Thought in Forte

Yep. You heard it right. Those of you who were wondering if I actually moved to California… I’m coming back tomorrow. But moving here is another story altogether. Wow. Let’s be honest. I love California. But I hate the heat. And I hate that it’s not Seattle. There is no greater city in America than Seattle. Not one. Has the most beautiful skyline in all of America. Has culture coming out of its nose. Has great places to eat. Has great places to shop. Has great places to walk, to sit, to read, to swim, to bike, to be.

Here’s a quick list of why I love Seattle:
Pike Place
Queen Anne
Kerry Park
The Troll
W.O.W.
The Ave
SR 520
The Needle
Westlake
Noah’s
Golden Gardens
Minnie’s (open 24hrs)
Gasworks
Lk. Union
The Locks
Greenlake
U Dist.
etc.

But now, on to today….

Woke up in Turlock. 15 minutes outside of Modesto. We were there because Chris was leading worship at a church down there. I slept pretty good last night, considering Wayne Ritchie sounds like a chainsaw sometimes. But it was fine. Woke up at 630. Yes A.M. Got to the church and everything started going to ____ in a handbasket. Not a phenomenal soundcheck. First of all, they use Avioms. Which are great. I love them for the most part. Except when you have to play with them. I don’t do a lot of studio music, mostly live stuff, and so I’m used to hearing the house mix and the crowd. So I don’t like to play through headphones. It was alright though. We had a few problems some feedback in the monitors and a problem with the bass. And with the keyboard. And the guitar. And the backup singers. And the drums. And the soundboard. So…. Maybe it didn’t go as well as I say, but oh well.

The church is great! They have a very free spirit, and do everything with excellence. Both of the senior pastors have “service coordinators” that sit with them and take care of stuff for them. Secretaries, basically. But they had clipboards and earpieces. I’ve never been to a church that has that for their service. Lot’s of conferences, yes. Lots of shows, yes. But never for a weekly church service. All the ushers had earpieces. And there was a really built guy walking around with one of those official-looking clear earpieces that has the curly cord that goes down into the back of his shirt and he looks like if you touched the pastor that he would kick your butt. Everything with excellence. Great lighting. A couple scanner lights, a jib arm for their video/media team, and professional video announcements. It was good stuff. Well put together.

Except the band, today. Chris, the bassist, and I were the only people on the same wavelength. Even though I wasn’t in the monitors the first service. And that the drummer couldn’t hear any signal at all until 1/2 way through the last song. He was seriously finding the tempo and where we were going by watching the way that I tapped my foot. Wow. It was tough. But we broke through, and the crowd felt the anointing, I think. It went alright. It was fun, really. Met a lot of nice people. Good church.

Then we made the awesome trip back to Redding. 4 hours. Sinful of all nations. I rode with Mrs. Carol Baker and the Ritchie parents back to Redding. Got to talking with Mrs. Baker. She’s a really great woman of God. I didn’t know her very well before, but she is great. I’m really glad that I can be a servant to her. Sounds weird, huh? But that’s what I immediately thought to type, so that’s what it is. She’s very generous. Bought lunch and dinner. Great person.

We stopped to get a little bathroom break and a drink at a Carl’s Jr. Got back on the road about 2 hours out and were stopped at a dead stop on I-5. Bummer. Got closer to why we were stopped and it was the worst wreck I have ever seen. The most terrible thing I have ever seen in my life. 2 cars demolished. And it happened about 5 minutes prior, based on the backup and how many cop cars were there. About the time we would’ve gone through there if we hadn’t stopped. The medics were just arriving on the scene. We drove by, checking out the wreckage. It had just happened. I looked at one car and saw a man’s back, the back of his head, and his arm; crushed in the drivers seat of one of the cars. Blood. Not moving. Gone. I will never forget that mental picture as long as I live. We prayed in tongues for the next 20 miles. And didn’t talk for the next 40 minutes. I hate Satan. God is calling me to heal the hurting and broken. To physically heal bodies. I know this is true because I hate death. I hate it. God’s plan was never death. Sin causes death. God does not cause death. I will never attribute pain and suffering to an all-loving God. God is good and all good comes from Him. The devil is bad and all bad comes from him. If it’s bad, it’s not from God and God’s plan is not to allow it. End of story. God is good, the devil is bad. Period. I hate death. God is calling me to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out devils. Because I hate death.

“Though the world sees and soon forgets, we will not forget who You are and what You’ve done for us.”

