Harvest Festival

Today is Harvest Festival! October 31st and it is going to be an awesome evening. The night kicks off around 4pm and if you get there at 4 I know there will be very few lines for any of the rides. Also come help at the Amped Booth by making Cotton Candy. The only rule is you have to sell more Cotton Candy than you eat, but that shouldn't be too hard, cause everyone wants to buy Cotton Candy. April and I will both be dressed up, she will be dressed as a ??????? and I will be dressed as ???????. Matt and Kira are also coming, Matt told me what he was dressing up as, it was either E=Mc² or a ????????, I can't remember. And as for Kira she is either dressing up as a bunch of question marks, or a ???????. Guess you will have to come tonight to find out! Also there will be a prison, and you can pay like a buck and get anyone arrested, even Pastor Evan. I would not reccomend this, but you theoretically could do it.....

Caleb Benjamin Bates Born October 29th 2lbs9oz

At some time around six o'clock this evening Baby Caleb Benjamin Bates joined us. The photo to the right may not be of the best of quality (its a photo i took with my camera phone of a photo) but Caleb is doing very well. He weighs 2 pounds 9 ounces, but according to Mark is very long and is going to be an amazing soccer player, cause he wont stop kicking. In the photo you can see that Caleb had to be intabated, but Mark told me that Caleb started to cry after he was born and is able to breathe on his own. These are all amazing things for a baby, especially since Caleb was only 27 weeks along and most pregnancies go 36 to 40 weeks. Caleb is going to have to stay in the hospital for a while, but it looks like Gilda will be able to go home in 3-4 days. Please continue to keep the Bates in your prayers, God has been doing miracles in Caleb's life this entire time, and we know that He will continue to do so. Mark and Gilda are both doing well and told me that they really appreciate all your love and support. If you have any other questions, feel free to email me.

Consistency, Cooperation, and Confidence

Last Night Paul talked about the three C's that we need to learn.  First we need to be Consistent in our Christian lives, always living as Jesus calls us to live.  Secondly we need to Cooperative, to work as a team.  And finally to have Confidence knowing that God wins!

No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service

Normally when I see that sign, "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service" I think about going somewhere else. I mean if I cant enjoy your establishment in bare feet, then it aint worth it. But this past Sunday was No Bare Feet day and I had to wear shoes. I didn't enjoy it very much and even tripped on the stage and ate it pretty hard. But the villagers demanded pictures and Mark was kind of enough to bring his camera (as well as point and laugh a lot) so as you can see a photo of Evan wearing shoes. I did however write a script so you cant save the photo for black mailing purpose. So don't even try right-clicking the photo and trying to download or save a copy of it....

Widgets and Gadgets

So much to post about, so little time. I still want to post about the weekend and the wearing shoes and all that, but first I thought it might be fun to share the brand new Amped OC widget. Yes thats right we have our own widget. So if you want a box to stay on your screen and easily check when new things have hit the site then this is the thing for you! Just click the link from the right! When you download it, its going to be a zip file, so you're going to have to unzip it, so just double-click it and let windows or apple do their magic!

To live is Christ, to die is gain

Last night we looked at a passage in Philippians where Paul bluntly says, "To live is Christ, to die is gain." Paul is telling us that we are to live life, to really live it. And the only way to really live life is to live a life for Jesus. Paul then says that death is gain, because Paul knows that when he dies on earth he will be in Heaven, a place with no pain or sorrow, a place that where God is worshiped. So Paul's attitude is something like this, "If I die and go to Heaven sweet, but the best thing for everyone is if I stay around and keep preaching Jesus" We too should have this focus, knowthat one day we will be in Heaven, but until that day comes live a life of sharing Jesus with our friends, family, and anyone else we may encounter.

Pumpkin Carving

April and I carved some pumpkins last night with friends. Here are our final creations, April carved a cute and lovable Gizmo. I carved Jack Sparrow while my friend Glenn carved Jack's arch Nemesis Davy Jones. And Finally Valerie carved Lightning McQueen from the movie "Cars".

Observations of the Temptation

So this past weekend I spoke for the college group and gave a message on the temptation. The reference is Matthew 4:1-11.

