse is a staple around the holidays, and I've heard all kinds of Ole and Lena jokes. But last night I really missed the mark trying to make "Potato Klub".

Obviously there are potatoes involved and some flour and not much else. Then you boil them and they're supposed to turn out like dumplings. Mine turned out like...my grandmother used to have a saying, "Do I eat it, or did I?" Get the picture? Good, cuz I'm not going to post one. So, last night for Scandinavian night we had Norwegian Beef Stew (which was pretty good), and pretzels (the large bready kind) with nacho cheese dip. I have no idea what country pretzels come from, but last night they were Scandinavian. And then dessert turned out pretty good too. Baked Rice Pudding. Can't really go wrong with butter, sugar, milk and cream.

All in all Theme Night has been a great success at our house and we certainly can't stop doing it now. The kids are constantly asking when Theme Night is. They really look forward to it and it's been a great time for our family.

Thanks for taking the time to read and especially to pray.

Cool and Sunny

2008-10-30T13:01:00.003-08:00

It's been a little on the chilly side lately. Waking up to single digits. The good news (yes, you have to look for the silver lining) is that it's been sunny. I think we've had more days of sun in the last two weeks than we had all summer. Certainly more days in a row.

It's been very clear and bright which means we can see the mountains around. Mt. Redoubt (which is actually a volcano and my kids think that's awesome) is across the inlet and looks very majestic and snow-covered.

We went up to Chet and Angela's last week for a couple of days and had a great time with them. I just wish they weren't so serious all the time.

And we think we're on the downhill side of some nasty colds for the kids. Sore throats, fevers, headaches, coughing, runny nose...great image huh? Want a picture of that? Levi and Grace stayed home from school Monday and Tuesday. But the good news is it's not Strep. So, we'll keep the vit C and echinacea pumping.

As far as the building possibility...nothing really newsworthy there. We submitted our bid to the other church and their committee met on it Sunday night. They are going to have a recommendation by next Sunday and then it will go to their board. So in the meantime we'll wait. That's fine. We're really just wanting God to lead. If it works out, great. We're excited. If it doesn't, we're excited because God's got something better for us.

Chanda's been working really hard to get her website going for her design business. She's actually been designing it herself. If you know Chanda you know how amazing that is. She is not what I would call...techy by any stretch. But then if you know Chanda, you already knew she's absolutely amazing. I'm so thankful for her.

I'll let you know when she gets it up and running and you can go check it out.

One last thought. Election day is fast approaching. Be sure to exercise your right and get out and vote. No, I'm not going to make some big political speech. I want to make sure everyone continues to read my blog. I will say that I'll be so thankful when all the mailings and commercials and signs are over with. I guess that goes along with the right to vote.

Thanks again for all your prayers. Please keep it up.

We're moving forward

2008-10-21T14:52:00.002-08:00

We had a great meeting on Sunday. A lot of discussion and questions and it was decided that we should proceed to put together an offer for the building. I really feel like God is leading us in this direction, but we still need a lot of prayer.

We don't have a lot of money to offer, and yet we know that we need to trust God as he leads. Our prayer is that we would continue to follow God's leading and not our own agenda. There was excitement in the group on Sunday, but I really believe there is a sense of realism in what this will mean. It's more than just getting a building to call home, it's being able to turn the heat and lights on each week, it's taking care of property and having it ready for however God wants us to use it, it's having people who are willing to teach and reach out and make the most of the opportunity.

We should know a lot more in a week or so. I'll keep you updated.

We're gearing up for three birthdays in our family in the next few weeks. Grace, Oscar and Oliver all have November birthdays (10th, 1st and 16th respectively). I know, good planning. They're getting pretty excited about them. Grace wants a "crayon" birthday; Oscar keeps changing his mind, and Oliver has no idea what he wants but we're probably going to do an airplane birthday for him. Everytime an airplane goes over (and there are a lot of planes flying around up here) he yells out his version of "airplane". We'll post some pictures. Should be a lot of fun.

Thanks for taking the time to read and pray.

can you believe it?

2008-10-17T21:56:00.003-08:00

A wise friend once told me, "you know, if you just did a little blog every other day or so, you wouldn't feel the need to do such big ones and then you wouldn't get behind so much." How true that is.

But instead of heeding his advice (some 3-4 weeks ago) I have continued to neglect the blog and have heard about it both directly and indirectly. I'll try to catch everyone up to speed.

We got snow. I know, it's hard to believe. But before all of you "I told you" so'ers go off, we got less than Spearfish did. And certainly less than Joliet did. We got a few inches over a few days. Enough that the kids have been having fun playing in it. Very wet stuff. The difference between Spearfish, Joliet and here though...is we may have this snow the rest of the winter. Today was an absolutely beautiful day though. Totally clear sky. I saw mountains today that I haven't seen in weeks.

In church news we have a really big prayer request. About a month ago another church in town approached us because they wanted to know if we were interested in buying a church building and property that they are now in possession of. So, we have been following this lead and things are progressing. This last weekend our church had a blessing of the gift of a house here in town. (it's an incredible story of a dying woman's dream that we would have a "home of our own") We're not sure where this is going to end. We're all really striving to seek God's wisdom in all of this. This Sunday we're having an all church meeting following the service to talk about it as a congregation. Please pray for wisdom and guidance as we proceed with this.

In family news...life is good. Levi and Grace had school off today because of Alaska Day.
It was great sleeping in a little and having them home today. They have next Thursday and Friday of too because of parent/teacher conferences (Grace's first) We have requested to have our conferences on Thursday morning (as I'm sure 75% of the parents have) and then we are planning to go up to Wasilla to Chet and Angela's for a couple of days. Just for the fun of it. Fun for us anyway...I'm not sure how they see it.

Ok, I'm going to try to keep this shorter so that it gets done and you'll actually finish reading it. Then, I'm going to try something really radical. Post again in a few days. I'll need to follow up to let you all know how the meeting goes. I'll close with a few pictures from a day at the Nikiski beach.

Tofu and Grass

2008-09-12T08:34:00.010-08:00

Ok, how many of you got images of the Wahl's starting some hippie commune with that title? Come on, you can admit it.

Wednesday night (our second weekly theme night) was about the Ge people in China. So we had homemade Chinese food for supper. Orange Chicken, egg drop soup, stir fried veggies, fried rice, and yes, even fortune cookies. Surprisingly they aren't impossible to make. Not necessarily easy, but not impossible. With a little practice I think I could do it pretty well. They tasted good anyway.

I took the kids with me to buy the groceries and somehow the subject of tofu came up (I'm fairly certain I didn't bring it up). The kids have never tried it so we got some and I put it in with the veggies and the soup. It'll be a long time before they ask for it again...if ever. If you've got any good recipes for tofu, I've got some left. No, seriously it needs to be good. Like deep fat fried tofu with a snicker and a twinkie wrapped around it in some kind of sugary bready thick batter.

Ok, I'm back from my twinkie break. Now, about the grass.

