My contest entry for the Invasion of the Robots contest is now up. Please vote for Encouragebot v1.0. Click here to vote. I find that one of the most interesting aspects of this project is that God gave me a vision for this project even before Microsoft introduced this contest. There was a few times where I started writing a chat program based on offering encouragement and biblical advice. I was completed amazed when I saw that Microsoft was launching a robot contest and allowed any theme. What an awesome opprotunity to share the bible with people. It's been 3 months since development started. I would love to hear your feedback and input.

After many long hours of development, I have a working prototype of my MSN Encouragebot developed! I am so excited about this project! I've submitted my entry to MSN. Give it a try. Add encouragebot@hotmail.com to your list of buddies. I would love to hear your feedback. Please send me any ideas for new topics to include.

After 3 days of waiting for a response from the incesoft message board, I was able to get the answer I was looking. I was finally able to get my sample MSN Messenger robot to say hello. Met my new little creation. Pretty soon you will be able to talk with him. WHAT IN THE WORLD AM I TALKING ABOUT? We'll for the longest time now I've always been curious about creating a program you can interact with, similiar to AI (artificial intelligence) but without the 50 year overhead that goes along with building a system like that. I have always thought it would be wonderful to have a christian chat program you can interact with that could encapsulate an encouraging spirit. To my amazement I came across a new contest Microsoft is putting out called, Invasion of the Robots Contest. This contest offers you 3 software development kits that you can chose from that allow you to make chat robots directly in MSN. I was so excited when I saw it! This is something I've wanted to do forever and they are even giving away prizes for the best robot! Now that the chat environment is working on my computer, I am going to start developing my dream robot. For more info on chat robots download MSN Messenger and click on the Robot tab. I will update this blog with my progress.

Life is full of opprotunties. I've been reading such an awesome book, "The Magic of Thinking Big." It's interested how self defeating thoughts seem to constantly race across our minds. It's so easy to make excuses not to do something when opprotunities arise. This is definately one of those life changing books. The interesting thing is that this book has been around since the 50's. I didn't realize it until I read the section relating to milk truck deliveries. Awesome book!

I'm back from Palm Springs. What an awesome experience. God is doing great things there. The population is continually increasing over the last few years. I visited Champion Center www.championlifechurch.com . What a great church! I really love the area down there. The weather was so beautiful. I was really suprised to see snow peaked mountains in Southern California! It would be a dream moving down there. We will see where God leads us. The only thing that would be a challenge are the 120 degree summer months.

An interesting thing happened to us on Sunday. We took the busline to Tacoma this weekend which is about an hour and half away. We were so confused on how to get to my brother's house so we had him pick us up. We stayed the night in Tacoma and woke up early the next morning to catch a bus. The weird thing is we had no idea how to get back to Olympia. We totally felt stranded as the morning breeze started to kick in. Here I am in my shorts, it's Sunday and not one bus in sight. What was amazing is that I told Mimi, "We'll lets walk down aways and see if we can find more bus info." As we were walking we saw this guy standing at the bus stop in the middle of nowhere. I went up to him and asked him how to get downtown to Tacoma. He asked me, "Hey where are you going?" I told him, "Olympia." He said to my amazement, "That is where I am going!" What are the chances that someone on a Sunday morning at 8:00 would be going to the same destination 1 hour 30 minutes away. He was great, he actually showed us all of the routes and got us home. He was definately a God sent as we had no clue where to go.

Life has been so good, some new opprotunities have been surfacing. My dream has always been starting a web business and being able to hire and help people. We will see what happens. Anyways God is good. Till next time.

It's interesting what happened to me today. One of the areas that kept bringing us down financially are transporation expenses. We are finally out of debt and stable. Now the worst happened!

Our car has broken down today but we are still claiming freedom from debt. Back when God told us to move into town, one of the things Mimi and I mentioned was how in the past having our car break down was a financial diaster. It totally would put us behind everytime it broke down and increased our debt. I was always stressed about being held captive by insurance companies (increased by 40% due to a ticket), $500 car repairs, parking dues.

Not anymore! God positioning us in town has once again proven to be an awesome thing! I am closer to my work, hospitals, and church. The bus stop is right by our house and can get us anywhere we need to go! Top Foods is right down the road.

I asked myself as started walking to the car dealership, "Was getting $18,000 in debt again God's plan for our lives? How can I be a blessing to others if all of my money goes to funding insurance companies and a car. Basically I would be hit with $500+ a month again. And $350 maintenance schedules every 4-6 months.

