My Choice, Alton, IA

Drove up to Orange City, IA yesterday to speak at a My Choice event early this morning at the middle school in Alton. My Choice is a middle school youth group that started a few years back with one guidance counselor and four kids. Now it's one guidance counselor and about 175 to 200 kids.

It's a pretty amazing group run by a pretty amazing guy - Scott Starkweather. It's a secular school. It's at 7am on Thursday mornings. Its attendance reaches 200 at times. That's just amazing. I have enough trouble getting 9 kids to show up on a Sunday night, let alone 175 on a Thursday morning.

We had fun. I even got to stick around and give a message to a home room class during second period. Good friend from RISE Ministries, Rob Rozeboom was there pitching his RISE on the Road that I'll also be speaking at come June in Knoxville, IA.

On the way home I broke out the old Willie Nelson and Family Live CD, and had a honky tonking good time grooving out. Willie's sister Bobbie Nelson plays a pretty mean country, honky tonk piano, and it reminded me of a story that I just shared with the Fergen brothers a few weeks back.

Last year, Troy, Dawn, and I all went up to lead a retreat in Oh Canada. We were staying at a camp that's made up like an old west town - including a worship room that's set up like a saloon.

Well, long story short, Dawn (Happy the Dog's resident piano player) obviously can't pack a piano to bring along, so she's at the mercy of whatever the host has to offer. We walk in, and they show Dawn her electric piano. A little casio jobby that's still in the box, kind of like one you'd buy at Walmart to learn how to play.

Dawn just stood looking at that box with her arms crossed for a bit with a look on her face of, Dawn not happy. Which, if you know Dawn, can be pretty amusing as long as you're not the one Dawn's not happy with.

Well after a bit of hemming and hawing, Dawn looks over at the saloon piano in the corner. It's a real old honky tonk job. Barely tuned. The "ivory" on the top of the pressboard keys is coming off of several keys. But Dawn bangs away on it a bit and finally declares it usable.

Now, I don't know if Dawn was completely satisfied with the sound, but I loved it. It added a real honky tonk sound to the songs that weekend, and I felt right at home.

I think my next show is May 7 in Dell Rapids (South Dakota?) with Jonah's Wale, and then I have a Morgan Valley Social Club show in Pella at the home church on May 9.

I also have my own middle school overnighter tomorrow night, and . . . I'm . . . not . . . quite . . . ready for it. I don't know how I'm going to stay up all night. I stayed at the Dutch Colony Inn last night after eating dinner with one of Happy the Dog's best friends - Jacklyn Punt - and the motel was a bit cold and noisy.

My room was right next to the door, and lots of people came and went all night. I would have switched rooms, but I'm lazy that way. Seeing Jacklyn again was great though!

Till next time,

Jason

Comedy in Lincoln, NE

Buzzed down to Lincoln, NE last night for a stand up show for a church volunteer appreciation night. Had a great time and met lots of new people. It's crazy how small of a world the Reformed Church really is. Pastor PT (I'm not sure what it stands for) at Hope church knew my Pella pastors and my Pella Pastor's father, and he'd also come out of Northwest Iowa and knew ministry guy Bob Cleveringa and several others. PT and his wife had also gone to Iowa State University just like I had. So many connections.The show went well.

The crowd laughed at all the laughy parts. Great food was enjoyed. Prizes were given out. Puzzles were solved that seriously hurt my brain to look at.

As my portion of the show ended, I thanked all the volunteers for having me out and for volunteering their time at the church. I asked how many of them volunteered with children or youth and about 1/3 of them raised their hands. I asked how many of them volunteered with adults and got about another 1/3. It certainly made me wonder what the last 1/3 did. Animals perhaps? Maybe that's why the pastor's name is PT . . . they have a circus ministry!

In all seriousness, they were a fantastic church and it looks like they've got a great ministry going on in Lincoln. PT shared some really cool stories with me about their recent relocation and how the old church is now being used for a Hispanic ministry.

