Get Paid for Camping!

In these tough times, we're all feeling the pinch of the economy. That's why I had to share with you, dear readers, a legitimate money-making scheme that only requires a drive to one of the most scenic places on earth!


According to the Yosemite Park Website:

Temp-RATE-ture Promotion at Curry Village

Starting October 1, the lower temperatures drop, the lower rates get at Curry Village. Guests who book the Temp-RATE-ture Special will receive a rate in an unheated tent cabin based on the previous night's recorded low temperature.

Not bad, eh? But wait, it gets even better:

What if it is below zero? If the temperature drops below 0°F, we will pay you to stay in our tent cabins.

Whoa, seriously? You will PAY ME to stay in your unheated cabin? And all I have to do is freeze my arse off??? Awesome!


Who's in with me?

We Are But Dust

I came down with a cold last night. Make no mistake, it sucks.

All day today, I’ve felt as though my head were two feet in diameter. I can’t stand up for more than a few seconds without being promptly persuaded that I should sit down before I fall down. I’m sniffling and sneezing, and generally hating life at the moment.

But even illness is not beyond God’s use. As I lay there on the couch, waiting for the room to stop spinning, it occurred to me that this weakness I feel, this diminishment, is a reminder of my frailty and weakness before God, and thus a cause for humility before Him.

Who am I to live as though I could do without Him? I can’t even stand erect.

Who am I to jealously make plans about my future? I can’t even guarantee I’ll wake up in the morning.

In Genesis 18:27, Abraham says that he has “been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes...” And Abraham was absolutely right. We are completely dependent upon God for every day we live, every heartbeat we feel, every breath we draw. It is in Christ that we live and move and have our being, and apart from Him, there is no righteousness, no meaning, no life.

So in my illness, I pray:

Lord, thank you for teaching me that I am but dust. I freely admit my need for you, day-by-day, hour-by-hour. May this malady be a reminder to me of your goodness and grace, that though I am weak, you make me strong in Christ. Heal my body, Lord Jesus, and heal my soul.

For the cause of Your Glory I pray, Amen.

From the hymn,
I NEED THEE EVERY HOUR
by Annie S. Hawks

I need thee every hour, in joy or pain;
come quickly and abide, or life is vain.

I need thee, O I need thee;
every hour I need thee;
O bless me now, my Savior, I come to thee.

Here's the Kicker

My friend, former student, bass mentor, and fellow Dr. Pepper lover, Cory Kick has started a blog of his own. His first post examines why we have lost sight of the Great Commission.

Cory is a deeply thoughtful and insightful young man, and I encourage you to listen to what he has to say.

Check it out here.

A Return to Blogging: Small Churches

As most of the readers of this blog probably already know, I (Gary) have been battling depression these many months. My depression has made it very difficult to concentrate on anything for an extended period of time, so reading, writing, and similar tasks have become much more difficult for me. In an effort to take back some of this ground, I am forcing myself to write for this blog more regularly. It's therapeutic for me to share what I'm thinking, and I really do enjoy writing, so it makes sense for this to be an outlet for me.

With that preface out of the way, here's my initial effort:

I like small churches. Always have, always will. This is true for a number of reasons, but the core of it is simply this: I think discipleship happens in smaller groups rather than in bigger ones.

When I look at the life of Christ, I notice a bit of a pattern. When Jesus chose to reveal a little bit of Himself, it was almost always before a small group of people if not a single individual. The servants at the Cana Wedding, Nicodemus, the woman at Jacob’s Well, the blind, the demon-possessed, and most notably the Twelve, all received private and semi-private glimpses of who this Jesus of Nazareth really was.

Now crowds, on the other hand, did not seem to be something Jesus enjoyed. It was a crowd in Luke 4 that wanted to throw Him off a cliff -- not the most effective way to start a public ministry. And though the crowd at the Triumphal Entry shouted “Hosanna,” that same crowd just days later would be shouting “Crucify Him!”

