What's A Great Day?

Today my family experience a "great day". We started the day by biking the Soo Line Trail from Little Falls to Bowlus. This is one of the things that I've had on my bucket list for a couple of years now. I know it may be one of the less significant things on my list, nonetheless, it was something that I desired to do with my family.

We are overlooking the Mississippi River at the Blanchard Dam.

We had lunch at Jordie's Trail Side Cafe in Bowlus. I loved the outdoor eating area. It was so relaxing.

Later in the day we played Bocce Ball; guys vs. girls. The guys won! Then we grilled some steak and had some awesome veggies from the garden. Following the meal we played croquet and then had a fire and ate smores. This is what I would call a great day.

What does your great day look like? Are you making some decisions that will create memorable moments in your life and the life of those around you? I want to do one thing every day that will cause me to say, "this was a great day".

Meeting Tony Dungy

Andrew and I were so excited to meet Tony Dungy. Tony came to the Assemblies of God General Council and did a book signing along with speaking at a luncheon and in a youth service.

He reached out his hand to shake hands with Andrew and had a little conversation with him. I think Andrew was pretty pumped. For all of you Viking fans, I did encourage him to come out of retirement and coach for the Vikings. If you read his book, "Quiet Strength", you know that will probably never happen. When he was our assistant coach, his wife couldn't tolerate our cold winters. Who can blame her.




I received an autographed copy of his new book, "Uncommon". It is the next book on my long list of books waiting for my time and attention. There is a Bible study that goes along with the book. I hope to have a group of men go through that some time this next year.

What I appreciate about Tony is that he is a man of integrity and character. He has certainly had his share of disappointments, heart-ache and success. In the midst of it all he has stayed anchored to his relationship with God and his family. I also love the fact that he loves to pour his life into others. Check out his website, All Pro Dads!

Influence Conference

The A/G General Counci began with a two day conference entitled, "Influence". I want to share one thought from each presenter.

Mark Batterson, "I would rather have one God idea than a thousand good ideas".

Reggie Joiner, "When you refuse to upgrade your systems you loose your capacity to support a more relevant approach".

Beth Moore, "Our biggest influence comes when we have a different approach to the same storm".

Keith Craft, "There is nothing great about being better than somebody else. True greatness is achieved by being better than your normal".

Ed Young, Jr., "We are serving samples to those who are already eating the food".

Vacation

Mark and Kelsey just returned from a week of camp and now we are taking a little family vacation. We got all packed up, took our places in the vehicle and went to start it. Nothing happened. Dead battery. After jumping it, we drove to Bill's Standard where they tested it. It failed the test. After a new battery we are on the road. Mark is driving next so he is getting some sleep.

For A Good Cause

Last Sunday at Living Hope Church we had a special offering to raise money for children's Sunday Schools in a country I can not disclose. Our goal is to provide money for 10 Sunday Schools at $762 each. A few weeks ago I added a little incentive to the offering. With every dollar a person gave they would get one vote to go towards the pastors or their wife. The losing, or is it winning, person would receive a pie in their face.

(Elene Tonder, from our missions committee, enjoying the anticipation)

As you can see from the Pictures, my wife Darla was the recipient. She was a great sport. Thanks to everyone who gave. We raised enough for 2 Sunday Schools. Just 8 more to go! If you would like to donate towards this awesome project, please contact me.

Ross Turner Worship Concert

Join us tonight at 7 PM at Living Hope Church in Little Falls. It's going to be an awesome night of worship.

Summer?

It's July 16th, the middle of summer and we were at Andrew's baseball game. You would think it would be a beautiful night, a warm night. Not so!!!!!

As you can see from the picture of Jeni Kornbaum, Darla and Jen Loukinen, it was anything but summer. There is no way anyone will ever convince me of global warming, not even, or especially, Al Gore. Florida in the summer is sounding really good.