Our goal right now is to become Kingdom Builders at church and be able to give back into the church NOT weathly insurance companies. I prayed this week about positioning us to be able to give more. Sacrificing our transporation will give us a way!

Jesus talked about worry, the birds in the air don't worry and God provides. Why should we worry. Now I don't have to stress about my car falling apart and insurance rates anymore. I will not allow debt to keep me captive any longer!

This weekend was fun. We visited the Batdorf and Bronson store. To the left is a picture of the dancing goats. Batdorf has the best coffee in town. I guess the legend started when the goats were found eating coffee beans. They were so buzzed from the coffee they started jumping around giving the appearance that they were dancing. This is where the legend started. :)

We have been sick most of the weekend with a fever/cold. The baby's fever is now gone which is nice. I'm still sick though.

Yesterday, I watched one of the most frightening movies I've ever seen. More frightening then any hollywood movie ever made. The contrast between a Hollywood movie and the this one can be illustrated this way. Have you ever been on a virtual rollercoaster at a local arcade or theme park. The thing is, your really not frightened by the experience because your absolutely 100% safe on it. It only appears that there is danger. When you are on a real rollercoaster however, anything from malfunctions to a bolt being loose could spell diaster. The same is true with Hollywood movies. It's fiction and we know that we are safe on our couch as we watch it. The movie "Hell and back" can become a reality which intensifies the viewing experience 100 fold! This is a much watch movie.

To Hell and Back

Please share this movie with others. For a complete list of TBN movies visit the TBN Video Gallery.

God has a way of getting us through even the most enduring times. On Thursday at 7:45 am I got pulled over for not coming to a complete stop in our parking garage. I looked both ways and am always very cautious but today I received a $100.00 ticket for it. My day continued to get worse. I left my ATM card in the machine and the security personnel called a few of my coworkers. Everyone was laughing about it. I have to admit it was funny but still seemed like one thing after another was happening. I remember stopping at that moment and praying, Jesus help me, I am not taking ownership over this bad day I'm having. After that, my day started turning around. God's annointed started to flow over me. All of these creative ideas were coming out at work. After work I got home and sleep for awhile. After having a great rest of the day another incident happened. I ended up pulling back and scraping my neighbor's car that was parked at an angle. What a test that was put before me. Do I put the insurance information on the car or not? As Christians we are suppose to walk with integrity. God would not allow me to walk away without doing it. Anyways I couldn't believe another bad thing happened. I started thinking how could I use this situation to be a blessing to someone. God always seems to turn bad situations into good! I decided to write a note, at the end I put "God Bless". What was interesting is a few days later the owner of the car calls me very suprised that someone took the time to write her. The owner stated that this has happened before and no one has ever left message. She also said that she may not have to file a claim after all as the scratch was very minor. I'm totally behind the owner whatever the outcome is. I guess the moral of this story is this:



How do you respond when trials come our way? I remember the first thing I did when I received that ticket was say, "I'm not going to let this ticket have ownership over me." I immediately sent in a check and let go of it. There are so many things in life that try to take ownership over us, debt, addictions, material things etc. Remember that God can make a bad situation and turn it around for good. God can free us and is bigger than these trials that come our way. At church they prayed a powerful word. Lord put hedges of protection around us. That is definately my prayer tonight. That his protection would be on each and everyone of us.

It is so powerful what God is doing in Washington. What a blessing Veritas has been. What a great alternative from the bar scene. Coffee and worship, how cool is that!! It was an honor getting to play there again with our family band. It was just an incredible night. We also had the previlge to play a song with Brenda Fysh. This multi talented musician is also the owner of an incredible web site that promotes local artist called. Track10.com . The amazing thing is as a Christian God will make everyday new. When we welcome Him into our lives he will take us places we could have never dreamed of.

In my daily walk with Christ, there is something I ask myself daily. I came up with this diagram to illustrate this point. Everyday I have a choice, there are many cups that I can drink from.

• Cup #1 is living for everything this world has to offer.
  
• Cup #2 is living my life for material gain and possession.
  
• Cup #3 is how I treat the temple God has given me.
  
• Cup #4 is living for the purpose of being entertained.
  
• Cup #5 is drinking daily of the living water of Jesus.
  

God wants to use each and everyone of us. If I spend all of time drinking from the wrong cup, how much fruit will I be able to produce. Jesus said,

John 15
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper. Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me."

