First Cletus and Now This...

A few weeks ago we announced that we woudl be adding to our quiver. This morning I was in my local Starbucks Coffee Company and met two men who were in town to scope out new locations for the future of Starbucks in Nearly, Canada. My office is in an area of town that is rapidly growing in retail establishments. If they decide to put a Starbucks near my office my office won't be my office. This has been a wonderful month! First the news about Cletus and now Starbucks! Maybe we will name our next child Guatemala Antigua Black.

Spam ALWAYS Works!

I receivd a spam email message this evening. Typically I just delete the spam I receive but this one really touched me.

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Watch out!

Monday a group of us went hiking at Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Unit). We had heard that there were some mountain lion spottings around the area and were on the look out. The lions typically stay out of the way of humans so we didn't think we would see anything spectacular...until we happened upon a freshly shredded deer carcass and lion prints in the snow. We made a quick decision to hike toward the nearest road (about 3 miles away). On our hike to the road we found fresh tracks and the owners of those tracks. The two mountain lions we saw were smaller than the lions who left the tracks in the pictures below, nonetheless they were mountain lions.

The moral of the story - don't go hiking alone.

Police Sketch

If the police were after me but couldn't find me they would use a sketch something like the above image. If you would like to do your own sketch click here.

(ht - the bishop)

Due To Hatch - 9.2007

The Family of Blacks will be adding to their quiver. We got a picture from the doctor of the new young one. We already see the family resemblance.

Christian Cheese

(more here)

P is for Piper & Prosperity

Interesting article by Piper on Prosperity. Below are his statements on a philosophy of ministry that will not give way to a prosperity movement.

1. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that makes it harder for people to get into heaven.
2. Do not develop a philosophy of ministry that kindles suicidal desires in people.
3. Do not develop a philosophy of ministry that encourages vulnerability to moth and rust.
4. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that makes hard work a means of amassing wealth.
5. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that promotes less faith in the promises of God to be for us what money can’t be.
6. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that contributes to your people being choked to death.
7. Don’t develop a philosophy of ministry that takes the seasoning out of the salt and puts the light under a basket.

Boycott St. Valentine's Day

We have never really celebrated St. Valentine's Day. We both agree (correct me if I'm wrong dear) that it is a commercialized holiday that doesn't really make much sense. Sure, my lady friend enjoys flowers and chocolate and nice cards but do I really need to be told when to give her such things? No! I love my wife because she's my wife not because some card company (the Man) told me to love her.

Please join with me in boycotting St. Valentine's Day. I am not asking you to stand in front of your local greeting card store with picket signs and buckets of red paint (I don't know what that means). I am asking you to love your wife, husband or significant other every day of the week, month and year. Don't let the Man tell you when to love! We've got to stand up to the Man and let him know who's boss!

Posted below are just a few of the reasons I love my wife. I keep a running list of reasons in a file on my computer. I add to the list when I think of reasons. The list is ever-growing and this is just a sample. Oddly enough the Man didn't set a date for me to write these reasons. I wrote them on my own because I love my wife.

Watch out St. Valentine, if that really is your name - you're going down!

Things I love about Kirsten

1. her green eyes
2. her bright smile
3. her sense of humor
4. her love for me (see #3)
5. her sensitivity toward God’s creatures
6. her great cooking and chefliness
7. her love for our boys
8. her bedhead (see #3)
9. she is patient with me
10. her tolerance of my sense of fashion (see #’s 3, 4, 9, 14 & 17)
11. her desire to make a good home
12. her love for God
13. she out-burps me
14. she encourages me during down times
15. her commitment to the Word
16. she is generous with our money
17. she is generous to me
18. her ability to make a great meal out of strange things (see #6)
19. she surprises me with Starbucks Coffee
20. she stops by my office to visit

No (rah) Thanks to You

No thanks to you I am just now using my I-Tunes gift card from Kwanza. I purchased the new Norah Jones album. It's Kwanza-licious.

She stole the striped clothing idea from our web site. Don't fret, we are getting royalties from every album she sells.

A Birthday Feesh

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Grandma
Happy Birthday to you!

The American Dream

Since we are here for the conference we decided to take our boys to the most materialistic space under one roof. They didn't care much about the size of the mall. They didn't really even know it was anything special...and they were right. It's really not any different than any other mall. The difference is that at this mall there were hundreds of useless stores instead of just several dozen. I wasn't impressed.

Here is a picture of our boys as Man Bugs. It's a fun picture but I'm not sure that I would go back to this mall for the picture.

More than anything else Ezra enjoyed riding the "esvalacrator." He could have spent the entire afternoon going up and down on the mechanical stairs. Instead of spending millions of dollars on useless stores someone should come up with a building with many levels of escalators. That would be fun for all ages.

Sprouliness - pt. 2

Tonight Sproul said "In the denomination I was ordained in, the P.C.U.S.S.R...er...I mean the P.C.U.S.A., they used curriculum that warned high schoolers not to take the OT literally. . ."

He said some other really great things too but nothing that funny.

Sprouliness

I am at the Desiring God Pastors Conference. Last evening Sproul walked through the first verses of Isaiah 6. The wizards at Desiring God ministries already have the audio available here for free. Shortly after I took this picture I was escorted out of the conference center.

Congrats Bears

I have a friend in the Middle East who just phoned me. He is 8 hours ahead of us in CST. The Chicago Bears won. The game is still being televised here. Now that I know the Bears win I am going to dump my next pay check on the Bears. Technology has failed us this time!

(Updated: 8:59 PM CST) - nevermind. I suppose I have to explain some things to my family about why we won't be eating this month.

Super Bowl XLI

Super Bowl Mozzarella Sticks

Mmmmm... food.

All Terrain Van

Last evening we watched the local weather. We knew it was supposed to snow and we knew it was supposed to be really cold and we knew that the wind was supposed to be horrid. We awoke before the sun this morning to get an early start on the snow. We checked the Nearly, Canada Department of Transportation. As we left our house we knew that some of the highways were snow covered and we knew that there could be blizzard like conditions. We did NOT know that Mr. Morrison (our new minivan) would handle two consecutive 360's off the road and into a ditch. He did just fine.

The photo above was our view just before we did van acrobatics. Don't tell my mom. But if you do tell her about the performance of our van also tell her that we are all doing well. Ezra thought it was neat but doesn't want to do it again because "it makes him very sad."