My brothers and I got inked yesterday. In solidarity with Mark Palmer we got the same tattoo that Palmer wore on his left forearm. We are standing our ground and claiming victory today. After the memorial service this morning others also got the same tattoo someplace on their bodies. So far 11 people and counting, including Palmer, have this tattoo. It is the tree of life from the story found in Ezekiel 47. Hope. Hope in the Resurrection of the Dead.

"There is hope in the midst of hopelessness. Death is not where we lose; the onset of hopelessness is the great defeater. So allow hope to rise up within you. And when it seems that hopefulness is the least appropriate response in this situation, let it rise up even more. Whisper your hope when you lie down at night; scream your hope when you wake in the morning. Live your hope as if it is the one and only thing that sustains you in this ravaged world. You will not be disappointed." -Palmer, 10/03/05

Palmer with Keck and Rains in November

ok...i'm going back to my internet fast for lent. I'm sure I'll have some good blogging material in mid april.

The kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. My brother is healed today.

He was a...
Follower of Jesus.
Brother.
Mentor.
Leader.
Friend.

Words can not express what I'm feeling tonight as I edit todays post. A wife lost her lover, a son lost his dad, a church lost it's pastor and I lost a good friend.


A prayer I prayed for Palmer many times through this journey:
Celtic Daily Prayer (Day 7)

For whoever believes
in the power
of the blood of Jesus,
nothing is impossible!

The Lord shall surely
perfect that thing,
that thing,
which concerneth thee.

To whoever believes
in the power
of the blood
of the Crucified Lamb,
nothing shall be called impossible!

Blessed be the Lamb
that was slain before
the foundation of the world.

Amen.



Mark, you will be missed.

My friend Luke Skidmore is the technological genius behind this blog and has also made it possible for me to track my readers to figure out a little bit about them . Here's what I know...In February I had 2148 visits, an average of 75 readers a day. For some reason 2pm seems to be the best time for people to check out my blog but every hour throughout the day people seem to log on. I know Mike Redcay for some reason has over 300 referals to my site...Jen Leonard had 28 people go through her blog to get to mine last month. The Landing Place website sent 170 people my way...Amy Joy sent 19 people to this blog. Also, when people do google searches and my blog pops up in the search i find out...This past month 4 people did a search for Eric Stetler. Every month Stetler is one of the top search requests that hit my blog. Other popular key words "thats hot" and "barefeet". So I know a little bit about my readers. It's fun to have a blog and be writing to mysterious people. Some of you i know and see daily and others i've never met...regardless of who you are i just wanted to let you know i'm taking a break from the internet for the next 46 days. I'll be back after lent is passed and the Sunday after the first full moon of spring has arived. Easter!