Holy poo poo Aragorn.....

Well, I just saw the 6 min. Trailer for the Lord of The Rings: Return of The King Extended Edition, and all I can say is....wow.

So for those of you who love the LOTR:ROTK EE then follow the link below to bliss:

LOTR:ROTK EE Trailer (please know this is 6 mins long and you have to have Quicktime to view it, but it is good!)

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Yall have a good day and God bless yall! Also, please be in prayer for us for the 1st infertility appt. tomorrow morning in Albq @ 9:00 am Mountain Time.

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Tiffany had a great birthday, and loved all her gifts! and now I am going to bed so I can catch up on some sleep due to my going to bed so late last night. I got to be awake for the appt. tomorrow, heh. (possibly very awake, ha ha ha! (Oh man I crack myself up, heh)

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KUTP and God bless!

Well...long time...no blog.....

Well, it is just that time of the year again, and I have been crazy busy. With preach last Wednesday evening and yesterday, traveling between those days to Tiffany's family and enjoy some good old smoked turkey (mmmmm mmmmm good), and to top it all off, I had my birthday on the 20th, and Tiffany';s is tomorrow, and we decorated the house for Christmas tonight for a young couple's fellowship white Elephant Gift Exchange for Friday! Yeah it has been crazy and I have a feeling that it will continue to be this way for a while. Well, I have a long post for you all and maybe just maybe I can make up for all the days that you were crying in the corner for not hearing from me, heh. These will be in no particular order so you might have to search for something if your looking for it, heh.

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1st off is a letter from the one the only Jay Hollums thanking you all for your prayers and support through his Cancer over the last few months:

Now just to give you an idea how far Jay has come, here is a picture of when I went to see him close to the first of all this Cancer stuff he was going through:



Now this one is one of Jay now. Notice the man wiping his mouth sticking out of Jay's ear, heh):



Thank You from Jay Hollums

First, and foremost, I want to say thank you to all of the people that are reading this! I know if you are reading this you have at least at some point worried or been concerned about me. And I want you all to understand the glorious impact that your prayers have had on me and those around me.
When you first find out that you have cancer, it is very hard to believe. You just say to yourself that it is not possible. And you just wait patiently for the doctors to come back with a different reason that you are not feeling perfect. However, once it sinks in you just sit there and try to understand. I think I handled the diagnosis very well, but I had no idea what I was in for when it came to the cure. Chemotherapy is amazingly tough. For me I think it was tougher than the cancer. I just kept telling myself that my God has a purpose for everything, even if I don’t understand it. I proceeded to ask for prayers and blessings from all the people I know and the church that I love. I know that many people prayed for my health, and I will take all the prayers that people are willing to make on my behalf, but I will tell you this; I have never seen prayer work as effectively as it did this time. Not necessarily as a cure for my cancer (it is in remission and undetectable right now), but as an impact on my friends and family and myself. I have never felt so much love all the time coming from every where. Your prayers comforted me, my wife, and my family. They allowed me to feel wrapped in love and that is an AMAZING feeling. I have always said that the greatest miracle that God can do is not to move a mountain, but to change a heart. I have no doubt that through your prayers for me and my illness; MANY hearts were changed forever. If you ever wonder why people are allowed to ever get sick, then just realize the changed hearts of the people that form due to experiencing an illness or even a death are a great miracle. Sometimes, the only way to change a heart is through observation of another’s illness or death. I truly hope that your spiritual life has grown in some way as you followed my struggles.
I continue to pray for all of you in return, even if I don’t know all the names of the people that prayed for me. May God bless you all for your concern, prayers, and, more to the point, your deep abiding love. Keep praying as we all need miracles. Thank you once again, your prayers and Christ’s love hold me together day by day as this ordeal finishes up with the final testing and follow up treatments. I believe it is by the grace of God and your wonderful prayers that I am where I am today.

Your brother in Christ,

Jay Hollums
Cancer Survivor, full remission 2 months.

Here is another on of Jay and his cat looking good my brother...looking good:


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Well, I have preached twice since I posted my last sermon, so here are both of the sermons: (wait to secs for me to convert them to Adobe Acrobat....Ok done) (Don't forget you have to have Adobe Reader to read the sermons. Thanks.)

