Had the Sons of Thunder (D&D Fergen) come on down for our youth group here in Pella last night. The Fergen brothers are good friends of Happy the Dog, and they are known well to many of our kids from when they did a couple middle school retreats for us way back when.
They rocked our little youth room pretty hard, and our group did their best to rock back at them.
Afterwards, we packed up the trailer and headed three blocks southwest to the Central college Sunday night worship "The Calm" which is led by Andrea's dad Joe. The Sons of Thunder played for a packed out group of college kids and afterwards, Danny Fergen commented on how much fun it was from the first song.
The Thunder brothers brought along a drummer (Tyler) and sister in law (Kelsey, who's in her own band with her sisters - Truemotion) and apparently they wiled away their five hour ride down by telling goofy stories about me.
The time I pulled a pair of underwear out of my pants during a business meeting.
The time I destroyed David Fergen's kitchen table by leaning one hand on it.
The time I put a ding in the door of David Fergen's brand new pickup by hitting a fire hydrant with it.
The time I cleaned off a pubic restroom toilet because there was someone outside and I didn't want them to think that I was the one who'd made the mess. . .
Man, you don't really realize what a complete dork you are until someone starts an impromtu goofy story jam session about you.
Till next time,
Jason
Monday, September 15, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Waupon (WAH-PAWN)
So, Happy the Dog just headed up to Waupon (pronounced WAH-PAWN, or as I prefer WHOOPIN') for a spiritual renewal week / half-week at the Central Wisconsin Christian High School.
What a good time. It was Troy and Dawn and I, and about 150 different middle school and high schoolers. They were into it too. It was the first time in a long time that I've seen kids doing actions to songs that I'd never seen before.
They were loud. They were happy. They were excited to worship. And so I found myself asking the question, "This is a Christian High School right? Indeed it was. I don't mean to knock Christian High Schools, but I've found that they can sometimes be the worst places to lead worship.
I don't know if it's because the students get "God stuff" so often that they're sick of it, or what, but I generally have a small feeling of dread well up inside when I see a high school coming up on the calendar.
Not for the folks at CWC, though. Those folks know how to rock.
We got to stay with Happy the Dog friends (and board member) Dan and Latricia Ten Napel and their beautiful new daughter.
I got to watch some Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe (sp?) which is always a real treat for me because we don't have cable at home.
We got to eat out at a Mexican restaurant called Dos Gringos which I have a feeling might be a derogatory name towards me, but I'm not sure why . . .
What else? Oh yeah. We gave a prize away to a cool guy named Jory (once again, sp?). When I handed him the shirt he wanted, he said, "How much?" I said, "What?" He said, "How much are your prizes?" I told him our prizes were free, but it made me wonder if there weren't some other, less scrupulous, ministries out there charging for their goofy prizes! For shame!
We got to take a Wisconsin detour, which was three left turns that brought us right back to . . . wait for it . . . the place we started. It was a little after midnight when we pulled over to the road construction worker and asked what we were doing wrong. We were told that we needed to turn right at that last left arrow.
I kid you not.
Till next time,
Jason
What a good time. It was Troy and Dawn and I, and about 150 different middle school and high schoolers. They were into it too. It was the first time in a long time that I've seen kids doing actions to songs that I'd never seen before.
They were loud. They were happy. They were excited to worship. And so I found myself asking the question, "This is a Christian High School right? Indeed it was. I don't mean to knock Christian High Schools, but I've found that they can sometimes be the worst places to lead worship.
I don't know if it's because the students get "God stuff" so often that they're sick of it, or what, but I generally have a small feeling of dread well up inside when I see a high school coming up on the calendar.
Not for the folks at CWC, though. Those folks know how to rock.
We got to stay with Happy the Dog friends (and board member) Dan and Latricia Ten Napel and their beautiful new daughter.
I got to watch some Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe (sp?) which is always a real treat for me because we don't have cable at home.
We got to eat out at a Mexican restaurant called Dos Gringos which I have a feeling might be a derogatory name towards me, but I'm not sure why . . .
What else? Oh yeah. We gave a prize away to a cool guy named Jory (once again, sp?). When I handed him the shirt he wanted, he said, "How much?" I said, "What?" He said, "How much are your prizes?" I told him our prizes were free, but it made me wonder if there weren't some other, less scrupulous, ministries out there charging for their goofy prizes! For shame!
We got to take a Wisconsin detour, which was three left turns that brought us right back to . . . wait for it . . . the place we started. It was a little after midnight when we pulled over to the road construction worker and asked what we were doing wrong. We were told that we needed to turn right at that last left arrow.
I kid you not.
Till next time,
Jason
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
A Few Updates
Preached in my home church last weekend. It went just fine and I got a lot of good comments. Like always, I sweat buckets since it was summertime, and since most of the home congregation doesn't see me do a lot of my speaking, they became concerned afterwards. I tried to assure them all it was normal.
