Day 5 and 6 of furnace shopping

Well here I still waiting to get a new furnace, but as every day gets closer now to Monday there is hope. That I can place an order and have a new furnace by next Easter....
Thursday Night came with a power outage all night that left us cold on Good Friday Morning Because the furnace didn't fire back up when the power came on.
Thankfully for a man in the church we got it running until the next problem or its replaced.
This man and I have spent a lot of time on the furnace and pipes this week saving the church big $$ on bills , I almost wonder now if I should put some cots in the room so we can stay with it.lol
With a broken furnace and being Good Friday I went to a combined service where I was speaking, and so while the service is going on , I am subconsciously listening to their furnace cut in and out, this is furnace is really now getting to me.

Well its Saturday and my sunrise sermon is ready,
with the regular service order prepared and the bulletin done and the sermon almost ready to go.

have a Great Easter !

later

Sunrise

I am blessed every morning to watch the sun rise while having my devotions and here is what caught mt attention the other morning, this awesome display of God's handy work.

Furnace Head aches Now into day 4

Since my last post I have waited two more days for quotes , and the company I want to hear from hasn't called back yet even though I have called for the price they have yet to get me a number and they came Tuesday.

So my next step is to present what I have collected for pricing briefly to the church members Sunday and let them decide on how they will finance it .

This may stall the process further...

Here are some more lessons I have learned....

The really experienced furnace person wants to offer me a better furnace

because its one they've had no problems with and will cut down on $.

The others are just saying nothing but giving a price on a machine they know little about.

The really experienced guy is confident in his product and company and says we will be happy with the furnace.

The other guys say nothing that shows any confidence in what they are selling.

So it is another day with a long weekend here with no sign of a new furnace and knowing that in a matter of time the whole thing will stop.

later

pictures of the sick furnace

Furnace shopping day two

Today has been spent waiting for return calls and peope to come and give the church a estimated price.



There are some things I have noticed so far...



i) The people who really want your $$$ return your calls promptly.



ii) Most people do not return calls left on a message machine.



iii) Local business people have a totally different approach than the big companies. The big company rep had a laptop and printer, the local guy had a note book.



The big company guy left me with the information I needed to present to my board.



while I am left to wait again (more days) for a estimate so I can bring it to the board.



iv) Needing a new furnace before a a long weekend is the worst time to have furnace troubles because it will take more days to have it delieverd plus put the paper work through.





v) Some estimaters take pictures,others measure, some just give it a quick over and some take the time to explain it all out.



Well tomorrow will make another day of waiting and will take me one day closer to a week of furnace troubles.



Later

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new adventures...

On this monday I am doing something never personally done before. Shopping for a new furncae for the Parsonage.

Because Ours went on friday and so today I am phoning and making potential contacts if the price is right.

If you are wondering we have heat but no hot water unless I turn a bunch of velves on and drain an expansion tank and empty a run off velve that empties into a 5 gal bucket by the hour.



But This is not the only adventure of the week , it got started the previous sunday night service when I mixed two words together and said Sh*T while preaching , people (almost all) laughed, and I kept on till again when quoting from the message bible instead of saying what was there I said God pickles us... well by that time it was time to conclude and exit out the back door and hide....



But the greates adventure of the week was my comeback to ice hockey after a 24 year absence.

My sons team had a game us the parents.

I got a hold of equipment and got dressed with the otehr fathers and off I went to the ice with someones maple leaf jersey on :( and everything on the small side to show my son that I could play hockey, well after falling first thing on the ice the embarsement began. Why I thought I coukld keep up with him I don't know but my body sure let me know quick I could not!

I didn't know if I would make it off the bench for my shifts, it was the longest hour I have spent in a long time. and by the end of it I was glad I had phoned early and said goodbye to my parents. Death was close at hand.



But I did score !!!!



And 100% loved it!!!!!



Under bass fishing has to be hockey.

My son is now convinced I need to join up next year.

If there is a league for the out of shape 40+ crowd I am in!!!!



Later

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todays quote

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with
a success unexpected in common hours."

