Johanville - A Land Like No Other -

Tiffany's very first car!!! FREEDOM!!!!!

Hey all!!!! It's been about 5 years since the last time I posted anything on this blog...I feel old now, my how time flies!!! Anyway, I'll try to get out an official thing later on saying something like "We're Back" or whatever.... But for the time being I wanted to share with you an awesome video of Tiffany (my sister from another mother...AKA-sister-in-law) getting her very first car...She just got her license yesterday too and her dad bought the car from us to surprise her as she is soooooo deserving!! We were just the one's chosen to deliver the surprise!!! I'm quite partial to this car as it was my first love and even though I'm sad to not have it anymore...I'm soooo happy Tiffany got it and it will take good care of her because I took such good care of it myself... ENJOY HER BEING SHOCKED/STUNNED AND SURPRISED AT STARBUCKS!!!!! WE RIGGED IT AND GOT THE STARBUCKS BARISTA'S/EMPLOYEES INVOLVED!!! NOW THAT'S SWEET!!! (She received a chinese fortune from a fortune cookie in her Starbucks cup that said "Something new on four wheels will be in your future soon!" LOL!!! She was quite confused at first but blown away after she realized what in the heck was about to happen!!!!! Her first new car!!!!!)...ENJOY!!!!!

Updates coming soon

Hey everybody! I know that some of you have heard that April and I are engaged! Yes it's wonderful, it's amazing! She's everything I've ever wanted for a wife and more! I have been very busy lately. April and I will be posting the details of our engagement story soon when we have some more time to work on it together!

Gotta go now, have a good one!

Johan

Family Visit

Hey all! Just a few pics of when my family came to visit a couple weeks ago. It was a blast! April gave my Dad a chance to drive her Mustang for a while. We weren't so sure about that after his driving up the mountain side, but we all lived through it! Just Kidding!

Jon, you did a great job driving along side of those mountain cliffs!
- April

Kids Climbing Garden Of The Gods!

Here's Jordyn, Cody, and Justin (Apri's twin brothers, both 13, she also has a 12 year old sister, Tiffany)

Garden Of The Gods

Hey guys! Just shooting you a pic. from my phone. April and I are hanging with our families at Garden Of The Gods. Been having such a great time with my family while they've been visiting! I LOVE YOU GUYS! God Bless!

Three Months Together And Going Strong.......

Hey guys! I hope all is well with everyone! Things are going great in beautiful Colorado Springs. Well it's been 3 months since April and I became "Official." We began with a wonderful start on December 31st celebrating New Years Eve together and it keeps getting better every day. I surprised April with a wonderful trip up Cheyenne Mountain on some offroad mountain trails with my Mazda Protege'! I packed dinner in my backpack and we hiked up a trail to find a picnic spot overlooking the entire city. It was quite an amazing view with the mountian ranges surrounding us.

We're really looking forward to this summer to do quite a lot of outdoor activities. We're getting ourselves prepared to hike Pikes Peak by eating lots of swiss cake rolls. Well the swiss truly know the mountains quite well. So I figured that might give us some great motivation. Actually April disagrees with that theory. But I will convince her soon enough..... Anyway.... The elevation of Pikes Peak is over 14,000 feet and it does require serious preparation to hike that high. We also look forward to mountain biking, horseback riding and many other various outdoor activities this spring and summer.

We may get a chance to go to Breckenridge, CO to go snowboarding next weekend with my family since they will be coming to visit for a little while. I'm looking forward to their visit...

Anyway...........

I've been very, very busy lately. Just working and living life large and enjoying every bit of it. I got a lot of things going on. I'm still working for Cingular Wireless and have been transferred to a store that needed desperate help in turning things around which was due to my quality performance at my original store location. The company has greatly appreciated my hard work and effort and as a result I was taken out to lunch by a big wig in the company.

When I'm not working, I'm usually spending time with April and her family, going to church, or working on my small group material, etc... So life is truly full and grand!

You guys have a great week and I would like to hear how things are going in your part of the world! So do not forget to post your comments so I know what's going on in all of your lives.

Johan

I love doughnuts!

I just though I would leave you guys a random blog!

I LOVE TO EAT KRISPY KREME DOUGHNUTS!

TODAY YOU GUYS JUST NEED TO GET FAT!
GO TO KRISPY KREME AND GET YOURSELF SOME HOT DOUGHNUTS!!!!!!!

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!!!

KEEP IT REAL!!!!!!!!!

Johan

P.S. Don't forget to get some coffee along with that. Coffee is always a must! Lately I've just been drinking Starbucks because that's all they have in the Springs. Caribou Coffee is still my favorite.....

Another Pic of the Off Roading Day...

We went hiking in the mountains the same day we took the Hummer (H2) off roading. As we were hiking we came across this crazy little log cabin with a burned Mormon bible sitting by a fire pit inside. That was quite random if you ask me.

