Rob Ketterling

WHAT A GREAT WEEKEND!

It was well worththe wait to finally have our friends Zhenya and Vera Kasevich with us in our weekend services! Their passion, their excitement, their testimony, it was all so good. It was a challenging message and I know I was personally challenged to appreciate so many things in my life. I'm still going to have to pray for strength if I get seat 58k on an airplane! (I've actually had that seat before!) But what an amazing message for us to hear.

It's such a privilege to be able to call them friends and go through life with them. We get to enjoy so many things and people as we pastor this church and I know we're so blessed. I just can't believe I get to live my life. (I think I have an "Oh My Gosh" attitude right now!) As we go through life together with them, I'm looking forward to spending more time together in the future and visiting them someday in Kiev. (Maybe Vera will cook us some Borscht!)

Our next guest preacher will be Christine Caine the weekend of August 15/16 for the weekend services and also for Chick Night. (It's the same night as Rock the River, but that's a youth outreach and Chris will be doing a ladies ministry night at RVC. Same night, but different target groups!)Nick and Chris Caine are some more of our friends that we're doing life together with and it's been too long since they were with us for services. I'm really glad we were able to work it out for them to be with us in August because it's also been about three years since they were with us. So mark your calendar for that weekend, you don't want to miss it!

STAFF TRAINING

We have Zhenya and Vera doing a little staff training today while they're here. It's really a huge opportunity for our team to learn from them and ask questions about ministry, growth, multi-site and all the challenges we face. (Maybe we can learn about multi-site in two countries! we could start a campus in Canada!) I hope it goes well and that we get all we can out of them.

BEST OF MINNESOTA

I need some help from the blog world and it would be helpful if you know Minneapolis/St.Paul really well. Here's what I need. I need to know where you think I should bring Zhenya and Vera (our guest preachers this weekend) to show them the best of Minnesota. I'm just trying to bring them to a restaurant or place in the Twin Cities that just says "Minnesota" in a positive way. (So no, we're not going to Mickey's Diner!)

So fire away your suggestions for dinner, dessert, entertaining and the like. Hopefully this will yield me a good new place to go to or perhaps it will just remind me of a place I've been but it's just slipped my mind. So far, Nicollet Mall and the Mall of America are leading the way, but I'm looking for the icing on the cake. Let the suggestions begin to flood in!

TARA MACK AT ROTARY

I just got done with my Apple Valley Rotary meeting and had a great time. I was responsible to bring the guest and I brought Tara Mack our State representative and also an RVC member and the wife of one of our pastors. So I had a few angles to work to get her there!

She did a great job and I was so proud of her as her pastor and also her friend. Becca was there as well and we were beaming like proud parents (Not that we're that old!) as she shared her views, her accomplishments and her challenges as a representative. It made Rotary a lot more enjoyable this morning and showed me the importance of city and state and church working together. We all compliment each other when we do our part and help to make this world a better place and even if others don't believe it, we all need each other to reach our full potential.

(Pictured, Rob, Becca, Francois (President of Apple Valley Rotary, Tara and Justin Mack)

FIRST TIME TO BOTH CAMPUSES

It was really a lot of fun this past weekend as I went to both of our campuses and did the greeting and announcements. It's actually not possible to preach at both (other than on video) or else I would have tried that! But Joe did a great job and if you missed his sermon be sure to listen on line, it was really well done and will stretch your faith.

Both of the campuses have the same spirit, the same DNA and the same feel and it was encouraging to me to see and experience that. I only wish that I could have spent more time at each service. Thank you to all of the staff that made it possible to do this without us having to rent a helicopter!

This week we have Zhenya and Vera Kasevich from Hillsong Kiev with us in church and you don't want to miss it. Bring the family, bring a friend, but do whatever you can to be a part of this weekend services and Chick Night with Vera at our Apple Valley campus. It really is a big thing that we have them at RVC so don't miss it!

SHHHH BECCA'S 29 AGAIN!