******************

On a side note, I'm always looking for new things to keep my mind occupied on LONG lonely car drives. Music can only take me so far. Ricky Gervais podcasts can only take me so much farther. Last night though, I downloaded about eight hours of NPR's comedy news quiz show Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! What a fantastically funny show. I listen on Saturday's whenever I get the chance, but to have it as a free down load is just superb. Thanks NPR and itunes!

In two weeks I'm in Alton, IA for the My Choice youth group at the middle school in Alton. I may blog before then, but we'll see what the week brings.

Justin

Had a very busy long weekend with Happy the Dog. We started last Thursday in Estelline, SD, and ended up on Monday in Rock Valley. If you want to read all the details, you can. I'm in a little bit of an awkward spot right now as I'm currently blogging on three different sites right now for three different reasons . . .

I'm updating Happy the Dog Trips right here: http://happythedog.com/index.php?page=blog for the ministry. But I feel it important to keep updating this site because I know there are a lot of you out there who come here for the non Happy the Dog engagements. So until it becomes too big of a burden, I'll be doing some double posts. I'm short on time today, though, so I'll just comment on a few things, and then you can check out the Happy site for all the crazy details of the fun stuff.

Yesterday, the Happy the Dog crew had a very solemn morning as we attended the celebration of life for Justin Bousema. Justin, as you'll remember, was a guy from my former youth group in Rock Valley that had become a pastor. Happy the Dog had the privelage to go up and do a benefit for him a couple months back while he was in the hospital battling aplastic anemia.

Unfortunately, last week, Justin lost his battle and passed away early Thursday morning. Jonah's Wale led worship at the funeral, and it was nothing short of an amazing experience. Justin's wife Bethany not on spoke, but sang - even singing a song that Justin was supposed to sing on CD until the CD skipped! It was a powerful and moving testament to her faith.

The main sermon was from Justin himself. It was recorded from a Sunday message he'd given quite a while ago. Hearing his voice and confidence as he delivered the message was very emotional, and we send out our love and prayers for the entire family.

Justin will be sorely missed.

New CD and Book

So the Church of the Brethren show was recorded, and Pastor Tim was nice enough to send me a CD of the show. The audio quality was great - for one of our shows, anyway. And overall, it was a great show.

Long story short, I used a freebie web audio editor and came up with pretty good CD for the show. The plan right now is to include it in the back of the new poetry book (as of yet untitled because Andrea didn't like my last title) as a bit of a freebie, although the book will cost a little more anyways. The book is in the final stages of development, and we hope to bring it and the CD out at our next show at Second Reformed Church on May 9.

The show is a fundraiser for a group our pastor works with during the year, and we're going to have a TON of great music. Lots of extra high quality down home bluegrass musicians are coming on board for the show, and it should be great. When I get a specific time, I'll post it on the blog to let you know.

We've also done a major revamp on our ministry site - happythedog.com - so check that out. Soon you'll be able to navigate our ministry a little easier, and there'll more than likely be another blog attached to that site where several other cohorts I work with will post. Not to mention that the donation and merchandise buttons will be a lot slicker to use. Troy said he just got some great new stuff in, so in about a week when the site is fully operational, check it out and support some great worship.

Jason

New Audio

Put a little bit of new audio up here.

http://www.myspace.com/themorganvalleysocialclub

Yeah so. . .

I stink at all things computer related, as I spent the better part of tonight trying to figure out how to add music to the blog. Instead, I just did this:

http://www.myspace.com/themorganvalleysocialclub

It's a myspace page for the Morgan Valley Social Club with a little audio up. It includes the audio from These Boys in the Car (The Great Story) poem that I posted earlier along with a few songs from the fundraiser show we did at the Brethren Church a few weeks back.

One song is Kyle and Brian singing "Mama Tried" by Merle Haggard. See if you notice when Kyle forgot the lyrics.

The other is "Life is Like a Mountain Railroad" with the whole crew that was there. The audio is not quite a loud as they weren't on the main microphones. But it give you the flavor of what we do.

