Here are some photo highlights from the day. If you see an emphasis on the Blue Jay’s Roger’s Centre, it is because my brother, Jordan Bastian, covers the team for MLB.com. (Tomorrow I’ll be going to a game with some Canadian friends!)

Reminder: Clicking on any image on my blog loads a larger view.

Luke arrives in Toronto!

Luke checking out the Canadian National Tower! (CN Tower)

Luke and Mommy on our walk to Toronto Island Park

Luke enjoys the Ferry Ride

Luke is quite used to putting up with all Daddy’s pictures!

But-cha gotta admit, this is one cute kid!

Contemplating the Vast Needs of the City

A Steeple Pointing Toward the Answers from Heaven?

Once on the island a Car Ride is discovered!

So is a high flying lift across the park!

But later Luke says his favorite ride was Uncle Jordan’s shoulders. Awwww.

Rainy weather sends us home, but soon clears up.

Soon Daddy and Mommy head out on a date!

The shadow of the Tower looms over the city!

As a Blue Jays game is played BELOW us!

They play into the evening as we eat and the restaurant rotates!

I decide on a possible side job!

The outside observatory is spectacular!

(and extremely windy!!)

Soon we are walking home. Babysitter said Luke will be put out in the hallway at midnight whether we are back or not! (Jordan!) Seriously, they were awesome, they took him to the park while we were at the top of the CN Tower. (First two pictures of this post were taken while we were up there!)

Looks like Luke had a great time with his Uncle Jordan!

And Aunt Kelly! Just for fun, here is this train yard from up above:

Yup, we were 1150 feet above them as they played below us!

And then there is one of my favorite pictures of the day. We were walking home from Toronto Island Park when I saw these giant orange letters and I said to the gang, “Hey, we have to go back! There is a giant “H” we have to pose Hayden peeking out from behind the giant “H!” We did get a good solo shot of him, but before first getting one of him with his favorite uncle:

“H” is for Hayden!

(As always, you can click on any picture for a larger view)

Here I am at the entrance, it was a beautiful day!

Here is the Fellowship of the King on one of our stops!

The guys got along pretty well for the most part. (note the sign!)

“Devil’s Backbone” is the name of the rock formation that sticks up and runs through the center of this open space.

At one point, I climbed to the top and got a picture of my shadow…

And a picture through one of the holes in the formation. Cool, huh?

We hiked for about seven hours and nearly nine miles, but it was worth it.

At times the lighting was spectacular, even as clouds began to roll in…

I especially love when there are shadows of clouds on the hills…

Some lonely trees on a distant hill were neat to photograph as well…

We spent some time walking together and sharing what was going on in our lives and ministries, but we also split up and just spent some time alone with God enjoying the scenery and the solitude that an quiet open place like this provides away from people and phones and interruptions…

Sometimes taking the “road less traveled” is exactly the road you need to travel. I know that this day away came right in the midst of a bunch of impending deadlines for me. I actually didn’t “have the time” to take the this day away. But then, when do I truly ever have time to take a day away? Never.

That’s one of the lessons I’ve learned in life, the hard way, that it is precisely when you don’t think you have time to get away, that you need to get away. And you know what? All that stuff that you think can’t wait… it can. There are few things in life that can’t wait a day. In fact, everything can wait a day.

I’ve got a list now of about a dozen guys in the Denver area who are on my invite list for this “Fellowship of the King.” I know only a hand full will be able to make each hike, but that’s O.K. But I’m going to keep inviting them. Each time I can schedule a hike, those who can make it, will be my band of brothers who will join me as we hike and journey together and hang out with God and His amazing creation. I’m already excited about the next amazing hike!

If you aren’t in Colorado, let me encourage you to start something for ministry folks near you! It doesn’t have to be hiking. What refreshes you? But don’t make it “ministry.” And I’m not talking about starting a “ministry network.” I’m talking about getting away from work and talking about work, to just be with God and talk about life and family and what God’s doing in your heart and what on your mind.

That kind of thinking and reflecting just doesn’t happen in your office. You need to get away. You need to get where you can hear God and feel His presence. Where is that for you?

Find it! And go there regularly. God puts places to find Himself everywhere, if you look for them, they can be found, you just have to be looking.

Man, I wish I lived up in one of those homes on top of those cliffs! Those folks have got a view!

And if you are a guy and want to really get away, consider joining me on Yosemite Summit this may – it is the most spectacular place on the earth where God showed off His creative talents and where you will be awe struck at the things He made!

One of the guys e-mailed me this and said he thought perhaps he found the real “devil’s backbone!”

If you are a male ministry leader in Colorado and would like to know when the next Fellowship hike is, be sure to contact me and let me know so I can add you to the invite list!

Everyone needs to almost die…

And no, I’m not referring to almost being struck by lightening in Yosemite last year! Nor am I directly talking about my near heart attack last year either – though for all practical purposes I might as well be. If almost dying twice in 2009 taught me anything (and it taught me a lot!) it made me realize that long life is not something you should assume. So let me say it again, and I really hope you will hear me this time: (this is now directly from my journal on my solo sabbatical)

Everyone ought to almost die. If not, they really should try to pretend or reflect on what it means to live as though they are not sure of long life.

Let me set the record straight. I’m not afraid of dying. Never was. But after almost dying (twice!) I’m no longer afraid of living! I refuse to put off the life I want. If that sounds selfish, let me rephrase it – I refuse to put off what I believe God is calling me to do. (sound better?) I no longer assume far off “somedays” exist! Two to three years is as long as I assume I have. That DOESN’T mean I think I’m a dead man in five years! Without going into detail – I have a clean bill of health, I avoided a heart attack, and have a stent in a healthy heart. It just means that if I want to do something, I START PLANNING IT! I know better now – start planning it, or it’ll never happen!

Someday is just another word for NEVER!

What are you saying you will do someday? Write a book? Go on some dream vacation? Produce a resource? Start a business? (Go on Yosemite Summit or Unbridled?) I can’t even guess what it is for YOU, but YOU know what I’m talking about… I’m scratching that itch RIGHT NOW. I know I am.

The point is, start planning it NOW. At least get out a pad of paper and start scratching out the first few steps.

One of my life long dreams was to go to Yosemite in Winter. It seemed impossible. The only way it happened was to start planning it. And then God came along and took care of the “impossible” part for me! He surprised me by taking care of the one detail I couldn’t manage. Do you think God won’t do that for you? Do you think He loves me more than you? Bah!

Watch this video of my little dream come true. This took over four years to come true. Even longer if you count the years I was too scared and too busy to dream the dream! Enjoy! Two days snow shoeing through Yosemite in winter and then ask yourself,

What “someday” am I not trusting God for? And start planning it.

Download: YosemiteWinter-byKarlBastian.mov (38mb MOV) 640×480

Every time I come across them, I star at them…

and study every detail…

every ripple and splash…

every color and reflection…

knowing that if not for the camera’s super fast shutter…

I could never enjoy this captured moment…

stolen out of time for me…

to hold in my hand… or in my mind…

a moment… forever…

how sweet it is!

an accident? hardly!

a planned disaster, actually!

a beautiful mess.

an explosion of motion and energy…

caught in the motion of the moment…

the camera catches what we miss every day.

MAKES ME WONDER… what do we miss? What could we capture with the camera of our eye, if we would just focus throughout the day? A sweet smile? A gorgeous cloud? A curious animal? An enlightened moment? An encouraged person?

What are the moments of our day that God creates that we miss? The splashes of his Grace? The colorful moments that He gives us? The green lights when we are in a hurry? The short line at the store? The empty parking spot near the door in a busy parking lot? The familiar face in a crowd that calls your name? An unsolicited “I love you” from your child? Whatever they are, don’t miss them today. Capture them in your in your minds’ eye, and cherish them.

(did you scrool too fast? look at the pictures again! did you drive too fast? walk too fast today? slow down already!)

Well, I was going to keep this kinda quiet… but word is getting out about my electrifying experience with lightening in Yosemite and the pressure for me to tell the “full story” is increasing, so I’m giving in hoping this doesn’t discourage anyone from coming to Yosemite Summit in the future!

The question I keep getting is, “Were you really struck by lightening at Yosemite?” Well, since I’m typing this from my current location on earth (rather than heaven) the technical answer is, NO! But… I was in the middle of a strike that hit trees all around me and there is that mysterious jagged hole in my poncho to account for! So when I posted on Twitter and Facebook that my most exciting experience at Yosemite was being struck by lightening… it wasn’t much of a stretch!

So here’s the story! We started out Day One with a spectacular all day hike that began at Sentinel Dome, where the view is absolutely breath-taking. Here we all are on the top of Sentinel Dome:

After our chapel time and quiet times alone, we took the Ponomo Trail, a little traveled segment of a longer trail, in order to loop around through the woods and then to the edge of Upper Yosemite at the top of Sentinel Fall. Here we are at the top:

Yes, I photo-shopped myself into this picture, since I took it! You can’t see the water fall in this picture, because, well, we are above it, BUT you can see we are higher than El Capitan in the background! O.K., here is a picture of the falls… as close to it as I wanted to get:

It’s hard to tell in the picture how HIGH we are, but that is the valley below, some 3000+ feet below! Here is a view of it (from Google images) from the bottom, it cascades for awhile before it final long drop to the valley floor:

Next we left the sunny warm open areas and entered into a forest where the temperatures were still cool and snow was still on the ground!

We forged rivers… (OK, one creek)

and finally all arrived at Taft Point at different times since the group spread out over time depending on their hiking pace and whether they constantly stopped to take pictures. Which is why I usually am one of the last to arrive at the meeting spots. Taft Point is simply amazing!

