Sure Sign of Spring

It is official: The ICE is out of Clear Lake and Spring has arrived in North Iowa.

Lynn even has a few flowers poking their heads up in her flower garden.

I trust that you all enjoy the change of seasons. I'm looking forward to the rest of Spring and Summer, there are so many activities to enjoy!

Pastor Steve

Wild Game Buffet

We have our annual wild game buffet at the Church this evening. Again this year Ivan Good asked my to put his turkey that he got last year in my Brinkman smoker. I thought and thought about the best time to get this little job done and came up with doing it on Sunday morning. This morning!

I roll out of bed this morning and got my charcoal started then headed back up stairs for my shower. I got some breakfast and loaded up the smoker. The smoke was rolling! Since I was doing poultry (turkey) I chose apple wood for the smoke. It was a wonderful site.

One of my neighbor commented on how good the neighborhood smelled as he left for church this morning. I love to use my smoker!

Pastor Steve

Speaking To Internationals - What A Priviledge!

I was asked to speak at the Cyclone Bible Fellowship Internationals Retreat at the Iowa Regular Baptist Camp on Saturday March 10th. The topic I was given was how to handle your emotions in a God honoring way.

This was the first time that I have ever had the opportunity to speak to an audience of internationals. There were a total of 41 people from China, Japan, Indonesia and Korea. Some spoke English very well and others struggled greatly. There was also a vast range in the spiritual levels, from avowed atheist to true believers in Jesus Christ. What an awesome opportunity to open and teach the Word of God!

In the evening I was asked to return for a Q&A with a panel of speakers from the weekend. Pastor Scott Greening & his soon to be wife Brooke Weber, Dave Callison and myself. The questions were incredible: How do I handle a situation where someone is mad at me and I did not do anything that I'm aware of? Do you accept Christ because of who He was or because it was the cultural thing to do? The Chinese believe in fate, you talk about the sovereignty of God, what is the difference? Time and space do not allow me to give you the answers but suffice to say it was a great thought provoking night!

I thank God for the opportunities that I have to speak to different groups and I very thankful for the opportunity of this past weekend!

I Remain,

Pastor Steve

All Night Bowling Youth Fellowship

After two massive snowstorms, the North Iowa Area-Wide Fellowship of Regular Baptist Churches finally held is All Night Bowling activity called "Friday Night Strikes". There was much fear ands trepidation that the attendance would be down because we had to postpone the event for two weeks. Those fears were relieved when the count of 160 people was totaled just after the rally began! In fact, the fear was that there would not be enough pizza and more pizza's were ordered! A rough estimate is between 30 & 40 pizza's from Pizza Hut.

The rally part of the evening was sponsored by and held at the Faith Baptist Church in Mason City. Following an ice breaker activity and some singing the speaker was introduced. Missionary David Whitcher was our speaker for the evening and he did a great job handling the Word of God. An excellent challenge about our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Following the service time was the FOOD! Teenagers and pizza, what a combination! After the stuffing was over the young people moved back to the auditorium for the Bible Quiz, one of the highlights of all of our youth rallies.

On to the bowling alley! Where the action began in earnest and the pin count began to grow. 4 hours of all the bowling that you could squeeze in to the alloted time. Everyone had a great time and my family rolled in at 6:30 AM and slept most of the day!

Enjoy the pictures!

Pastor Steve

Mark Nelson Missionary To France

My friend from college Mark Nelson is a missionary church planter in France. Mark does not get back to the states very often and when He called me last week from France to let me know that he would be in Iowa for a couple of days and wanted to come to the church to give a report on the work in France, I said YES!!!!!

It is always good to see Mark and hear what God in doing in France. But the reality is that Mark sees his ministry as no different than what I do here in the States. We are both trying to build people by the Word of God. Teaching them about pleasing God, being Christlike in every thought, attitude and action, and finally giving God the glory for everything in their lives.

I guess what I'm getting at is that missions and being a missionary is not some mysterious call of God but really just normal folks following hard after God and desiring to serve Him!

Thank Mark for a well needed reminder!

That's the way I see it,
Pastor Steve

A Couple Of Very Good Movies

I very seldom recommend movies for varied and sundry reasons. However, I'm about to make an exception.

The first movie is titled: "One Night With The King". It is the story of Esther from the Bible. What I really enjoyed was how the movies took time to go back and make the connection between Haman and King Agag from 1 Samuel 15. This sets the stage for the story of Esther and I was amazed that the movie so closely followed the Biblical account. Plenty of poetic license was taken but overall, not a bad flick for a Hollywood movie.

The second movie is titled: "Facing The Giants". The story behind this film is astounding! An assistant pastor in a church had a desire to make movies and told the senior pastor that since local churches do not make movies ... he would probably have to resign and leave. The senior pastors response was to think outside the box and say "why not?".

The entire church helped in all different parts of the movie and what they ended up with was a fantastic feel good story with an awesome spiritual undertone. I thought it was very well done and deserves a look see from very family!

Check out these two movies and let me know what you think!

That's the way I see it - - -

Pastor Steve

Winter Wonderland in March

The second major winter storm in a week slammed into Iowa with a vengeance on Thursday and Friday, the first two days of March.

I really must say that the snow is beautiful but being in complete lock down stinks. So how do I combat this cabin fever? I bust out the gas grill! Yes, that's right I cook out on the grill.

During the first winter storm we had steak on one night and chicken on another night. Last night with the storm bearing down on us we choose hamburgers on the grill!

We also spent time together watching some TV and just hanging out in between bouts of shoveling. Thanks to those who stopped by and plowed out the driveway. What a great help!

We missed out on the major ice this go around but the snow is so beautiful! Philip got some great pictures, I'll let them speak for themselves.


Be careful and enjoy the season!

Pastor Steve















Finally, to my brother who moved to Florida ... WISH YOU WERE HERE!