Wow. Now onto the rest of the day…

We got back into town just in time for Sunday night service. Great time. The anointing fell as the first note was played of the first song. And crazy mannah-looking stuff fell in the air before the first song. And feathers. It was fun. One of the best times of worship I’ve ever had. I’m bringing it back. Get ready. Danny Silk gave a great word about passing along what we’ve got in our generation from God onto the next one and building on a heritage of impartation. “Raising a generation to dance on the rooftops.” I made that one up. We are supposed to have the highest place we’ve gotten in God be the floor that the next generation builds on. Chris said at dinner afterwards tonight that I’m gonna be greater than him. That’s the right outlook. Not because it’s me and I want to be great, but for anyone. It’s the right outlook. Doing all God has called you to, and calling the next line of priests to be greater. The Acts church was never supposed to be the “great” church. It was supposed to be the floor that we build upon. But no generation has been able to master the inheritance in the New Testament church. But this one will be different.

Did the whole graduation thing at service tonight. Everyone came up and hugged Kathy Vallotton and Brian Johnson and high fived all the other teachers after getting their “diploma.” I might have taken an extra-big hug from Brian Johnson. So much so that I didn’t let go and so he laughed and slapped me on the butt to get me off of him. I was just goosed by Brian Johnson. Big time. Then, as Chris was getting up, Brian grabbed the mic from Kathy and said “actually this is Chris ‘Big Time’ Ritchie.” We are officially friends with Brian Johnson, one of the premier worship leaders in America right now. And a really cool guy. But a cooler guy.

After service, we said goodbye to everyone at the school that was there with us and went out to eat at Olive Garden. What did I get? Fettuccini Alfredo, of course. Then Chris and I made one final WinCo Foods run to get some stuff for Chonch and I came back to the apartment. Had a little time with Dustin and MJ, blogged this, and went to bed. Had a great time of worship here at my computer with Brian and Jenn Johnson. I’ve got gold sparkles on my hands. I get that whenever the Spirit of God is on me. Got them today, a few of us prayed for Will and his shoulder got at least 80% freer from pain. Praise God. He is real. And really good. And he wants to heal us. 24/7 Gotta love Him.

Well, it’s bedtime for Bonzo. Gotta pack up my stuff and get ready for the trip tomorrow. Fun times. Not.

See you tomorrow, Seattle….

Currently listening to: “Where You Go I Go” – Brian and Jenn Johnson

-Douglas
(Luke, you know the drill)

Yep. Second to last day of the Redding blog. Except that today, I’m in Turlock. To imagine Turlock, imagine Bellingham about 15 minutes south of Modesto, CA. That’s a good way to imagine it. It’s a pretty sweet town… But on to the day.

Woke up at the ungodly hour of about 7. Yes, A.M. Chris wanted to leave for Turlock (about a 4 hour drive) at 8. We told the pastors of the church we are playing at here in Turlock that we’d be there at 1pm. We were just about on time. We got a little bagel action for breakfast and were on the rode by 9. Pretty close to the time we had planned. But who likes to eat and drive? Not me.

The drive to Sacramento and then to Turlock area sucks. Sucks bad. But it was alright. Took a little nap, drooled all over my hand, and woke up and we were there… Not quite, but close. Got into town and went to lunch at the pastors’ house. It was a pretty nice house. A lot of toys for Choncho. Had a wonderful lunch. It was wonderful because it was the last of my fast!

Went from there to a “tour” of Turlock. Took about 4 minutes. Small town. Then we went to their church. Gorgeous. Everything is done with excellence. They have LCD screens in some of the hallways. They have a video recording studio. They have a beautiful sanctuary. And they are growing like mad. It’s a really sweet church, everything I think that I want in a building at least.

We just hung out at the church for a little until the worship practice started. And then we had worship practice. Trainwreck. Musical trainwreck. Actually it wasn’t that bad. Actually it was. JK… Maybe…. We just weren’t on the same page the whole time. It will be okay though because even though Chris and I aren’t studio musicians or anything, we’ve got the anointing to play and lead worship… And that will get one farther than anyone can go by themself. Truth?

After worship, we went to their Saturday night prayer service. It was pretty sweet. These people at this church are wild! Out of control! It was fun!

After that, we went to Red Robin and met up with Tim Sipes (he lives in Modesto). I had fish and chips. 1st meat I’ve had in a month. It was great! Then I walked across the street to the hotel that the church is putting us up in. It’s nice. I love nice hotels. Actually, it’s not that nice, but I rarely stay in anything even mildly expensive, so it’s a luxury here…

Well, it’s up at 630 tomorrow to be at the church for practice at 730… Ho hum. I’m sharing a room with Wayne and Margo tonight. That’s weird. Actually it’s just weird that it’s Wayne. Actually, Wayne is just weird… But I love him. We have a love/hate relationship. I love him and he hates me. He has a tickle monster. I hate that tickle monster….

