Quotes from Easter Weekend

I just wanted to share with you a few quotes from this weekend. Some of the things that really stuck out in my mind.

• "I look forward to this every year" - at Easterfest.
• "I see you do this for the community every year, this is great." - at Easterfest
• "My Kids had a BLAST!" - at Easterfest

• "You almost, almost made me cry" - at Easter Service
• "Singing the Old Rugged Cross brought tears to my eyes" - at Easter Service

Hog Hunting

If you read the description of this blog you probably realize that my blog is really many of my random thoughts and actions posted for everyone to see. Here is part of that randomness.

This past week I went on a Feral Hog Hunt. For those of you that aren't familiar with feral hogs, they are hogs that at one time were domesticated, but either were released into the wild, or escaped into the wild. Over the years and as they continue to breed in the wild they revert back to their wild state. These hogs grow more hair, they become darker in color, their snouts grow longer, their tails straighten out, they grow longer tusks and they become VERY aggressive. With all that being said, it sounded like the perfect thing for me to hunt.

Feral Hogs are not native the American Soil. The very first hogs were brought to America by the early settlers for meat. Many people raised hogs on open range, much like cattle is raised in the west. This is one of the major contributions to the feral hog populations that we have today. Significant Feral Hog populations are found in 44 of the 48 contiguous states and are also found in Hawaii. In every state that they are found they are considered a nuisance and cause hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to crops and livestock each and every year. In many states you don't even need a license to hunt them, and in states like Texas their policy is "take them in whatever means possible."

So, on Sunday I set out with a good friend (Wally) to go Feral Hog hunting in New Mexico. A friend of Wally's knew where there were concentrations of hogs, and he had been trapping them for years. We thought this would be the perfect opportunity to hunt them.

Our hunt started out on a cold rainy Monday morning. We went to one location where there was sign of the hogs everywhere. They had been rooting in the fields, there were tracks all over the place including little piglet tracks. This could have been the perfect place to take our first hog. Unfortunately these hogs live around a lake surrounded with Salt Cedars. Which looked kind of like this.

As you might be able to imagine, walking through these salt cedars made it almost impossible to be able to stalk up on some pigs. So, the first area was a bust.

After walking through this area, and checking it for hogs - we went to check the other traps that our friend had. There were no hogs, but we were able to see probably a hundred deer out in the fields.

The next day was a much nicer day. It was in the 60's and sunny. A much nicer day to go hunting. We had been told about another area to check for hogs. Some time ago another guy had trapped over 100 pigs in and around this location. So after driving around for a while, we went to walk this other area. This area had alfalfa crops on one side, and a creek bed - again with salt cedars. Since this creek bed was dry we decided to walk down the creek bed where we could be a little more quiet. There was hog sign everywhere, there were fresh rootings and hog prints everywhere we looked. At one point we could even smell them, however the Hog eluded us once again.

That night we went out to try and call and spotlight some hogs. Instead of hogs we saw hundreds of deer in the fields.

So, at the end of this long story - we didn't get to see any hogs in the wild. We did however see some penned up, and were able to take home some pork from the Feral Hogs that our friend had trapped.

We will be going back again soon, and maybe have some different tactics so we can get some HOGS!

Doing Church, or Experiencing God?

This has been a question that has been rolling around my head today. Are we just merely doing church, or are we experiencing God?

I put the question out to you. Are you Doing church, or Experiencing God?

There is a drastic difference between these two things. A lot of people are merely just doing church. They get up each Sunday and they do the church thing. Perhaps it is out of obligation and they feel like they "have to" be there - maybe because they don't want to disappoint someone, maybe because this is what they have always done, maybe because they think it is the right thing to do.

I want to be different than that. I want to go to church, not just to do church but because it give me the opportunity to experience God in a corporate setting.

Today Tracy posted a blog that was an article in The Pentecostal Evangel from 1958. That article was actually from Teddy Roosevelt many years before. The name of the article is "9 Reasons to go to Church". I think this is a great article, but I think Teddy missed one vitally important reason to go to church - to experience God.

Recently our church has gone through some growth. In 2008 our average attendance was 67 and in 2009 it was 82. That is pretty good growth. I look forward to hitting that next milestone in our growth as a church, but even more than hitting that next growth milestone I am looking forward to the day when our church is filled with people who come to Experience God.

How about you? Are you Doing Church, or Experiencing God?

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!!!!

Ok, So it has been raining in Arizona a lot. When I say a lot, I mean at least once a week for the past couple months. It is getting really OLD.

Having come from Illinois, I am familiar with rainy winters. The winter prior to moving out to Arizona I think was nothing but rain. I don't think a single snowflake fell during that winter. It was just COLD and RAINY. So we moved out to Arizona and thought we were done with cold rainy winters. Then this winter came, and to me it has been absolutely miserable.

All my Arizona friends, and most of the people that go to our church are enjoying this rain. It is the people that have lived in the desert for many, many years that are finding this rain to be pleasant. For me, it is just too much of a reminder of midwestern winters. Many people think that the midwest gets tons of snow during the winter, and while that is the case this year, while I was growing up it seemed like we got more of the cold rain than we did snow.