Off Roading in the mountains...

Here's a few pictures of the day that April and I went Off Roading in the mountains. If you look at the picture of April and I, you can see Colorado Springs thousands of feet below us in the far distance.

New Orleans and Scott Hinkle Ministries Mardi Gras Outreach

Yeah, this is a picture of me in New Orleans on Bourbon Street.
This is actually in June of 1998 when we were passing through during our Nitro Praise tour.

Here's a very interesting story about New Orleans and the Mardi Gras Outreach that I was a part of in 1998 and 1999. I went with my church group with Scott Hinkle Ministries. One of the years I went, get this. There was a Christ For The Nations group that stayed there. April was there with the Christ For The Nations group the same year I was there. April and I were talking about it and remembering what the place was like and what Scott Hinkle was like and all that fun stuff. It's kinda crazy. It's a small world after all.

Memories of Bible College and Beyond

Woah! These pictures bring back some seriously cool memories from Bible College! I traveled on the road with my college group called: City Of Praise... It was very cool! The pictures obviously show me doing some dance choreography while the choir's singing. That was the part I added to the concert everywhere we went.

For those of you who don't know I grew up doing hip-hop, but mostly
up-rock choreography to a lot of hip-hop and dance music. I traveled with a group of people from my youth group and we did performances all over the place as a major outreach into many communities. I don't have any pictures of those days on me now, but soon enough I will try to post some.

When I was 18 my group from my church took a whole summer and traveled across the nation to perform in multiple venues. We represented "Nitro Praise", sang, danced and had an incredible time reaching out to people with the Gospel. We put on approximately 40 + shows that summer in churches, clubs, tents, concert festivals etc. etc.

One of my highlights of the summer was when we performed in the NSOUL Dance Tent at the Cornerstone Concert Festival. I thought it was pretty cool when I was on the main stage with a crowd of people and I ended up standing right next to M.C. Hammer shoulder to shoulder and he had the mic. in my face and had me screaming out the lyrics to one of his songs. That was a fun time.

Stephanie Rocks!

This is April's friend Stephanie. She's quite cool! I did this blog just to surprise her with the fact that I took her picture and told her 1/2 a minute later that I had it was posted on my blog. I'm such a nice guy!

I really like Colorado a whole lot! I like April even more.

It was inevitable. Unavoidable. Determined by God that we should meet. Yes, Johan Anderson and April Carless really, really like each other a whole lot, and we wanted all of you guys to know that we are courting. More to come soon, but we wanted you to see this picture of us together.

It's Christmas Day! A day filled with wonderful things!

Today is Christmas day. I had a wonderful morning! Church was so incredibly encouraging this morning! We had an awesome time of worship and Ted preached a great down to earth message. He talked about how much he loves Christmas time and the heart of giving good gifts to bless others and obviously the miracle of Jesus. We ended the service with a time of worship and communion. What a way to end the service!

They had the stage filled with poinsetta's. Ted said that they were all free for the taking after the service, "But don't trample over the elderly." Now you're supposed to laugh! HA, HA, HA! I picked one up. I like flowers! They're a part of God's creation! Flowers make life fuller and much more colorful.

After church I had a couple pull up to my car. They told me I had a flat tire. So I went into the church front destk and asked if they could locate someone on maintenance to help me. They were right on it. I had a great guy name Jack with his two little boys who came to help with an air compressor. The tire had a major leak. So we changed it for the spare in the trunk. We couldn't find the wrench to take the lug nuts off. So he went back to the church to find a wrench. About a minute later I found it tucked way, way back buried underneath a strip of carpet in my trunk. As I found it a couple pulled up (Chet and Lou Lou) and asked if I needed help. I told them I think I'm ok, but Chet came out and helped anyway. By that time Jack came back and filled up the spare a bit more for me.

I didn't have even the slightest hint of frustration throughout the whole thing. I rather enjoyed it and the opportunity to meet some new people is a wonderful thing. I can honestly say that this has been a very Merry Christmas. A day filled with wonderful things!

I'm going to hang out with the Carless family and have Christmas dinner with them this afternoon. It's going to be great time!

Well I hope everyone is having a very Merry Christmas! Be encouraged and know that God is with you in everything that you do today! He is with you through this Christmas season and on into the New Year! Be Blessed! I pray that everything that you put your hands to do; will prosper!

Sincerely, Johan Anderson

P.S. Oh by the way... It's an incredibly beautiful sunny day with a temperature at 60 degrees! See for yourself, just type in the Zip code 80921 into www.weather.com and you will see!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

HOWDY!

Howdy Partners! Yes this is a picture of me in a Cowboy Hat! Who would have guessed!? Actually this is a picture of me when I was in Texas last spring. I thought someone might get a kick out of it!

NOEL'S JAVA JUMP!