Good night, Seattle….

Currently listening to: “Mighty to Save” – Hillsong

-Douglas
(Luke, I wish you were here.)

You heard right. Last day of class. Best worship time so far. Incredibly interesting teaching time. I didn’t have to listen to people give their creative expressions. It was phenomenal all the way around, I guess. Woke up early today. That’s a lie. I woke up at about 845. It’s about 3 hours before I wanted to get up, though. So I guess it was early. Chris picked me up and we went to class. Great worship time. There was a spirit of freedom in the room that I haven’t felt in a long time. Get ready, Seattle, Chris and I are bringing it back with us! Heard a little big from Dano McCollum about the three heavens. Pretty interesting stuff. Gave me a new vision. It’s sweet and you can check it out by clicking here. Do check them out. They might just screw up how you feel about your worship.

After class, Chris and I went out to lunch with the Chach and the Carley and the Margo. Marie Callander’s. Good cornbread. Pitiful salad bar. Salty soup. Good cornbread. Choncho wasn’t really in an “eating” mood. He was more in a “put it in your mouth and spit it out” mood. I don’t know what I’d do if I had a kid. I might freak out. I might just give up feeding him. I think I’ll wait a while for a kid. What’ya say? Good idea, I believe.

Dropped Carley, Margo, and the monkey boy back at the hotel and went to Kathy Valotton’s for a little “last day of school” party shindig. She’s the leader of the school. She has a very nice house. She’s the wife of one of the pastors at Bethel, Kris Valotton. They take care of him. There house is decorated all african savanna style. It’s sweet. There were probably 5 deer/antelope heads on the wall, a whole zebra skin, and a stuffed turkey on the wall. They do the whole hang-your-pots-from-the-ceiling-above-the-stove thing that rich people sometimes do. They had 3 acres. They had about 6 leather couches. They had a bar. She drives a BMW Z4. They had more expensive stuff in their house than you could shake a stick at. Even if that stick was really big. Fun party. Said goodbye to a couple people. Most I will see on Sunday night for the graduation thingy. That’s gonna be fun. And by fun I mean extremely boring. I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in an exciting graduation ceremony my entire life.

We then went back to the hotel and hung out for a little bit. Carley was out with her madre who came into town today. And guess who else was in town? WAYNE! My favorite Ritchie, by far. Although he hates me. ;-) He sneezed all over me today. And he has a tickle monster. I hate that tickle monster.

We all went to service tonight. It was the graduation of the Children’s School of Supernatural Worship tonight. They ran the service. It was pretty cool, but a letdown because I thought we were going to get a little Bill or Kris or Danny. Oh well. We had a fire tunnel. Apparently that’s a normal thing around here. Love it! But this fire tunnel was a kid fire tunnel. They were the prayer people. It was fast times at Ridgemont High, if you know what I mean. What!?

After that, we went to In ‘n Out. No, I didn’t break my fast. The Call is tomorrow. Can’t break it before The Call, God says to me. So I guess I won’t. Just had a little french-fry action and a little burger minus the burger action. Good stuff. Played around with an iPhone. I must have one. They are unbelievable. Revolutionary. Unbelievable.

Now it’s time for bed. Because Chris will be here at 8 tomorrow. Yes, A.M. We drive to Turlock tomorrow for a little worship leading practice for a service he’s doing on Sunday. Should be fun times. But I need some sleep. Definitely looking forward to the drive tomorrow… no.

Good night, Seattle….

Currently listening to: “Wonderful, Beautiful” – New Life Worship

-Douglas
(Luke, I wish you were here)

ps: The revival in America starts tomorrow.

The last normal day in Redding. The last day where we get up, go to class, get out, hang out a little bit, blog and go to bed. Except that Chris has given up blogging (at least last night). Quitter. Just kidding. Would you rather blog or hang out with your wife and kid? That’s why he didn’t blog.

Woke up today. Always a good thing to wake up. Get this: His mercies are new every morning. And it’s always morning somewhere. Whatever. Set my alarm for 845. So that I could hit the snooze button for about 1/2 hr. Glorious sleep. Glorious. Got up, took a shower, put on underwear, socks, pants, a shirt, a belt, and shoes. Brushed my teeth. Shaved my face. Did my hair. Checked my email. Heard Chris drive up. Went to class.

