Set America Free Act

The energy bill that passed last week has a provision in it called the "Set America Free Act."

This is a very proactive piece of legislation. It calls for the three North American countries to be energy self-sufficient by 2025. At first glance, this may not seem possible, but it is absolutely doable and vital.

There is new technology that heats shale that is almost oil and turns it to oil. We have enough of this "oil shale" in the US alone to produce enough oil to last for 200+ years. That's not counting ANWR, increased Gulf drilling, or alternative fuels and energy supplies.

We have to lower our need for foreign oil as soon as possible and this appears to be a very possible way to achieve that goal.

(Thanks to the House Committee on Resources staffer who provided this info)

Kelo Lives

Unfortunately the attempt to teach Supreme Court Justice Souter a lesson has failed, but here comes another try.

The New Hampshire Libertarian party is collecting signatures to seize the 167-acre Plainfield vacation home of Justice Breyer and turning it into a park. Organizers are gathering signatures to go before the town next spring and ask that Breyer's property be seized and converted into "Constitution Park," complete with "stone monuments to commemorate the U.S. and New Hampshire constitutions." Full Story

Let's hope this one has more success!!!

CAFTA "Arm Twisting"

Here is a SHORT list of the Congressional "arm twisting" in order to get enough votes to pass CAFTA by giving Congress-critters pork to take home with them for recess and other "transportation" needs. Can anyone tell me again why the federal government (a Republican controlled one at that) is spending my tax money on bike paths!!!

* $220,000 for one line-item for trolley buses in Puerto Rico
* $366,000 for one line-item for intermodal transportation at the Bronx Zoo
* $835,000 for a second line-item for intermodal transportation at the Bronx Zoo
* $4.2 million for intermodal transportation at the Philadelphia Zoo
* $146,000 for a second line-item for trolley buses in Puerto Rico
* $1.3 million for sidewalk lighting and landscaping around Cedar's-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles
* $1.3 million for a daycare center and park-and-ride facility in Champaign, IL
* $1.7 million for an intermodal park and ride facility at the Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA
* $2 million for a third line-item for intermodal transportation at the Bronx Zoo
* $440,000 for a bike path in Powers, OR
*$480,000 for pedestrian and bicycle sidewalks, lighting, and handicapped ramps in Miramar, FL
* $200,000 for trails and bike paths on Bird Mountain, TN
* $960,000 for a bike path in Riverhead, NY
* $2.3 million for landscaping enhancements "for aesthetic purposes" along the Ronald Reagan Freeway, CA
* $240,000 for boardwalks at Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo, CA
* $1.6 million to enhance the Battery Park bikeway perimeter, New York City
* $200,000 for a historical trolley project in Issaquah, WA
* $200,000 for trails, bike paths, and recreational facilities on Black Mountain, TN
* $235,796 for extensions to the Mesabi Trail, Aurora, MN
* $144,000 for paths and trails at the Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, OH
* $160,000 for a bike path, Petal, MS
* $200,000 for a bike path "network", Evanston, IL
* $2.9 million for a bike path, Delta Ponds, OR
* $240,000 for bike and pedestrian improvements, Windermere, FL
* $2.4 million for bike trail, Smyrna, TN
* $1.2 million for a bike trail, LaVergne, TN
* $800,000 for regional bike routes on existing highways, Austin, TX
* $480,000 to rehabilitate a historic warehouse, Lyons, NY
* $320,000 for a bike path from San Luis Obispo to Avila Beach, CA
* $280,000 for a bike path, Fairview Park, OH
* $600,000 for horse-riding trails, Jefferson National Forest, VA
* $2 million for a bike trail, Cookeville, TN
* $2 million for an intermodal bikeway, Independence, OH
* $640,000 for bike, pedestrian and other improvements at Georgia Veterans Memorial Park
* $1.2 million for pedestrian bicycle access project, Newark NJ
* $1.2 million for a bike path, East Long-meadow Redstone, MA
* $8 million for the Harlem Hospital parking facility
* $1.8 million for a bike path, Portage, WI
* $2.6 million for pedestrian walkway and bikeway improvements along the NYC Greenway System in Coney Island, NY
* $400,000 for a bike path in Dunkirk, NY
* $532,000 for a bike and pedestrian trail, Gallatin, TN

World Market a Little More Free

CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Act) barely passed the House after lots of arm twisting and promised pork projects. While I'm disappointed that it was so close 217-215, every American will benefit from lower prices on consumer goods.

