PETRA ROCKS!

On Friday, September 30, 2005, I had the AWESOME OPPORTUNITY to go to Club 3 Degrees to see Petra in their farewell tour. It TOTALLY ROCKED!! I attended the concert with three friends from church: Carmen, Jennifer, and Kari. We had SO MUCH FUN! The only thing I would have done differently was to not order a piece of pecan pie at Perkins at 12:30 am on Saturday morning!

3 Degrees had some fantastic opening acts for Petra. I had never heard of them before, but I strongly recommend all three of them. Check out: Bread of Stone (www.breadofstone.com), Sarah Brendel (www.sarahbrendel.com), and Farewell Jude. I had the pleasure of getting my picture taken with Sarah. She is FANTASTIC! Everyone should call up their Christian radio stations and request her songs and go out and buy her CD! I have pictures, but they aren't wanting to post right now. I will have to try again later.

What was the last concert you attended? Who are your favorite bands? I look forward to hearing from all you out in cyberspace.

Operation Iraqi Freedom

We have a good friend, Jason Leonard, who is a part of the Minnesota National Guard. We attended a going-away party for him last Wednesday evening. As of Saturday, October 1, 2005, he is officially part of Operation Iraqui Freedom. There were 2,600 Minnesota National Guard soldiers who were called to active duty. This is the largest overseas deployment of soldiers since World War II. Jason will be at Camp Shelby in Mississippi for up to six months of training before heading to Iraq for a twelve month tour of duty.

Sommer, Jason's wife, is now FAMOUS! Here is what she said to a reporter from The Forum (a newspaper in Fargo): "Since the activation, Sommer Leonard of Minneapolis said she and her husband, Sgt. Jason Leonard, have been spending a lot of time with their 1-year-old son, A.J., while also figuring out how they will stay in touch during the next 18 months. “We’ve got cell phones that we know will work while he’s stateside,” she said. “We have computers and Web cams, e-mail. He left behind some videotapes of him reading stories to A.J. We got a bear that he recorded a little message on. When you press the hand, it says ‘I love you.’”

The bear that Sommer mentioned is the birthday present we got for A.J, so indirectly I AM FAMOUS!! OK, I am just joking. Anyway, we met Jason, Sommer, and A.J. at the Build-A-Bear Workshop at Ridgedale Mall in Minnetonka. It is SUPER CUTE!! Jason picked out a military outfit for the bear. I am so excited that we were able to do this for them and spend that time with them. It was difficult saying good-bye that evening. Jason is one of Ed's best friends. For any of you that know both of them, it is like God made them out of the same mold!

I will be posting a picture of Jason at some point. I am so excited because our church has made a section outside of the bookstore specifically to remind people to pray for the military. There are pictures of the men and women from our congregation or friends of the ministry who are in the military. I saw it this weekend at church and it totally took me by surprise. I didn't realize they were doing that!

Please keep Jason, Sommer, and A.J. in your prayers. I don't have any specific prayer requests at this point other than that God would keep them all safe. Pray Psalm 91 over their family! Pray for peace for their family and that Sommer would receive the help and encouragement that she needs while she is a single mom for 18 months.

Thanks everyone and God Bless!