I accidentally redid the template, so the links are in the lower right now, below the archives. You'll see The Morgan Valley Social Club's site is now earmarked. Whoop Dee Do.

Jason

Daren Streblow is funny. . .

This is a link to a comedian I've had the blessing to work with a couple times. They're cartoons he makes, and they're funny. FUNNY.

http://www.darenstreblow.com/toonplayer/

If the link doesn't work, it's because I don't know how to use a computer.

Some fresh ideas. . .

Here's what good friend Nathan thinks I should post about:

1. What every young person should know about gastropods.

2. How your choice of socks can make or break your ministry.

3. Should the 11th Commandment be "Thou shalt not speculate about any additional commandments"? (Classic Nathan humor. This type of joke sums up the genius of Nathan's humor.)

4. The top four and a half Bible stories about public speaking.

5. Home-made ziplines - a fool proof recipe for fun.
(I actually tell a homemade zipline story while speaking.)

6. Why does God allow cool things to have stupid names like "walkie-talkie"?
(More classic Nathan humor.)

7. People named "Chris" should be able to cut hair without any special training.
(Referencing the time in college when I let my older brother cut my hair and I actually looked worse than Jim Carrey on Dumb and Dumber.)

8. Why you shouldn't take suggestions for blog topics.

9. Lederhosen?!? Lederhosen.

10. Rocky Mountain High, Colorado. COLORADO!!!!
(Another inside joke to college where we'd call up good friend Mike and procede to destroy the John Denver classic into his answering machine. Nathan would hit the highest, most off pitch "COLORADO" on the echo. We made sure that each message went on for three or four minutes minimum.)

Fairly new poem. . .

These Boys in the Car

I’m thankful for the conversations you have
with the people who talk to you first
because I am the worst
at being the one
who has to talk first

And so this is the story
told to me
in the back of a church sanctuary
from the very last pew
by a woman I knew
through her husband
and because I didn’t get up the nerve
I almost never heard
the greatest story
that I’ve ever heard

she says,
“These two boys!
These two boys!
High school age
come flying over the hill
by our place

these boys are driving
90
just flying!
Over the hill by my place

And as they come over the hill
what do they see standing right in the middle?
Right on the double yellow line?
But a bull
a full sized, brown bull with horns no less
and they hit that bull head on,”
she says


“Boom! The bull drops dead in the middle of the road
and the boy’s car goes
and skids into the ditch
an front of my home

and now over the hill comes a semi
from the other way.”
“No, way,” I say, “No way,”

“Yes,” she says, “This semi
now it comes flyin’
over the side of the hill
and there is the bull
still
lyin’
right in the middle of the road
right front of my home

and the semi just annihilates this poor bull
launching it into the air
and this mass of blood, meat, and hair
comes crashing down
where?
Right on the hood
of the car
of the boys in the ditch

it’s just staring
through the cracked windshield
with it’s big, dead, bull eyes
blood dripping
as both boys try
to get out of the car but they can’t
because the doors are stuck

and then the semi,” she goes on,
“Slides over the ditch
and it skids onto my lawn
and tears through the grass I just mowed
until it comes to a stop
just feet from my picture window.”
As she’s talking
I’m leaning more and more forward
on the pew where I sit
and I think this story is so freaking fantastic
I can’t wait
to steal it

“There’s more,” she says
but I don’t know if I can take any more
there’s speed, and wrecks, and blood, and gore and stupidity galore
what more
could you need in a story?

She says, “I’d been asleep
and I hear this crash
so I make a mad dash
to the living room
I throw open the curtains and look outside
and staring back
are the eyes
of a man of a man in surprise
behind the wheel
of an enormous semi
just three or four feet away, maybe five

so I run over
and throw open the door
and see the boys with the bull on their hood
screaming in horror
for someone to open their doors
and I think for sure
this is the end of the world
and the bull. . .
starts. . .
to moan. . .
Arrrruuuuuuuuu!

