Hey Troops

Hey Troops!!!

I so very much want to thank you all for the spectacular "Harvest" celebration we had last night at Momentum! The costumes were Above The Top for sure - it was great to see the creativity of our group - you guys definitely didn't disappoint!!! - we had the animal kingdom well represented by Alisa as a chipmunk (hope I'm right on that!), Amber as a black cat, and Pam as a cute bunny! Amber's friend, Mary, was the blondest referee this side of the Jordon River! Mike let loose his inner "Bozo" with his crazy "fire of God" red clown wig! Hilltown also set the sanctuary ablaze with her red wig, matching top and those special fiery red picnic tablecloth pants! (I want a pair in my stocking this Christmas) For those of you who missed it...even her toenails were painted red! Way to accessorize Hilltop! Evan, you definitely deserved top honors (Evan"s costume won 1st place) for your representation of small machinery - a leaf blower! Way to go! I told so many people at work today about your costume and got a lot of laughs. The pucks flew as our Tina "played" the runway while sporting her "WILD" layered look! Erich's costume was simply "arresting" and Lindsey's dressing as Adam was...well... was it Lindsey?... was it Adam?... we just couldn't tell! Tony rocked as a rock star and I (Tari) colored my world as a yellow color crayon. Danneth totally wigged out, Lis was a perfectly precious pretty pink princess, and the angelic presence surrounding us were dressed as angels! Mucho thanks to everone who brought snacks! Our party was a great success thanks to all of you. God was glorified last night and takes so much pleasure in the fellowship we enjoyed!


It's great to be back in Minnesota again after seeing Adam in Tennessee and visiting such cool states as South Carolina and Georgia. Adam is flourishing in the Lord at Lee University. He took my mom and I into an amazingly beautiful church right by campus - North Cleveland Church of God - I believe is the name. He brought us up to the 3rd floor to the prayer chapel, which is open for anyone to come in alone, or in groups for prayer and intercession. How awesome was this space! The colors of this room were bright purple and yellow - I'd never seen this color scheme so boldly used before in a room like this. All of the padded chairs were bright purple and the floor and walls were bright yellow and purple! I took a lot of photos to remember the experience. As my mom and I walked around the room in awe, Adam went behind the pulpit and started preaching! God's message just poured out of him. My mom and I took a seat in the front and listened to him preach for approx. 5 minutes. It was a time I'll never forget for the 3 of us - each representing a different generation. I'm so humbled and excited when I see God working out his pastoral call in Adam's life. I want to see the day when God takes Adam and his generation - your generation - to places beyond where anyone can even imagine - anyone but God, that is!

Why is God moving so powerfully through Adam's life? It's so simple!!! Adam has abandoned his life to God and his purposes! You all know what it's like to be around Adam - the love of Jesus just pours out of him as he talks to people, as he dances before the Lord, as he prayer over those in need. Each one of us needs to reach for what seems to be impossible or unimaginable in God - let the King of King ride on your dreams and visions for your generation and those to come! Embrace Jesus with all your heart - just pour out extravagent love on your Lord and see what he says to you - see what he does through you!!! Abandon yourself to Jesus!!!

My trip to Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia came at a good time for me. It served as a reminder of what a HUGE HUGE HUGE God we serve. Sometimes I get caught up in "my little space" of - home, work, church, shopping......repeat...and repeat.....over and over again. Same thing...same small space that is "my world". But when you travel so far outside of your familiar surroundings that you think you're so "safe" in... it's thrilling and can be a little scary all at the same time. God let me know that he was there in everything I did and saw on my trip. I'd look out of my car window at a wooded area on the side of the road in South Carolina and I'd think to myself how cool that God knows the exact number of atoms in each leaf of every tree in that forest and every forest on the planet! He doesn't even have to stop and count - he just knows! God knows all of this, and he is somehow able to care for me and love me and guide me right here in Woodbury! I'm just so in awe of how God knows everything about everything and everyone and even so much more than we can ever imagine with our brains! I came away with a way bigger picture of how huge our God is - being so far from home and basking in so much of God's splendor and beauty as I saw, I was aware of how God wants to be magnified in our eyes - in our lives - in our hearts. If God can make dolphins jump out of the water in the Charleston, SC harbor just as Adam, my mom, and I are looking out of our ferryboat, I know that he's big enough to guide me every day and help me with anything I'm going through!

