Collideoscope

Posted by: Denelle

(I know, original title but really, what else is there to say?)

Let me begin but saying how much I love the internet. I'm typing this entry while sitting on the 10th pew here at church in CA (and no, church hasn't started yet) while I wait for Watch Night service to start. Sometimes technology is a wonderful thing.

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year.

2006 was a wonderful year and I've enjoyed being able to share a large part of it with all of you. However, I am looking forward to 2007 and all of the exciting things that God has in-store for all of us.

I'm usually not one for resolutions (I've only met one person in my life who has ever completed the ones they made) mostly because I don't see the point in setting myself up for failure. Yet, this year I'm seriously kicking around the idea of making a few. Especially since I heard recently that people who make resolutions are ten times more likely to be successful in life.

Tomorrow I am headed back to NY and I'll have six hours on a plane to think about what resolutions I should make for 2007 and I've decided that I'm going to post them here in an attempt to make all of you hold me accountable for completing them. That way if I fail it's as much your fault as mine. lol

In the meantime, have a wonderful New Year celebration. Be happy, healthy and safe.

Love,
Denelle

Posted by: David Bunch

Well, as it turns out I took most of the week between Christmas and New Years off, though not by my own choosing. It seems the old flu bug stung me late Christmas Eve night, and I was not able to swat it away until Wednesday. From there...well, I had a lot of catching up to do around the house and at work!

But the good news is I'm feeling much better and am ready to welcome in 2007!

So what are your plans for New Years Eve?

We are having our annual New Years service this evening at church, then we'll go to some friends' house for merriment.

As I've mentioned before, I always look forward to the New Year's Eve service. I'm a "glass half full" kind of guy, so I see each New Year as a brand new opportunity to make new commitments and to work some more on old commitments that may have been forgotten. I also believe each year will be better than the previous one.

So take some time today to reflect on last year and dream big about 2007!

And Happy New Year everyone!

Posted by: Denelle

I would like to take this opportunity to say "Thank You" to all of you for your thoughts and prayers for my family during our time of loss. They were all greatly appreciated.

Oscar C. Burns, was 89 at the time of his death. He had been married to my grandmother for 50 years before she passed away in 1990. Together they raised five children, four of whom later became licensed ministers. He was Holy Ghost filled for 76 years and spent his life working in any way he could to further the Kingdom of God.

Last Christmas we were fortunate to be able have a family Christmas with almost all of the kids, grandkids, and great grandkids together for the first time in 16 years. The memory that overwhelmingly sticks with me from that time together was how on Christmas night my normally quiet grandfather suddenly started reminiscing about his children and various events in his life (serving in WWII, owning his own business, etc.). Numerous times during this discourse he stated that he knew he was approaching the end of his life but that he could confidently say that he "had no regrets."

It is my fondest wish that when the Lord decides it is my time to pass on that I can also say "I have no regrets."

My grandfather was an amazing man and he will be deeply missed.

Posted by: David Bunch

So everyone is finalizing their big plans for the holiday weekend and double checking their shopping lists to make sure they have everything....

Coordinating schedules with family to try to see everyone can be challenging, but this year it seems that there is more latitude due to the fact that we have all weekend to enjoy the merriment. We plan to celebrate Christmas with one side of our family on Sunday and the other side on Monday. Other than that, no hard and fast plans, except that I do want to try baking an Italian Cream Cheese Cake...mmmm....I'll let you know how it turns out. And if anyone happens to have a secret recipe for it, let me know.

Merry Christmas to all!

Posted by: kdc

A Midwestern Apostolic will be filmed for ABC's Wife Swap the 2nd week of January, with the show slated to appear in February. While no pre-interviews, etc can be granted, I'm told the producers were so wowed by her entry form that they bypassed some of the qualifications process to get her involved.

As all of you who grew up without TV know, February is a sweeps month (along with May and November), meaning the biggest specials and best series' shows run then as advertising rates are set in those months. While the air-date could always change, the producers obviously have high hopes.

