I just returned from a week in Tijuana Mexico, every year God grinds some of the me off of me in Mexico. This year was no different.

I had the blessing of spending some time at the Grace Children�s Home (GCH) in Tijuana while I was there. Jesus is walking around that place; He inhabits the bodies of George, Stacy, Julie, and Glen � the staff. The work there orbits around an orphanage (actually more than an orphanage) and spins outward in care for the poor, demonstrations of Jesus� love to the neighborhood and includes a vision for a future church plant for deeper soul care. There are 26 children being housed and loved at GCH at the moment you read this. The GCH was started by George and Stacey Palau after journeys they made to the Tijuana area on short term mission trips. If you are a youth worker, I hope you take students on short term missions...
The 2 current buildings that house these kids were built by their dream. It is an oasis of love in the dry Mexican desert.

I love guitar, it was my shiny wooden god in a past time - it has since been displaced by a God who has no strings. This unknown guitarist from Russia , just flat rips. If you are a guitar player check out this guy's right hand technique.

This is a unique motorcyle club but... Do they go around beating up pedophiles? Do they run around menacing people like in the movies and Taco Bell commercials??? Hollywood has sold us a lie by portraying bikers as horrible vikings out to pillage, rape and plunder and it bites to have people see you like that. Once on a motorcycle trip I had a mother grab her child and run into a store to avoid my friend and I as we appraoched in our leathers, sad. Well is some cases maybe the Hollywood "biker" profile cold be helpful. To see what B.A.C.A is about and how they operate just click the contiue reading link below

I'm in Mexico on a mission with 66 of our students and staff right now. Great stuff is happening, one team is building a house for a family, two other teams are leading vaction bible camps in 2 different locations, and the last team is working at and orphanage - more fun than you can shake a stick at. If you have a student here they are doing great! I'll post pictures and blog it all when I get back across the border.

This guy is hanging over the pews in a big cathedral in Prague. He must have been some important religious leader or something like that.

Note to self - they need one of these giant alabaster icons of me in the worship center at Santa Cruz Bible Church. I'd like Chrome inlay on mine instead of gold though thank you. Or not.

If Faith in God is for real, then it would change people's lives. If faith is some lame religious crutch that isn't based on reality it is worthless and worse than worthless. My life has been rocked by a collision with Jesus and then by the simple act of placing trust in His leadership for daily life.

Our latest Sacred Digital Video Podcast, "The Life of Brian" just got released on iTunes and it focuses on the question: is faith for real or not. To see this new 5 minute video online click here > GET VIDEO PODCAST. BTW: if it gives you any kind of error message just click "ok" and it will take you to the site. To see the video you need to have iTunes installed, it's a free download, and you can download iTunes here if you don't have it yet.

We have 3 Video Podcasts up online so far and a couple more filmed and in editing for release around the first of every month. The goal is to allow not yet believers to check out Jesus online in a new fashion and to encourage and bless believers with brief video messages that feed spiritual life.

So if you're just surfing around, zoom on over to iTunes and watch me and my pal Brian Martin consider the idea of the new human, morphed by faith.

We just got the Your Ink section of the Sacred Ink website running, this is a place for you to upload your Christian tattoos for the world to see.

If you have a Christian tattoo; maybe a cross tattoo or other symbol of faith, and you�d like to put your tattoo on our site - here's the skinney. You can do this by clicking this link to go directly to the submission area for Sacred Ink.

http://www.sacredink.net/your_ink/form.html

(or you go to Sacred Ink and use the Your Ink tab)

Then you just fill out the short form, add a picture and viola you are famous, or something,

Vacation Memory #12.3
Last month while in we were in Hungary I was driving to our family's garden area and found something strange growing in their neighbor�s garden plot.

On the iPod: Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs

Sacred Ink is our other website that takes tattoo voice photography christianity and music and creates a place for exploration of faith through art.

=

God is really blessing the project! For those following the Sacred Ink website / artspace, here are the latest stats of what's up.

Oh the memories � We were staying at a nice hotel in Vienna, Austria on our recent road trip when my 11 year old daughter spotted this enigmatic porcelain fixture in the bathroom.

So I had the joy of explaining what it was�

Definition: �Bidet� (Bih-day) a low bathroom plumbing fixture resembling a toilet and equipped with a spray or jet of water, used for washing the genital and anal areas.

She replied, Gross!.

I later found that if you stand to the side and turn it on all the way real fast it WILL wash the bathroom walls and floor for you, handy item this.

File this post under mindless internet entertainment:Crop Circles are not likely created by little green cats flying low in cosmic saucers but they are still fun to look at.

On The iPod: Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy

Hungarians have truly great food but it�s not really on the Jenny Craig plan or the American Heart Association's list of cardiac-friendly cuisine. Here�s an example. We have smoores; they have �Solana�. Solana is a big fat hunk of bacon fat that you roast over a fire like smoores except, its lard. You then drip all the grease from the cooking fat onto a slice of bread so you don�t lose anything greasy and you eat the bread with onions. Then when the huge slab of bacon is cooked you eat it on a plate.

We had a Solana party one evening last week, the family told me I had overcooked mine big time - it tasted like really salty charcoal. It�s a communal fire food thing that infuses your body with a year and 2 months supply of lard in one easy sitting. This event would normally stop your heart on the spot EXCEPT for another national Hungarian consumable called �palinka�. Palinka is the antidote to death-by-solana and other fatty but delicious Hungarian foods. Palinka is a kind of fruit based brandy/ white lightning / engine degreaser and before meal aperitif. Here�s my wife�s uncle�s private stash of palinka.

I put one of those turkey thermometers in my navel each time we ate and when it popped out I would know I was done eating. My wife's aunt Itsa would chant the following words at every meal; "edgeyartek", "edgeyartek", "edgeyartek" > "eat", "eat", "eat"!

I was on a flight from Budapest to Frankfurt the other day and had a strange moment. I saw one of my boyhood rock-star heroes on my plane, he was old as trains. This man had been the lead singer of a couple of mega-huge rock bands in both the 70�s and 80�s. When I was about 16 I sat in the front row of a concert and watched him rock a humongous concert hall to the ground, he was a god in my eyes. I set my heart on being a guitar player in a band like the one he was fronting that night. It was something like a religious experience, the Birth of Cool.

Chronos has been unkind to this rock star. His band is no longer a big headliner band. They have fallen from favor and struggle to get attention from younger fans. He is now flying economy with his band and the road-crew as they left yet another small venue concert. Gone are the days of the private band jet he used to fly in. I was thinking how humbling it must be to go from being on the top and having a plane with your band�s name emblazoned on the tail to the tight, hard communal seating in class economy Lufthansa.

Well, we made it back from the month long epic in Europe. I learned something new. HOME for me is where ever I lay my hat at the end of the day > as long as my family is with me. Maybe they are the definition of home for me. It's always nice to come into your house after a journey and lay your head on your own pillow but I am learning that home is not so much a place as it is a disposition of the heart. For me that rested heart is in the midst of my daughters and wife; where ever they are I am home.

I have tons to write about the last week or so. I'll get on all this blogging as soon as my laptop gets fixed - it still displays the blue screen of death, it hated Europe.

I have a bunch stories and pictures to post we are having an epic adventure here BUT this morning my Windows empowered laptop gave me the infamous blue screen of death (if you are Guy Kawasaki or Smittie or Rob Brough I know, I know - get an Apple...) Anyway I am at an internet cafe writing you the "no new posts for 5 days" email. My computer said something about no hard drive, deleting files and a big spash of blue fills my screen...