We're Expecting (Given last Sunday (11/28/04)

My Thanksgiving Day (Given Wednesday 11/17/04) The date on the doc. is wrong....sorry)

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Well, I have been playing a lot of Halo 2 (actually not very much due to all the stuff I have been doing, but I play one or two games every other day). One of the guys in our Clan (named The Burninators after Trogdor from Homestar Runner fame) created a desktop for all of us with a Halo 2 Trogdor theme and I thought it was so amazing (that he did at work when the "got bored") that I had to show it here. I have shrunk it smaller just so it would fit, heh.



(Thanks La Pistola, you are da man!)

BTW: If you have Halo 2 and XBlive then please send me a message and I would love to play sometime with you!)

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Well, let's see what else I need to post........

Well, I have seen the largest snow fall (in the town of where I am living) I have ever been a part of last week! We had by my official measurements 10 inches in one snow fall! I was freaking out so much that I had to take photos and here are two shots of it. It does not look as good as it really was, of course, but it was really neat...except for the fact that it melted down to 3 inches by the next afternoon :( Oh well, it was lots of fun, and my back yard faces the north and did not melt as much, and then we got about another 3 inches, so it is still great looking.





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Well, as I said before tomorrow (I guess it is today now) is Tiffany's Birthday, and I thought I would show you the presents I wrapped for her tonight. Good gifts if I do say so myself....small but good, heh.



Happy 30th Birthday Tiffany!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are and will always be the LOVE OF MY LIFE!!!!! (and don't you forget it, heh)anyone who would like to email her a message of love or give her a hard time for living another century her email address is: tiffanyhollums@hotmail.com)

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Also, I took some photos of our house that we decorated for X-mas and I thought you might like to see what the Hollums' house looks like with the Christmas theme, so here are a few pics:


(general shot of the living room)


(Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas Tree)


(sorry so blurry, but you can kind of see how the Firelitos/luminarios look, and almost make out the Christmas tree in the window)


(just had to show you the Grinch lamp in our kitchen)

Of course, Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus are all over our house, and it is currently 6 Degrees outside that I went out into to take the outside pic, heh. yeah I am crazy, but it was a great time that still had snow and the lights, heh.

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Well, someone remind me some time about my theory about great songs, and their one similarity that I think it common and I personally love it...but I have to save something for another post sometime...besides it might take you about 109 mins to read this one, heh.

Well, Cody it was great seeing you and the Fam, and I am very tired now so I must go to bed...I have a big day today loving the socks off of Tiffany for her Birthday! Yall have a wonderful week..oh and please KUTP for Jay, and Tiffany and I! Tiffany and I are going for our first appt. to the infertility specialist in Albq on Wednesday morning. Your prayers are powerful....you and God proved that for Jay, so I thought I would ask for your prayers on this topic and see what happens.

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Oh, yeah, for my birthday and Christmas I am building my first computer from scratch, and I just got my case, and a few other things in and I am looking forward to my motherboard to come in the 1st or 2nd week of December, so be looking for that post too. OK, well yall take care and please please know, your loved by me and by God! May you all experience love and grace flowing from the arms Jesus has wrapped around you!!!

Thanksgiving service tonight

I just wanted to ask for prayer tonight as I preach and lead the Thanksgiving service tonight @ 6:00 pm Mountain Time. It should be a fun and simple service with communion, and I am looking forward to hearing everyone's giving of thanks during the service! KUTP!

Oh and I forgot just in case if you have not seen it yet, I added a logo/link to Firefox on the right side of my blog for you to DL that great internet browser! And, I added my DVD collection as a fav. link over there too. Just FYI.

Ok take care and God bless yall!

Blog? What blog?

Well, I must apologies for those 2 of you who check this on a regular time frame. I have been doing lots of stuff, and it seemed that the blog was the first to go and the last to come back...so to the faithful who read this....my apologies. But let me tell you what all has been going on.