I'm told Wife Swap is ABC's 2nd biggest show, with 8.2 million viewers. No word on what type family she'll be swapped into.

Interestingly, this report says that it is Reality TV that religion has the best chance of being treated fairly. Looks like we're about to find out.

Posted by: David Bunch

Kent posted a really cool holiday website and here's one I think is neat. Though there's no morphing into elves there, it is Starbucks' way of bringing interactive holiday cheer. I haven't exhausted all the possibilities, but it looks like you can send holiday greetings and read about holiday traditions from around the world. Plus there's a cool Napolean Dynamite-esque narrator!

Posted by: David Bunch

Here's a piece on a guy who does "lit rap". Specifically, he has created a hip hop version of Chaucer's works.

Brinkman, a native of Vancouver, British Columbia, who has a master's degree in medieval and Renaissance English literature from the University of Victoria, has adapted some of Chaucer's earthy, satirical and pious "The Canterbury Tales" into rap. There are remarkable parallels between "The Canterbury Tales" and modern rap, Brinkman said at Wellesley College during a recent stop on his tour of high schools and colleges across the eastern United States and Puerto Rico.

Brinkman performs the "Pardoner's Tale," the "Miller's Tale" and the "Wife of Bath's Tale." His one-man show, with recorded music and a few props that include a couple of chairs, a bottle of water and a bandanna, is constructed much like the pilgrims' journey in "The Canterbury Tales." He acts as the narrator —a stowaway fan on a tour bus — and plays the part of three rappers on the bus engaged in a rap battle.

Posted by: David Bunch

Two studies are out, one documenting sentiment of children in the UK and the other demonstrating the attitude of American television.

According to this study of 1,500 UK kids...

The poll of just under 1,500 youngsters ranked "God" as their tenth favourite thing in the world, with celebrity, "good looks" and being rich at one, two and three respectively. It is the second year running that God has come in at number 10 in the annual survey for National Kids' Day, but being rich came top last time around.

And the LA Times %20http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tvreligion15dec15,1,4825653.story?coll">presents research that shows what American television networks think of religion (requires registration)...

A study released Thursday by the Parents TelevisionCouncil, a frequent critic of the TV industry over such issues as broadcast indecency, found that prime- time shows in the last year dealt with religion half as much as the year before. When they did, the Los Angeles-based group said, religion was cast in negative light more than one-third of the time.

"The broadcast entertainment industry is completely disconnected from American public opinion," said L. Brent Bozell, the group's president.

The reason she says that is part of the good news. According to the LA Times article:

Attendance at mega-churches such as Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Orange County is booming, while religions such as Mormonism and Pentecostalism are attracting members in droves. A recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life said 78% of Americans believed that the Bible is the word of God, a figure that is virtually unchanged from when the poll began 40 years ago.

Yes, Pentecost gets a mention (though its hard to take seriously anyone who refers to the movement as Pentecostalism).

And the good news out of the UK?

God did come top again this year as the most famous "person" in the world, beating US President George Bush into second place.

Posted by: kdc

Hey everybody!

I bring good tidings of great joy - to Club North Pole!

Come join the fun!


(Now if only they could make me Legolis next time I'd be in heaven.)

Posted by: David Bunch

There's so much fascinating information in this article from the New Yorker that I can't possibly highlight it all for you, so please take a moment to at least scan it. A few of the things that stand out:

The familiar observation that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time obscures a more startling fact: the Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year. Calculating how many Bibles are sold in the United States is a virtually impossible task, but a conservative estimate is that in 2005 Americans purchased some twenty-five million Bibles—twice as many as the most recent Harry Potter book. The amount spent annually on Bibles has been put at more than half a billion dollars.

The article goes on to focus on the myriad study Bibles available, all targeted to different audiences with different needs:

The distinction points to one way in which publishers sell multiple copies of the Bible to the same customers. “They each have a different purpose,” Hatfield told me. “It’s kind of like a tool chest. All the tools are tools, but they’re designed for doing different things.” And there are distinctions within each category. There are study Bibles that focus on theology, on historical context, or on practical applications of Biblical teachings. There are devotional Bibles for new believers, couples, brides, and cowboys. On an air-plane recently, I saw a woman reading a surfers’ Bible very similar to the proposed skaters’ one.

