From the Shoup family to yours – Merry Christmas!

This year we filmed our visit to Bentleyville – Duluth’s very own Christmas light, winter wonderland featuring nearly 3 million lights illuminating the shores of Lake Superior. The park sports an ice skating area, bonfires, cocoa and cookies, popcorn, community marshmallow roasting, Santa’s village, and USA’s largest steel Christmas tree. It’s a pretty spectacular attraction – and all FREE! Two flew by without us realizing the time…

The year 2011 has been good to us. Deanna has been working hard at school, pursuing her degree in medicine. Shawn has had a really great first year as Gateway’s District NextGen Rep, caring for, resourcing, and networking NextGen pastors and leaders. He also gets to spend his days at home with Zion  who is now 18-months-old and about as “boy” as you can get. He loves cars, balls, and throwing things.

Kella, who turns 7 on Christmas Eve, just celebrated her birthday with friends this past weekend. She’s in first grade and is just as sweet as she’s ever been. Our little princess, who loves to wear dresses every day – if she can get away with it – and loves the color pink.

Bella is now 9-years-old and is loving fourth grade. She is always singing and brainstorming amazing rock-opera productions in her bedroom downstairs.

Cynthia is a 15-year-old, sophomore rock star. Especially since she’s been crafting her skill on her new drum set this year. She’s always been the creative, edgy-type, and is continuing that trend.

Autumn is 17 this year and has entered the world of boys. Pretty scary, but he’s an okay guy. It’s her junior year and we don’t want to think about the impending graduation that is coming next year. She’s such a joy to have around.

We’re excited for what is around the corner in the year 2012! We’re thankful for our AMAZING family and friends. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

I grew up singing into my hairbrush to Randy Stonehill tunes. He’s kind of like the Paul McCartney of Christian rock to me. Big statement, i know, but he was that influential in my life – a hero of sorts.

A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to back my buddy, Brent Parker’s, worship band on the drums as he opened up for a Randy Stonehill and Phil Keaggy in Spearfish. It was a memorable evening. I even got to carry Randy’s guitar and walk with him out to his vehicle – just me and him. I’m not usually star-struck, but – as I said – this was like a version of one of the Beatles to me! I wrote a bit about that experience here.

So, anyhow, I was floored to find out that Randy was making a stop in Duluth this month. And, even better, that it was a FREE event at a historic church (a friend tells me it has roots with the Jesus People movement) over on the west end of town – or, in other words: a pretty cool and intimate concert venue. Cynthia, Bella, and Kella all went with me. They didn’t know any of his songs, but they had a great time anyhow. Well… Kella fell asleep about halfway through, but she’s 6 – she’s forgiven.

It was just him and his guitar, but Randy’s quirky, fun personality still shines through and he captivated the audience, which was a pretty full house, from beginning to end. He shared several stories of meeting and working with other Christian music legends: Keith Green, Keaggy, and Larry Norman… cool stuff. And he talked a lot about Jesus. You could tell he was unembarrassed to say His name – to tell the Gospel story. I could totally see the hippy in Randy… and I totally “dug it”.

Watch portions of a couple songs from the evening below. I do want to say upfront, that when the audience starts singing along to “I Love You”, that’s not my voice you hear from the audience! Ha!