One Seven
When we first started having children, it seemed like all we could make was boys. I quickly honed my skills at tumbling, wrestling and the fine art of well-timed farting. Clearly, I was meant to be a "boy dad" and I figured that was my lot in life was navigating fun while at the same time avoiding a trip to the ER.
Then, in 1999, this little girl showed up (followed by her two sisters). As it turns out, I love being a "girl dad" too! These girls were taught to keep up with their rough and tumble brothers, but they were also loved, cuddled, and cherished as beautiful daughters.
Happy Birthday Abigail Sarah. You have been "your father's joy" for 17 years!
Quietly making noise,
Fletch (Dad)
Signs
This is what it looks like when we began to surround ourselves with the truth of the gospel.
I can probably stop saying this, but our older children can affirm that above and beyond the typical household rules they were raised with strong undertones of religion and the rigid behavior associated. That was before we woke up from our gospel amnesia.
This sign stares down on our kitchen table. A daily reminder to all of us as to whose we are!
I have noticed a change though. The other day I grabbed my phone and took a few pictures of the art and posters that we have hanging around our house. Kendra has always been purposeful in what we hang on our walls, so I was particularly interested in a few of the signs and what they communicate. I am pretty stoked to see the change and what words are placed around our home, especially the ones that communicate to us that God's love is abundant and His grace is scandalous.
The idea behind a lot of these signs is to saturate our family with the gospel. Notice: I did not say saturate our kids. I said saturate our family. Long gone are the days that dad and mom have this all figured out and we put up things to teach the kids. We need the gospel communicated to us on a moment by moment basis just as much as our children. We need to learn what it looks like to be the chief confessors in our home and then model that in front of our kids. I want them to see that we fail and we need Jesus just as much as them.
These little signposts are used to help remind the entire family that we are all part of the same journey. We are all seeking after God. Compared to previous days in our home, these signs can help us to remember that we are pursuing Him and the righteousness that only Jesus can provide.
We sometimes need to remember that we serve a very big God who holds all of time and space within the palm of His hand. We need to remember to dream big and ask God to help us think beyond our limited resources. It is also okay to fail. Dream big. Let God fill in the gaps and meet the needs. It's good to watch Him open the doors that we think are shut tight and shut doors that we are trying to pry open.
Hey readers! I'm not writing this out to sound prideful. I'm not showing off. I'm not saying, "Hey look at our cool family and the stuff we put on our walls. You should be just like us." That's a bunch of crap and I don't play the comparison game. Nah, I just thought it was cool to see a physical change around our home that complements a non-visual change taking place in the family that lives in that home. That being said, are you looking for positive inspirational artwork? Consider the Fletchifesto!
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
Jumping, Leaping, Shaking with Betty The Surfdog
In California's central valley, we really have two seasons: Hot Summer and Cold Foggy Winter. So, last weekend was a great day of brisk Fall sunshine. It was a perfect day for @bettythesurfdog to get a little swimming done.
What Others Are Saying About Noah
We are very excited for the release of Noah and this new featurette gives a little more information to the film and what the director was intending to do with the story.
Check it out and let me know what you think:
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
Noah - The Building Of The Ark
Our family is very excited about the new film, Noah, that will be released at the end of March. Loaded with great talent like Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, and Sir Anthony Hopkins, it promises to be a fun movie of an often told story.
Much like Exodus (starring Christian Bale) which is in production, I really enjoy when Hollywood takes a stab at visually portraying stories from the Bible. There is ALWAYS a question of accuracy, but I will admit that even what I create in my minds eye when I read through scripture lacks in accuracy, therefore I can appreciate what a production team puts together and the team for Noah seems to have done just that.
In the following featurette, the designers talk specifically about the Ark and how it was created for use in the film.
Critics have already begun to voice their concerns regarding accuracy and the script. I wonder though, as Christians, if we can be prepared to have grace saturated discussions about the movie itself, the topic of sin/judgment and how God responds with a covenant of grace not only with Noah, but with us as well.
I am looking forward to sharing a few more featurettes in the next week prior to the release of the film. In the meantime, what about you? Are you looking forward to seeing this movie? Let me know in the comments.
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
theMangoTimes - Reevaluating Ourselves
July has been a really crazy month here in Mangoland. I don't need to go into the details here on the blog, but it was another opportunity for our family to navigate through tricky waters and ultimately see the power of the gospel living out in real time.
Here at theMangoTimes, this provided a necessary break for us to stop, breathe deeply and reevaulate what we are doing here online.
