30 Killed in Afghanistan

Taliban Bomber Kills 30 in Massive Bus Blast in Afghanistan

Saturday, September 29, 2007, the AP reported from KABUL, Afghanistan, "A Taliban homicide bomber wearing an Afghan army uniform set off a huge explosion Saturday while trying to board a military bus in the capital, killing 30 people, most of them soldiers, officials said."

This hits home for me. I have been to Afghanistan; I was in Kabul. I know people there. My friend Col. Scott McChrystal has a son there.

Let's keep praying for peace and for protection.

Realizations

I'm confessing this to the readers of this blog, who are mostly the people I am closest to. I have realized once again something that I wake up to every once in a while: I am living for one thing ... and it is not the right thing. I live to check things off my to-do list. I am uncomfortable unless I am getting something done. This keeps me up tight much of the time and hard for me to relax.

I forced myself to go fishing yesterday. I spent the morning working from home, then took off for Stockton Lake about 1:30. Caught a bunch of small bass, largest 12 inches. But it was a nice day and I enjoyed it. I need to get away (physically and mentally) more often.

I realized something else yesterday. Though my dad has been gone a long time, every time I go fishing, he is with me. Not once since Dad passed away have I gone fishing without thinking of him. That is a testimony to a great dad who took the time to build strong memories with his son.

Another way I think of him when I fish. He frequently told me, "Always leave it [the place where you fish] at least as good as you found it." The "at least" meant to pick up some trash if you can and leave it better, especially discarded line that can harm wildlife. So I brought three big wads of discarded monofilament home yesterday. I'm doing what you taught me, dad. I try to do a little litter patrol each time I fish.

Meet Danny and Martha Morales, Part 3

Photo: Danny and Martha Morales and boys with Dave and Brenda Roever

Danny's words, conclusion:

I grew up with a strong penchant for R&D and science. I was hired as an R&D Tech my senior year in high school in Massachusetts. Although I failed English and Chemistry my junior year after a bout of post-election depression, I went on to study both at Oral Roberts and then at the University of Arizona where I graduated with a BA in Biochemistry and a minor in English Literature (linguistic emphasis). I enlisted in the Navy in the Summer of 1998 and qualified to become a cryptologic interpreter before selecting for a pre-commissioning program. Before graduating from the U of A, I worked in research at the Arizona Cancer Center, technical editing with the USGS, Space Grant interning with NASA, and lab management at the Univerisity's Medical Center. I was commissioned as an Ensign as a meteorology and oceanography (METOC) officer in August 2001. Thankfully, the Navy METOC community encourages and leans heavily upon its innovative workforce to push the envelope of this warfighter-enabling science. Although its not my primary job as a METOC officer, I am always looking for ways to improve our processes, products, and services especially through cutting-edge and off-the-shelf technologies.

Outside of my full time job, my hobbies include looking for ways to help the Pentecostal movement, in particular the Assemblies of God, exploit the technology of the Internet. As an example, I recently helped two good friends of my parents, and our first friends on the island, Rev. Bill and Bonnie Lou Ashpole start their own blog. I have also created and populated several Wikipedia articles on the Assemblies of God and its ministries, all of which rank (for better or worse) high on search engine results. The Assemblies of God wiki article now has the most exhaustive list of links to fraternal members of the WAGF on the world wide web. My joy is to do this free of charge in gratitude for what the Assemblies of God has done for my family and the world. I hope these small measures somehow fan the flames of the Holy Spirit around the world for the glory of God.

(Ken's note: And, as I've said before, Danny has been hugely instrumental in the TPE and my personal blogs. He also started a Wiki article on TPE. Thanks, Danny. I appreciate you immensely!)

Some of My Photos

A random selection each time you load this page. Click on the photo for a larger version. This will also take you to my Flickr site where I'm uploading some of my stock photography, trip shots, and good personal shots.

www.flickr.com

Tragedy Strikes; Please Pray

Jerry Bell, the head of the MAPS program for Assemblies of God U.S. Missions, received tragic news the end of last week. His son Kevin, 37, was found murdered in his home in Arkansas.

MAPS stands for Mission America Placement Service, the ministry of Assemblies of God U.S. Missions that coordinates volunteers to assist churches and ministry institutions with construction and evangelism projects. This link has basic info and a picture of Jerry.

I have been with Jerry in some of the places MAPS has teams. Please pray for Jerry and his family in this very difficult time.

Any of you who know Jerry and would like more info, please feel free to email me.