Taft Point is one of the highest places that has a STRAIGHT DOWN view, over 3500 feet. (hard to see in this photo, but there is one of the few railings in all of Yosemite at the very tip where you see the guys standing!)

I know, I know… what about the LIGHTENING!? I just want to make sure you know, it’s not like we just went to Yosemite and got attacked by lightening, it was a spectacular day… with an even more spectacular ending! So, on to the lightening…

Here’s me at Taft Point, in what very well could have been the last picture of me ever taken! It indeed was the last picture of me that day! By the time I got to Taft Point, we had started to see some clouds appearing East of us toward Half Dome and heard some thunder in the distance. It is a known fact for Yosemite hikers, that being out on large open granite surfaces is not safe if lightening is even remotely possible, as the lightening, being unable to absorb into the rock, will travel across the surface at, well, lightening speed, until it finds grounding. Being in the path of that lightening is, well, let’s just say, not recommended. Oh, and Taft Point is a huge open granite area, oh, and with a metal railing at the highest point!

As the leader of the expedition, and taking our group’s safety seriously, as soon as I got to Taft Point, I called out to the guys that we needed to leave and skipped going up to the point myself even though I’d hiked all day with this being the final destination. But there was another “final destination” I wasn’t interested in reaching today, if possible. Let me say for all the wives reading this – the group was not in any danger at this point, but we weren’t going to stick around until we were!

We regrouped, counted to nine (something we did often!) and once we knew the entire group was accounted for, headed back to the van. At this point, due to the loop we were doing, we were only about a mile and a half from the van. We headed back, and over the course of that last segment, the group spread out again until six were back at the van and I had two guys with me. About half way to the van the rain started, and by the time we got near the parking lot it was pouring HAIL. Seriously! We went from a beautiful sunny day with clear skies to rain and hail!

AND NOW THE EXCITING PART! (you skipped to here, didn’t you?)

Because the trail was blocked by a creek and in the rain we didn’t want to walk across the log that would normally be the easy way across, the three of us headed down river a bit until we could find some rocks in the creek that were high enough to cross over. I went first, called out to the two guys behind me that I’d found an easy way across, and then headed up toward the road. I could see that I was about 200 feet from the road, and gathered that the parking lot was probably another 200-300 feet up the road. I was almost out of the storm and into the van! I was feeling bad knowing that the six ahead of me were locked out of the van in this hail, but fortunately they had found a small pavilion to huddle under.

At this point everything is both fuzzy and crystal clear – don’t ask me to explain that – but as soon as I reached the road and started to walk toward the van – IT HAPPENED. It is difficult to describe. The words I have to use don’t do it justice. But there was this incredible NOISE – yes, an explosion, all around me. Scared is not the word. I was beyond scared, but only for a nano-second, honestly. It was like I was so terrified in that instant as I had no idea what was happening – I just froze – then I saw red billowing flames ahead of me followed by a pillar of smoke of biblical proportions and realized that lightening had struck VERY close. For the next few seconds, I wondered if I was dead. That sounds strange, but I just had a stent put in my heart a month before, and had been given the OK to go to Yosemite via stress test, but in that frozen moment, I wondered, “If your heart stops, do you feel it?” I couldn’t feel anything anywhere in that moment, so I wondered, “Do you die instantly, or do I have a minute to soak in life?” It was literally just a few seconds and I could feel that I was truly was OK and not about to keel over. I heard the guys behind me calling out to me and asking if I was OK. I heard them, but was still in shock (no pun intended) so while I answered, I knew they couldn’t hear my soft answer. When I could, I yelled that I was OK, and we’d better get to the van as fast as possible. I was finally able to look away from the explosion that was still smoking and noticed wood fragments were scattered everywhere, I instinctively reached down and picked up the piece at my feet before starting toward the van, the last two guys were now with me.

Yes, I thought of taking pictures or grabbing my video camera. No, I didn’t!

When I was walking toward the van my head was down and I noticed that there was a huge jagged hole in my poncho. Was I struck by lightening?!?!? It was a brand new poncho and it had been fine before the lightening strike! It was then that I realized my leg hurt a little. Not much, but like I’d been hit. We got to the van and I just handed the key over and asked another guy to drive, I was still kinda in shock. (not literally!) I was wearing zip off pants that convert to shorts so I unzipped them to look where my leg hurt, and there on my leg was a bruise – not huge, but clearly new. (I took a picture, but I’m sparing you that!) I looked at the wood in my hand and realized I must have been hit with “shrapwood” from the exploding tree! (Later, when putting my PJ’s on, I was to discover multiple bruises, I had been hit in several places by flying wood!)

The conversation in the van was charged with excitement. This was both exciting and sobering. Debate broke out on where the lightening struck, and how close it was to me. The guys by the van saw it hit much higher and farther away than I described. The guys behind me described it as being even closer to me than I thought. It was a bit of a puzzle, but we were curious, so we decided to return the next day to investigate.

The following morning was our sunshine at Glacier Point, which just happens to be a mile or so farther down the road than where we had parked the van the day before. It was pitch black out when we drove by so we couldn’t see anything.

After an awe-inspiring time at Glacier Point and our chapel time, we headed back to to the cabin to pack up for our hike that would begin in the valley today… but not without stopping first at the scene of the crime from yesterday:

Of course, I wanted to go back to the very spot I had been standing when the lightening struck! It felt kinda wierd to revisit the spot. My foot prints were visible and it appeared, that contrary to what I remembered, I had actually moved backward 4-5 feet reacting to the explosion, judging by the foot prints and dug in impressions that matched my shoes. (We were all acting like CSI guys!) Most of the wood debre was now gone, either washed away in the storm, or perhaps cleaned up off the road, but as I was standing in “the spot,” someone pointed out the large piece of tree that was lying RIGHT NEXT to where I had been standing!

It may go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway… what if THIS ’stick’ had hit me? In a very large area, on BOTH sides of the road, wood scraps lay everywhere.

Not all of it was on the ground, some was up in trees:

Look a little closer, that’s not a twig!

As we walked up and down the hill, it turned out ALL the reports in the van were correct, as lightening had struck several trees, on all sides of me, in an area probably more than 50 feet circle.

This is the tree that I saw on fire and whose fragments probably hit me. It doesn’t look like much damage to the tree from here, but up close it’s kinda crazy…

Wood was ripped off these trees so fast and so hard that branches still stuck out in places like rebar from concrete! And the parts of the trees that were damaged spiraled from top to bottom, so it was hard to get a picture of all the damage.

Here you can kinda see how the damage spirals toward the top of the tree! And there is another 8 feet below and up higher on the other side toward the top!

Hard to even image the POWER of something that can rip through a tree like this!

Matt McDaniels holds up a massive segment of a tree he found… yeah, I know.

Me and my tree. Wow.

Well, what can I say? Yosemite Summit was a blast. Can’t wait until next year. Statistically, it can only be safer!

In conclusion, one of the guys shared at our chapel time the next day that God had given him a verse for me, and thought perhaps this could be my theme verse for Yosemite Summit 2009. I think I like it!

He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him —
the dark rain clouds of the sky.

Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

Psalm 18:11-12

Yes, I still have that piece of wood I picked up, and plan to keep it as a reminder of how God protected me that day. Every day of life is truly a gift… perhaps that is why it is called the Present.

Today is Mother’s Day! So, of course, we were celebrating Sara today! Luke even picked out his first present for mommy. (Actually, it was his first time going shopping to pick out a present for someone, and how appropriate that it be for mom!) After brunch at mommy’s favorite restaurant, we headed to the park to play. Dad brought along his new fish eye lens which he got for Yosemite Summit which is coming up fast!

I had some fun experimenting with a fish eye lens, its very cool!

The Bastian Family – Mother’s Day 2009

Luke at the bottom of the slide

Whoa! That looks pretty intimidating!

Peeking up over the side as the boy approaches

Is that MY kid? What a cutie!

A here is the official MOM OF THE YEAR in the Bastian House!

and why do we love her so much? here are just a few reasons:

Daddy and the Boy

Today we headed over to Garden of the God (note: I leave off the “s” as it is not Garden of the Gods, but of the One True God and Creator whom I worship!) While Luke’s favorite thing was the toy cars for sale at the Trading Post, my favorite was getting to take pictures of him at this beautiful place! (not my first time here!) And it should be noted, that if I’m in the picture, Sara took the shot, and she’s not a bad photographer herself! (She’s a great photographer!)

“Look Dad, a ROCK!”

I love Luke’s curiosity and enthusiasm over the littlest things. Often I had to call him on to see greater things when he was content with a little stone or stick. I wonder if my heavenly Father ever is trying to lead me to more amazing things and if I get content with lesser things and nearly miss the greater?

Luke in his “special place”

Luke loves finding little places he can crawl into and feel like it is his own “special place.” Many times, even just at home, he finds the greatest pleasure out of the simplest things. What a lesson to us who sometimes place the bar so high in order to be moved or excited that we miss the joy that can be found in the little things and little places that are all around us.

He just can’t help it.

Of course, I think my son is adorable. But I especially enjoy it when others walking by stop to compliment my wife and I on our cute little boy. The power of encouraging words. A reminder to not always be focused on our own enjoyment, but to make the effort to encourage others along the path, even in little ways – it can mean a lot!

Between a Rock and Cute Place

As I look at this massive rocks and wonder about the ways they were slowly formed over time I can’t help also thinking about the ways my little boy is being slowly formed over time. I’m not the only influence, and my influence will slowly diminish, but everything I do right now is having a major impact on shaping the boy (and the man) he will become. The words I use, the way I react to him and events, the tones I use, the attitudes I model, the instructions I give, but more importantly, the example I give – are shaping him. What a scary honor!