When it rains it pours

You know the old saying, when it rains it pours. And as you look to the photo on the right your might be wondering what exactly is raining here? Shoes my friends, shoes. In the span of 1 single week, Monday to Monday I will have to wear shoes 4 times. Now i can't remember the last time I wore actual shoes with laces. I went running once or twice this year and had shoes on for less than an hour. Then there was a friend's wedding 14 months ago that I wore shoes to (because I was in the wedding). But other than that shoes and I don't make the best of friends. And yet I havent worn real shoes with laces in months (and as a side note growing up ALL of my shoes were slip ons or velcro, something i am very proud of). So no laced up shoes in months and now I have to wear them 4 times. It all started with today, Pastor Mike Lutz is in Belize on a mission trip and asked me if I could do the shopping for the food bank. This is something I used to do and was quite excited to go back. But as I drove there I remembered the warehouse rules, closed toes shoe only, my kyrptonite. So there I am on the freeway figuring that I have to pull over and buy a pair of shoes. I mean I cant turn around and go home, cause there aren't any shoes there. So i had to stop at my parents place and "borrow" a pair of my dad's shoes. (i'll return them don't worry) So i have to do that again next monday, so there is twice in a week that i have to wear real shoes. Then there is this Sunday which is "No Bare Feet Day" so i will be wearing shoes then, and finally, this Saturday is the World Famous Mud Run. I am running a 10k with some other people from church and its going to be crazy. There is a map to the left, let me point some places of interest to you. Slippery Hill, River Crossing, and Suicide Hill. Then there are the tire walls, the army crawls under barb wire, and running in thick mud. I am really excited, but not really exicted that I have to wear shoes for the forth time.

Paul's perspective

Last night we saw in the book of Philippians, Paul was excited that people wanted to preach Jesus. Even though half of the people didn't like Paul and they didnt get along with him, Paul was just excited that Jesus was being preach. Paul never got jealous over it. Its cause Paul has some great perspective, instead of getting jealous because he was in prison and they were preaching, Paul got excited that good things were happening. So April and I enjoy carving pumpkins every year, we have never been into carving scary things, so we carve super heros and video game characts, as well as fall decorations and the occasional Napleon Dynamite. Now many people don't believe that we actually carved these. I assure you we did, there are photos of us doing it. This year we have some big plans, stay "Tuned In" to see what we do this year!

Daniel and Friends

So we talk about perspective a lot and our beloved worship leader Mark talks about Batman a lot as well. (And with good reason as Batman is the best superhero, don't make me bring up the kyprtonite bullet theory) So back on subject, I stumbled across a cool photo that I wanted to share. You can see it to the right, its a newer form of art that I have been enjoying recently, its side walk chalk art. You can see the artist against the back wall but can you tell "where the side walk ends" and where the art starts?


This past Sunday we looked at the first half of Daniel. These texts are filled with such beautiful stories of contrasting cultures and contrasting points of view. On one side we see the Babylonian Empire where Kings rule how they feel is right. On the other side is Daniel and his friends who are from their Jewish culture and they worship God. We see time and time again Daniel and friends were required to follow laws that were in direct opposition to their Jewish beliefs. The law told them they had to break promises they had made God. But in every circumstance we see Daniel and his friends refusing to break God's law. We also see that God took care of them every time they made a stand to fear God rather than fear man. As Christians we should never compromise our beliefs, we should also choose God's way, knowing that being in God' s will is much much better than finding security in man's way.

"What has happened to me"

Last night we looked at just 3 verses in Philippians, 1:12-14. And in verse twelve Paul tosses down the "What has happened to me" like its no big deal, so we took a look at what happened to Paul. Looking at Acts 21 through the end of the book, we saw all the crazy stuff that happened to him, imprisonment, trials, shipwrecks, all the bad stuff imaginable. So after Paul glances over that stuff like its no big deal he tells us that because of the things that have happened, he has encouraged others to follow Christ. Paul tells us he was the first to try something and since he did it we should be encouraged to do it as well. Last night we also brought up the subject of evan getting viciously attacked by a rabid squirrel. There I was minding my own business on vacation and a crazy, wild eyed squirrel sprung from the shadows, attacking me without reason. At least I think thats how it happened, the good news is we have it on video, so you can judge for yourself.

Ezekiel

So this past Sunday we looked at the book of Ezekiel, which interestingly enough is a book about the life of, thats right you guessed it, Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a very visual teacher, God had him do various things that demonstrated God's message. My favorite of these was when Ezekiel had to lay siege against the city of Jerusalem. God had him draw and build a model of the city and then lay on it for 390 days, then roll over and lay siege for another 40 days. The model in the photo is interesting as it is a model of the city of Moscow from the 70s. Models are sweet and I would totally buy this thing if 1) I had the space to build it and 2) I had $3 million dollars laying around to afford the thing. But if I had $3 million I wouldnt spend it on a model of Russia, I would spend it on the Lego model of the Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer. That model only costs $300, so i could have a fleet of 10,000 of them. It would be so awesome. And in case you were wondering, the plural form of the word Lego is Lego. And in case you were wondering what a Lego Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer does (other than destory stars) or looks like, I included an interactive model below.