We're so excited because the grass we planted is coming up in the yard. Yes, yard grass. Not the five leafed variety. C'mon Deb, give me a break. The problem we're having now though is that we've gotten quite a bit of rain. Ok, that's great for the grass, and you can really tell it's gotten watered well. But the ground is so soft we can't really go out on it yet. The grass hasn't established a root base yet so it tears up really easily. Porter was out on it and really left some holes. Here's what it looks like in the back yard. Nice fence Chet.

We went to Seward on Labor Day and had a great time at the Alaska Sea Life Center. It rained
all day so it's a good thing we planned to be inside. We'd like to go back to Seward and see it when it's clear. We could tell there were mountains all around and a beautiful harbor, but it was cloudy and foggy.

We've had a cooler than average summer. According to the newspaper (and next to the internet that's the source of all true information) we've had 2 days this summer over 70; the average is 16. I know, many of you are thinking that's cold for summer. To each their own. But it's been really consistent, with only about a 20 degree variation all summer. And as I've heard/read, parts of North and South Dakota have gotten colder than we have so far this fall. Our time is coming I know.

Have a great weekend.

The picture

2008-09-05T09:45:00.005-08:00

Some of you have asked, so I'll tell you. The picture at the top of my blog was taken on the Beartooth Pass highway. It's of Twin Lakes which is just across the Wyoming line. We took it when we were there on vacation in June of 07. That was over a year ago, but here are some other pictures from that trip.

I can't believe how the kids have changed.

Wednesday Nights

2008-09-05T09:07:00.002-08:00

For the last...several years, Wednesday nights have been "Single Mom" nights at our house. Being a youth pastor has kept me pretty busy and left Chanda to take care of, everything. That's all changed now. And it's a little weird being home on Wednesday nights.

The last couple of years she has taken Levi and Grace to Awana in Spearfish. We've heard that there is an Awana program here, but for different reasons we haven't gotten them involved. But then a couple of weeks ago we kind of had an idea for Wednesday nights as a family. It just kind of happened and is still evolving, but we're pretty excited about it.

Two weeks ago we were making supper (on Wednesday) and we were having tacos with rice and chanda made some sopapillas. It needed a little something, so I found an internet radio site that played Mexican folk music and it felt like we were at Casa Bonitas (cool mexican restuarant in Denver and Tulsa; Chris, you know what I'm talking about). So we started talking about our cool theme night and Chanda said, what if we do theme nights on Wednesday nights but make it more meaningful by incorporating a missions element and Scripture.

So this last Wednesday was our first real Wednesday Theme Night.

I went on the site www.joshuaproject.net which is a site that gives information on "unreached" people groups around the world. Each day they highlight a group and they give stats and info on them. This last Wednesday their highlighted group was the Sargara people of India. I spent Wednesday afternoon (that's my day at home) researching and cooking for supper. We had Chicken Kadai, Indian Fried Rice, Naan, and spiced tea to drink. And for dessert we had Gulab Jamon. And the really cool thing was that we found out in India many people eat with their hands and so we got to too (of course we learned proper etiquette first).

Before supper we talked about the Sargara people and the religion of Hinduism, and we prayed for them; that someone would be able to get to them with the Good News of Christ. I gotta say, it was a pretty awesome night.

Don't get the wrong idea. We're not some super parents who always do these cool things with our kids like making candles out of the earwax of bears, or make paper out of bellybutton lint, or find our way out of the forest with a leaf some water and a needle (although I've seen Bear Grylls do that which was pretty cool). We're just two busy parents with four extremely active kids, and we're trying to raise them right. I think we've stumbled upon something that is going to take a lot of work on our part, but can have a lasting impact on our kids .

And after last Wednesday night, it was definitely worth it.

Next week we'll try to take some pictures to share.

2008-08-27T13:30:00.007-08:00

I want to blame so many things for the fact that I don't keep this up regularly. The truth is I'm the one to blame. Life seems to get in the way and when I have the time, I'm too tired or not interested. I'm sure some of you have given up on this and moved on to better updated more relevant sites and blogs. Sorry about that. For those of you still around, much has happened...

Levi and Grace started school last week. They did great. Mom and dad did...ok. I didn't start bawling or anything, but I'm man enough to admit I got a bit misty eyed. They're doing great though. They're making friends and both are loving it. The hardest part has been the long days for Grace. The first full day she had was pretty hard for her. She missed mom and dad and she may not admit it, but she missed playing with Oscar and Oliver too. Maybe, she missed telling Oscar and Oliver what to do. She's adjusting though.

We're adjusting here at home too. Now there's only two little boys around during the day. That's weird, for the two boys and mom and dad. Easier yes, but just different too. Their needs are different when there's not an older sibling to play with them. We're all figuring it out.

You may have deduced something from that last paragraph too. I'm still working out of our home. Or more accurately, my base of operation is wherever my backpack is. I work from home, a coffeeshop (of which there are several really good ones) or the library. We had a "Family Meeting" at church Sunday night and one of the topics addressed was office space. Everyone there was in full agreement that we need to find something. For me and for the church. The problem is it's not exactly in the budget. So I've got some work to do to see what is available at what price and then as a church we'll try to figure out how to come up with the money.

There are some options, it's just a matter of finding the best fit for our needs.

We had a great time at the Family Meeting. We talked about vision and direction of the church, we're changing our Sunday morning start time from 11 am to 10:30 am, I'm looking for office space and we also talked about a future home for BRCC. We own 11 acres on the edge of town that is a very valuable very beautiful piece of land. But as we talked about and discussed the vision and direction God is leading us, we (I) wasn't convinced building on that land would fit into that. We talked about some different possibilities that are available in town. We didn't come to any conclusion on it (I didn't intend we would) but it was a great time for us to look to the future and and see where God is leading us.

I'm very excited about this fall and getting into a routine for our church family and business. I'm excited to see what God is doing and how he is shaping and molding us into what He wants. Our prayer is that we would continually seek HIS will and not our own personal agendas. I'm excited to look to the future and know that as we continue to follow him we're in for the ride of our lives.

For those of you who have been asking, that should give you some specific things to be praying about.

I'm going to wrap it up with some pictures today. (and there was great rejoicing) Just some random ones to show you our lives. In no particular order: "fun with dad", "one hot mama and her dog", "cookout at the beach", "Levi's birthday party", "too cute".

Football News

2008-08-12T22:33:00.002-08:00

I know some of you really don't care about this, but I do. And it's my blog.

I've been fairly pre-occupied the last few weeks with all of the Brett Favre drama. If the talk and rumors surrounding the whole ordeal would have been that he was going to end up in New York I would have been the first one calling for an end to the madness. But instead I found myself morbidly fascinated by it all. All because the talk was that he was going to end up in Minnesota.

I liken it to how the first Christians must have felt when they heard that Paul, who had been persecuting them, was now one of them.

For 16 years I have despised him simply because he played for Green Bay (for all of you non-football fans and especially for you non-NFC North fans you may not get this. I know Mr. Lucas can relate.). So when they started talking about him actually playing in purple, I had some real soul searching to do.

Then I knew it wasn't going to happen because I finally came to grips with it. I finally accepted it as a realistic possibility and was actually getting kind of excited about it. And I told Jason, "It's not going to happen now." And it didn't. He did end up in New York, and life goes on.

