Heros v.2

This is another one of my heros, Rev. Ralph Miller. I have known Ralph or rather, Brother Miller, for somewhere close to 40 years. He has pastored in many locations throughout Alaska. The last church he pastored was one he and his wife planted, Sand Lake Assembly of God, now Calvary Church in Anchorage. I remember him as a kid when my father pastored in Fairbanks. Brother Miller has also been very involved in the Alaska District since the day we became a district. He holds a distinction no one comes even close to holding. He has attended every meeting of the District Presbytery except one for our entire existence, or nearly 50 years. That is a lot of meetings! Even though he is now retired, he still attends the District Presbytery meetings as an honorary Presbyter giving the District the benefit of his years of experience, wisdom and spiritual counsel. He is a godly man and I respect him greatly. He is one of my heros because he is a great example of a man who loves God and has not wavered from his calling nor his love of serving others. God bless you, Brother Miller!

Heros v.1

This is my friend Norman Westdahl. Norman is an ordained Assembly of God minister who lives in Noatak. Some of you reading this blog might remember praying for Norman not too long ago. Norman was riding his snowmobile from Noatak to Kotzebue in order to install the new pastor there. Norman and his wife left Noatak just ahead of a severe blizzard that was blowing in. They would have made it safely but the snowmobile became stuck and they were unable to get it going before the blizzard struck. He said it was zero visibility. He and his wife were in great danger. They felt their way along a creek until they found a bank high enough to dig into and create a shelter out of the wind. They were pinned down by the storm for two nights! Searchers came the next morning and found them but the storm was not yet over. Even with help it was a real struggle to get to safety. Obviously prayer was a real factor in Norman and his wife's survival. Thanks for praying! Norman isn't my hero just because he survived a blizzard in a snowcave. No, Norman is a great man of God, gentle, gracious and kind. He preaches and teaches the Word of God anywhere he is given the opportunity. He has great integrity and I would trust him with anything. God bless you, Norman! God has great plans yet for you.

Friends

One of the great pleasures of pastoring a great church - and New Life is a great church!, is all the wonderful people you get to meet. One of my friends is, Stephen Strecker. He even spells his name the right way! One of the other things we share besides our love of Jesus is an appreciation for old cars.

Stephen has a 1961 Chevrolet Impala "Bubble Top" with Tri-Power! Stephen came by the office last Friday on that sunny day (remember?) and took me for a ride around town. What a way to meet people! Everyone seems to love a great car and tell about the one they used to own or what their favorite is, or the one they "should have never sold." Anyway, it was a fun afternoon! I really treasure the experience and especially so now that Stephen is shipping out to Adak for the time being with the U.S. Coast Guard. God bless you, Stephen! We will be thinking of you when we pray.

Men's Ministry

The Monday Men’s Meeting at our church is one of my favorite times of the week. I don’t know what it is, but there is just something great about being with other Christian men. Our meetings are not “religious” although we pray, study the Bible and talk about spiritual things. Our meetings seem like they just zoom by even though we start at 6 pm and end around 9 pm. Our meetings are fun even though we talk about serious things.

If you are a man and haven’t had the good opportunity to visit one of our meetings, I recommend you give it a try. We also do some really fun and engaging “Do Something” events that are always great. One of our organizing principles is to keep it simple. We do not over plan, over program or over engineer each event. We leave room for spontaneity, the unexpected and the Holy Spirit to direct us.

My, how the time flies!

Many times the content of our day is already spoken for. We rush from place to place, meeting to meeting, checking off our “to do” list and hoping to get it all in before our tired body makes us go to bed. However, there are days where we have a lot of choice in what we do. How do you use your time when you have choice?

The scriptures have a lot to say about our time:

Teach us to number our days... Ps. 90. 12

Redeeming the time...Eph. 5. 16

What is your life? It is even a vapor...James 4. 14

When it comes to the accounting for our time, what will speak from your life? I doubt any of us will be remembered for how much we packed into each day, day after day. But what we might be remembered for was how meaningful our lives were to others in the time we took to do what was important.

I am turning 50 before too long. I wonder how many years I have in front of me. What will I do with the time I have left. What has been done in the past is done, I can’t change it or improve it. But I can make some wise choices with the time I have left. I want to make that time count for eternity. How about you?

Resurrection Sunday

Here it is, Wednesday, three days past Resurrection Sunday and I am still basking in the joy we felt as we worshiped the risen Savior. I want to thank so many who made the day so special. First, I want to thank all of you who helped by taking the less desireable and less visible parking in the back of the church or off site in order to make available more parking spaces for those who would be visting. Everyone did such a great job! I did not receive any reports of those having to park in the street or being turned away due to a lack of places to park. Granted, the parking lot was packed! But your help made a place for everyone.

Second, I want to especially thank Jason Daniels who organized our ushers and helped to seat people. With a near capacity attendance, every seat in the house seemed to be spoken for. Helping find people a place to sit was so crucial to them staying and being a part of the serivce.

Our Sunday School teachers are also part of the great team we have. Thank you for your faithfulness in teaching, even on a special Sunday. Some of our Sunday School classes were especially full due to all of the visiting families. Thank you for your service.

Lest we forget to mention our children's worship leaders and our nursery workers, we want to acknowledge your key part in making the day go so well. I know you had your hands more full than usual and we thank you for your dedication to those assignments.

Our worship team deserves praise for the dynamic job they did in leading the worship. The music, the harmony from the back up singers, the flow of the songs all contributed to the spontaneous applause and celebration during the singing. The presence of the Lord was so strong the room felt electric! No doubt it was a foretaste of heaven!

Also, our youth group did a great job when called upon to help distribute the New Testaments on CD. What a great goup of young people! They looked sharp, they were helpful and did the job with such ease it helped to make the service flow so well.

Thanks as well to all our staff who oversee our help and volunteers and respond to needs as they arise.

Just a note, all of this contributed to a combined total of 396 people in the house! That represents our highest church attendance ever. With all of the help there was such a excitement in the house as there was a minimum of distraction or difficulty.

God bless you all for rising to the occasion! I know the Lord was pleased and many were blessed.

Heritage

This picture is of my grandfather, Ernest L. Friend (center, white suit) as the missionary pastor of "All Tribes Assembly of God" in Accra, Ghana, West Africa in the late 1940's. My mother played the little pump organ to the left of the pulpit for their worship services. This photo commerates the dedication of this church. This was quite an accomplishment as the "All Tribes" refers to all of the different tribes in the area coming together in one church. Before, their warring history against each other prevented this due to their former hatred for each other. You can see three of the chiefs of these tribes standing to the right of the pulpit. J. Roswell Flower, an early Assembly of God leader is standing just the left of my Grandfather. So this was a significant day. Many of the people in the background to the left in the white suits were Bible school students my grandfather mentored. My mother's family left Africa for home in December 1948. They continued to pastor churches stateside for many years until about the time I graduated from Bible school myself in 1981.

All of this is to say I am very grateful for my godly heritage. My mother and father are also Assembly of God pastors. I was raised in a pastor's home and frankly I always thought it was a pretty good life. I never saw the lure of a life outside of knowing Christ as something to be desired and feel I was spared the consequences of making poor choices associated with that kind of life. My life has been blessed. I have a godly wife who has helped us to raise our two sons. We look forward to see God bless their lives and their families.

I encourage you to live your life in a godly manner and begin your own godly heritage for your children and their children. Let them see you read your Bible and go to church with them. Pray with them and ask God to bless their lives. It is never too late to begin a spiritual legacy that will last generations to come.