Future Heart Breaker

When you look at my son, you see a cute boy. When I look at the same picture I see so much more… because I know him. I am enjoying his daily developments, his growing sense of humor, his budding interests and talents as well as his sin nature I am working to correct from the heart rather than merely by seeking to change behavior. I see the boy inside and love him more than I could ever describe. A cute kid to you is a part of my life and very reason for living. I wonder how my heavenly Father looks at a picture of me? You see me – but God sees ME.

“I’m Stuck!”

He didn’t get stuck, but he surprised me with his courage! There was a crack through this giant rock about the length of our van, and I asked him to stand in the crack for a picture. The next thing I knew he disappeared deep into the rock to appear out the other side! I worried for a minute that if he got stuck I wouldn’t be able to get in there to help him, though he easily fit through with some careful footwork. I wouldn’t have told him to venture in and out the other side, but his adventurous spirit made this dad proud.

“I see you!”

Here is Luke peeking out of a crack out the side, half way through the crack he explored to my surprise. I love the adventurous exploratory spirit of children. TOO MANY adults lose that zeal to learn and explore and GO where they have never been before. We become too content with our routines and “responsibilities.” When is the last time you blew off “normal life” and explored something or somewhere? If you can’t remember, you are over due!

TOP OF THE WORLD!

I was asked recently how being a dad had changed me. The question surprised me. Not that I couldn’t go on and on talking about it. But it has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. (Getting married is up there pretty high too!) I thought for a moment on how to answer and finally said, “I always thought I loved children more than most people, in fact, I didn’t think it was possible for me to love a child any more than I aleady did. But once I became a dad, I discovered why there is a completely different Greek word for parental love – because it is a deeper, and richer and more powerful love than I had ever experienced before. Something that can never be explained, only experienced.”

Being a dad has changed me to the core in ways I could never articulate. But most of all, I think I understand now what it really means to be a child of God. That understanding deepens and expands every day in ways I never could have anticipated.

Being a dad is one of the single greatest thing in life. I can’t wait until tomorrow!

Todd Liebenow and Karl

The extra treat was that I had Sara and Luke with me and my little boy (who adores all my puppets) got to see “where puppets come from” with a tour of the factory. I could not photograph much out of fear of compromising industry secrets, but here is Lukey with some eyeless lambs:

Luke among the Lambs

After One Way Street we headed up to Loveland to the Group Publishing headquarters where I had a meeting with Christine Yount who, besides being executive editor of CM Mag, has a new official title I love: Children’s Ministry Champion. (I guess there is room for another!)

Group’s Lobby has a TALKING moose head!

I also got to finally meet CM Mags managing editor, Jennifer Hooks who I’ve known only via e-mail as she has edited some of my writing for Group such as The New Deal article in the Jan/Feb ‘09 issue. Why was I meeting with these ladies? (I also met with a business guy about a deal on CM Mag for Kidology.org members that should be in place soon, just another perk for Kidology.org members!)

Ever wonder where the other end of the moose was?

ANYWAY, I was there to finalize the details for a column in Children’s Ministry Magazine. That’s all I can say at this time, but I’m very excited to be a regular contributor to the magazine now. More details soon! (I’m so sorry I forgot to get a picture with the Groupies – but I got the moose!)

After I left Group we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park hoping to see some live animals as well as some spectacular mountain scenes. I wasn’t disappointed! On the way out I caught this Mountain Goat on film:

It really is a mountain goat!

O.K., so that picture isn’t that great, but I had to turn on the camera and point fast! (And no, I was not driving, Sara was driving so I could enjoy the view and take pictures)

As you can see, the driving was a LOT of fun!

If I ever came to this park as a child, I don’t remember it, and I was very much impressed with how beautiful it is! Not quite Yosemite, but it’ll do!

Snow covered peaks above Rocky Mountain National Park

Lots of variety from the mountains to the landscapes and an abundance of roaming animals!

Unfortunately, Luke slept through most of the animal sightings – but we’ll be back! He just woke up when we got to Bear Lake and went for a short hike to see the snow covered frozen lake:

The Bastians on Bear Lake! (luckily, no bears!)

It was a short visit, but I considered it a teaser and plan to be back here many times in the not so distant future! I feel like I’m home here – as my earliest memories are from when I lived in Colorado as a boy.

Here’s a few more pictures from our special day (as we called it for Luke)

Mommy and Luke

Daddy and Luke

Sunset over the Rocky Mountains

Dusk in the Valley

Luke in his favorite spot – Dad in his.

I love Colorado. I am praying that God might enable me to raise my son here. I love the climate, the scenery, the culture, the people, the opportunities to explore God’s creation, and the presence of God I feel when I am here. Pray with me that my family might be able to call this home some day.

]]> http://kidologist.com/2009/04/22/puppets-publishers-and-peaks/feed/ 7 http://kidologist.com/2009/01/14/managing-multiple-iphoto-libraries/ http://kidologist.com/2009/01/14/managing-multiple-iphoto-libraries/#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:04:45 +0000 kidologist http://kidologist.com/?p=1647 I have often been asked to blog about Mac Tips (since I know a LOT of Mac secrets!) Well, tonight I responded to a fellow Twitterer with some help with iPhoto and after sending the e-mail, thought I’d post it here just in case it helps someone else.

QUESTION: How to you combine multiple iPhoto Libraries onto one drive and access each of them?

I recently combined all my iPhoto libraries onto one external drive because I had multiple iPhoto Libraries and it was getting a little crazy:

Macbook Pro (2003-2006, and 2006-2008, i had started over when it got too big)
macbook air (used when I travel)
mac mini (family photos)
mac G4 (scanning old family photos)

But I got to where I had to keep switching between machines or remember which machine had which photos. I finally wanted to get them ALL onto my Mac Mini since it has the massive monitor and a double decker external drive for back up.

While there is no easy way I know of to combine them all into one library, I actually don’t think you want to, every time I hit 10,000+ photos in a library it gets slow, because, as Apple won’t tell you, when you open iPhoto is loads EVERY thumbnail in your library upon opening, and it kills your memory and makes your machine start to drag. I wish upon opening it would open only the most recent import folder. (Duh) But I’m not on their payroll and I doubt they read my blog!

ANYWAY! The solution is actually rather easy!

Copy all the iPhoto Libraries you have to the external drive, and rename them each to a name that makes sense to you. Renaming iPhoto libraries does not effect the files inside, but DO NOT rename anything inside or iPhoto will fail to open them!

For example, my libraries are named:

iPhoto 2003-2006
iPhoto 2006-2008
iPhoto 2008 (just started this January)
iPhoto Yosemite (I made a new library on my Air when i went to Yosemite Summit)
iPhoto Family Archive (i am scanning family photo archives from my parents, want to keep separate)
iPhoto Temp (for when I am just doing a project and using iPhoto as a tool rather than a place to save photos long term.)

HERE’S THE GREAT TIP: When when you open iPhoto, HOLD DOWN OPTION while clicking the iPhoto icon and it will bring up a window offering 3 choices: Quit, Create Library, and Choose Library

Note: occasionally it opens under other windows, so if you are waiting too long while holding option, let go of the option and touchpad/mouse button and use expose’ to see all windows and you’ll see it.

Quit: Duh

Create Library: you can make a new one here, and you can navigate anywhere to make it, even an external drive. No need to be limited to your Pictures folder.

Choose Library: Navigate to where ever your iPhoto Libraries are, even on an external drive and pick the library you want to view/use.

NOTE: If you just open iPhoto without holding Option, it will just open the last library you used, so you can have a default one if you want, just always open it once when you are done using another, or remember to Option choose the one you want when you open iPhoto.

SHOULD ALSO NOTE: If you are putting all your iPhoto libraries onto one drive, be sure you mirror it once in a while to another drive, or you’ll be crying the day that drive fails and you lose all your photos. (Yes, even Macs can have a hard drive fail, that is life, and when Jesus promised in this world you will have tribulation, he may have been thinking about PCs, but Macs can fail too.) I don’t think Time Machine will back up an external drive!

I also use this to give my wife access to one of my libraries as a “read only” – she knows any edits I won’t get, but having access to a backup of my library saves her needing to ask me for a picture she needs.

I hope this helps those with multiple iPhoto libraries or who would like to be able to better organize and manage their photos with separate libraries.

Of course, we saw all kinds of animals! (Took the ones above from the tram!) I enjoy taking pictures of the animals – I do not enjoy smelling them!

However, it is not the animals that Luke enjoys the most. Oh, sure, he likes them. He’ll look at them when we point, and can even identify several by name. But there are other “creatures” on display at the Zoo that he will run to! And he’ll spend more time with each of these “animals” studying them, than he will on anything with fur or wings or hooves. Yup, you guessed it, the Cars on display from various dealerships.

Oh, yes. The cars. When we said we are going to the Zoo today, Luke’s answer is, “See Cars?” But our favorite thing about the Zoo is not the animals or the cars… it is being in a safe place where Luke can run around and enjoy a rare form of freedom to lead us around for a change, and for me, it is a wonderful opportunity for my hobby – “Luke Photo Journalism.” Here are some of my favorites from today. (Thanks for indulging me!)

Luke enjoying the playground. It’s a tunnel!

Luke behind bars… “I’m innocent!”

Luke, the fashion model.

Luke, the old fashioned greeting card.

Eager to get on the carousel.

Around and around with Dad.

Proof that I take pictures of my wife too!

