Days are gettin' Shorter, weather's gettin' Colder

Happy Halloween!  Hope everyone had a fun weekend be it trick or treating with your kids or enjoying the kids who visited you.  We spent the afternoon with our church small group at a little party and didn't get any trick or treaters before or after.  I'm going to blame it on our long, dark driveway!

Well, since we last wrote, I (Ian) got baptized.  After attending our new church's introduction class, I felt like I was being called to take this step in my faith.  I've been thinking about it for a few years now, yet constantly told myself to 'wait for the right time'.  Well, I realized that this mythical 'right time' would likely never happen and I simply needed to be obedient to the God who has so freely granted me salvation!

Anyway, I also wanted to share the sermon that was delivered on that Sunday as I thought it was one of the most interesting gospel messages I've heard.  Our pastor is preaching out of Romans 3 right now and spent the sermon exploring the meaning of 'Redemption'.  I'll try to summarize it based on some notes I took.  First of all, the word 'Redemption' is actually composed of 3 Greek words: 'agorazo', 'exagorazo', and 'apolutro'.
- Agorazo: to purchase something at the open market.  Translation: Jesus made the ultimate purchase of sinners
- Exagorazo: to purchase something that will NEVER be put back on the open market.  Translation: He will NEVER allow us to return to the 'open market', we are His forever.
- Apolutro: purchase in which the item is specific and not returned, a term further specified to be for the purchase of slaves.  Translation: Christ purchased us from our slavery to sin, NEVER to return to our sinful, unrighteousness.
Bottomline: Christ was the ultimate payment for us sinful men and the payment was accepted!  We can each choose to 'drink our sinful wrath' or ask Christ to drink it for US and accept OUR redemption.

Recent work assignments have found me out on the Kenai Peninsula quite a bit.  We are in the middle of rebuilding a campground, I am working with field personnel to figure out what is wrong with our 3 wells in another campground, and have 2 projects that are in the preliminary stages out along the railroad.  The picture at left is near the new whistlestop we'll be building next summer.  It will provide unique public access to the backcountry of the Chugach National Forest.  At the head of the valley at left is one of the many glaciers accessible from the whistlestops!

The picture at right is overlooking Anchorage.  One day after work I drove up on the hill behind our house to capture the sunset.  The water body is the Cook Inlet with downtown Anchorage out on the point near the center of the picture.  Incredible beauty within this state, I just hope that I don't become numb to how blessed we are to live here!

Cara and I had plans to hike 7 miles into a cabin located on a high mountain lake out in the forest but the plans got scrapped when I had to work late and the weather was blustery.  We were able to reschedule and now look forward to a winter excursion to a different cabin we can access with our snowshoes.  Once that trip rolls around in December we'll be sure to post pictures and let you know how it goes.

Well, the contractor got started on our basement remodel a couple weeks ago and I'm making progress on the new laundry room.  Trip after trip to Home Depot really cuts into the progress but I'm having a good time with it.  Our goal is to get this first year's projects wrapped up before spring so we can enjoy the bountiful fish, game and adventures that await us in this vast frontier!

Finally, we have big news!  No Cara, isn't pregnant but we did adopt a new dog!  Meet Manny, our new 3 year old boxer.  He is a big softy who thinks he's a lap dog.  He has really warmed up to Cara but is still a bit hesitant about me.  I'm sure that doesn't surprise many of you.  I mean, I'm SO intimidating and all.  He follows Cara around the house and when I'm home alone with him he stares out the window anticipating Cara's return.  He has been very well behaved and is a lot of fun to be around.

Thank you to everyone for their kind birthday wishes today.  I can definitely feel the 'ageometer' rolling over to 27 though!  Oh, by the way, anyone who is looking for some last-minute spontaneous Thanksgiving plans should let us know, we would love to host company for an extra long weekend!