Meeting With Mormon Missionaries

Hey everybody, I know it's been forever, but life has been just going crazy lately. I need all of you and others, maybe you can pass this along to friends to pray for myself and my 3 teammates tommorow night at 7pm Mountain Time. We are meeting with the Mormon Missionaries in town, who we met briefly last week, but they are coming over for an extended "talk" Monday night. We know they are trying to convert us, but we can't wait to ask some very interesting questions to them. My team and I have done some extensive research in the past week on the teachings of the Mormon Church and have found, as we knew before that there are multiple questions and contradictions contained within Mormon doctrine and teaching. THe book of Mormon, along with another document called the Doctrines and Covanents, both of which Mormons consider equal with the Bible, contradict the Bible in many, many places, and even contradict each other in several places. We can't wait to get some of our questions about these contradictions explained tommorow night. Pray for us as we talk to these Mormon Missionaries that they will attempt to answer our questions and that they won't be able to explain what they believe because of all the contradictions. Also pray that we can explain the truth of the Bible and the biblical Jesus to them, as we anticipate them asking us tough questions in return for us asking them hard questions. Thanks in advance for your prayers and I'll update you Tuesday or Wed. about how it goes.

Engagement!

Big news. As of last Friday I am offically engaged to Rebekah Walker. Most of you who would read this blog would have already received an email or phone call from either me or her, and you're probably just here to see the pictures, so I won't delay. If you need more details, or didn't receive the email just let me know. Here are the pictures.


Trinity Baptist Church Sanctuary
Set up with candles and flowers, as Rebekah called it simple, beautiful.
This is where I proposed at


Rebekah at the church shortly after we were officially engaged
Gerber dasies, her favourite
You can see the ring on her finger







THE RING on her hand



Rebekah and I after the engagement and dinner out
taken about 5 hours after we were engaged
Yes, it is supposed to be black and white




Pray for us as we plan a wedding and prepare to be married, and as we seek God's guidance as where he would have us serve in ministry together!

Magrath - Week 1

Here is a brief update of our first week or so on the field in Magrath. Our first day, we just went around town, looking to meet people and try to find places to volunteer in the community. We were very fortunate to find several places to do that. We went to the Town Hall, talked to them for a bit, and they suggested that we go see Johnny, the president of the Lion's Club, who also owns the Hardware Store in town. We went and saw him, and he suggested that we go to the Good Samaritan Society, which is in the old hospital and serves elderly adults now. We decided to head over there and see what we could find out. On our way there we walked by this place called "SASH" and they had a sign for a pizza place, but more interesting to us was their motto, which was relating to building community, which is one of primary goals as a team for the summer. We went in and found out that this place seeks to put mentally handicapped adults to work in the workforce. We volunteered to help, and they said they would be glad to have us. We have been there almost every day since, getting to know all the people there, especically the workers who help out with those that have disabilities. We have already been invited to Heather's for dinner one night, which might not seem like a big deal to many of the Southern Americans that will read this, but for a Canadian to invite you into their home for a meal, after only knowing you for 4 days is huge! We are planning on doing that this sometime next week.
Eventually we did make it to the Senior Home run by the Good Samaritan Society, which is part of the Lutheran Church. They said that they would be happy to have us volunteer as well, but we needed to get a background check completed from the police first. We got that done the next day and have been at the Senior home most afternoons since. We are beginning to build significant relationships in both places.
We also led the Bible Study group on Sunday for the first time, and that went really well. The group normally only meets every other week, but we are going to meet every week while we are here for the summer, since we'll only be here 6 weeks. Overall, our fist week was incredible, and we are anticipating great things to happen over the next 5 weeks. Until then, I'll try to update everyone this weekend, which by the way Saturday July 1st is Canada Day, which for you Americans is the same as the 4th of July in Canada. I'll try to update this weekend on that, and hopefully again soon after our Bible Study on Sunday, which I will be leading this week!