It was a great day hanging out with the family. One of my good friends, Alan Root, said recently at Kid U, “Every day God gives us a gift – he gives us today. That is why it is called the Present.” It was a good reminder to live in the moment and enjoy TODAY. As Jesus said, “Tomorrow will take care of itself.”

Today was a present.

Luke was just eager to get going on our 1.8 mile hike to the Big Sable Point Lighthouse which is only accessible by hiking in.

If you squint you can see a little black and white dot in the upper left hand corner of this picture… that was our destination. Would Luke make it, that was the question!

Fortunately, some friends of our who live in Ludington, who we visited with on Tuesday evening, “just happened” to give us a kid-backpack. (God is indeed sovereign, and He likes to prove it over and over!) So when Luke got tired or decided he wanted to walk in directions other than forward, we had a way to make progress without losing too much time.

But we were in no rush, so we stopped often to rest and enjoy the beautiful scenery – a strange combination of sand, water and evergreens. (I’m sparing you all my nature photography!)

Luke definitely takes after his father in having this strong irresistible urge to wander off the well marked path! Keeping him on the trail was a constant struggle! Little explorer that he is! Oh, the fun we will have in the years ahead wandering around like Lewis and Clark!

Just had to post this one – is that one beautiful boy, or what? (note the shirt!)

Once we hid from mom off the side of the road when she wasn’t looking, but she soon found us!

“Does this road ever end?” Luke asks. “We’re not sure,” we answer!

But FINALLY we arrive and enjoy our sack lunch on a bench under the shade of some trees looking out over Lake Michigan. The lighthouse behind us and the roar of crashing waves around us. Luke seemed thrilled to have arrived at our destination and is eager to explore!

Soon he is off to see where all these wooden paths lead to. Treasure? Cookies?

He finds a steel wall with steps leading up to… to what? What could BE on the other side?

It’s water! As far as the eye can see. (Luke absolutely loves water!)

Luke ponders how there could be so much water in one place. (I don’t even try to explain that this is only a lake and that oceans are even bigger.)

He decides he likes this place very much, but he doesn’t like the big steel wall!

So he finds his way around it to the BEACH! And points so I know where he wants to go!

Soon he has found a UBPT. (Universal Boys Play Thing) Also known as “a stick.”

And what do boys DO with sticks, you ask?

Why, THROW THEM, of course! (this was only one of his many victims who were cast into the sea*!)

But then it was time to do what we came here to do – CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE LIGHTHOUSE! Luke made the height requirement by less than an inch so he got to go on an adventure to new heights, literally!

Every twenty steps or so there was a window with a ledge big enough for him to sit on, and he absolutely loved sitting there and taking in the view. There are quite a few of these pictures, though the lighting was tricky for pictures to get both the view inside the fairly dark tower and the outside. I was able to get it by opening up the aperture pretty wide to get the outside in focus and not lose the inside. Until I figured that out, either you got nothing inside (like below) or the outside was washed out and all white. (TMI for most of you I know, but my photo-friends will appreciate it!)

This shot shows when we spotted mom from around 50 steps up in the lighthouse!

Not even half way up yet, and already the view is getting spectacular. (Yes, that’s mom in the pink!)

We waved and waved and suddenly Mom actually SAW US in the little window and took this picture!

We went rather slowly, but I was so proud of Luke. He did the entire thing all by himself! Here he is passing the 100th step. (and this is the only time I wasn’t immediately behind him)

Yes, that’s me and Luke 130 feet up in the air at the top of the Big Sable Point Lighthouse!

The view was wonderful and the sky was perfectly clear. It was pretty windy but it felt great.

The lighthouse was pretty busy with a steady stream of visitors and yet, when we got up there, we had the whole thing to ourselves for about ten minutes. It really was a gift from the Lord. Luke had absolutely no fear at all. The funny thing was, the only thing that scared him was some orange streamers they had hanging from the two hatches you had to come through on the stairs. They were blowing in the wind and really freaked him out. I had to hold him as we passed the orange streamers. Silly, but sweet too.

Can you spot us up there at the top of the lighthouse? Good thing mom was too scared to come up, she was able to take some fun pictures from the bottom.

Here’s a zoomed in version of Luke at the top of a historic Michigan Lighthouse!

VIDEO: Watch Luke at the top of the Lighthouse

All good things must come to an end. In this case, all good things have another hour long walk before they come to an end!

Not that all of us had to walk the whole way, at least one of us got the royal treatment for most of the trip back. But as I said on the walk, even as my legs and back were aching, if he rests his head on mine, I could walk a thousand miles.

It was a wonderful way to spend our 15th anniversary. Several people have seemed surprised when they found out we took Luke on our anniversary trip – but when you waited as long as we did for a little child to love, he is the highlight of our celebration and the joy of our times together. (and he does take naps)

The Big Sable Point Lighthouse can be seen for 19 miles out into the Lake. I’m so glad that on this 19th of June we celebrate that we know the Big Savior who made a Point of being the Light we can build our House on! When the storms of life hit, we don’t rely on some rusty old retainer wall to hold off the erosion of time that pounds against our lives relentlessly – we can rely on the grace and mercies of God which are new every morning! Praise God!

*for those who e-mail me my typos, the use of the word “sea” here was figurative, not literal. OK?

• Don’t miss the video at the end, and click any picture for a larger view.

It’s hard to believe the Yosemite Summit 2008 is over. It’s been several weeks, but it still feels like a part of me is still there in the Sierra Nevada. It’s been fun sorting through the 5000+ pictures we took and reliving the fun memories. Not only the incredible PLACE we were, but the awesome friendships that were formed and will continue to grow in the years ahead.

It was an amazing time together and God did some incredible work in our lives. For me, my soul comes alive in this place and I finally feel truly free. We started our first day watching the sun rise at Glacier Point. The views are simply spectacular!

It was a time to leave the busyness and noise of normal life behind and just listen to God. There were times we could just sit and soak our souls in the presence of God as well as walking with Him on the incredible hikes.

There is just something powerful about reading God’s Word and praying when you are in a place where His handiwork is so much on display. The rocks indeed did cry out – God is real, and God is here.

The hikes themselves were indescribable. The first day we did a solitude hike (each separated by about five minutes so we could hike alone with God) and then on the second day we did the Panoama Trail which took us on an incredible hike around the rim of the valley, through many types of landscape and ended with the Mist Trail which goes to the top and then down the side of two thundering waterfalls. In the picture below we are near the starting point and in the background you can see the waterfall we would be at some seven hours later!

By the third day we did some easier hikes that had incredible views of the valley, some with a few straight down of seveal thousand feet! Below is one of the few railings due to the incredible drop straight down over 3500 feet!

The hikes were challenging – but the views breathtaking and like nowhere else on this continent. Not only can you not believe what you are seeing is real, but when you are hiking, you can’t believe “I’ll be there in a few hours” or “I was there yesterday?” We hiked through areas that at times looked like Narnia in winter – under the shadow of huge trees walking on several feet of snow while at other times we were out on barren rock checking out lizards. The scenery and climate changed constantly. We’d be hot and enjoying cold water to cool off, and later getting drenched from the mist of a raging waterfall. Like I often say, “This is the place God just showed off.”

I have been to MANY National Parks and NONE have the views and variety and splendor of Yosemite. I’ve often said the Grand Canyon is a yawner if you’ve been to Yosemite. We ran into some guys who were at the Grand Canyon just two days before (doing a cross country hiking trip) and they said Yosemite outdid anything they had seen at the Grand Canyon. They were in awe and said Yosemite far exceeded even their high expectations!

Yosemite is a photographers heaven. My wife was a little worried that I’d fall off a cliff in pursuit of a great picture and end up in real heaven. So I told her any time I saw an awesome, but dangerous, photo opportunity, my motto would be WWSS. (What Would Sara Say?) That motto cost me many potentially incredible shots… but also brought me home alive.

I have been dreaming of doing some of the serious hikes at Yosemite since I was a boy. Coming on this trip, and bringing a group of fellow children’s pastors with me was a dream come true. At one point I asked Yosemite had lived up to my grand descriptions of Yosemite before we arrived – and they all said no. One guy said, “You didn’t do Yosemite justice. You can’t begin to describe this place.”

There were people there from all over the world. (I was surprised there weren’t more Americans – or are we too used to having entertainment pumped into our homes?) I don’t know how anyone comes to this place and doesn’t leave with an awed sense of having been in the presence of the Creator. Everything here points to one thing: GOD.

I still have a lot of photo and video editing to do to create the “official” highlight video, but I decided to give you a small taste of what Yosemite Summit was like. It was truly a time of experiencing God in a place where his creative power is on full display and where his Voice is more easily heard. Men, as you watch this video, whisper a quiet prayer asking God if He is calling you to join us next year for Yosemite Summit 2009.

I just booked the lodge for 2009 and updated YosemiteSummit.org with next years dates!

The first of many retraining devices Luke would be in today!

Luke is a such a great traveler! He puts up so naturally with all the contrainsts of travel… car seat to stroller to tight airplane seat to stroller again to shuttle to rental car seat and hours upon hours of travel. He was strapped into something or confined to a small space from 8:30am until after 6pm! And only once complained, and even then had a good reason. (which we promptly smelled)

This being his fourth time flying (see his first flight) I gave the camera rest and just enjoyed the flight, except for a one point where Luke kept excitedly pointing out the window at something, but I could see nothing but clouds, so I took a picture with my iPhone to look at later more closely later when I could zoom in.

If you click on the picture below to view larger, maybe you can make out what Luke was so excited about seeing out the airplane window:

If you can see anything, let me know in comments.