Meet Danny and Martha Morales, Part 2

Continuing with Danny's words:

My mom and dad both knew well the price and blessing of being Pentecostals and they infused these values into both my sister and me growing up. My mom started in ministry at the age of nine as a church piano player, Sunday School teacher and secretary. She obtained a license with the Assemblies of God in 1983. My dad was also very active in ministry throughout his military career and became an Exhorter with the Assemblies of God in 1960 while stationed with the Air Force in Nebraska. He was ordained the same year that my mom was licensed. Together, they have pastored and pioneered several A/G churches and have close to 100 years of combined ministry experience. Three years ago, my mom and dad planted Christian Life Center in Douglas AZ at the young age of 65 and 69 respectively. They are now involved as presbyters and committee members in launching the Arizona Latin District Council, the first Latino state district council in the Assemblies of God. Both parents were bivocational ministers throughout their public service careers. My mom retired from the Federal Government after serving in three separate agencies and my dad retired with over 30 years in the military, after serving one stint in the Air Force and two separate in the Army.

Through the prayers and miraculous experiences of our two families, Martha and I grew up with a keen sense of mission to help spread the same revival fires that transformed our families. Our main conduit to do this has been our online ministry, Light the Fire Ministries, which we have maintained continuously since 2000. The highlight of our online ministry has been the launching of Jesus the Baptist, a loose collection of essays, notes, and discussions about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Martha and I have always been risk takers and big idea people. The Baptist definitely fits this mold by offering a whole new way of looking at Pentecost in what I like to call "quantum pneumechanics." Much fasting, prayer, and sola scriptura research went into The Baptist. We hope that readers see that these new perspectives support the long-established cardinal doctrines and ordinances of our beloved church. On a side note, I would have to write a book to fully detail the Holy Spirit and angelic experiences, as well as trials that occurred during the two-year journey in bringing this project to fulfillment.

To be concluded.

Pit River at Pit 5 Dam

Last September.

Meet Danny and Martha Morales, Part 1

I introduced Danny Morales to the readers of the TPE Blog a few days ago. I just shared a little about him there. Here, in my personal blog, I want to share his whole story. It's appropriate here because, even though we have never met, we have become good friends. Here is what I wrote in the TPE Blog, followed by the one paragraph that was included there, and two more that weren't. I will share more later.



I want you to meet Danny Morales. Danny has been instrumental in helping TPE get blog literate. He has taken a lot of time, long distance to help me learn a lot of things I didn't know. Thanks, Danny for all the time you have put in to help the ministry of TPE.

I consider Danny my first "reverse mentor." This is what my friend Dr. Earl Creps calls the young guys who help the older guys learn young stuff. He has been an immense blessing to me.

Danny has been doing this long distance from his home in Hawai'i where he is in the military and ministry. I wanted to know more about him. Here is part of what he shared with me:

Martha and I are church-appointed missionaries to young adults based out of Christian Life Center (A/G) of Douglas Arizona. Our missionary field are young adult military members and their families. Since entering the Navy in 1999, we have evangelized and discipled many who are now active in ministry. We have two boys, Danny Boy and Michael David, who are missionaries-in-training. Martha is a teacher at a local Southern Baptist preschool where Michael attends and is actively involved in chidlren's ministry at First Assembly of God Hawai'i, where we have been attending since arriving in late December 2005. I am a Ranger Kids Commander at First Assembly and have taught Danny Boy and now Michael for the last year and a half. Martha and I both work under Pastor Cari Hurst as military points of contact for The Reef, the Young Adult Ministry of First Assembly. We help Pastor Cari and her missionary husband Russ in any way we can and consider our involvement with them, our military friends-in-discipleship, and our boy's spiritual development the highlight of our tour.

Our vision is to win, build, and send young adults within the military and to make disciples of all nations through friendship networks. To date, we have helped in making government-funded missionaries and evangelists through the young adult sailors we have directly and indirectly discipled. To further accomplish this vision, Martha and I co-founded a ministry known as Club Alpha Omega Young Adults International in December 2005. The ministry network is new, but so far we have been privileged to commission three young adult leaders who are active in ministry today in three separate A/G churches in three separate states. The Lord also has blessed us with networking opportunities with AGWM projects such as Network211 and Africa Tabernacle Evangelism. We hope one day to fully partner with them and other ministries to fund building projects through our Club's Lighthouse Project, a missions-giving program exclusively for and by young adults. We also hope to revolutionize translation of Pentecostal literature through online collaborative technologies such as wikis and forums. To that end, we launched testbeds in nine languages in March 2006 for this purpose under the initiative Mountain Movers: Missions Without Borders. If the name sounds familiar, we were inspired by the old foreign mission's edition of the Pentecostal Evangel.

Martha and I are committed Pentecostals and come from families who have ministered in the Assemblies of God for many years. Several of her brothers and sisters are lay ministers in A/G churches in California and Arizona. Her mother Carmen, who went to be with the Lord in 1995, was a fierce prayer warrior and pillar of her Spanish A/G church in San Pedro CA. I also come from a background that goes back to the early Pentecostal revivals amongst the Latin Americans along the border with Mexico. My grandmother Teresa was a church pioneer and pillar in Mexico and Arizona. Her and my parents experienced much persecution at the hands of former Catholic friends and neighbors. The persecution hit a flash point with the mob killing of my eight-year old aunt, Esther, who was burned alive while she sang the Spanish version of "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know."