And those boys fly
into that backseat so fast
as the bull raises his head and looks right passed
them
almost like he’s looking at me
and thinking
This isn’t how I thought my day
was going be

and now the semi driver is out on the lawn
between the truck and my home
standing there
stretching out his arms
as if measuring the distance
from his grill
to the window glass
as if it were the distance
from his first breath to his last

and I just called 911
and by the time I get done
telling them what I’ve seen
all three town cops come
because this story’s too good to believe

and as the first cop car approaches the site
the guy gets so excited
that he immediately slams on his brakes
and the two cars that are behind
can’t stop, and they collide
with his backside
causing the fourth and fifth wrecks of the day.”

and so she finishes her story
this wonderful story
with such bravado and blazing white glory
and I cannot think of the words
to show appreciation for the story I’ve heard
so I just give her a hug and say
thank you

Brooten, MN

I've fallen a little behind in updating since my last post. Andrea's had a nagging flu, and my office time has suffered a little bit. So when I've been at the office, I've been doing . . . well, office stuff just to keep up.

Went up to Brooten, MN last week Thursday for a one night worship with Jonah's Wale for a little church there. Lots of old friends from Prinsberg, MN made the trip up as the band had played for their chapel that morning.

Had an interesting experience finding the place as instead of using my directions, Mark decided we should use his fancy-smancy GPS device.

Oh, it was fun at first. This beautiful British woman's voice guided us along our route for two hours, saying things like, "Turn left in four miles," and "Destination in 75 miles." Her voice was so pretty, it was easy to take directions.

That is, until she said, "Turn left now," and it meant leaving the blacktop for a gravel road to nowhere. We took the turn anyway, and heard our lovely guide advice, "Destination in five miles."

The only problem was that we could see for five miles and there was no town in sight. Eventually, right there in the middle of this gravel road, right in the middle of nowhere, she said, "You have arrived at your destination."

Right. . .

Mark did a little reconfiguring and we eventually got to our destination, but I think I'll stick to yahoo maps for a while.

Had a bit of a disappointment last week as well as I had a poetry show canceled because of weather on Monday. It was an especially big disappointment as it was the last one on my calendar at the moment. A bolt of fear ran through me that no more may come.

While I don't have another on my list yet, Pastor Sophie at the home church asked if I'd get some musicians together for a fundraiser - date to be determined! So that was great news. Pastor Tim, and choral director Jim from the Brethren show have already agreed to be onboard, so this may be the MVSC's best show to date, we'll see.

On a side note, I've been thinking a lot lately about the blog and how I wish it was a bit more interesting. I don't feel that I've ever really found my voice on it yet. So if you're game, feel free to shoot me a comment in the comment box about any ideas you have. For instance, "I really liked it when you talked about this. . ." or, "Enough talk about this kinds of stuff, I'd like to hear about this. . ." Anything you want I guess.

And yes Kyle, Nathan, and Mark, that's you're cue to start leaving wildly sarcastic comments now.

Jason

Prairie City Church of the Brethren and the MVSC

The Morgan Valley Social Club descended on the Prairie City Church of the Brethren this past Saturday night, and we had a great time. New poems were read. Kyle sang a song he'd never heard before. And we were joined onstage by Pastor Tim Peter playing the mandolin, worship leader Jim Jones playing guitar and singing a little Joan Baez, and Brian Gumm playing guitar and making Kyle look a lot better than he probably is. (Note to Kyle: insert sarcastic snipe in comment sections now.)

We were raising moolah for the new playground equipment for the church, and I haven't heard a final total yet, but I'm hoping they got a lot.

For those who haven't seen the show, or saw it for the first time past weekend, I introduced everyone to the MVSC with some quotes from people who've seen our show in the past.

For instance, a guy at our last show in a big Pella church commented after a show:

"When the show started, I didn't know if I was going to like it or not. But when it was over, I think I did."

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Or the teenage boy who heard my poems as part of a two hour show of gospel music and commented:

"My parents had to drag me here tonight, but I wanted to tell you that you were the only thing that was halfway decent to listen to."