1) I have been sick! (Just thinking baout me being sick makes me cough) On last Wednesday I even had hard times breathing due to my cough, so I did a little bit of nothing and tried to get feeling better. (Oh and I am feeling much better now! I am taking 875 mg of Antibiotics 2 times a day and just needless to say I am floating with bacteria killing drugs, heh. But they are working and I feel great!

2) Halo 2 is out and yep you guessed it, I have been playing the game with fervor! The funny thing is that I am normally playing with Seminary Students and other Pastors!!1 ha ha. And Jay just got on and is having some fun, and it is GREAT playing a video game with him! This game truly is amazing, and even some of you adults should experience playing the game over Xbox live and see the amazing community that Bungie (the company who made the game) has created! I have only played with Jay once, but when I did, it was like the good old days when we both would step into a arcade with $10 each in our hands and we would pick a video game that we would want to beat and then play it, keep pumping quarters into it, and beat it while my Mom shopped, and my Dad sat on a bench waiting for all of us to get done, hew.

3) I am preaching this Wednesday a Thanksgiving service and sermon. I will put it up here on the bloc after I give it to the congregation here and then I will give it to you the larger church, hew. It is so weird to me that I am putting my sermons here on the bloc, because it allows EVERYONE to read them and find out how bad or "OK" of a sermon author I am, but it is not the same thing as being present for the delivery. But I figure that if even one person is blessed or convicted and grows in their walk with Christ, then I will put myself out on the line for that any day! :)

Jay Update:

Jay is doing OK. He is a little tired, because he went doing lots of things yesterday, and his stomach is a little weird, and his voice was almost dead yesterday. He stayed up late least night, and that is probably causing his tiredness. He says that it takes him two weeks to get back to normal sleep schedule after being in the hospital. But all in all he is doing good!

OK love yall take care!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Watched the Incredibles yesterday........

I was trying to remember the movies that have come out this year to think if I have seen a better movie than this one all year long. The Incredibles beat out such movies as: i, Robot, Spiderman 2, The Bourne Supremacy. Nope this is the best movie I have seen all year long...and even though The Passion of the Christ came out this year..this is much more enjoyable than that one, (you know what I mean). This movie was amazing and I can not say enough about how great it was. There was action, family values, marriage values, justice, in-justice, coming-of-age, and of course the good stuff like explosions, super hero saving people from burning buildings, super powers, gadgets, etc..... Great movie go see it and then go see it again to catch everything you might have missed. Most movies if I watch it in the theater (not my home theater, heh) I just wait for it to come out on DVD and watch it at home, but man this one I would see at least 2 more times. Yeah...go see it!

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Halo 2 update:

Well for those of you who care here is a great article on how much this game is going to incorporate stats. It looks like Bungie is giving the sports titles a run for their money on stats. You have got to see the bungie.net screen shots of the game view screens. I think this will really up the ante when it come to strategy. You can read all about it at the first link and then you can read a little more about it on the last Bungie Update from Frankie below as well:

IGN Article on Stats
(as a compliment to the IGN article go to their screen shots of bungie.net to see what they are talking about (IGN screenshots of Bungie.net)

&

Last Halo2 Weekly Bungie Update

Oh and BTW you can even go to the bungie.net web site and login with your .NET password and then check out the "My stats" link at the very top of the page. They have some basic stuff up there and it is truly amazing! They even have several maps of each multi-player map and it will show you where you were, what weapon you were using for each kill you gave, and then the same for each time you were killed. On top of that they give out medals and rankings as you get better and better in the game play! This is amazing, and you just have to go see it if you want to experience it. Actually I will be able to see the game stats of those playing in New Zealand (the first country to play Halo 2, @ 5:oo am in the morning while they are playing the game 12:00 am their time. (Yes, yes, I know it may seem like I am obsessed, but in a way I am intrigued by what this company is doing by promoting this kind of community ! They realize that the main game is not the biggest part of this game, and the online multi-player is the key. They knew that there would be people without a DSL or Cable connection so they had to create a single player game, but eveything they could not fit on the game they just made bigger and badder on their website. Man I hope that website does not ever go down, there will be lots of angry people, heh.



