Glen Eyrie

Glen Eyrie is the famous Navigator headquarters that's located right next to the Garden of the Gods. Maris and I hiked up to the punch bowls when we were in Colorado Springs for my final training session with the Navigators. What a bittersweet time as I will greatly miss working on staff with this ministry but am excited about joining the New Hope team. Maris and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary at the Silverwood Inn (free drinks and made-to-order breakfast). We are learning. I pray that we're lifelong learners because it's going to take a lifetime for us to master this thing called marriage.

the last breakfast

The Gypsy men finished the school year out with breakfast together. Beginning with me and going clockwise, the Gypsy men are Ben, Chris, Jitsuya, Anthony, Daniel, Adam, Brian, Ryan, Henry, and Ethan. Hopefully our times together are not over yet. It's been real, it's been fun, it's been real fun. Just so you know, ladies, many of these guys are single.

My Little Bro Graduates!

Here’s Abe right after he moved the tassel from right to left. I don’t know who’s picture that is right behind him but that doesn’t matter. Abe’s done with his undergrad. Maris and I look forward to him and Ashley staying in the Little Apple next year. If you’re hiring social studies teachers I commend Abe to you.

the Global Night Commute

Here I am with Senator Brownback who just got done speaking to a group of us at the Capitol in Topeka. We were taking part in something called the Global Night Commute which you can check out at www.invisiblechildren.com. About 150 to200 of us Kansans walked for two miles in the pouring rain to the Capitol building to hear Sen. Brownback and a couple from Uganda speak. Then we headed to a nearby parking garage to spend the night. We wrote letter to President Bush and our Senators to encourage them to take notice of the children in Northern Uganda who are being abducted into the Lord’s Resistance Army. We also did some artwork pieces that will go into a sort of yearbook that will help support this movement as well. I was blessed to be a part of this with Maris and some friends. 

omrice

"Hi" means "hi" in English and "yes" in Japanese. So, hi and yes you should read this. Combine omelet and rice and you get omrice which is what this Japanese dish is called in Japanese. What you see is a two-egg omelet on top of a ton of rice with a ton of ketchup in it (not literally a ton, just a lot. that's an example of hyperbole). At any rate, I thought you'd enjoy this recent concoction that I consumed.

farewell to the sea-farers

Once upon a time there was a young man named Ben who married a beautiful woman, and by beautiful, I mean beautiful. Now Ben worked for a collegiate ministry called the Navigators. Apparently they liked sailboats and to help people navigate the waves of life. If I had time, I would tell you all about Ben's adventures on the sea with his fellow pirates, but that's another chapter. After Ben's two-year commitment to the sea-faring regime came to a close he looked up to his Father and said, "Father, I would love it if I could continue hanging out with these friends from foreign lands. I want to get more involved in my local body of believers. It would be great if my wife could continue learning in her household seminary. That would mean that we need to continue to reside in the Little Apple. Can all these dreams come true? Will you please help us, for I know that You abound with goodness toward Your children?" At this point, Ben had very little idea as to how this might turn out in a desirable fashion. In fact, he suffered much anxiety over the issue. You would never know the inner turmoil he had at first glance. It is at this time that the way began to become clear. The pastor at the local community where Ben and his wife worshiped approached Ben with an idea. The idea goes something like this. Ben works on staff at the church, New Hope Community Church to be exact. His role at the church will be to help the New Hope friends to reach out to the foreign friends. When Ben first heard this idea he realized that the same idea was already floating around in his own mind. He just needed someone to put words and feet to the idea. It seems like Father had once again proven to be faithful in provision. Ben looked up again to his Father and said, "Father, thank you for answering my feeble prayers. I don't mean to ask too much but I know that You love to give good gifts to Your children so I thought I'd go ahead and ask. My wife would really enjoy being able to spend more time learning at her household seminary as well as spending time with me and my foreign friends. We want to tell them about You. It would be wonderful if she could quit her job of providing an expensive place to live for people and could begin providing a cup of coffee for people instead. Or maybe she could be a stand-in for teachers that can't attend school every once in awhile. At any rate, You know our hearts and needs better than we do ourselves. We trust You with this as well. Oh yeah, and can You please continue to provide the bacon for us, the daily bacon that is...and bread I suppose too?" Ben is still waiting back on these last two requests but is confident that his Father will pull through. The rest of the book has already been written from front to back. In fact, it was even written when there was no time. But now there is time and we are subject to it so I have to wait on the next chapter. And so do you. But I can assure you that it'll be good. It'll have its fair share of surprises. It'll have victory and defeat. It'll have interesting characters. But the hero will remain the same. Somehow, though, Ben will emerge as a sort of hero too. Perhaps you will as well. One day we'll read many completed stories together. Until that day, read on.

the heavens declare

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their measuring line goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
-King David (Psalm 19)

Maris took this picture last Thursday after our near tornado experience. This is a Manhattan, KS view. Enjoy!

Godric

Here's a quote from a book I'm almost done reading. The book is about a saint, Godric, who is having his hagiography written (a hagiography is simply a biography of a saint). The hagiographist usually only records the good things in the proposed saint's life, neglecting the negative. This book, Godric, by Frederick Buechner, is the real life of the saint without the sugarcoatedness (the book is, however, fictitious). Please take the time to enjoy this quote. It's well worth the read...

“’Since all are sinners, I damn the ones I choose to damn and save the rest,’ Christ said. ‘So are my justice and my mercy both upheld. Thou, Elric, I have chosen to damn. Through all eternity thy fate shall be to suffer pain unspeakable and thus to show my glory forth.’
“I said, ‘O Lord, I am a sinner sure. I rate no less. Yet night and day I’ve served thee all these years as best I could. I’ve sought to quell my wayward flesh with chains and scarcely food enough to fill a gnat. All earthly loves I have foregone for love of thee. Canst thou not find it of they grace to damn some other sinner worse than I instead?’
“Christ’s laugh was terrible to hear. ‘is that how Elric does my will to love his neighbor as himself?’ he said. ‘For this thou shalt be doubly damned. Thou mayst as well go gobble up what brutish, greedy joys thou wilt while yet thou canst, for the very moment thou dost breathe thy last, thy torment shall begin.’
“Was this the sinners’ friend, I thought, the one who healed the sick in Galilee and prayed his Father to forgive us for we know not what we do? All hope was fled. The one who sits upon the mercy seat had proved himself most merciless of all. I would have hanged myself except I feared to hasten to my fiery doom. And then the priest who shrived me saved my soul.
“’Poor fool,’ he said, ‘the Devil often comes in such a guise. Our Lord would never speak so cruel. The next time, take a piece of dung and fling it in his face. Then you will see.’
“So when Christ came again, or so I thought, I winged a turd that caught him on the snout, and sure enough he was not Christ. His white robe fell, and underneath he wore a pizzle like a mule. He had a pointed tail and serpents’ scales. He howled at me and fled. Thus does the Devil seek to thwart our faith with lies. Godric, be ever on your guard.”

To check out more on this book go here.

just so you know...

I like marriage and love my beautiful wife.  

my colorful friend, jason

When I say my friend, Jason, is colorful, I certainly don't mean he's fruity or anything. Rather, I mean he loves people in creative and colorful ways; that and the title sounds like it goes with the picture. At any rate, I dedicate the following entry, "the commandments of Christ," to this guy. Thanks for reading...