This is also good for the other countries because it will be a huge inflow of capital into their economies. This will help our friends and continue to starve off our enemies. All in all it was a huge victory for America on multiple fronts.

Personal Prayer

Global Impact is the missions ministry at my church. Every so often, they have a community night for fellowship and sharing. Tonight they had 5 teams that have been out since the last meeting and each shared something from their trip.

I was chosen to share for the Kazakhstan team. I was last to go and after hearing everyone else I changed my topic from the Aksai project to a more personal experience partly to have something a little different from the rest and also because that was more on my heart.

I shared how one of the major lessons I learned on the trip was that God desired to spend more time with me in personal prayer. Pretty quickly after becoming a Christian, I learned how to be comfortable in corporate prayer settings. Part of this was from my desire to be liked and fit in. This was my number one goal in life before becoming a Christian and it didn't disappear the day I gave my life to Christ.

During one of our team times in Kazakhstan I was in prayer and was reflecting on why was it easier to pray publicly than privately. I quickly realized that I was more concerned with fitting in with others than spending time alone with God and learning how to communicate directly with him. That was a major revelation.

When I got home the next Sunday, I bought a book called, "Praying the Attributes of God." It is a prayer journal and each day you pray scriptures concerning a different attribute. It has been very helpful in guiding my prayer time and learning more about God.

It is just so amazing that the Creator of the universe actually desires to spend personal time with each and every one of us!!!

Space Race 2?

Will today's launch start a new space race like the 60's and 70's? Russia can no longer compete, but China has expressed lots of interest in surpassing our dominance in space. If they try, will it be to their downfall like the Soviet Union being no nation on earth can go toe to toe with us economically? Their only hope is if they open their economy up to capitalism and leave communism in the trash heap of history where it belongs.

If they don't, as the Soviets found out, forced labor and fear can only do so much. When compared to the free market there is no close second.

Rekindling

One of the guys that went on the Kazakhstan trip is starting a new discipleship group at my Church that I can't wait to get started in. Below is the vision he has for the group:

The REKINDLING is a Path to Passionate Purpose for God's children to take.

It has three aims, coming directly from Jesus in Mark 12:
1. To love the Lord our God with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds, and all our bodies. To make glorifying Him our #1 priority, falling head over heels in love with Him, and making Him our most intimate friend.
2. To love others, taking on a Servanthood role, ridding ourselves of our selfishness, stepping outside our comfort zones, and making sacrifices for others.
3. To love ourselves, finding the Passion, Purpose, and Gifts that God has given us, learning from our Personality and Experiences, and becoming the Heros and Heroines that God has Called us to be.

"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:16

"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." Romans 12:2

"...and herewith, maybe, though shalt rekindle hearts to the valor of old in a world that grows chill"JRR Tolkien, The Silmarillion

REKINDLING is not a class, not a program. It is a commando unit formed by God for His Army to do a specific assignment(s) . It is a discipleship group, focused on emulating Jesus Christ, receiving Holy Strength from the Holy Spirit to do so, and glorifying our Heavenly Father in the process. It is a path to take, with the Bible as our map, leading us into enemy territory, to play specific roles in shining God's light unto others. REKINDLING will rekindle our passion for God, others, and our purpose in life. It will be a long, difficult, scary, exciting, and rewarding journey.

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'Wow! What a ride!!' - anonymous (What an awesome word picture)

"So that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe." Philippians 2:15

"In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven." Matthew 5:16

ACMC

I attended a missions conference today and went to two break out sessions on out reach to Muslims. One thing I hope to do with the Aksai project is to also start reaching out to Kazakhstan Embassy here in town and any local Kazaks in DC.

A good quote today was, "Muslims are not the enemey, they are the victims of Satan." It made me realize that I have never once prayed FOR bin Laden and the like. I'll correct that starting today. While I fully support every effort to capture or kill him without delay, can you imagine if he had a Damascus road experience and became a modern day Paul to the Muslims...wow...what a thought!

Let the Games Begin!!!

For those of you who aren't political junkies, President Bush nominated John Roberts to replace O'Connor on the Supreme Court tonight. I don't know much about him yet, but the fact that Sen. Schumer and Sen. Kennedy voted against him for DC Court of Appeals two years ago is a very good start for me =) He also served under Reagan and Bush the dad in different capacities. I know he has definitely made comments against the Roe v. Wade ruling which the base will love and the Left will hate.

