interesting forward I got in email
I'm pretty sure I'm gonna do it... why not?

> > There is a grassroots campaign begun by a local peace center with a
> > secular focus. I am hoping that people of faith will want to
> > participate. I am suggesting that we who are people of faith write a
> > faith based message instead of a secular message on their note to the
> > President.
> >
> > Place 1/2 c. uncooked rice in a small plastic bag (a snack-sized bag or
> > sandwich bag work fine)
> >
> > Squeeze out excess air and seal the bag. Wrap it in a piece of paper
> >on
> > which you have written: "If your enemies are hungry, feed them.
> >Romans
> > 12:20
> > Please send this rice to the people of Iraq; do not attack them."
> >
> > Place the paper and bag of rice in an envelope (either a letter-sized
> >or
> > small padded mailing envelope - both are the same cost to mail) and
> > address them to
> >
> > President George Bush
> > White House - 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
> > Washington, DC 20500
> >
> > Attach $1.06 in postage. (Three 37 cent stamps equal $1.11)
> >
> > Drop this in the mail TODAY. It is important to act NOW so that
> > President Bush gets the letters ASAP, preferably before the report from
> > the inspectors comes out on the 27th.
> >
> > In order for this protest to be effective, there must be hundreds of
> > thousands of such rice deliveries to the White House. We can do this
> > if we all forward this message to our friends and family. If every
> > Mennonite and every Church of the Brethren household sent one of
> >these,
> > and the tens of thousands of persons from outside these churches who
> > think war is a mistake also send them...we are hundreds of thousands of
> > people!
> >
> > There is a positive history of this protest! Read on!
> >
> > "In the mid 1950s, the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation, learning
> > of famine in the Chinese mainland, launched a "Feed Thine Enemy"
> > campaign.
> >
> > Members and friends mailed thousands of little bags of rice to the
> >White
> > House with a tag quoting the Bible, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him."
> > As far as anyone knew for more than ten years, the campaign was an
> >abject
> > failure. The President did not acknowledge receipt of the bags
> >publicly;
> > certainly no rice was ever sent to China.
> >
> > "What nonviolent activists only learned a decade later was that the
> > campaign played a significant, perhaps even determining role in
> > preventing nuclear war. Twice while the campaign was on, President
> > Eisenhower met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to consider US options in
> > the conflict with China over two islands, Quemoy and Matsu. The
> >generals
> > twice recommended the use of nuclear weapons. President Eisenhower
> >each
> > time turned to his aide and asked how many little bags of rice had come
> >in.
> >
> > When told they numbered in the tens of thousands, Eisenhower told the
> > generals that as long as so many Americans were expressing active
> >interest
> > in having the US feed the Chinese, he certainly wasn't going to
> >consider
> > using nuclear weapons against them."
> >
> > From: People Power: Applying Nonviolence Theory
> > by David H.Albert, p. 43, New Society, 19.
> >
> > Thank you all for being people of hope, people of faith.
> >
> > Susan Ortman Goering

There is a big difference between cynicism and skepticism... I am a big time skeptic (and not a very good speller.) People often say nice things about things that arent true... but more often, they slam people, or groups of people, and say bad things that are also not true. Like that arm extender infomercial... its the most ridiculous thing in the world - and they try to sell it to you - all it is, is a gripper thing that when you squeeze the handle it picks things up... Like i am actually gonna go to the garage, and get the thing out every time I need to pick something up off of the floor. duh - but people must buy these things - otherwise they wouldnt spend millions to air the half hour commercials. Its typical commercials... mostly lies - just to get you to buy something...

I got to type in this excerpt from "the Lorax" by dr suess...

Look Lorax I said, Theres no cause for alarm
I chopped just one tree. I am doing no harm.
I'm being quite useful. This thing is a Thneed.
A thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need!
It's a shirt. Its a sock/ Its a glove. It's a hat.
But it has other uses. Yess, far beond that.
You can use it for carpets. For pillows! for sheets!
Or curtains! Or covers for bicycle seats!

The Lorax said,
Sir! You are crazy with greed.
There is no one on earth
who would buy that fool Thneed!

But the very next minute I proved he was wrong.
For, just at that minute, a chap came along,
and he thought that the Tneed I had knitted was great
He happily bought it for three ninetly eight.

I laughed at the Lorax, You poor stupid guy!
You never can tell what some people will buy.

the Lorax is a great story, and we are painting our nursery look like the scene in the book "the Lorax" with the truffela trees blowing in the wind.


anyway, I am a skeptic - and often for good reason.