Worship was interesting today. Extremely interesting. Kathy Valotton lead worship. Not totally my style, but I can deal with it. God’s my style so I’ll be alright. It was an extremely prophetic worship time. Almost to the point of chaos. Not totally my style. But God’s my style so I’ll be alright. We had about 50 kids from the children’s school of supernatural worship with us today. They were here to worship with us and they all danced and waved banners and flags. That was awesome. It’s so much easier to enter into worship when 50 kids are dancing and waving flags all around. They bring the presence with them. It’s sweet. It was an open mic time and so a lot of people came up to sing prophetically or give prophetic words. That was cool, too. But there was a time when the music got so intense and the guy with the mic got so intense and the lady at the microphone yelled “Now everybody dance!” that I felt awkward. I don’t know if this was my lack of holiness (you know what I mean) or if God wasn’t doing that inside me. He told me to turn around and face the back wall at a point during the service. I think that was to get my mind off of what was going on around me. I think that God was doing something with me today that wasn’t physically happening around me at all. But submit to spiritual authority I did, and I started dancing and jumping.

After worship, Dan McCollum spoke again. You can see his notes by clicking here. They are pretty legit. I actually can’t remember what they are about right now, but I’m sure they are good.

After that session, Chris and I went and had a little luncherooni with Margo, Chach, and Carley. Jack in the Box has a few daniel-fast-friendly items. Speaking of which: I’m done with this fast tomorrow night. Awesome. Raced back from there to the next class session. This session was about prophetic art. Wow. This is the most stretched I’ve been at this school so far. By far. The “instructor” did a little preface to what prophetic art was. She told a couple stories about drawing in her prayer time a portrait and then seeing that person that she was drawing later that day. Someone she had never met, and just ran across in the supermarket or something. Crazy stuff. What she had us do is pray for a partner at our table and have the LORD give us a prophetic word for them and then draw, paint, or color it on a piece of paper. Not comfortable for me. Esspecially since the person we were drawing about was sitting right next to us as we painted. I ended up drawing a picture of a lightbulb exploding. God revealed to me that she had a lot of unsaved friends and that He was going to use her in unconventional ways to reach them and tell them about Jesus. The light bulb was exploding because it would be an outside-of-the-box type of evangelism. There was a lot of blue because blue represents the prophetic, indicating that this was something that was going to start happening, and not necessarily something that was already happening.

She drew a picture for me. Here’s a picture of that picture:

It’s pretty sweet. She said that she just started drawing and God told her to draw a bass cleff. Which is good because I’m a musician. She said that joy and the smile tell of the happiness that I’m going to bring people through my music and my worship. Sweet! I also think it’s interesting that the lips are huge and I have huge lips. Hilarious to me.

Took a little bit of a break and heard some more creative expressions. A lady played her flute for the first time in a public setting and although she didn’t have a whole lot of skill, it really touched her that God would give her that opportunity. That’s awesome. Chris and I did a little diddy off his latest CD: “I am Wrecked.” (c) 2005 Chris W. Ritchie, By the Bay Publishing. It went pretty well. And by pretty well I mean that I didn’t play it phenomenally but Chris was spot-on vocally. It was the best I’ve ever heard him sing that song. They added a little reverb to him in the house mix and it sounded money! I screwed up a couple times, but everyone was really impressed with it and how well we can flow together. Kathy even said that she was impressed and it showed how well we know each other to be able to understand where the other is going. That’s pretty sweet. I guess I have played for him every week for the past year and a half or something like that. It’s great. Love it to death.

After class, we all (the Ritchies and me) went to RR (aka The Dirty Bird, The Frickin Chicken, Red Robin). Had a little din-din and then came back to their hotel and took a little swim. Did I mention it got to 113 today and isn’t going to go down past 73 in the night? We needed that swim. Pepe and Phillipe weren’t there, but everyone and their dog was. Including a boy in a mermaid fin that went up to his waist. Kinda weird, but that’s cool.

After our swim, Chris dropped me off back at Red Robin to hang out with some friends from the school. But only after we washed the car windows with water that smelled like poop at the shell station. They dropped me off. He and Carley were going to tour Redding or something like that. Figured I’d give them a little alone time. Hung out with these people (about 12 of us) at RR and then went to (where else) Sundial Bridge. Hung out with some random drunk guys, spun around in the grass, leaned over the rail, and hung out in the parking lot. Typical activity for Redding folk. It was our friend Jesse’s (who I’ve grown pretty fond of) last night here before she left for “The Call” tomorrow in Nashville. She’s a pretty cool chick. Hope we see each other again. We will.