I just got back to Hungary after a cool euro road trip. The numbers tell the story

1400 = The number of miles I drove the mighty blue dodge van on our trip

40 = The number of tunnels we drove thru between Venice Italy and Graz Austria on the autobahn / autostrada

2 = The number of times we swam in the bathtubwarm Adriatic Sea listening to the church bells and avoiding topless girls

23.8 = The number of times I desired to strangle the horrible disco in a box keyboard player who provided the music on the porch underneath our room at the hotel in Caorle Italy

14 = The number of hours I drove straight from Italy thru Austia and to the far East side of Hungary yesterday and that was mostly on the autobahn doing 85mph - 100mph (with a wicked smile). My wife did drive for a while so I could take a 30 minute nap and then, onward Tonto at lightspeed.

We had a great time. On our 25th wedding annaversary we had breakfast in Vienna, Austria and then we ate dinner just outside Venice, in Italy. We are now back in Hungary with family today and tommorrow and then we head to Budapest for some sightseeing.

Yesterday we got in the car and headed to Romania from our home here in Hungary. We went on a journey to find our friends from the SCBC Romania mission team, and we found them there in the land of Dracula.

It was fun since none of use speak Romanian and all we had was a cell phone and a basic knowledge of what city they were working in. Now I can say I've been in Transylvania home of Vlad Dracula - they have good ice cream there but I couldn�t find blood flavored, sad.

The Romania team is doing great, they are working to build really cool rooms in a transitional home for teenagers who are too old for the orphanage and need help transitioning into adult life. It's awesome - there is a lot of Santa Cruz surf culture built into the housing like surf board shelving and wave pictures.

Romania is in a state of disintegration but is on the way to catch up with the rest of the world after some bad, bad leadership a few year�s ago. The city we were in was filled with cool crumbing buildings like this one.

Today we went to a cool old castle back in Hungary; we�re going back there tonight for a concert by the band Oregon � cool setting for a show.

Tomorrow we�re doing family stuff and going to church. Monday morning we leave for our road trip thru Hungary, thru Austria and then to Venice Italy. I�ll blog and photo-blog it as soon as I find net service on the road. � chow.

Yesterday we went to and area of Hungary called the Hortobagy (pronounced hor �toe- bahge). The Hortobagy is the great plains / prairie area where the local folk keep the nomadic horse driven past of the ancient Magyar (Hungarian) people alive. The horsemen there do crazy things with horses; like riding on 4 while standing up.

I mentioned to them that a saddle might work well too. While there I also made another zesty nasal discovery - water buffalo smell like enormous sweaty pig butts, but I digress.

Today we went back to The Gyula Spa and hung out with a lot of sunburn sporting, banana hammock wearing European tourists.

I went to get a massage while we were there; mistake...

I can�t speak Hungarian and the masseuse couldn�t speak any English so it was a communication breakdown (Led Zeppelin reference there if you missed it). So this guy, Igor the Masochistic Masseuse took me into his chamber of horrors and for 40 minutes gave me the Inquisition Special. No kidding it stinking HURT like a mouth full of hornets carrying chainsaws. At one point I'm certain a jackhammer was in the mix. I later found out my wife�s cousin told him I needed a hard massage. I am now relaxed, the kind of relaxed you feel right after a head on with a Hummer.

I especially liked the part where they pull down the back of your board shorts well below your hinny-divider (polite language) and then leave the door open for your friends (and others) to talk to you as they amble by. Andrea�s cousin Ishvan had a nice chat with my backside at one point.

For those from the Czech team I'm sleeping like a baby 8 hours a night now. Tomorrow we head for Romania to try to hook up with Dave Boschen and others from the Santa Cruz Bible Romania Mission team. Life is good when you let it be good. More to come.

Here is a message from Paul Haenze, our SCBC Missionary in Poland and leader of our Czech trip! I'll let Paul tell you what happened on the Czech trip from the unique perspective of a European missionary.

We just returned from the two weeks in Ostrava, Czech Republic in partnership with our home church in Poznań, Poland, our home church in Santa Cruz, California and the Apostolic Church of Ostrava. What a great time! We are tired from almost two weeks of dorm living, hot weather and lots of travel (2500 kilometers on the car). But, it was a wonderful time of ministry. Our hearts are full of the people we met, the ministry we did and the many new friends we made.

First of all, here are the basic stats:

*The team completed over 110 man-hours of work at a home for the mentally handicapped.

*The team did 12 sessions at the English club.

*The team did three prayer walks.

*The team spent time all of Sunday with the local church - leaving that small body of believers encouraged and refreshed.

*Several hundred Czechs heard students testimonies of how God had worked in their lives.

*Over 100 Czechs heard clear presentations of the Gospel, primarily from members of the Czech church.

*At least two people made decisions for Christ - in a culture where conversions normally require months to years of interaction with the Gospel.

Prague is beautiful!

We made it out of Czech in one piece! The student team is at home in recovery mode.

Our stay in Prague was GREAT we had a fun time unwinding as a team, we lived in an old palace while we were there. Here was our humble Prague home, small but acceptable... Yes, this is where we stayed!

The students really rocked - stats of all the ministries from the trip coming soon - they did an amazing amount of ministry while they were here!

I am in now in Hungary staying with my wife's family in a small village called Szardcutkedester. We have no net service, I am updating from a library in a nearby town, I need to find an internet cafe to get some Prague pictures and updates online for real.

So now the reports from EuroGerwig part #2 begin. Looks like I'll be traveling to Romania, Hungary, Austria and Venice Italy before I head home (and then we go to Mexico)! Highlights here in Hungary so far include a dinner with a pot full of chicken feet, hearts, livers and gizards - countyliving at its best! The people here are wonderful and hospitable.

Today we went to a European spa and swam with 101 elderly people in... speedos...

I sense strange things in the coming 2 weeks. More soon.

Hi All , Internet will be not so available for a few days. When I get net service again I'll update everyone on team info / and details of what happened at the end of the trip . I'll be blogging the Hungary trip next week too.

Syd Barrett original guitarist for Pink Floyd has died after a sad later life destroyed by LSD and madness. A parable.

News here

More news!

So exploring all this internet and next generation communication ministry stuff keeps snowballing. Other Chuckk-Media can be found at...

SACRED INK tattoos as the language of faith is our internet faith art multimedia experiment.

Chuckk's new article in Lusanne World Pulse Magazine

Our new Video Podcast at iTunes: just search for " chuckk" in the music store area ( it's free video viewable on computer or iPod) Get the itunes program free HERE

Audio messages from Sunday mornings at iTunes: just search for " chuckk" in the music store area

Here are a bunch of pix from our last 8 days here in the Czech Republic. If you have Filmloop you can view them full size, if you don't you can download it free, install it and then you can view full size pictures, save pictures comment on pictures and even add pictures to this loop. It's a product connected to Guy Kawasaki, he's a genius so if you don't like it your dumb :) - jk, but it is a fun little program!

TEAM MEMBERS: When you get home - To add pictures //add Filmloop on your computer, then just drag and drop your pictures from a folder onto the filmloop itself. - chow

MORE news from the frontlines...

click " continue" to czech it out.... sorry.

Life Is Grand! To see more pictures click continue , below

More from the Kids!