(To be continued)

Nelson Creek

Last September.

Pit River

Old pictures are a good way to get content on your blog when you don't have much time. I shot this last Sept. on our second family reunion trip.

Busy-ness Strikes the Horn Blog

Posts have decreased as duties have increased in recent days. I've had a lot of traffic on this blog and I don't want to lose you. Blog Wisdom 101 says that to keep people coming back to your blog you need to post regularly. Daily is best. I'm maintaining a few other blogs as well, including TPE and 3 ministry blogs. This stuff is really all new. We also have a weekly magazine (which is a somewhat important part of my life and ministry) and a main Web site to maintain. I have a number of book projects going at any given time and have launched and maintained appreciation sites for our outgoing leaders, and recently, the military. For almost two years I have produced Bro. Trask's video "Chat With Pastors." I still travel on assignment and to speak. Oh, and take a listen to my podcast (tpe.podbean.com). We are having some interesting guests. Podcasting and blogging, as of this week, is in the process of being imported into our own AG domain. (That won't affect this blog.) We are also in the middle of a huge administrative transition with lots of special meetings, interviews, and surprises. My fishing rods have been lonely. Please don't leave. This is the blog where I can be myself as you may have noticed in the earlier post "Didn't Feel Like Myself Today." The fun is yet to come.

P.S. Send some stuff for me to post.

New Military Appreciation Site

I felt led by the Lord to create a new Web site that will give people from all over the nation the opportunity to leave messages of encouragement and prayer for our brave men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces. I worked with my friend Col. Scott McChrystal to get the site fit to launch. This will not be announced in the magazine till our Veterans Day issue, so word of mouth is the best way now. I encourage you to visit http://agmilitary.blogspot.com/ and leave your own personal message to help get the ball rolling. When there are sufficient posts, military personnel will begin accessing the site to read the comments. I believe it will encourage them.

Niners Win!

Beating the hated Rams, 17-16. Now 2-0.

Peggy at Concord, Calif., Convoy of Hope

Mark Pryor emailed these photos of Peg at the Concord, Calif., Convoy of Hope yesterday, sponsored by the church her folks called home for 54 years, Calvary Temple. Fred Franks is the pastor. Fred and I were together in Bosnia a couple of years ago. Peg's mom went with her and is enjoying reunions.

Little Peggy

So when Peggy's gone (she's in Calif.), I look at her pictures. Here is a classic.

Didn't Feel Like Myself Today

Didn't feel like myself today, as you can see.

Peggy at Venezuela Convoy of Hope

Just came across this Web entry that mentions one of Peggy's Convoys from some time back. Click the title to go to the Dove Aviation website. Peggy is mentioned near the bottom of the page.

"A Convoy of Hope Widower"

Peggy and her mom are in Calif. I've often told friends (including Hal Donaldson), "I'm a Convoy of Hope widower." I think Peggy is approaching 70 of these she has done ... and no one is a harder worker than Peggy. (I can't complain; I do the same thing to her. Two sheeps ... er, ships ... passing in the night.)

Mel and Dorothy Zecher called tonight. Though they don't have a computer they heard they were in the blog. Dorothy says she is doing great physically. Mel needs prayer, but it was great to hear his voice.

We really appreciated getting the photo of Mel and Dorothy. If you're new to reading my blog, my main goal is to reconnect with friends. Send me your digital photos and news and I will post them.

Peggy's Mom's Birthday ... and Away They Go

It's Peggy's mom's birthday. We're sworn to secrecy on which one. After work I met them at Golden Corral. Now they're both getting ready to leave. I'll drop them off early, before work tomorrow morning, at the airport. Peg is doing the Convoy of Hope in Concord, Calif., and her mom is going along to visit friends. (Didn't Peggy just get back?)

Mel & Dorothy Zecher on Their 60th Anniversary

Just received this via email from Mel & Dorothy's friends Sheila & Bob. Wish we could have been there. Peggy and I love you a bunch, Mel and Dorothy.

Friend at the Trevi Fountain

Another glimpse of our Italy trip with friends in March. This was the day we spent in Rome.

Oregon Clobbers Michigan

The Oregon Ducks rolled over the Michigan Wolverines, 39-7, as the Wolverines suffered their worst loss since 1968. I don't get to see many Oregon games either here in the Midwest, but I did get to tape and view this great victory for the Ducks. I'm still a big Oregon fan. Even though we only lived there 5 years, it is our favorite state and I am faithful to the Oregon teams. Even have an Oregon Ducks banner on my sports wall.

Click the title for full story.

