DLmail 10/28/2009 I'll be brief

This coming Saturday is Halloween. My guess, our low numbers will be even lower than we have been experiencing. I guess a lot of people are home-churching kids these days (kind of like home-schooling).

We created the bags for the South Side Mission Food Drive that Northwoods sponsored. According to Phil Newton, director of the Mission, *,***,*** tons of food were collected. I reckon someone will make an official announcement soon. It was great to encourage the kids to participate.

Although we don't expect many kids Saturday (it might just be Erika), we need to be there, just in case. Not everyone will follow the pagan ritual of dressing their children up as Hannah Montana, clipping a flashing orange light to their back and sending her/him to the neighbors to ask for candy. Makes me wonder, how did the pagan's ever come up with this activity?

I handed out your small group lesson stuff last week. If you didn't get it, check the email I just sent you for a copy that is attached. Jeannine will also likely send you something. Don't forget how important serving is. Without volunteers Northwoods wouldn't work. Then we would all be home-churching and it's hard enough just cooking supper more than 3 nights a week. Who wants to be alone in the spiritual upbringing of their kids? I want help. Others may too.

Last week I included a quiz of sorts, to keep Sammy's attention. Well he responded and he won himself a seat next to me at a football game and a sweet cup of hot chocolate. Let's see if he is alone in guessing these football team logos now that everyone knows that serious prizes are at stake.

PRAY FOR DON BOWEN AND HIS FAMILY!

Fabulous Prize Announcement

Well, the response was terrifically underwhelming. But, it made one guy happy, and that is all that matters to me, because I really like this winner. With 43% correct, Sammy Waller has won the "Guess some of Rick's favorite actors" game from the 10/19/09 edition of DLmail. Way to go Sammy. For his fantastic 3 for 7 effort, he will be awarded the following. One hot chocolate drink and...(this is big)...he gets to sit by me at the IVC vs. Limestone football game tonight. Now I bet many of you are thinking that you blew it, missed your chance. Well, you did. Sorry. The spoils go to Sammy.


For those of you who were so stumped that you couldn't even guess one, here are the answers.



Before Nicolas Cage sold out and got really famous, he starred as H.I. McDunnough in the classic, Raising Arizona.

Everyone knows this is Bill Murray as Carl Spackler from Caddyshack.

Really, this one I admit was tough. You will be relieved to know it's Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander in yet another classic, uh, Zoolander. I only know of one guy in real life that can strike this pose.












Ok, so this one was as tough as Zoolander, maybe, but the dog nose was a huge hint. It's Mr. Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Guest, writer and one of the characters (Harlan Pepper) of Best In Show.

This had to be just about the easiest one next to Carl Spackler. Paul Newman, Cool Hand Luke.

This one is probably hard for a couple of reasons. Bill Murray was already used once in this quiz and the movie, while a classic, has likely only been watched by me and Brett Mellen. But we have each seen Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou several times, so the movie I suppose can be considered a mild success. This pic is of Bill as Steve Zissou.











The final actor was as easy as, if not easier than Carl or Luke...George Clooney as Everett in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? A serious classic.

Thanks for the Memories

My only regret is that this song is not longer so that I could include even more photos of my favorite people. Actually I have another regret that Windows Movie Maker degraded the quality of the pics to make the file smaller. So two regrets. Well, maybe also that I accidentally put one photo in the slideshow twice by mistake, kind of ruining the whole thing for me (too lazy to fix it). Make the regrets an even three.

DLmail 10/19/2009 less boring Black Monday

Pictures quietly speak a thousand words.


Video on the other hand...

Ever been distracted? Had a hard time listening? Hopefully the kids walked out of church understanding that God has really important things to tell us and we really have to listen.

Well, I received my first DLmail complaint for the month. I won't say who complained, but he/she thought I should do something to spice up the blog a bit. And I kind of agree. So I thought I could do something like the "guess the spiritual person" or "guess guitar hero" game from a few years ago, when DLmail was just email, not a blog. So if you hang on and read through to the end, you'll face a challenge.

We had a good night Saturday, even without Tim (whose 36 hour trip to New Zealand had about 20 hours added to it), and Monica, still out with Joshua, dodging germs, building immunity. Amy came in and handled those 5th graders for Monica with ease. Pam over achieved again with the 4th grade girls, while Kevin and Emory kept the boys in line. Thanks for serving!

Keeping with the less boring strategery...

Click here for the lesson, Incredible Giving.

Now you can click here and click here for the Bible story, The Poor Widow.

Memory verse for the month...Matthew 22:37 " Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind."

Memory verse for the week...II Corinthians 9:7 "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

Click here for Cal's mainstage message, #3 in the Experiencing God series.

Pray for these kids. Study your Bible. Encourage the kids to pray and read their Bibles.

Thanks for making serving a priority.

Now, in order to keep S****'s attention, a little guessing game. Guess the male actors from some of my favorite movies. Good luck (not that I believe in luck).

