Well, this year's outreach came and went. Three days at the fairgrounds with fair weather, fine friends, OK bands, and a racetrack full of horrible shirts. Dan and I tried our bestest to be the only apologetics booth in the whole Den of Thieves, aka the Exhibitors Hall. We were successful! Of the 100+ booths there, we were one of just a couple that had any literature whatsoever, and the only one with apologetics stuff.
But there were oodles of booths that were selling clothing and other interesting apparel. Once, when we were bored waiting for our average 3 people per day to come by the booth, Jaso and I counted all the different shirts for sale, including our own. Dan, Jaso, and I all guessed around 200. Boy howdy, were we wrong! There were over 1000 different shirts there! Yikes!
Which all puts an italics on the dumb in Christendumb.
Bad news, though: By far we gave away the fewest tracts and booklets ever. Some parts of the booth we never refilled once. Although we literall give away everything. Silly us, thinking that a new venue would see us giving away all our stuff and coming home with an empty truck and empty wallets. Alas! it was to be only empty wallets. But this is Southern California, our home, our hotbed of mediocrity.

Below are some of the Precious Moments® from SWC 2004. There were almost no bands so those pics are missing this year. But you might enjoy our brush with illegal contraband and The Annual Christendumb Awards™.

Potpourri of Pix
	The main drag through Del Mar is the food court aka Rich Man Row. For it is here, dear friends, where you must either be rich afford the fast food delicacies, or take out a second mortgage from the loan company booth conveniently located next to Hotdog on a Stick (where the help neither wear the funny hats nor speak English, but are happy to charge 5 clams for one lousy Hot dog a stick!). There is no justice in this court!
	When it was clear that we were not getting rid of any tracts or shirts or... well... anything, we sold our souls to Satan and started The Cross Lady, the place to get your finest cross jewelry - you know like Madonna and Eminem wear. After an hour of this, we got our souls back from the devil at 50 cents on the dollar (rip off!) and went back to the catatonic booth we call swordandspirit.
	In our annual Band Member Watches the Booth, these two kookie kids from Pound Foolish (bassist Noah to the left and Cameron, lead guitar, on the right) graciously offered their services just in case anyone showed up while we went and got robbed by the Food Vendors.
	Mark's daughter Arielle (right) and her friend Jessie spent the day with us Sunday. So, I guess this is just a father-showing-off-his-kid sorta time. So there! (Arielle is the one who just recovered from thyroid cancer, which makes this an especially teary-eyed moment for Mark.)
	When you can't bring Muhammed to the mountain, you make him drink water... or something like that. From the utter pit of desperation we set up these road markers to steer people into our booth and smack them around until they realized the importance of learning to defend the faith. The guy in the blue *thought* he was getting around us. Let's just say he gets to use the handicapped parking now.
	Something new at SWC this year. Out around where the food vendors are stealing us blind, there is The Sacrificial Bull Ride. Kids get to ride around on it until it tires, then slit its neck in a good old-fashioned Old Testament way. Of course, not missing an opportunity to make a buck on the captive SWC crowds, the food court people take the carcass, cut it up, and cram bits of it on tiny sticks. After cooking they sell it as BullSticks.
	Oh Dan! That wascawy wabbit is up to his usual hijinx as he crashes the autograph line and asks Joy Williams out on a date. Embarrassed to the point of giggling like a ninny, she says no, and so it's time for Plan B: the proverbial wabbit ear thing - the meaning of which has always escaped us, like praying to Jesus only to end the prayer with "...in Jesus' name, amen"
	In a more politically correct atmosphere this year, SWC people set up this Worship Center for visiting pagans, complete with palm trees and prayer gongs. "We didn't want to offend people with giving them too much of the Gospel all at one sitting - especially after those Jesus-all-the-time Newsboys. This provided a safe sanctuary for those getting a little too nervous about becoming Christians," said an unnamed spokesperson through a translator. The spokesperson then went back to work at Hotdog on a Stick.
