The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Part 2

As I said in an earlier post FBC O'Fallon rented a local movie theater and we all went to go see the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Thursday night. It was a fantastic time. I've read several reviews on the movie and most of them are very positive. The symbolism of Aslan as a Christ sacrificing Himself for our sins, and his subsequent resurrection was wonderful. But even if you don't have a relationship with the Lord this is an awesome movie to go to.

1) The plot of good versus evil is well played out. Although both the White Witch's and Aslan's forces are made up of animals that have quite unusual traits, such as Tomnas who appears to be part goat and part human, the animals of Aslan's forces seem to act and live much more consistently humanlike than those of the White Witch.

3) The costumes are incredible. I expect that The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe will win several oscars for costumes.

4) There is some violence, but it isn't overdone. It is part of the plot and is necessary in the development of the movie. Aslan's death and the final battle have some violent scenes in them.

5) The scenery is fantastic. My wife now wants to move to England! I have lived there a couple of times for short stints, and it is beautiful. Marilyn has been there once, and loved it, but she now believes that it would be a great place to live again. This is a major step for Marilyn, as she has never wanted to live anywhere else but here in the US.

I highly recommend this movie. But, I also recommend you do what my kids did before seeing the movie. They both read the book and it helped them underdstand and enjoy the movie even more.

610

With final exams going on this week at McKendree College our collegiate ministry didn't meet last night. So, I had the opportunity to speak to our church's Junior High youth group (called 610) last night. I spoke on "The Life of a Spiritual Salt Shaker", which was a sermon on missional living taken out of 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Matthew 5:13-16 targeted at the Junior High age level. I was very encouraged being in the same room with so many on-fire young believers. They really want to reach their friends with the message of the gospel. I was lucky enough to spend a week of my vacation last June as a leader at Student Life Camp with this same group and some High Schoolers also. They will be a great group to pass the leadership baton to as they begin their lives of service to the Lord.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Our church has rented out the local movie theater for us to all go together and see The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe tonight. The tickets sold out in a day. I haven't read the Chronicles of Narnia series since I was in college and I am looking forward to going tonight. My kids are excited, they have been reading the series and love it, and the critics are saying good things about it. I'll let you know how it goes in a post tomorrow.

Free WiFi Hotspots

Thanks Yahoo for a good article on free WiFi hotspots. Here's the link. Link.

It is good to see Panera Bread/St Louis Bread Company get recognition for providing free WiFi. I visit there all the time and have had a link to their site off to the right for over a year. I love holding ministry staff meetings there, it is such a great place.

Here's a link to a good free WiFi hotspot finder. Link.

Erin, they even have Canada listed. Is there a location near you?

I don't see The Gathering at First Baptist O'Fallon, Illinois listed. We will get The Gate listed as soon as we have WiFi installed.

PS: I just sent WiFi Freespot an E-Mail to add The Gathering.

A Short History of Thanksgiving

The following exceprt is taken from General Duncan McNabb's (the Commander of the US Air force's Air Mobility Command, where I work) Thanksgiving message to all Air Mobility Command troops. It gives a short, one paragraph, history of the Thanksgiving Holiday.

....Thanksgiving Day was first observed at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. In subsequent years, states set aside one day in the fall to commemorate the harvest until 1863 when President Lincoln made the last Thursday in November the national holiday. His Thanksgiving Day Proclamation intended to heal the wounds of the Civil War and it remained the day for giving thanks until 1941…when Congress decreed that Thanksgiving would be on the fourth Thursday of November. This day affords us an opportunity to give thanks for all that makes this nation great....

I find it interestering that the first National Thanksgiving Holiday was intended to preserve the union!

Back Home

Well, I am back home after another week long trip. The good thing about traveling are all the wonderful people you meet. The difficult thing about traveling is the time spent away from family and friends.