Now the big issue for me is finding someone up here who has ESPN so I can watch the first Monday Night game: Minnesota vs. Green Bay. (they don't have cable lines run to our development yet and a dish is rather cost prohibitive)

That's number two. And some of you probably wish I'd quit with only one.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

2008-08-12T22:14:00.002-08:00

Don't you hate it when "people" don't update their website or their blog. That's so annoying. I mean, if you're going to go through the effort of setting it up, and then tell people they should read your blog so they can stay updated on what's going on, then maybe you should actually put some new content up every so often. I mean, c'mon. How tough is this? Apparently tougher than I thought...

I can't believe it's been that long since I've put something up. What a slacker. I can't promise it won't happen again, but I will try to be more consistent. I've heard from several of you (some subtly, some...not so much) that you've noticed I haven't put anything up. So I'm going to do several smaller ones and try to bring you all up to speed.

We planted grass...as in lawn grass (sheesh, give me a little credit). I think I mentioned that getting the fence done was huge step but that our yard was still just dirt. Or mud depending on the moisture. And of course before we planted the grass it rained like crazy. After we planted the grass I've had to run sprinklers and hoses all over the yard. Until tonight. There's actually moisture in the air and everything is wet.

I know what some of you are thinking, "Isn't it a bit late to be planting grass? Especially in Alaska?" Maybe. We'll just have to wait and see. We're praying for a prolonged fall.

In other news...
We got Levi and Grace registered for school today. They got to see the school and meet a couple of teachers. Although we won't know who their teachers will be until next week. They start on the 20th. They're pretty excited.

I always used to kind of chuckle at those parents who would get weepy and tear up when they would send their kids off on the first day of school. Then I took Levi to his first day, and I was one of those parents. And now with moving them to a new school and Grace starting school this year...go ahead, make fun of me.

That's update number one. Let's see if I get number two done tonight.

some thoughts

2008-07-21T12:02:00.003-08:00

I'm kind of humbled this morning because a realization hit me...people are reading this blog. I know, "duh, they're supposed to be." As I see it, there are two purposes for my blog: to sort through my thoughts and put them down, both profound (not likely) and mundane (much more likely); kind of journaling for those addicted to a computer and the internet. And, to inform/update/share with people what's going on in our lives.

I started this because as we began this God-sized adventure I thought it would be a great way for our friends and families to keep up with what's going on way up here. It was hard for us to leave Spearfish and the relationships and ministry God had us doing there, but we thought this would be a way to stay connected.

And I've been amazed at some of the people that have left comments. People that I haven't seen or talked to in years. The Facebook page has helped with that. But then today I read a comment on the last blog from someone I don't think I've ever had the privilege of meeting. But they discovered our blog and wanted me to know they appreciated it and were going to keep up with it. Wow.

Why is that such a big deal. I mean I'm posting on a public site, I've given access to anyone to see it and leave comments, so why am I blown away by this? I'm not sure.

I think part of it is because God is doing something in me. I can't describe it, or explain it. This morning the words of the Crowder song "How Great" were going through my head: "I'm so bored of little gods/while standing on the edge of something large/while standing here, so close to You" That's how I feel. Like there's something large out there, something huge way beyond me and my tiny vision. Way beyond the mundane and ordinary. But I have to fight to get through the mundane and ordinary, and it's fighting back. "It's" fighting against me because "it" doesn't want me to get through to that "something".

(Ok, I wouldn't go so far as to say that today's post is profound, but it's not mundane. Or, maybe it is for you, I don't know where you're at. Maybe what I'm saying is a bunch of mumbled nonsense. Today's purpose is to sort through my thoughts, not so much informational.)

The part I hate is that it takes so much energy to fight through the everyday details of life that drag me down. Some of them are important details, details that have to be done. Feeding the kids (and myself), picking up clothes and toys, doing dishes, paying bills, getting settled into a new house. These are all important things. But what happens to me is that I feel like by the time I get to the "big" stuff, the God stuff of intimacy with Him and vision and passion, all the energy has been sucked out of me and I settle for a very little God. A God that fits into my timeframe and fits my wishlist and performs when and where I need Him too.

I don't know if anyone else reading this can relate. Maybe you've been there, maybe you're there now, maybe you think I need to cut back on the coffee (heaven forbid). I know I don't want to stay here. I know I don't want life to keep going like this. Something has to change. If it doesn't, I won't be as effective as my BIG God wants me to be. And that scares me.

Just a word of assurance as I wrap this up. Please don't read this and freak out that Brian has flipped or is flipping out. As I go back and read this I realize I've shared some kind of deep personal stuff, and while to some it could come across as weird, I'm actually very encouraged by it. Now, if I'm in this same position six months from now, then you should be worried. But for now if you could pray that would be awesome. And if you have thoughts comments etc. I'd love to hear them.

Thanks everyone. Thanks Erica, and by all means, you can keep reading.

Building Fences

2008-07-17T09:51:00.009-08:00

I know, we're supposed to be tearing down fences, not building them. But in this case we're building a fence in our backyard. I have to admit that I feel a little bit funny about it. I don't want it to seem to the neighbors that we're trying to keep them out. That's not it. It's these things (and some others) we need to keep out...

This was taken on our first Saturday morning in our house. About 20 yards from our back door. Some of you might be thinking, "oh, how cute." But if you know something about mama moose(n) and baby moose(n) you know that mama's can get very aggressive when they feel their babies are being threatened. Also, they'll come right up to the house if there's no fence. So in the interest of protecting our kids, we're building a fence.

Chet is down from Wasilla this week building it with Roger. Chanda and I actually helped them the first two days, but today it's raining and cold out...so I didn't feel like it. Actually, I have sermon prep and some other church work to do. Chet says he understands, but I'm not sure he totally believes me. I'm not sure you do either.

But we're really hoping we can get quite a bit done on the fence today so we can do something later today/tomorrow. SALMON FISHING!!! The reds are in the river here and we got to go out for a few hours yesterday. In about 2.5 hours yesterday Chet, Roger and I had our limit (3 each) and were cleaning them. Then brought them home for freezing. We didn't get pictures of the whole fish, but here's the packages just before they went in the freezer.

What a blast that was. It was pretty hard to convince Chet that we needed to work on the fence this morning instead of going fishing.

Church stuff is going really well. I don't know how to give you an update on it other than to say God is really working. There is a hunger to be used by God and to see His Kingdom advanced. Please keep praying for His vision to be cast to all of us and His will be done.

I've really appreciated the comments that many of you have left. It's been very encouraging to read them and to know there are actually people out there keeping up with and (more importantly) praying for us. Thank you.

As I promised here are some more pictures. Just random ones that have been taken over the last few weeks.

Pizza, Julius, Halibut...Home

2008-07-09T13:10:00.004-08:00

For those of you who know me, you know that food is...important to me. Not "important" as in I have to have some to sustain life. "Important" as in I love to eat it!!! And there are some things that are important to me not only because they taste good but because they have added meaning to them.