Training week
I know it has been a while since I updated, but we have had pretty limited access to the internet in the past week, and I just have not had enough time to update the blog. Training week went great. Lots of cool things were happening, we went white-water rafting, had a great time hearing from Mike Tibedeaux about evangelism, great worship services, and plenty of time out serving in the communities. My team was able to go to a Hutterite Colony and learn about their way of life. The family that we visited are all belivers, but they believe that they are the only one in their colony of around 100 that are believers. We were able to have a Bible Study with them and had a great time encouraging them and just hanging out. The highlight of my past week and a half came early when Rebekah picked me up at the airport on the 11th. It had been almost a month since we had seen each other, and it sure felt longer than that. Although training week was great, seeing Rebekah was better.

My team and I traveled to our location yesterday, Tuesday, and settled in to where we are going to be living. We are staying in a Bed and Breakfast in Raymond, Alberta, about 10 minutes from our place of service, Magrath, and have a really great setup there. As most of you know, Magrath is about 90% Mormon, so it was really cool to find out the owners of the bed and breakfast are mormon, and we'll be living with them and interacting with them all summer. We are in Magrath today, and it has been going well. I will post an entry of what has happened here today, in the next few days. Finally, as of today, Rebekah and I have been dating 6 months, so it's kinda a milestone for us. Thought some of you might want to know that. Until next time, God Bless!

Back in Alberta

Yes, I do know it has been almost forever since I have last posted. My little brother got married this past Saturday and there was lots to do with that and all while that was going on, I have been trying to finish up all of my post-workshop assignments from the classes I took in New Orleans a few weeks back.

I am back in Alberta for the summer now. I'm currently in Cochrane at Team leader training. I arrived Sunday and we will be doing team leader training until Tuesday when the remainder of the Students arrive. We will then train for a week and head to our respective places of service for the summer. I will be trying my best to update very frequently what goes on during the summer, so check my blog early and often. Until next time, hope everybody has a great week.

Magrath Alberta

Many of you know that I am going to be spending my summer in Magrath, Alberta this summer. I'm going to be working with Current and the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptist again, (same program I was a part of last summer. I wanted to post some pictures of the town so you could get a look of the town. These are all I was able to take on my visit to the town in March. I'm sure I'll be posting many more throughout the summer.

For those of you that are on the Magrath team this summer, hope these pictures help you see the place and get you excited about the summer! Pictures are below.


Magrath Golf Course


Road sign on main highway leading to town from Lethbridge


Magrath Public Library (sorry for the car in the way) I promise it's not mine!


Front of 1 of 2 Mormon churches in town


Side view of same Mormon Church


Not a Mormon church (I think it's United but I'm not sure)


View of School from back


Baseball Field at School


School Gym


Silo on outskirts of town


Another Silo on outskirts of town


Another sign on the Highway leading to town


View looking west of town to windmills
It is extremely windy in Southern Alberta and Magrath


2nd Mormon church in town (Yes there are 2 Mormon churches
in a town of about 1500

Hope you enjoy the pics and I'll look foward to keeping everyone updated over the course of the summer

Attention Attention!!!

Due to excessive nagging, okay maybe just a little nagging, I would like to personally thank Michael How for taking these wonderful pictures. May his life be prosperous because you took these pictures and next time I see Michael I will give him a bag of goldfish crackers for his hard work on this project and blog.

New Orleans Update

Hey everybody, I know it's been forever since I updated, but here's a quick one for you. If you remember last fall, I posted some photos of my slightly moldy former room and dorm in New Orleans. I'm in New Orleans this week takinga week long class so I got to go in my still to be completed room and I got these two pictures of my dorm. The first photo is of my room, and the second one is of the dorm lobby. I'll try to post some more updates after I get home from New Orleans around the end of May. Until then, things are continuing to get better around here and classes are progressing. Have a great week!