	Cameron Aanestad, an old student of Mark's, licks on his play guitar (or is it, plays a lick on his guitar? Whatever!) The best thing about this Pound Foolish gig is that Cameron is wearing the New Shirt. And no lie: At least two kids came to the booth and asked for the shirt after the set was over. Crazy world. (After getting back home, Mark changed Cameron's grade in thanks for his efforts.)
	We made friends! Boy, was there time to talk. At the rate of one visitor every 4 hours, we were given a chance to talk with people who actually decided to stay even after finding out we believe in an old universe! Here, Dan and our new buddy, Rachel smile it up for the paparazzi.
	For three days we handed out flyers which read Learn how to defend your faith! Free seminar! Well, we held it right here and of the 20,000 people at SWC we thought we finally wrassled up a couple of fine folks seated here in the front row. They left after realizing Mark was not Kirk Cameron.
	Jaso's contribution. ;)
	The fine folks at OneTruth.com with the only apparel other than ours with any sort of substance to it. Visit them here. Jeremy the King reigns on his throne on the right striking a pose which we think may have a little too much attitude.
	Mark (with hat, center) filling in for Cameron at the Pound Foolish booth. "For just a fleeting moment of my life," says Mark, "I felt... I felt... like a ROCK STAR!"
	Arielle, Mark's daughter, snapped this pic of HeartThrob Kirk Cameron. (He's just a HeadThrob for us; too many bad memories about that sitcom in the 80's). What's important to notice here is that the little girl on the left is wearing one of our shirts. We remember her especially because it was her mom whom Dan overheard whispering to her daughter about our shirts, "Just go take one; they're free." Mark assumed they had left a donation. When Dan revealed the truth, that they had in essence stolen from us, Mark hit Dan squarely on the solar plexus.
	Evidence finally!!! You may remember that Mark for the last year has been convulsive about his claim that he played for Jars of Clay for a while? He swore that the "little guitar player guy" got booted from the band for using to much high-level "intellectual" humor on stage. Mark said Jars asked him to fill in until they got a permanent replacement. But the backsliders then denied it ever happened in every interview they've done since. Well, here is the proof that Mark was with the band. This photo was a promotion shot for their last CD who we are instead. Berean was displaying it in their mini-store until the Little Guitar Player with Jars got wind of it and Berean tore it down denying it ever was up (surprise!). Thankfully we got a picture of it first.
What's wrong here? Hmmm... let me see. On the left there is one person making an inquiry at the Compassion International booth. On the picture on the right, there is a local flood of people at one of the million shirt places. When have we seen this before??? Oh yes! Every other year.
	A surprise for Jeremy from OneTruth. His twin cousin Jeremiah, from OneTooth.com crashes the place and embarrasses Jeremy and the others. We loved him; we thought he was a hoot.
	Sheesh, some Christians take the corporal punishment thing a little too far for our taste. People that were caught trying to sneak food or drink into the compound... errr... I mean the (un)fairgrounds, past the guards, rather than sell their children for the outrageous prices at the Food Court, had bungie cords clipped to their belly buttons and were hung for all to see.

The Bad Thing We Did OK, the prices at SWC for any sort of beverage or food item was outrageous to say the least. So we went off site to get stuff at AM/PM or Albertson's. OH NO WE APPARENTLY CANNOT! Mark got busted Saturday at the gate for having the audacity (audacity I say!!!) to bring in a couple 44 oz. Diet Cokes, one of our staples. So, thanks to that thing called necessity, Mark found it necessary to ask Jiminy Cricket to stay in the truck as he embarked on Operation Rahab.
	When first busted by The Man (actually two women guards but that's beside the point) Mark felt it situationally ethical to go back outside and set the Diet Cokes in through this open hole in the fence near the guard turret. Going back in through the gates, past the now-suspicious guards, he tried to employ Dan into the nefarious Plot. Dan quickly sees the immorality of the Del Mar regulations and joins up. But it was virtually impossible to get back to the waiting beverages from within the compound without being seen. What to do!?
