Making Me Money!

A $50.00 coffee mug? Are you insane?

That was my lovely wife's first reaction to my idea to buy a refillable coffee mug from Kum & Go, a convenience store here in Iowa.

Here is the deal - - If you buy a mug for $50.00, then you get unlimited refills for all of 2009. It normally cost about $1.25 for a refill of this size mug. So if you buy the cup it will take about 50 fills for you to recoup your investment. You are allowed to fill your cup with coffee, tea, soda pop, cappuccino even icee drinks. Someone asked me if I could fill my cup with soft serve ice cream, I have not tried that yet but I'm thinking it through!

After a bit of convincing, I purchased my mug on January 5th and on January 27th I got my 50th cup of coffee and now my mug will be paying me for the rest of the year!

Show me the money!!!

A Year Ago Today

I stopped praying for a miracle
I kissed his bald head for the last time
I told him "I love you" for the last time
I held his hand for the last time
I said my goodbye's

A year ago today, my Dad, Roger Cox died. I miss him.

Another Great Weekend

I'm just reveling in the great weekend that has just past!

Friday evening and Saturday was our North Iowa Area-Wide Youth Winter Retreat at the IRBC. We had close to 80 folks at the camp along with a ministry team from Faith Baptist Bible College and our speaker David Burman Jr. from Elyria, Ohio. Pastor Burman did a great job and all were challenged.

This is about the same retreat set up as the Winter Meltdown that I spoke at last weekend. So our teens enjoyed snowmobiling, sledding, floor hockey, gaga ball and many other activities. One thing that we do at all of our area-wide your rallies is Bible quizzing, both an oral test as well as a written test. This month we were going over John 12 & 13.

Sunday was a great day at the Clear Lake Regular Baptist Church, in the morning our Sunday School class continued through the book Trusting God by Jerry Bridges. A Bible study that walks you through the scriptures on dealing with the times of life when life hurts. I recommend this is your looking for a new study.

In our morning service I am preaching through the book of Galatians in chapter 3. Here Paul is proving the case that salvation is by faith through grace based on the finished work of Christ's death, burial and resurrection. The particular passage that I was on this Sunday was dealing with the truth that the Law is inferior to the promise of God that He would provide the means of salvation. It was a good morning in the Word!

In our evening service we enjoyed testimonies from our time at camp. A couple of our girls that are preparing for a missions trip quoted scripture that they had committed to memory. Finally, we enjoyed a report from Missionary Alyssa Callison. Alyssa is serving God in South Africa working with orphans. Her presentation was very good and her heart is finely tunes to do God Will. What a privilege to have her at our Church and hear her heartbeat for missions.

What a great day...I am so thankful for the opportunity to be the Pastor where folks love God and desire to live everyday in the light of God's Word!

Praise The Lord!

Winter Meltdown #1 @ IRBC

I had the opportunity to speak at the Iowa Regular Baptist Camp at the first of three Winter Meltdowns.

We had a great time with about 130 in attendance (teens and leaders). The summer ministry team from Faith Baptist Bible College , the Contenders, were able to be in attendance and were a real blessing to have with us.

Our theme for this retreat was "Under Construction". As you can see tin the pictures there is a lot of construction going on in the chapel. I was able to speak in three different sessions and many decisions were made. I choose to preach from the Book of Nehemiah with three messages on building right relationships. A right relationship with God, a proper appeal to authority and finally building right relationships in the face of adversity.

The campers enjoyed sledding, snowmobiling, ga-ga ball, volleyball and the very entertaining IRBC Meltdown 500. A late night pizza party on Friday night and great food on Saturday were just the topping on a great weekend!

Here are some pictures:

Very Cold Here

Just a quick note this morning .... it is very cold here!

I woke up this morning to an ambient air temperature of -25 and a wind chill of a -49!

That is cold in anyone's book!

Trust your warm no matter where you are!!!

Fun In The Snow

Here are some pictures of Lynn, Susan and the kido's we babysit enjoying a SNOW DAY before the blizzard is to hit!

New Post, New Van, Same Old Weather

Wow, Thanks for your patience as it has been a while since I've posted anything new.

On the home front Lynn and I purchased a "new" van, well it is new to us! We got a 2003 Chrysler Town & Country. The color is best described as champagne with leather interior and lots of bells and whistles. This is by far the nicest vehicle that we have ever owned. I would have posted a picture but it is already so covered with winter grunge that I'll wait untill I'm able to run it through the car wash first.

And on the weather front we're under a blizzard watch. Expecting 3-5 inches of snow and 35-45 mph winds. A great forecast for sitting at my kitchen table, drinking coffee and watching the snow fall.

Talk to you soon!

Another Saturday Night...Another Ice Storm

I'm sitting at my kitchen table watching cars, trucks and vans unable to navigate the corner in front of my house and slid into the park!

After my experience last year ..... I HATE ICE!!!

Here is our evenings forecast:

FREEZING DRIZZLE OR LIGHT FREEZING RAIN WILL CONTINUE THROUGH
THE REMAINDER OF THE EVENING HOURS. A FEW PERIODS OF LIGHT
SLEET OR SNOW MAY ALSO OCCUR THROUGH MIDNIGHT. ALTHOUGH
ADDITIONAL ICE ACCUMULATIONS WILL BE LIGHT...AROUND A TENTH
OF AN INCH OR LESS...ROADS WILL REMAIN SLICK AND ICE COVERED.
THIS WILL CONTINUE TO MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS ACROSS MUCH
OF CENTRAL AND NORTHERN IOWA TONIGHT.

Life in North Iowa!

Happy New Year

May God grant you a wonderful and blessed year in 2009

God Bless!