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Domination

NFL Draft was this past weekend, and as if there was any doubt, the first day, and really the entire draft was dominated by the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) With all the talk of "the best conference" that always abounds, especially ACC vs. SEC, I just thought I would throw out some numbers from this year's draft. Joe, I'm sure you will comment on this! For all you guys that say that the ACC is a basketball conference, you are right, but uh-oh, guess what, now here's another point proving the ACC's domination in football too. Day 1 analyis from Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports "The ACC dominated the first round, with a staggering 12 selections. That's a draft record for a conference. The impressive lineup included four players from Florida State and three from North Carolina State, including the overall No. 1 pick in Williams. Even Miami squeaked out another first-round pick (Kelly Jennings to Seattle at No. 31) to extend its streak of first-rounders to 12 consecutive years."
Not too bad if you ask me. Here are my numbers that I personally counted up. If I'm wrong on my overall draft numbers let me know, math is not my greatest asset.

First Round Picks

ACC- 12 (including overall number 1, and 4 of the top 10)
SEC - 4 (first pick from SEC team? QB from Vandy?)

Overall Draft Picks

ACC- 51
SEC - 36

The overall numbers might not seem too dominating, but they are pretty staggering, especially when you consider the results from Rounds 1 and 2. Round 1 and 2 selections are historically the guys who are going to play the most, after round 2 there is a steep decline Here are the numbers from Rounds 1 and 2

Rounds 1 and 2 -most likely to have significant playing time in NFL

ACC- 19
SEC - 10

Interesing comparisons, not bad for a basketball conference wouldn't you say?
Anybody want to compare the NBA draft numbers? I wouldn't advise it unless you are and ACC guy!

Vanvouver Canucks coaching situation

Today, I'm going to way in on the situation with the Vancover Canucks.

First off, Vancouver fired Head Coah Marc Crawford yesterday as the probable first wave of changes to the Canucks before next season begins. Here is the full article. This is probably the first of several changes upcoming season. The Canucks, although I love them, were serious underachievers this year and the first head on the chopping block is always the head coach. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about the firing of Crawford, but something had to happen to improve the team, and this is probably the most likely place. Hopefully a new coach can breathe new life into the franchise. Here are my suggstions for the new coach in no particular order.
Brent Sutter, head coach of the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League. If you need any other reason besides his last name, just find out what he's done with Red Deer and the Canada World Junior Teams. Info can be found here.

Brent Sutter

My second suggestion, as many of you who know me might guess, is a former coach of the Kelown Rockets, Marc Habscheid, you can check some info about him here.
Habscheid is currently with Hockey Canada, but if you can talk him into leaving there he would be a great coach as he led Kelowna to the Memorial Cup in 2004. Sorry, I wasn't able to find a picture for Habscheid

My final suggestion is a Kevin Constantine. He definately has the edge with NHL experience with time spent in Pittsburg and San Jose. He is currently the coach with the Everett Silvertips in the Western Hockey League. Another excellent coach who you can learn more about here.

Kevin Constantine

What do all three of these coaches have in common besides a connection to the Western Hockey League? A strong committment to a definsive style of hockey, espeicially the last town mentioned. The Canucks need some help defensively, and they also need a disciplinarian with some fire. All three of these coaches can provide that. Until a coach is named I will personally be pushing for Constantine.

Vernon BC scouting

Here is the final report from my trip to British Columbia. The original plan was to take a day trip up to Vernon, about an hour north of Westbank in order to do some scouting. Time didn't allow for us to spend that day in Vernon so we decided to just stop in Vernon on the way out of town for breakfast and just to be there for a few minutes. We stopped at a family restraunt for some breakfast and it was really good food, and as we were getting ready to leave, I was paying and met the manager and owner. I told him we were driving through and I got to talk to him for a few mintues about Vernon. He told me that his favourite thing about Vernon was being able to ski in the morning and fish in the afternoon. He said that "he wouldn't live anywhere other than here in the Okanagan Valley", which is where Vernon, Kelowna, and Westbank are all located. Even though we didn't get to spend much time in Vernon, the hour we spent at the restraunt was really good and we got a fairly good feel for the town, about as good as you can get in an hour. The Potter's House Community Church is looking to plant a church in the next few years in the Vernon area as there are not a great deal of evangelical churches in the area, and no Canadian Convention of Southern Baptist (CCSB) Churches. Pray for Vernon, The Potter's House Community Church and the CCSB as they look to plant churches in the Vernon area and the rest of Canada.

