i heard it supposed to get real cold and maybe snow at home in Jefferson. Here in Vietnam it was about 72 degrees, very comfortable. We did a lot of praying today, and we also had a very nice day seeing the country and the people. We took a boat ride out into Ha Lang Bay in and around the 1,969 islands  that are there. It was at absolute beautiful experience. We ate lunch on the boat and had squid, shrimp, fish, crab, and clams, it was so good. We got in and went to a water puppet show and a traditional Vietnamese music concert and dance. Both were a great cultural experience of the country for us.

About 30 hours from the time we left Jefferson until we stepped off the plane in Hanoi, but it was quite comfortable. Lots of good food on the airplanes, dozens of good movies that I hadn’t seen, and every person I sat next to didn’t know English and I don’t know Chinese and they were skinny so I slept a lot and read a lot. Nice trip. We drove about 4 hours to Halong, Vietnam and the farms and scenery are amazing. Vietnam is the number one exporter of rice in the world and they farm it all by hand. It is so fun to see all the fields and the water buffalo and the people young, old, woman, men and children working the fields with hand tools. We did a lot of praying as we drove along. Tomorrow we are taking a boat ride out to Halong Bay where there are 1969 islands and is one of the world’s natural wonders with grottoes, caves, and lots of birds. Great group on the trip  that gets along great, and our guide Xe is wonderful.

a group of us are headed to Hanoi, Vietnam for a 10 day missions trip. I am writing this blog in the Los Angelos airport while waiting to get on a 14 hour flight to Taiwan and then to Hanoi. On the way to the airport in Portland today we had a blowout on the van and called and had my son Seth come get us with another van. We made it on time. I lost my baggage claim ticket between Portland and LA and the lady at the ticket counter said she can’t guarantee that my suitcase will get on the plane with me. Oh well, I wore the same cloths for two months on my bicycle trip so 10 days will be a piece of cake, for me anyway, not sure how the rest of the team will like it!! While in Vietnam we will be doing a lot of prayer walking and praying with pastors. It will be a wonderful trip with lots of good food and we will meet lots of very committed believers who love Jesus with all their heart. I expect that I will grow a lot spiritually on the trip and I will work hard not to grow physically. I brought my little portable scale that I took on my bicycle trip and I will be careful not to gain any weight. Love you all. Dee

I preached this weekend from John 2:1-11, the story of Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding feast where the wedding host had made a major social blunder in his day of running out of wine.  This passage has been a favorite of mine for some time in that I often feel after I get finished with my sermon preparation that I am about to give a glass of water to those listening, and I then plead with God to change my offering into some really good wine. I am amazed at how often He actually does that based on response from those listening to me each week. This regular experience of God fixing my sermons doesn’t prompt me to study and prepare less diligently the next time, in fact the opposite is true, I am so humbled is  by God’s obvious gracious gift to me and to those listening that I study and write with even more devotion and passion. The preaching and teaching time is a genuine encounter with the living God as He speakes to us as we have gathered together in His name.

My son in law Kyle killed a five point bull elk and brought it to our house to cut it up. We put a piece of plywood on the dining room table and gather round and whack away. We have done this a lot over the years with the kids and now the grandkids. It really is a lot of fun. We make steaks out of everything we can and then grind everything else  up for hamburger. We cut the steaks as thin as we can and then fry them very hot and quick and they are super tender. We cut out all the fat and mix pork fat and bacon bits with the ground meat and Whooeee it is so good. We did this when I was a kid on the farm with beef, pigs, and deer, and we have been doing it as well all of our married life. A total family effort with cutting, grinding, and wrapping, and then the eating!

I recently finished my goals for 2015 and I had 66 because I am 66 years old. I have physical fitness goals, ministry goals, financial goals, hunting and fishing goals, remodel the house goals. I believe that of all the different goals that I have set for this next year that my marriage goals are the most important. I ask myself the question, “what could I do to make my wife the happiest woman in the world”? The answers that I arrive at become my goals. One is to take her on a date at least twice each month that she would really enjoy. Another is to pray with her at least 3 times each week. Another is to never get angry at her, not even a little bit irritated. I make these a very high priority in my life. I read my goals every single day so I am reminded of the commitments I have made so I am careful to be faithful to my commitments. When Patty is happy it is amazing how happy I am as well.

