July 27

Today was… difficult. I woke up at 6:00 and made sure everything was in ship shape around the house, got packed and then loaded the car up. I went to Cattleman’s for breakfast one last time and said goodbye to Bert and Kate. Then I went to the church and gave blood at the blood drive. Once that was done it was time to go, and Doug, Charlene, Mary Lee and I left Riggins! We dropped Mary Lee off in a small town on the way to Boise so she could see her sister, then we went to Ontario Oregon so Charlene could drop something off at her dentist. After that we headed to Boise (not before plugging in the hotel on the gps… Doug and Charlene are sweet…) We got to the hotel and I said goodbye to Doug and Charlene, and that was that. My time in Riggins is done, and now I’m headed for a three day stay in Colorado for LFL. I’ll have a few more posts later so keep your ears perked.

July 26

Today was my last full day in Riggins. I woke up at about 9:00 and cleaned house a bit then got showered and went to the senior’s lunch. I got to see some of my favorite people one last time there, then I went golfing with Doug and Anita. I played my worst game of golf ever (which is saying something if you’ve seen me play golf) but birdied the last hole, so it was all worth it. After we got back from golfing I went to the church and picked up the computer. I had dinner at Bev and Ernie Knight’s house and then taught them the Opensong Program. That went well. I then went home and am going to bed. Good night!

July 25

Welllll let’s see. We’re getting close to the end here. Pastor Jim and Judy left today at about 10:30 and when that happened I went to the church and completed the great lyric migration. Yes. Completed! There were about 150 songs total, so that was an accomplishment. After that I did a little bit of busy-work around the church before heading home. I called Doug and Anita to see if they wanted to go golfing one last time, then tidied up the house before heading to bed. It was sad to see the Thibodeaux’s leave… :-(

July 24

Today was very cool, but sad at the same time. I lead worship at the church this morning, which went surprisingly well, and then there was a going away potluck for Patrick, Jessie and I. The food was amazing and I ate way too much, but it was sad knowing that I won’t see these people for a long time, if ever again. A pleasant surprise was Caleb and Stephen Hackler showing up for the potluck, since I had invited them on Friday, but not gotten a real feedback. Afterward we hung out in the basement of the church playing Wii and whatnot with Megan and Maddi. At about 4:00 I gave Stephen and Caleb a ride home and I hung out with the whole Hackler clan the rest of the night. It was really fun, talking, watching a movie, eating hot dogs, playing music, and just having fun. I’m really gonna miss Caleb and Jordan and I hope to see them again when we hopefully come up here to go skiing. Tomorrow is my last day to see the Thibodeauxs before they leave for their vacation, and that’s going to be rough… Soon I’ll be reflecting on my time here… which will yield very very long blog posts… so… yeah…

July 23

Today I started the day by fixing a flat tire on my Toyota. The valve stem was busted and Pastor Jim and I took it to the chevron station to get fixed. Then we went to the Hot Summer Nights car show. There were some pretty great cars. In particular, a 60’s Pontiac firebird. One of my favorites. As well as a 34 chevy pick up truck. After browsing the cars a bit we went to the church and I gave him a recap lesson on the computer and using his new phone. That went well. Then it was half waiting around, half practicing until the worship got to the church to practice for the service tomorrow. Practice was good, but we’re doing a bunch of songs that were very new to the team… so we’ll see how well it sticks tomorrow.

July 22

Today I started at the church winding up the great lyric migration. I’ve only got about 15 more songs to move over. Around lunch time I came home and gave Mrs. Judy a recap computer lesson. I then went back to the church and practiced my routine for Hot Summer Nights. The talent show went well, the hacklers got two first places and a third between them. I was very happy for them. There were also some really good singers. It’s crazy how so many people who can sing so well can come from such a small town. My performance went well too… at least, everyone seemed to enjoy it. Well that’s all for now. ttyt.