And audio books?

In Denver, Zondervan showcased “The Bible Experience,” featuring just about every black actor in Hollywood, from Denzel Washington to Garrett Morris, and starring Blair Underwood as Jesus and Samuel L. Jackson as God. The publisher of Zondervan, Scott Bolinder, spoke with excitement about the possibilities for distributing the book on iTunes. “A person hears about it, says, ‘I don’t know, I’m not parting with thirty-four dollars. But I’ll try the Book of Revelation for a dollar-ninety-nine,’ ” he said. Thomas Nelson is already working on a rival version, in which Jim Caviezel reprises the title role in “The Passion of the Christ.” Jason Alexander, of “Seinfeld,” is signed on for an unspecified Old Testament character.

Exciting times. Exciting ways of getting The Word out.

Posted by: David Bunch

Denelle's grandfather passed away yesterday, so let us keep her and her family in our prayers. Denelle won't be blogging for several days (maybe even a week or two) as she travels to New Mexico to be with her family during this time.

Posted by: David Bunch

Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's son Jay Bakker starts a reality show this week which will follow his adventures as a punk rock pastor.

You can get to know him even better in a new six-part reality-series, 'One Punk Under God,' which tells the story of how one punk rock-loving preacher man is bucking the evangelical system, building a new kind of church, and making peace with his famous dad and with his mother's failing health.

If he decides he needs a little mascara, he shouldn't have any problems borrowing some from his mom!

Posted by: kdc

As reported earlier, a kid's prayer group from an Apostolic church was included in a CBN report on kid's prayer, which aired today.

This is (most of) how Angie Clark, the Shekinah Kid's leader reported it:

"Here is a brief account of why our kids were “in the news.” On the 13th of November, New Life’s kids prayer coordinator (that’s me) received a phone call from a reporter for CBN’s 700 Club requesting permission to film some of the kids prayer activities at New Life for a report he was doing called, “God’s Kids.”

With green lights of approval from the pastor, ministry leaders and parents, Paul Strand came to New Life and filmed a Sunday evening service, did family interviews on Monday afternoon, and joined the Kids Prayer Force meeting on Monday evening. Our kids are seen off and on throughout the report, but primarily they are the ones in black doing stick drama worship and also the main clip has one of our girls as the intro frame.

Why did we agree to it? The Shekinah Kids of New Life pray that this story with encourage others to raise the level of kids prayer and ministry in their local churches. They also pray that as children see this they will want experiences like these for themselves.

Can you help out? We’ve heard that future stories may develop along this line if CBN gets enough positive feedback from people who see their program or view their clips online. So, after you have enjoyed watching the clip, would you consider taking a few minutes to leave any positive comments about the story on their site?

We pray this segment has a bigger impact than they could have ever imagined. Thanks for your time, partnership, encouragement, and belief that kids are a viable part of the Body of Christ!"


There's More!
I also learned that within 3 hours of the report airing, New Life was contacted by a church in Mississippi wanting more information on kid's prayer!

So don't miss "Jesus Camp: Despise Not Thy Youth." Television doesn't legitimize any ministry, but it can spread the Gospel into corners that don't normally see it.

Want Even More?
90&9 just happens to have an interview with Angie you can read. Like so many interviews we publish, it's just someone wanting to change their part of the world and God doing so much more.

Posted by: David Bunch

Last night I had the opportunity to speak at our very last h20 service of the year (h20 is the weekly youth service at FPC of Denham Springs, LA).

I spoke about how God really takes risks in dealing with humanity. They are risks because whether or not the "pay off" for God totally depends on us.

The first risk was when He created man out of the ground, breathed life into him, and gave him the ability to make choices. Adam and Eve failed.