And I also mostly don't believe people when they gossip to me about someone. I totally take it with a grain of salt - a big grain.... And I rarely believe the media. They tell people A, and then they poll people, and ask them what they believe, and then the people just respond and say, well, I believe A... and then the media has the guts to say 90% of the people in the country believe A... and those 10% who believe B well they must be idiots... Then people go around saying A and arent even open to hearing B

anyway... I Love my mom... But her and dad were often too believing of what they read, or saw on TV... well sure, we need to go to War... because someone might have a weapon of mass destruction. well they might. maybe, we most certainly do.... and even though werun our country respecting the principle that says "innocent until proven guilty" It doesnt apply in this case.
yeah, and who is the only country who ever used an Atom bomb? And so many innocent people died... it still makes me sick.

anyway, on to more light topic... I just finished cutting in the blue paint in the nursery... its 3am, and I need to get up earlier than normal. Today was a crazy day, but I didnt even get to ACTV work at all.... got up at 9am, showered, and started working on the quizzing page worked on that till noon, got the stats up, and piles of other junk that Fred needed fixed. That site is taking up too much time right now.... anyway, went to work, and barely got there, before I went to the paint store to get paint for the nursery, when I came back, there were emails, and junk, and lots of stuff regarding Club Worship - we just got featured in Charisma magazine. anyway, then I promised Candi I would help her with a computer problem at work... and then we went to childbirth classes from 7-9:30 home by ten... whew...

well I saw moms light was on... and so I went up to visit with her for a bit... I love mom... she is cool. And I like going over late at night, and just hanging out, and chatting - I try to get up once a week, but it doesnt always work out. I noticed when I ask her how she is doing, she still says "OK" with reservation... she used to say "great" but I think it could easily take a year or so before she could say that, and mean it. Since Dad died, things are so different for her. I miss him terribly too, but I have so many distractions, and crazy things going on in my life, it distracts me from dwelling on it.

well I still ended on a sad note...

remember God is good all the time - and so stop being so depressed and pouting like a spoiled brat kid.

Jon and I had a really interesting and good debate in the car yesterday on the way to Teen Challenge for a shoot. (Teen challenge is a great ministry by the way) We hashed through the whole "life sucks most of the time" issue... I still strongly disagree with Jon on the issue, but thats ok... it gets us both thinking.

found a verse (thanks to joyce meyer) this morning.

it goes to the amplified version (my favorite for study, because it brings in the original hebrew and explains it a little more)

Prov 15:15 All the days of the desponding and afflicted are made evil [by anxious thoughts and forebodings], but he who has a glad heart has a continual feast [regardless of circumstances].

after thinking about the issue more, I think that if you go around saying "Life Sucks" that when something bad happens, that you say, OHHH SEE I WAS RIGHT LIFE SUCKS... so if you constantly believe that life sucks, it will.
If you do your best to have a positive attitude despite the hard circumstances, - it will go a long way. There are tons... I mean tons of scriptures to back that concept up.

not that you cant be sad... the bible says there is a time for everything - but to dwell on one side (the sad side especially) is not right.

RO 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

2CO 7:2 in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.

2 cor 8[2] Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.

GAL 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness and self-control.

INTERESTING I dont see depression in the list of things the Holy Spirit gives us... This is a true sign of a Holy Spirit lifestyle... Joy despite the circumstances. Sadness for a time is ok... but if it becomes a lifestyle, and there is no JOY - I wonder how much the Holy Spirit is living there.

1TH 1:[5] because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. [6] You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. [7] And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

and

LK 6:21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.

LK 6:22 Blessed are you when men hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil,
because of the Son of Man.

see even when men hate you, you are blessed. so you have something to be blessed/joyful/smiling about. And the luke passage admits that we need to weep sometimes... but it says you will laugh... and it says you are blessed when you weep now. really showing the heart of God is not to live in depressed, and life sucks attitude.

I said this to Jon, but I want to get it on the blog too -
Ill bet that people from other countrys look at us in disgust
can you imagine anyone in Afganistan, or rwanda or whatever, looking at Americans who get upset, and depressed with life, when they break up with their girlfriends??? These are people who live in fear for their lives, or in slavery, or in real hunger (few americans know real hunger), there are people who have had their towns devistated by bombs. Theyve lost Brothers, or cousins, or kids... They must think it is ridiculous for all the angst - mostly fired up because someone upset their day by saying an unkind word - or their favorite team lost - or something. (or like jon said - they couldnt get a table in their favorite restraunt) "the Real World" yeah right

so much happened, and was totally missed on this blog site. Tons of stuff with the youth group and quizzing has started... and I'm way behind on my webmastering duties... oh well... God bless us everyone right?

