Yesterday Kari and I had an encouraging meeting. A very, very encouraging meeting. At this meeting with the leaders of a local church we were blessed to make official on paper my new assignment by God to serve as a pastor. Next month I will join their pastoral team as associate pastor and Kari and I are overwhelmed by God and these church leaders for the opportunity. A person with more faith would have looked at our similar meeting two weeks ago and see that as the watershed moment. It really was, and it came as kind of a surprise. That was the day I was offered the role/position of associate...

AP News, June 11, 2008 : WASHINGTON (AP) — The Energy Department says motorists can expect gasoline prices to remain close to $4 a gallon through next year. Oil prices should remain well above $100 a barrel through 2009, says Guy Caruso, head of the department’s Energy Information Administration. Caruso told a House hearing in Washington on Wednesday that crude oil prices are likely to average $126 a barrel next year, $4 higher than this year. He said gasoline prices are expected to peak at $4.15 a gallon in August, but won’t go down much. The agency projects gasoline averaging $3.92...

My brother-in-law Kris has started his new gig with SitePen, helping the web become all it can be.  Truly, I do not know if I have met a more intelligent person than Kris, and I’m thankful his (and Kari’s) genes are part of our son’s makeup.  May Dutch be as smart and wise as his uncle Kris! SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Uncle Kris developing for SitePen", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2008/01/04/uncle-kris-developing-for-sitepen/" });

We are on high ground, with power and very blessed, yet there are thousands displaced by the storms and flooding, whether stranded at the coast without power and fuel, or the flooding all over the region. Keep the people of Pacific Northwest in prayer as communities try to respond and recover from the worst flooding since the famous one of ‘96 (some say this is worse is some areas). See news at kgw.com Oregon real-time water/river data Story on CNN Int’l SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Flooding", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2007/12/04/flooding/" });

Today my good Brazilian friend Celso Nascimento will wed his bride Tatiana in Sao Vicente, Brazil (Brasil). It would be difficult to find a more godly man than Celso and he certainly has waited for God’s perfect choice for his bride. I first met Celso while on a short-term missions trip in Sāo Vicente in 2002, and we quickly became friends. At that time he was a new assistant pastor to an American missionary-church planter and being raised up to be the native pastor of a new church there (Capela do Calvário de Sāo Vicente). In our outreach on the streets in the slums he was my translator,...

Our Dutchy Boy is finally crawling–for real!  No more crazy side stroke army crawl sliding thing, this is the real deal.  We are so proud of our little boy.  He brings so much joy to our lives.  Love, Mama SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "He Crawls!", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2007/10/04/he-crawls/" });

Six years ago Kari was stuck in Birmingham, AL with about 15 others coming home from a short-term missions trip in Brazil. Their plane was rushed to land and all their items left on-board for four days in wake of the World Trade Center attacks. I was on a runway in a plane in Atlanta headed home with about 40 others (in our group), and we too had to halt our travel plans. We all walked off the plane, confused, checking voicemail, looking at the TV monitors in the airport, trying to figure out what was going on. (To the right is Kari holding up a paper the next morning in Birmingham.) September...

A few weeks ago Dutch started saying “Ba ba ba …,” over and over. Tonight he said what appears to be his first official word: “Dadda.” He said it clearly over and over, and added “Babba” to it a few times. (Perhaps that’s Kari’s nickname?) Now that he’s asleep and we’re playing Scrabble, I miss giggling with the lil’ Dutcher. Happy to be his Dadda. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "First word", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2007/09/07/first-word/" });

A fire across the Molalla River, the start of which was no less than 300 yards as the crow flies south from our house, is starting to come under control of the emergency fire crews, in great measure thanks to these two helicopters. Here’s a video of the helicopters. How thankful we are for their effort. UPDATE: Friday night about 7:30pm the helicopters ended their focus on the hillside and the fire was under control.  A few hot spots remain Saturday morning, but all is well, and in fact no homes were evacuated.  Friday night we played Scrabble outside while keeping an eye on the progress. ...

Here is my desk right now. Yes, it is a mess, but will be organized at the end of the day. Today is my last day of full-time work at Kamph Construction. For the past 2-1/2 years I’ve worked with long-time friend Ben Kamph to oversee and construct numerous excavation, underground utility, and development. I started as a laborer on the sewer & water utility crews, got a few hours on some equipment, but after about 6 months moved into the office full-time to serve as a Project Engineer, utilizing my civil engineering background and other work experience in like positions at two previous...