Or my personal favorite, from an orgainzer at a church we performed for:

"We have a lot of elderly and shut ins that don't get out much, and they really loved your show!"

So I guess what it comes down to is this, you might think our show is halfway decent if you don't get out much.

A big thanks goes out to all the family (Brummel's, Kain's, and Taylor's) and friends (Kyle's friends really, as I don't have many) who came out in support of the show and the kids of the church.

Where am I next . . . ? I'm not really sure. But if you really want to know, as I do, you'll just click over on the Happy the Dog link and check the calendar as I am also going to do momentarily.

Until next time, I remind everyone that I will no longer be posting pictures of Carson on the blog.

Jason

Brethren Church Show This Saturday!

For all (both) of you that read this blog, we've got a big Morgan Valley Social Club Poetry/Music show this Saturday, February 23 at the Prairie City Church of the Brethren five miles south of Prairie City. Lots of new poems and songs debuting.

There's a baked potato supper fundraiser at 5pm, and then we go on at 6:30. It's going to be a good time, I promise. And it's for a good cause! Playground equipment for kids! Come on! Get the coal off your heart and show up! Who doesn't want to help kids?

Rock Valley, Sioux Falls, Influenza A

Got real sick a couple weeks ago and had to miss a poetry show in Sully, IA. I was pretty disappointed as I'd been looking forward to it for a long time. Poetry shows don't come up all that often, but I do have another one in a week. For any and all that read this in the area, the Morgan Valley Social Club will be playing a fundraiser at The Church of the Brethern five miles south of Prairie City on Saturday, February 23rd. There's a potato supper at 5pm, followed by Kyle and I at 6:30pm.

I'm hoping there's a good chance the show can be taped for CD as I'm planning on including it in the back cover of the next book.

Went up to Rock Valley, IA for a benefit for an old youth member named Justin Bousema who has aplastic anemia. What a blast! Jonah's Wale played, they raised $15,000+ dollars, and Justin's health updates have been steadily improving over the last couple weeks!

Just got back from Sioux Falls, SD where I spent three days speaking for Sioux Falls Christian High School Bible Days. Once again, I was with Jonah's Wale, and we had a grand time.

Got to stay with Wale's leader, Troy Kooima, and read a few books to his young daughter Sage. They were interesting to say the least.

My favorite was one called Worm Gets a Job. What it basically boiled down to was a worm ruining everyone's life until he stumbled into winning an art show by stealing supplies. The last pages of the book had someone saying, "Look at worm, now he's rich and famous!" You turn the page and worm is giving the old wink while saying, "And happy!" I don't think I'd ever read one quite like it.

We finished up with one about a little boy who goes on a picnic with his mom in the woods. The boy insists there's a bear. The mom disagrees. Mom leaves the boy alone because she forgot dessert and guess what appears? A bear. Mom returns and they're both chased screaming out of the woods. The end. You may think I'm just doing a quick summary and leaving out the important parts or valuable lesson, but I'm not. I guess the lesson was, "Don't listen to your mom. Monsters exist, and they're coming for you."

And no, no more pics of Carson this week.

Getting back into it. . .

My first post of the new year, I believe. Also my first speaking event of the new year.

Sunday night, Happy the Dog led worship for youth in the Pella area. It's a monthly worship held at Central College called Deep and Wide. We had a great turnout and a great time of worship together. Troy came down with his brother Eric, drummer Jason Baartman, and bassist Matt Groene.

I talked about trying to figure out transformers when you're a little kid and how them make the instructions WAY to hard. For example:




















You can see in the upper right corner it says: Age 5+, but the instructions contain a small novel's worth of words in three different languages - complete with diagrams in varying shades of gray.

If you could read the note on the top left, it would read: Some parts are meant to detach when excessive force is used.

Some parts. That's always good to tell a five year old.

After the worship, the band and I played a little Eskimo poker. A game we made up which turned out to be pretty stinking fun. If you want, I'll teach you.