This past recent weekend, I met up with Troy and Dawn and various other sundry Happy the Dog folk at the Lifelight Music Festival in Sioux Falls, SD to help man the Happy the Dog booth.
It was fantastic. The weather was beautiful. I got nice and pink. We had a lot of laughs and got a lot of donations for shirts. We made some contacts with folks about coming out to their events.
One of the coolest things was getting to see a few folks from the Sunshine Bible Academy where I spoke with worship band and Happy friend's David and Danny Fergen.
Come to think of it, the Fergen brothers were also at Lifelight, playing the coffee house stage. I didn't get up there in time to hear it, but word was that they rocked out.
I got to hear just about any and every big name Christian band around - albeit from several hundred yards away with the booths for two radio stations between us.
We had theblastfm.com right next to our booth, and we got to groove out to their edgy hard rock all weekend. Those guys are a little nuts, and seemed to attract a lot of young folk to their booth.
Saw Jonah's Wale geetar and bass man Matt Groen, along with Happy the Dog friend Jacklyn who's always a treat to see.
What else . . . what else . . .
Have I mentioned lately how fantastic Happy the Dog board member and Jonah's Wale piano gal Dawn Ryswyk is? Man is she great. She was at the booth with us all weekend to discuss bizness, have fun, and buy us a couple pork sandwiches. She makes everyday better for me.
Tons of other Happy the Dog friends showed up. Saw lots of old friends from Rock Valley.
I think my favorite moment came with the water truck. The festival is held on this big pasture outside Sioux Falls, and several times a day this big tanker truck would drive by with a guy on a water cannon on the back. He'd spray the ground down with water to keep the dust at bay.
Well, by day two, the water truck had a good number of kids following behind it even though it truly was a water cannon. That thing had all the pressure of a fireman's hose, but these kids weren't deterred.
As they went past our booth, the water cannon man was having fun playing cat and mouse with the kids behind him. Once, when the kids ran away to escape the blast, they happened to run right past two high school girls who looked all prim and proper, decked out in their best for the festival.
Well, the water cannon guy blasted them with his stream before realizing they weren't part of the fun. The looks on their faces were priceless to say the least.
I'm sure Troy or Dawn might have some more updates on happythedog.com eventually. As always, you can check out that site for the same blogs you see here, or you check out blog posts from my other ministry partners and see where I'll be traveling next.
Till next time,
Jason
This past recent weekend, I met up with Troy and Dawn and various other sundry Happy the Dog folk at the Lifelight Music Festival in Sioux Falls, SD to help man the Happy the Dog booth.
It was fantastic. The weather was beautiful. I got nice and pink. We had a lot of laughs and got a lot of donations for shirts. We made some contacts with folks about coming out to their events.
One of the coolest things was getting to see a few folks from the Sunshine Bible Academy where I spoke with worship band and Happy friend's David and Danny Fergen.
Come to think of it, the Fergen brothers were also at Lifelight, playing the coffee house stage. I didn't get up there in time to hear it, but word was that they rocked out.
I got to hear just about any and every big name Christian band around - albeit from several hundred yards away with the booths for two radio stations between us.
We had theblastfm.com right next to our booth, and we got to groove out to their edgy hard rock all weekend. Those guys are a little nuts, and seemed to attract a lot of young folk to their booth.
Saw Jonah's Wale geetar and bass man Matt Groen, along with Happy the Dog friend Jacklyn who's always a treat to see.
What else . . . what else . . .
Have I mentioned lately how fantastic Happy the Dog board member and Jonah's Wale piano gal Dawn Ryswyk is? Man is she great. She was at the booth with us all weekend to discuss bizness, have fun, and buy us a couple pork sandwiches. She makes everyday better for me.
Tons of other Happy the Dog friends showed up. Saw lots of old friends from Rock Valley.
I think my favorite moment came with the water truck. The festival is held on this big pasture outside Sioux Falls, and several times a day this big tanker truck would drive by with a guy on a water cannon on the back. He'd spray the ground down with water to keep the dust at bay.
Well, by day two, the water truck had a good number of kids following behind it even though it truly was a water cannon. That thing had all the pressure of a fireman's hose, but these kids weren't deterred.
As they went past our booth, the water cannon man was having fun playing cat and mouse with the kids behind him. Once, when the kids ran away to escape the blast, they happened to run right past two high school girls who looked all prim and proper, decked out in their best for the festival.
Well, the water cannon guy blasted them with his stream before realizing they weren't part of the fun. The looks on their faces were priceless to say the least.
I'm sure Troy or Dawn might have some more updates on happythedog.com eventually. As always, you can check out that site for the same blogs you see here, or you check out blog posts from my other ministry partners and see where I'll be traveling next.
Till next time,
Jason
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