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Jay Update:

jay told my parents last night that he would probably not have to go back to the hospital until Monday! That is really good news, because it means that the Dr.'s think that he is healing up just fine and no need for extra help (for now). So please KUTP.

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Just think it is 3 more days and you get to stop hearing me talk about a video game (add sarcasm voice here, ha ha) But then it might be a while until I post again, because I will be so........hard at work....yeah that is it hard at work....heh heh. Thank yall for caring and please know I love ya and am praying for ya! Take care and God bless yall!

Something you might like.......maybe.......or not......ha ha......

Well, there is one company out there (Outreach.com) that is really good about having good advertising products (ready made) for churches to send out into their community as either door hangers, posters, or direct mailing cards. And I love to look through these because some of them are very "cute" (for me to maintain my mainly status I had to put the term "cute" in quotes, heh) Well, while looking through the Christmas ones, I thought I would share two of the "cute" ones. :)



and



I thought they were really good. Our church would use these, but neither of them actually has the ethnic feel of the community of Santa Fe, and besides we are trying something new this year. We are "borrowing" the idea of a Methodist Pastor named Adam Hamilton in his book Leading Beyond The Walls, and doing fishing expeditions. In other words, we will have a sermon series after Christmas and Easter that is based on topics that would really relate to the community of Santa Fe that the culture or in some cases the Church has not been very vocal in talking about. So the idea is you get the word out about these other sermons while the Sanctuary is full (like at Easter of Christmas) and see if your hospitality and sermon topics will bring them back for them to experience the love and community the church has to offer. We will see how it does and (I hope) keep trying it for a while and really look at it down the road. So the impact card we are looking at currently is this one:



Well, I thought you might be interested or at the very least find it interesting.... ha ha ha.

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Jay Update:

I talked to Jay yesterday twice and he was doing great. He had a little heart burn and of course it sucks recovering from chemicals that are trying to kill you (I think he was having on of his famous sit in the tub/shower for 7 hours heh heh....You know what I mean Jay growing up with you I had to get the first shower and if I didn't then I would have to sleep longer or watch cartoons.....hey wait......I mean...Thanks Jay!!! You allowed me extra sleep or woke me up to watch Cartoons!!!!! Yep, I have one of the best brothers ever, heh.)

Well, anyway he had a little heart burn and knew that the worse part is not receiving the chemo but the time after it when the effects of it start to rear their ugly head. but he was doing good, and I am sure he is @ the hospital for his every-other-day check-up today. Thank you all for your prayers and support! KUTP.

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Nothing else that I know of other than just trying to get lots of work done before Halo2 comes out, heh. Yall have a wonderful day and God bless you!

About Halo2... If you have time I encourage all of you to watch a long documentary of the Halo 2 Bonus DVD : Multiplayer Featurette on the bottom of THIS page. (for those of you who love the 1st game you will love the video, but there is another reason I would like for you to watch it.)

After watching it, tell me how you would use this to promote the church or relationship with Jesus? Or even better how church the church have this kind of community for the church one that incorporates talking to each other live, and seeing each other react and move on a screen, and have something about it that is a draw and people that are Christian and non-Christian alike would want to be a part of it. These are the things that go through my head all the time! Man, I wonder if something like this could be done? What it would look like, and i wonder if the Japanese are on the forefront of this with their video game dating sims, and like the game SIMS and SIMS2? hmmmm..... you can comment on this if you like or not you choice...OK I'm out! Take care and God bless yall!

From talking to my parents, who talked to my Aunt, who talked to Sheila, who lives with Jay.............

I found out that Jay is doing good and that the stem cell re-insertion will occur today and that they will probably get to go home tonight between 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm Eastern time!!!!!!!

Now this process is not at all over because Jay (I think) will be going back and forth to the Hospital every other day for 15 days and make sure that he is OK and doing good. So great news right now, but please don't ever stop KUTP!

^
BTW: That was a Jay update. heh.

Yall take care and go vote! and heck you get 2 hours off to vote so take 1 hr. to vote and spend the rest of the time napping, heh. God bless and Take care!