Someone posted a while back about posting more pics of Carson on the blog. Well . . . I apologize, but this blog is supposedly solely dedicated to information on speaking shows. But here's Andrea's blog where she writes and posts about our beautiful baby boy:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=38241049

Heading to Sully at the end of January to do a poetry show. Then I head up to Rock Valley, IA for a fundraiser for former youth member Justin Bousema. I'm pretty excited for that show as the rest of the Happy the Dog crew will be joining me, and we're just going to have a rocking good time to hopefully raise some money for Justin.

Till next time,

High Tea With the Ladies

Had a great show last night here at Second Reformed in Pella.

Every December they have an event called "High Tea" where all the women of the church are invited to dress in their Christmas best, enjoy a cultural show, and then eat a wonderful meal. Only women allowed!

Well, for whatever reason, they invited me to share my poems this year. They also invited our church organist, Kris DeWild, to play Christmas selections on her harp since she's a fantastic harpist. (Is harpist a word? It's surely not harpie . . . nope, just looked it up on dictionary.com. Harpie / Harpy is a winged death-spirit best known for constantly stealing all food from Phineas. Who Phineas is, I have no idea. But he must be fairly hungry at this point.)

Let me make this perfectly clear. As far as I've ever heard, this event is known for being a pretty fancy-smancy event. And this year they invited me to share my silly poems at it.

Just to be on the safe side, Kris and I decided to alternate between songs and poems just like Kyle and I do when we do a Morgan Valley Social Club show.

Well, my nervous fears proved worthless, because we had a great time. The crowd laughed at all the right places, Kris' harp playing brought a few to tears. And overall, I'd say it was one of my better poetry shows in a while. Plus, I got a great meal!

I have a few weeks off here before I do a couple benefits in January.

I'll be doing a poetry show as a fundraiser in Sully for the Christian school there. It looks like Jonah's Wale and I will also be doing a benefit for an old youth student of ours from Rock Valley, IA named Justin Bousema.

Justin is a fantastic guy, and we loved having him in youth. He went on to seminary up in Sioux Falls, and a while back was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia. When they called the other night to see if we wanted to help out, I jumped at the chance, and Troy, being a Rock Valley guy himself, jumped on as well. So that show will be coming towards the end of January, I believe.

Have a great Christmas! Till next time,

Jason

List of books I've read recently while traveling or at home. . .

H.M.S. Ulysses by Allistair MacLean
- Great book. The first one McLean every wrote. Unbelievably full of British technical jargon about military ships. The first in a long line of "heroic men brave unbelievable weather and traitorous actions to get the job done" stories.

Ice Station Zebra by Allistair Maclean
- (See the last sentence of the previous book description.) Falters a bit at the end as it turns into a Matlock wrapup. Very, very good up until then.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
- Inspired Lunacy. One of the funniest books ever written. Douglas Adams' gift for unique metaphors is unparalled.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
- Not quite as good as the first. But it comes close. A ton of great moments on it's own. Adams is so good at poking fun at religion without declaring which side he's on.

Life, the Universe, and Everything by Douglas Adams
- Good. But after reading it amidst the other three, I'm vague on what exactly happened. More searching for the meaning of life, I suppose. It must have been good, because I immediately wanted to go read the next one.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams
- A strange diversion from the typical Adams' Hitchhiker book. This one is almost more of a character study of Arthur Dent as he finds the woman of his dreams. Very good. But very different. I still have to read the fifth book in the trilogy. (Not a misprint.)

The Innocent Man by John Grisham
- I didn't know this was non-fiction until I opened it and began to read. A bit slow in parts, as Grisham writes it like a typical non-fiction crime drama. So there's lots of repetition of evidence in court proceedings and witness recollections, but it was still a very good read, and made me very nervous about our justice system.

