My Canadian Buddy, Tyler

Here is a picture of my Canadian buddy, Tyler, doing what he loves best: READING! I have never met Tyler in person (yet!) but I hope to some day! His parents are missionaries in a remote part of northern Canada, where kids church looks like this: (Tyler in the yellow shirt) I got to know Tyler via his mom when I learned that he is a big fan of Toyboxtales.com, my novel (Order of the Ancient), and my blog. In fact, I am blogging about him today in order to encourage him with his new blog, since I just discovered tonight that he credited me as his “inspiration” to begin his blogging career: Maybe some of the zillions who come here can visit his blog and leave a comment to encourage him! Here is Tyler, at a local landmark–the moose head at the gas station, with the autographed copy of my novel I sent him after I learned that he only had the downloads and needed to clear up some harddrive space and was sad to lose it. (The book was released originally online a chapter a week, which is when Tyler read it) Here is Tyler in trouble with…

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Which is better: Powerful Jedi Knight or Rodent?

YOUR VOTE IS NEEDED IN COMMENTS! Well, it was Baby Luke’s first Halloween. While we are not huge fans of Halloween, we do enjoy the dressing up and, of course, giving and getting candy. And, as first time parents, we have been looking forward to, and enjoying all of Baby Luke’s ‘firsts’ so why not have some fun dressing him up? PROBLEM: What do you do when BOTH mom and dad buy the little guy a costume? Well, not only do you trick or treat twice, and have two separate photo-ops, but you take the issue to your blog readers and ask them to vote! YOUR DECISION: Which costume was better? The POWERFUL JEDI KNIGHT, Luke Skywalker (not forgetting Luke’s NAME is “Luke”) or dressing him up as a rodent of unusual size? Please VOTE in the COMMENTS for JEDI KNIGHT or RODENT. Here are the pictures to aid in your valuable vote decision…. CHOICE ONE: The Rodent (aka Mickey Mouse) Here is Sara with her little adorable mouse boy. Is he simply adorable, or what? Em, Eye, See, Kay, Ee, Why? Em, Oh, You, Es, Ee! Did you say “Candy?” Oh, wait, I have no teeth yet! You’ll never…

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This Old Church – Part 3: No Going Back Now!

Well, there is no going back now! The walls have been touched with paint, something they have been needing for a very long time. Now that I see how much it improves the atmosphere, even in the earlier stages, I am feeling bad that I didn’t start this sooner! We are actually doing TWO major projects at the same time, but all in the hallways. The preschool wing is getting a blue base color, but will be mostly covered with murals as we create a Spring garden that is inviting to preschoolers. (Especially in winter!) The blue that remains after the murals will be the sky. The difference is amazing! The current paint job on the walls and doors in the children’s ministry wing hasn’t been touched up in at least eight years (when I started working here) and was actually kinda gross in many places if you bothered to look closely. Amazing how blind we become when a place we love becomes ‘home.’ Hopefully, our new look will make it more inviting for others to make this their church home. Kelly green? (Our preschool director, Kelly, dressed to match the project!) The door and window frames are being done…

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Happy Birthday to Me. :)

I woke up this morning to a nice surprise, our web director had posted my birthday on the Kidology.org homepage with a forum post for people to say ‘Happy Birthday.’ It was fun to read those posts! I even got a cell phone call from a Kidology member in Colorado! Today I am 36. And since I love numbers, I was reflecting today that I have lived to be six years old, six times! When I hit the first ‘6’, I was still a youngling at Bellflower Baptist Church in California. By ’12’ I was a young Gospel Magician already doing shows at church and in my friends’ churches. Six more years and I was a senior in high school, at ’18.’ By the end of the next six, I would be ’24,’ a graduate of MBI and married! The next six took me through several ministries, but by ’30’ I was at my present ministry. What amazed me the most reflecting, was that I have been in the same ministry for the last six years. Which means, that a 1/6th of my life has been at the Village Church! It doesn’t seem that long, so I must still be…

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The Music of Star Wars…

After living in Chicago since 1985, I finally have been to Ravinia, and boy am I late! I’d heard good things about it, but somehow never went there. I must be the only Moody guy who didn’t take a date there (which is part of why I didn’t), and it exceeded my expectations. (the girls all playing a game as we wait for the music to start) Well, it took the ‘Music of Star Wars’ – to get me to finally go – with a very large group of friends from church… it was a great group date with no kids. For only $12 you get to sit on the lawn with your blankets, chairs, snacks, etc. and enjoy the music coming from the Pavillion. If you squink, you can see stormtrooper in the front of the orchestra. (Boba Fett if you have great eyes!) I would have gotten a better picture, but the ushers came over and said I couldn’t take any more pictures with zoom. The actor who played the young Boba Fett narrated the story as the music wove through all six movies in order. His accent was fun – “Queen I’m a Dollar,” or “Luke went…

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Revenge of the Birthday Party!

Today, cleverly disguised as P4-K4 (An Empirial Bounty Droid), my twin brother arrived on the scene of a rebel birthday party of a princess named Olivia. Forget the protocol and ettiquette – this droid ain’t one to mess with! Trained in the ways of the Force, this mild mannered droid packs a powerful (and wet) punch! After pledging his allegiance to Darth Vader (who, as you can see by the t-shirt, still loves his mom), to infiltrate and destroy this rebel outpost, he went on to Saber training. Jedi Master Nakooki trained all those in attendance in the finer arts of light saber battling. So far his plan to infiltrate these rebel scum was going along fine… They practiced their new skills sparring with each other… Each Jedi-wanna-be honing his (or her) skills so that they would be prepared to fight the enemy… little did they know, the enemy was already in their midst! Then it happened! One of the padawan learners, sensing a disturbance in the Force, struck out at the infiltrater while he was trying to refresh himself with a glass of water… His response gave him away and so he lept down from the patio and it…

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