DLmail 10/14/2009 competition

There is a lot of competition for the hearts and minds of the kids we serve with these days. It has been noticeable about every other weekend, as our numbers go up and down significantly. However, there is some blessing that on the Saturdays when we are low on leaders, the numbers of kids are low as well. We had a manageable crowd Saturday night for the four of us, Kevin, Tim, Pam and myself. The outlook for this weekend...


Momica is still on maternity leave. Kevin should be there, although I haven't heard from him since he left church Saturday night for an 8:30PM to 4:30 ride-along-with-a-Peoria-cop shift. Assuming he survived I think he'll be back. Hoping Em will be there and assuming Pam will. Tim will be off to Australia/New Zealand for the next couple of weeks for work. Did any of you realize Tim is a nuclear engineer? Or is it nucular? Zach Van B has fallen off the planet, last I heard WI. Timberly, gone till January. We will survive.


We enter lesson #3 in the Experiencing God series. Our series long memory verse is Matthew 22:37 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind." Our story is Samuel & Eli, 1 Samuel 3, God calls out to Samuel. The bottom line for the lesson: God communicates to us so I can listen and talk to Him. The memory verse for just Saturday is Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to me and I will answer you." Pray for these kids and for God's help as you read the passage and prepare to lead them. For Reist's mainstage message from last weekend, click here.


I was distracted from my duties as a team leader Saturday (specifically my duty of remembering to bring my camera and take great shots of the leaders). However, I snapped this pic Sunday morning when I went to a little gathering for worship and testimonies and teaching with this man Rev. Ben Tumuheirwe. What an encouraging couple of hours. That smile is a permanent fixture on his face, and it's sincere. He runs this place in Uganda. I really admire this guy and I was witness to an actual miracle involving him over the weekend. Has to do with a guy from Canton, IL and a Soy Bean Cow. You can google that, but you won't find it. I think I will explain the miracle in a separate post some day, and fill you in on the soy bean cow at the same time. Hope the suspense isn't too much for any of you.

DLmail 10/6/2009 creepy #472

Everyone watched it last night, even us Bears fans who don't like either the Vikings or the Packers watched. What I saw was one huge coincidence and I don't know if I am the only one out there who noticed it, but Brett Favre threw 3 TD passes and his career total now stands at 472. The coincidence....ESPN aired 472 commercials during the game. Creepy.

We had a nice crowd Saturday night for our first lesson in the whole church series titled Experiencing God. Rick Rogy did a nice job teaching and I think his opening example for logic, surviving the plane crash, was a hit with the boys. My 9 year old daughter on the other hand thought the story about the plane was creepy. Creepy, but if her plane ever goes down she'll be prepared.

I expect another decent crowd this coming Saturday. We will be shorthanded with just Kevin, Tim, Pam and myself serving. Dr. Momica remains on family leave, however she is now spending her leave with her family at church, just not leading yet, or leaving her baby in the nursery. Joshua Stewart was welcomed to Northwoods for the first time ever last Saturday, 16 days after he was born. It was great for everyone to see him and his mom looks and feels great.
We have one verse that will remain constant throughout the month that the kids should be learning, Matthew 22:37 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind." Small group info might be accessible by clicking here. When I tried it earlier I encountered an error. If it doesn't work for you, let me know and I will email you a copy. The specific verse for this weekend (kids have a chance to memorize two verses and be rewarded with an extra truck dock buck) is "Give me understanding, and I will keep Your law and obey it with all my heart." Psalm 119:34. Our Bible story is titled The Bible is like a seed: It gets planted in my heart (the parable of the farmer and the seed) Matthew 13:3-23. The bottom line: The Bible is God's Word and I need to learn it and understand it. If you would like to catch Cal's message from last weekend, click here. Don't forget to spend time in prayer and in the Bible as you prepare for this weekend. We each have junk in this world that distracts us and brings us down, let your preparation for serving be a refuge.

Keeping with the creepiness of some parts of this DLmail, let me leave you with this pic, to which my daughter replied, "Oh Josh, that's just creepy."

10/1/2009 pictures last longer

Alright, take a look at this picture, it's the first and last time you will see Timberly for a while. Timberly came in and covered for Dr. Momica in fine fashion last Saturday. We are very thankful. Her smile and energy were very welcome, but.... Barring a significant injury to a kid or two of hers, she won't be able to be back until mid-December.

This has been a tough week for me, thus the tardiness of this communication. And even at this last minute, I don't have much info for you regarding this weekend. Clicking here will get you Septembers small group info. You can do it, but it won't help you with Saturday...unless some elf updates the Nwoods site before you get a chance to click...hoping. You can also click here to hear what Cal said from the auditorium last weekend, but again, not much help for Saturday. In cases such as this, just be prepared to use your gifts of leadership and shepherding. You can do it.

We had smaller numbers last Saturday than the week before. Don't know what to expect this Saturday, but honestly, as it gets darker earlier and as the temperatures drop, we will see higher numbers. Sadly, church (especially the Saturday service) tends to be less of a priority than it should be when the weather is good.

Unlike church, good or bad weather won't keep people away from football games. You can't even find a seat most nights and end up sitting under the Friday night lights with a 40 year old football fanatic learning to deal with the taste of sour Skittles. Scary.