Hello again. I'm posting again so soon to let you all know that Kristy Folwer and I have decided to organize a party so that everyone who is in town (meaning the Twin Cities area) for the holidays can more easily see each other. Everyone is invited, so please condsider attending.

December 29th, my house, 8:00pm.

This will not be like the Christmas Party/Caroling Extravaganzas from our college days, mainly because we won't be caroling. Also, Gabe and I used to start planning in August and this party is in a week, but it will be fun. Hopefully I will see you all there!

I have tried to keep this brief because I tend to get wordy, but I have made up an evite to send to those who want more info; E-mail me if you would like me to send it to you, or just comment on this post. Also, this is not Crown-exclusive, so if you want to bring friends who didn't attend Crown, they are welcome. See you soon!

Lynnea, Thank for posting those pics. It was fun to see that group of people together, even if it only was through a picture.

I have a challenge that I would like to post to the group. I have been looking hard at my life as a follower of Christ and I have realized many of my incredible short-comings. One of the biggest is my inability to have a fervent prayer life. Personally I think this is due to two things. 1: I am an undisciplined person. 2: I am an not an organized person. The first one takes practice and persistence. The second one takes a plan. I have decided that this year I want to reduce the number of people, places, or things feel obligated to pray for daily. I am going to commit this year to praying daily for 3 people. I think that this will give me guidance to my prayer life. It seems like it should be fairly easy. So I ask anybody who struggles in daily prayer to try it. Pick three people out and commit to pray for them for 2006. I dare you!

Road trip to Omaha for Terri Malone's wedding. Or should I say, Terri Douglas? I believe there were thirteen of us all sleeping in Adam's basement! I thought some of you who couldn't make it would like to see some pictures, so here they are. Hope everyone is doing well. Merry Christmas to all!

After reading the last few days of posting I have come to the conclusion that we must all take advantage of Nathan Millers rise to power. He holds in his hand the keys to changing Crown College to our liking since he is the second most powerful man at Crown College. Here is my suggestion for Nathan. Get Crown to start a biology class that specifically studies body to eye coordination. After to weeks of lecture, commit the rest of the semester to improving this coordination through the ever popular game of BITE CLUB! For those of you who remember this game we are all smiling. For those of you who failed to live out a satisfying college career, BITE CLUB is a game in which you buy a dannon yogurt with plastic top. Remove plastic top from yogurt. (you have the option to eat the yogurt or simply throw it away) Gather friends who share you disregard for the swapping of personal saliva from time to time. Throw said yogurt cap imitating the flight of a Frisbee disk (only way better). And proceed to attempt to catch said yogurt cap in your mouth. This may sound like an easy task. NO it is not. To be successful at BITE CLUB you must master the ever tricky mouth to eye coordination that eludes our young people today. Props to Brad Rettler for being the best I ever saw! Nathan make it happen.

Counter Strike
what night works for you guys? Go get a copy. Only 20.00!
Lets get it started! Monday Nights are good with me!

let me know!

Hey Crown Alums,

Is anyone way psyched about Christmas. I am. This has been the first year that my wife and I really started to decorate around the house. We bought an 8 ft real tree. It is awesome. My side of the family comes over to our house this weekend to celebrate. It is cool to be hosting a family get together. Chris, we have got to get together sometime. Every time I see the Timberwolvies play I want to go to a BW3's or Old Chi Town's and watch the game with you. Seriously you should move to the twin cities. If you ever need a friend to accompany you to a Gopher game, I am that friend. (And so much more!)

So let me update you all about my life as a parent. It seriously is the most rewarding aspect to my life. Seeing my little girls growing up and learning new things never fails to bring a joyful smile to my face. Never. They have mastered walking and are learning how to communicate through so many different ways. Everyday they can do something new. It is particularly fun to see them mimic me. If I cough they fake cough. If I wrinkle my nose them give me the cutest wrinkled nose back. They constantly want my attention and although that can get tiresome, the truth is it makes me feel like the king of the world. (Every night in my dreams I see you, I feel you... Titanic flashback) Life is clearly not a bead of roses, but it sure is a blessing to live with such a wonderful family.

Church life is going good. We are in the midst of building a half-gym addition. This will not only be great for our size constraints, but it will allow me to showcase my immense basketball ability. This alone will probably bring a few hundred people to our church. This fat man can play! We also have a pretty crazy possibility of a church merging with us. This is only a slight possibility, but if it happened it would double our church size. That would be sweet. So things are going good. A book that I have recommended before and do so again would be Pursuit of God, by Tozer. I am reading it again for ordination and it challenges me so much. It is one of my all time favorites and if you have not read it in a while or ever pick one up. They are inexpensive and it is short, but it is cool water to a thirsty soul.

What are you listening to?

Just interested in what people's top 5 cd's right now. Interact if you want.

For me... in no particular order

Copeland - can chill out to this
David Crowder Band - whats up with the banjo? Steve check it out
Chris Tomlin - always great worship
Flyleaf - when I wanna let it all out with a chick band
Dashboard - classic!

That is about it. Gotta love ITUNES. For those of yu outside of Minnesota... STAY WARM.

Half-Life:Counter Strike
Am I the only one that wants to get Counter Strike back on my computer and start playing? I am so mad that I deleated it in the first place. Oh well... Might have to break down and by the thing. Someone please tell me they still got it and will send it to me?!?!?!?

Steve I will never forget being in the gym and playing it the first night with you. We didn't sleep a minute that night. We were HOOKED! Good times, really good times! There is no better setting for CS than in the old gym. For some reason, it just seems right.

Let me know if anyone else has the same urges to get back on and start playing? I don't know why, but I have just spent the last hour looking on the internet for a free download and can't find any of those little high schoolers with the illegal websites! Dangit!

Life is good otherwise. Have a great day!

By the way, you may all want to cancel your Christmas Eve plans and head up to Menahga or Sebeka. Yours Truely will be doing the Christmas Eve service. I live in the land of "Because that is what we have always done" so I am going totally different for the service. It will either be really good, or my going away party, one of the two. For those of you in ministry, read the book Beyond the Box by Bill Eastman. Good Book.

Chris Folkestad

Signs that I just found my new church home:
1. They meet in an elementary school gym.
2. Their name seems eerily similar to Imago Dei, or at least in the trendy Latin category.
3. A guy was wearing a Vote for Pedro shirt when I walked in the doorway (I happened to be wearing my "I (Heart) Tater Tots" one myself).
4. The sermon included an excerpt from The Matrix (sadly, almost a cliche since I've seen in done a few times before, but whatever).
5. The lead pastor seems like a Christian version of Dwight from NBC's The Office.
6. One of the first people I met was the cutest girl on earth, blue eyed, brunette, named Molly - two years old, of course, but still, I think she liked me.
7. They expressed the desire for a mandolin player during worship.
8. One of the core personalities is Bubna-esque, speaking Portugese and being tall and long-haired and pretty funny.
9. It's not a mile from my house.
10. It's less than forty people presently, full of candles and strange paintings, and was labled by one of the first people I met as "a church for people who don't like church".
So I guess I'm trendy now. It's like I get to do the whole Emergent thing, and I'm not twenty miles from Don Miller's church. It was kinda weird wrapping mic cords again, putting away a sound board and stacking chairs, stuff I haven't done in a church setting for three years. It made me miss the quirky people at the River. Ah, maybe it's not for me. What times are services at Bethlehem Baptist? Sorry I won't catch you guys at Malone's wedding. Just can't swing out, really until Wakefield gets married. Let's plan for everybody to swing down to Omaha in June, deal? Sweet. Heck yes I just said that!