The second and even greater risk was when God came to earth as a man (Jesus Christ) to redeem us back to Himself. Humanity rejected Him.

The third and greatest risk of all is that God has offered to place His Spirit inside of human beings who are merely earthen vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Many reject that offer. Of those who receive the Spirit, many treat it casually, as though it were a light thing to have the eternal Spirit of the Almighty God living inside of them. This makes the great risk God took appear to be not worth it.

Our challenge is to live worthy of the gift we have received and hear God say "well done". Which is to say, "the risk I took has paid off".

Posted by: David Bunch

In response to Denelle's blog about Apostolic Planet, I visited the site and could not find a networking aspect to it either.....but then again I had not heard all of the buzz about the website, so what do I know?

Yesterday I was online ordering some Christmas presents and I realized that during the Holiday Shopping season there is a critical point at which the whole dynamic of shopping changes (sort of like the boiling point for water).

It's the point at which pricing is no longer concern Number One. Rather, "how soon can you get it in the mail and to my house so I can get it wrapped and under the tree before December 25th" is the utmost concern. For me, that point was reached yesterday.

There's a formula I've devised that helps you calculate the critical point (cP).

cP=Number of calendar days til Christmas (nC) – number of shopping days til Christmas (nS) + number of shipping days til Christmas (nSH) X price

So,

cP=nC-nS+nSH x price

Any number over 100 is considered critical and the higher the number the more critical matters have become.

Yesterday I was at 1,100.

Posted by: Denelle

ApostolicPlanet.com is being touted/promoted as a Christian alternative to sites like EveryonesConnected.com and MySpace.com.

So in the spirit of investigation I decided to take a look and see what they have to offer.

Overall, Apostolic Planet looks like a progressive and interesting organization. Lots of modern and viable methods of reaching younger kids and teenagers. It is obvious that it is a very professional and dedicated organization.

But the one thing I couldn't find was the "message board"/EC-esque space. I would have thought that with all of the promotion going into getting the word out about this new site that there would have been a big, blinking, neon green link.

Can anybody point me in the right direction?

Posted by: Denelle

Who's the cutest? You decide?



Shiloh Jolie-Pitt

or



Suri Cruise

While they are both really cute, my vote goes to Shiloh. She's got such beautiful eyes and lips. Poor Suri just needs her parents to put a bow or barrett or something in her hair.

Posted by: Denelle

This story pertains more to the ladies (unless you guys have some secret fetishes you're not telling us about) but it will be interesting to see if any guys will see the relevance and why I'm posing about this here.

Here's a little secret, guys: Wearing pantyhose is no fun.

Sure, their sheer allure enhances the legs. But they're tight, uncomfortable and one little rip can make them run -- and ruin an entire outfit. And while they once were a
staple in a career woman's wardrobe, sheer hosiery today faces an even a bigger snag that can't be fixed with clear nail polish or a Band-Aid -- more than a decade of eclining sales.

"The casualization of the workplace, it is not as strict as before," said Romaine Sargent, vice president and general manager of marketing for hosiery at Hanesbrands. "Women have more options and some are choosing to wear sheer hosiery less."I know this article is talking about career women, etc. but it struck me in its "church culture" significance as much or more than its workplace relevance.

Where once upon a time (as recently as when I was a teenager, so maybe 10 years ago) you simply didn't go to church without wearing nylons. And on the off chance that for some reason you did committ such an attrocity then you certainly didn't even think of stepping foot on the platform.

But then things started to change.

First it was just Wednesday nights and you could get away with wearing tennis shoes or maybe some kind of sandal. And then somebody realized that really cute strappy sandals don't look good with hose and so they were disappearing during the summer months, mostly on Sunday mornings (but certainly never on a Sunday evening). A few brave souls even went so far as to start showing up for midweek services and youth events in flip flops (and somewhere Harry Branding was spinning circles in his grave - obviously a St. Louis joke, sorry).