We have a family tradition of making homemade pizza and orange julius' on Sunday nights. This can be changed out with waffles, but it's usually pizza. (no, it's not very old because our family isn't very old, but it's a tradition nonetheless; just ask the kids) Sometimes it's accompanied with a movie or a game, but food is the constant. This last Sunday night, our first Sunday night in our new house, we had homemade pizza and orange julius (yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm infringing on some trademark, but I'm ok with that). And it was a perfect pizza. It was round and browned on top; the cheese was fresh and the crust was the perfect depth and done-ness. And the julius was awesome. We've made all this stuff before, and it's been really good before, but I think what made this especially good was that we were home.

Oh sure, there are boxes to be unpacked; we can't park anything in the garage; we still have to put bunkbeds together; but we're home. It feels great to be able to settle in and unpack some things and make it ours. There's something very comforting in all of that.

Then yesterday we took a family trip down to Homer (it was our anniversary). We collected seashells on the beach, walked on the docks looking at all the different kinds of boats and ships, watched them clean fish (halibut and ling) that had just been caught, walked in some of the shops. And then we bought some fresh halibut and came home and grilled it for supper. Wow! Just a little salt and pepper on it for seasoning, low heat, leave the skin on, amazing. I know I'm biased since I was the one grilling, but it really was amazing. Our family loves halibut, but we've never had it that fresh. Have I mentioned how amazing it was?

Now that we have our house we are starting to really get down to the details of life and the church. We're looking for some office space for the church; we're getting stuff arranged in the house; Chanda's anxious to get going on her design business; we're looking at some different meeting space options for the future for the church; insurance; driver's licenses; internet access; church budget; new church series...all kinds of stuff.

God is good. We've been reading in Joshua as a family. God's words to Joshua are very real to us, "Be strong and very courageous." I love the fact that he had to encourage someone like Joshua too. I hope you'll take those words to heart like we are.

Have a great day and yes...I will post some more pictures soon.

Happy 4th of July!!!

2008-07-04T11:49:00.002-08:00

Whew, what a week this has been. Good, but very busy. I know it's been a while since I've updated everyone, and unfortunately I don't have a lot of time right now, but I'll try to bring everyone up to speed as best I can.

On Tuesday of this week we moved about 7/8's of our stuff from the house we were renting into our new house. We rented a 17' Uhaul truck and made a couple of trips. But we left the bigger stuff for the next day. All in all it was a pretty long day. Thanks Justin for all of your help...so sorry about your elbow though.

On Wednesday we had scheduled to have some young muscle come and help us with the big stuff. Unfortunately (or maybe providentially) they couldn't make it so we postponed it a day. On Thursday we rented a 14' Uhaul truck and got the remaining stuff. I've become well acquainted with the Uhaul store and Joel, Carlos and Stacie who work there. They've been great, but I really hope I don't have to rent another truck for quite a while.

So, we've got all of our stuff at the new house. Now we have to decide what isn't going to stay. The house is beautiful and it's so exciting to have a NEW house. But we've downsized so we won't be keeping it all...if only we'd known that a month and a half ago...sorry Dave.

Today we're at Chet and Angela's in Wasilla celebrating the Fourth of July. We got in pretty late last night and are having an awesome day hanging out with them. We've got a neighborhood/church picnic planned this evening and then who knows. For those of you not from Alaska, you'll find this interesting. They don't really do too many fireworks shows on the 4th. Can you guess why? That's right, it's too light. If they waited for it to get dark, it'll be fall. So my understanding is that they do fireworks more around New Years. Uncle Chet and I will head out this afternoon and pick up some stuff we can shoot off and watch with the kids though.

I hope you all have an awesome 4th. And as we celebrate remember that it's more than just hamburgers, blowing things up (please be careful Nathan, Daniel, Hudson et al), boating etc. We have such incredible freedoms that we too often take for granted. Thank you to all who have served in the military so my family and I can worship, celebrate, live and love in peace and freedom. We owe you a debt that we can never repay. Thank you.

First Sunday, Cell Phones, and more

2008-06-23T14:49:00.002-08:00

Sorry it's been a few days since the last post. Things got a little busy getting ready for Sunday, my first Sunday of preaching. And as far as I can tell things went very well. I felt good about it from my side of things. But as I always say, if you want to know how it really was you'll have to ask somebody who was sitting in the chairs.

Of course I have a lot to learn about how things have been done and everybody here has some getting used to with me and how I operate...come to think of it, how do I operate???

We also got cell phones on Saturday. If you would like the number for those, just call our old cell phones and it has the number on there (I'd rather not type out my cell phone number on a public site). If you don't have either number send me an email and if you fill out the application, supply two forms of ID, retype your password 4 times, give 3 blood samples, and tell me the name of your father's first pet I'll think about passing the number out.

This week we're kind of in a holding pattern waiting to hear something on the house. As far as we know everything is a go, and we're shooting for July 1st to move in. We need to hear back from the bank and the builders though to know for sure. Pray that that all goes smoothly and we can move on to Move v2.o (thanks Daniel).

I have my first meeting with the Leadership Team tonight and I'm pretty excited. There's actually a lot of excitement up here for what God is doing a

We found a home

2008-06-19T12:05:00.011-08:00

God's timing on things never ceases to amaze me. He provided a place for us to move to coming up here. And that was great, but in my mind if we were going to move anyway, why not have that place right away? Because He sees the big picture, and I'm just looking at pieces of it.

Yesterday, after looking at about 10 homes in 2 days (on top of the dozen or so we looked at in February and since), we found a home to buy and because of several things (more info on that in the coming days) His timing was perfect...as usual.

I know this is going to sound...impressive, or something...but it's a new construction actually. It's a spec house built in a subdivision just outside of Soldotna. Here's a pic of the outside.

We're so excited!!! Everything has the green light (bank, builder, etc), we're just getting the paperwork rolling. But once the paperchase has started we can actually move in before the closing date. I've got some pictures of the inside, but remember, this was a spec house so they had it staged to show. So all the furniture and furnishings are their's. Although if they wanted to leave some of it, that'd be ok.

The appliances do stay.

As you can see from the outside pic there's no grass, and we need to put up a fence for Porter and the kids. We're checking into both of those things. We're VERY excited. I'll let you know the actual move in date.

The one downside (if it can be considered that) is that we won't have internet hooked up at our existing place, and depending on when we can move in...it may be a while before I can satisfy my "24/7/365" internet addiction. I'm sure the lack of access has been good for me, but I'm ready to be done with that lesson now.

Still don't have cell phones set up here yet. I've got to do some more shopping around, and there never seems to be time for that.

This Sunday will be my first Sunday to preach. And I'm very excited about that too. It'll be great to get back to teaching again.

Speaking of...I'm supposed to be working on that now so I'll close this off. Prayer items:

-Thanks to God for providing for our needs

-timing of moving in

-getting settled so we can get to the important stuff

-continued focus and vision

Thanks everybody. We love you all.

WE'RE HERE!!!

2008-06-16T13:51:00.002-08:00

We made it. We're actually in Soldotna. We got in Thursday afternoon and started unloading everything about an hour later. Lot's of steps, but fortunately lots of help. Thanks to everybody who sacrificed their legs and backs to help us out.

We're so thankful that God has provided this house for us to be in for right now. It's allowed us to get here and have a place to be so that we can get started on the work of the church, and we can be here to be looking for a more permanant place to live. We know God will provide the right place in His timing.