I had to reprint this, someone reminded me of the post the other day.

I saw my niece's Japanese style tattoo (my lovely niece's name is withheld) , this tat is hovering a bit above her bum.

I ask, "what does the Japanese character mean?" She says "I don't want to talk about it". After her father offered to tell her "story" she told me she was told the symbol meant LOVE in Japanese... BUT...A Japanese customer at her business saw her tattoo (when she had bent over to pick something up) and said...

Uhhhhh that DOESN"T mean love... After some research she found out that the symbol means... Prostitute in Japanese. True.

The Roma are an ancient people without a true home. Roma are often called gypsies; sometimes the word is a term of contempt, other times it is not. The term �I got gipped� comes from the idea that �gypsies� are all con artists and unsavory back ally tricksters. No one knows where they originated from, but the Roma seem to have origins in India. They have become a traveling people spreading around the world and are particularly thick in Europe. They find little love wherever they lay their hats.

They are often known as �gypsies, tramps and thieves� (if you got the early 70�s Cher reference there you are officially primeval). Most people treat the Roma as subhuman. Here in the Czech Republic their children are given little to no education. Often the education they do get is in schools for the kids with mental handicaps even though the students themselves do not have mental challenges. I was talking with a Roma man named Jon the other day; he is a leader of the Roma in the area we are in. We call Jon the King of the Gypsies, he�s a long haired middle aged, tattooed cat weighing in at 350+ pounds, he�s large and in charge in the neighborhood. Jon told me 90% - 95% of the Roma people here are unemployed. Since they have no education they are only hired out as day laborers to dig ditches and do other dirtwork. There is unbelievable discouragement among them, drugs and alcohol problems are rampant. The people dress in old worn clothes, tattoos, and dirt. They are given little dignity by �white� people.

Some of our team is working at a housing project for Roma people and showing the families there Jesus� mighty love. There are often 70 Roma at a time in the park with us, children laughing and playing games, parents sitting in the shade watching, smiling and talking with us. Teenagers are learning to throw American footballs and challenging us to soccer tournaments. We are being accepted into their lives. A grandmother called me over the other day and asked me to pray for her sick grandchild, we are greeted with embraces and warm smiles when we arrive, the teenagers offer to share the costly and precious cigarettes from their very mouths with me. When we bring out the guitars several of the older teens and men come to jam with us, Chris Johnson and I have been playing guitars with several of the guys. It�s been cool hearing their music and seeing their smiles and trading licks with them. I still am trying to figure out how to pay a song they love called the Csardas, they play it different every time.

The Roma children are ecstatic that our students bother to know, remember and us their names when we see them, I don�t think many people bother to call them by their names...

Yesterday when we went to the church service many of the Roma kids showed up to sit on our kid�s laps, high five us and just hang out. It�s gratifying to see our crew showing God�s love to these people who are given the heel instead of the lips on most days. We know that this work is giving the local church a great name in the Roma community. Jesus is making Himself materialize in the bodies of some young people I know, if you know them you would be proud.

Here's the first in a series of entries where the students share their current mission highlights.
Click " continue" below to see what they're saying.

Here's where we are, here's their anthem. So many churchs, so llittle God. Pray for the ministry at hand :)

Here we go! I'm laughing already! Our flight out from California has been postponed from a 2:00pm take off to a 9:00pm takeoff. Launch up a prayer for our connecting flight to Prague. We'll get there ok but a layover in Frankfurt would make for a looooong trip. Cheers!

What does it mean to "believe" in God or to have "faith in Christ"? Our second video podcast is now online at iTunes and delves into this topic with nods to a French tightrope-walker, a wheelbarrow, a $100.oo bill from Heaven, and a secret "forbidden" scbc film location.

Here's how you can check it out...

1. Start iTunes, you can view it in iTunes (iTunes is a free download get it HERE)

2. Go to the Music Store section,

3. Type in chuckk in the search area

4. Choose Sacred Digital: Chuckk Gerwig ( the other content area is audio recordings from my weekly Sunday morning messages

5. Push the subscribe button (it's free, like toejam) If it doesn't start to download, hit the update button

6. Wait a few minutes for the download, it's video so it s larger file and takes a few minutes

7. If it's good leave a comment on iTunes to help others find it and TELL A NOT YET CHRISTIAN FRIEND to check it out.

Blessings All - chuckk

Tomorrow we leave for a 2 week mission in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

What do Sacred Ink Tattoo and Billy Graham have in common? No, Dr. Graham did not get a tattoo of a flaming pig skeleton riding a stretched chopper waving the confederate flag, (but that would be funny).

Billy Graham led the now famous Lausanne International Congress on World Evangelization. Lausanne World Pulse Magazine has grown out of that movement. The magazine which is published online has great articles chronicling evangelism and outreach movements around the globe.

This month�s issue, July 2006 features articles on Thai dancing as worship, articles on African and Bulgarian outreach stratgies and an article they asked me to write on Sacred Ink, Christian tattoo and the internet. Sacred Ink has already been viewed by over 15,000 visitors in 70 countries; this article will likely spread the word to even more people in more distant lands. I hope this site will continue to encourage other ministries to utilize the internet and arts as venues for faith expression and outreach.

Lausanne World Pulse Magazine can be found by clicking here

I'm sitting here with my laptop burning a red cancerous divit into my right thigh, thinking about my wife Andrea. I was thinking... this coming July 25th we will have been married 25 years. Amazing, AND since we met and started dating 4 years before that we've been together for 29 years, many more years than we lived apart from each other. So I'm reflecting on what a fortunate man I am and what a great gift Andrea is. We will be celebrating our 25th in Hungary with Andrea's family. Our dads are coming with us, as are our kids and we're going to spend 2 weeks touring, visiting family, looking at castles and looking into each other's eyes

Here are some of God's thoughts about a good wives and a crummy wives (I got the GREAT one!!!) - Girls can reverse and apply many of these thoughts to help find the futuredreamman in their lives ...if they haven't found him yet.

GOOD WIFE :BY GOD

-Prov 18:22 He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD. (from New International Version

-Prov 31:10 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. 11 Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. (from New International Version)

CRUMMY WIFE : BY GOD

-Prov 21:19 Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife. (from New International Version)

-Prov 23:27 for a prostitute is a deep pit and a wayward wife is a narrow well. (from New International Version)

-Prov 25:24 Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife. (from New International Version)

-Prov 27:15 A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day; 16 restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand. (from New International Version)

So I'm really so thankful God blessed me with Andrea.

Chuckk Loves Andrea more than breath.

Yesterday my 11 year old daughter did something that made my heart grow large. She had her LONG hair cut and then she donated her hair to a great organization that she had heard of called Locks of Love.
Locks of Love makes hair-pieces for children who lose their own hair in the course of medical treatments for horrible diseases like cancer and leukemia.

Check out Locks of Love - HERE

Hey if you are part of the SCBC Crew you can add your Wakefest pics to this community photo project - if you don't have Filmloop yet get it install it , it's free and fun (like waves). After you Dl Filmloop you can add your photos to the WAKEFEST 2006 loop!