So, this miserable cold winter rain is keeping me from getting many of the things done that I would like to do. Every time I think of getting out to do something, it is raining. I have a long laundry list of things I need to get done.
- Clean out the garden (it will be planting time soon and the garden is a mess)
- Re-aim the sattelite (I had to remove it for the Superbowl and it still isn't quite right.
- Clean up the yard (Our yard has accumulated too much junk during the winter, it needs to be cleaned up)
- Do repairs on the camper (Our camper needs some repairs done, and I am just not going to lay on the wet ground to do it)
- Practice archery (I could do this in the rain, but it is just miserable)

These are just a short list of the things I need to get done that the rain is keeping me from. So, while it is raining today - I am feeling a little bit grumpy and just want to say (YELL).....

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY!!!!!!!

How long can this go on???

WARNING: The information contained below may be too much for some to handle. You might call it TMI (Too much Information) or you may just call it gross, but if you are easily grossed out, do not read any further.

Ok, now that I got that out of the way.

Ok, for the last week and a half I have been sick. On Friday, August 28th I came home from the football game with a little bit of a scratchy throat. I thought to myself, "Well I guess I just yelled too much." Apparently the yelling had nothing to do with it. I woke up Saturday morning with an even worse sore throat and a VERY apparent cold.

As with most colds, my head filled up with SNOT and I couldn't breath out of my nose. I decided to use this wonderful thing called nasal spray. That stuff is absolutely awesome. I also took ibuprofen for the sore throat. After a few days I started to feel a little better. I stopped using the nasal spray after a couple days and had to deal with the side effects of the nasal spray, but after that I was feeling a little better - definitely not 100% but I was better.

Then, that cold decided to move around my body a little bit and settled into my chest. So for the next few days my cough sounded like a barking seal. I started taking Tylenol Cold and Sinus which helped some. Last night I ended up sleeping on the couch so I could be propped up and not keep Tracy awake.

Then this morning a crazy thing happened. That cold decided to move around a little more and settle right back into my sinuses. SO, I have been blowing my nose like crazy today. I keep asking myself - how much snot can really be in my sinuses. It seems the more I blow my nose, the more snot there is to blow out. So for the past few hours I have been blowing my nose almost non stop and I ask myself - HOW LONG CAN THIS GO ON????

There you have it - I told you it was probably too much information, I told you you might get grossed out. But there it is - my blog entry about snot.

Disney XD

Ok, so I was surfing the web early this morning from my home computer. Tracy had just taken Keaton to school. In the morning Keaton likes to watch a variety of shows. This morning the TV happened to be on one of the Disney Channels - Disney XD. As I sat there checking my facebook, and checking the news sites - I heard "H E Double Hockey Sticks". Now growing up anytime someone said that we knew they wanted to say the word HELL without actually saying it - probably because they didn't want to get their mouth washed out with soap.

After a few moments trying to figure out if that was what I really heard, I decided to investigate. I decided to rewind the TV (gotta love DVR). Upon rewinding the TV, I found what really disturbed me. Disney is releasing this made for TV movie called H.E. Double Hockey Sticks. It is about some kid who will do whatever it takes to be good at hockey. This greatly disturbed me.

1. I find it troubling that Disney would think it is ok to promote such a thing to kids. The younger kids (like mine, age 4) probably don't understand the whole H.E. Double Hockey Sticks thing, but I can guarantee that older kids know what it means. They seem to be promoting this idea that using the word HELL is ok.

2. The idea behind this movie is apparently that this kid signs a contract with the devil in order to be good at Hockey. I again find this troubling that kids watching this movie will be exposed to such a dark spiritual issue. I haven't seen the movie, so I can't make a judgement on how it all turns out - but I think making a "selling your soul to the devil" movie for kids is absolutely outrageous.

So, my child will most definitely not be watching H.E. Double Hockey Sticks.

Let me know what you think.

Climate Change Debate

Ok, so I really think the whole Climate Change stuff has gone way too far. The House of Representatives has already passed Cap and Trade Legislation and the Bill must be approved by the Senate. This legislation is supposed to curb the CO2 emissions, and help with "Global Warming". I have personally thought for quite some time that "Global Warming" was a farce brought to us by liberals. It is the same people that are promoting this "Global Warming" scare that are also traveling in personal jets (producing tons more CO2 than any of us) to talk about it.

Today I read this article: Climate Change Con-trick

Apparently a geologist by the name of Ian Pilmer has done some extensive research into global warming. While I don't agree with his timetable (age of the earth), his conclusions are great. Here are a couple quotes that I love, that should have some implications for our lives

"The hypothesis that human activity can create global warming is extraordinary because it is contrary to validated knowledge from solar physics, astronomy, history, archaeology and geology"

"Eco-guilt is a first-world luxury. It’s the new religion for urban populations which have lost their faith in Christianity. The IPCC report is their Bible. Al Gore and Lord Stern are their prophets."

I am really interested in reading this guys book Heaven and Earth. It seems to me that our current administration, and the administrations of European countries are feeding us a line of garbage. Even the current EPA did a study that found that the earth is not warming, but cooling - a study that was suppressed by the current administration.

All of this is being done in order to force through taxation legislation. The cost of this Cap and Trade legislation will trickle down to each of us, we will pay more at the pump, we will pay more to heat/cool/light our homes.

We were promised no increase in taxes for those with less than $250,000 annual income - it looks like all that is going to change.

Let me also say, I believe that it is our responsibility to be good stewards of our earth. God gave it for us to use, and we need to be good stewards of it - but I also think that some are making this earth their God. They are bowing down to the almighty earth instead of THE ALMIGHTY. This too is WRONG!

What do you think? Is the climate really getting warmer, or is it just a way to milk you for more $$$ ? Has this "Global Warming" mentality become the religion of American/European Society?