Oakley Committee for Community Friendship

10/15/2026

For those of you who have moved to north Whatcom County in the last year, I would like to offer a little public service announcement before somebody has an absolute emotional breakdown over their morning coffee and calls 911 because the countryside is making countryside noises.

Waterfowl hunting season starts this Saturday, October 17. That means people will be out hunting ducks and geese in the fields around Lynden, Sumas, Everson, and the surrounding areas. And yes, that means you might hear gunshots. Early in the morning. From a field. Where there are no houses. Just a bunch of people dressed like portable shrubbery who voluntarily crawled out of warm beds at an hour when even the sun has decided it isn't ready to participate in society.

Please do not be the person who calls 911 because you heard gunshots coming from a field during hunting season.

I realize that if you've moved here from a city, hearing several sh***un blasts at 7:00 in the morning might cause you to sit straight up in bed, or to spill your coffee, question your decision to move to the country, and begin mentally drafting your eyewitness statement for the evening news. But before you call the authorities to report that World War III has apparently broken out somewhere between a cornfield and a dairy farm, consider the possibility that somebody is simply trying to convince a goose to become dinner.

And really, if you've ever had a Canada goose hiss at you, chase you across a parking lot, or otherwise behave like a feathered criminal with absolutely no respect for personal boundaries, you may even understand the motivation.

These hunters have spent money on licenses, sh***uns, am******on, camouflage, decoys, calls, and enough cold-weather gear to survive an expedition to Antarctica. They have then voluntarily set an alarm for an hour that should be illegal, driven out into a muddy field, arranged approximately 39 plastic geese into what they hope resembles a convincing social gathering, and proceeded to sit there making questionable goose noises while waiting for actual geese to fall for the deception.

The least we can do is not summon law enforcement because someone fired a sh***un at a bird.

And yes, hunting on private agricultural land is perfectly legal when hunters have permission and are following the regulations. The fact that you purchased a house overlooking a beautiful field does not mean you also purchased exclusive rights to the atmosphere, the wildlife, or the acoustic properties of the entire township.

Obviously, if someone is shooting toward houses, behaving dangerously, or there's an actual emergency, call 911. Absolutely. But the distant sound of legal hunting is not automatically a crime scene. The sheriff's department does not need to dispatch half the county because a goose made a poor decision about its flight path.

We live in an agricultural community. We have tractors traveling down roads at 15 miles per hour, cows that moo, roosters that have apparently never learned how to read a clock, and farmers who consider 5:00 in the morning a perfectly reasonable time to begin operating machinery. We also have hunters. These things existed long before many of the new subdivisions did, and none of them are particularly interested in adjusting their schedules around your preferred sleeping arrangements.

So when Saturday morning rolls around and you hear several sh***un blasts echoing across the fields, please resist the urge to grab your phone, barricade the front door, and report an active international conflict in the general vicinity of Sumas.

Look at the calendar. Remember where you live. Pour another cup of coffee.

And if you're still concerned about the people sitting in a freezing field before sunrise, remember that they're voluntarily spending their Saturday morning pretending to be vegetation while attempting to outsmart an animal whose primary hobby is pooping on golf courses.

They have enough problems without you calling 911 on them.

Welcome to north Whatcom County where the geese are about to discover that their annual migration comes with some rather aggressive customer service.