If you are a youth worker. check out Filmloop, it's a cool way for you to share photos with your students after an event and is another example of next gen community building / memory sharing

If you are a youth worker you know sometimes work can be FUN. I JUST got back from a Wakeboarding / Houseboating trip with 110+ of our students, staff, ski boat drivers and other assorted crazies. We had a great time: wakeboarding, tubing, swimming, nuclear nacho eating contest, houseboating, card playing, worshipping, star gazing, annual Pink Floyd listening party under the stars, indoor houseboat slip and slide contest, night swim, and listening to God. Thanks Mike Schwenne for the pro wakeboard exhibition...see Mike fly Thanks also to Wendy Huckins for the inspired worship leading.

Boys Boat #1... when I say "B" you say "A" - "BA, BA". Life can be good if you let it be.

Our floaterhomes

They call her... CARLY!

Technology is amazing. I am blogging on my laptop through my wireless internet connection from the deck behind my home right now. It is 10:30pm God's stars are out, a cool breeze is blowing, there is a huge redwood tree looming over my head and it is quiet as rice out here. A bat flew past a few minutes ago and you can hear the deer at times in the bushes below. I am blessed by God to have this moment and this space in which to enjoy it.

The Czech Republic trip is looming large on the calendar -Here are some new pictures of the city of Ostrava where our team will serving in about 2 weeks.

Ostrava

Ostrava some more...

Some of my favorite memories come from these summer youth mission trips. Here is a post I wrote a while ago about some of my favorite mission memories. Click continue below this sentence to look into my memory banks.

Hurrah! The Video Podcasts that I have spoken of are now ready for public release (free) at iTunes. For those who know, many moons ago my friend Smittie of Tako productions and I set out to shoot some short movies for release on iTunes. The idea was to use VIDEO Podcasting to specifically use the visual elements in the messages in impactful ways - most video podcasts seem to be just a guy video-taped while he does his Sunday sermon at a church. We set out to do something less usual both visually and spiritually. In the end people get unique free movies for their iPod or computer!

After months of hard work the videos we have been shooting are now released. Thank you to Tako Productions for their tireless efforts and great artistry �BTW they did every single bit of this at no charge, amazing! The first video called �Clayman� is now on iTunes and is ready to be viewed. I get to do some stuff with clay in it and find as an artist, I�m more guitar player, less sculptor! I did get to do some guitar playing for the project to redeem myself after my clay debut, I did the music at the beginning and end of the movie.

The second Video will be uploaded to iTunes on July 1st and then a new episode will appear every month around the first of the month. You can subscribe (free again) and have the videos automatically come to your computer if you like. You can view these your directly on your computer in iTunes, or better yet put them on your Video iPod if you have one. It�s also possible for people to download them and use them as illustrations or teaching videos for church group meetings if they like.

If you already have iTunes on your computer: to see the first episode, Clayman click the following link: Get Clayman

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=160185458

IMPORTANT: to see the whole episode you have to click the "get episode" button on the right of the iTunes screen or you'll just see a snippet of the film.

If you don�t have itunes but want to see the video or hear the weekly audio messages I share at Santa Cruz Bible Church Insight you first need to download the iTunes program, it�s a quick, small and free program. Download Itunes by clicking the following link http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ .

Remember these are video and take longer to download than mp3 audios, they are bigger files. You can also find ALL the chuckk-junk by going to the itunes music store and typing in �chuckk� in the search box it will show you where to go for my weekly Sunday messages (in audio mp3) and where to find the Sacred Digital Video Podcasts. If you like the video Podcast or audio messages leave a comment on iTunes and it will help others find the messages.

We hope these videos will be a light in dark places for folks curious about Jesus and an encouragement and spiritual growth engine for those already convinced. If you have friends who aren�t into church / religion / God share these videos with them, they�re not religious in any traditional sense.

Cheers Smittie and many thanks!

This July I will be leading a team of 18 people (including my own daughter Carly!!!) on a mission adventure to the City of Ostrava in the Czech Republic. We'll be working with local Czech youth, a team of Polish high schoolers we know from some previous mission trips and some other Polish kids from a friend's church to reach out to Czech youth. I just got some advance pictures of the place we will be serving, here they are.

The small lake town outside Ostrava

Ministry site by the lake , sunblock spf 5000 will be needed.

Our home in Ostrava

Here are with some email excerpts from our local contact Zibi the Great describing what we'll be doing there.

There's a great metal sculptor you might not know. He forges Old School stripped down choppers and bob job motorcycles. I first saw these guy's scooter work at a custom motorcycle show in Nevada a few years ago. All the other show bikes had been trailered in, prayed to, hand detailed to a holy perfection.

The Exile crew showed up riding their show bike from LA, then proceeded to do tire smoking burnouts on their show bike until the rear tire literally blew up, throwing little hot chunks of tire all over the place. Then they entered the bike in the show all covered with chunks of tire, desert bug guts and road funk. Pretty Old School. Nice Bikes.

Exile Cycles can be viewed by clicking the word HowCoolIsALowChromeFlatBlackVibrationMaker

Chuckk's Christmas list includes an Exile cycle, my Harley wants a flat black friend to keep it company. Andrea, are you taking note?

On The iPod: Zero 7 - The Garden

Ok, I really don't use a lot of prepared ministry resources but I did find something I really like for older youth ministry or college ministry purposes. It's a DVD called Indescribable by Louie Giglio...think he got hassled with that name in junior high?

Indescribable is a 2 message set of Louie speaking about the amazing universe God created and our place in it. It features photos from the Hubble Space Telescope, the sounds of pulsars worshipping God and thought provoking words from a great communicator named gigalo or something like that.

If you are doing anything under the stars and looking for a set of messages that will at home in the outdoors check out Indescribable.

I will be using it this month as a basis for the messages at our High School Houseboat / Wakeboard trip called Wakefest. We'll be meeting outside, at night, under the stars -it will be a great venue for these films. We'll be taking 80 some-odd high schoolers, 15 or so youth staff, 12ish ski boat drivers and their insane student-killer skiboats, 5 plush houseboats for the students & staff and a couple more houseboats for the boat drivers who are smart enough to know NOT to try to sleep during the party on our boats. It will be a grand time, it will smell like teen spirit.

The SCBC layoffs have been announced. My friends Brandon Johnson (college), Frank Gobel (missions) and Bud Lamb were layed off yesterday. I will really miss working with them. Pray for these 3 excellent pastors as they now seek God's next place to serve. Pray also for my Youth department as we lost some budget and worse yet we lost our administrative assistant Laura Rodgers (who will be transfered to another department at SCBC), it will be difficult to manage without administrative support. Well, anyway God STILL rules.

Today is 676, a number that has absolutely no Biblical significance.

It's 12:21a.m. - It is layoff day at SCBC. Whoever is being layed off will find out in the next 24 hours, so pray for peace, hope, unity, and love at our church if you have a moment. No matter what happens a team of folks who really care about one another will be grieving some loss. By the way I'm totally ok with staying or going whichever way God steers, when you let Him drive the car you always get exactly where you need to go. He knows true North.

Hey, if you are a praying sort of person keep my church, Santa Cruz Bible in your prayer. The elders announced that there will have to be some very deep layoffs of staff at high levels for SCBC to be able to live in a balanced budget in the coming fiscal year. This will be the third round of layoffs in the last few years and it will be a real sadness for our great team of people who have worked so hard to minister here. The group has served though some tough times including years without a Sr. Pastor ; these things bond team members tight. We don't know who will be going or staying, we do know God is our provider and will be aware and active, we also know that it will be sad and difficult for those who must leave and for those who stay. So pray and we'll see what happens :) .