My big goal for 2015 is to finish an “Ironman” triathlon which is a 2.5 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bicycle ride followed by running 26.2 miles, a full marathon. To be considered a finisher you need to do it in 17 hours or less. My goal is to do it in 15 hours; 2 hours swim time, 8 hours bike time, and 5 hours for the marathon. The Ironman that I am aiming for is in Tempe, Arizona on November 15th, 2015. Leading up to that event I will do a marathon the middle of May, a half Ironman event the last week of June, a half marathon run the end of October and then the Ironman November 15th. I have been running on my treadmill 5 nights a week for an hour, riding my stationary bike for 40 minutes 5 nights a week, running outside for 3 hours once each week and biking outside for 3 hours each week. I also am taking swimming lessons on Tuesday evening and swimming on most Saturday mornings.  The challenge for the year is not to get wimpy and let down on the training.  I am pretty sure this will be a bigger challenge than the bicycle trip across the USA because the effort will need to last a full year not just 60 days. A commitment to faithfulness to the disciplines is the key to finishing well. I will do that. I will faithfully do the swimming, biking, and running. I will do it.

Today I went to a prayer gathering from 8 am until noon of a bunch of pastors and people from churches from Albany, Lebanon, Corvallis, Jefferson, and the surrounding area. We worshiped together, prayed together, prayed for each other and just hung out as good friends. My hearing is so poor that I missed a bunch that was said and prayed, but I didn’t miss the very strong sense of unity and oneness that was part of the atmosphere. It was very real and strong and I left with a strong feeling of joy having been part of it. I think what I was actually doing was entering into the joy that the Lord felt as a result of our gathering. There is so much discord and fighting in our culture today, and today being Election Day is sort of the epitome of that culture. It is a super refreshing experience to spend half a day in the “oneness” that happened today.

It is funny how we have these emotional  highs and lows in our life where we feel happy, positive, up, energized on one day and then the next we are blue, lazy, unmotivated, cranky. For almos 40 years I am in various stages of depression on Mondays. In my head I quit my job almost every Monday. Some Monday’s I don’t get out of bed until 10 am because I don’t want to do anything or talk to anybody. It is sort of an emotional fatigue from the weekend of preaching, people, services, and busy. One of my life motto’s that I preached to my kids and most anybody else who would listen is “you don’t have to act the way you feel”. I made that a firm personal commitment so that I wouldn’t do things and say things and make decisions on Monday that would hurt others, mess up my relationships with people I love. It is a fact that I can act responsibly and lovingly even when I don’t feel like it because I make a firm commitment and decision to do so because it is right. I am thankful that tomorrow is Tuesday and Tuesday’s are almost always good days when it is easy to smile and be nice to everybody.

I had several people come up to me this weekend after the services and say “that is the best sermon I have ever heard”! Now if you are a “Preacher”, that is what you do, comments like that will absolutely make your day😄 and I certainly was on a high this afternoon as I thought about those responses. After a bit of time passed and I came down off of my high I got to thinking and wondered what it was about my sermon that evoked that response. If I could figure out what it was maybe I could do it again. As I was thinking along this line I thought, “why do you preach, anyway?” What is my purpose and goal as I study all week and then preach a 40 minute sermon 3 times. I wrote out my conclusion so I wouldn’t forget it.

1. I believe without a doubt that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God. He inspired and supervised the writing of it over thousands of years so we could know Him and His will for our lives. When I preach I teach what the Bible means and how to make application of it to our lives. I work hard to make that teaching easy to understand and also easy to put into practice in our lives. That is a noble calling and I don’t want to blow it.

2. I believe without a doubt that the Bible is alive, living, supernatural, and that God speakes to our heart, our soul, and our spirit through the preaching of His Word. It is mind blowing to think that I have the responsibility and priviledge to teach the Word of God. I work hard as I study and write to preach and teach in a way that holds people’s attention. I want those who listen to be fully engaged and not bored. For me the ultimate sin would be to bore people with the Word of God.

3. I want people to have a genuine encounter with the living God when they listen to me preach His Word. They would not be hearing me but God and they would know it without a doubt that God is speaking to their innermost being through His Word as I teach it. As I read that back to myself it sounds a bit arrogant but it is still true. God speaks through people and I desperately want to be one of those people whom God is speaking through.