I want you all to know what a joy it is to fellowship with each and every one of you on Wednesday nights and on Sundays when we see each other. Jesus delights so much in every one of you - it's fun to see how he shines so differently in each of you individually - and yet it's still the same God - isn't that so cool to see! It's like Jesus is the gemstone and we are each a different facet of him. Way cool......I can't wait to blog you guys again.....maybe I'm getting blogger fever!

Blessings upon blessings to all who read this,
Tari

my first blog entry. cool.

my first blog entry. cool. i have a lot of things running through my mind currently. mainly (but not most importantly) i have a giant exegetical hermeneutics paper due and i am uber behind in everything. i'm finding that "grad school" means "you're behind in everything because we assign way more than a normal human being can keep up with ... school". NEVERTHELESS, i'm enjoying a ton of it and the dialogue in the classroom is really cool. plus Paul's letters seem to be coming even more alive to me now.

what i really want to talk about though is something that struck me on my one-year anniversary. we have three different dates we celebrate... oct. 16 (our civil ceremony in the states - 1st wedding).... nov. 11 (ceremony in guatemala city - 2nd wedding) and .... jan. 19 (day Danneth got here and we could finally start co-habitating like every good married couple should!)

the last year of married life has been the best year of my 33 years on this planet. marriage is an amazing adventure and when you begin to experience it you see how it is God's extraordinary display of His covenant in two human beings. when you dive in and give your life to another person in this way it sheds new, deep, intense and beautiful light on the meaning of relationship with Jesus Christ. i could go on for a long time about all of the things God has done in the last year with us as a couple but i/we don't have that kind of time right now. there is something though that stands out to me in such an important way - a revelation that opens up greater opportunities, deeper relationship and a more pervasive peace with Christ - that is thankfulness. try this out: begin thanking God for the little things, often. appreciate subtlties like the taste of a piece of fruit, the laugh of someone you love or care about, the details that you see in the leaves on a tree - whatever it is ... and start thanking God. thank him for a good grade you got but thank him for the near miss on the road, thank him for hearing that one song that you love, thank him for how good a bowl of cookie crisp is when you are mad hungry in the morning, thank him for the fact that you don't sleep on concrete or without heat in the winter, thank him for the little and the big things... but do it often. begin to appreciate what he lavishes on you.

when you make this a lifestyle God will begin to trust you with more. He isn't out to spoil us but to raise us as beautiful expressions of thankful, humble, strong children of Him. watch what happens when you start walking with thankfulness. our Father gives good gifts like the one i received when i didn't even expect it. my beautiful wife. there is so much we are given. so give back to Him with one of the most powerful expressions of worship - thankfulness.

Hoffy

Victory over Fear

I realize that in my life I have lots of fears.

Fear that I will disappoint my family or friends in any way
Fear that people not love me the same if they knew who I really was
Fear that I will never grow closer to God like I want to
Fear that I won't be good enough
Fear that my prayers won't be answered
Fear that my dreams will never come to pass
Fear of laziness
Fear of losing friends
Fear of not stepping into the calling I have on my life
Fear of MICE
Fear of loneliness
Fear of never having a good job
Fear of not saying the right thing
Fear of having to be a burden to my parents
Fear of what people think
Fear of not having enough money to go to Scotland
Fear of gaining weight again after losing so much
Fear that my desires for love will not be fulfilled
Fear of drastic change
Fear of being left behind (nothing to do with the end times.)
Fear that I will be overlooked
Fear of making wrong decisions
Fear that my car won't work again
Fear of being hurt by people


Now maybe some of these fears seem silly, and I know they are. Yet I am being completely honest. Of course there are different levels of fear involved in each of them. Most of them are just fleeting thoughts that I don't have often, or have had only once. Yet they are still fear.

Tonight at the One Thing Conference I had a revelation in worship. They were singing about how Jesus conquered death and the grave. During that time I realized that He conquered all my fears as well. That I don't have to live with them. I can surrender them all to Him.

"There is no fear in love, that perfect love casts out all fear.,.." 1 John 1:18

In realization of His love for me, my trust increases and my fears have to cease. For He is trustworthy. So very trustworthy. I am a child of God and He is in control of my life.

In worship I started to declare that I will live with no fear.