CAR RENTAL RANT: (skip this paragraph if you want)

Can I rant a little? We got a great rate on our Budget rental, but I think it is because they laid off all their employees. At the airport it took forever to get our car, and then they did NO inspection of the SUV and I had to point out the damage in two places and insist they make note of it so they don’t try to blame it on me when I turn it in. My last trip to DC I ended up with a damaged rental car, and I wasn’t taking any chances. TIP: It is your job to check the car for damage before you drive off the lot, they love to try and pin prior damage on you so they can make money several times off one accident. After once having them try to pin damage on me I didn’t cause, I’ve had this happen several times where I inspect the car and find damage and the act surprised it’s there. But they never seem surprised on the other end.

We ate Chick-fil-A in honor of Steve and Amy Tanner.

We finally got to our resort and it is a beautiful place after dark, I can’t wait to see it in the day time. (even though Google Maps could not find it, nor our GPS, so the local gas station gave us directions when we backtracked, and said they meet most of the guests who end up at that same gas station!)

Sara went grocery shopping so Luke and I played and moved in. Sara came back with some bubble bath for Luke to enjoy in the hot tube… which for Luke will be a Luke-Warm tub… get it? LUKE warm? (never mind) Anyway, I decided to try the bubble bath stuff and it didn’t seem to work, so I kept adding more, and nothing happened. Then I turned on the jets… OH BOY!

I guess Mr. Bubbles works after all!

Well, time to head to bed, off tomorrow to hang out with Todd McKeever, Kidology’s CP Team Captain and another CP Team member… guess who? GOOD NIGHT!

We’ve done the same date every September 7th, ever since, and this year was the 18th time we’ve done it. While we usually go on the Spirit of Chicago or the Odyssey Cruise ships, this year we tried one we’ve seen there for years called the Anita Dee II.

But as we headed downtown, things were looking bad for a cruise!

It was POURING RAIN our whole drive downtown!

We’ve only had bad weather once in the past 17th years, so we figured that the odds had caught up to us. The one time before the weather was bad the ship never left the dock because the waves were too sever, and at one point the boat was rocking so much that the giant roast that a chef was cutting meat from ended up on the floor! Other than the time our ship crushed a small boat into the dock, most years have been uneventful from disasters, so we figured we were due for a rainy cruise after 17 years of clear sailing.

But, by the time we got downtown the rain let up, and things began to dry up. We saw a wedding party taking photos in a soaked park across from Navy Pier. But we should have known the weather would be bad, after all, “Steve Said It Would Be Like This.”

We cracked up when we saw this advertisement while walking the wet pier hoping for a dry cruise. When I stopped to take a picture of this ad, Sara said, “Oh, I know what you are going to do with that!” I said, “Put it on my blog when I write about the rain?” and she said, “Oh, no, I thought you were going to……………..” So I did:

It wouldn’t be the first time Steve Tanner was right about something relating to disasters.

We had fun at the Pier before docking time. (Don’t tell Sara I posted this pic, she is out and I didn’t have time for my usual “pre-blog wife photo approval process!”)

I often include pictures of the local wildlife – sorry, this is the best I could do.

The reflections on the water are always beautiful

Probably the first disappointment with the City Lights Cruises is that they don’t do a nice photo as you board, but the next guy in line was nice enough to take a picture of us while we held up the line. Their marketing is a little sneaky, I bought some advance tickets that said they were the full cost except for a docking fee and two drinks – ha – a surprise extra $60 after you think you’ve paid for the whole dinner and think all you have to do is buy two drinks, and since we drink Coke and not booze, we thought it wouldn’t be too bad. Oops, they charge your for two alcoholic drinks even if all you want is a Coke. It also didn’t have assigned tables like the others and the food was about as cheap as possible.

But in the end you are there for time together and to enjoy the view, so it wasn’t too bad overall – but definitely a step down from the other dinner cruises. (but also less expensive – as they say, you get what you pay for)

Ironically, when we arrived we were first in line, so we decided we didn’t need to be first, and went for a walk. When we got back the line was looooooooooong! We were wondering if this many people could actually FIT on the ship – and then learned that it is first come, first serve to seats, and feared we would be standing all night, but once we got on board, I ventured out of the line (which was heading for the bar) and found that the front of the ship was empty, and got to have it to ourselves for quite awhile, and later only a few couples came up there. So we ended up having a really nice time despite the fact that there were definitely NOT enough life boats for all the people on board!

Photography on these cruises is always hard, you have to really over expose to get a picture, but they still look nice if you don’t enlarge too much. It was a wonderful break from work and the usual pace of life, but I confess, I did check my e-mail at one moment when I was alone, and the funniest thing happened:

Yes, my iPhone said that I had 2 billion, 147 million, 483 thousand and 646 unread messages. Now, it definitely FEELS that way at times, but this was too funny. I grabbed my digital camera and took a picture of the iPhone screen. Since the odds of reading over two billion e-mails on a date was slim, I put the phone away – having learned my lesson – and after the cruise I peeked again and the number was back its usual high number, but in perspective, I get almost no e-mail now. I still haven’t figured it out – could that have been the total number of unread e-mails of everyone on earth at the moment?

The other surprise – not sure whether it was good or not – was the discovery after boarding that the cruise was THREE hours, not two as we expected. (Like the others) After a call to the babysitter to make sure she knew, we settled in for a long relaxing time afloat, but it was long. Toward the end we managed a spot on the couches on one level and slumped back to relax and enjoy the last hour or so, when we saw an equally bored looking Filipino family next to us. As I returned from getting my drink and was squeezing by I dropped a little Tagalog (language of the Philippines) as I often like to do to see their surprise when a white boy speaks a language most Americans don’t know. I’m not fluent, but I can say enough for the beginning of a friendly conversation, such as Iki Nagagalok akong makilala kayo. (my spelling of ‘Nice to meet you’) Though I started with just a ‘thank you’ as I passed by to my seat. (Salamat Po) Adding “Po” at the end is a sign of respect, which they always appreciate.

The next thing I know we were having a very enjoyable conversation and the last hour flew by.

Hindi ko alam kung papaano ko po kayo mapapasalamatan sa inyong kabutihan.

The treats of the weekend began on the way to church. Now from this picture you might I assume I live out in the wilderness, but there are several forest preserves quite close. But as we drove down the road to church my tendency to be taking in everything around me I caught a glimpse of something through a break in the trees and through a fence! Sara was surprised as I quickly pulled over and put the car in reverse claiming to have seen something through the trees which appeared solid on the left… indeed, I had!

My guess is an Elk? We have a lot of deer in our neighborhood so I assumed it was a buck, but after getting the pictures onto the laptop and zoomed in, I think it is an Elk. These pictures were taken through a gap in the chain link fence off the side of the road!

We went to two different preserves on Sunday and Monday… there is something refreshing about being outside enjoying the Son with family…

Luke seems to come alive outdoors and we want to instill in him not only a love of nature, but of the Creator who painted this world with His love. I really liked the motto I saw on a banner at the nature center, that turns out is a nation-wide effort: Leave No Child Inside. (Just google that phrase!)

Posing for a picture next to one of God’s most beautiful creations!

Luke taking in the scenery…

Although his favorite thing was just picking up rocks!

Of course, there was lots of beautiful examples of God’s Creative ability! Tough to only post a few!

Mom and Dad enjoy a romantic moment alone…

Luke is so blessed to have such loving grandparents nearby.

Taking in one of the beautiful views…

Right below us was a HUGE turtle, over three feet head to toe!

Luke with his daddy…

and mommy too!

My favorite “catch” of the day was this butterfly…

How anyone can not believe in God just escapes me!

It was a very refreshing and renewing weekend of re-creation!

If I was ever stranded in the desert with no water, but had Luke with me, I’d be O.K. I’d just follow him! If there is any source of water… he can find it!

He is drawn to water like a deer… wait, isn’t there a Bible verse about longing for water?

 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
Psalm 42:1-2

I pray that I would be as drawn to the Lord as my son is to water. After all, Jesus is better than water,  He is the Living Water!

 ”If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,
streams of living water will flow from within him.”
John 7:37-39

 Jesus is the Living Water who walked among us.

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.
Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a
spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:13

 Take a lesson from Luke…

Follow the Footprints of Your Father…
and seek the Water!

Here is a ‘very dramatic’ girl holding the bundle of seedlings. (taken with my iPhone by the way, and edited in iPhoto) As I had fun do doing some effects to this picture, I couldn’t help thinking how much the dandy lion and my little friend have in common. Both are full of tons of potential that won’t truly be discovered until they are set free to go wherever the Lord blows them.

Once blown way, this beautiful puff of seeds will soon give life to many others once it finds its place and begins to grow, though right now, there is no way to know where those plants will be.

Likewise, this beautiful girl will also someday produce fruit in ways and places that only God knows right now. I know mom and dad aren’t eager for the day she is ‘grown up’ (neither am I!) but it is comforting to know that when that time comes, wherever God may take her, she will blossom as well.

Train a child in the way she should go,
and when she is old she will not turn from it.
Proverbs 22:6

As you may know, I waited in line for about four hours on June 29th to get one of the first generation iPhones. (Links: eager to go, in line, ten minutes to go, first review)

Reviewing the iPhone will be an ongoing process, so rather than post multiple posts, I will just keep updating this post when I have new information, feedback, or gripes. So far, I am so incredibly impressed, I know that some will ignore my review as being too positively biased… but I will try hard to find bad things to keep the skeptics and Mac haters happy, as much as I can. As I have often said to my Mac-attack friends, I am a big Mac fan, but I am an honest one. I have ripped on my Mac online, so I don’t only say the positive – it’s just that there just is so much more positive than negative. And that is the truth.