What is Scouting?

Here is the article describing what scouting is. It's an excellent article. For those of you familiar with scouting and Dwight Huffman, it's a good reminder and for those of you not familiar with the concept of scouting, this is a great introduction.

Arcticle was in SBC Life Journal in Feb. 2005.

Missionary Scout
Exploring Western Canada to Plant New Churches
by Joe Westbury

Dwight Huffman climbs up a hill and looks down on the town below. The cool Canadian breeze ruffles his hair as he surveys the environment, a vast wooded area untouched by development — until now.

What had been pristine wilderness is now slowly being transformed into the town of Chestermere, a rapidly growing community fifteen kilometers from Calgary. With the trained eye of a seasoned pro, Huffman makes a mental note of the community of about 5,000 and asks himself the best way to bring Christ to its residents.

"Chestermere is representative of many towns springing up around the province of Alberta. Some of these towns have no evangelical witness, but that's why we are here as Canadian Baptists. We want to discover the needs of the community and meet those needs in the name of Christ," he says.

Huffman and his wife, Judy, are among nearly 5,200 missionaries in the United States and Canada supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. They are featured during the March 6-13 Week of Prayer and North American Mission Study, which this year focuses on the theme, "Answer His Call."

Huffman is no stranger to church planting. While earning his degree from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, he started two churches and served as pastor of a third before he was called to work with the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists.

Today Huffman is less of a planter and more of a scout in the vein of the old fur trappers who first trudged through the rugged terrain of Western Canada. The only difference is they were traveling by foot and looking for beavers and bears, and Huffman drives by car and visually maps the terrain for others to follow, sharing Christ.

Huffman is gone from his family a lot. Judy and their daughter Ashley, who is in grade 12, understand his calling and patiently await his return. Another daughter, Amber, is a third-year student at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, Huffman's alma mater.

Judy teaches sixth-grade students at Bearspaw Christian School in addition to being the vice principal of the school. She also leads a care group in their home once a week. It is a couple's care group, but more often than not, Judy is leading it without Dwight, as he is on the road, frequently for a week or two at a time.

As the strategy coordinator for Western Canada, which is made up of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories (NWT), Huffman travels about 60,000 kilometers a year in his car. His area is approximately the equivalent of the Continental United States, but has less than 140 Canadian Southern Baptist churches and missions.

"I'm responsible to see the day when every Canadian in Western Canada hears the gospel from someone they trust, and for every community to have a Canadian Southern Baptist church that is equipping believers to walk with God and hang around lost people."

With such a vast area to cover and so few laborers to help, Huffman has pioneered a strategy that is gaining acceptance across the convention.

"We have developed a three-stage strategy of scouting, pioneering, and settling. The point is to multiply the number of people involved in reaching new people and new communities for Christ."

At the core of Huffman's approach are the scouts. They are people who go into a town or neighborhood in advance of a church planter to engage in simple exploring.

"The uniqueness and genius of this strategy plan is that it requires almost no church-planting skills that we've historically identified.

"Anyone can go to any neighborhood, walk and talk with God, hang around that neighborhood, and do a casual interview with some of the people they meet."

Scouting can be done anywhere — in a restaurant, at a gas station, or in a foursome of strangers playing golf.

"For example," he says as he walks down from the hill, "in one case it turns out that the scouts were golfing with the mayor and a high school principal. In that context, they built trust and were invited to come to that city and conduct a sports clinic and a variety of other ministries."

Huffman's inspiration came from reading about the coureur de bois — runner of the woods — sent out by the Hudson Bay Company to explore new lands in search of Aboriginals willing to barter their furs.