Throughout the Gospels, crowds are filled with people demanding more of Jesus - more food, more healings, more miraculous signs. In fact, it seems like every time a pretty good sized crowd started following Jesus, He made every effort to thin them out.

In Luke 14, we find the following verses:

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple... In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

And again, in John 6, when Jesus teaches that He is the Bread of Life, and that His disciples must eat of His flesh and drink of His blood, we find that his was too much for the crowd: “On hearing it, many of his disciples said,

“This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’... From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”

It seems to me that if any modern evangelical pastor had been standing near Jesus when He said things like these, he would have been tempted to correct the Lord. “Jesus, you are making it unnecessarily difficult for people to come to you. You should lighten up and be a little more ‘seeker sensitive.’ How do you ever expect to get a church up off the ground?”

And maybe that’s just it. Jesus wasn’t concerned with building a following, building a crowd, building an organization or institution. Jesus was building disciples. Individuals. Persons who knew Him, and loved Him, and desired to follow in His Way. And that’s what church should be about today as well.

Discipleship happens when we get into each others’ lives in an intimate way, when we are honest with one another, when we give each other permission to speak into each others’ lives the very utterances of God (1 Peter 4:11). It doesn’t happen where I can show up, talk to no one, go unnoticed, and anonymously blend into the crowd; where I am nothing more than a consumer -- a customer to be sold to, pleased, and encouraged to come back.

And so, my heart soars when I walk into a congregation of 100, or 75, or 50, where the pastor can mention people by name in his sermon and the whole body knows who he is talking about. I love worshiping in a place where people are missed when they’re gone, where there’s a sense of unity and wholeness that comes by not just sitting in the same building together an hour a week, but by doing life together.

Put more simply, crowds are not intimate; churches ought to be.

Spring is here!

Last weekend, Gary and I took advantage of our Sunday-evening church plans to take an early-morning hike.


At long last, the weather has improved enough to begin our hiking for the year!


Because it's early enough in the season, the streams were running and the waterfalls were falling.


Wildflowers were springing up all around us.


Few things are as refreshing to my soul as breathing the fresh air and enjoying the natural beauty of God's creation on full display.


We even spotted some wildlife - a little hummingbird singing from his perch in the sky.


A great day on Mt. Diablo...

Japanese Tea Garden

Last night I had the privilege of joining some great ladies on a fun outing to Calvary Temple's "Japanese Tea Garden" women's event.

Whoever was in charge of decorating went all out making the facility look amazingly beautiful... the entry featured a Japanese style bridge, pagoda entrance, ponds with fountains... the works! The stunning scenery made it easy to leave your cares behind...


Inside, the main area was filled with dinner tables, individually decorated with fine china in an assortment of colors and themes. Though the decor was Japanese, the food was English Tea - finger sandwiches and scones, and of course, tea! While we munched on the most incredible sandwiches ever, I caught up with old friends and chatted with new ones.


The main stage was highlighted by a painted backdrop, large vases of cherry blossoms, and a ceiling runway of paper lanterns.


It wasn't hard to imagine a black velvet night sky with 30 luminous full moons glowing overhead...



Once the food was gone and the conversation had subsided, we turned our attention forward to the guest speaker, Connie Neal. Through analogies of bulbs, dirt, and flowers, Connie reminded us that what we see right now is not the end of the story in our lives. Go has created great potential within each of us that He will bring to fruition at the right time (as we allow Him to). What a great reminder on the first day of spring, to look at the beautiful flowers blooming around us and consider the great love and hope we have in our heavenly father.

Portland Memories

It's about time for more about our trip to Portland last month!


Gary and I had never traveled up north together, and February was the perfect time to go, while we were between jobs.


We had time share points for a place in a little town called Welches, about an hour east of the city. The setting was beautiful - trees, mountains, snow... just what this California girl needed to feel like winter had arrived!


There's not much better than getting away from it all, sitting by the fire with glass of wine in hand, watching the snow fall!


My dream for this year is to go somewhere to have a white Christmas, and these few days in the snow only whetted that desire.