Here's Noel all geared up to drink one serious cup of Java! Talk about strength and determination! I could probably say that cup alone was made with 6 heaping tablespoons of coffee in a pot on the stove; and the coffee was then filtered out as it was poured through a strainer into the cup. That would be some strong coffee.

HAPPY CAR!

Happy Holidays From Jeremy Quernemoen's Car! It's wishing you the best of times this Holiday season and safe driving with a massively huge smile!

MIKE'S GOT HUGE GLASSES! SWEET!

This is where I had the coolest picture of Mike Bartolomeo in some hug plastic clown glasses. It had to be taken offline, I'm sorry, but you can no longer enjoy this picture. Be blessed with what you were able to see and send me a picture of you in your own huge clown glasses and maybe I'll post it online to make up for having to take this one off my blog.

Original Message:

Hey look! It's Mike showing off his really groovey glasses while taking a drive through the countryside in a '67 Chevy Impala convertable (I think that's the year of my Dads car)! I thought you guys would enjoy this pi cture probably even more than me. Mike you sure were da bomb with this deal!

WONDERLAND - A BROADWAY STYLE PRODUCTION

This last weekend I went to a Broadway style production called WONDERLAND at New Life Church. A overwhelmingly powerful 60 piece orchestra that also included multiple electric guitars, acoustic guitars, bass, drum kit, pianos, synths, harp, etc... Well pretty much every instrument you would see in an orchestra performance and more. There were crazy lights and multimedia stuff going on all over. Loads of snow being dropped on top of people from the ceiling, ice skating on the stage, choreagraphed dancing of multiple styles.

They performed a hip-hop song and pulled a Cadillac Escalade into the sanctuary up to the stage with the youth pastor rapping into the mic while he was standing up through the moon roof. It was sweet! Then he jumped out and a bunch of people crowded the stage dancing and couple of guys were driving these little kiddie car Escalades in circles on the stage as a part of the choreography.

For another song the entire stage was filled with ballroom dancers from college age to elderly. Of course they did a country christmas song choreagraphed with some serious line dancing. Ross Parsley who is the Worship Leader of New Life Church was in a Cowboy hat kicking his heels up and everything. There was a segment where they did an Instrumental song and choreography straight from LORD OF THE DANCE! I couldn't believe what I was seeing! It was hilarious! They also had a swing dance/jazzy type song with swing dancing.

For another song they had Joseph and mary come out from the back of the stage on this remote controlled platform moving forward to the front of the stage. There were people hanging on ropes from the ceiling as Angels with these huge flowing garments. They sang songs from O come all ye faithful to Santa Claus is comming to town. Of course Ted Shared the Gospel message and had everyone pray at the end.

The whole production was a total mix of music, dancing, and comedy! It was great!

The lighting is always unbelievable at New Life Church because they can instantly change the entire atmosphere of the whole room with the lighting. The sunday morning services are wonderful with the advantage of the incredible multimedia lighting systems they have in place.

I've connected with a lot of people and am really enjoying this Christmas season; as I hope all of you wonderful people are enjoying this Christmas season......

THE MILL - AT NEW LIFE

College students and 20-somethings meet every Friday night at 7PM for a time of passionate worship and relevant teaching. Variety segments, Starbucks coffee, and engaging talks help make the café-style service a great atmosphere in which to develop authentic relationships and unpack the truths of Scripture.
In addition to Friday night meetings, theMILL facilitates small groups, embarks on backpacking and snowboarding trips, mobilizes students for local outreach events and summer missions projects, hosts retreats and various and sundry activities to fill your weekends and afternoons with fun, laughter, and a good time.

When I got to the first thing I saw were tons of people hanging out and eating loads of different types of drinks and snacks galore. The worship was sweet, the teaching was great and video announcements were pretty darn cool. There's usually a group that goes to the Village Inn to eat and hang out every Friday night. It's pretty cool that the College pastor, Aaron Stern goes out every Friday night. We were out there till about 2am last night. Fun was had by all.

Don't forget to go see: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe on this opening weekend! I guess the reason that this movie was even made was because The Passion Of Christ did so well. So make your dent on the first weekend of box office Sales for this incredible movie! By the way, they stay true to the book if you wanted to know... Just check out the Focus On The Family Plugged-In movie review on: http://www.pluggedinonline.com/movies/movies/a0002447.cfm
But don't go to the movie review if you haven't read the book. Just go to the movie and enjoy it this weekend!