REVIEW OF FEATURES: (will update)

TEXT MESSAGING: Not only does it look sweeeeet, and typing easy with the intelligent keyboard, looking people up is a snap, but there is a COOL feature. If you get a Text Message, and the phone is off. Not only will it notify you that you have a message, but it will simply give you the message and the sender in a pop-up so that you can see the message even without unlocking the phone and going to the SMS area to read it. If someone is sending you a quick answer, with a glance you can see the message and you are done.

CALENDAR: Scrolling through events is easy and visually wonderful. Day and month views are great too. Setting reminders and alarms is nice, especially the secondary alarm. For an appointment to meet a friend this week at a movie at 4:45pm, I set a reminder for 3:45 and a secondary at 4:00pm – the first I was in the middle of a conversation and hit ‘ignore’ – but on the second one, dismissed myself to make the appointment. That was cool.

PHOTOS: Man, this is amazing. The images seems a clear as a monitor. You can flip through with a flick of a finger, and the image rotates ALL FOUR ways if you turn your iPhone this way or that. Zoom in, or e-mail the picture you just took in seconds. I sync my favorite albums on my laptop, as well as “Last Roll” so I always have the last roll I imported with me.

CAMERA: Obviously, with no flash, it is best outdoors or in a well lit room, but it takes nice pictures at 2 mega-pixels. The shutter is slow, so blurs are easy to get:

HERE ARE SOME PICS TAKEN WITH THE iPHONE WITH COMMENTS: (click images for larger view)

Takes nice outdoor pictures.

Shutter is slow, so fast moving objects can get distorted.

The button to take the picture is visual on screen, not a “real” physical button, so it is very touchy (pun intended) and accidental pictures are common, and if you aren’t very careful, you push the iPhone when you push the button, and get a blurry picture, so you really have to concentrate on lightly touching, not pushing the button, keeping your finger close the button so you won’t tap, but not so close it senses your finger and takes a picture. Not dificult, but takes more concentration than a camera with a physical button. The location of the button so low on the screen makes it a little uncomfortable to hold and click, but that’s minor.

Lighting can be a bear, even in the sunshine, without a flash to fill in, but easily fixed in iPhoto – here is a picture as the iPhone took it (above) and here it is after iPhoto lightened it in one easy click:

YouTube: Wow, this is a time waster. Fun, but you could quickly lose a lot of time watching videos, but hey, if you are stuck somewhere, its like having a TV you can turn on and search for something fun.

Positive: you can easily and quickly find and watch YouTube videos on your iPhone and bookmark the ones you really like.

Negative: the audio doesn’t seem to always match the video, but I’m not sure if that is an iPhone issue, or YouTube issues, as I don’t use YouTube much even on a computer. The search also seems limited, I searched for “Conan Late Night ILM” on the iPhone (after a friend recommended it) and it said no results on the iPhone, but on YouTube it comes right up.

It also makes me nervous having so many kids with iPhones, as the content is often a concern – but then, I know kids are online viewing YouTube, it is a fact of culture, but now kids can watch stuff on their phone when no one is around to filter or supervise.

YOUTUBE UPDATE: (from Apple article) To achieve higher video quality and longer battery life on mobile devices, YouTube has begun encoding their videos in the advanced H.264 format, and iPhone will be the first mobile device to use the H.264-encoded videos. Over 10,000 videos will be available on June 29, and YouTube will be adding more each week until their full catalog of videos is available in the H.264 format this fall.

STOCKS: Looks cool. Google is selling at 530.38 (up 7.68) and Apple at 121.26 (down .78!) but that’s all I can tell you, not a feature I’ll be using unless I have stock someday! I only have time to invest in my family and the Kingdom.

MAPS: Simply incredible – and screaming fast! Put in your address and see your house from space, and zoom back to the whole earth. Then zoom into the middle a Africa and look for some huts if you want. I showed my gramma the Great Wall of China this evening. When I showed her how I could zoom into her house she said she will have nightmares tonight! Downside is, it only saves the places you typed in, you can’t navigate to somewhere and then bookmark that location. That is a little frustrating. But basically, it is Google Earth on your phone, and no slower than on the computer. This is the best thing to show kids. My nephew wanted to wave and see himself from space!

WEATHER: easy, simple, sharp and updates within seconds of going to view it. Six day forcast at your fingertips any time. not bad.

CLOCK: World time with the ability to have multiple times, I have Chicago, Manila and Melbourne on mine. If that wasn’t cool enough, it adds Alarms, Stop Watch, and even a count down timer and of course, choose your alarm sound from the ring tones. (too bad you can’t pick a song in your iPod music!)

CALCULATOR: simple, so surprises or perks… M+,M- and MR/MC is as fancy as it gets. Oh, well.

NOTES: These note pads look neat, yellow lined pads. (Text doesn’t line up with the lines) The font is friendly and casual. But no formatting at all, and your notes are displayed most recent (or recently edited) at the top. I wish I could rearrange the order of the notes. If all you need to do is write a note, this works. The only real “feature” is a nice one though, click and it will open as an email ready to send to yourself or someone, so you don’t have to copy and paste into an email. (which is good, since you can’t copy and paste anything – see CONS)

SETTINGS: You simply have to poke around in here, lots of features and settings, I’m still experimenting!

NOW, THE BIG FOUR:

PHONE: I heard lots of negative about AT&T, but other than having to change my cell phone number after eight years, I find nothing to complain about. My calls are clearer, my signal stronger, and merging two calls is a snap. I can stay on the phone and still use all the other features. (I was on Verizon)

My bluetooth works perfectly, and connects instantly. (My family and friends hated my bluetooth – my wife says my greeting was, “hi, this is karl, hang on, I’m trying to get my bluetooth to connect) Now if I have the headset on, it pops up three choices: HEADSET, iPHONE, SPEAKER, and if I choose headset, it is just there, instantly in my ear!

The EDGE network, while slower than the G3, is SCREAMING FASTER than what I had on Verizon on my Treo, so I feel like it is light years ahead of what I had before. If G3 is faster, I’ll be impressed, because this is fast! I got no signal in an elevator in the center of a building, but other than that, I’ve had to signal issues, and since it dropped AT&T and automatically connected to any trusted WI-HI networks, at home and work and many other places, it is on the wireless Internet anyway.

MAIL: This is my favorite! View, read, delete, respond as quickly and as easily as on the laptop. Typing is a little slower, but I expect it to get faster as I get used to it. And I set my settings to delete from server if I delete from Inbox on iPhone, meaning it will never end up on my laptop, so I can do email when I am out, and won’t have to delete twice. If it is something I need to do on laptop, just leave it alone on iPhone and it will come into laptop. And you can limit your mail to 25, 50, 75, 100 or 200 messages so they will disappear as time goes on with the ‘real’ messages being on your computer. But nice to have that reference with you. I won’t have to take my 17″ laptop with me so much now.

SAFARI: FINALLY the actual real Internet on your phone. Zoom, rotate, and surf easily. Have multiple windows open, and keep them open all day if you want. There is no flash player so Kidology.org header doesn’t appear or the welcome screen to my novel site, or other flash sites, but that is minor, and usually not needed. I can blog, and log into admin sites as well. Still need to see if I can blog a picture using the iPhone. If I can do that, I will really be excited for the reporting I’ll be able to do on the road.

iPOD: This just rocks. For one thing, finally an iPod with built in speakers! And if you have an iPod, you just have a cooler one now. I have 984 songs and 23 videos (two are full length movies, and a few TV shows).

==================
CONS (what I don’t like)

NO TASKS. My biggest disappointment with the iPhone is that they completely left out any tasks, or to-do lists. I LOVED that on my Palm and it is a part of iCal, so I don’t get why that was left off. My guess is because it has to work PC and Mac, and I know my Mac and Palm struggled with syncing tasks. I am really hoping a widgit or third party solution comes soon. In the meantime, I am using the web-based TaskAnyone.com and finding it very helpful, and easy enough to do on the iPhone.

NO COPY / PASTE This is a huge oversight in my opinion, many tasks take longer because you can’t copy and paste. Palm had shortcuts which were awesome and you could make them anything you wanted. They need to find a creative way to allow users to have their own keyboard short cuts and copy/paste is really needed!

NOTES: They need to beef this up. I’d like to be able to change the order of the Notes just like you can the order of your Favorites in Phone.

TWO / THREE CLICKS TO DO A PERIOD - I wish period and comma were on the main keyboard, but you have to hit symbol key, then period/comma, and then symbol key to get back to typing, so a period is three clicks. UPDATE: if you hit space after a period/comma it goes back to ABC automatically, but it is still a paid do to puncuation. They should just make the space bar smaller and put period and comma on the main screen.

DOESN’T WORK WITH ALL iPOD SPEAKER SYSTEMS. The iPhone does not work on my car iPod player (that goes through the radio), at all, even though it will dock and charge, just won’t play above a marely audible level. Also, it gets a “this isn’t supposed to work with this” message in the one in my bathroom, but works fine after I put it in airplane mode. (at it’s suggestion)

RESOLVED ISSUES: (will update)

NO CAPS LOCK – found a way to enable it in Settings.

Oh, and let me end with this. Someone posted a picture of a smashed iPhone on Kidology (with the screen still working, fyi) – but I must tell you this, at a picnic this week, I took my iPhone off and put it on the blanket with my keys, etc. to protect it, and later an upper elementary boy stepped on it hard, and it didn’t hurt it a bit. (the boy, therefore, was allowed to live) So, it is a pretty durable device! Not that I want to test that, but I was impressed!