Now I’m here blogging, about to go to bed. Really. Last night I blogged at about 2am after a couple hours on myspace and facebook. I’m a loser. Either that or it’s Redding. So I’m off to bed. Oh by the way…

Revival is coming to America. Seriously, this time. It’s going to start on the 7th of this month and it’s going to start in Nashville. Get ready. Just thought you might like to know.

Good night, Seattle… I miss you more tonight than I ever have.

Currently listening to: “Busted Stuff” – Dave Matthews Band

-Douglas
(Luke, I wish you were here)

PS: Click Seattle and get a surprise

On a scale of 0-10, if 0 was a day I’ll remember for being bad and 10 was a day I’ll remember for being good, today was probably a 4 or a 5. Nothing incredibly interesting happened today. Except that I got to sleep in. That was a good thing. A very good thing.

Chris called me at 930 this morning. Something about going to get bagels. Apparently he was up at 8 because Chach was up at 8. I was not up then. I wasn’t even thinking about getting up at that time. Because it’s the 4th of July and we didn’t have class today (remind me to talk about the fireworks), I slept until about 1130. Everything glorious. When Chris heard I wasn’t up until 1130, he was astonished. I can sleep with the best of ‘em, he forgets.

He ended up picking me up at about 1230. We went and did a little shopping at Target. Saw Kim “the walker” Stalker there. She was getting some snacks and stuff for the fireworks show tonight. Don’t let me forget about the fireworks. Apparently she was going to stake out a spot at the civic center to watch the show. She says that you just lay on your back and watch them above you. Pretty sweet, she says.

After we got all of the necessities at Target (cheese, crackers, water, the usual), we went back to their hotel room and went for a little bit of a swim. Took Chonch out for a little dip in the pool because it was about 105 degrees at 2pm. We show up to the pool and see phillipe and pepe swimming and lounging around the pool. They were 2 french/spanish looking guys that were wearing 1920s mens bathing trunks. You know, the little ones that bodybuilders wear. The kind that James Bond wears in the latest movie. The ones that show all you got and a bag of chips… That kind. Plus they were really creepy. They kept staring at everyone in the pool and sitting in awkward seductive positions in order to sun their inner thighs. We made our swim short. Very short.

Remind me about the fireworks.

After the swim Chris and Carley went to dinner with a couple pastors in town and Margo, Chach, and I took naps. We were expecting Chris and Carley to be gone about an hour and a half. They were gone for over two and a half. (Remember: I need to talk about the fireworks) We all woke up from naps at about the time we thought they’d be getting back, but they weren’t. Choncho had a little mac n cheese, played with a little ball, watched a little baby einstein, and just about the time he was going to explode from being cramped in the room… Carley and Chris showed up. Their dinner went really good and we all left to get a little food for Douglas because my stomach was eating itself.

Went back to the apartment to get some dinner for me and to grab some of my stuff and went to a meeting Chris had with one of those pastors who took him to dinner. We walked out of the hotel where that meeting was and saw the fireworks. It’s the biggest fireworks show this in Northern California. Very impressive. It was a pretty neat display, for what we saw. We got in the car to find a good vantage point. Parked along the side of the road at the very top of a big hill in Redding: perfect fireworks-watching spot. I run out to get out from behind a tree that was blocking my view, and they stop. We saw probably 6 seconds of fireworks from the place where we were. Great. Happy 4th.

Got back in the Scion and dropped me off at the apartment at about 1040 and here I am talking to you. Almost didn’t blog tonight. Dunno why. Chris asked me tonight on the way home: “Scale of 1-10, how much do you want to go back to Seattle?” Right now? There are a few things I want in Seattle. I miss my brother like crazy, I miss my parents pretty bad, I miss my car a lot, I miss hanging out with EZ and Luti, I miss the skyline, I miss my own bed really bad, and I miss not being 95 degrees at 9 at night. But other than that… Not a lot I miss. Esspecially the fact that I’ll have to work the day after I get back. To pay off things I already have. Fun. I’m just kind of in a somber mood right now. Good word: somber. Good word.

Something’s coming, though. Something that’s gonna change my life. And it’s coming fast. I can feel it. I certainly hope so because waiting tables and dreading September can only last so long. God is good. Always.

Good night, Seattle…

Currently listening to: “Be Lifted or Hope Rising” – David Crowder* Band

-Douglas
(Luke I wish you were here)

All alone. Just me in the apartment. It’s really kinda depressing. Usually Chris would be talking like a monkey right now. “Chreees!” But it’s good because he is wif his wife. Glad he’s happy as I’m sitting here alone in an empty apartment drinking water straight out of the jug, eating a half-cooked quesedilla and yogurt with granola doing nothing but myspacing for the past 2 hours. Just kidding. It’s not as bad as it sounds. It’s kind of relaxing. Whatever.

