Furtherness & Change

This has been a great couple of days. I have been at the Wesley Conference and the Everything Must Change conf. Both of which Brian McLaren is speaking at. Last night at the Wesley conference there was some amazing stuff that was deconstructed. I will post more on this later. But I was and am excited about where the Nazarene denomination is heading.

I am having some awesome conversations with the folks that I came with about what this idea of change looks like for us. Change is hard, and painful and sometimes just not fun. But we are certainly seeing the need for change in us, in our belief system and in our world.

May we be a part of that change.

Gifts

So we tried to do something different this year with Chris's family when it came to Christmas presents. For the most part I think it went well. We all decided that instead of going out and buying gifts for each other we should make things for each other.

So Joyce, my mother-in-law, made our three boys bathrobes, which they love and I think are pretty sweet. My sister-in-law made this amazing coffee scented bath body scrub. Chris loves it. Chris made everybody her homemade laundry soap, which I have been trying to convince her to sell and have even contacted a shop that would sell it. And I had some of my raspberries, that I had frozen from this summer, which I made into jam. All in all, I think it was a pretty cool idea and I hope we do it again.

Wii

I am very excited!!

We have not really been looking to buy a Wii, but I had kind of joked about it every now and again. And I have friends who have been frantically looking for one. Seems they are very hard to find right now. Wonder if Nintendo has anything to do with that? Hmmmm....

Anyways, yesterday Chris and I were doing a couple last minute shopping things while we were in Boise. We stopped in EB Games, simply out of curiosity, and asked the clerk if they had a Wii. He paused, and then said they only had one left. Without really even thinking or asking Chris I said I would take it. Then he tells me, well the shipping box got messed up and as a result the Wii box got wet. He said he had checked it out and nothing inside was wet and everything checked out OK. Several people prior to us said they did not want it because of the wet box.

When we got home I checked it all out and nothing inside was even damp. I wonder how long that was sitting there. And all the stores, I have heard, are not getting any more until after Christmas. So, five days before Christmas we stumbled onto this little treasure. Needless to say, I am pretty jazzed. Then Chris told me, "Well, guess this is your Christmas present." She was a little excited as well. A little.

a good day

today is a very good day in the house of dean. every year that i have been on staff there has been a couple who have graciously given us a smoked turkey. now you have to understand. this seems to be a labor of love for them. they make like 25 of them every december and it takes about 12 hours per turkey. i think they said they get up every 3 hours and do something with them. not really sure what that something is, but it must be something good because these things are awesome. no awesome does not really describe it. divine. yeah! that would do it, they are divine.

a nice thick smokey flavor that is in the skin and all the way to the bone. i really do look forward to this and always end up eating parts of it before it gets home. it is sitting in my office right now missing both legs. i only ate one. i gave the other to a friend who stopped by. i must say that i hesitated to do that. then chris and i decided that we would invite them over for dinner tonight to partake in the further consumption of this divineness. i am pretty sure they are coming from the look on my friends face.

yes, it truly is a good day in the house of dean.

Change of plans

We did it. We scraped together the remaining $318.18 that it took to pay off the house after selling my truck. It is now official, we have made our last payment on our house. Man it feels really good. Now to a couple of other small debts and debt free we will be!

NNU's 2008 Wesley Center Conference

Brian McLaren will be the keynote speaker at this years Wesley Center Conference "Furtherness: Holiness Reoriented in a Changing World." It is funny, I have already had someone tell me they won't be going because Brian is the speaker. Saddens me a little. But I know plenty of other people who will be going. So it should be fun and I am certain that I will be challenged and grow from it. Brian will also be at NNU for his "Everything Must Change" tour. The registration cost will cover both events. Sweet deal as well!! So, here is the registration info in case you are interested. Hope to see you there.

My Truck

I loved my truck. I say loved because I just sold it. I am bummed for a couple of reasons. First, I loved my truck. It was an awesome truck, low milage, great shape and I could haul stuff whenever I needed to. I even loaned it out to my friends so they could haul stuff with my truck that I loved. Second, a very good friend sold me that truck for a smoking deal.

But mostly I am happy that I sold my truck. First, we don't need three vehicles. About six months ago I bought a 1989 Nissan Sentra. Not exactly an eye grabber and does not fit in as well as my truck here in Baker City, OR. where we have lots and lots of ranchers and cowboys. But it gets an average of 32 miles per gallon and that makes up for it all. the second reason that I wanted to sell my truck, and honestly it was the major factor in this decision, is that in selling it we take another big step towards being debt free. I mean really debt free. I have written a nice check to the mortgage company and our payoff on the house is now $433.16. I know, it is very exciting isn't it!! At least we think so. We figure that by Feb. we will have all debt paid off including Chris's van, and will be 100% debt free. I am very excited about this. I think it was worth selling my truck that I loved.

Buy Nothing Day

Here are some challenging words that Eugene Cho has for me and maybe others about Buy Nothing Day.

(ht. Scot McKnight)

Thankful

I am thankful for my amazing and beautiful wife, for my three boys and the fact that I have friends.

I am thankful for that and oh so much more.....

RVL

Chris and I recently went to Twin Falls, Idaho to hear Ray Vanderlaan (RVL), "That the World May Know Ministries", speak. I can only say AMAZING!!! I was once again blown away by the insight that RVL has into scripture and the context that it was written in. Once again, I walked away challenged and inspired. I am doing everything I can to go to Israel as a result of this weekend.