"You had these runners who would initially identify these communities and build trust. Then they would set up a little trading post and pioneer a little group there. But eventually, more people would come and settle and that group would grow into a community."

Critical to a successful scouting assignment, Huffman said, is finding "a Lydia" (Acts 16:14-15) who will open up her (or his) home as a safe place to build relationships and start a Bible study. Only when that core group shows potential for becoming a church is a church planter enlisted.

But to reach the goal of having an evangelical church in each community, Huffman needs more scouts. And for that, he's counting on help from Baptist churches throughout North America to share his vision and partner with him.

"We are organizing our churches so they all see their role as scouts. We want to prayerwalk every city and every neighborhood in Western Canada. A lot of my tasks are related to scouting new areas and sharing that information with others. We'll get pastors from the United States to come up and bring teams from their churches."

As Huffman settles into his car to begin the drive to the next community, he paints a picture of the vastness of his work and the need for others to walk alongside him.

"About a three-day drive north of us is Yellowknife, NWT. When I came to my current position there was no Southern Baptist work in the Northwest Territories. It would be similar to there being no work between Jacksonville, Florida, and New York City.

"Yellowknife sits on the eighth largest lake in the world and is the capital of the Northwest Territories, but there is no CCSB church there. In March 2001, a friend and I took a prayer drive to Yellowknife and discovered many Inuit and First Nation settlements that could only be reached by crossing ice bridges. In Fort Providence we prayed that God would send laborers to fall in love with this field.

"God answered that prayer through the person of David Hahn, who was studying a map one day tracking his son who was on a trip home from Alaska. As he looked at that map, God put Fort Providence on his heart. He got in touch with me, and he and two friends drove up here from Louisville. After they saw the need, they returned with members of their church and began scouting the area.

"They have now made five trips to partner with us as scouts in the Northwest Territories. We recently traveled the territory all the way down the McKenzie — that's like driving from Atlanta to Los Angeles — and we found villages that we are relatively sure have never heard the gospel. The value of these scouts is immeasurable in the work we do," he said.

Many times he and Judy are lonely not being able to spend more time together due to his travel schedule, but the rewards keep them both going. They are both passionate about their call to Canada.

"One of the joys of my life is seeing the Heavenly Father send someone to a community without any solicitation or marketing. He just sends someone here to work in His field. Sometimes I think God is just waiting to hear the prayers of His people so He can respond."

Huffman says he feels Canada is a forgotten country to many Southern Baptists. There are more Southern Baptists in Brazil than in the country to America's north. And as much as God loves Brazilians, those who come to Canada don't have to learn a second language, he says.

"Canada is a place where an English-speaking person can come and walk with God, and hang around lost people, and see a movement of God."

---

The Big Picture

Canadian Southern Baptists are aware of the challenges in front of them as they seek to win the nation to Christ. Yet, they are still joining together to work toward a spiritual harvest in the next few years.

The convention is praying for 1,000 healthy, reproducing, cooperating churches by 2020. That would be an increase of 800 from the 200 churches listed at the end of 2003.

If Canada is to be won for Christ, it needs for its churches to be able to start new congregations. It is praying that 50 percent of its congregations will be involved in a church starting process in the coming years.

With 200 Southern Baptist churches in Canada, NAMB is seeking to take the gospel to more than 30 million residents of that massive nation. There are more Christians in China than there are in Canada.

According to the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists, there are thirty-one cities in Canada with 10,000 people or more that have no evangelical witness at all.

For more information on church planting in Canada, visit www.ccsb.ca/cp/.

The Weather

Hi to all, if you remember a few months back I posted an extremely cold weather forecast, well today I give u another weather update. I wore shorts today!!!!!!! Yeah. It was over 20degrees Celsius, which is around 70 F. It was wonderful. The warm weather isn't supposed to last though, we have a chance of snow this weekend, but still what a day today was and tommorow is supposed to be the same.
I promised an article on what scouting is and that will be coming tommorow. Until then, later!