Trust is something that is learned. This year God has taught me to trust Him in ways I did not know were possible. In ways I didn't even want to trust, I wanted to wallow in my fears, but He called me to somethign higher. His perfect love WILL cast out all my fears. So what I want to say is for you to dive into His love, and throw off your fears.

It is actually a little freeing to write down fears. It helps to see how ridiculous they are and how small they seem in print. So if you want to- write yours down. I wanted to believe that I didn't have any fears. But when I thought about it, I realized that I do, that all my worries are just plain fear. God doesn't want His bride to walk in fear but to trust Him and lean on Him.

There is no fear in Him. There is no fear in freedom. May God free you too.

Mike Burning with a Testimony

The last few months have been kind of a struggle for Mr. Mortvedt. He has been battling with some very hard self issues, mainly pride. Upon prayer from his roommates and crying out to GOD for help and humility, he found an answer:
It was Friday afternoon- the plant production floor filled with squelching heat and the smell of processing plastic. Mike was working in the "OVEN"(300 degree mold) and things were going great. A fellow engineer who was assisting Mike told him
"I think we have reached a point where we should just let it run.”
Two months late and 37,000 parts behind, all eight cavities were making parts. Two of them didn’t look as nice as the other six.
Being the perfectionist that Mike is, he decided he was going to go ahead, go the extra mile, and fix those last two. To have those last two to look like the other six. He realized later that the wiser choice would have been too heed the advice of the elder and more experienced engineer and leave it be.
Mike stopped the press for a quick second to try and fix it. Thinking everything was fine he started the press up again. Much to his dismay he saw that he had caused a bigger issue than before. He lost about 16 hours more production time because he got a little greedy.
That very same afternoon it was about time to head out for the day, but one more task was laid on his plate. Mike was assigned to start up a press and program a robot. He started the job and was doing real well. But he got to the point of working so fast and so well that he forgot to double and triple check what he was doing. Upon starting up the robot, it crashed............HARD....... we are talking 2-3 thousand dollars of damage.
Considering Mike does not usually make mistakes like this one- He was tempted. "Should I lie about it, because I could easily get away with it?"
The battle raged inside his head, but truth won."NO I can’t do that, I must tell them what really happened." he finally decided.
Trying to explain this to his boss was a more grueling task than he had hoped. When it was all said and done it came out as almost a half truth. Mike was frustrated and disappointed with himself and it was time to go home.
"GOD I prayed for you to humble me," He recalled from before the day began, "And you sure did.” He even began to laugh about how GOD had totally answered his prayer in less than 24 hours.
Upon starting his new job Mike obtained a mentality that he had "Arrived," and succeeded in his pursuit of something better. His work habits began to diminish a little bit almost making him feel lazy over the week. Not really aware that GOD was about to shake things up and wake him up to reality.

On Saturday at the Edge, a friend named Justin came and gave a profound prophetic word to Mike.
"This season of your life, a particularly hard and trying time, is OVER!" Justin proclaimed.
"Because you have seen what life is like- without GOD being the complete center of it. And you have realized that you do not want to live that way. GOD has heard your cry. And this season will never happen again in your life."
Feeling completely relieved Mike began to just thank the LORD that His mercy was upon him. A little while later Justin came back and had a word of knowledge that there was a python spirit trying to attack Mike. Enraged at what was happening, Justin took authority in Christ and cut it off and out of his friend’s life. Mike went to bed that night, grateful for what had happened and praising GOD for it. He had one of the most restful and peaceful nights he had for a very long time.
Upon waking up he thought, "YEAH… It is good to be alive." He has had a very hard refining process over the last few months. But he believes that GOD has really completed some good work in him and begun working on other things as well.

Remember always......... “Seek ye first the kingdom of GOD and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Matthew 6:33
-by a recently humbled man

A New Beginning

At the recent gathering of Momentum Youth Leaders an idea was formed to have an online place to inform and inspire. A site where we could all contribute our thoughts and revelation we have acquired over the years. As well as testimonies and information from Momentum.

I was put in charge of starting a place so therefore "Momentum Notes" was formed. I hope you all will read and participate in commenting on the various blogs we will write. We will try to keep them short and to the point. I hope you will all enjoy!

So give us a bookmark and check back often. This is going to be fun!