“But that’s tonight, what about today?” you ask! Patience, Iago. Today was a lot like every other day. Said that a few times, huh? But it was. Except today was the day that I probably got the least out of. Why? Anthony Skinner. Not really my kind of guy. For those of you who don’t know (and he said today that about 30,000 people know him), Anthony Skinner is a recording artist/worship leader out of Nashville. He taught most of the classes today. He wouldn’t call himself a worship leader first. He said yesterday, “I’m a worship leader, but not really a worship leader.” Good for him. But not really where I’m going.

The majority of the teaching he did today was kinda surface-level, not a lot of meat on it, and didn’t really apply to the way that the school was going. He actually contradicted a lot of what was spoken by other speakers and even said the exact opposite of what the sermon was about Sunday night. He came from a different perspective. That’s healthy, but it didn’t really jive. Plus I didn’t hear a lot of what he was saying because I was too focused on the time he swore. It was weird. He was talking about how you shouldn’t give up on your dreams, you’re not too old, blah blah blah, and all of a sudden he says “Those of you who think you’re too old to live out your dreams… I’m here to tell you that that’s bull$h!t.” And then he went on to say something like “Most of you guys are focusing on the fact that I just swore than what I’m saying.” There’s a time and a place where that shock value is appropriate and valuable (maybe), but a room full of worship students who are listening intently to what you have to say and are hungry for more teaching isn’t that place. Didn’t really work. I would expect that to work at an outreach or in bar ministry or something. But not in the sanctuary. The place that God resides. I dunno. Didn’t sit well. I was focused on the swearing more than what he said.

Jenn Johnson (Mrs. Big Time) did a session, though, today. It was pretty sweet. Notes are here. She talked mostly about hearing the voice of the LORD and responding immediately. She told a story about a one Bobby Conner. Bobby was at a restaurant once and God told him to go nibble on a random guy’s ear. Nibble. But he had cultivated such a relationship to the voice of God, that he did it. Went over sat down next to him, and started nibbling on the guys ear. The guy broke down. He explained that his wife had just passed. She was a believer and he still isn’t. He would only let her talk to him about the Gospel if she would nibble on his ear. When she died, he said the only way he would ever listen to anyone preach the gospel is if they nibbled on his ear first. Wow. We serve a phenomenal God. Crazy stuff, for sure.

After class, we sat around for a little bit at the church with some people and shot the breeze with Brian “Big Time” Johnson for a couple minutes and came back to the apartment. Chris packed up his stuff, we cleaned a little bit of the crap out of the room, took out the trash and went and checked Chris into the hotel he and Carley and Margo are staying in for the rest of the trip. We were just hanging out in the hotel room taking our time when Chris realized we were going to be late. We jetted out of the hotel room, picked up some Taco Bell on the way and started the 2 hour drive to the airport. That drive sucks. A lot. But we got to the airport right in time and picked up the girls and the boy. Chris had been missing them like mad. It’s good they are here: he can finally breathe.

Drove home, dropped me off at the apartment and here I am listening to country music, checking my myspace and blogging to the wonderful people that are reading this right now. A big welcome to my Aunt Yvonne who, I just found out, has been reading my blog for a couple weeks. And also welcome to the next Robert Zemeckis, Eric Steven Esau. Brother.

It’s off to bed for little Dougie, though, I fear. It’s gonna be weird not waking up to Carley calling Chris tomorrow morning. But I’ll be thanking God when I finally wake up at 1130. Glorious.

Good night, Seattle….

Currently listening to: “Pledge Allegiance to the Hag” – Eric Church

-Douglas
(Luke, I wish you were here. Heck, I wish anybody was here!)

Tonight is the last night Chris and I sleep in the same room. Because tomorrow at about 8pm, Carley comes into town. And it would be awkward for us all to get a room, so Chris and Carley and Margo and Choncho are getting a hotel room. This means one thing: I am alone in the apartment until about Thursday. Gonna be kinda boring, I think. That’s cool, though…

Today was pretty legit. Woke up to Carley on the phone with Chris. He’s not phenomenal at being quiet. It was okay, though. I probably needed to get up. Got up, took a shower, went to class. Class was a little different than usual today. We didn’t start with worship. Anthony Skinner is here teaching some classes today and tomorrow, but he was struggling with some sort of larengitis or something like that so he couldn’t sing. He couldn’t even talk. He typed most of the teaching (although it wasn’t a lot) on the screen today.

