grandma bougher

well, yesterday my grandma bougher went to heaven. my mom's mom. 88 years old. served God like every day of her life i think, and a prayer warrior like no other. when my best friend dino rizzo had an anyeurism and we all thought we were going to lose him, the first phone call i made - without even thinking twice about it - was to grandma bougher. i asked her to pray for him because i knew she knew how to pray. and at that point, that was worth more than a million dollars or any amount of money to me. and God answered the prayers she and thousands of the rest of us prayed and healed dino miraculously.

mom blogged about grandma from africa before she and dad got on a plane to head back to the USA (des moines, iowa) for the funeral on christmas eve. (when you visit her blog, do me a favor and drop a comment in there and let her know you were there - she's taking it all well, but your words and prayers would sure encourage her, i know.)

grandma was cool. i haven't run a vaccuum cleaner ever in my life that i haven't thought about her and the way she would be so proud of the pattern in the carpet and wouldn't let us walk on it for however long. so many memories come to mind - funny, happy, warm - but through all of the memories the top of it all is the way she prayed.

what a heritage God has blessed me with. thanks, Jesus. and thanks, grandma. i'll miss you. but i'll see you again at your new place, where the carpet patterns are never erased.

i love you grandma.

here's the link....

ok, here's the link to the site about dino rizzo's new book, Turning Points is www.turningpointsbook.com.

or just save the time and go straight to the HPC store and buy it.

it's here! it's here!

at long last - dino rizzo's book turning points is here! i'm pumped. i got to help work on the book, so i guess that has a lot to do with it, but i'm really excited about it, because i think the message it communicates is gonna help a lot of people. it is right on time for our community, and right on time for anyone facing challenges of change in life.

a shameless plug for the book? yup. you betcha. as soon as i can find the link to send you to buy the book, i'll post it, but i guess for now you'll just have to come to healing place church this weekend (any campus, including danville) to get your copy. for those of you who'll be coming in from swaziland, the philippines, or even as far away as iowa, it'll be good to see you this weekend.

or you could wait for the link. i'll hurry on that one.

12 irritants of Christmas

check out lori fitzgerald's post about christmas. i know this will date me a bit, but when i was a kid, my mom used to read erma bombeck stuff to us. lori's stuff is like a 2005 version of erma. i don't laugh out loud often by myself - but this got me.

lorifitz.blogspot.com

someone HAS to know this

i'm looking for an updated version of the Apostle's Creed. something more on the post-modern, emerging church level in verbage but having the same emphasis as the original. anybody got anything like that or know where i can find it? so far my googlin' hasn't landed me what i'm looking for.

i also wanna see if anyone has any recommendations for good sermons that break down the creed for today's normal human being. anything anyone can toss at me about that would be sweet. thanks!

okay - here it is... FUNNNNNNNY

click here to listen to what i think may be the single most hilarious mp3 file ever. listen closely to the intricate details and nuances that permeate the song.

enjoy. endure. and sing out loud more often.

back from vacation

...feeling like a new man in many ways. didn't go anywhere, but had 12 straight days off (pretty much off, anyway) and i feel great. got a lot of stuff done at home, got to rest some, spent a lot of time with my wife and kids (not enough with just my wife), and i didn't spend much time at all on my computer. weird for me. i love my job. if i had a hobby, it'd be what i do at work. but taking the time off was good for me. i'm back with a renewed energy and drive and with a better grasp of the big picture. maybe there's something to this "sabbath" idea after all. who knew?

okay - i've got what i think has to be the funniest thing i've ever heard in an mp3 file i'm gonna post later this week. i can't post it yet because i promised my daughter i wouldn't let it out before she got to share it with some of her friends tomorrow night. so you'll just have to wait til after her party.

but, man it's funny. pitifully funny.