In just a few days, spring will officially arrive in the northern hemisphere. This past week has felt like it, but only briefly. On Thursday, it was sunny with a high in the low 70's. I got out to run my own errands for the first time this year. I also joined a local pastor's meeting on the same day. They meet monthly during the school year, but it's rare that weather and schedules work for me to join. It feels somewhat odd being the only person who isn't directly employed as a pastor or chaplain. However, I can still learn about pastoral needs in the community and where I can possibly help. F ..read more

For the past several years, political commentary has talked about the growing divide between the two parties in US. It seems that no matter how common sense a bill appears, one party will support it and the other reject. This week, the divide was easy to see. On Tuesday evening, President Trump held a joint address of the congress. I watched about a third of it live, but saw more parts through replays. At one point, the President honored a 13-year-old boy who has battled brain cancer for years and overcome doctor's expectations. His dream is to become a police officer and he has been made an h ..read more

When we're born, one of the first things our parents do is give our name. This is what we are know by for our entire life and that name, generally, never changes. As we get older and our personalty, likes, and interests form, we sometimes get a nickname. I have a cousin who goes by "Bubba" and it almost sounds strange to hear his actual name used. I just normally stick with Joel and don't use a lot of alter personalities. However, I do also get referred to as the "Barefoot Preacher" and, as the address of this blog shows, "trainman" or similar variant. I have never preached while wearing somet ..read more

February is always a month of transition for me. The last major, long-lasting, storms of winter and cold air usually subside and start to give way to spring. As I write this week's entry, a long stretch of sub-zero temperatures has ended and the thermostat is above freezing. February 20 is also the anniversary of entering the quad life. This years marked the 40th anniversary of that journey that started on a cold winter evening. The last few days, I posted an entry on my Facebook page and a video on my YouTube channel to mark the date. Seeing the comments has relived support from so many over ..read more

Most of my book reading revolves around two subjects, apologetics (defense of the Christian faith), or theology. For Christmas, I received a new book called 52 Churches, by Paul DeHaan. It doesn't quite fit either of my usual categories, but has a flavor of both. I am a few pages away from finishing it, but have covered the main points. The author volunteers at a food bank and regularly received questions on area churches. Therefore, he and his wife took a fact-finding mission to visit a new church every week for a year. Each week's report is fairly short, but I quickly notice a few themes for ..read more

Last summer, I took a 12-week course on expository preaching. It was a challenge to complete, but still fun and beneficial. A couple weeks after my final assignment, a pastor friend let me know about several free courses through a seminary in Texas. Looking through the options, I found a few that sounded intriguing. About the same time, I learned the instructor from the preaching course I just finished was disqualified from ministry for not practicing what he preached. This soured my appetite for pursuing more education, at least for a while. A few weeks ago, I returned to the information I re ..read more

As technology continues to increase around us, we become more familiar with its sounds. Going to checkout lines at stores, we hear beeps as each item is scanned. At home, the beeps of a microwave, or oven, signal that our meal is ready to be eaten. When you can't breathe on your own, beeps from the device you're connected to are especially important. For a quarter century, I knew every alarm from my ventilator very well. A short beep indicated high pressure and something was clogging the tubes, or me. A continuous alarm indicated low pressure with either a tube disconnected or I was breathing ..read more

This has been a busy week with a lot I could cover. Monday started with the inauguration of President Trump, and Tuesday was an introduction to a new class. Finally, on Thursday, I had work done on my diaphragm pacemaker system. I also biked a few times, and never left the house. Some of these topics will come up in later posts, but this week I'll look at the first item listed. I don't watch mainstream media, or legacy media as it is starting to be called. For the past few years, it has become very biased toward one political party and very against Christianity. Therefore, I may watch local we ..read more

Living the quad life means I don't get out much for social activities, or even have much of a group of friends. Therefore, I spend a lot of time at home on my computer playing games, at least not when working or reading. I also watch other people play games on a website called Twitch. Several years ago, I started watching a gamer on YouTube that goes by DerTebbers. As time has elapsed, I also started watching some of his friends that played games I also like. Most of what I play are simulators, such as Farm Sim or a couple different truck driving simulators. A large number of video games invol ..read more

The new year is less than two weeks old, and the last seven days have seen devastation in various forms in the country. First, a winter storm hit from Kansas, to Missouri, Indiana, and further east. It dumped large amounts of snow, closing many roads and leaving motorists stranded on the roads. Second, wild fires in southern California went through suburbs of Los Angeles burning multi-million dollar homes to the ground. Some of the residences were right on the beach with a clear view of water, but they still couldn't be saved. Occasions like these make me think what I would do in these situati ..read more