The next couple of months will be fun. So much for a slow political summer!!!

Kazakhstan De-Brief

We had our final official meeting today with the Kazakhstan team. Its purpose was a follow up meeting to help us see what lessons we learned there and how to apply them here. Another person from Global Impact, Beth May, came facilitate the meeting, so that Dan and Karin could fully participate as well.

She first talked about the four common reactions after returning for a missions trip:

1. Isolated (feel out of place and withdraw)
2. Rebellion (No one understands them, angry at US culture)
3. Imitate (Resume life as if nothing happened)
4. Integration (use lessons learned by incorporating the old and new self)

Obviously the goal is to move as quickly as possible to reaction #4. I had some feelings along the lines of #1 and #3 upon returning, but thanks to other team members they didn't last long and I'm well on my way to #4.

We also listed the top 10 events that made the biggest impact on us while there. Then we narrowed that list down to the top four and were asked to think about what lesson we learned from each. Then we were to take the four lessons and try to tie them to an overall theme.

My four top events and lessons were:

1. Corporate prayer vs. Personal prayer - Lesson: I need to spend as much time being intentional and committed to spending time in personal prayer with God as I did originally to become comfortable in corporate prayer.
2. River in Oralsk (on day 10 I was feeling a little homesick and a river we went see felt like I was back home in LA with the humidity and all the bugs) - Lesson: God loves me and wants to show me in real and tangible ways
3. "Eyes Sparkle" (one of the guys on the trip asked a local believer why do people stare at us so deeply and she said it was because our eyes sparkle) - Lesson: We truly are a light to a very dark world
4. Sharing my testimony and devotions (3 different occasions) - Lesson: We must share our experiences and challenges we overcame in order to lead them closer to Christ

My overall theme from those is: By spending time with God daily through prayer and Bible study, I am able to show others the love of God through the testimony of my words and life.

If you read my Lessons of the Day post for today you will get a small glimpse of how awesome God is in working to affirm His lessons because both services I went to today directly related to that theme. TNL was to live a life blameless and pure in order to be a testimony to others and Frontline was to study the Bible so you will know truth. What an AWESOME God!!!

Lessons of the Day

I didn't waste any time trying to think of another title for today's post, so I guess this will turn into a Sunday regular wrap of the messages during the services I attend.

Today I went to TNL in the morning and Dale taught that living the Christian life is a process. This process should be leading you to becoming more like Christ. He taught from Phil 2:15 where Paul gives an example of the lives we are supposed to live and the purpose of living that way. We are supposed to be blameless and clean (or pure in other versions) in a world that is anything but, and by doing that those who don't know Christ will be able to see the difference.

One point he made that was pretty thought provoking was that if you have friends who have no problem telling dirty jokes in front of you or who wouldn't even think twice about inviting you to a movie like "Wedding Crashers," then you have obviously not portrayed the proper image to them of the life you should be living.

Being I can't think of the last dirty joke I've heard and I haven't been invited to any super bad movies in awhile I think I'm doing ok in this area. However part of it I'm sure has to do with the fact that I chose my friends a lot better than I used to.

At Frontline tonight, Todd did Part 2 of "True of False" from the book of Jude. He taught a little more about the importance of knowing the doctrine of your Church and making sure it lined up with what the Bible teaches. His main point was that in order to know if something is truth or not, we have to know the truth in the first place. The only way we can do that is by spending lots of time reading and studying our Bible.

He gave a neat analogy. He said the FBI agents who handle counterfeiting, don't study fake bills. Instead they study the real bills so good that when they see a fake bill they "know" something is wrong even before they know exactly what is wrong. In the same way if we know the Truth backwards and forwards and we hear something wrong however slight it might be, that we will know in our Spirit that something is wrong even before we will be able to know exactly what is wrong mentally.

That just stressed even more to me the lessons I've been learning lately about being very intentional about my study time.

Dodgeball Tournament

The first annual Global Impact Dodgeball Tournament went great. After we got over the initial disappointment with the turnout, the rest of the time was awesome. Everyone had an incredible time and lots of fun. It will definitely be a great launching point for future tournaments.