And then I moved to California and found my self in a hosiery free zone. The consistantly beautiful weather means you don't need them for warmth and everybody is tan (many thanks to their heritage) and so you don't need them for color. In fact, in the five years that I lived full time in CA I think I probably could count the number of times I actually wore hose for anything (well, maybe it was more than I can easily count but it certainly wasn't often).

So imagine my surprise when I moved to New York and found that once again wearing hose was more of the rule than the exception. At least in religous environments.

Here, the old guard holds firm and by far anyone over the age of 40 is never caught without proper hosiery. A few of us brave souls (the majority of us under 30) do dare to attend Sunday service without hose but are fully aware of the scathing glances cast our way. The ones that surprise me are my peers who faithfully and dutifully wear those contrictive garments week in and week out.

Would you agree? Are hose disappearing from your church faster than the world's Giant Panda population?

Posted by: Denelle

Thanks Kent for your comments and the link to article about Christian film making.

You are dead on in your comments about people turning out sub-standard work and then claiming that it was "divinely inspired." That's the creative equivalent of breaking up with someone and then claiming it was because God told you to. In short, it's a cop-out. It may take a lot of blood, sweat and tears and yes, even a lot of hard work, but there is no reason that Christian works should be inferior to what the world has to offer.

I was especially intrigued by Nicolosi's comments regarding violence and evil in films. That is one issue that we have continually encountered in working with AEM (specifically on an upcoming full length film project that is in the planning stages). As Christians we don't promote violence and in fact we believe that violence and certain other immoral behaviors are wrong. But what happens when it becomes essential to a character's development to show that sort of violence; to depict his change (or conversion if you will) from one lifestyle - of sin and heart ache, to another - of redemption and Christianity. Does the violence then become acceptable? Is it ok to strongly imply or infer violence without actually showing it? Or is there an acceptable level of violence to show. If so, where do you draw the line? It is certainly not a black and white issue.

Posted by: kdc

This article/interview is about Christian film, but also applies to too many Christian novels:

“We were being embarrassed by Christians who were writing works that were substandard and saying theHoly Spirit inspired them to do it.”

Read all of Barbara Nicolosi's (Act One) thoughts here.

(Me: Why does the concept of craft - you know, the hard work of learning how the art form works best - always seem to be justified away by "a burden" of “but God laid this on my heart" by so many Christians? We can win Pulitzers if we’ll just dedicate our lives to the art form. Or at least take it seriously.)

Another great quote:
The religious community should accept that great dramas often involve evil and violence, she said. “We have to be able to talk about sin, and Christians should be comfortable with that," she said. "We have to have sin in our drama, but it doesn't have to be an occasion of sin for our audience.”

Posted by: David Bunch

Every once in a while I find a website or blog that I think is worth sharing, usually because it inspires me on some level. Today I ran across a website in my "favorites" folder that I had not visited in a while and was pleasantly surprised.

Enter the Worship Circle is a really good worship band that brings reflective lyrics and a rootsy, acoustic sound, and I've been very inspired by their music in the past. I kind of lost track of them, but I see today that they actually have some new music out (which I plan to check out in greater detail very soon).

But I also see that there are several blogs on the website, and I was happy to find that these folks are serious about sharing their faith, exchanging ideas about "doing" church, and about edifying the body of Christ by offering good worship music.

The current discussion thread on the ChurchThink blog is looking into the merits of mega churches vs. home groups. Interesting stuff!

Let me offer you a picture. The Family is a living, beautiful vine of real lives growing together in love with Christ and with one another. A systems of organization is like the wooden structure in a garden, the trellis, where the vine often finds its way and direction to grow. I am committed to loving the vine...are you?

Posted by: Denelle

I'm feeling a cold coming on, so I've decided to stave it off with laughter. Both of the items below are true stories. Enjoy!

Always Do Your Research
(if you've ever bought a house you'll appreciate this one)

A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to a parcel of property being offered as collateral. The title to the property dated back to 1803, which took the lawyer three months to track down. After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following reply:

(Actual letter): "Upon review of your letter adjoining your client's loan application, we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have only cleared the title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin."

Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows (actual letter):

"Your letter regarding title in Case No. 189156 has been received. I note that you wish to have title extended further than the 194 years covered by the present application. I was unaware that any educated person in this country, particularly those working in the property area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased, by the U.S., from France in 1803, the year of origin identified in our application.

For the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France, which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain. The land came into the possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the privilege of seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Isabella. The good queen, Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus' expedition. Now the Pope, as I'm sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world. Therefore, I believe it is safe to presume that God also made that part of the
world called Louisiana. God, therefore, would be the owner of origin and His origins date back, to before the beginning of time, the world as we know it AND the FHA. I hope you find God's original claim to be satisfactory.

Now, may we have our **** loan?" (edited for 90&9 content)

The loan was approved.

Age and Treachery Will Triumph Over Youth and Skill
(or How to Call the Police When You're Old and Don't Move Fast Anymore)

George Phillips of Meridian, Mississippi was going up to bed when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window.

George opened the back door to go turn off the light but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.

He phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?" and he said "no". Then they said that all patrols were busy, and that he should simply lock his door and an officer would be along when available.

George said, "Okay," hung up, counted to 30, and phoned the police again.

"Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people in my shed. Well, you don't have to worry about them now cause I've just shot them all." Then he hung up.

Within five minutes three police cars, an Armed Response unit, and an ambulance showed up at the Phillips' residence and caught the burglars red-handed.

One of the Policemen said to George: "I thought you said that you'd shot them!"

George said, "I thought you said there was nobody available."

Posted by: David Bunch

Dear Readers,
My family and I had much discussion about Denelle's top 10 Christmas movie list and our consensus is that It's A Wonderful Life is the best Christmas movie ever, and one of the best of all time.

We also watch the Home Alone movies every year, as they are just classics, if not predictable.

But here's the question. What am I missing with White Christmas? Every year I try to get through it, and every year I fail miserably after the first hour or so. But everyone I talk to says how great it is and how they watch it every year at Christmas. But there's way too much singing!!! I keep waiting for them to get to the point!!!!

Not trying to be a Scrooge,
Dave

Posted by: David Bunch

Author Paul Collins brings us this amazing bit of useless knowledge regarding the fact that F. Scott Fitzgerald first implemented the euphemism "not" back in 1916! Fitzgerald wrote a letter to his friend regarding hazing at Princeton University.

A neat find while cruising some ABAA search results: the Heritage Book Shop has the full text of a bunch of previously unpublished letters by F Scott Fitzgerald, written from Princeton to his childhood friend Elizabeth Clarkson.

Tonight is the cannon rush so if you never hear from me again you'll know I died a freshman.(gentle pathos.) The "horsing" (or hazing) is going on now. Its very foolish. Freshies have to carry their cap in their mouths and by the way our uniforms are some class (not) .

Also, take careful note: it appears Fitzgerald scooped Wayne and Garth on "Not!" by about eight decades. So whenever someone says that, they are quoting a great American novelist.

Posted by: David Bunch

Finally-I slayed the Blogger dragon and now can present to you......Ireland Photos! I had to choose from some 258 pictures so if you want more-there's plenty. : ) But I thought these captured the trip without going overboard. Enjoy!



Green Northern Ireland-right outside our door!


The family on a corner in Belfast. (Kristen doesn't always
look that way-I promise).


The River Liffey-Dublin.


Kristen, Dawson, and Farrah at the River Liffey.


David and Farrah after church at New Life Fellowship in Dundalk.


Queens University-Belfast.


The Bunch Family meets Oscar Wilde in Dublin.


And who could resist posting a pic of Dawson and Angelina!

Posted by: Denelle

Hard to believe isn't it?

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season are the holiday movies that are only played once a year between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I count among my fondest memories the time I spent sitting in my grandparents living room, as close to the heat vent as I could get, watching those movies. As a result (and in the spirit of the top 10 list that we love so much here on Collideoscope) I bring to you:

Top Ten Holiday Movies of All Time

10. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer - the claymation version, complete with Burl Ives' rendetion of the song.



