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They are showing me up… but I am proud of them. Cori and Joel are in Nicaragua, sharing in ministry and seeing God’s love spread. So proud of them. Keep up with Cori’s thoughts at http://nica2010loveoutloud.wordpress.com/.

well, I’m in Belo Horizonte, Brazil at a Franklin Graham Festival, seeing lives change. One of the remarkable things I’m seeing is the number of “young adults” that are coming to the festival and coming forward to trust Christ. Most of the inquirers have been in the 20′s or 30′s. Amazing. Perhaps festival evangelism isn’t dead….

More to come. I’ll be in Western Canada for Rock the River Tour . that will be a great time seeing God work, and cutting some good rock and roll…

I’ve been recently challenged to do some more training w/ my kids. I thought I already was, and yet this person challenged me to do some more direct and specific training.

So, i’m taking this to heart. Now, I’m being purposely vague on the issues at hand, cause I’m not ready to bear my total soul to the internet. Let’s just say that when God points something out to you, you have a couple of choices:

1. ignore it
2. excuse it
3. listen and obey what He is telling you.

I’ll do #3, and pray for my heart to change.

I’m praying for Ken Rivera, who is going to have surgery tomorrow to fix his heart, his liver, and a bunch of other stuff. His wife Kim works in our tape library, and we have been praying for her as well.

He will get to really enjoy March Madness as he recouperates. Lucky.

I was musing on how many emails i’ve written in the last 10 years. While I’ve had many memorable ones from some great friends, and I’ve written many to my wife and others, where are they?

now, if you go upstairs at our house, you can pull two shoeboxes: one is full of letters that I wrote to Amy when we were engaged, and the other is full of Amy’s letters to me. We can hold them, read them, remember the place and time when they were written. There is something about holding something physical (imagine if the Constitution was electronic first…).

I have letters from my mom, who is in Heaven now. My grandma, who poured into my life.

I remember what triggered this. No one wants to check the USPS now. It’s only bills and junk mail. When I was a kid, and we moved to Alaska, I couldn’t wait for the mail to come. We lived off of the main highway from Anchorage to Fairbanks. No telephone, not even electricity or running water. Each day, we would drive to the highway, and there were a line of mailboxes right off the highway. We were box 113 or 139 or something like that. I remember always being excited to look and see if there was any mail in the box. Typically, I would get something if I wrote something (my Grandma Helen reminded me of that).

Anyways, we need to write letters. bottom line. more later.

…Alaska’s flag, what it means to you…” That is what I remember of the opening line of the pledge to the Alaskan flag. I lived there from 1973 until I left for college in 1983. My folks left Anchorage in 1991, and my sister in 1995.

As most of you know, our small frontier state is now front and center in the national spotlight (and it’s not because of Senator Ted Stevens this time!). Governor Sarah Palin has been named as John McCain’s running mate for the Republican ticket for president of these United States! Way to go, Mrs. Palin!

Now don’t go asking me questions about her politics or track record. I am embarrassed to say that I haven’t quite kept up w/ Alaskan politics in the last 200 years, except for the occasional sighting of Don Young or Ted Stevens in the news (I saw from a distance Sen Stevens at the Rotunda for former President Gerald Ford’s service. He didn’t look too good…). Now, Alaska is back on the map.

I’m guessing I’ll be seeing more of Mrs. Palin in my local Charlotte newspaper over the next 67 days. Imagine my surprise when I saw the name of Andrew Halcro, who went to my high school for a short time in the early 80′s. I remember his sister more; she was really cute! I was about 5 years too young, though. Oh well, my Amy is happy for that.

Andrew is a force in state politics in Alaska. He has a blog href=”http://andrewhalcro.com/”>http://andrewhalcro.com/ where he keeps up w/ local politics. He’s not very fond of Mrs. Palin, so I’m told.

Guess I’ll have to go and check it out myself. Nice to connect again w/ you, Andrew. Say hello to Damon when you talk to him.