10/15/2026

Giving Our Kids a Moral Compass

I’m horrible at directions. I can’t read a map and I’m at my navigating best when someone is showing me exactly where to go.
No matter how you see the road of parenting, it’s hard to navigate without a compass.
How we give our children a moral compass:
We Teach them Absolute Truths
Truth is absolute. There are definitely absolute truths or standards by which to live our lives and raise our kids. The Bible is filled with truth: There is a God, God is love; actions have consequences (Romans 1:18). Truth is absolute; it is not subjective. Truth doesn’t shift when our culture changes it’s mind.
“In a society where ultimate truth is treated like a fairy tale, an outdated idea or even an insult to human intelligence, the motto of the day becomes, “WHATEVER!” Believe whatever you want. Do whatever seems best to you. Live for whatever brings you pleasure, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. And of course, be tolerant. Don’t try to tell anyone that their whatever is wrong.”-Linda Keffer
When we teach our kids these truths, we need to take a principal like “don’t have s*x before you get married”, and offer a precept (a scripture that tells us this) with it. When we couple these together, it reveals a characteristic of God that says He loves me and wants me to experience purity in my mind and body and relationships and so He protects me with the absolute truth. (Teaching from Right From Wrong by Josh McDowell)
We Let those Absolute Truths Be Our Guide
It’s so easy for our children to question what truth is in our constantly changing world, especially when there are being fed lies by our culture, especially in media. Lies that say they have to be s*xy or thin or tolerant. We live counter to cultural lives by not jumping on every new norm that presents itself in society. It’s okay to say what we believe, to stand up for Biblical principals no matter what we read or hear in our society. When we teach absolute truths from the Bible, we let those truths guide us.
Present Opportunities to fall in love with Jesus
It goes beyond attending church once a week and doing moral stuff. Our kids need to see us pursuing a relationship with God; they need us to lead them in devotions, teach them how to pray, homeschool them in the ways of God.
If our kids don’t have a moral compass, they will feel lost in the world, constantly changing how they see truth. Our kids are going to make mistakes, just like us. It’s how we learn how to get it right. And when we offer grace, we show them more of Jesus.
It’s not an easy road to navigate, but if we ask Him to guide us, He will.

10/14/2026

10/13/2026

THIS SATURDAY OCTOBER 17th!!!!!

The CANDY is rolling in, I can't honestly say "Tons of Candy" .... but there is defiantly 100's of pounds!!!!! ...... Anyone is welcome. The Oakley community is welcoming anyone to bring your children to participate, or to be a part of the event to hand out candy. We are accepting and promoting only factory packaged candy to assure safety.

10/11/2026

Big shout out to my newest top fans! 💎 Loretta Palaszeski Smith

Drop a comment to welcome them to our community,

10/09/2026

I consistently hear adults moan about kids today. “Those lazy, entitled, coddled slackers,” they say, “are going to ruin our country.”
It may be true.
But if it is, I don’t blame the kids. May I remind you that young people are the products of the world adults have created for them. If a kid acts irresponsibly, could it be that a parent failed to consistently enforce consequences for their poor decisions? If a student acts entitled, could it be that parents or teachers coddled them and didn’t push them to grow up? If a college graduate moves home, unprepared for the real world, who failed to prepare them?

I’ve included one of my favorite poems below. It says it all:
We read it in the papers and hear on the air;
Of killing and stealing and crime everywhere.
We sigh and we say as we notice the trend,
this young generation…where will it end?
But can we be sure that it’s their fault alone?
These kids who do things that we don’t condone;
Who was it shaping their first twenty years?
And who made the world they enjoy with their peers?
Are we less guilty, who place in their way.
Too many things that lead them astray?
Too many credit cards, too much idle time;
Too many movies of passion and crime.
Too many books not fit to be read,
Too many damaging things they hear said.
Too many children encouraged to roam,
Too many parents who won’t stay at home.
Kids don’t make the movies, they don’t write the books.
They don’t make the video games with gangsters and crooks.
They don’t make the liquor, they don’t run the bars,
They don’t change the laws, they don’t make the cars.
They don’t make the drugs, that muddle the brain;
That’s all done by older folks…eager for gain.
Those self-absorbed teens, oh how we condemn,
The flaws of our nation and blame it on them.
But rather than fixing blame, let’s fix the cause,
Let’s look in the mirror and conclude as we pause;
That in so many cases — it’s sad but it’s true –
The title “Delinquent” fits older folks too.

09/30/2026

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer stood in front of a cheering crowd and made abortion about money.