Today was an excellent example, I love coffee, it's aroma lured me in, I decided to get a 16 oz latte. Then later on in the day I decided. Wow, that latte was so good this morning. I decided to drink another 16oz latte later that day. I definately had an overdose of Cup #3. My body was feeling shaky. An amazing thing happened to me. I started drinking pure water. What an amazing feeling, the clean pure water started flowing through my veins. I started feeling new and refreshed.

John 4:10
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

What happens when we start living for the drink that Cup #4 has to offer. For the longest time it was so easy for me to come into my own world on Friday nights. "I worked hard this week, I deserve to have time to myself." Then I started asking myself, how can I use more of my time to be a blessing to other people. Now that we are turning more and more away from that cup, God is bringing so many amazing people into our lives now.

John 12:25
Anyone who tries to keep his life will lose it. Anyone who gives up his life in this world will live for ever in the next world.

When we drink this cup #5 Jesus transforms us. We had such an amazing night of worship tonight. God really spoke to me about not anticipating my parts but to embrace and cherish ever beat that is played. He really brought it all together tonight. Just as God spoke to me, this carries into so many aspects of my life. Embrace everyone moment of our lives.

In closing I was reading an article today in the National Graphic about the JetBlue incident. A lady said, God if I make it out of hear alive I will commit my life to serving you! WOW!!! And sure enough God brought her to safety as the plane landed. We're only here for a short time. Make every minute count.

God Bless.

What a great season for the Seahawks! Listening to the radio shows after the game, it's easy for them to critize the Seahawks. What I saw was a team every bit as good as the 49ers that dominated the 80's. The Seahawks in my book did not lose the game tonight. They were just as much champions as the Steelers. Something I've learned at Capital Christian Center is something so true, "Approach everything you do with excellence." Seattle did approach the game with excellence. Strucken with injured players they still played an incredible game! Seattle has something to be very proud of!! Every year they've gotten closer and closer to the goal. Just as in our Christian walk. we stumble and fall but continue to strive to reach our goal of being with Jesus. People will critize us, put us down, make us feel lowly. There was so much publicity about the Seahawks proving themselves to the world. If we give our best to God how can we lose, what more do we have to prove to man?

Stay encouraged! Be blessed and encourage someone this week who maybe feeling depressed about the game. I'm guilty of getting upset with some of the calls during the game. But we all need to be happy in knowing that they gave us a great season reguardless of the outcome. It's going to be an awesome year!! Go Seahawks!

It's interesting, I've had two people mention song writing to me. What was incredible is that the other night my wife prayed about God giving me a song and one night later God gave me a powerful dream. It was pretty intense! A child comes up to me and shows me a segment of my life and said, "Here is your life now, look back to the beginning." I was then shown a glimse of my life with Mimi and I when we were first together. The excitement and joy when God first brought us together. I woke up thinking about the significance about this dream and the beginning. Then it hit me tremendously. Think about in marriage, at the beginning how exciting it was when you first got married but how the world, stress and our busy lifestyles can take away the joy and happiness found in our union. What was once fresh and new is now just routine. The same can be true in our Christian walk. When we first find Him we're overwhelmed with joy. It's an incredible experience like no other. But the same can happen in our walk with Him. Just like the seeds thrown on stony ground. They received it with gladness but have no root. "Remember look to the beginning", was spoken to me so strongly. After this experience the words to a song I wrote started to flow. I'm really excited in the future to see where God takes it.

I am so excited, I had an opprotunity to hear my cousin Michael's CD. Wow!!! This is the first cut and it some of the best music I've heard in my life! Honestly! I'm so excited about the OrtizBand CD project also. What an incredible year of music. I will keep you posted! Feb 18th we're going to be playing a Veritas. http://www.veritasolympia.com/ . Be praying for us. Check out our new radio show. We've love to have you participate!

It's interesting, I've had two people mention song writing to me. What was incredible is that the other night my wife prayed about God giving me a song and one night later God gave me a powerful dream. It was pretty intense! A child comes up to me and shows me a segment of my life and said, "Here is your life now, look back to the beginning." I was then shown a glimse of my life with Mimi and I when we were first together. The excitement and joy when God first brought us together. I woke up thinking about the significance about this dream and the beginning. Then it hit me tremedously. Think about in marriage, at the beginning how exciting it was when you first got married but how the world, stress and our busy lifestyles can take away the joy and happiness found in our union. What was once fresh and new is now just routine. The same can be true in our Christian walk. When we first find Him we're overwhelmed with joy. It's an incredible experience like no other. But the same can happen in our walk with Him. Just like the seeds thrown on stony ground. They received it with gladness but have no root. "Remember look to the beginning", was spoken to me so strongly. After this experience the words to a song I wrote started to flow. I'm really excited in the future to see where God takes it.