Scouting in Golden BC

Here is the long awaited, much anticipated, scouting report from Golden, British Columbia. If you remember, Rebekah (see profile pic) and I took a trip over Spring Break to British Columbia to visit friends from The Potter's House Community Church in Westbank. On the way there and back we stopped to do some scouting and prayer walking in some of the towns along the way. A while back, I gave everyone the update on Revelstoke, which we scouted on our way to BC. Now on to Golden, BC, which we scouted on the way back. Golden is a small town of about 5000 people located at the intersection of the Trans-Canada highway, which is the main east-west route across Canada and thru the Rocky Mountains and BC highway 95 which is the main north-south route thru southeastern BC. The town is very tourist oriented with camping, hiking, scenery, and a stopping point thru the Rocky Mountains the main attraction during the summer and the Kicking Horse Alpine Ski Resort, the main attraction during the winter. There are some churches in the town, but all are very small. There is one baptist church, and although it is not Southern Baptist, it seems to be a fairly strong, yet very small church. The most interesting church we found was a Sikh Temple. Sikhism is a religion that has followers from around the world, but the majority of them live in India, which has a large population. Sikhism, to my surprise and probably yours as well, is the 5th largest religion in the world and I didn't know anything about it. I have since done some research into it. I am going to put some links to sites that give basic information about this religion so you can learn more about it as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikh

http://www.answers.com/topic/sikhism

Both of these sites are pretty basic and give introcutory info about the religion.

This was definately the most interesting thing about our limited time in Golden. We rode up to the ski resort just to see it, and we found out there is a golf course on the way up the moutain, for those of you who know me a golf course on the road to the Ski hill seems like a nice place to live to me. After some very cold prayer walking we went to a restraunt to have some lunch before heading on back to Calgary. Rebekah and I sat next to this guy who was sitting by himself, he said hey and so we talked to him for a bit. Then our food came so Rebekah and I prayed together for the food, and when we said "Amen" the guy sitting next to us said "Congratulations" He didn't say, "that's nice to see" or "I like to see people praying for their food" He said Congratulations,we knew what he meant but it was a funny way to start a conversation. He asked us if we were Christians and we got to tell him yes, and he told us he was too. It was a neat converstaion. He was heading to Vancouver and we were heading to Calgary (opposite directions for those of you not famaliar with Canadian geography. Overall, it was a very interesting trip to Golden, we had fun, learned a lot, and got some good scouting done.

As I have bee typing this entry, I realized I have mentioned the word "scouting" as if all of you would know what that means. I know that most of you that read this blog know what this term means, but for those of you who don't I will be posting an entry tommorow that explains just what that is. For those of you already familiar with scouting, it might be a fun read from the Dean of Scouting, Dwight Huffman. Until then, pray for the people of Golden and for someone with a heart for a resort and logging community to plant a church there.

Mission Board Quote Update

This entry is in relation to yesterday's post where I listed a "Misison Board Quote." What I failed to mention was that this quote was not in reference to the current IMB baptism guidelines controversy. This statement was actually made in 1848 before Landmark positions were ever called Landmark. (Landmark term was first used in writing in 1859. Why would I not tell all of you that this was a 160+ years old statment? Simply to make the point that the current disscussions/argument is not a new one in Southern Baptist life, rather something that has been talked about for years. The point of this insight is to notice that the Landmark position has been trying for 160+ years to add strict requirements to the validity of a person's baptism, and possibly adding to what the Bible teaches. The true question here is whether or not the current issue being discussed is an issue that is 100% essential and therefore eliminating anyone that does agree with it or can Baptists simply put aside petty differences so the Great Commission can continue all around the world?

Mission Board Quote

Here is an interesting quote I found about Mission Boards and Baptism. Leave comments on what you think.

"The faith of the person being baptized is more fundamental than the qualifications of the administrator. If the validity of baptism depends upon the "baptizedness" of the administrator, then no one can be sure he is baptized."

