this is now an international blog

it is odd to me that i ended up back on this thing blogging. i am not sure if there is any way any one will ever read this. i suppose i could throw in an oppinion about govenor palin to see if that brings any googlers by. but they would be disapointed.
maybe some of my friends will stop by to see what i am up to and find that for the first time in almost two years i have posted.
i am in juneau alaska now with my family. i am working and taking a class at the university. baby steps.
it rains almost none stop here. fall is usually my favorite season, but this place does not do it justice. it is nothing but rain. it lacks that dry crisp feel of the yukon or nwt. here everything is soggy. that said it is beautiful and i am grateful to live is such a nice place and have my family around.
last week was esha's birthday which was great. she turned three. she loved her party. there are some streamers still above my parents fire place and she says, "uncle francis, do you like my birthday party?" this is my niece by the way. i think you'd have to go back about two and half years on this blog to know that.
it has been good to be around my family again. all of us are here, with some new members. amanda is engaged to some guy named josh. he has a daughter named zoe. they are actually great and i only called him some guy to act like i didnt really know or care for him, which is not true.
it has been tough to be away from yellowknife, which is starting to be a distant memory. it has been hard to move away from whitehorse, which is more recent. i miss soooo many people. it is starting to feel like some friends i may never see again, which is silly cause its such a small world but i cant be the only one who feels that way sometimes.
any way i would like to say hello to everyone. i am back on this thing.
God bless.

flattlands

my dad has joined forces with steve wilde, a musician in juneau and they are now collectively "flattlands". the juneau empire did an article on them that i thought was well done. take a look if you have a minute. Flattlands will also be playing at the 2007 alaska folk festival. these guys are good. keep you eye on them! http://juneauempire.com/entertainment/stories/030107/mus_20100301010.shtml

p.s. i am not that post savy so i hope the link works. if worse comes to worse copy and paste.

faith

i started this while the sun was shining and i was feeling warm and fuzzy over a can of diet pepsi and a tuna sandwich. i didnt finish it and end up quiting and now i am sitting in my room and it is dark outside and i feel a little drowsy. all that to say they will be different. lucky for you, after all that, you only have to read one. maybe not so lucky for you it will be this one.
i am thankful for doug ashby. i sat at lunch on sunday, he was there as well as cindy, kaliegh, andy, kirsten, johnny, and ryan. we were on the topic of the newly found tomb that is supposed to be jesus. now i had decided that i was a follower of christ some time ago and with that comes the belief that he can not be found in a tomb. as we talked doug just kept saying, "he's not there" as in jesus is not in the box they found. i thought he was just making fun of the whole discussion but in hindsight i can see that more than that doug was stating simply what i had decided so long ago. what is supposed to be the deepest, richest truth in my punny brain and more importantly deeply seated in my heart. now before someone reads into this that because the discovery channel ran a show i renounced my faith. this is not true. but i realized that i didnt want to renounce my faith because i wanted to be right, i wanted everything i had done and said especially over the last two years, to mean something. i did not want everyone to expose my faith as a fraud. as i drove from whitehorse to marsh lake today i thought about doug's statement. it occurred to me that the reason i should continue to believe is because Christ has evidenced himself to me over and over in my life. call whatever you want a hoax produce staggering evidence but i still hold to the love and acceptance i have found in christ. and it is not that i am afraid of rational argument. i am happy to involve myself in rationalizing this whole event. it was what i was doing when doug said, "he's not there". i guess the difference is my argument was based on my rightness and my inteligence. doug's came simply from knowing. and i know.

tired post

ok this will be another quick post. i always mean to type something useful or meaningful and it always ends up being short and rushed. i have to quit writing just as i am falling asleep. i am actually staying at andy and kirstens tonight so that is a nice piece of yellownife to have in whitehorse. them and hula. of course hula.
i also just got, and i mean just this second, benji's comment and nora jones is wonderful and it seems a tad bias.
i have a job, only on weekends. i work with a group of ten kids. i am of course using the word work very loosely. so far we have gone swimming (twice) played at a gym, gone to the Carcross Dessert for sledding and a campfire, and gone to Mt. Sima. i have really enjoyed it so far. one of the girls is named peyton and from time to time i find myself calling her peyston. another is named morgan. tomorrow i am setting out on another job search. of course i am sure with each new job will come countless reminders of yellowknife.
i dont know if dan and jess read this but if not someone needs to pass this on to them. i also plan to call and bug them. on saturday to the backdrop of the frozen yukon river and the mountains jutting into the skyline, even above the buildings, i watched the mushers begin the Yukon Quest. you may not want to pass that on, as i am trying to coerce them to move this way. it is selfish, yes.
i think of my time in yellowknife and i thank everyone from my church there for the opportunity that they gave me to share in their lives. i repent of the times when i sought my own gain over the things of God. it is a challenge to count all things as loss for the cause of christ. i dont know what even a glimpse of that might be but it is on my heart so i wanted to share it with you.

traveling

nora jones is playing on my headphones. i am getting ready to go to sleep. since noon yesterday i have been in whithorse YT. the drive was somewhat uneventful other than the flat tire. i believe in traveling mercy in some way. not sure precicely what i believe that they are, but i believe in them.
i will write more soon, and i know it has been forever and than this is all i write. i am not the best blogger of all time, what can i say.
i miss the people of yellowknife, keep in touch.

im only 24

first thing, i am listening to the decemberists and they are good. the latest one "the crain wife". enjoyable.
now i am also working on answering the deep questions of the jr. high boys group. in order to make the class a little more interactive i asked them to write out three questions that they would ask God if they could have a sit down with Him. the cute part is some of the questions are addressed directly to God. As in, "do You know everyone in the bible" stuff like that. the nice thing is these questions do shed some light on how they approach the idea of God. mostly it is very practical; heaven, hell, life, death, weather patterns. Todays question is, "how long will i live?" of course i will not be giving the answer that they want. it feels like i am selling them a little short, i mean they want a direct answer from God. a number. but as they have to learn, it rarely goes down like that.
psalm 90, the heading in my bible is "the eternity of God, and man's frailty" that might say enough. the prayer of moses, in verse 12, "teach us to number our days , that we might gain a heart of wisdom." david in psalm 144 i think it is says that we are like a vapor.
i drove to work this morning and there was a mist in the air. fog hung in the streets, damp, cool. i stepped out of my truck and headed into the church. the mist was gone to sight. down the street i could see it, still working with the street lights to create an eerie feel to the street, but where i stood directly i could only feel the moisture. i could only breathe in what had been visible only moments before.
it is quality that matters. the moisture that hangs in the air after we are no longer available to the eye. our lives vanish so quickly that we are foolish to horde it or hang on or count on it. a heart of wisdom reconizes that there is not time for sewing evil, we only have just enough time to leave behind the faintest memory like moisture on a face in the early morning.
this is big for me, because i think of the things that i would not do if i looked back. and i am not into acounting for every moment. i saw a write up that told me everything i had done with my time right up to how much time of my life had been spent tying shoes. i dont want to do that, but i do want to make sure that i am concerned about quality of living, not with how long i have.
so i guess the answer to,"how long will i live" is God only knows, and He didnt tell me.
God bless.

coming to town

cody peterson and i played santa and an elf this past weekend. we flew to cambridge bay saturday night and to norman wells sunday morning. i wish i could have seen cambridge by day light because norman wells was stunning. well worth the trip.
this is the link to cody's flickr page for some pics of the trip. it was great. santa is great to work with.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/codypeterson