I am so excited, I had an opprotunity to hear my cousin Michael's CD. Wow!!! This is the first cut and it some of the best music I've heard in my life! Honestly! I'm so excited about the OrtizBand CD project also. What an incredible year of music. I will keep you posted! Feb 18th we're going to be playing a Veritas. http://www.veritasolympia.com/ . Be praying for us. Check out our new radio show. We've love to have you participate!

I was really touched when our worshiper leader talked about her vision for the Wednesday night and seeing the vision come together. I was really inspired. How amazing to be a part of that. There are so many things I could submit my life to. Cable TV, DVD, there is so many things out there to overload our senses. At times these things can be overwhelming. It's so amazing when God gets a hold of you and start using you. The things that the world say are important become less and less.

The "Capital Christian Center Live!" CD is now available. Looking back it's amazing to have the opprotunity to play percussion on this album. Don't ever believe the lie that your not good enough to be part of a team. God will take you places you could never believe. You just have to take the first step. I encourage everyone to pick up a copy. Soon to be available online at http://www.capitalcc.org for purchase. Now available and the Capital Christian Center bookstore.

I'm also extremely excited about my Dad's CD project. My cousin is also releasing a CD that is coming out in the next week that is totally incredible. I can't wait to get my hands on it. Stay tuned for information links on this CD.

This week has really been a testimony of what God has called us to do. We had a great fellowship party over the weekend. We had a full house it was awesome! This would have never been possible living out of town. We watch a very inspiration movie called "The Gospel". Highly recommended! Another movie one of my friends recommended see that is coming out soon is End of the Spear at www.endofthespear.com . I'm really getting excited, we're going to be playing at Veritas on Tuesday, Eric will be doing his comedy routine. His comedy is better than anything I've seen on Comedy Central. There is nothing better then being used by God. I'm so excited about playing on Wednesday at Capital as well. I watched an interesting show on TBN about a 40 day fast and how draws you closer to God and also cleans out your body. I was so happy when they said organic coffee is a beverage you can still consume as it has antioxidants. For more information on fasting and prayer visit: http://www.billbright.com/howtofast/

Lately I've been sounding a lot like a broken record. But God's plan for us has revealed itself again. Wednesday service was incredible. I've been learning so much from everyone. I'm so blessed to have the opprotunity to play drums 3 Wednesdays in a row. We also are hosting a big party on Friday. God is using us in amazing ways!

An amazing thing happened during our trip to Portland to pick up Samantha. We purchased an older van 3 month ago. From the beginning we've had problems with it. Everytime we turned it on made a loud noisy. Overall it was running well the last few weeks. As we were coming home I noticed the it was starting to go out. The van completely crashed 3 blocks away from our house. God totally protected us from what could have a total disaster. We would have been in a world of hurt if it would have broken down in Portland.

It's been wonderful having Samantha back. The transitions has been hard on her but she is adjusting well now. Turning Point had amazing message about how dangerous our tongues can be, We need to be careful what we say and to always encourage one another. The message can be found on tpc website at www.turningpointolympia.com.

God's plan is already unfolding before our eyes. We just found out that one of our lead drummers is taking some much need time off. I've been given the opprotunity to play 3 Wednesday services! God definately knew what he was doing when he called us to sell our house. What a blessing, now he is able to uses in ways that seem impossible before. It's so awesome when God places purpose in our lives. The pinnacle of fullment can be found in servanthood with Jesus.

God has definately been moving in our lives. 2 months ago He spoke to us about preparing our family for something big. He knew about the struggles we experienced from enduring a long daily commute to and from church. It was getting to the point where it was becoming a heavy burden. Since then we have obeyed God and have sold our house. Already we are seeing his blessing. In simplifying our lives God will be able to use us more. Now that we are established in our new home, it will be excited to see where God leads our family in this coming year.

Tonight at Rod and Pat's homegroup God planted an idea in my mind that I am going to pray about. The idea of a non-profit (christian based) web development business. I will post more as this develops.