A Lion's Tale: Around the World in Spandex by Chris Jericho
- I've read nearly every wrestling autobiography that's come down the line. (I tend not to read the ones put out by the actual wrestling companies, as they tend to distort the facts a bit.) I enjoy wrestling, but that's not the main reason I read them. They're stories about guys who spend a lot of time in cars, vans, planes, and hotels, traveling around the country, and sometimes the world. They get out, do their show, and get back in the car again. They're about staying busy, happy, sane, and occupied while traveling and performing. A lot of them are good. A few have been lousy. This one I would put up near the top. Maybe even better than my all time favorite written by Mick Foley.

Recent problems . . .

I've been lots of places and done lots of things. I've spoken in Wisconsin for a great group, and Orange City for another great group. I got to seem some fantastic theater, and work with some really cool people. I also gave the Sunday morning message at my home church at Second Reformed, which I thought went okay.

So why haven't I been updating?

Well, like the clumsy dope I am, I spilled a bottle of Diet Cherry Pepsi all over my laptop and crashed the whole thing. So, I've been a little preoccupied with getting that mess cleaned up.

It's sort of ironic, now that I type it, that it was Diet Cherry Pepsi that's almost ruined my online life. I've blogged several times about the fact that my diet pop addiction is beyond control some days.

(I've recently been trying to slowly replace my pop intake with hot tea and iced tea. But it's slow going.)

Now my addiction is so out of control that my subconcious (elbow) knocked over a pop to try and ruin my laptop and therein destroying a lot of important information (my speaking life).

I have all my talks, talk lists, presentations, poetry, stories, and the as of yet unpublished book on my laptop. It may be gone, it may not. We'll find out.

Even tougher to swallow is the fact that my entire iTunes library may be gone. I can handle losing the music. But the Ricky Gervais Podcasts will be the real knife in the gut as far as I'm concerned.

I did have an interesting comment after a talk I gave Sunday night at Central College here in Pella. My father in law, and Central's chaplain, Joe, is gone on vacation and he asked me fill in for his Sunday night worship with the students.

I spoke on one of my favorite stories from II Samuel 23 about King David, and a well, and three soldiers, and overall I thought it went all right. The faces in the crowd seemed to be smiling at all the smiley parts, laughing at all the laughy parts, and seriously thinking at all the seriously thinky parts.

Afterwards, a young woman approached me. She told me she was Roman Catholic, it was her first time to the college Sunday night service, and then she commented that, "Everything that happened here tonight completely contradicts everything I believe."

Okay . . .

I'm not sure if it was just the talk, or the whole worship service, but I figure I was implicated in some way shape or form with her complaint. So I just passed her on to Joe and the rest of the staff and told her to bring it up with them.

Sometime I'll have to blog about all the wonderfully interesting comments I've gotten after speaking . . . it can be enough to discourage a guy, but now I tend to find a lot of them quite amusing.

Well, okay, for instance, I gave a talk once for a church where I felt like I really poured a good deal of my heart out. I related some of my own favorite stories that still have quite an emotional impact on my life - several that were ABOUT me and my faith walk.

Afterwards, a guy walked up and said, and I quote, "I don't know if any of that was true or not, but I enjoyed it."

He wasn't joking, he was quite sincere. And I still can't quite grasp how someone's brain might work in that they would think someone would not only make up a "personal story", but also become emotional while telling a made up "personal story." But, oh well.

Sometimes I'll use some of my old standup stories during a talk to lighten things up at the beginning. And sometimes they really are great lead-ins to the deep stuff I'm getting to. Quite often they get very good reactions - lots of laughs. There's the finger story, and the puke story, and the zipline story, many of which are probably familiar the the blog readers.

But what I enjoy, is the occasional listener (usually a high schooler for some strange reason) who comes up afterwards, pulls me aside, and says something to the effect of, "A story like that has no place in worship."

Now, none of my stories are dirty in any way. The most they are is occasionally gross. As in someone throws up, or someone loses a finger. I always want to retort by pulling out my Bible and reading some of the scriptural stories that are so disgustingly crazy and perverse that they'd never be used in worship, and yet they're in the Bible. My stories can't compare to those.

