Gigi's here!

Mom arrived yesterday. After an 11 hour trip through the UP and Wisconsin, she arrived yesterday in time for dinner. It will be fun to have her here.

The "Relevance" of the Gospel

One thing that frustrates Amanda and me about some of Evangelicalism today is the death of anything that is not "relevant". Hymns, senior citizens, tradition, scripture and even at times, the Gospel have all been killed on the alter of "RELEVANCE". I have often thought in the conversations about making one's faith relevant to the world, "Isn't Jesus Christ sent to die on a cross for the forgiveness of my sins so that I might have right relationship with God RELEVANT?" Check out the video below of our pastor, John Piper speaking about the relevance of the Gospel.

The Great Minnesota Get-together

Minnesota is an interesting place. People who live here, especially people who have been born and raised here, are VERY proud of their state. This comes out in things like celebration of their Scandinavian heritage, celebration of their "educatedness", love of the University of Minnesota (Aren't they the team that everyone looks forward to playing during the Big Ten season?), and many other points of pride. This pride comes out no more than during the twelve days before Labor Day every year--The Minnesota State Fair. I have never been to any other state fairs, but I cannot imagine that anything is like this. Every television and radio station has a booth there and they all broadcast live there every day of the fair. It is held at the state fair grounds which is approximately 10 city blocks between Minneapolis and St. Paul. It was a ton of fun and quite a spectacle. They see over 1 million people in the twelve days.

The boys loved doing the sky ride (gondola), the Giant Slide, and eating the fair food. Matty especially enjoyed his pronto pup (corn dog) and licked the bowl of french fries clean. We looked at all of the animals in the barns. Matthew really liked this. MOOOO, NEIGH! The boys rode the motorcycle ride and a little roller coaster. They loved them and it was so much fun to watch. All in all, it was a great day and a tiring day. Matty even cashed out on our way home, mid-cookie.

We are hoping to make a return trip on Saturday without the boys. Shube (Amanda's mom) plays the piano for a gospel quartet and they are singing at one of the stages. My mom is coming from Michigan this week too, so she will join us. I am hoping to load up on some more fair food. I saw on the news yesterday that Famous Dave's sells Kool-aid Pickles. They are large dill pickles soaked for two weeks in black cherry Kool-aid. They said that they were quite good. I think I'll pass.

You can check out the rest of our fair pictures here.

More of litte James

Brad and Sarah are home from the hospital now and working to settle in to their new life. Amanda said that she talked on the phone with Brad for a while yesterday and it was fun to hear him be so excited about James. He said that he like when James looks at him all cross-eyed. We are going to get to see them again this weekend. It will be great to get to know this little character.

New Over the Rhine album out tomorrow

It sounds like Karin and Linford have come through for us again. Over the Rhine is to release their new album The Trumpet Child tomorrow. This is their 18th album and 10th studio album (as I count them.) I have listened to a few of the tracks and they definitely sound like OTR. It is not the Over the Rhine of Ohio or Good Dog, Bad Dog. It actually reminds me of their latest Christmas album Snow Angels. Like the current images on their web site for the album, the music also reminds me of the 1920's or 30's.

The tracks that stuck out to me in my brief few listens were "I Don't Want to Waste Your Time", "Trouble", and "Entertaining Thoughts". I am excited to get my paws on the album tomorrow and dig in.

For those of you West Michigan readers, they will be doing a show at Calvin College on December 12. (Ticket info) It's been too long since we've seen them live. Unfortunately it looks like a Twin Cities stop is not on this tour either.

Click the image at left to listen to The Trumpet Child.

Feist--The Reminder

Here is another unsolicited music recommendation. I have been listening to a little Feist this morning. She is a Canadian singer/song-writer. I really like her a lot. She is not your typical "James Taylor, Fire and Rain" singer/song-writer. She does some very interesting things with this record. Go to Napster and give her a free listen.

Welcome James Crawford Nagel

Yesterday, James Crawford Nagel entered the world. We went up to the hospital yesterday to visit him and Brad and Sarah, the proud parents. He is our first Nagel cousin and we are all excited to have him.