	The two now walk along the inside perimeter of the fairgrounds seeking the Loophole, the way to get the illicit non-alcoholic carbonated beverages in and yet not be seen by the armada of Nazi-like stormtroopers surrounding and protecting SWC from such illegal contraband. Then it happens! Down about 100 meters from the closely guarded entrance where the original bust took place, they find an unguarded gate! Quickly sneaking through this Providential Portal of Potables, they run back along the outside fence until they reach the original hole (above). Reaching through they get the drinks, run back up to the Gate from God, enter stealthily, and under cover of darkness, slither unnoticed back to the Den of Thieves (the Exhibitors Hall).
	Mission accomplished! but...
	The following day, when Dan tries to sneak in M&Ms, things don't go so well. He first packs his facial orifices with as many of the tiny chocolate candies as he can. (For what it's worth, they melt in your mouth and in your nose and in your ears). But without the cover of night, the plot falls apart and the wary guard on the lookout for suspicious characters wearing doggie shirts chokeholds Dan at the gate, throws him on the torture table and makes him spit out all his M&Ms. But joke's on her! She missed the stash of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Dan stuck in his armpits!!! Victory!
People ask: Guys, why??? To paraphrase Mickey from Pee Wee's Big Adventure: We're bad, Pee-wee. You don't want to get mixed up with a guys like us. We're loners. Rebels.

Our Annual Christendumb Award This year's losers!
	We thought this picture sort of summarized a lot of the Exhibitors Hall this year - heck, any year. Yes, there were good booths. There were some missions booths doing real good things. Wycliffe was trying to get pople to see the numbers of people groups who don't have the Bible in their own language. There was an active proLife group there, another group promoting abstinence, and of course One Truth. But overall, it was shameful place filled with stuff like this: taking the symbols of our faith and crassly commercializing them. Where's Linus when you need him? Nevertheless, below is a collection of this year's worst. Sigh.
	This shirt, we belive, catches all the beauty and depth of John 3.16.
	Exactly what is Jesus going to do with Planet Earth here once He comes down?
	Agreed!
	OK, you're walking down the street wearing this inspired shirt and all that passersby see is... the explanatory Scripture below? No. They walk away thinking you need AA! Hello!
	We envision three men walking by us on a city street. One wears the BrainWashed shirt above, another the Heavy Drinker shirt, and the third this Dead Man Walking wonder. Our first thought is not to ask them what it all means. Our first thought is "Morons."
	This didn't take long even by ripoff Christian standards. Speaking of standards, aren't there copyright laws...?
	Any implications here? Vote for Bush or you're not really a Christian?
	Another Mountain Dew-dew ripoff.
	ooooh ooooh - good one. Again, Satan and his minions gotta be all humiliated now
	Can you hear usnow? BE ORIGINAL!
	Hate to be all Squidwardy here, but Patrick could have thought up something better than this.
	Again: ooooh ooooh - good one. And the horns and tail make him so real.
Winner of 2004 Christendumb T-shirt of the Year!!!
Amazingly stupid thing to print, even in the vacuously unimaginative world of Christian T-shirts. Mark asked the guy selling this shirt if he meant that 1) we should take a Jew out back and shoot him in the head, or 2) have sex with one. Mark then went on to protest that this not only was a corporate logo ripoff (no surprise here) but was hugely offensive to Jews, as well. The vendor not only had no good explanation (although his justifications included 1) that only people with bad minds would think something bad about it, 2) that he had sold many to Jews!!!, 3) that it's one of his top-selling shirts!) - but he then wore the shirt the next day and walked by our booth! The End Is Near!!!
And the sign that summarizes American Christianity (but no other nation's Christianity on the face of the planet): We here got us one...