July 21

Well My parents left today. We started by going to Cattleman’s for breakfast, so that my parents could experience the great food and the fun service. They left at 11:00, then Pastor Jim, Doug, Anita and I went to Grangeville and played golf. It was my best round ever. I shot a flat 100. Not a good score for some, but great for me. I only had one hole that I had to take maximum strokes and I got Par twice! Afterward we came home and I was hoping to hang out with Caleb Hackler… but he didn’t call, so I guess he was busy. Hot Summer Nights talent show is tomorrow. I’m doing Bill in Lemon in Guitar. I turn a borrowed signed 20 dollar bill, turn it into a one. Take out my guitar, pull a lemon out of the hole under the springs, cut open the lemon and the signed 20 is inside. Wish me good nerves.

July 20

Today we went down the River. It was fun, but there’s not a lot to write about it… we went down the river. That was it. When we Got home (6:00 PM) We went over to Anita’s house for burgers. It was definitely Paul’s favorite meal in Riggins. Afterward I came home and made some bread for my parents to try the next day. Very tiring day overall.

July 19

Well let’s see. Tuesday My Dad and I started the day with a hike. We went to the Top of School Marm. It just about killed my dad, but I was fine. Coming down from the mountain however, we decided to slide on our backsides (faster… and my dad could barely walk) and I managed to hit a cactus with my hand and backside… so that was fun. After we got back down the mountain I went and printed the directories for Jeannie and Anita to fold. We’ll be handing them out on Sunday. We ran out of toner while we were printing. If only someone from empire office supplies had called to ask me about my toner needs. (point for the Friends reference) After printing for most of the day I headed back home and got changed for dinner at Buck and Jeannie’s, and then ice cream at Bev and Ernie Knight’s house. All in all it was a busy but fun day.

July 18

Today was a pretty good day. Woke up a bit late, because I had such a late night at the Hacklers, then I went to the church and printed out the prototype church directory. Tomorrow we’ll print and assemble. I went back home after working at the church and We decided to head to Grangeville early… very early. We were going to visit a ghost town in Grangeville, but it turned out that it wasn’t a ghost town. We killed time by driving up to Kamiah so I could show my parents where the other team hung out and worked and what not. Then we went back to Grangeville and killed another 45 minutes walking around in shops. After that we went to see Cars 2 at the theater. It was a very good movie. I highly recommend it. Afterward we came home and hit the hay. Tomorrow we’re going to hike school marm, then do the directory, and we have dinner at the Fitch’s. Pray for safety on the hike and quick and effective work in the afternoon!

July 16

Let’s see… what happened on the 16^th? We spent a little bit of time orienting the family to Riggins. We took my parents up the river to see the Smid’s ranch. They really enjoyed the drive up, and it was nice to see Carl and Patrick again. After driving back we went down to the Thibodeaux’s and hung out a bit. For dinner we went over to Doug Crump’s house and had salmon. It was delicious and it was cool to talk to Doug again with my parents there. I spent some time playing with Paul while they talked to him about the war and his life. It was a pretty great day.

July 17

(I'll post July 16th tomorrow. Just forgot to write it. sry...)

Well, today was pretty full. We had Church in the morning, which went well. Momma and I did the song “At Your Feet” as a special and it went well. The remainder of the service was good too, and I think Paul did well for the most part. After church we went up to Brundage and rode the ski lift to the top of the mountain. It’s crazy how much can change in two weeks. Most, all the snow was Gone and there were a LOT of plants there that had somehow appeared very recently. The trip was fun, and Paul had a great time. We raced back into town to go to the Hackler’s fundraiser dinner, where I performed a few songs along with a few other friends of the Hackler family. The Hackler Kids did very well and it was cool to hear Canaan play piano, since everybody had talked so much about him. Also, Caleb’s beat boxing and Jordan’s sign language were great. That went until about 9:00 PM then I went to the hackler house and hung out a bit. Did some magic played some music, chatted and roasted marshmallows. All in all it was a really fun night. Tomorrow the Directory prototype will be printed. Hope it goes well…. We’re also going to drive to Grangeville and see Cars 2, which will be fun. Can’t wait!

July 15

Today was a fun day. Woke up and did a bunch of manual labor around the house to get ready for my parents and brother to show up, which they did at around 4:00 today. That was really it. My parents came and met the Thibodeauxs… everything else kind of pales in comparison. Goodnight.