The first thing to change was the design of the website. I love hosting on Squarespace. Not only do they provide great customer service, but they have a great platform and provide me with everything I need to make an intelligent website that also looks great. I have wanted to change the way theMangoTimes looks, feels and functions. I wanted something a little cleaner and easier to use. Once again Squarespace provided a clean and easy template to accomplish my goals.
Hopefully the site is cleaner, with solid content and easier to navigate whether you access it online or through a mobile/tablet device. Again, a cool thing of SS is the optimization of your websites on any device.
I also picked through the blog and removed defunct posts and retagged everything for better searching. Basically, it was time to toss a bunch of old stuff out and clean up what was left. I've written for six years and there was a lot that needed to be deleted.
Ultimately, I did this for myself. I cleaned up the site visually and reduced the amount of content my readers have to navigate. But what about my readers? Is theMangoTimes and attractive site? Is it working for you? Do I need to focus my attention on another part of my site? Is there content missing? Items or topics I have failed to address in the blog? Leave a comment or pop me a quick private note and let me know where I can improve my site. Thanks!
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
Advent in The Barn
This Friday, November 23rd 2012 @ 7PM
Join us as we bundle up and kick off the Advent season with a Christmas movie out in our barn!
On the day that most call "Black Friday," we like to remember it's the first day of Advent season by joining together with friends and family for a movie, some good holiday fellowship and some focus on the reason for the Chrismas season.
This year's movie: Elf
A few things to remember:
It can be cold in the barn, we will have heaters, but you may want to remember to dress in WARM CLOTHES.
What Should You Bring?
All you need to bring is a lawn chair to sit in, warm clothes/blankets to keep yourself comfortable and your favorite mug!
We will provide the movie - some light snacks - and a hot drink to fill your mug!
We hope you can join us and feel free to bring a friend along
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
Classic Repost: "All Things - The Movie"
It's been a while...voices have changed...so have looks, but I love when the Mangoboys make movies!
Check out this classic post: All Things The Movie
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
The Return of the Mango...not quite yet!
We are back in the swing of things here in Mangoland. This is the 2nd week of school and we are still getting our bearings and taking an extended blog break as we iron out schedules and school work. There are plenty of things brewing, just need to put the fingers to the keyboard (or iPad)!
In the meantime, entertain yourself with this classic post from 2006 featuring my oldest daughter. I smiled again when I remembered this story!
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
Down at the Beach...be back soon!
I'm here and working on a few posts, but wanted to let you know that all of the residents of Mangoland are going on vacation. A week at the beach is just what the doctor ordered. Time to put our toes in the water and our "donkey" in the sand!*
Stay tuned for updates about theMangoMobile, the surf report, the new school year, and the same old stupid commentary you have become accustomed to at theMangoTimes.
By the way, as of tonight we are 92 visitors away from 150,000 on theMangoTimes.com. Will you be the lucky 150K?
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
*modified lyrics created by Christian
Troast in Review
As always, Jon took requests from the audience, provided the stories behind the songs and entertained us with his wit and humor of life on the road as a traveling musician. We counted about 75 (See Official Concert Pic Here) in attendance at the concert. I'd guess that about half of them were brand new to his music and the other half knew his music and sang along with him.
The afterparty involved a bunch of guests back at the house hanging out around a campfire on the back porch. Every visit is fun with Jon. Since he stays with us, we always have fun catching up with him and his life in Nashville. The littlest Fletcher's love having Jon around the house and I think Kenj just enjoys having an adult that she can talk with. It's always a bummer to see him leave and we look forward to his next tour through California!
Bonus...
As Jon took requests from the audience, someone asked him to sing "The Andy Song." It's a personal favorite for obvious reasons. One of the Mangokids caught it on video and made a quick movie. Enjoy!
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
Twice a year?
Face it. Some folks only make it to church twice a year, once for Christmas and once for Easter (and the occasional weddings/funerals). Maybe you are one of them. Others attend church every week, but they have lost Jesus along the way. Maybe you are one of those who have forgotten that the same power that conquered the grave, lives in you. Either way, I want to personally invite you to worship with us this Sunday morning.
We will be in downtown Modesto at Graceada park. You don't need to worry about breakfast, because we are serving pancakes at 9am (and all the moms cheered!) and then worship at 10am.
On a personal note, Kendra and I will be sharing our story about our recovery from "gospel amnesia." What is that you say? We will talk about how we were lulled to sleep with "behavior-focused" Christianity and how we excepted a subtle exchange of religion for the gospel! You will get to hear a personal story of what happened in our own lives to remind us that doctrine is not what saves people and that it wasn't theology that conquered the grave. Ah shucks...I'm giving too much of our story away! Come join us and hear the full adventure.
Easter 2011 from Redeemer Modesto on Vimeo.
