Big Foot Lives!

This is a recent email our pastor, Michael Cheshire, sent out to our church members (keep reading to the end of the email):

Jim, our executive pastor, is a very wise and balanced man when it comes to Biblical insight and counseling.  He believes God has a plan for us all and he believes God is still working on him.  He is a model leader and friend.  But this is not what I like the most about Jim. 

He also believes in Bigfoot! 

When he first told me this, I gave him a REALLY hard time, but he keeps showing me YouTube “evidence”.  Jim repeatedly tells my whole team to watch out for them.  He has a lot of fun laughing and defending his position.  However, in a very real way, . . . . he is crazy.  That being said, over time I have begun to find myself cheering him on in his quest to find this monster.

Funny how passion can make us all cheerleaders for things we may not even believe in.

God said in Matthew 5:16 to let our light shine in a way that people would see your good works and in turn give God glory-credit for your behavior.

The Journey staff made connections with several atheist that we all now consider close friends.  And although they refuse to believe, they have all become fans of us and our church.  In fact, they helped put stamps and address labels on The Journey’s last mail-out, all the while holding an atheist meeting. I found this to be both awesome and ironic!

I guess my point is that we have to be passionate about what we believe before it effects the world.  From God, our family, friendships or work, we need to become a more passionate people!  In that, we will infect the world with hope and courage.

I hope Jim finds the Yeti.  Until then, I will be leaving huge footprints in his driveway and chunking rocks at his house at midnight . . . Just because I need to mess with him!  But in all this, I will remember that passion is powerful.  Belief is great.  Belief with passion is unstoppable!

I love this church!
Stay Strong,
Michael    


Yes, it's true.  I do believe in Bigfoot.  Not the same way I "Believe" in God, of course (I'm not into Bigfoot spirituality).  I believe Bigfoot(s) exist.  There is simply far too much physical evidence (footprints, tree knockings, rock throwings, etc) to deny that there are other large, bipedal creatures on this earth than humans.  Below is a Google Earth map that shows every reported Bigfoot sighting in America over the past 60 years.  You can't tell from this small image, but many of the markers are stacked multiple deep, I can understand a few kooks, Rednecks, and Yahoos who are
simply out looking for a news story and a few quick bucks.  But there is NO WAY you can look at this map and conclude that literally thousands of encounters every year are ALL made up.  Now, I know what you're thinking: If it's true, and Bigfeet do live in our forests and swamps, then why can't we just catch one or kill one and prove it once and for all?  Well, how many of you have ever actually ever SEEN a bear?  People who've lived here in Conifer for 20 years have never seen a bear in the wild.  And yet there are many of them, and they live all over this area.  The same is true for cougars.  No one would say, "I've never seen a bear.  I think the stories are all made up.  Bears don't exist."  I would be the first one to say that I can't understand why we can't even get clear photographic evidence of a Bigfoot, but I'm sure one of the reasons is that there are relatively few of them.  I also believe that while they cannot possess higher intelligence (only humans are created in God's image), they are clearly at least as intelligent as the great apes (chimps, gorillas).  If they were as intelligent as us, they would have made contact with humans long ago.  No, they are some kind of very large creature that walks upright and has a fairly developed intelligence.  As technology continues to increase - digital photography, satellite imaging, etc - I believe it's just a matter of time until we all have undeniable proof that Bigfoot is really out there.

Until then, I like to add some spice and adventure to life.  I'm pushing the guys in the church team here to go with me to a location about 90 miles away where there have been numerous Bigfoot sightings over the years.  We'll take a movie camera with us, and make a short "Mockumentary" about our adventure: "The 2010 Journey Church Bigfoot Expedition". 

And who knows - we just might run into one out there in the woods at night . . . but then we'd all have to come home and change our underwear.