I had an opportunity in Spokane, Washington to spend some time with an old high school friend who is a church planter there named Kurt Bubna. Wow, what a great family Kurt and Laura have. They have some wonderful kids and have experienced a flurry of weddings this past year. Their family is doubling at a very quick rate. The church Kurt pastors is Eastpoint Church in Spokane Valley. Eastpoint has been meeting for about 3 years now and has 900 regular attenders. They have rehabilitated a vacant K-Mart in a strip mall and are doing great work. It is pretty exciting to see what the Lord has done there in such a short amount of time. God is really blessing their ministry.

It was so good to finally get home and see the family again. I missed them so much.

I have one more trip the first week of December to Las Vegas, Nevada. After that I will be home for a couple of months. I need the time to catch back up with my family and complete all my house projects I have lined up. It was a good trip, but I was more than ready to get back home!

Traveling Again

Well, I'm on the road again. I think I have only been to church once since mid September due to my traveling schedule. I spent November 1 and 2 in Las Vegas helping write some Air Force Regulations on how we visualize the battlespace. My company provides some solutions for the Air Force that are kind of Google Earthish in nature. The solution is called GeoBase. We help the Air Force visualize our US installations and those overseas that we may want to use in the future. It is a wonderful capability that save us lives and time in evaluating where we want to beddown our forces when we do expeditionary (new overseas locations) operations.

This week I am in Tacoma and Spokane, Washington, visiting McChord and Fairchild Air Force Bases. I evaluate their GeoBase programs and provide help if any is needed. It has been a lot of traveling since September, but I only have one more trip planned this year.

I will be back in Las Vegas December 3-8 for the Air Force's Installation Mapping and Visualization Council Meeting. The trips to Las Vegas are good times because I get to visit my brother Steve and his wife Tracy. Steve has cut his hair and they both look very good. Anyhow, I'm looking forward to seeing them again next month. Then I have no more trips scheduled until late January.

Another Big Game

I'm looking forward to the Nebraska-Oklahoma game this coming Saturday. Neither team has had a great year, so I believe Nebraska has a good chance to beat Oklahoma Saturday. Go Big Red!

Traveling Thoughts

It has been a long and exciting week of traveling. I spent Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in my old stomping grounds of Fayetteville, North Carolina. Fayetteville is the home of Ft Bragg and the 40,000 paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division. It is also the home of Pope Air Force Base. I was stationed at Pope from 1982 until 1988 and I hated every minute of it. Fayetteville is the roughest town I ever lived in. The town and the base look a lot better now than it did 17 years ago when I left. Just to show you how bad it was when I left in 1988, my MBA thesis in 1987 was "The Reduction of Prostitution in Fayetteville, North Carolina 1977-1987". It was a fun topic with no shortage of police case studies of busted "Prostitutes" and "Johns". Fayetteville had the highest per capita murder and rape rate of any U.S. city over 100,000 in the 1970s. It is nice to see they really did continue the cleanup of the town. The downtown prostitution area burned down to the ground and they built the new police station and county government building on top of the remains of the most notorious strip bar in town, Rick's Lounge. That is one way to clean up the area. It has really changed.

I have spent Wednesday and Thursday in Charleston, South Carolina. I will be flying home tomorrow. Charleston is a very nice town, but I'm sure I wouldn't like the weather so much in July or August. We spent a nice evening eating dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company in downtown Charleston. It was a wonderful meal in an incredible old historic town. I was impressed.

I fly out tomorrow and then hit the trail again on Monday afternoon and will be in Las Vegas, Nevada on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I am tired of traveling this week and will really be tired at the end of next week. It will be great to see my brother Steve and his wife Tracy in Las Vegas. I haven't seen them in about 3 years. At least I will be able to spend some time with family while I'm gone away from home.

Everyone Welcome Here!

Thanks Erin for letting me know that the comments section of my blog was restricted to "members only." It must have been a new setting that Blogger added. Well, it is fixed now and everyone is welcome to comment! I still have the word verification program turned on due to spamming commenters. It is easy to use and only takes a second to have your comment posted.