He played a little part of a DVD that he just got done making. It’s kind of a soaking DVD. I’d call it prophetic video. I dunno. It was cool. He played it and we all sat and just listened to what God said to us. I got a page of all the things God said to me. I sat down and just started typing. It was really encouraging. After that, we had some lunch and came back for a band session. I jumped up to play keys for one of the band things. Most people were playing some sort of boring string pad, basically filler stuff. Well, that’s not my style at all and so I asked the keyboard player to hook me up with a jazz organ patch. Did a few little diddies, a little “and the LORD said” Gaug chord, and a 8-bar organ solo. Brushed my shoulders off and left the stage. Just kidding. It was really fun though. Got to do a little bit. Got called “big time” by Big Time Brian Johnson, himself. Made me feel good….

After class, Chris and I came home, had a little bit of dinner stuff (only a few days until I can have real meat) and left to play ultimate frizbee with some of the people from school. It was fun. I’m not a big fan of any sort of cardio. My team won 10-8 or something like that. It was fun times.

Left there, came home and took a shower because I itched from all the acidity in the grass.
Got out of the shower and stepped into more water than was in the bathtub. Chris had clogged the toilet (it’s the weakest toilet I have ever encountered) a couple hours earlier and so I flushed it before I got in the shower to clear out the tp. It didn’t go down but I didn’t see it overflowing so I got into the shower and took a shower. Got out and realized that there was water all over the floor and it kept coming out of the toilet. That was fun cleaning up. And by fun, I mean not really fun at all. The fan is still going into the bathroom to dry up the extra water we couldn’t get. But it makes for good blogging.

Washed my hands for about an hour after the clean-up and got all ready to go out to eat with Jesse, Johanna, and Daniel and found out that they were just gonna hang in tonight. Thought that was weird. Kinda felt dogged but that’s cool. No biggie. Ended up going to sundial bridge with some other people and hanging out there for an hour or so. Came back home, started blogging, stopped blogging and went to sleep (that’s gonna happen in about 3 minutes, I’m really excited about it).

Good night, Seattle…

Currently listening to: “Gravity” – John Mayer

-Douglas
(Luke, I wish you were here and I’m sorry about your gear)

Today marks the last day of the second to last week that we are here in Redding. Does that make sense? We leave a week from tomorrow. Stoked about that. Not! The trip will probably end up being something insane like 12 hours because we’ll have to stop for Choncho every three hours. I have no desire to be in a car for more than 12 minutes right now. Make that 3 minutes.

But on to today. Today was great. Remember how I told myself last night that I was going to press into worship no matter what? I’ve found the key. Telling myself that I’m going to do it. That’s the key. Works like a charm every time. Physical obedience brings spiritual release. I decided I would worship and God met me. Bill started the service out with a scripture reading just like they do every Sunday. This one went right along with what we are learning in the school. Psalm 144:1 “Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.” Verse 9 “I will sing a new song to You, O God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to You…” Bill asked the question “What do you play a lyre (harp) with? Your fingers.” He trains my fingers for battle. The battle being done on the harp, on the musical instrument. Our physical worship is warfare. Talk about a good way to enter into a worship service. And that service didn’t disappoint. I think we did about 3 songs for a total of an hour. Good stuff. Bill preached a phenomenal message that I didn’t take notes for. Bummer. But Chris did. Check his notes out at his blog site. Or you can get the podcast from ibethel.org. Do check it out. Probably the best sermon I’ve heard from Bill Johnson. And that’s saying a lot.

After church, I went over to some friends’ house and had a “Canada Day” party with about 20 people from the school. About 4 of them are actually from Canada, so we decided that was enough for a party. It wasn’t a party, really. We just kinda hung out and had some Canada trivia and sang the national anthem. We also took score about who’s country was best. 1 point to Canada for a cooler national anthem. 1 point to the US for a cooler animal (eagle vs. beaver). 1 point to Canada for a more beautiful country. 1 point to the US for more beautiful cities. 100 points to the US for being able to wipe Canada off the face of the Earth if we wanted to. The party was fun, for the most part. Chris didn’t come, he decided to go take a nap or something. That’s okay, he’s 33. jk :-)

After the party, went straight to Bethel for another great service. Banning Liebescher spoke about a lot of things, but his sermon was about dreaming again. Not letting a “grown-up” spirit get in the way of what God wants to do in you. It was a great sermon. Phenomenal. It was for sure for me. Lots of confirmation. Not like the Catholic confirmation, but you get what I’m saying.