PS: Wow, me and my iPhone got blogged about Down Under!

==============================================

BUGS/CRASHES/ETC.
Here I will log actual problems that I experience with my iPhone:

# = number of times this has happened.

3 / Google Maps “Crash” – not sure if it is a crash, interuption in wireless service, or what, but sometimes when you are in the middle of map surfing the iPhone just suddenly returns to the main menu. The first time I thought I must have bumped something, but the next few times I could tell I didn’t. And it doesn’t ‘remember’ where you were, so if you want to return to that place, you have to start over. Rating: annoying

1 / Safari Crashing /Freeze – one occurance, but happens 3 times. I was loading my blog to show my wife my iPhone review, and ironically, the page would get 80% loaded and then go to home screen. On my fourth attempt, it froze, but restarting the iPhone fixed it. (hold down both buttons for 6-7 seconds, like resetting an iPod) Then the page loaded quickly. My Wi-Fi was on one bar at home, so it might have been a slow connection?
Rating: concerning

1 / Freeze and Scorch! - This was new. I plugged it into the syncing/charging cable and attached to the computer to sync and charge, and then set it down and forgot about it. After blogging (the one above this one!) I picked up the phone and about burned my hand! It had frozen, screen still on, and was HOT. A reset did the trick, but ouch, it was overheated big time. Possible causes, it was playing music when I plugged it in, I was curious if the music would stop, it didn’t at first, but then I got distracted, so I’m not sure how long the music played. (Actually, I stepped away for a bit.) After the reset, there was a 20% battery warning pop-up. Maybe that popped up when I plugged in with music playing? Anywy, just reported when things go weird.  Rating: Ouch

So far, these are not alarming – it is a computer, and they are prone to need a reboot occasionally. It seems “go to home screen” is it’s default, which beats a freeze or error message. Kinda funny, because it makes you first assume human error.

See the little white ball?

So I get down close to see what it is: a spider carrying a ball almost as big as him (or her), I honestly couldn’t tell, but when something is UGLY I usually assume it’s a guy.

Pointing to show the size… not too scary, at least not from a distance.

Maybe headed out to play? Or just left and took the ball with him when the other spiders didn’t like his rules?

I got as close as I could and we locked eyes for a stare-down!

He gave me a nasty look and I told him he was alive at my mercy; that I could easy squish him at any second. He shrugged and replied, “That may be true, but if you were my size, you’d be running for your mommy.” I had no come back to that, so I let him live.

But I’m never walking barefoot in my front yard again!

Major League Grass!

These are my feet on the grass at Comerica Park, home of the almost-world-series-champs Detroit Tigers, the day after their opening day against the Blue Jays, who my little brother covers for MLB.com. (look for his name right on bluejays.com) I drove to Detroit to hang with my bro for a few days and watch him “in action.”

Karl and Jordan in the Dug Out

My one day media pass gave me access to the whole park. I entered the stadium via the “tunnel” on the visitor side after passing through the clubhouse. Sorry, but no pictures were allowed in the clubhouse. This was a day off, between opening day and a game today, so the park was empty but there were players there to practice, work out, etc. Among several Blue Jay players I didn’t recognize I saw Jim Leyland (tigers manager) getting into an elevator, Justin Verlander (rookie of year last year for the American league) walk by and get into his SUV, Gregg Zaun (blue jays cather) walking around, and got to visit a little with John Gibbons, the Blue Jays manager. Then guess who walked by?

The Big Hurt

One of my little brother’s friends

Yup, Frank Thomas! It was very cool to be in the clubhouse and have my little brother say, “Hey, Frank, can I introduce you to my brother?” The Hurt says, “Sure, Jordan.” and turns and talks with me. I’ll never wash the hand he shook… or wait, I already did at dinner last night! ahhhhhhh. Oh well. I said “hanging out” above as a lead in teaser… that’s probably stretchin’ the encounter which was less than a minute, but hey, I met Frank Thomas, and the highlight for me wasn’t meeting him, so much, as being introduced to him by my little brother who I at one time taught about baseball! This little kid I used to play catch with now works the MLB.com and introduces me to 18 million dollar players and professional coaches. Makes a big brother proud! The picture above Jordan took and is part of his MLB.com blog Spring Training photo gallery. He is really a good photographer! If the reporting gets old in time, he could switch to being a sports photographer. I’m serious, check out his pics. (for additional online fun, check out this very funny new tv commercial about Frank Thomas on the Blue Jays: download. mp4)

But like I said, Frank wasn’t the highlight… it was Flat Stanley.

Flat Stanley in the Press Box

Many Aunts and Uncles have probably heard of Flat Stanley. I’ve had many adventures with Flat Stanley from all the various kids and nephews and neices who have mailed him to me. Perhaps you’v been so lucky? Kids mail out his story and him and ask you to take him somewhere, take pictures, and mail back for them to share in class. My latest relative to send me Flat was my nephew Michael in California, so I took Mr. Stanley on this trip with me. (No, I did not ask Frank to pose with Flat Stanley, though the thought did cross my mind, but no pics in the clubhouse anyway.)

As you can see, Flat Stanley was a member of the 1968 World series team…

And has been immortalized in the statues of hall of famers around the park… (That’s Flat Stanley with Ty Cobb)

But even still, he is ready and eager to play on the field…

Or just go and pose on the infield grass…

But I’m sorry to say, he came to a sad end, when my brother, getting tired of all my Flat Stanley pictures (many not posted, but being sent to Michael) fed him to the giant Tiger outside the stadium!

It was a great bro hang out time. Truly, the highlight for me wasn’t Flat Stanley, or even Frank Thomas, it was getting time with my little brother who I am so proud of. We don’t get much hang time these days, but if family is first, sometimes you just have to go to where they are to invest in the relationship, even if you must hang out with them at work. It was a great trip, but I have to get home! Today is Sara’s birthday!

You can send her a birthday greeting at sara @ kidology.org (no spaces, those are to prevent email snagging online spam bots!)

My fist Father’s Day at Lake Geneva

Being a Dad has been my dream since I was a boy. Why? Well, I had a wonderful Dad, and he was my favorite person in the whole world, and I couldn’t wait to get to BE a Dad and be on the other end of the fun… inventing the adventures… creating the laughter… teaching the lessons of life. And while my dad was not perfect, he was real, and that was good enough for me. I hope that I too can be a real follower of Christ for my son, if not a perfect one.

Me with Luke, the day he was Given to me.

If I had been asked a year ago today what changes this little life would bring into my life, I would have never guessed how dramatically my life would change. I thought I could simply add “being a Dad” to an already critically over-loaded life. I was wrong. But I have learned my lesson, and am enjoying a balance in life like never before in nearly two decades of ministry.

Sara with Luke, the day I brought him home and said,
“CAN WE KEEP HIM?!?!?”

Sara has blossomed as a mom. I don’t know where she learned all the mom-stuff she suddenly knows! I know she surfs the web and we’ve got our stacks of parenting periodicals, but those can’t explain the instinctive answers she can give me every time this Dad says, “What should I feed him?” or “What’s he want now?” or “Why is he doing this?” I’m definitely the “fun” parent, and while I have a nack for getting him to sleep… on just about everything else Sara is the expert. (Not that I don’t help! But she is the expert on what he needs throughout the day)

Here we are, as a family, just moments after the adoption was final in court.

It’s been an adventurous year! God used this little baby to realign my entire life around my family. And oh the fun we have had along the way. Here are some of the links to the adventures I have posted throughout this past year:

• The First Announcement
• Baby Luke Video
• Historical Moment
• On Being a Father
• Newest Mom on the Block
• Baby Luke Does the Dew!
• Baby Luke Goes to Lukes
• My First Father’s Day
• Luke Goes Camping
• Luke’s Six Month Pictures
• By Popular Demand! More Pics!
• Luke Headed to Kid U!
• Luke Down a Giant Slide?
• Luke at the Pumpkin Patch
• Luke’s First Halloween
• Luke’s First Flight
• Luke’s Big Day in Court
• Happy Birthday Luke!
• Luke Learns to Drive

The Bastian Family, ready for another year together.

To celebrate this special day we had some friends over for dinner, and part of their punishment for being our friends was they had to watch a 15 minutes video of pictures of Luke over the past year. A download link of the video (110mb!) is available to any friend or family member who e-mails and asks for the link, rather than post it here for any web surfer who may come along.Yes, it has been a year of blessing, and a year of profound change, but we follow a God of Tomorrows and a God of Second Chances, and we eagerly look forward to what He has in store for this next year as we follow Him…

I am the man who
has seen affliction…
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD’s great
love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The
LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
The LORD is good to those
whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD. Lamentations 3:1,21-26

ALL I NEED

Make yourself, Lord, all I need,
In all I say and do,
May my dependance be on nothing else,
Let me only lean on you.

I want to need nothing else,
Than to know I’m on your side,
So when problems come, or I get down,
I will run to You and hide.

Make yourself, Lord, all I need,
Even over the things I love,
Because even those I’m finding out,
Are just extras from above.

I want those extra blessings,
The things you’ve given me,
To be things I am fine without,
When they’re gone or hard to see.

I do want to enjoy them,
For that is why they are sent,
But when it is just me and You,
I want to be content.

So make yourself, Lord, all I need,
As I live each day through,
Make me happy, peaceful, and content,
As long as I have you.