– Henry David Thoreau

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here is an eye opener

Church and workplace separated, say business professionals

The vast majority of pastors are failing most of their church members by
not helping them see themselves as missionaries to the marketplace, say
those who minister among Vancouver’s business and professional
community.

“On Sundays, businesspeople have been sitting so
long [in church] without hearing a lot of connections to their Monday
world, they don’t even ask for it anymore,” says Tim Ernst of The
Navigators.

source: www.christianweek.org

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time for reruns

Here it is March and the reruns have begun on csi and law and order .



Its o.K. But American Idol seems to rule over watching reruns on the big t.v. these days.

And thats one show I personally never want to see in rerun form.



But Not all reruns are bad, Like the Greatest story ever told of the Cross and the Resurection, I have allready taken two sundays to Get our church thinking on what the cross means to us.

And my biggest hope is that they get it.



Off Late I have been carrying again the weight of is it time to move? Our church in the last year has declined and any new people , come and move on to other Church's :[



And I question would my moving bring people to church "thinking a new broom sweeps clean" or is it the fate of the small rural church living in the shadows of the bigger church.



These are my burning questions of the day, I have shared them with a few and the answere always rest on me.



And I repeatedly ask myself can I be comfortable here and bUrry the seniors and watch my workers soon age past their 60's and stop helping in the church!



All this is going through my head knowing that the offical "wesleyan time to resign is soon over "

And Only rebells resign after this time.



I also know that this church would have no problem in replacing me,as I hear there are lots of available ministers.



I also know There are not any available church's within my district.



So then I would have to move, and where ?

I do not want to go to the states !

With no connections its hard to know what to do.



But I am here and so to these people I will minister to the best of my ability .



Later

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Today's prayer

O
God, who has been the Refuge of my fathers through many generations, be
my Refuge today in every time and circumstance of need.

— John Baillie

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Todays prayer

Lord Jesus, Let Me Know Myself
Lord Jesus, let me know myself and know You,And desire nothing save only You.Let me hate myself and love You.Let me do everything for the sake of You.Let me humble myself and exalt You.Let me think of nothing except You.Let me die to myself and live in You.Let me accept whatever happens as from You.Let me banish self and follow You,And ever desire to follow You.Let me fly from myself and take refuge in You,That I may deserve to be defended by You.Let me fear for myself, let me fear You,And let me be among those who are chosen by You.Let me distrust myself and put my trust in You.Let me be willing to obey for the sake of You.Let me cling to nothing save only to You,And let me be poor because of You.Look upon me, that I may love You.Call me that I may see You,And for ever enjoy You. Amen.
Saint Augustine of Hippo, Bishop, Writer, Doctor

Todays prayer

I read this prayer while reading a book titled Praying with Ignatius of Loyola

Teach us, good Lord, to serve thee as thou deservest;
to give, and not to count the cost,
to fight, and not to heed the wounds,
to toil, and not to seek for rest,
to labor, and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will.

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Great Idea

For today

“We are what we repeatedly do;

Excellence is therefore
not an act but a habit”.

– Vince Lombardi

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More snow and school cancellations

It's a snowy Thursday and now for the second day this week school has been cancelled.

the first day is cool but after that Borden sets in . :(

The first day my daughter and I played that wonder classic game called frustration for what seemed like a 100 times which was fun. And to keep my losing streak alive we moved on to scrabble . Its interesting now that she is in grade 5 we have moved beyond 2 and 3 letter words until she really starts beating me and I sadly have to regret back to those simple 2 and 3 letter words to carry me through.

As I think about this ,its the simple things of Prayer and meditating that keep me in the game of life. I have to just keep being reminded of this.

So to quote Mr. Luther again

Prayer is the most important thing in my life.

If I should neglect prayer for a single day,

I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith. Luther

Later

Snow in PortMaitland

words from Luther I need to repeat often

Luther’s Sacristy Prayer

Lord God, You have appointed me as a pastor in Your Church, but you see how unsuited I am to

meet so great and difficult a task. If I had lacked Your help, I would have ruined everything long

ago. Therefore, I call upon You: I wish to devote my mouth and my heart to you; I shall teach the

people. I myself will learn and ponder diligently upon You Word. Use me as Your instrument -- but

do not forsake me, for if ever I should be on my own, I would easily wreck it all.