July 14

Hello. This has been a boring-work filled day. I spent most of the day sitting in my office and copying and pasting documents… I got all the way through R in “The Great Lyric Migration”. That’s the name I’ve decided to give the job of moving the old lyrics into the new system. Good right? I also picked out my set list for when I lead worship on the 24^th. That’s pretty much it. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was very tedious and time consuming. My parents come tomorrow. I’m excited. Anyway… I going to bed. Really tired for some reason… don’t know why. Hope I’m not getting sick, cause that would stink.

July 13

Today was fun. We went golfing this morning in Grangeville and I hit a bucket of balls afterward, and my drive is really starting to straighten out. After golf we came back to the church and I made it through the J’s in the lyric system transfer, then there was a church board meeting, so I went and joined in, giving an update on the directory in the process. After the board meeting I went back to my office and played guitar and … finished my last song! The album is done, and it’s going to be legen- wait for it. dary! Legendary! I’m so excited to record them all when I get back to Texas, then get them copyrighted. Oh, also, when I got back home I tried my pie. it was very good. I now know how to make a delightfully edible pie. That was pretty much it for the day today. Not very exciting… but also very exciting.

July 12

Today was great! Went to the church fairly early 8:30-9ish. And started working some more on the transferring of the music library. I got all the way through the H’s today and will be starting on the I’s tomorrow. After a little while I went and gave Pastor Jim a lesson on facebook. I just gave him the basics of what it’s for and what you can do, but he got called away to pray with a parishioner who is have surgery on an abscess tomorrow, so I went back to my office and tried to write some more music. I got started into a song then Pastor Jim had his golf lesson on the field so I went along for that. It was fun as well as funny. Just imagine Doug Crump, Anita Williams, Mrs. Judy, Bev and Erie Knight and Pastor Jim hitting golf balls into a football field and grumbling after every shot (except for Doug who smiles and exclaims excitedly after every shot). If you know those people, you should be laughing. If not, trust me... It’s a funny sight. I got some good practice on my swing while I was up there, and Pastor Jim, Doug, Anita and I might go golfing tomorrow, so it’s a good thing I did. Fingers crossed that it happens. After that excursion we came home and had ribs for dinner (yum) then Mrs. Judy taught me how to make two different kinds of pie crust, and we whipped up a cherry pie put in one of them. It looks scrumptious, but I won’t be able to taste it until tomorrow, because it’s going to Doug’s house. He said we could have a piece with him when we take it over there though, so I’ll let you know how it turned out then. After we finished the pies I sat down and had a sudden burst of inspiration, and finished the song I had started earlier in the day. For anybody keeping count, that means I have only one more song to write for my album, and it’s half done already thanks to the response I’ve gotten from people on facebook. I also looked into copyright laws, as well as trade mark laws with the help of my good friend Matt Norman, and found that it’s only going to cost me $35 to copyright my album… which means yay. Look out music industry; Stephen Curto is about to break into you! On a different note, I’m very anxious to see my parents. Please pray for safe travel for them, and for some good times while they’re here. Also, I’m going to try to plan another youth night at the church in the next week, so please pray for a positive response on that. Good night and God bless.

Doesn't it look delicious!?!?!?

July 11

Today was pretty slow. I woke up late and we all went out to lunch to say good bye to Estella (Pastor Jim’s sister) After that I went to the church and did a little bit of work on the directory, but there’s not a whole lot I can do since Jeannie is out of town and I can’t move ahead with the printing until she proofreads it. I tried to work on my music, but I just couldn’t come up with anything good today, so I just moved around some songless lyrics, but didn’t really change anything. After that I came back home and did some laundry then headed off to bed. Like I said… slow day.