Of course we had church yesterday, but fortunately I wasn't preaching (although it's been over a month since I've really spoken for anything and I'm really feeling restless about that). It was a pretty laid back service with a special prayer time for us and the church. We're so excited to be here, and to get started. Chanda's brother (Chet) and his wife (Angela) came down from Wasilla Saturday afternoon and stayed over for church and some important stuff Sunday...

Speaking of important stuff, I got started on some yesterday after church. Salmon fishing. Actually, it was more like "practice" for salmon fishing. The salmon aren't running yet so there wasn't really much a chance of catching anything. I think they're supposed to start any time, but everything's late this year. We'll see what happens.

This week we'll be doing some church work, looking for more permanant housing, getting to know the people and the area, and getting a little more settled.

This seems a little trite, but thanks so much to everyone who has been praying for us. It has been so evident that God has been watching over us this trip. We had no real vehicle trouble (other than the stuff in Billings and I really think that all happened there so that it didn't happen somewhere in the middle of...nowhere), no blown tires, no trailer trouble...nothing really. And it's so exciting to be here and to get to see, hear and feel the excitement of the people. We all really believe God has some big things in store here.

Please don't stop praying. I'll give you some specific things:
-strength for us; we're excited, but tired. Physically, emotionally, spiritually...physically.
-focus; it seems like there are so many things to do. Where do we start?
-a more permanant home; we know it's out there.
-open hearts and minds; the congregation is ready for change. Pray that it happens at the
right pace.
-Birch Ridge Community Church (BRCC) leadership team. We have our first official
meeting next Monday.

That's some stuff for now. I'll keep you posted on other stuff as it comes up.

Sorry, no new pictures this time. We took some with Chet and Angela, but I don't have them uploaded yet. Please have patience.

Monday June 9

2008-06-11T10:23:00.005-08:00

Monday was the day we woke up to snow, and when we filled up with gas before we left town the electricity was out so I couldn't get a cup of coffee...that was rough. I'm not a big fan of gas station/truckstop coffee, but it's better than nothing...usually.

We headed down the road and drove out of the snow pretty quickly. The sun came out and it was gorgeous!!! Like I said earlier, pictures don't show it like it really is (ok, spiritual application time...) Just like when Paul talked about the law being a representation of God, but a poor one. And then Jesus came and that was the true representation.

Hebrews 1:3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of

his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification

for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

Pictures give you an idea, but you have to see the real thing to fully understand.

We did a picnic in a campground by a stream. Again, it was gorgeous.

Later that day we had an exciting moment...we crossed the border into Alaska!!!

That was cool in and of itself, but it was made a little more interesting by the fact that we weren't quite ready for the border checkpoint and we looked pretty suspicious.

I was driving the truck with Roger and just before the actual border there's a "scenic" border crossing with a sign and flowers and stuff. Anyway we tried parking the truck so that we could take some pictures of our family at he sign, and the border patrol didn't really like that, so Roger drove it across, but we still had Kay in the Yukon but she didn't have her passport, so Roger walked it back across the border and then tried going back to the truck, but the border patrol REALLY didn't like that so they stopped him and asked him a bunch of questions and meanwhile we were waiting in line in the Yukon getting ready to cross hoping they wouldn't search our vehicle because he came and handed something to us...uhhhggg. We made it across with very little incident really, but the patrol told Roger that if we had been going the other way and did all of that, they would have had him down on the ground and searched everything we had. I don't know if that's true, but I didn't want to find out. So we drove out of there.

We stayed in Tok that night at some cabins outside of town a little bit. They were on a small horse ranch so we got to feed some apples to the horses and pet them. The kids loved it. And then it was on to the last big day of travel.

Not too much happened on Tuesday. We drove...and rode...and looked at God's amazing creation. But it just felt different. For so many days we'd been driving through Canada, and while there's nothing wrong with it, it just felt different being in Alaska. Like we'd finally arrived. Even though we still had several more hours to travel.

We made it to Wasilla about 6:30 last night and had supper with Chet and Angela (Chanda's brother and his wife). They are planting a church in Wasilla. We stayed here last night and today...well today is a lazy day. Chet's building something with the kids outside, Roger and Oliver and napping (not together cuz grandpa's snoring would keep him awake), Chanda and Kay are relaxing and I'm ready to be done on the computer and get cleaned up. I'm sure they'd all appreciate that.

Tomorrow we are headed to Soldotna. We'll unload the truck and start making a house a home. I'm not sure when we'll have internet at the house so it could be a few days before I post again.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers, your gifts, your love and your encouragement. It's like the next step is completed. Now the really big adventure begins. But not until tomorrow.

Only a few pictures this time cuz it's taking a long time to upload them. We'll post more on a Kodak site so you can see them.

Catch up time

2008-06-11T06:39:00.008-08:00

Whew. It's been a few days since I've been able to post anything so I'll try to catch you all up to speed. But I'll do it by posting each day separately. And hopefully I can remember things.

After we left the hotel in Watson Lake we put our sign up in the sign forest. It's a pretty cool thing. We took a few pictures (yes i'll post some more today), but here are a couple of links to it to give you an idea what it's like. http://www.yukoninfo.com/watson/signpostforest.htm and somebody else took a bunch and posted them here http://travel.webshots.com/album/275786977xdzSDk.

The last few days have been filled mostly with driving so there's not a lot of stuff to tell about. Unless you want to know about the emergency potty stops on the side of the road, or trying to convince the kids what's outside is more interesting than watching a movie, or the countless other things that have made this trip memorable, but don't really work to retell in a blog.

We had lunch that day at...a place...that was cool...and that I can't remember the name of right now. But they're famous for their pie, especially their rhubarb. This is a picture of the lake right next to the cafe.

Pictures are ok, but they don't do it justice. To really understand the beauty and the majesty and the size you have to see it in person.

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but we've seen precipitation every day since we've been in Canada. It's made for kind of a muddy dirty trip (the Yukon and the truck and especially the car on the trailer need a washing). But on Sunday night as we were coming into Haines Jct. to spend the night, the precipitation was...white. And this is what it looked like the next morning.

I know what some of you are thinking, "see, I told you it was cold and snowy all the time there." Well, it may be there (although I know it's not), but that's not where we're going to be living. That's in Yukon Territory, not the Kenai Peninsula. When we crossed into Alaska it was 65 and sunny and beautiful.

We've seen some wildlife on the trip, but honestly not as much as we'd thought. We've seen moose (as many dead on the side of the road as alive), some caribou, bighorn sheep, wild horses, stone sheep, and bear (both grizzly and black).

That's it for Sunday. Here are some pics from that day.

Just a quick one

2008-06-08T07:33:00.002-08:00

I just have a few minutes before we load up and take off down the road...again. We stayed in Watson Lake, YK last night. We didn't make it quite as far as we had planned, but farther than we thought we might.

Before I forget, in the last post I meant to say thanks to Tom and Rosina. We had such an awesome time in Edmonton!