"If you don't think abortion is about the economy, then you probably don't have a uterus."

That is one of the most evil statements I have ever heard from an elected official.

Whitmer is telling women it is acceptable to kill an unborn baby if the child might get in the way of a career or a paycheck.

She put a dollar value on a human life. Kill your baby, she says, because it is good for the economy and good for your paycheck. The room cheered.

She has been repeating this line for years. People told her she could not win Michigan by talking about social issues. They told her to spend less time on abortion and more time on jobs. Her answer was never that a child has worth. Her answer was that the child is an economic problem.

That is not health care. That is not compassion. That is a governor deciding a baby's life is worth less than a promotion or a second income.

An unborn baby is not a line item. That child is not a budget problem you erase so a career stays on track. Once you price a life that way, every other principle starts to slide.

Innocent life is not for sale. You do not get to end a child because the timing costs too much. You do not get to dress that killing up as economics and call it leadership.

Equal application of the law starts with the weakest among us. A child in the womb does not lose that protection because an adult has a career plan.

Whitmer said it out loud. The crowd clapped. That applause should stay with you.

If a politician can sell the death of a child as good for the economy, there is nothing left she cannot put on the ledger.

How would you respond to a Gretchen Whitmer on this?

09/29/2026

Today is National Coffee Day.

One of life’s simplest pleasures—and one of its daily treasures—is coffee. It's such a pleasure and treasure for me that I've written a couple of books on the spirituality of coffee--A Cup of Coffee at the SoulCafe, The Gospel According to Starbucks, etc. Every morning, that first cup of dark roast gives me a little courage for the facing of the day. A shot (actually, a couple shots) of caffeine, yes. But also a shot of what my Appalachian ancestors called spizzerinctum: vim, vigor, gumption, get-up-and-go.

And this year, that morning shot of spizzerinctum has me thinking about something extraordinary happening in England.

For the first time since it was made almost a thousand years ago, the Bayeux Tapestry is returning to British soil. Beginning this month, it is crossing the Channel from Normandy for a rare loan to the British Museum. Nearly a millennium after its makers stitched the story of the Norman Conquest into seventy meters of linen, the story has crossed the Channel again.

And tucked into that ancient embroidery (where you find 626 humans, 190 horses, 35 dogs, 506 other animals, 37 trees, 32 ships, 33 buildings, and a few anatomical surprises) is one of my favorite pictures of spizzerinctum. In the middle of the Battle of Hastings, the Norman troops are panicking. The line is breaking. Soldiers are retreating.

Into the chaos rides Bishop Odo, half-brother of William the Conqueror, brandishing not a sword but a great wooden club. And above him are stitched these extraordinary words:

HIC ODO EPISCOPUS BACULUM TENENS CONFORTAT PUEROS.

“Here Bishop Odo, holding a club, comforts the boys.”

Comforts them? With a club?

There’s the rub (sorry).

We have turned “comfort” into cushions, quilts, slippers, and soothing words. But the old meaning carried something much stronger: con-fortis—with strength. To comfort was to fortify, to put courage back into someone, to stiffen the spine and send the frightened back into the fray.

Odo wasn't tucking his troops into bed. He was putting some spizzerinctum back into them.

Which may be why coffee really is one of life's great “comforts.” A good cup doesn't say, “Stay under the covers.” It says:

“Up you get. There’s a day out there. Face it and outface it.”

And perhaps that is also a word for the Church. The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter (thank you Wycliffe) not because God promises to wrap us in a celestial quilt and protect us from everything hard, but because the Spirit comes alongside us with holy con-fortis—courage for the facing of each day.

Maybe the Church could use a little less cushioning and a little more comforting. Less spiritual chamomile. More holy spizzerinctum.

So I raise my mug on National Coffee Day.

May your coffee be strong.
May your spine be stronger.
And may the Comforter put some holy spizzerinctum in your mind, body, and spirit.

09/27/2026