This week: in Photos

-Tuesday night pumpkin Carving...


-Whoops...Liz showed up wearing what I was wearing...Awkward!


-Joe's Pumpkin.....GO HAWKS! UNDEFEATED!


-Last night...Stew night...Christine is an amazing cook!


-If you haven't figured it out yet...I am rocking a sweet Mustache!

Contentment

It seems like most of the time we think of contentment as living an OK existence. Not too great not to bad, but good enough. Often times we even use the word content to describe a certain level of disappointment...such as...well I was hoping for _____, but I got ______ instead....o'well I suppose I am content. It doesn't seem to make sense to me.

If contentment is just feeling OK about where we are at...is that what God wants from/for us?

Or is there something more?

John 10:10b "...My purpose is to give life in all its fullness."

"My Grace is enough..."

When I look at the life that God has given me...I can see it in a few different ways some good...some bad, but only one is true...and that is the way He shows it to me.

I have been blessed. We have been blessed. Family...friends...a warm place to sleep...a vehicle...food...and mostly...Gods grace that He gives us in Christ.

When I look at my life with Gods glasses the most existential feeling of Joy exudes out of my heart. I am loved. I look around and see grace everywhere. He has penetrated our hearts and shown that He loves us! We are loved by the creator of the universe...if that in itself bring us a sense of Joy deep in our souls....

I don't think that contentment is a point we get to nor a static complacency that just says "Life is OK". There is more...more than OK....its dynamic...

Contentment in our lives is the daily experience of God's Grace that flows Joy through our hearts.

Thoughts?

Pics from September

-A little bit of Nate Rock in Moab last weekend.


-I found my nook in Arches NP


-Joe became very winded from hiking to the top of Nate Rock.






-Moab - Joe and Luke standing on Nate Rock above our campsite "High Plains Drifter #2".


-Me, Luke, and Joe, at the Delicate Arch


-Christine and me in Fort Collins.


-Yeah...this is from Alaska still...

Where's Luke?

Back to Alaska!

-After a three year delay I made it back to beautiful Alaska to see my close friends and enjoy some of its awesomeness. Anchorage from Earthquake Park.


-Not that I didn't have to be careful....there are a lot of dangerous people up there....


-Like this guy...


-I was blessed to be able to see Mt. McKinley...though it was from 300 miles away...it was still amazing.


-Last Saturday night Josh, Jess, Eric, and Josh's Grandparents had a cook-out at a park in Anchorage. We had Halibut, Salmon, and some chewy Moose.


-Josh's grandparents, the Louwerse, made the drive up to see them and as much of Alaska as they could in a few weeks. A very cool trip I must say...how long until retirement again?


-Visser and I made our way up to Lake Eklutna in Chugach State Park to do some backpacking the next Monday.


-This is our view from the campsite....not too bad...lakeside.





-After we got done hiking we went up to Jim Creek, near Alaska Raceway, and did some off roading in his truck.

This past Friday I was also able to go to the Downtown soup kitchen and do some work with Jlo (He's the top chef on Friday's). Since it was my first time they put me at the serving window where I got to see all of the 500 folks coming in. I very cool experience which I hope comes back with me to Denver.

http://www.downtownsoupkitchen.org/

Right after the soup kitchen Jlo and I took off for Homer with Dave Van Berkel, the associate pastor at Crosspoint, and Mandy. It was a very long day, but we made it to Fred's in Ninilchik by 11 and got a little sleep in.


-In the morning we drove to Homer, about 2 hours, near the tip of the Kenai Peninsula. Shown...Mandy (a friend of the Louwerse from church) jess and josh.


-We hung out on the Homer Spit until we got to go Halibut fishing at 4.


-You can see josh and jess in the bottom corner.






-This crab boat is on "Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel. Its named Time Bandit.


-Some Scenery from the boat. Just a little farther down from this spot is Soldovia...which sounds like its a pretty amazing little community that you have to fly or boat to.


-I got shut out fishing...but JLO caught a 46 ibs Halibut...which is good because he needed to have fish for his churches Fish Fry the following week.


-VERY AMAZING to see great friends again and be able to see a glimpse of life in Alaska. I also realized that I must be getting older when I haven't seen close friends in two years...I am finding more and more that when you are really good friends you pretty much pick up right where you left off. God Bless.

Summers Almost over already? REALLY!?

I just realized this morning that I haven't blogged in almost two months...so I figured a little update wouldn't hurt. June was crazy...with all the volunteers coming in we were able to paint about 50 houses and log around 6500 volunteer hours (the average summer month is about 4000-4500). July didn't slow down either because whenever we had a break from groups we had to work on Hazmat removal, and I scheduled the Paint-A-Thon. Now we are in the second big week of the Paint-A-Thon and the media highlighted painting day on Saturday. Check it out Brothersredevelopment.org We have around 18 project scheduled so its not as crazy as it could have been, but a good amount of work either way. Ohh yes, Also, I am going to Alaska next week. Peace

Twin Sister 09

This past Friday KP (in CO for a visit), Ben, Joe, and myself decided to head up to Rocky Mountain National Park and hike the Twin Sisters (one of my personal favorites to take people to as well). Twin sisters is right on the Eastern Edge of Rocky Mountain NP and has tremendous views of the first range of mountains and the plains to the East. We had a great time hiking...and there was a significant amount of joking around...as the pictures suggest.


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