Yesterday we stopped at the Laird River Hotsprings. It's an underground hotsprings that flows into the river. It's kind of like a hot tub in nature. They have benches built in, and a boardwalk around it. I was kind of surprised, it's really not very big. Thankfully there weren't a lot of people there. The kids loved it because they could stand up in a "river". We finished up just in time because the rain started. And then we had to walk the half mile back to the car in the rain.

We were pretty cold and wet. So instead of heading out we ate supper at the Laird River Hotsprings Lodge. It was hot and satisfying. How's that for an ad?

Last night at the gas station next to the hotel Roger and Kay met two brothers who are headed to Soldotna. One brother has gone up to Soldotna for about 7 years, and guided fishing trips on the Kenai. He gets 2-3 months off each summer to go up there. Chanda and I met them and talked to them for a little bit. We're hoping we can connect with them when we get up there.

This morning before we leave Watson Lake we'll stop at the sign forest and put up our sign. Then we'll have a short little "church service". It's pretty easy to lose track of what day of the week it is.

Sorry, no pics this morning. I don't have the camera in the room and I don't have time to go get it. I'll post them later.

We're still tired, and we feel like we have a long way to go, but God has been so good. We're getting anxious to get there. Not just because we're tired of traveling, but we're excited to be there and to physically get started on what God has for us. I was hoping to have a little more time to be thinking about and working on some stuff for the church. You would think with all the drive time that would work...it doesn't.

Thanks so much to everybody who has been, is and will be praying for us. The trip has been free of any real problems. God is good.

The mall and stuff

2008-06-06T22:52:00.005-08:00

Wow, what a couple of days. I'm exhausted. So are the kids, but they're still smiling. We had and AWESOME time at the West Edmonton Mall. That place is amazing. I'm really not a mall guy, but if every mall was like this, I might go a little more often.

We had such a good time at the waterpark. We spent most of our 7 or so hours there. They have a huge wave pool. All it's missing is the sand and salt. They also have a bunch of slides, some big some not; a kiddie pool; and a really cool "water playground".

But we also got to ride a few things in GalaxyLand too. In fact, Chanda and I got to ride the most intense roller coaster I think I've ever been on. Not that I'm an expert, but this thing had three loops and 4 drops in a very small space (for a roller coaster). Here's a wikipedia link to it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindbender_(Galaxyland).

I'm really glad I didn't know about that last paragraph before we rode it. Hmmmm...

After our awesome but tiring day at the mall, we drove for a few hours and stayed in Whitecourt last night. Today was a big day of traveling. From Whitecourt, AB to Fort Nelson, BC. Which is where I sit tonight in the bathroom of a Super 8 while the kids are asleep on the beds. I'm headed there myself.

Tomorrow we're hoping to get to Dawson Peak, YK, but will settle for Watson Lake, BC. Along the way we're going to stop at Laird River hotsprings for a "dip". And a quick stop at the Sign Forest to hang our South Dakota license plate with out names on it.

Here are some pics from the last couple of days.

Pics are finally here

2008-06-05T06:30:00.003-08:00

We're in Edmonton...eh. Got in last night after a day of traveling through Banff Nat'l Park. That is one gorgeous place! Things are going well. I want to give a big shout out to Dave and Teresa for packing the truck. Everything seems to be riding great. Even Porter seems to be doing fine in the back seat. And Dave, everything on the trailer is still there and still secure. Great job.

We're spending most of this day at the mall...woohoo. Actually, if it was just a plain old mall I would be less than excited. But this is not your daddy's mall...or should that be mommy's mall? Whatever, it's huge and there's all kinds of cool stuff there. Check it out at: http://www.westedmall.com/home/default.asp

I think we're going to get on down the road a little ways tonight.

Ok, I don't know how to choose what pics to post, so I'm just going to do some random ones. Although most of them will be of the kids cuz I know that's who you really care about...Deb and Lori.

Into Foreign Lands

2008-06-04T07:36:00.003-08:00

Well, we're in Canada...eh. And we're mostly on schedule but it was a much later night than it was supposed to be. Let me see if I can make this quick...

We were leaving Red Lodge Tuesday morning and the Yukon was dead...wouldn't start...nothing...as in dead. We figured out we left the cooler plugged in all night; no big deal. We jump started it and it fired right up, but the climate control panel was...dead. As in not working, as in no display, no controls, as in...dead. Which wouldn't have been so bad but it was blowing hot air out on me; no one else, just me.

This is when you're thankful you went the extra mile and did the warranty coverage. We called several Chevy dealerships and the one in Billings could get us in at 1:30. Much later than we were hoping to get out, but they could get us in. Roger and Kay took off about noon with the truck and we planned to catch up to them after a quick fix of the controls.

After killing some time around Billings, and waiting over an hour to know anything on the Yukon we were told the problem was an electronic component for the climate controls, BUT they "found some other stuff" too. Don't you just love to hear that from a mechanic in a town your just passing through?

The power steering pump was leaking and an axle boot was leaking. And of course they needed to be fixed. This is when you're REALLY thankful you went the extra extra mile and did the really good warranty coverage.

At about 5:00 we left the dealership with all the stuff fixed and not a dime out of our pocket. We also "by chance" ran into a good friend of ours from Joliet who just "happened" to be getting some keys made. Dan K is one of the most giving generous people I've ever met. Thanks Dan for hanging out with us and for the gift too.

There are a bunch of other little details from yesterday, but I said I'd try to make this quick.

So, we caught up with Roger and Kay at the border and crossed into Canada...eh...at about 11:30 last night. We got to Lethbridge and spent a few hours in a hotel. We just ate breakfast and we're getting ready to head out. R & K are taking the truck on up to Edmonton, and we're going to make a "quick" loop through Banff Park and meet up with them in Edmonton tonight.

Tomorrow we're going to spend the day at the "World's Largest Mall" in Edmonton. They have an indoor waterpark, amusement park, a zoo and way too much other stuff. I think you can actually do some shopping there too.

I'm doing this on a hotel computer so I still don't have any pictures to post. Sorry. maybe tomorrow, or we'll just post them all on Kodak's site when we finally do get a chance.

Thanks for your prayers, please keep praying.

Ending June 1

2008-06-01T19:47:00.002-08:00

We've had a great time at Grandma's and Grandpa's. The kids have had golfcart rides, three and four wheeler rides, got to shoot things, wrestled in the grass, cooked hot dogs and marshmallows over a fire, and played. All in within just a few days. Now tomorrow the fun begins.

We'll leave from here (Brian's mom and dads/south of Aberdeen) and head to Red Lodge/Billings to meet up with Roger and Kay. Then on Tuesday we'll all start to head north. Our hope on Tuesday is to make it to Calgary...wishful thinking, but that's our goal.

Please pray for the vehicles and all the stuff in them, and for the border crossing. The adventure begins.

Days 1&2

2008-05-30T21:09:00.002-08:00

Ok, this is actually the "pre-trip" part of the trip, but we've left Spearfish so it's part of the trip as a whole.

We closed on our house yesterday morning, did some repacking of the Yukon and car, dropped off Porter and finally headed out of town a little before noon. We made a stop at Cabela's, of course, and made it to Chanda's mom and dad's about 9:00 last night.