Karl Bastian, 1989

If you make a list of the things you truly need, the list becomes amazingly short. Then when you list your blessings, yes, name them one by one, you find that your blessings far out weigh your real needs, even if your list of fulfilled “wants” does feel shorter than you’d like. Like Adam and Eve, who fixated on the one tree they were forbidden to eat from, we too often focus on the thing we can’t have, instead of on all the many things we can. God is saying to us as well, “Look at all the other trees.”

The blessings and gifts of God truly do out weigh the losses and hurts of this short life. Take a deep breath and breath God in deeply…. ahhhh, He is all you need.

Chicago, taken 1989, no digital editing, I used a filter for the coloring.

CONSTANTLY BECOMING

I’m not who I used to be,
I’m not who I will be,
‘Cause more like my Savior,
I’m everyday becoming.

I’m constantly changing,
Constantly rearranging,
And I won’t reach perfection,
Until His second coming.

But until I see Him in the sky On His love I will rely,
I must let Him live through me,
So with His glory I can shine. Oh, I tried to live life on my own,

But I’ve learned my life is just a loan,
God entrusted it to me,
My life’s no longer mine. I’ve given it back to Him,

The good, the bad and all the sin,
So He can mold it and shape it,
He’s the potter, I’m the clay. Sometimes I find it hard to trust,

But I know that it is a must,
If I’m to be all I’m meant to be,
On that final day. (So I’m)

Constantly changing,
Constantly rearranging,
And I won’t reach perfection,
Until His second coming.(Praise God!)
I’m not who I used to be,
But I’m still not who I will be,
‘Cause in the image of God’s Son,
I’m constantly becoming.

Karl Bastian, 1989

This is my little brother, 1989, visiting me at MBI. That’s the George Sweeting Center for World Evangelization being built in the background. (Taken from the top of the parking garage – yes, I did sit my little bother on the brink of a six story ledge! Funny the things you notice years later!)

It’s amazing to read words I wrote my freshman year of Bible College (MBI) that are as true today as they were back then. I hope I’m closer to God now than I was then, and yet, I’ve made some big mistakes since that youthful idealism, but the encouraging truth is that God isn’t finished with me yet! The changing and rearranging is still going on today!

Today was a difficult day in my private journey as a pilgrim of Christ. I’ll leave it at that as far as details go, but enough to say, of all the difficult days I may experience in life, today will always be one of the most difficult I ever had to face. And yet God’s peace was evident and his mercy flowed freely and his grace was abundant.

My passage today (accidently) was “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37)

I’d like to share what Oswalk Chambers wrote “today” since I underlined the entire thing anyway in my journal…

Paul is speaking of the things that might seem likely to separate or wedge in between the saint and the love of God; but the remarkable thing is that nothing can wedge between the love of God and the saint. These things can and do come in between devotional exercises of the soul and God and separate individual life from God; but none of them is able to wedge in between the love of God and the soul of the saint. The bedrock of our Christian faith is the unmerited, fathomless marvel of the love of God exhibited on the Cross of Calvary, a love we never can and never shall merit. Paul says this is the reason we are more than conquerors in all these things, super-victors, with a joy we would not have but for the very things which look as if they are going to overwelm us. The surf that distresses the ordinary swimmer produces in the surf-rider the super-joy of going clean through it. Apply that to our own circumstances, these very things – tribulation, distress, persecution, produce in us the super-joy; they are not things to fight. We are more than conquerors through Him in all these things, not in spite of them, but in the midst of them. The saint never knows the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it – ‘I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation,’ says Paul. Undaunted radiance is not built on anything passing, but on the love of God that nothing can alter. The experiences of life, terrible or monotonous, are impotent to touch the love of God, which is in Christ our Lord.

I wrote in the margin, “Be overwhelmed by nothing other than the love of God.”

Life is precious and all too short. And we so easily miss what matters most, and as I have learned this past year, one of the biggest threats to our spiritual life is not sin, but ministry. Ministry that overruns our intimacy with God and family. Hidden behind a passion for ministry can be a desire to please God, impress God, and matter to God… to somehow be worthy of his love, his salvation, and the life and ministry He has blessed us with. Sure, salvation was free, but I want to be worthy of it after the fact, since I know just how unworthy I truly am. And so we set out with DO lots for God, when all he wants, all He died for, was US, not anything we can do for Him. It doesn’t mean that our ministry isn’t sincere, effective, or fruitful, it is just that it is too much and overshadows what is more important. Sure, we try to “make time for God” and “make time for family” – but ministry is what drives us from morning to night. It ought to be that the most important thing daily is our relationship with God and our family, and then we “make time” for service to God. I know I had it backwards, and I doubt I am alone in that, and the result was catastrophic when I finally reached a breaking point.

Here is what I was supposed to read today… and it was fitting as well:

No one is ever united with Jesus Christ until he is willing to relinquish, not sin only, but his whole way of looking at things. To be born from above of the Spirit of God means that we must let go before we lay hold, and in the first stages it is the relinquishing of all pretense. What our Lord wants us to present to Him is not goodness, nor honesty, nor endeavour (ministry service)…. He wants us to relinquish all pretense of being anyting, all claim of being worthy of God’s consideration. Am I willing to relinquish everything and to be identified only with the death of Jesus Chirst?

It is easy to focus on sin in our world, and the more sensational the sin, the better! But it is much harder to focus on the ill-effects of hyper-achieving ministry, and how ministry has a habit of breaking people who are blind to the effect ministry can have when it is out of balance. There is a reason that the average length of a minister’s career is only a few years… ministry, as “Godly” as it is, can be a destroyer of saints who are blindsided by the effects of over zealous ministry, despite how sincerely motivated it may be. We are serving God! People are going to hell! There is no time for anything else… including our intimate walk with God. We can be so busy serving God, that too often sincere saints don’t even see the eroding effect on their spiritual life and family life. I was one of them.

One of the many amazing things I have learned in the past year as I have slowed waaaaaay down is that the world we live in is much more broken then I ever knew. Oh, I knew that those without Christ live broken and hurting lives as a result of their sin, and that compelled me and motivated me to do all that I could to reach them with the Gospel, and I focused on kids because if we can reach them before it is too late, we can save them so much pain and agony… what I was blind to was how much pain and hurt and brokeness exists in the body of Christ. I was moving too fast in the ministry express lane to notice. But as I have met with friends and people over the past year to share with them my own brokeness and the lessons I am learning, so many open up to me and share their own brokeness, things they would have never told me before… because I was one of the naive who was not aware of the way things truly are. My transparency has opened up a whole new world where Christ is the helper, healer, and restorer of so many brothers and sisters in Christ who I assumed had it all together, as they did of me. I have learned that the Church is a place where people are scared to be open and honest about real life struggles, because real life is too shocking for the Church to handle and usually only judgement results or rejection, instead of grace and acceptance. A professional counselor told me recently that he believes the center of grace has moved from the pastor’s office to the counselors office because too many pastors today can’t handle the realities of sin and brokeness, and in response they often judge or cast away those they should be helping. They are shocked by sin, though they shouldn’t be. So people turn to counselors, the only ones they can truly trust because they are legally bound to be confidential and trust worthy. How sad. I am grateful we have counselors, and that there is a safe place available for those who recognize they need help… but for an hourly fee? What happened to the body of Christ?

Let me encourage you to open your eyes to the world around you. Seek genuine friendships where you can be real and open about your own struggles, and be one of the rare few who is open to listen, accept, forgive and offer grace and mercy to the hurting around you. Odds are, there are some people in your life you are assuming are “fine” when they are carrying deep personal pain and hurt and believe there is no one who cares or that they can trust to talk to or who will truly walk with them. The Church talks much about Christ being a friend to sinners, but we are to be friends of sinners too. Not just pass the buck to Jesus. We are to BE Jesus to the hurting around us, and its not just our unsaved neighbors who are hurting and struggling, it is the people in the pews around us on Sunday too. In fact, they are probably hurting more, because they are sincerely trying to live for God, but failing or faultering.

I used to look for those who could be examples to me… who had it together and who I could model my life after… and I hoped I too could be that for others… now I’d rather fellowship with other failures… those who can see their short-comings and understand that only through Christ can we have any hope of not only being conquerors, but Praise God, we can be MORE than conquerors through Christ who loves us with an overwhelming love.

If you are overwhelmed by life or ministry… be overwhelmed instead by God’s love for you and release what God is not asking you to bear. He isn’t overwhelmed, so why are you?

If you are not… (and that’s ok) then open your eyes! Someone nearby you is, and probably not who you expect. Be an encourager for them! Be a real friend who is ok with them being real. When your turn comes (and Jesus promised tribulation!) you will have a friend in return.

If you are a failure.. welcome to the club! The Church isn’t supposed to be a country club for those who are doing “OK” and living in victory, it supposed to be a place where sinners are welcome. And you and I are invited!

If you are in ministry and share the struggle of balancing your walk with God, your family life, and your Call to ministry, I invite you to my other blog The Growing Edge. It is where I regularly write on more serious topics in my journey as a recovering pastor. This blog is normally for more light-hearted fun, humor, and glimpses into life’s adventures, but I was compelled today to re-post this entry on both blogs.

But if the Bears didn’t shine, my wife did! So rather than try to give any football commentary (and make a fool of myself) instead this blog’s purpose is simply to show off the AWESOME and AMAZING SUPER BOWL CAKE that my wife made for our Bears Party. And please, do leave her some comments… I know she’ll be checking!

But is this an awesome cake or what?!?!?!? It should have been illegal to cut into it!

Feast your eyes on this: (since only we got to actually feast on IT)

PS: My sister will also instant message me a complaint if I don’t mention that SHE made the gummy team logos in the end zones. Pretty cool, eh?