I won't share them on the site, but a camp counselor back in high school shared a few with me under the premise, "You'll never hear this one in church!"

Well, back on to computer repair! Till next time,

Jason

Canadia

So, Troy, Dawn and I all went up to Red Deer, Aberta, Canada for most of last week. We led seminars for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then headed to the Circle Square Ranch near Halkirk, Alberta for a youth reatreat on the weekend.

Some highlights include:

On a day off we visited the Olympic Park in Calgar and got to go to the top of this bad boy. That would be a pic of the ski jump.

Once on top, I noticed something interesting. There were only two small bathrooms. One for the women, and one for men. And each only had one small toilet. I had to go to the bathroom, and as I did I realized something. All the great skiers from 88' had to use the exact same bathroom I did. That means . . .

I was two degrees of separation away from Eddie the Eagle!!!

So, while we were there, we got to see some of our friends in ministry. Of course I have to mention our great friends Dave and Cathy Tilstra. They are big supporters of Happy the Dog Ministry, and we can't thank them enough for their hospitality. Cathy was even kind enough to give me a print of one of her paintings for my wife. And I must say, the painting is fantastic. I'll have to take a pic to post on the site, but it is definately going to the be the highlight of our art collection.

We also got to catch up with good friends Sharon and Thomas. Thomas even came on board as at Happy the Dog supporter which is a pretty crazy committment for guy not far removed from high school.

Here's a pic of us worshipping. The Circle Square Ranch is set up like an old west town. We worshipped and ate in the saloon. The guy in front (with his back to the camera) in the white shirt and jeans that's about a foot taller than everyone is me.

The worship was great. We played Mission Impossible in the cooley. Billeted in some nice rooms. And we had gravy with our fries. Plus, there were Big Turks galore, and plenty of Red Rose. What does all that mean? I'm not really sure and I experienced it. . .

This group up in Red Deer is just the best to us, and they've quickly become a family away from home. We can't thank Dave, Cathy, Sharon, Thomas, and the rest of the crew enough for making us always feel welcome.

I also got Carson a sweet Calgary Flames onesie which almost got my head bitten off by the pro-Oiler crowd. . . but I figured hockey's hockey, right?

We head to Sheboygan, Wisconsin for a week on Sunday. And then the week after I head up to Northwestern College for a bit to try out some new material with good friends Jeff and Karen Barker.

Till next time,

Jason

Speaking in English

I had the opportunity to do a twenty minute poetry set at North English, IA on Saturday night. Now, I'd heard of North English, but just a few miles south is another town called South English. This was interesting to me since I'd never heard of South English, and I wondered how the two towns earned their respective names. No one really seemed to know.

We had a meal before the show and these were the place mats we used at the church . . .

I thought it might be a bad omen, but it turned to be a great show.

I went on after the North English Community Choir and before the Interfaith men's choir.

This is Interfaith.

Both groups were just fantastic. It was another show I got to do because of Old Time Gospel Show friend John Finical - who also sings in the Interfaith choir.


The crowd was roughly around 70 or 80 people, and they were just the best. They were very energetic and laughed hard. I know just a few posts ago I talked about cutting back and retiring from alot of the poetry shows, but man, this crowd really makes it hard to think about.


And some very exciting news for myself - one of the sound guys said he had a digital recording device hooked up to the sound system at the show and he wanted to know if I wanted a CD of the night to do with as I please! I've been lamenting for a long time now that I really wanted a CD of the poetry, and now it looks like I may get one!


Perhaps I'll have to include the twenty minute show in a CD on the back jacket of the next book.

I head off to Canada here again in another two weeks or so, and then to Wisconsin a week after that. But as for poetry shows, it appears I'm done for a while anyway. I don't have any more booked for the long term. So perhaps that gives me some time to work on Farm Dog 2, and edit a CD together.

Till next time,

Jason

Carson

More recent Carson pics . . . Here he's on the right while his TWO MONTH YOUNGER COUSIN Isaac is on the left!

After a bath . . .

Having a good time. . .