After that, we went to heaven. And by heaven I mean Taco Bell. Got some food and came home. Dustin and his fiance, MJ, are leaving tomorrow for Santa Cruz for the week. Sounds like they’re gonna have a fun trip. Got the apartment all to myself for a couple days because they’re gonna be gone and because Carley and Choncho and Margo fly in on Tuesday. Ho hum. Gonna be bored. That’s cool, though. I’m glad that Carley’s gonna be here because Chris is starting to make advances on me. Just kidding of course. Weird.

So now it’s bedtime for bonzo. I’m all tuckered out from a full day today. Anthony Skinner in school teaching tomorrow. It’s gonna be unreal. Good times.

Good night, Seattle…

Currently listening to: “Mighty to Save – Hillsong.

-Douglas
(Luke, I wish you were here and your car looks great)

I love doing these blogs. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d rather be asleep than typing at a desk right now, but I love having written 20 journals about what has happened to me. I hope I’ll have them for a long time. Blogging makes me feel a little bit like a journalist. Not one of those guys who covers unimportant things like the renaming of a city hall or the dedication of a new street… But, rather, one of the 1920′s journos that wore the fedora hat, suspenders, and always had their tie unnecessarily loose around their neck. Kind of like Jimmy from Superman, but cool like Dick Tracy. Yeah. Dick Tracy. But less yellow…. You get the idea.

Today I woke up to Chris calling me. On the phone. He was in the living room. He called me at 930 and asked “When are you getting up?” “Not right now.” He hung up. I slept for another hour and a half. We kinda sat around from 11 to 1. I didn’t take a shower until about 1 in the afternoon. It was great. But Chris decided that he couldn’t waste his life away sitting at the apartment, so we found somewhere to drive to. We thought about Reno. It’s only about 4 hours away. But it’s 4 hours away. We decided to go to Sacramento instead. 2 hours is better. So we left at about 2, went and picked up our friend David, and hit the 5 (did I just say the 5? Gross).

We got to Sacramento and drove around a little bit before finding the Guitar Center we were looking for. The area of Sacramento we were in driving around was beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Seattle’s Queen Anne. A lot of little craftsman houses under the shade of acorn trees. If I owned one, I would have my kids to draw with chalk on the sidewalk without shoes on and ride bikes with training wheels that had streamers on the handles as I sat on the porch drinking lemonade and scratching the dog, watching the sprinkler. It was that kind of place.

Arrived at Guitar Center and realized they were having a sale. Bad. The guy behind the counter told me he could cut me a deal on a pedal I need. From $150 down to $115. I could’ve gotten him down to $100. Not good for a guy that is on a fixed income (nothing) for the next week and a half. I exhibited restraint and withheld myself. Chris bought some guitar strings (he hadn’t restrung his guitar since he bought it) and looked around for a cut capo. A cut capo is a device that covers the middle 3 strings on the guitar, causing them to play at a different tone, but doesn’t touch the other 3 strings on the outside. The salesman didn’t have one. Or know what one was. He tried to sell Chris a banjo capo instead. “This’ll work, I bet. And if it doesn’t, hey it’s only 14 bucks.” Nice try, Ricky. Chris doesn’t play banjo.

Left GC and went to look for somewhere for dinner. Found a California Pizza Kitchen. Good times. They had whole wheat pizza bread, so Chris could eat there. We each got a 10″ pizza. Mine was muy bueno. Some sort of 5 cheese pizza with spinach and sundried tomatoes. Phenomenal. And the best ranch I’ve ever had in my life. Hands down. It was crazy good. I am a connoisseur of ranch dressings, as is Chris. We agree that Kraft is palatable, but not great, and agree that Hidden Valley ranch is horrible. We lean towards the ranch that you get with salads at Wendy’s. But we both agreed today that the ranch we were served is by far the best we’ve ever had.

After dinner, we drove home. Did a little prank calling on the way (because I am 4 1/2 years old), and got back into town just in time to meet up with some people to see Ratatouille. You know… That movie about a rat who becomes a chef. Good movie. Solid movie. Did exactly what you wanted it to do. I have an overactive imagination, so it was really good to me. The idea of rats in a kitchen (no matter how cute and cuddly and Disney they were) grossed Chris out. He liked it but… eh. I have decided not to grow up yet so I loved it.

Now we are both blogging in our usual spots about to go to bed. We decided we can’t be late for church tomorrow because last week we couldn’t find a seat. We’ll wake up to Carley tomorrow, probably. I’ve set my alarm once this entire trip. Thanks Carley! See you in a couple days!

Tomorrow should be interesting. I have decided to get God tomorrow at church. It’s gonna be a good time. Consider that prophecy.

Good night, Seattle…

Currently listening to: “Call Me When You Get This” – Corinne Bailey Rae

-Douglas
(Luke, I wish you were here)