Is putting content on the internet a waste of time for people who are trying to minister to others? Up until two months ago, I really thought the following; who would read or access my junk if I put it on the internet, how many people would use or view the info, how would anyone find it, would it be a good use of the time and effort to use the internet to convey faithgrowth info? Basically, will this be worth doing? Here�s what I�m learning - the answer is yes.

I looked at the stats this morning for my blog website (which you are reading this moment) to see how many folks have actually bothered to view this page since we put it online 2 months ago. I found that there have been almost 8000 visits of this web page, coming from 71 different countries. Some of these countries like China, and Pakistan, are particularly not open to the Christian message.

I also checked Sacred Ink our tattoo as message of faith website and it has had 10,000+ visits from 61 different countries. What�s wild is that Sacred Ink is not in HTML code and can�t be found easily if you search for things like tattoo or Christian etc, it�s just a wave of global word of mouth. If you haven�t seen the site yet, check it out at Sacred Ink.

I just got the stats from our iTunes account where we have had my Sunday morning messages up on the internet for one month. I was curious to see if anyone is actually downloading and listening to them, and just got the stats this morning. We only have 3 messages on iTunes so far but they were downloaded 163 times last month, I was pretty surprised that there were that many people listening to them. An additional 85 people downloaded and listened to the tag-team Da Vinci Decoded sermon I co-taught with Dean from the church website on top of that. Amazing, and these are small stats compared to a lot of folks who have been doing this for a while. Some ministries get hundreds of thousands of downloads a year from their internet sites. To listen in to the weekly messages go to iTunes and type in �chuckk� in the search box, then click on my picture to get to the messages. Or click HERE. Note you have to have iTunes installed to get to the messages, but it's a free program to download.

This is so cool I want one NOW! With this you could beat the gridlock in our beloved Santa Cruz FishHook fo so.

Man I'm listening to LIVE- Throwing Copper and reading Let The Nations Be Glad by John Piper.

The Live album is just full of passion and great hooks, must be played loud or a cop will come to your door and give you a ticket for breaking soul-decency laws. -Lyrics advisory: if you are sensitive to strong language about life this album isn't for ya.

The book is a book about worship of God masquerading as a book about missions, I am moved everytime I re-read it. It's one of those books you never forget after the words enter the eyegate and travel slowly back into your psyche. Lyrics advisory: if you are sensitive to words about giving your life up and being fully devoted to a great cause this book isn't for ya. The Cd and the book are both very moving.

Here's a thought for the day--- what is moving you at the soul level these days?

Both these works of art are worth taking time to explore if your haven't caught them yet.

On the iPod - Guess

Random Bible Fact: Weasels lived a long time in ancient Israel because they we not allowable for Bar B Q, stew or rodent fondue.

Leviticus 11:29 -30 "'Of the animals that move about on the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon.

Buy your WEASEL JACKET here...

There are strange things in my closet, here are a few.

For me this was the essence of 70's COOL - it is the tape from an old Echoplex guitar echo device I used to own. It was high tech space exploration stuff back in the day. I used to play my Stratocaster through it with a bottle bottom, very Sid Barrett.

This is a piece of America's proud history, remember President Carter's beer drinking brother, this is his personal beer. President Bush needs a funnier brother.

This is a wire scorpion that a man I met in a little village in Baja made me. I love Mexico - my life has been deeply impacted by the people I have met in the desert towns and villages there - especially the nice lady who made us the spoiled goat tamales...

This is a prosthetic hook for folks who have lost a hand or arm -everyone has one of these around right? They're awesome for getting corn on the cob out of boiling water.

This is the lower side panel from a Honda VFR750 Interceptor sport motorcycle I managed to crash up in the Sierras, proof that gravity applies to everyone.

Brandon Johnson College Pastor at SCBC has a new baby! Look how cute that little guys is! I am so glad, I've been trying to get someone to name a baby after me for YEARS, now my dream has come true!

Thanks Rachel Tanner for the Ministry o' photoshop

On The iPod: Live - Secret Samhadi

This is going toooooooooo far The Orange County Custom motorcycle guys (the American Chopper TV Show) are building a chopper for PEZ.. yes, PEZ the candy people. Remember when choppers were for real american toughcat heros.

See the ugly truth HERE.

Indian Larry is rolling slowly in his grave. Jesus looks down from Heaven and says "forgive them Father for they know not what they do". -

Technorati: motorcycle, pez

"Comments" are fixed now, sorry if you had something world changing to say and got shut down when it was broken

If you have an iPod Nano and a little spare change, you need...

Yep it's a car for your ipod to fit into ... read more by clicking this

Last Sunday we did a unique "sermon" (I hate that word) around the Da Vinci Code controversy. Dean Bouzeos, the senior Pastor of Santa Cruz Bible and I did a tag team message at the main services to talk about all things Da Vinci.

You can catch the tag team message we did on my audio podcast by going to the iTunes music store and typing in "Chuckk" in the search area- it will take you to my iTunes messages. Dean starts the thing off for the first 18 minutes or so then I jump in for the last 18 minutes or so with discussion of sacred feminine, Harleys, men giving birth, Mother's day, Galatians, 1st century naked baptism and gendercide.

By the way, you have to hit the "get episode" to hear the whole message or iTunes will only play you a 1minute clip. If you don't have iTunes yet you can get the iTunes program for free by clicking HERE

On The iPod - James Brown: Sex Machine

So I'm not feeling depressed at all, but if I was here's what I'd do - just what I did tonight. I'd to Santa Cruz Bible Church and preach a message at the main service, ride my Harley home enjoying the throbbing note and screaming green-ish blur around me then I'd jump in the spa under the stars and put on some Funkadelic. BTW: Sure cure for depression = Funkadelic at 120 decibels.

If you know me you know I love to create and record music and I love to use Protools. Protools is a professional quality music recording and mixing program and is a little complicated to use at times. Protool produces beautiful results! I wrote, recorded and mixed all the music for Sacred Ink in my own home on Protools, it is a great high quality recording program.

I like F R E E too though! I just was introduced to a killer free recording program called Audacity. We are using Audacity to record my weekly messages that we put on iTunes. Audacity doesn't have the power of Protools but makes great recordings and allows you to apply effects, record multiple tracks, mix down your music on your home computer and burn it to Mp3 to play on a cd or your iPod.

You can get out your computer, a cheap mic, your Sears Silvertone guitar, slick you hair up like Dan Kimball / Elvis and be your own recording artist. Who knows maybe you will be the next American Idol; remember me when you get rich famous I REALLY need a chopper from Jesse James Custom Motorcycles.

You can download Audacity, no charge by clicking - HERE

On The iPod - Elton John: Madman across the Water

People asked and we've got it done for you. You can now download the messages I give every week at Santa Cruz Bible Church from iTunes, free (and they are worth double the price of free). We'll have each week's mp3 message online by about Wednesday of that week.

You can find me easily in iTunes by:

1. Looking under sources (on the upper right of the itunes window) click podcasts -then

2. Click podcast directory in the lower left corner of the screen -then

3. Type in Chuckk (with 2k's ) or the word bible in the search box

4. Click on my picture to get to the place where you can see what "Chuckk audio messages" are online

Chuckk & his cooler than dry-ice dad, Gene Gerwig

BLOG: Thanks to all the people who are reading this blog, I hope it's a blessing to you. I'm truly blown away, there are 1000 visits a week coming from over 60 countries around the world. I'm noticing several from Spain, Singapore, Germany and Thailand -shoot me an Email and say hello if you are a reader from one of these countries. Special blessings to the readers from China!