9. A Christmas Story - "You'll shoot your eye out." Enough said.

8. The Polar Express - great book turned into a vivid visual experience, this one also gets points for having the wonderful and original Josh Groban song "Believe".

7. Scrooge (1951 version)/How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated) - it's a tie, I can't help it, I love them both . . . "God bless us everyone" vs. "stink, stank, stunk" how do you choose?

6. A Charlie Brown Christmas - how can you not love this story about a Christmas tree that only a boy like Charlie Brown could love and the beautiful and true meaning of Christmas.

5. It's a Wonderful Life - believe it or not, I only saw this movie all the way through for the first time last year. Thus, it's middle placement on the list. While it's a good movie and I love Jimmy Stewart there are others that I still think are better.

4. Miracle on 34th Street - the original with Natalie Wood - not the silly remake from a few years ago. Of all of the movies I watched as a kid with my grandparents this is the one I remember the most. I especially love it now that I live in NY and have a visual to place with everything.

3. Holiday Inn - one of my dearest friends would argue with me and say this deserves the number one spot. However, I disagree and while it is one my favorites nothing beats my number one choice. Did you know this movie was the first time the song "White Christmas" was ever recorded?

2. Home Alone - a classic no matter how you look at it. I have so many "favorite" scenes that I can't even begin to list them. I'm not sure who made the decision to continue the franchise after the first movie but it was an unfortunate decision.

1. White Christmas - hands down the best Christmas movie out there and long my favorite movie no matter what time of year (much to the chagrin of my dad who can often be heard groaning "not again" whenever he sees it playing in the DVD). I could probably quote the entire thing beginning to end.



**honorable mention goes to Meet Me In St. Louis which is not a Christmas movie per se but which has a wonderful Christmas scene.

Posted by: David Bunch

First Things First
First let me say congratulations to Denelle! That is really commendable that you got into the graduate program at NYU...we're proud!

Second, I'm so thankful that Prophet Curry has finally gone public with his gift-what an inspiration to us all! Seriously, that is good information that Kent has been sliding our way regarding Aps in the media. Its a great day to be in the Kingdom.

Summary
I wanted to take one more opportunity to summarize our trip to Ireland, now that I've recovered from jet lag and had time to reflect on our journey.

The only word that I've found to describe the landscape is "majestic". From the moment I looked out of the window of the plane when we were making our approach into Dublin and saw the mountains to the time when we saw the rainbow stretching over the M1 freeway on the way from the airport to the house, it was an incredible view all around. As Matt said, every time you look outside it is a postcard.

Additionally, the harvest is ready in Ireland. We had the opportunity to preach in two services/churches, as well as work with Matt and Sharon on some outreach they did. The people are amazingly friendly and warm. And even as God's church is being built in Ireland, there is so much more to be done. For example, Dublin is a metropolitan area, with many parts of the city reminiscent of cities in the States. Yet there is no Apostolic work there at all! Considering how blessed the church in North America is, it is a staggering realization.

Next Steps
So we now begin the task of raising our budget through Partners in Missions, and our goal is to be back in Ireland in about a year's time, coinciding with the arrival of Missionary Terry McFarland and family. We'll be working to build God's Kingdom in the Dublin area.

Pictures
Despite the fact that Denelle and Kent are uploading pictures beautifully to blogger, I am still having issues. I'm working to get those resolved and hope to have pictures from our trip for you to see (possibly will get this done over the weekend).

Holidays
So it is December 1st and our holiday schedule is already out of control. Honestly, we're having to turn down invitations to Holiday Events because there are so many, some falling on the same evenings. I enjoy all of the festivities this time of year, but it is impossible to attend everything and still maintain a reasonable since of holiday enjoyment.

So good luck to you all over the next 31 days of December-be sure to save time for your family and to reflect on God's bountiful blessings. And don't forget to dream big about the possibilities for next year.