Happy Birthday Becca! I love you and love spending my life with you! It will be an amazing day as we travel to both campuses, go bike riding around the lakes and out for dinner. If you see us, wish Becca a Happy Birthday!

REUNION

I'm at an unofficial reunion for my College and I'm having a blast, I fly home today but I bet I could have spent a few more days catching up and hearing what everyone is up to and what they've done in the last 25 years. Most of us have changed a lot, as in less hair, gray hair, wrinkles, a few pounds added (I think I've added 25 since my freshmen year!) and spouses and kids. Other than that, we didn't change a lot! (Just kidding about that too, we've changed a ton!)

25 years can go by in a blink when you really think about it and I wish I had a better way to stay in touch. I haven't seen so many of these old friends once in the 20+ years since I left school and it just seems like you get so busy with your life that you just lose touch. I know, I can hear some of you now saying, "get on Facebook" but I've resisted it because I'm so busy as it is, and I'm not sure to do with friend requests as a pastor. How would I choose who gets to be a friend when I don't know them and they might be a new person at the church? Also, I can never be de-friended if I don't join and I don't think I'd like being de-friended!

Well, for what it's worth, if you're thinking about going to a school reunion or getting together with someone you used to spend time with, do it! I'd wholeheartedly recommend it, it will remind you of where you've been where you're at and also let you take a look at where you're going. It also will help you see if someone you used to do life with, will get back into your life. It's been a lot of fun for me and I hope yours is as well. Now excuse me as I have to go and get my hair colored!

ZINGER UPDATE

I ate one Zinger yesterday and I have to admit it, it didn't taste as good as I remember it tasting. It didn't sit well in my stomach (I'm not used to eating sponge cake injected with sugar!) and I have no desire to eat a second one. I actually feel a little guilty that I ate one, but I did it for the nostalgia of it. I had a great laugh about it, but I think I'll pass on the rest of them and maybe I'll just send DIno and Darin only one each. (Don't want to make them stumble!)

THANKFUL

I'm sitting in my office right now and I just can't shake this. I am so thankful for everything in my life today that I just have to express it. I just read a twitter post today and it said, "My life has gotten so unpleasant I have to write it down." Poet Wilmer Mills. This got me to thinking, in my life, things are going so well, I need to write them down. I can't just express the bad, the pain, the hurt, I have to also express the times of joy, the hope and the love of life that I have so that's what I'm posting today!

You're almost made to feel guilty saying that you love your life, you're blessed and you're full of joy in this economy. In this country right now it feels like you have to be living in the misery index and not in joy! (If you are living in joy, it feels like you have to hide it and not let anyone know!) I refuse to live in the misery index, I am loving life and having a blast! I've sown good things and right now, I'm reaping good things, I'm living way above the misery index and I'm celebrating it!

Matt 5:7 (Amplified) says it great, "Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous-- with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy!" I am blessed, and I just had to thank God for it today!  

A ZINGER OF TEMPTATION

I'm doing really well with my new and improved healthy living and then I face a huge temptation! I walked into my office today and there on my desk is a box of Zingers! Now usually this would be no big deal, but you have to realize, I used to be addicted to raspberry iced ZIngers! While in College, my friends, Dino Rizzo, Darin Poli, and anyone else that would make it into my room, would eat these things like they were one bite snacks! A case would usually last about 2 minutes and then we were on to the next food group!

So here they are, a gift from my mom, and they made me laugh and then they made me stop and look. What do I mean by that? I mean I was thinking to myself, oh these are bad, I wonder how bad they are, I wonder if I could eat just one for old times sakes and how bad can they really be? Do you see my thought process?! I looked at the back, only 160 calories each! Then I thought about a granola bar, they're 140 calories so really this isn't much different than a granola bar.Time to eat! But then it hit me, did I just go down this path of Zinger temptation and in 2 minutes go all the way from no way to yes indeed I will eat them all!? Scary how fast we can move through the steps of temptation....Because my mom bought them for me, I'll only eat one and send the rest to Dino!