Flickr Activated

I have just activated my Flickr account. My next step in becoming tech literate.As you know, I love photography. I have taken photos all over the world and had hundreds published. I have wanted to make my photos available for some time but didn't want to take a chance on losing my copyrights, having people download and use my photos without permission (which is really quite easy to do on the Internet). I just bit the bullet tonight and learned one more thing. My photos are protected against download. Please let me know if you think this is not working. Anyway, you can click on these Oregon photos and it will take you to my Flickr site where you can see larger versions and all the pix I have uploaded. I will upload photos there as I have time.

You can make comments on the Flickr site or here. Also, feel free to request any of my photos you would like prints or digital files of ... always free to my friends.

Peggy's Still in New Mexico

Speaking at a retreat. Here's a pic of my girl at a retreat we spoke at together last year, in Oregon.

Giants Defeat Evil Dodgers in Exciting Fashion

John Ortmeier homered in the bottom of the ninth in San Francisco to lift the Giants past the evil Dodgers, 5-4. The walkoff homer came on the heels of a disappointing Dodger blast in the top of the ninth that had tied the score.

I don't get to see many Giants games in Missouri (the exception was during Bonds' chase of Aaron's 755 HR record) so getting to watch this on ESPN was a treat.

I have been a huge Giants fan and Dodgers hater ever since the two teams came to the West Coast from the East Coast when I was 10. As most readers know, I was born and raised across the bay from San Francisco, in Richmond, Calif.

Click the title for the link.

Can You Believe This?

"A cancer patient lying on a gurney waiting to be treated was fatally bitten by a snake [a pit viper], a hospital in western Thailand said Friday."

They said "the snake apparently slithered onto the gurney when it was outdoors."

I've been to Thailand several times but never needed a hospital. I'm not likely to go to one there now no matter what. Or hang around outside the hospital for that matter.

Click the title for the link.

Nature Log, Selected

From time to time I record nature observations. Came across one of my intermittent computer files recently. I wish I had done this more throughout the years. Those who know me know I consider myself a "creation watcher." I love the great outdoors and all the wonderful things God has created.

Here are some excerpts:

9/21/02 A small northern watersnake undulated effortlessly across the surface of the water, unconcerned with, or unaware of, my presence. Also saw an otter and a beaver.

8/4/06 We saw a ruby-throated hummingbird following the drops of our back-and-forth sprinkler, drinking water.

8/5/06 On the plant trail, I saw a brilliant male cardinal with a large green caterpillar in his beak. When he saw me, he flew … with great difficulty. Couldn’t get up so flew back into brush.

8/6/06 Saw a spider-carrying wasp carrying a huge wolf-spider, much bigger than the wasp, dragging it across the near trail.

9/4/06 As I was standing out in the backyard watching Perkitty, after walking (Peg's in Chicago, Convoy of Hope), I was holding my water bottle when I was buzzed by a hummingbird, who then checked out the water nozzle before flying off.

3/07 On plant trail, saw a huge black rat snake, close to 4 feet long. Same place (near cemetery) where saw one last year. Prob. same one. Touched it and it coiled like lightning, shaking its tail like a rattler.

6/4/07 Saw a 3’ prairie kingsnake on the trail, same place where I’ve seen the rat snakes. Last week, on the trail close to home, a boy had ct a small black rat snake. He released it. Today also saw my second indigo bunting of the year.

Peggy's in New Mexico

Well, my wife left me again today. It's usually for a Convoy of Hope event but this time she is speaking at a ladies' retreat. She'll be with my niece Debbie Burns.

We got some much needed rain today. But the most important thing is: NFL season kicks off tonight! Go Niners!

Perkitty fits into some tight spaces

Bill and Almie Sparling

Great shot for our DCA fans. Here's what the email said: "Hi, Ken. Here is a picture for you to post to you blob." Blob? Two more of my favorite people. Keep the pix and news coming DCAers. If I can't be your real pastor, maybe I can be your blog pastor.

Perkitty Leaping

Our cat can jump. Just don't usually catch it on camera.

Psalm 23: A Recitation

Bill and Almie Sparling sent this one in. A unique rendition of the 23rd Psalm.

Highlights of a Branson Trip

We spent 2 nights at Big Cedar Lodge this week, a gift from our adopted kids, Tim and Robin Gardiner. We combined it with a press pass to Silver Dollar City and the Showboat Branson Belle. These last two are owned by the Herschends, some wonderful Christian people about whom I wrote one of my favorite stories. Read the TPE Silver Dollar City article. Here is my first TPE Blog entry about it.

Green-backed heron at Big Cedar. We saw lots of these, more than we've ever seen in close proximity.
The tall guy at Silver Dollar City (he's on the left).
A Big Cedar restaurant at which we ate.
Peg with Todd Oliver, and Irving (right) and Lucy, the talking dogs, aboard the Showboat Branson Belle.

I took Peggy fishing