The other highlight of the week was spending time with our friend Melissa, and meeting her husband Keith. Melissa was another founding member of Jacob's Well, our first church back in Sacramento when we were first married. We really connected over the fact that we were three of the five in their twenties at the church at the time! She moved up north a while back, and we haven't had a chance to visit until now. She's now got a great job, a sweet husband, and a baby on the way. Congratulations, Melissa!


Melissa and Keith had fun showing us around the city; and planned some memorable outings for us including a hockey game and an elaborate dinner at a Moroccan restaurant called Marrakesh.




Other highlights were the Japanese Garden, which I've already posted about here, an amazing setting to relax and enjoy nature, and a fun place called Noun, an antique shop / artist boutique, with a station in the back selling confections by St. Cupcake. Good times.

Portland Japanese Garden

Hard to believe, just a week ago I was in Portland, enjoying this beautiful garden during a break in the rain. Here are a few of my favorite pics:

The Gathering and Faith Christian Fellowship

We're back from our trip to Portland (more on that later), and I have reports to give on our last two church visits (I'm processing my experiences as a long-time believer, first-time visitor to local churches through the forum of this blog). It's still weird to go to any church but Fair Oaks, but I have enjoyed seeing God work through my brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the area.

Because we planned to leave for Portland first thing Sunday morning, we found a church with a Saturday evening service to attend before we left (thanks Joy for the recommendation!).

The Community Presbyterian Church in Danville recently combined a Saturday service with a church plant, which now meets as "The Gathering" in their multi-purpose room. They've only been meeting about two months, but there were probably a couple hundred people gathered together.

Although the meeting room was basically a large gym, it was obviously well and thoughtfully designed for worship gatherings. Chairs were set up in a horse-shoe around a center stage, enhancing the feel of 'gathering' in community. Curtains behind the stage made a tasteful backdrop as well as providing great acoustics for the worship band (Who expects great sound quality in a gym? I'm telling you, it's possible). Children and youth all had programs running during the meeting time.

The music and speaking were very good, though they felt a bit 'slick' for my tastes. The worship leader made a couple of bizarre jokes that, while not necessarily inappropriate, were distracting from the purpose of worshipping the Lord.

My favorite thing about The Gathering was their clear intention to build community. Part of their meeting was devoted to a 'coffee-break' time to get up, stretch, and connect with other worshippers while grabbing a beverage or snack. And more significantly, they have set their meeting time at 5:00 pm so that people can go straight from the meeting to having dinner together. On the evening we visited, the pastor had set up with a local Italian restaurant to provide coupons for the whole congregation, with the intention of all going out to eat together afterward! Good stuff.

This past Sunday, we headed just down the street to visit Faith Christian Fellowship. We picked an unusual morning to visit, however, due to the Church Without Shoes campaign. (I was surprised to learn, after leaving Fair Oaks, that there are about thirty-five other churches/ministries in the area which have united for mutual focus on spiritual encouragement and devotion; these include the i-lent project, a community-wide celebration of communion, corporate prayer, and this past Sunday, a pastor swap.)

We happened to visit on the week of the Pastor swap, so we were able to enjoy the worship of Faith Christian Fellowship while learning from the teaching of Pastor Russell Belmont of Calvary Baptist Church in Concord.

The church was beautiful, with a nice 'churchy' feel: pews, stained glass, pipe organ. This did not lend a stuffy atmosphere though, because the service was so welcoming and inclusive. I loved seeing multiple youth as part of the worship team (even though the rest of the youth group was on a winter ski trip). There was a special-needs fellowship group listed in the bulletin, a first in my experience. Following the service, a luncheon was held, though we did not attend.

I can't say how much I appreciated the teaching of the visiting pastor. It has been months since I've experienced teaching that has really touched me, where I felt God speaking to me through His word. There was a moment, a short but beautiful moment, in which my heart leapt and I felt a glimmer of hope for my belief in 'church'.

I guess we'll be putting Calvary Baptist on our list of churches to attend in our future!