Colorado Springs

What's going on everybody!? I hope all is well with you. Things have been going good. I went to church in Omaha, Nebraska on Sunday. I had a blast hanging out with a bunch of friends that I haven't seen in over 3 years! I did a summer internship at Christ's Family Church in 2002. Lots of great memories were made that summer and some awesome friendships that will last forever! Here's their website: www.cfcomaha.org <-- Check it out

Yes, I am now in Colorado Springs. It will take some time to get to know the city and get around efficiently. Last night I ate at a Wafflehouse which is one of my favorite spots to eat. If you don't like to eat at Wafflehouse I feel sorry for you. I feel sorry that you can't enjoy eating at one of America's greatest Icons and enjoy some of America's greatest food! Maybe one day you will be enlightened. Go to their website! Click on this link: --> www.wafflehouse.com

I went to the World Prayer Center to pray for a while. It's a pretty cool place. It's open every day of the year, 24 hours a day. They have music playing all the time throughout the building. The main prayer room has music playing all the time, or some kind of worship band playing. There's a bunch of lazyboys set in front of the windows with bibles next to them. There's all kinds of other rooms that you can spend time in prayer and study throughout the building. International issues that need prayer are displayed along with individuals prayer requests on large plasma tv screens in the sanctuary and television sets are in other parts of the building. Anyway, here's a web link to the World Prayer Center if you want to check it out.

www.theworldprayercenter.org <---Click on that link

My Car was packed to the brim. I only
drank 2 mugs of coffee the whole way!
I listened to the Focus On The Family
version of The Chronicles of Narnia pretty
much the whole way and that kept me wide awake!
Oh the Drama, fantasy, suspense, battles
and action! Check out the website!
It's incredible stuff! www.radiotheatre.org/enternarnia/indexHome.html

Upon my entering Colorado I found that
the Color of Colorado is Colorful.

This is my temporary home for the next month.

This is my view of the mountains from

my kitchen table. Last night I watched

the sunset over the mountains. It was

quite beautiful.

The World Prayer Center. Open 24 hours
every day.

Colorado Bound

Colorado.
Yes I am moving to Colorado. This is a big move for me. I'm packing whatever I can fit into my car and hitting the road on Thursday December 1st. It's a big step for me, and I'm going to miss every single one of you lovely people!

Here's a couple of websites you can check out and see just a little bit of what's going on in Colorado Springs
www.visionplanning.net - Strategic Planning for new ministry projects
www.impactkidz.com - Training Orphans to become World Leaders

www.ipint.net - Hip Hop concerts/festivals going into the inner city and beyond.

www.newlifechurch.org - This will be my home church

www.saturdaynight.org - This is New Life Church's Saturday night service

Amongst all of you I've spent countless hours talking and hanging out.

We've had some pretty sweet times hanging out and doing all kinds of crazy things!

To list a bunch:

Freak Fest w/The Matrix

Red Cloud/DJ Wise Concert

The X-Tour: (Hawk Nelson, Falling Up, Seventh Day Slumber, Manafest, Children 18:3, and don't forget that incredibly sweet metalcore band: Servanthood - That lead singer sure knew how to scream! The whole X-TOUR thing rocked!)

Inflatables Weekend

Club 3 Degrees Trips: (Pillar, Thousand Foot Krutch, Tobymac, Kirk Franklin, and a bunch of other sweet bands)

Sonshine Festival (Countless Bands)

The Duluth Trip: (Camping, White Water Rafting, Incredible Skateparks, I-Max Theatre watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and various other things we did on that trip)

Open Gym: (with tons of great movies and the nights we pulled out the sound system to shake the walls and smoke the place out with the smoke machine).

Wednesday Night Services with the latest and greatest addition: The ever present Halo 2!

Youth Camps! You can't forget what I made you guys do for the games! The Egg Blurt Contest was absolutely one of the best! However the Mountain Dew Chug and the 1/2 gallon Milk Chug was pretty sweet also! What else... Oh yeah! I made you guys eat pudding with your feet! Yeah, that was great! You guys had a blast doing it too! You can't tell me that you didn't have fun with those wacky olympics!

Working at the Destiny Center I would be startled many times by Carl trying to scare me. I know where Ryan got it from.

My favorite memory at the Destiny Center is when I startled Dave Drexler in the weight room when I took Carl's chainsaw in there and started it up suddenly in the middle of his workout! That was awesome! Really it was all Carl's idea! No, not really, it was my idea..
Actually this is probably the first time any of you have heard about it! Laugh with me! HA HA! It was funny! The whole downstairs smelled like gas/oil chainsaw smoke for about an hour, but it was well worth it! I think it made Dave's workout much more efficient!

Anyway, I could go on, and on, and on, and on, and on about all the incredibly fun times we've had just over the last 3 years, but I'll put that in another blog. Gotta go for now!

We still have more memories to make at the final: GIVE THANKS FOR HALO 2; THANKSGIVING HALO 2 TOURNAMENT with 6 movies on 2 big screens, DJ SEGUE, food and more!

We're going to have a blast!

See you there!

Johan

The Screaming Duo!

Woah! I'm not sure if this is right? Girls playing Halo 2? Actually It's really funny! But my ears hurt from all the screaming! Someone help us all!