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
Happy Birthday and The Butt Call
This post is in honor of my best friend Eric's birthday.
I'm not going to say this happens every week, but at least two times each month I get a phone call from Eric. Actually, let me correct that. I get a call from Eric's butt. I can only assume this is because Eric keeps his cell phone in his pocket and I am at the top of his contact list (Andy).
Well, that is not exactly what I get from my bud.
Normally, when Eric calls me, I get to hear the jingling of change and keys. Interspersed with the jingle is the shuffle of his pants swishing as he walks and if I am very lucky I get to hear a muffled radio program in the background. These calls typically last for more than three or four minutes and if I miss them, I get a full voicemail that I can listen to time and again.
My favorite all time conversation took place when he called me one night about 10PM. It sounded like he was being held captive in a trunk. I started screaming that I was here to help him and then I heard a woman's voice answer me. It was his wife, Lisa. In case you are confused, they were not being held captive in a trunk. Once again, Eric "butt-called" me while he was standing on a ladder changing a light bulb. Lisa was at pocket heighth and could hear me through his pants (wow, that's an odd phrase huh?). Lisa and I continued to talk to one another with Eric on the ladder; me screaming and Lisa talking into Eric's pocket. There is the picture. You fill in the details.
In honor of his birthday, I wanted to "butt-call" him back. I tried several times, but he is way down on my contact list and my mother-in-law Adele (top of my contacts) did not find my repeated efforts humorous at all.
Happy Birthday EK! Love you bud!
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
A New Look...again?
That's right!
Through a providential turn of events, theMangoTimes was asked to pack up and move from their prior rental space on the web. So, like a dilapidated old Winnebago, we loaded up all of our belongings and moved across the Internet. Thanks to Sven at SvenonTech for the great lead (seriously people...Sven rocks!), we have landed at our new trailer space on the web.
If you are viewing theMangoTimes on a reader, pop on over to our website and see if you agree. We hope you like our new look and interface.
Anyhow, we are here, we are happy, and we hope to stay for a long time...
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
Advent Season Begins
Worship Fully
Give More
Spend Less
Love All
Advent in the Barn
Tonight - 7:00PM
Repeat the Sounding Joy!
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
theMangoTimes - New and Improved!
A New LookIf this is your first time here, you may not know that theMangoTimes has a new look. We've parked at this domain since 2006 without a change of scenery. To celebrate the 15th Anniversary of theMT (click on the picture to read Issue #1), we thought we would shake a few things up, change our look and take things in a new direction.
A New Community
I did not think this would ever be a blog topic in theMangoTimes, but recently our family made a very difficult decision to leave our church community. For some, leaving a church is a simple decision. For others, the idea of even joining a church body may seem foreign. For us, this was a huge decision in our family. Let me see if I can explain why.
Our family was there from the beginning. Seven years ago, we were one of four families in a bible study that joined together to create this church (see picture on right). The very first worship service took place in the living room of our house. For 1/2 of our children, this is the only church they can even remember. On a personal level, I served as an elder for the first four years and in one way or another was personally involved with the worship or teaching nearly every week. I was the person that thought up and suggested the name that the church uses today. What I'm trying to get at is that this was not the type of church where we snuck in the back door, hung around for a few years and then quietly moved on. Our decision to leave was one of the most difficult choices I've made on behalf of our family. In the sense that Scripture talks about church being "the body," we have felt the amputation.Why? Why would we leave a church that we had invested in so heavily? The simple answer is that we changed (or rather God used experiences in our lives to change us), and a discerning reader could probably read through the past few years of blog posts in theMangoTimes to get an idea of those changes. However, I'd prefer to leave the reasons very simple...we changed.
New CarsChanging topics completely...I have always loved old Volkswagens...Hello? Did someone say Volkswagen? That's right, we've added two more cars to the fleet. I was given
A New KitchenThis year we will finish the last of the major projects in our home. Kendra has patiently waited for her workspace to be completed and I was pleased to walk in this week and find the cabinets gone and walls bare. Being down a kitchen means meals made in the garage...the school room...and a bunch of fast food (and the MangoKids cheered!). We are very excited for a slightly new layout, regular counter heights, new colors and more open space! Personally, I know this will give Kenj a place to make even better food (though I hardly believe it could get any better!). Drop by if you get a chance, you'll see that I'm right!
A New DirectionIn many ways, our decision to leave one church and join another has set our family out in a completely new direction. We have been "doing life" in one way for so long, that every step we take feels new and sometimes awkward, yet refreshingly adventurous at the same time. Stealing from a previous post, we feel like we are leaving life in the town to go and live life as pioneers out on the trail. If you have followed theMT, you know that we have definitely seen our share of exciting trials these last few years and we have learned that life can be messy. As we begin to move in some of these new directions, we are looking forward to the gentle curves in the stream as well as the unknown rapids that are before us. God has always navigated us through, we just need to learn to paddle when it's time to paddle and float when it's time to float.