July 10

Today went pretty well. Started the day off at the church at 9:00, where pastor Jim requested that I play the song “Grace Like Rain” with the worship team… 20 minutes before the service. It’s a good thing that used to be my favorite song and I knew it really well by memory, otherwise it would have been a train wreck. After that I went back to run the computer for the remainder of the service. Bruce and I talked about the next few Sundays music wise. I’ll be doing a special with my momma next Sunday (Yes! They’re coming to Riggins this Friday! I’m excited… to see Paul I mean. :-P ) Then I’ll lead the whole worship service on the 24^th (my last Sunday here. :’-( )with the regular worship team, minus Bruce. After church I headed back to the Thibodeaux’s who took a trip up river to have a picnic with Agnes’s family, so I decided to make good use of the time and… again… practice making bread! I made a pizza, a pan of rolls and a white loaf, all of which were excellent. I think it was my best batch yet. Then at 6:30 (yes making bread took up all the time from 1:00 to 5:30. I mix by hand!) I drove out to the Rupp farm where I met up with Arnie and Katie. Before that I hung out with all the other Rupps (Corey, BillieJo, Phoebe, Ila, and Jesse) helping them pick some cherries and eating some of their delicious watermelon. Then Katie, Arnie and I picked up Bruce and went to Grangeville to see Transformers 3. The movie was meh, but the company was excellent. I’m really happy I got to hang out with them a little bit socially before my time here is up. I’m hoping to make a few more trips up to the Rupp farm next week… fingers crossed. Well that was my day! As always, be praying. You should know what for by now.

July 9

Today was pretty great. I had the day to myself to do whatever I wanted, so I slept until 11:00 then went to the church and started working on music… kept rolling with the old to new system transfer. After an hour or so, I decided to work on some of my own songs, and I rolled out a totally new one. It’s really good; I’m so excited. It’s definitely a concert geared song, cause there are a bunch of parts where you can just hear a crowd singing back to you. With that addition, my “Unbroken” album has seven of its nine songs completed. Also, thanks to some help from all my facebook friends, one of the remaining two is half done, so I’m getting really close. God is so good, and he really worked through Pastor Jim encouraging me to take some time out to work on my music, and the product of that encouragement is coming to fruition. I hope it will bring glory to God. There was also the praise team practice that I sat in on which went well. Bruce and I talked a bunch before practice, and we talked about music, and copyright laws and all sorts of things. Then I showed him how to work the new program. That went well. Well that’s my report for today. The thing you should get from it? God is good. (course you should have already known that.)

July 8

Today was fairly work-filled. I went to the church at 9:00 and started working on the directory again. It’s about one hour of work away from being ready to print. It’s going a lot better than I thought it would. I’m also working on copying all of the songs in the old computer system into the new one. (A task I’ve been working on since we set up the new computer) Since there are about 250 songs in the system, it’s a pretty long process. I sort of do it in the background while I do all of my more mentally taxing work. I took a break for lunch at 1:30 and then went back to the church at 2:30, when Jeannie Fitch called to have me move some furniture. They’re getting new carpet in their living room soon, so we cleared out both sofas, 3 tables, 2 lounge chairs and a ceiling high cabinet. It went pretty well considering it was Buck and I who were moving everything… and he’s not the youngest, or springiest guy in the world. After that I went back to the church and did some more song moving. After a while I came home for dinner and met Pastor Jim’s sister, Estelle. She’ll be here for the weekend. She seems pretty nice, and she used to live in the Fort Worth area. I went back to the church to do a little bit more computer work, and to write a letter to a friend, then came home around 9:30. Pastor Jim, Mrs. Judy, Estelle, and Lucky were playing Pinochle tonight, so I learned how to play it too… finally… and found that it is basically a really complicated way of playing 42 but with cards. It was a good day and I feel like I got a lot done. I’m going to teach Bruce the new program tomorrow… we’ll see how that goes. Please just pray. Not for me or for anything here, just spend whatever time you would normally spend praying for me here talking to God a little bit, particularly if you don’t do that very much already. God bless.

July 7

Went to seniors breakfast at Cattleman’s this morning. I now have a money envelope that all the ladies can add to whenever they want, so they don’t have to argue over who gets to pay for me. Afterward I went to the church for a bit, but there was little for me to do there, so I went back to the Thibodeaux’s house and did some house work. Watering plants cleaning the kitchen… stuff like that. This afternoon, Pastor Jim, Anita and I went to New Meadows to play golf. It was both my best and worst game at different times. I got a totally legitimate, no mulligan birdie, had some really great drives, and shot a bogey on an over 500 yard par-five, but also failed miserably on other holes, and lost eleven balls total. Anyway, it was fun over all. I’m going to try to get a bowling trip together, so please pray for a good response. Thanks so much!