AUDIO MESSAGES: For those who asked, my Sunday morning message audios are almost finished and will be up on iTunes later this week - we're fixing a few bugs. I'll post here when they're ready for download. There will be a new audio message uploaded every week. The messages can be listened to on your computer or downloaded to an mp3 player.

VIDEO PODCASTS: My friends Smittie and Machiko of Tako Productions are finishing a new Sacred Digital webpage to house the Video Podcasts we have shot. There are 4 videos finished and ready for release and a fifth in editing. When the new Sacred Digital site is done we can then send the Video Podcasts to iTunes and you can view them on your computer or DL them to a video iPod, they are...unique.

NEW WEB PAGE: Like I said, Smittie and his talented wife Machiko are finishing the new Sacred Digital Website. When it's done you'll find this blog there, the link to download my Sunday messages, the link to our Video Podcasts, a link to Sacred Ink and some coming surprises that I hope will be a blessing and smile-producer to anyone who tunes in.

WRITING: I recently had the privilege of writing an article for Lausanne World Pulse Magazine and also some segments for a book on Youth Ministry. The magazine article will be out in the July issue and the book will be published June or July. Guess what I learned, writing is hard work, talking is easier!!!

SACRED INK: Sacred Ink continues to get 1100-1200 visits a week from 50+ countries around the world. I'll be sharing some cool news next week about a Sacred Ink LIVE event happening in Europe.

CZECH REPUBLIC: We have tickets in hand and will be in the Czech Republic this summer working with a combined american, Polish and Czech youth team reaching out to Czech teenagers in some fun ways. I'll be blogging the whole weird journey here.

Lost in misty time before the Celtic peoples thought it important to remember when things came into being; somewhere between 400bc and 100ad this was written by an ancient Celtic poet:

I am an estuary into the sea
I am a wave of the ocean
I am the sound of the sea
I am a powerful ox
I am a hawk on a cliff
I am a dewdrop in the sun
I am a plant of beauty
I am a boar of valour
I am a salmon in a pond
I am a lake in a plain
I am the strength of art

An opportunity for reflection:

If one line expressed how you see YOU which would it be and why?
If there was one line that you desire to describe you in future time which would it be and why?

On The iPod - Brian Eno: Music for Airports

Last December our Junior High Ministry Pastor, Thud (yes Thud) Gudnason made this very cool David Crowder Worship Leader Action Figure as a Christmas gift for one of my interns. It was so touching we wanted to share it with you all. BTW: Thud admits that the action figure was originally a failed attempt to interest junior high boys in worshipping... something.

So today I fired up my big fat saphire blue Harley and took 2 hours off from my duties and diligence to ride around in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Motorcycles have been a lifelong obsession for me and produce a lot of good brain chemicals. The chemical f.r.e.e.d.o.m. is produced in copious abouts when I turn the throttle counterclockwise on a Harley Davidson.

I think the endorphins get cooking from the kick in the pants thrust, the warm thunderous sound and the feeling of fresh wind moving across my face. I get a sense of freedom; freedom from the cell phone ( you can't hear it over the wind noise) freedom from visual restrictions (there is no windshield or car-top or side door frames to block your vision), freedom from music or discussion, and freedom from the minivan-mundane.

Motorcycling gives a sense of f l i g h t, of moving on and through the wind, it intoxicates me. I rode up highway 9 to Boulder Creek California, ducking through patches of heat in the sunny spots and patches of cool dampness in the forested sections, free from all concerns. At one point today a large black hawk was flying along with me to my right just overhead, in the wind gliding. Free.

LifeQuestion: What gives you flight? LifeAnswer: Fly more often

On the iPod: Squeeze - Greatest Hits

I recently had the great pleasure to visit the Ashes and Snow Art Experience. We packed a few vehicles up with my wife, father, the Brandes� of Brandes Portraiture fame, Dean Sharp of the Spring, the world�s greatest Celtic knot-work tattoo artist: Pat Fish and several other loonies and headed to Santa Monica California to experience the exhibit. ��Have you ever been experienced?�

It is a stunning work, see some of it HERE. Great art ennobles us.

On the iPod- Derek Trucks Band: Live at the Georgia Theater

If you "subscribed" to this blog for email updates through the old BOT A BLOG button on this page it didn't work. The old subscription button sent you to some random place like "the willow freak's house of deviated squirrel septum blog and grill" or something like that ;) .

We're working on a new email subscription tool right now.

I'll post when we have a new email subscription button / program available. Huge thanks and props to my pal The Amazing Smittie who designed, maintains and makes this website a reality. He's a great bro who has done all the work on this site bro-bono. Smittie you da man.

On The iPod ~ Captain Beyond : Captain Beyond

Okay so today...no heavy thoughts about geisha, goodworks, gnostic gospels or God just this

There are products at this link for the person who is so hard to buy for! Maybe you'll find something for your dad for Father's Day. Shop HERE

On the iPod - Sparks: Hello Young Lovers

I've been home sick with the �nuclear flu� for a couple of days. After some powerful atomic reactions inside my flesh and some profound porcelain gazing I found myself weakened to the point where I could actually sit and watch a whole film without multitasking. I watched Memoirs of a Geisha. I watched it 2 times. I even watched the accompanying DVD bonus materials. I am struck by the beauty of the filmmaker�s craft and the moving story itself. I am a romantictattooedbikerpastorguitarist, I am a sucker for love stories. In a scene that sings hope out loud the little girl Sayuri is gifted a small cone of sweetened shaved ice by a stranger. This single kind act changes her experience of life, knowledge of hope and in the end, her destiny. Great art should move us to action beyond mere feeling. There are many around us whose lives might be impacted deeply by a single merciful act.

A single act of kindness in the coming day might be...

When I was a small boy my wonderful doting mother would take me swimming at a magical oasis called the Santa Monica City College pool. I loved going there. I can still hear the riot of the other kids splashing; I can almost smell the chlorine and feel the percussions of the big kids jumping in from the dizzy heights of the HIGH dive. The pool was a place of both soul stirring enjoyment and some danger. I knew deep water could be dangerous. Some close family friends of ours had lost their little boy to an apartment swimming pool and it left an obvious impression on my parents. Deep water can be dangerous. Our friends came home from work one day to find their young son drifting lifelessly at the bottom of the deep end. Events like this can make us choose safe bets instead or risky business. My parents wanted me to learn to swim well and took me to the community pool to make certain I would be water safe.

Even though I took swimming lessons and swam fairly well there was something a little freighting about the south end of the pool, the deep end� The deep end was the place were little guys like me �swam� by clinging to the safety of the pool edge coping, slowly circumnavigating the dangerous depths while still feeling fearless enough to be there, near the big kids. Even though I was in the deep end I still wasn�t swimming there. As I got older and finally let go of the edge I experienced the wonder of descending into the uncharted 12� depths, exploring the mysterious bottom drain, and examining the otherworldly underwater light. I was enriched by letting go and exploring deep.