Candi is pretty amazingly big... and beautiful that way... its cool. I got to post some pictures sometime. Maybe I will try to interface my blog with a website some day... it would make it so much easier to post fun stuff like that...

most of you know that we got that 3d4d ultra sound last week... it was exiting and a little disapointing at the same time... the lady before us came out of the drs office with amazing pictures, and a cd rom with digital shots and everything... but we couldnt hardly get any good shots because our little one had its foot and both hands in front of his face... I guess he takes after his mom being shy and all. (i'm using the male pronoun in the biblical sense - "HE" refers to whatever sex the baby actually is - got tired of Candace complaining when I called him "it") - another reason to be a little disapointed - we hoped to learn the sex of the baby, but we couldn't see because the baby is actually in a "breach" position. - another reason to be a little disapointed. - Dr. Heller prepared us that its a very good chance that Candace will have to have a C-section if the baby doesnt turn around.

I haven't heard anything about a shower or anything... but just in case someone decides to throw one, we went ahead and got organized with some of the things we need yet. We went ahead and registered at babiesrus.com I guess you can just wander in to any babiesrus store and go to the registry table, or if you want, go to the registry section of babiesrus.com - search for candace stoltzfus.

Oh, and if you want to find out if there is a shower, I guess you can call Edie - if anybody knows anything, Edie will know - 610-286-6284 or my mom betty 717-445-9315

We started working on the nursery. We are going with Dr. Suess theme... and I tried painting trufflela trees - it was harder than I thought... I worked on it pretty much for several hours before I got it right... Its gonna be a good bit of work, but I discovered that I like projects. Things that I can accomplish.

hopefully we can get started with the painting this week.

on another topic, - about this idiotic war. I keep finding new scriptures that give us a view at the heart of God. Today in church pastor read

2CO 10:1 By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you--I, Paul, who am "timid" when face to face with you, but "bold" when away! [2] I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. [3] For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. [4] The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

1. The "world" does not understand meekness - or gentleness that a pure relationship with God brings. An attitude of laying down ones life for a friend (or enemy)

2. the passage makes it clear that we "do not wage war as the world does... " If military action would have been permissible to Paul, wouldnt he have phrased it more like. "Just like when we go to war and use our weapons to destroy people, our spiritual weapons have power to demolish strongholds" But he did NOT phrase it that way

3. According to this passage, We clearly should not live by the standards that the world puts out there. -pursuit of power, rights, pursuit of happiness, pursuit of Life (the bible says to lay ones life down is to gain it)


oh... this is gonna be a long blog.

Club Worship was featured as the lead story on Charisma's news service

also, we were featured in a short article in Charisma magazine - which I havnt seen yet - its the February issue, which is out, but not yet in stores. I heard that the article was good, but the pictures could have been better.

well, if you wanna see some great pictures, check out www.clubworship.org

hmmm guess thats it for now.

we're looking for more people to get involved with Club Worship... if you are interested, email me jeffstoltzfus-at-hotmaildotcom (i spelled it out to try to avoid getting my address out there any more than I have to.

3:36 am hope it stops snowing at least till we get there... we wanna go on the ZMYG winter retreat... lots of decisions - cancel for snow, or brave the elements... guess we will see. time to head home... got the rough cut for Bridge of Hope video #3 done, time for sleeping. oh yeah, jeff dont forget the milk...

by the way, Live2worship videos are available - I think we are gonna make dvd's available too.
$20 for the main video - includes a music video for our song Live2Worship
$20 for the blooper reel.... and some extra crazyness from the summer road trip.

about to take another road trip - 44 of us including leaders etc. its gonna be great (if we can get there)

11pm - HAPPY 2003 after heartily celebrating the new year with the youth group - its always a blast
ps Im blogging because my other computer (handily a one button push away) is crashing left and right and rebooting as we speak very strange problems this computer is having.

12...Jon said "life sucks most of the time" I think hes wrong. (i only wrote it because he will probably read it, and argue with me about it.)

2 am... oh and I dont know who the stinking (thats my new word to replace freakin which my wife asked me to refrain from saying) anyway, I dont know who the jerk was who invented the DEBUGGER but id like to slap them right now... its a waste of time... and it only gives you false hope, while you stare at a frozen screen.

ok theres my rant...

but life still doesnt suck... its got to get worse than just having computer problems to make life suck. Computers have been crashing ever since they had tubes, and paper punch cards to load the software :)
man it would suck to try to edit digital video with paper punch cards...it would take like 500,000 years just to capture alone.

well time to go back and see what auto saved... (its prolly auto save that crashed me)