Thanks for being around for the past 15 years...
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
Where to find me...August 2010
The photos above are actually where you could have found me in July and I did just about everything I said in the July edition. We have had a ton of fun in Mangoland. Great music, great food, great friends and a surprise trip for Kendra's 40th birthday and our 19th wedding anniversary. Uncle Bucky visited from Florida. The Wolfe family visited from Chico. On our trip, we visited with our old friend, Robb Gordon and then in a last minute change of plans we were treated to a behind the scenes tour of Universal Studios with college friend Fred Renner. We wrapped up the month with homeschooling blog friends Nate/Deb Perkins for a whirlwind weekend of activity.
On to the month of August...
YOU CAN FIND ME LISTENING TO THIS:
I picked up a digital copy of Buffett's new live album called Encores, whose title is self-explanatory, containing acoustic arrangements from several recent concerts. This is a really fun album of Buffett's oldest stuff and some new recordings. If you are inclined to check this out, I recommend taking a good listen to his cover of John Prine's "A Big Old Goofy World." 
We are throwing a 40th birthday/luau for a friend, so I have downloaded a bunch of Hawaiian music. Steel guitar, the music of Iz, C and K, and any other island drum music I can find. If you know me (and even if you don't), I'll do anything to get Kenj into a grass skirt and coconuts for a little dancing (Grab your puka shells and join the fun, because "she's still...a Hula girl at heart!").YOU CAN FIND ME HANGING OUT HERE:
As I type this we are still fully engaged in summer 2010 by swinging in the hammock chairs on the back porch. I just finished a great book about enjoying the things of summer and I just convinced Kendra that we need to have grilled fish, boiled shrimp and steamed corn for dinner. It has taken no convincing and she is busy looking up a recipe for pineapple peach salsa for the fish. Yup, life is pretty good here in the summer! 
I recently clicked a tab on facebook that said, "I love being underwater." This is an understatement. Since I was a little boy wearing Aquaman underoos, the pool has been one of my favorite spots. We have enjoyed very mellow temperatures here in the central valley this summer, but on most days one or more mangokids can be found in or around the pool and I can be found launching off the top of the waterfall in one of my signature dives.
YOU CAN FIND ME READING THIS:
I have not listened to one full sermon of Mark Driscoll (mostly because they are long and I have the attention span of a teenager drinking Red Bull), but there is something about the guy that makes people think I'm a fan/follower. After getting my new iPad (see below), I was looking for electronic books to see if I would actually like using the device. I also thought I would finally take the time and read the pastor that people think I am so fond of following, so I picked up an electronic copy of Religion Saves. Now I see the connection. Love the topic. Love the book. Love Driscoll's style and his passion for the gospel. But, I'm not a man-follower and I still love Jesus a ton more! I'll download a sermon or two next and give a listen to see if the comparison is valid! :)
I am an electronic gadget freak and a sucker for anything Apple creates, but this is still a great little device. You know what I notice? There are a lot of critics out there. I've already heard from family members and friends that think it was a ridiculous purchase. I can handle the truth and the truth is this: email, internet, the Bible, books, and whatever else I want for about .99 is sitting in my hand as I type this portion of theMangoTimes. Ridiculous? I think not! Anyhow, here's my 10 second review: It's not a laptop...it's not a big iPhone. If you don't like it, don't buy it. If you want to be on the front line of new technology and interacting with the world in a new way...get one...today. If not, go buy a PC and enjoy your experience with Windows. Meanwhile, I'll be cruising the App Store...send me your suggestions.That's it for August! I hope to see you somewhere in Mangoland. Drop by or drop me a note! Remember to stay off the highways and the byways!
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
Summertime!
"Father's Day in the Capitola sand"
"Swinging on the porch at Bass Lake"
"Lifeguard Nate" in action at the Riverbank Pool
Last weekend we hosted another concert in our home. StoryvilleLive swooped into our house in the afternoon and converted our downstairs to a coffee house/concert stage. Three of Storyville's representatives literally donned white gloves as they moved furniture and set-up about 60 chairs for the evening concert. They served coffee and desserts, greeted the guests and then put our house completely back together when they were through! Great job Storyville!
StoryvilleLive Van, Music + Coffee = Freedom
About 60 guests filled our downstairs
Pierce Pettis filled our house with his music
Quietly Making Noise,
Fletch