-John Waller

IMB controveresy - Part 2

Here is my long overdue position and thoughts on the current Inertnational Mission Board (IMB) controveresy. I am going to stick to the baptism portion of this issue because I am currently doing a research paper on the topic and I am able to better address the baptism issue because of it. I might address the private prayer language issue in the future, but not in this post.
I posted a few weeks ago the passage from Acts about the eunuch from Ethiopia which recounted his conversion and baptism experience and I will make reference to that throughout this post. I believe this passage from Acts clearly indicates a point that is being missed by the people that are citing "biblical evidence" for their cases supporting the new policy. For a brief description of that policy and the Acts passage, see my earlier post. I have concluded from careful study of that passage that Philip was not a member of the First Baptist Church of Jerusealem, the desert road, or Ethiopia. Philip was traveling along a desert road outside of Jerusalem, because an angel of the Lord told him to do so, and he did. Philip did what God told him to do and he came across the Ethiopian eunuch reading Isaiah, but not understanding what he was reading, he asked Philip for help. Philip helped the eunuch understand and the eunuch asked him about who Isaiah had been writing, and Philip explained. The eunuch eventually wanted to know what he had to do to be baptized and Philip gave it too him plain and simple. Verse 37 says "[And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." From there they went down to the water and Philip baptized the eunuch right then and there. Don't just notice what this verse says, notice what it does NOT say. This verse does not say, Okay, now that you have believed, we must turn our chariots around, go back to Jerusalem, find the ordained preacher, and he can baptize you at our next baptism service which is in two weeks. Am I reading too much into what Philip did not say? Maybe, but I could not be appointed as an IMB missionary todady if I was the Ethiopian eunich. Can anyone give me their "biblical evidence" against this passage in Acts?
I agree that we must have accountability in who the IMB and the SBC appoints as missionaries, but I believe the IMB has gone too far in this. One final question for all of you. I realize that John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus Christ and an incredible man of God but... Was John the Baptist the ordained pastor of a local church when he baptized Jesus Christ? If John the Baptist was not, is the baptism of our Lord, Jesus Christ, not valid according to the new guidelines of the IMB? Just a question!

RAIN!!!!!!!!

Hey everyone. This might sound strange but here goes. It's been raining in Calgary all day today. This is the first real rain I have seen since December!!!!!! All precipitation has been of the snowy and white variety for the last 3 months +, but today was rain. You might find it weird that I enjoyed the rain today, but I did, it's a sign of spring coming. And yes I do realize it is already "technially" spring, but on the first day of Spring here we got 2 inches of snow, hence, I am excited about rain. This doesn't mean we won't have more snow, as we almost certainly will, but spring is coming! Woo Hoo.

Fantasy Baseball Sign Up

Howdy everyone. I have started a Fantasy Baseball League. I had emailed some people about getting in on it, but as of 1pm Friday, there are only two of us in it. I was going to run the draft today, but I don't want to yet with only two people signed up. I'm going to post the League info on here and I'm not going to run the draft until Sunday. The first game of the season is Sunday night at 8pm eastern time. I need at least two other teams to be able to have the league. Here is the info for the league. Please sign up now!

The League is run by yahoo and is free, you have to have a free yahoo ID to participate. Here is the link to sign up for the League and the info you will need.

http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1

League Name - Lipsey4Ever

League ID number - 266676

League password - nobts

Sign up soon, draft is going to be run on Sunday

IMB Baptist Controversy - Part 1

Okay, as promised weeks ago, I'm going to address the controversy. But not until Friday. If you don't know what the issue is, here goes. Basically the deal is that some members of the IMB board of trustess believe and have voted taht the only baptist that will be recognized by the IMB as valid is one that has been performed in and Southern Baptist Church by an ordained Southern Baptist Minister who was also baptized in a Southern Baptist Church by an ordained Southern Baptist Minister who was ... so on and so forth back theoretically the the church at Acts of something!?! not sure how far back these guys want to take it. There has been some disagreement over this issue and I might have already given away my views of it, but if not I want to post the following passage from the New Testament, encourage you to read it and examine it in light of the new policies adopted by the IMB. Give me your opinion and you can anxiously await my position on Friday.