Today was just hanging out at the farm. The first down day we've had in...a while. Tomorrow we're heading north to......Aberdeen. Couple of days there and then we'll meet Roger and Kay (chanda's dad and mom) in Billings on Tuesday morning. THEN we start the "real" trip. I do have a bunch of pictures from today, but I didn't get them loaded on this computer so we're out of luck for now. I'll post some later.

Just a quick post to keep you updated. If you're still reading this.

Away too long

2008-05-28T14:28:00.002-08:00

I know, I know. If I'm going to do a blog I need to keep it up to date. I knew it had been a while, but Deb's reminder the other day told me I better update everybody or they're going to stop reading...if they haven't already...and if they ever started.

I'll try to keep this short and sweet, but A LOT has happened since the last post.

We are no longer in our house in Spearfish, although technically we still own it. We've got everything packed into a 26 foot Uhaul truck (and a whole bunch in the car on the trailer behind it), and the house is cleaned and ready for the new owners. We sign our part of the papers at 9:00 Thursday morning. After that we drop Porter (our dog) off at the boarding/grooming place for a few days and we leave Spearfish for an indirect route to Alaska.

We're going to spend a couple of days at Chanda's mom and dad's, then a couple of days at my mom and dad's (both on the eastern side of the state). In the meantime, Chanda's mom and dad will head to Spearfish and pick up the Uhaul and head to Billings (obviously after we leave their house). On Monday June 2 we'll leave my mom and dad's and head to Red Lodge to see some friends.

On Tuesday June 3rd we "officially" begin the long trek to AK. We're headed up through Great Falls, MT, Calgary and Edmonton, AB, and onto the Alaskan Highway at Dawson Creek. From there there's only about one road to follow. We're planning on about 10 days to get to Soldotna with stops in Edmonton (world's largest mall), Laird Hotsprings (for a little swimming), and Wasilla to spend a day with Chet and Angela (Chanda's brother and his wife). Here's a good link to a road map: http://northtoalaska.com/map.aspx

The adventure has begun. Ok, here's my hope/dream/wish/farfetched idea: I would like to do postings on the way up there and certainly after we get there. I'm going to try, when I have a chance to give you an update on the trip and hopefully post some pictures too. We'll see how this dream goes.

Thank you all for your prayers. Please keep praying. It's been very hard emotionally, spiritually, and physically over the last couple of weeks. Now that the moment is here we're excited and scared and anxious and nervous and...a whole range of emotions. We know God is leading us...no doubt about that.

Btw, our new address is PO Box 2478 Soldotna, AK 99669, and our current email is pbwahl@gmail.com. Adios for now.

Less Important but Big News

2008-04-24T10:27:00.004-08:00

In the vast scheme of things, I know this doesn't amount to much. But to me, this is huge.

The Vikings have acquired Jared Allen, a defensive end formerly of the Kansas City Chiefs. It cost a lot of money and picks but I'm so glad they did it.

Only time will tell if it was truly worth it. There are some character concerns, he could get injured, he could have a bad season, who knows what could happen. But on paper this seems like a slam dunk. I know, games aren't played on paper. They're played on the field. And I can't wait to watch them play. Although I doubt I'll get to watch too many Vikings games in AK. I need to find a friend with NFL Sunday Ticket.

Think there's any chance the NFL would consider expanding the season to about 40 weeks?

Prayer Request

2008-04-24T10:07:00.003-08:00

Tomorrow we take Oliver (our youngest, 1 1/2 year old) in for surgery on his hand. Last December he decided he wanted to know what the glass felt like on the front of our gas fireplace. He found out. Did I mention it had been on for about a half hour? It's healed pretty well, but on his index finger the scarring is keeping him from being able to straighten the finger.

The dr. is going to...do some cutting...and sewing...to...fix it. I hope I didn't confuse you with all my medical terminology there. That's kind of how I understand this procedure. Then Oliver will have a club hand for a few weeks again.

The hard parts are 1) he can't have anything to eat from midnight the night before until after the procedure (we have to be in Rapid by 7:45 am), and 2) we can't be with him in the OR. We can be with him in the 'prep room' just be fore they take him, but we can't go in with him. Mom's not doing so well with that. And I'm pretty sure a tired, confused, hungry, crabby, scared one and half year old who already has HUGE separation anxieties is not going to be doing so well with it either.

We'd sure appreciate your prayers on Friday.

Responses

2008-04-24T09:57:00.002-08:00

It's so cool to see God working, in the big and little stuff. We sent out letters to most all of the churches in the Dakota District telling them about the move we're making and some of the details about the church in Soldotna, and asked if they would want to partner with us (and the church) to provide prayer, resources and/or money.

We've already gotten responses back from a couple of the churches. We've received a pledge of financial support from one church and a check from another. It's amazing. I know I shouldn't be surprised to see God work. It's what we prayed for and were expecting (we figured if He's calling us He's going to have to provide). But in our humanness when stuff like that starts to happen we're awed by it.

And I don't ever want to lose that sense of awe and wonder. When God works it should be "awesome". There are enough things that I get cynical and complacent about. God doing what I could never do on my own inspires me and increases my faith.

And if you're reading this and you didn't get one of the letters, but would like to support us in some way, just send me an email and I would love to visit with you about the different things that are needed. Yep, shameless plug.

Sound Bites

2008-04-24T08:10:00.002-08:00

Obviously it's been awhile since the last post. A lot has happened in the past week. So I've got a lot of stuff to tell you about. But rather than having a huge long post that you get bored reading about half way through I'm going to do several smaller posts throughout today. Or at least one post now and some others later on.

Our top story today...

I got a couple of wisdom teeth pulled last week. I know, it was only two. All you three and four wisdom teeth story people can fill me in on yours later. But even with only two I'm having some trouble. I'm still having a lot of pain and swelling. I probably need to give my dentist a call...he's been out of town since he pulled them.

Having teeth pulled is a phenomenal event that I think everyone should experience. If for no other reason than just to say you've done it. Actually, that's probably the only good reason to say everyone should do it. There's really nothing "fun" about it. My dentist that did it was great. He's got a great sense of humor, very thoughtful (as far as what you're experiencing sitting in that chair), and has a great "bedside manner". But it's pulling teeth from your head. It causes pain and bleeding. And maybe if you get the nitrous treatment it wouldn't be so bad, but the sounds...ah the sounds of breaking teeth. Got your attention?

Anyway, this too shall pass. It'll all heal, and some day I'll look back and barely be able to remember it happened. But today...I'll keep taking painkillers.

Crazy Weather and stuff

2008-04-14T09:31:00.003-08:00

Over the last week we've had rain, snow, sun, lightning and thunder, freezing temps, hail, and today...it's 70 before noon. You gotta love April.

We had the first round of rummage sales on Friday and Saturday. Despite the fact that it was in the 40's and snowing on and off (amid breaks in the clouds when the sun would shine) we had a pretty good turnout. Stuff was priced to move, not to make a bunch of money. For the big stuff that's left we'll take it to a consignment store here in town (already sold some stuff there), and then Chanda is planning another sale with her sister in Rapid the first weekend in May.

I realize that some of you really couldn't care less about rummage sales and the like, but it's actually a big part of our packing/moving process. The more stuff we can sell or give away, the less we have to take with us or throw out or whatever. And if we can make some money on it...woohoo!