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todays quote...

There is nothing which my heart desires more than to see you, the members of this church, distinguished for holiness. It is the Christian's crown and glory. An unholy church! It is of no use to the world and of no esteem among men. And the larger the church, the more influential, the worse nuisance does it become when it becomes unholy. The worst evils which have ever come upon the world have been brought upon her by an unholy church — C. H. Spurgeon

lessons from my son

My son is playing House League Hockey this year. And tonight He got two goals !!
sadly we lost 4 to 8
I love the action and all the excitment its cool.

Buts what more cool is the continual connection I can make between them and the (my church)
One thing both do well is get bunched up and fail to move the puck ( gosspel) in fact they almost seem to fall over each other and miss the open guy heading towards the goalie.

How many people do we miss headed towards hell because were so bunched up !

Here is a headline that caught my attention tonight

Later

Doomsday Scenario Moving Closer?By Patrick Goodenough and Susan JonesCNSNews.com Senior EditorJanuary 17, 2007(CNSNews.com) - Nuclear weapons and climate change will undo us, says the group that brought the world the "Doomsday Clock."The anti-nuke Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced Wednesday that it is moving the symbolic Doomsday Clock's minute hand two minutes closer to midnight, which marks "apocalypse."The clock now stands at five minutes to midnight, said the BAS, who attributed its decision to "global failures to solve the problems posed by nuclear weapons and the climate crisis." The BAS was founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project and were "deeply concerned about the use of nuclear weapons and nuclear war."When the symbolic clock was first devised in 1947, it was set at seven minutes to midnight.It has been moved, in both directions, 18 times since then, with its direst prediction -- two minutes to midnight -- coming in 1953 after the U.S. and Soviet Union tested hydrogen bombs.When the U.S. and disintegrating Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in 1991, the clock was moved back as far as 17 minutes to midnight.Since then, however, the trend has been in the other direction: amid concerns about post-Soviet proliferation, it moved three minutes closer to "doomsday" in 1995; in 1998, it jumped another five minutes after rivals India and Pakistan conducted back-to-back nuclear tests; and in 2002, the clock edged another two minutes forward -- to seven minutes to midnight -- at a time of growing concern that terrorists would acquire nuclear weapons.The decision to move the minute hand is made by the Bulletin's Board of Directors in consultation with its sponsors, who include 18 Nobel Prize laureates.In its statement released Wednesday, the BAS board cited "North Korea's recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran's nuclear ambitions, a renewed U.S. emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia."But it also focused on climate change, asserting that "global warming poses a dire threat to human civilization that is second only to nuclear weapons.""Through flooding and desertification, climate change threatens the habitats and agricultural resources that societies depend upon for survival," it said. "As such, climate change is also likely to contribute to mass migrations and even to wars over arable land, water, and other natural resources."

2007 Goal

"the life you experience is nourished by the thoughts you think. What kind of nourishment are your current thoughts providing?"



my Goal for the year is to be more positive or to achieve a pma ( positive mental attitude) instead of a pms one. (lol)



so one wAy I am working on this is recieving daily emails from Jooel osteen its like a positive vitamine via email.



listening to positive messages and books.



but the more I think of this process its got to be an inside out job.



So my question to all my readers is what influences you to stay positive.

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Back Home

The Last week has been great ... The trip to Orlando was wonderful and I am Glad bot my wife and I went.

Its been great to tell people about all our adventures that we had on the trip.

It was cool to see old friends we haven't seen in a while.

It was a amazing to me the grand scope of fellow wesleyans that we make up.

but now we are home back to the grind -- or reality.

And the things we escaped from in Florida are back. Its sad how that happens.

It makes me think ahead to heaven what a blast it is going to be !

But till that time I am committed more than ever to keep a PMA (positive mental attitude) for the sanity of my family and myself and ministry.

So for this time my life verse is Jerm. 29:11 (cev)

" I will bless you with a future filled with hope-- a future of success,not suffering."

Later