Maybe things haven�t changed that much. Maybe there are times when we are enticed by the deep end of dangerous dreams, thoughts and inclinations. Maybe what makes a person a big-kid is when they maneuver into the deep end and then decide to let go of the comfort of the coping and venture out into the unsafe water. I wonder, maybe the great leaders of this world understood the need to let go of the coping and swim out into the darker waters of the deep end and in so doing changed the planet forever. Jesus breathed mission and let go of the comfortable coping of Heaven and swam into the deep waters of planet Earth. What is the coping you cling to? What is your dangerous deep end? Will you and I let go and swim out into risky water or cling to safety?

I had a fun day today, I shot 2 more video podcast episodes for our upcoming Itunes video show ministry project. We have 4 messages recorded now and hopefully we will be able to get the website finished and get them online at itunes within a month.
So far one imessage s about dark times and shot in half darkness , one is about God as THE artist, and is shot with me making stuff with clay. ( I found I am not a sculptor) -another is about how real faith c h a n g e s people which includes cool images and audio from my tattoo art project ( Sacred Ink) and the final message is about faith being more than a mere head thing and is shot in a religious feeling chapel setting intruded upon by a large blue dirt-encrusted wheelbarrow... It's always a funspiritvibe communicating God's Word in new ways! Take a moment and pray for the videos to reach and touch folks who don't know Jesus but know Video iPods :)



I spent the evening at the homeless shelter downtown on Elm serving dinner and showing Jesus' love to people; it's a joy for sure. I got to hang with my friend Jacob while we served. Jacob is a cool guy he moved here last year from San Francisco where he and his wife did street ministry serving folks in Hippie Haight Ashbury, I love this guy! I think we served over 600 PLATES OF dinner tonight. We had a blast talking and laughing with folks as we spooned out the GOOD grub and got to goof off with the people including telling folks I'd get them double chicken if the answered this question correctly... " the best Jimi Hendrix Experience album is???".
If you can guess which Jimi album I like best I'll email ya double cyber chicken.



Prayer = Thanks J, for a nice day. Time to hit the spa and stare at the stars. Here's something from an article I wrote for the church website, from my devotional time.


Technorati Tags: philosophy, religion

Something is wrong with me...

...ok, shut up those of you making knowing snickering sounds.

I am watching TV ( the show 24) and feel my usual t.v.a.d.d. - I find that I can't sit and watch things without interacting in some way and remain tuned in for very long. I find when I read I create the world and it captures my imagination (by the way READ MILA 18, By Leon Uris I just finished it last night!!!). If I listen to music it gathers me up into it and I am spellbound. If I play video games the act of button mashing, leaning, yelling and creating havoc on the screen keeps me going for longer periods of time.
BUT if I watch TV, unless it is REALLY compelling I feel one of the following emotions:

1. Abject boredom ----enter state of waxy flexibility.
2. ..."get on with it, speed this thing up" - I start making up new stories of my own in the story of start multitasking with the laptop, rodents, books, phone, rolling sushi etc
3. s..l...eeeeeeeeepppp...zzzzzzzzz

I'm done ...off to the hot tub to look at the stars and ponder God and the universe, someone give me the Cliff notes about what happened in tonight's 24 k? - click...splash, ahhh.

Okay so every now and then you get a neuron misfire and some strange memory comes floating back to you. Like a brain burp. You taste the memory and say oh yeah I remember that... funny how the mind works, or doesn't

I had this random brain burp just now.

When I was a kid of about 9 we got a new neighbor kid. I didn't really like him so I created a club that heretofore didn't exist, primarily so I could make him go through the club's secret initiation rights (which I was about to make up). I recall rifling through my mom's large musty smelling pantry and concocting a special initiation potion for little dufas ( I can't remember his name because I have had some special potions of my own in my past). Anyway I do remember that it contained copious amounts of hot sauce and oyster juice and like 20 other incompatible but mostly non poisonous fluids... Why can I NOT remember his name but I remember the oyster sauce???

SOOOOOO he drank it, made crazy faces and the accompanying sounds and ran to tell his mom. Sensing a butt whooping from my own beautiful but deadly mother, I remedied the situation by overpowering little dufas, dragging him into his garage, tying him up to a beam in the garage and keeping him there until he was ready to NEVER tell.

...since he never got to the "never gonna tell" point I untied him and gave him my basketball. I am a much nicer person these days.

Like I said, random, like a brain burp.

Summer Short Term Missions change people's lives.--> mine yours and most importantly the people's in the places where we land, so cool. I wonder who is more blessed sometimes

I'm thinking back on lucid memories, water balloon launchers at a Lithuanian orphanage, being taken into family everywhere I've been, a gut wrenching meal called ploff in an old wooden home with funhouse-warped floors, lost in Russian subways, sitting praying on an old castle wall on a hill overlooking the city of Budapest with wonderful Hungarian teens , "issues" with skin heads in Red Square, "kill me NOW" goat tamale poisoning, sharing Jesus with hookers in Hungary and getting the finger for it, volleyball and Jesus with drunk Lithuanians, peeing my pants in a Russia hotel elevator ( big time) ,leading people to Jesus and seeing them come to life, peeing in a Nazi bunker (Tyler) AND peeing in a bunker in Israel and almost peeing on Stalin's tomb ( impulse control won on that one) , showing Jesus' Love to children in the forest (and seeing leeches in the swimming hole), challenging Igor in Tambov to seek the real Jesus and leave his cult, Marat turning from Islam to truth, swimming in water polluted by a dead body, preaching in the supermarket, fellowshipping in the ex-communist youth camp ( and holding breath in the communist non ventilated casa de kaka coming out with near visible fumes ascending from our clothing), leading the old grandma's bible study in a Russian tenement and seeing a woman in her 90's receive Jesus, Lamb cooked over wood coals , preaching in the Polish prison, sleeping on the ground, being followed and hassled by the Russian mafia, sharing Jesus love with the outcast "door man" at the casino, praying for the woman with the brain tumor - then having her dream about my words and later receive Jesus in her sleep, coffee and fellowship with the leader of a Polish Christian motorcycle club, being mocked for my faith, challenged to fight, sneered at, kissed and blessed, being so sleep deprived I fell asleep in my food mid-sentence, handing Bibles to people who cry because they never had one, crazy train rides, insane bus passages, postponed flights, lost baggage , found souls, walking thru ancient walkways, extending an ancient hope.

I like my life. Last night we went downtown to Lee's sandwich shop and got an Avocado Smoothie with those strange Asian Phlegmy black "pearls" in the bottom. Make mental note, no more mucus pearls... When they make it up the fatty straw into your mouth it feels like you need to spit, loogeyish. It was pure Santa Cruz Night Poetry walking down the street laughing with friends, encountering Umbrella Man with his new pink light up umbrella, slurping avocado smoothies and spitting the mucus-y asian pearls all over Pacific Ave as we made our way back up the hill to Mt. Hermon to give Becky G her dead squirrel in a Converse shoe box at her birthday hoedown. Hoedown; what's the etymology behind that??? -->well anyway @ the hoedown I played poker, laughed with friends listened to country music and DID NOT line dance. I like my life. It's Thanksgiving today and I'm thankful for my life, it's absolutely superior to being a dead squirrel in a shoe box. Quintessent.