July 6

Today was a fairly interesting one. Decided to make it one of work. I pressure washed outside the church for an hour, as well as spent a lot of time working on the lyric system for the church, as well as the directory. Both of these are very slow tasks that are going to take a good amount of time. At lunch-time I experimented some with some bacon. I made cinnamon bacon, peanut butter bacon, and a cream cheese bacon fajita. All of it was pretty good. The cinnamon bacon in particular was really good, and something that I will be making again. The other two tasted pretty good, but need a little work before I would make it for somebody else to eat. For the rest of the day I worked on music. I practiced some of my hymn arrangements, wrote a new song, and fleshed out some of my older unfinished ideas. I now have six songs that are finished and ready to be recorded, and three more that are well on their way. My album will hopefully be finished by the end of the summer. Going golfing tomorrow with Anita, Doug, and Pastor Jim. Ill let you know how that goes tomorrow.

July 4

Happy birthday America! I had a good day today. Pastor Jim and I started the day with washing the van and the Toyota. After the carwash… wooah woah woah woah yeah, the carwash yeah… we went downstairs and planned the remainder of my stay. We set some spiritual goals, physical goals, and some free time goals, as well as planned a few activities for when my parents arrive. I also had decided that I would be taking a group of whoever wanted to go to McCall to see the fireworks there. I texted/facebooked everyone at about 10:00 and was very discouraged the whole day, as no one responded until 4:30. We were leaving at 6:00. During that time span, I did a little bit of pressure washing, practiced guitar, updated some of the music projector systems, and cleaned up the downstairs kitchen. Eventually some people responded and we went to McCall. In the end, we had a full van load. Mark, Raymond, Megan, Josh, Mccoy, and Jessie ended up being the group. It was a lot of fun. The fireworks were really great, and we had some fun fooling around in McCall. I hope everyone else had a good time. We’re going to go to Zim’s hotsprings soon. Anyway, thanks for the continued prayers. I’m going to bed, and posting this without proof reading because I am just that tired. I’ll edit it tomorrow, so for now, please forgive me for the numerous typos and grammatical errors. Gnight!

July 3

Today was pretty slow. Another day of my body catching up with me. I went to church, and helped Pastor Jim with his powerpoint, then ran the projector for worship. After the service I took pictures for the directory for the last time. I’ll be inserting them into the directory over the next few days. After the service I went back to the Thibodeaux’s house and we had lunch. I practiced making bread again, trying to do the recipe from memory, and slightly failing. It needed more salt and sugar than I had included. But it wasn’t too bad all the same. After that I went to take an hour-long nap at 4:00 because I was so tired, and woke up at 3 am. It was an interesting night after that, but eventually I got back to bed and woke up at 9:00.

July 2

Well, today the team left. I got up at 8 to see tm off, then went downstairs in the church to do some work in the youth room. I spent a few hours working, sat down at noon to take a break and didn’t wake up until six pm. Yes. I basically did nothing but sleep all day. Tomorrow the work starts up again, today was catching up on sleep lost while the team was here.

VBS Week Reflection

Well, this is the last night with the team. It’s bee so great it’s hard to describe. We’ve grown so much closer as a family of believers, and there were sooooooo many instances this week where you could see the spirit moving. Joshua Long, accepted Christ. His sister Megan had become a Christian the first time the team came, and Josh had always scoffed at Christianity, and shrugged it off when anybody asked him what he believed. His newfound belief is inexplicably the work of the Holy Spirit. We’ve had such a great time here, and I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen because now I have a core group of people to annoy into hanging out with me. :-P I’m going to focus on a more personal ministry. Maybe take somebody golfing, or play some one-on-one bball out side of a school, when a couple of guys who were up to no good… sorry. Couldn’t resist. Please pray that this movement of the Holy Spirit is not fleeting. Satan will be coming in the team’s place and we have to fight. We know that the battle is ours if we trust God and reject Satan. Pray for strength, on my part when he comes, and pray for receptiveness on the parts of all the people who I will be talking to. Thanks so much for reading and for your prayers. God is so good.