We also raised right over $2000 which was great for only 11 teams. Besides the entry fee we also sold t-shirts and had a donation box. If we had the planned amount of teams show and the ratio of dollars per team remained constant, we could have raised over $10K.

It definitely will be a great ongoing fundraiser that will only get better each time.

Proper Perspective

This cartoon from Rightoons.com puts the whole Rove incident in its proper perspective =)

Real American Hero

This story on Drudge today epitomizes how awesome our military is: http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-976420.php Can you imagine had it been the other way around and one of the terrorists (unlike the BBC, I call a spade a spade) would have found a wounded American soldier???!!! It is stories like these that need to be the leading stories of every newscast nationwide...oh wait...sorry I was dreaming there for a few minutes and actually thought the main stream media wants us to win this war...what would we do without the internet and FoxNews.

Can You Say - ILLEGAL!!!

Why can't liberals understand such a simple word as ILLEGAL!!! On the Laura Ingraham Show a typical liberal was defending the right of a student who is here illegally to receive in-state tuition at American universities. That more than one state even allows this blows my mind.

If we can't enforce the simplest of laws how can we ever expect to stop people who will exploit our weaknesses to do us serious harm. This has nothing to do with people who only want to get an education. It has everything to do with those who are watching and learning ways to slip through the cracks in order to carry out the next 9-11 or worse.

There are legal ways into this country. There are legal ways to attend American universities. By allowing people who break our laws to benefit more than those who obey our laws, what incentive is there to obey them in the future...NONE!

Aksai Update

Had a great meeting tonight to discuss the Aksai project. Wayne was very excited to hear about the project because it has been something on his heart to do as well. He also has a vision of setting up an annual support base of $10K to be used however needed in country.

I definitely need to pull out some of my LI training material on fundraising as this project continues to grow. I may also call Morton and ask if he can give me some advice.

Paying a Price

I'm definitely paying a price for my fun in the sun yesterday. I'm BURNT!!! Well not quite that bad, but my shoulders and back are pretty red and hurt a little. It was totally worth it though =)

Dodgeball Promotion

We had fun tonight promoting the Dodgeball tournament on Saturday. A few people from the several teams joined together and walked around the lobby with rubber dodgeballs talking up the event. Then again after the service we did the same thing. Lots of people were excited about the tournament, but no one was signing up.

Everyone said they would show up on Saturday. This is definitely requiring lots of faith because either it will be a complete bust or there will be tons of people show up Saturday for walk up registration. It is all in God's hands to have the exact amount of people show up that He wants there.

Lessons of the Day

This morning at big church Pastor Lon finished his series on "Jesus' Most Outrageous Sayings" with the saying that, "They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky" Mat 24:30. It was a message on the Second Coming of Christ and what we need to do to be prepared for the Rapture.

His three main points were:

1. Have a personal relationship with Christ
2. Be serious about living a God-honoring lifestyle of personal holiness
3. Have a "Do It Now" attitude when serving God

I have the first two down, but have some work to do on #3. Too many times I let life get in the way of doing what I should be doing for God. I also let some fear stop me as well. That was one of the major lessons I learned on my trip to Kazakhstan, and today's message reinforced that lesson.

At Frontline, Todd gave a preview of his next series "True or False." The next couple of weeks he will talk about what Frontline and McLean Bible teaches doctrinally. He said it is very important to know the beliefs of a Church you attend and not just trust that truth is being taught because it is a Church. That is so true because there are lots of churches teaching things that that are in complete conflict with what the Bible teaches.

Beautiful Day on the River

Wow...what an awesome day!!! Blue skies and a cool breeze. I spent the day out on a friend's boat on the Potomac and had a very relaxing day. That is definitely the way life is meant to be lived =)

Anyone who spends any amount of time on water and trys to claim there is no God, is absolutely fooling themself. Same in the mountains or anywhere in pure uncivilized nature. It just screams out CREATION!!!

I am never more relaxed and "at home" then when I'm out in nature. That is definitely a point John Eldredge nails in "Wild at Heart." It is definitely something deep in my being that calls out and brings me closer to He who created it all.

First Post

I'm not sure where this will lead or how much I will actually post, but I figured it was way past time to enter the blogosphere with my own thoughts. I'll try my best to keep it fun and interesting. More than anything I just need an outlet to express my ideas. Let the games begin!!!