...So there are Wild Boar coming onto our front yard late at night, I was okay with it (as long as it didn't get Jessi as a late night snack) BUT now the Boar-Gauntlet has been thrown down. There are 2 BIG piles of smelly ( and strangely tart tasting) boar kaka in my yard. As all us people who are spiritually in tune with animals know, this is a GREAT insult in boar language, the boar is saying in effect " there is poo in your grandmother's beard" which is very offensive to anyone, especially someone who DOES have a bearded grandma, God bless her. NOW is the time for REVENGE, stinking son of a pig, KILL KILL KILL the BOAR!!!!! we will trap him, tickle him with a feather duster and then kill him and and and...make sausage of him! yes! I am experienced in pig killing........... I have contacted my international assassin amigo, known boar-hater -->Hoolio the Dog, and when he gets released from the rehab he will be traveling North to help track the offensive swine ... Hoolio say, "PORKY MUST DIE -THE BOAR MUST PAY"!

--a night passes--

PORK UPDATE: OKAY , Micah B and I spent hours last night sitting in the dark on a game-trail that winds behind my house and over to the neighbors place. We had a shotgun, 2 big knives and we waited for the wild Boar that have been coming up onto my property... It’s weird sitting in the dark between houses in a residential neighborhood with a loaded gun, but PORKY MUST DIE!. It was also kinda exciting because Boar can be up to 200 lbs, they are aggressive and strong and have big tusks and if we miss when we shoot... it will get pretty ...well...caveman with the knives, we'll see...The sausage train didn't show last night so no wild forest pork yet, maybe tonight... Hoolio the dog never showed up either, seems he fell off the wagon again ...(twitch) I don't mean he drank again, I mean HE FELL OFF A WAGON, ...did he mention a horse once kicked him in the head...

Current mood: numb

Last Friday night my pal Dave and I went to San Francisco for the evening. It was a long strange trip (A G- DEAD QUOTE). GOOD STUFF: We went to my favorite Chinatown eatery -(Sam Wo's). It has been feeding and probably poisoning humans over 100 years --> it's kinda bohemian chilly--- you walk thru the actual kitchen as they cut up ducks and items that have no name as you travel the narrow stairs to "Upper Linoleum-Heaven", the small greasy eating booths. They always serve you drinks in styrofoam cups at Sam's saying they just ran out of clean cups. Ya gotta go there and get the duck-fried rice at least once in life, it's a nice thing. Jack Kerouac and Neil Cassidy ate there, it was an old Beat hangout, and it's even haunted according to SF legend, right. So that was a cool part of the journey.

SAD STUFF: We left Chinatown and headed for Haight Asbury , to the Independant Club to see one of my Fav guitar players, Eric Johnson. Since we got to the Haight early we walked around and just chilled in the lunatic asylum that is the Haight. All the usual circus was transpiring, the young kid nodded out on Heroin hugging the cement, the requsite hooker at the bus stop, the hungry dreadlocked people seeking food and light gazing up at the upscale yuppies hungry for trendy name brand footwear (sewed together by underpaid Asain econoslaves)... What is sadder, the junkies or the yuppies, both groups hungering for what doesn't fill you? Tragic too was standing at stage front later that night seeing Eric Johnson gaze down at us with unblinking dead eyes as he played at times powerfully and other times TOTALLY out of sync with his band oblivious to any musical joy and in seemingly in some sort of a f o g.

Late that night after the show let out we walked up the wrong street into the upper Haight to witness a kid jumping up and down on the hood of someone's car as a barefoot lady slowly dropped from her feet gently onto a chain link fence losing the gravitybattle on her way to the earth as her giant sized man/friend looked on with a perturbed grimace. On the way home in the car I remembered and earlier trip to the Haight. I had asked an elderly lady about the churches in the Haight, she had lived in the hood for 20 years but only knew of one , an old Baptist type place and she said she didn't think a n y o n e w e n t t h e r e... Ever wonder why the clean upper-income suburbs of America are filled with churches and NEW CHURCH PLANTS when lightless neighborhoods like the Haight, a mere hour away from SC know of none? To lift any melancholy I might have stirred, you could also spend a breath to thank God for duck-fried rice and for outfitting you and I with taste buds to enjoy it. There is still some good in the world.

I'm sitting here with my laptop burning a red cancerous divit into my right thigh, thinking about my wife Andrea. I was thinking... this coming July we will have been married 25 years. Amazing, AND since we met and started dating 4 years before that we've been together for 29 years, many more years than we lived apart from each other. So I'm reflecting on what a fortunate man I am and what a great gift Andrea is.
Here are some of God's thoughts about a good wives and a crummy wives ( I got the good one!!!) - Girls can apply many of these principals to the futuredreamman in their lives ...if they haven’t found him yet.

GOOD WIFE :BY GOD
-Prov 19:14 Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the LORD. (from New International Version)
-Prov 5:18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. (from New International Version)
-Prov 18:22 He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD. (from New International Version
-Prov 31:10 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. 11 Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. (from New International Version)

CRUMMY WIFE : BY GOD
-Prov 19:13 A foolish son is his father's ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping. (from New International Version)
-Prov 21:9 Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife. (from New International Version)
-Prov 21:19 Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife. (from New International Version)
-Prov 23:27 for a prostitute is a deep pit and a wayward wife is a narrow well. (from New International Version)
-Prov 25:24 Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife. (from New International Version)
-Prov 27:15 A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day; 16 restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand. (from New International Version)

So I'm really so thankful God blessed me with Andrea.

Chuckk Loves Andrea more than breath.

10 things that have been interesting events between sleeps last summer

1. Ate a pickle on a plane ...after it had been stuffed up in Briana's nose MAKE NOTE: Bri says pickle juice burns nose bad...).

2. Saw wild buffalo, elk and some crazy geysers at Yellowstone...took my daughters fishing in Yellowstone and in Idaho.

3. Nie Damka! ...contemplated knocking out drunk men trying to sneak into the girls shower room while they were showering in a Polish youth hostel.

4. Played volleyball and eggblow with drunk guys in a park in Lithuania, ---Roman shared the Good Jesus News afterwards. Then we had to evac the girls before they were carried off by the Visigoths.

5. Spoke about God's love in a Polish prison to 80 some odd guys - We gave out 44 bibles to the men there.

6. Rode the sumo tube of death behind a ski boat at Wakefest, big laughs, all the free water you can drink, right Tyler... Tyler...

7. Drove 2200 miles in an RV and went thru Cali - Nevada - Arizona - Utah - Idaho and Wyoming ( and spent the better part of 2 days in a gas station in Utah with a broken fuel pump) Make note: central Utah is NOT the place to move in the future unless God speaks to me OUTLOUD!

8. Saw 2 of my interns get their first youth pastor positions: Brian in Florida and now Abram in Arizona! Made me all happy on the inside.

9. Pretended to be a tour guide in Las Vegas and led a " follower" away from his real tour group, made me all happy on the inside.

10. Got a call yesterday from old friends and past youth group kids Ben and Sara, they just gave birth to Regan Lynn, 7 pounds 14 ounces.

Jesus, thank you for the non-normala life you have given me.

Some things are just sooooo my family:

I saw my niece's Japanese style tattoo (my lovely niece's name is withheld) , this tat is hovering a bit above her bum.

I ask, “what does the Japanese character mean...” She says “I don't want to talk about it”. After her father offered to tell her "story" she told me she was told the symbol meant LOVE in Japanese... BUT...A Japanese customer at her business saw her tattoo (when she had bent over to pick something up) and said...

Uhhhhh that DOESN"T mean love... After some research she found out that the symbol means... Prostitute in Japanese. True.

The One Album I Would Need On A Desert Island Is