Acts 8:25-40

An Ethiopian Receives Christ

25 And so, when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, and were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

26 But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, "Arise and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a desert road.) 27 And he arose and went; and behold, there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship. 28 And he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and join this chariot." 30 And when Philip had run up, he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?" 31 And he said, "Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this:
"HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO SLAUGHTER;
AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER IS SILENT,
SO HE DOES NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH.
33 "IN HUMILIATION HIS JUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY;
WHO SHALL RELATE HIS GENERATION?
FOR HIS LIFE IS REMOVED FROM THE EARTH." 34 And the eunuch answered Philip and said, "Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself, or of someone else?" 35 And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. 36 And as they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch * said, "Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?" 37 [And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."] 38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch; and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus; and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities, until he came to Caesarea.

Acts 8:25-40 (NASB77)

Here is the first of two reports from the trip Rebekah and I took to British Columbia (BC). We went to Westbank and The Potter's House Community Church .
On the way and on the way back we stopped off for several hours in several strategic cities along the route, both of which have very little evangelical churches. The city that we stopped off in on the way was Revelstoke, BC. Revelstoke is a city of about 7500 people and is located directly on the Trans Canada Highway just west of the Rocky Mountains. It is a popular stopping point for tourists and travelers heading into and out of the mountains. The city is much more alive during the summer than it is during this time of year (early March) but we wanted to see what was going on. We looked around the town, but just driving and found some churches, one each of most of the typical ones that you would see in many small Canadian communities, Alliance, United, Catholic, Anglican, Pentecostal and a few smaller ones. After driving around and looking at the town, we went parked and walked around the town. For those of you who know me, one place I love to go while scouting a town is a coffee house. We found one downtown, where the average age was at least 65. This was not indicative of the entire town, but this one coffee house was definately for the older people in the town. We didn't stay long and continued our walking and praying through the town. The town seemed to be fairly active in terms of people being out and about on the streets, we were there about 3pm, but everyone seemed to be focused on the task at hand whether that was work, going home after school, or just being out and about. After we finished walking, we did some more driving and found a section of town that had an abundance of ball fields, mainly soccer and baseball. There had to be 10 or 12 fields in one location, which seemed like a lot for a town of 7500. The level of involvement of the town in these sports could definately be good information for someone looking to plant a church in the community. Another interesting thing that we found was the almost new Revelstoke Aquatic Centre. This was a super facility that had a full size Olympic pool, sauna, hot tubs, water slide, leisure pool, lazy river, and a water rock climbing wall that comes up directly out of one of the pools. It would be a great place to meet people. Despite the great looking around that we did, we didn't have a significant conversation with anyone. Little did we know how that would change when we left Revelstoke and arrived in Westbank.
We had scouted Revelstoke on Thursday, and on Saturday morning we were at the home of Rob and Cindy Clements, the family that we stayed with in Westbank, and the girl that rents their downstairs suite came upstairs to borrow the phone, which according to Cindy is unusual. This girl, who's name is Jessica, also stayed and sat down to have breakfast with all of us. We were all just having conversation, and Cindy just happened to mention what Rebekah and I were doing in Westbank. It eventually got around to the fact that we had stopped off in Revelstoke on our way. Jessica said, oh yeah, Revelstoke, that's my hometown, my entire family still lives there!! Open door, time to walk through it. We talked about Revelstoke and the city and other things, and eventually Jessica said that her family had grown up in the United Church, but nobody really went anymore. Needless to say, Jessica and her family are a great, possible contact in Revelstoke. I know that I will be in contact with Jessica in the future. The neatest thing about this is we didn't feel like things had gone that well in Revelstoke, but it was when we got to Westbank it became clear what we needed to learn about Revelstoke. Overall, our scouting of Revelstoke went very well. Check the blog again soon to hear the report from Golden, BC.