We do have a place to live when we get to Soldotna. There are two sisters in the church who own a house they rent out. It will be empty the first of June and they have said we can rent it for as long as we need to. This is a huge answer to prayer. This takes the pressure off trying to buy a place without really seeing it, and it will give us a chance to get up there and get familiar with the area before we look at buying. The house will be large enough for us with space to have our offices too. Thanks God.

We did "Long Story Short" here at the church last night. "Long Story Short" is a one hour telling of...the entire Bible. It's very funny, and actually fairly informative. It really does a good job of showing how the Bible is connected from Genesis to Revelation, and how it's one big story of God's love for us. We had about 400 people come in for it, many of whom don't regularly attend any church. If you want to watch it go to www.teamcountryside.com and click the "Live Video" tab at the top.

That's all for now. I think I'm going to go out and enjoy the day.

Other stuff

2008-04-07T07:45:00.006-08:00

There's really no new news on the Alaska front. Stuff is progressing. We've (Chanda) started packing/getting ready for the first Rummage Sale (this Friday and Saturday), we've got a preliminary plan for the trip up there, we have a house that we can rent when we get there (and then look for a place to buy). So, since that's all cruising along, let's look at other things that are happening in my world.

My NCAA Men's College Basketball Bracket...was WAY off. Ok, I've had worse. I did have three of the Final Four teams. And I actually have one of the teams in the championship game. But unfortunately it wasn't good enough for the two brackets I was in. Apparently, the people I was in the bracket with are better than me. So the lesson for next year...pick different people to be in the bracket with.

And the basketball bracket is really just a distraction from THE real sport...football. This time of year...suc...stinks. There's nothing going on, with any team, but especially my Vikes. Oh sure, there is some talk about some late free agent signings, but nothing big. Nothing exciting. And the draft is still over 2 weeks away. And will they have the kind of draft they had last year...probably not. That probably won't be duplicated again...ever. Ok, most of you reading this don't care about this. Sorry, it's my blog.

As far as a vehicle, stuff is happening. We've test driven...test drove...test drived...looked at a number of vehicles. Primarily Suburbans and/or Yukons. We've found a Yukon that has really low miles, has more options than most houses, and we really like it. It's reasonably priced, and we've gotten to a point where the payments are...more manageable. We'll probably know for sure in the next day or two. But if it doesn't work out, we're willing to walk away and look for something else. I'll keep you posted.

Let It Snow

2008-04-01T09:11:00.003-08:00

I think God is preparing us. In the last week we've gotten several inches of snow. Last night was less than an inch, and the sun is shining bright today. But I think He's just saying, "Are you sure you're ready for this?"

There really isn't any new news on the move front. We're trying to finalize the actual method of moving. That's coming together. We're nailing down the dates of finishing here and then seeing family, and then taking off. That's coming together. Passports are almost finalized. Seems like there's something I'm forgetting...PACKING, oh yeah. That's not really coming together yet. It would be nice if life would just stop for a few days and we (Chanda) could get started on that.

Prayer request: we had our mechanic look at the van to see if he thought it would make the trip ok. Just kind of a formality thing. His response was, "How much faith do you have?" Oh. He suggested that if we were contemplating looking for another vehicle, now would be a good time. Oh. Ok. So, we're looking at other vehicle options/possibilities. More than anything we just need wisdom. And some unexpected cash would be nice too. We just want to make sure we do the right thing and on't get in over our heads.

Big News...lots of details

2008-03-27T09:07:00.005-08:00

OK, here's the cool news upfront. We sold our house...without listing it...for the asking price...to a great family that isn't moving here until the end of May. This is so amazing!

Rick, our Realtor, came over on a Friday (about 3 weeks ago), to start the paperwork and get things rolling to list it. Then he called on the following Tuesday and had someone in town for just a day or two and said that even though the paperwork wasn't done he felt that our house would be perfect for this family and wondered if he could show it that afternoon. Let me just say, Chanda is amazing. She kicked it into a gear even I didn't know she had. At 2:00 that afternoon (3 hours from when Rick called) the house looked beautiful. And they loved it. The funny thing...we didn't even have a price on it yet.

After the paperwork was finished and they got their financing approved we signed the papers last Friday. And we set a closing date of May 29th. That'll be the day we're pulling out of town. It's amazing to see how God worked all of this out.

Now, the "lots of details" part. Moving a family of 6 to Alaska is complicated. Passports, packing, finding a house, transportation, seeing family...and a hundred other details that are bouncing around in my head. I know, I know. I'm trusting God. But in my humanness, I get caught up in the details sometimes.

We're down to 2 months. And they're going to go fast. If you're looking for some good bargains we'll be having a couple of "garage" sales in the coming weeks. Sorry, we can't ship. We've got enough shipping of our own to do.

Thanks for all your prayers, PLEASE keep them coming. I'll try to keep up on this a little more as news happens.

Busy Life

2008-03-17T20:07:00.003-08:00

I know this sounds like a broken record, and every American would agree with it, but life is just crazy busy right now. And I don't see any let up for approximately...the rest of my life.

Remember the days when the biggest decisions you had to make were trying to figure out who's house you were going to go over to so you could play Atari or Star Wars, or figuring out what book to check out at the library, or...yeah, I don't either. Those days (if they ever existed) are long gone.

With 2 1/2 months before we go, there seem to be about 12,549 decisions to be made in the next week. Ok, yes, I am exaggerating. Because in my humanness I'm freaking out a little bit. I know God's in control and He sees the big picture. I'm trying to trust in that.

There's really good news on the "selling of the house" front. But I can't share all of those details right now. It's just amazing how God is working out the details.

And I know he's got all the other details figured out already. It'll be amazing to look back at this time and see how it all worked out.

Round 2

2008-03-13T16:58:00.004-08:00

Just wanted to check in with everyone (or anyone who's actually reading this). I have to say that the last 36 hours have really tried my faith with this whole AK thing. I won't bore you with all the details but just know that the enemy is really attacking in ways I didn't see coming.

Don't worry...we're going. God's bigger than all this stuff that's gone on. But in my small human mind I'm just struggling with some things that have happened.

On a good note...I've had some great conversations with some of the teens in this ministry and it is blowing me away how mature they are! I can really see God working in their lives and hearts to raise up leaders and prepare them for what's ahead. Like I said, God is big.

The picture has nothing to do with this post, but I just wanted to show Chris that I figured it out. And that now I've mentioned his name twice.

First One

2008-03-12T10:50:00.002-08:00

I really don't know if I'm going to be able to keep up with it, but I thought it would be a good idea to try. For many of you it will be a way to keep updated on our new adventure. What is our new adventure you ask? God has called me to become the solo pastor at Birch Ridge Community Church in Soldotna, AK. Yes, that's Alaska.

This is a very exciting, anxious, scary, thrilling, scary, faith-charged, oh, and did I mention scary, time for us. We won't be heading north until the end of May.

I'll be putting up some pictures of our trip up there as soon as I get them to this computer.

There will be more info and news coming, but i want to make sure and get this first one up, because Chris is bugging me about it already.