Happy Birthday Natalie!!

Another one!! 3 birthdays in January!! Our beautiful Natalie has turned 19. Happy Birthday!!

Liberation!!

Happy Birthday David!!

Our son, David is 16 years old today! David is going places..he is smart, creative and someday will be a great asset to any company that hires him! Life has never been dull (although he might think things are boring) with him around. We love him a lot, and just want to pause and say Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Kimmy!!

Our dear Kimmy is now 11 years old! Cool...she is a light shining with a beautiful smile!!

Merry Christmas!!

Currently Reading:
The God Hunt:The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found (Hardcover)
by Karen Burton Mains

We've been going through this book as part of our Care group Bible study. It's been an adventure and I have sure learned a lot. Karen Mains' basic theme is that the footsteps of God are all around us, we just need to train our eyes to see them. Sort of like the hide-and-seek games we played as children. In other words, when things DON'T go your way, perhaps God is trying to teach you a lesson. That person that smiled and said hello, maybe they were sent to cheer you up. That need you had, God sent someon to fill it...in other words answered prayer is all around you.

Simple concept. But can be difficult to apply. We are all trained to be so cyncial. Hunters are trained to spot signs...and we can too if we give it time. I've always known that God is there and that He is involved in our day-to-day lives...but the book has been a refreshing challenge for me to look even harder.

I'm overwhelmed at times...how could I have missed Him?

"Make me know Thy ways, Oh Lord; Teach me Thy paths, Lead me in Thy truth and teach me, For Thou art the God of my salvation; For Thee I wait all the day. (Psalm 25:4-5 NAS)

Running a race

Sometimes life feels just like that. There are so many demands on a person. So many uncertainties in work and family.

I've been mulling over my work situation of late. My current job is not something I want to do for the rest of my life...but it WAS an open door...and I felt I had to go through it.

I continuously am reminded of the Apostle Paul who wrote:

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let
us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 12:1
NAS)

Does this answer all of my questions? Hardly. But I can be focused...focused on being the best I can be wherever I am placed. It's Ok to wonder why and how. God doesn't shy away from these questions.

I just know I need to run that race...the race that He set before me.

Why pro-choicer's don't debate.....

From time to time many of us would get requests to debate the issue. Here in BC, the head of BC's pro-choice movement, Joyce Arthur, won't debate life issues. Why? I can only sum it up with the following post by Scott Klusendorf. Heh, I wouldn't want to debate him either....

…with Kathryn Kolbert at Lehigh University (PA). As I suspected, she argued along the lines put forth in this piece, all the while insisting that she wanted to reduce the number of abortions without actually banning a single one. But why is she concerned about the high number of abortions if abortion is no big deal? That is, if abortion is morally no different than having your tooth pulled, why be troubled by its high occurrence? She never answered that question. Nor did she answer when I asked “Where does the right to an abortion come from?”

But the big flaw in her argument was elsewhere. Consider her statement in this 1990 essay which she echoed again tonight:

Reproductive freedom means the ability to choose whether, when, how, and with whom one will have children….Reproductive freedom is necessary if all persons are to lead lives of self-determination, opportunity, and human dignity.

Notice the question-begging nature of her claim. She simply assumes, without argument, that the unborn are not human beings. Would she make this same claim for human freedom and self-determination if her neighbor suggested killing toddlers as well as fetuses?

In short, I was willing to buy her argument for freedom and self-determination–but only after she demonstrated that the unborn were not human beings. She never rose to the challenge. In fact, her debate manners were terrible. On three separate occasions, she interrupted my speaking (during my allotted time) and talked right over me. At one point, the moderator gave up trying to control her. Soon after, abortion-choicers in the crowd started hurling insults at me, though I refused to respond in kind. On questions of abortion legality and the provisions of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, I had to correct her faulty legal reasoning. And this from a lawyer I was honored to appear with her at this event...even if we did take opposite positions on this topic.
who argued her case before the Supreme Court? I’ve debated thoughtful abortion-advocates before, but Kathryn Kolbert is not one of them.

Sure, she had her supporters in the audience, but if you were a thoughtful defender of abortion, you did not leave the event proud of your side. I know. The moderator confessed that he was one of them…and he changed his mind on the issue tonight.

For the record, here in Kelowna, many years ago I was proud to debate NDP Eileen Robinson. She is truly a wonderful lady, and we both particpated in a debate at our local College. Eileen had the courgae of her convictions, and I was honored to appear with her at this event...even if we both agreed to disagree.

Happy Birthday Becky!

Our dear daughter Rebecca is 21.

I can't believe that I'm old enough to have a 21 year old daughter...where does the time go! She is a jewel that is for sure!

The truth is out there.....

Yes, here it is...the truth about my past employment history....

It's all about trust

Ah, yes. Trust and obey or you'll rust and decay! Or so the old line went.

Been thinking about that of late. We had to trust, LOTS, when our oldest was far away in a land down under, and everything seemed to go wrong. There were nights when we could not sleep...we just had to...trust...give it over to God and let Him handle it all.

I often think that the 2 questions we might be asked when we stand before our wonderful Father is...did you Trust and did you Love?

I ponder this anew as I work in my new position...trusting Him to provide for us and for future direction. Is this where I am to be? I really don't mind if that is what the plan is. Meanwhile...I must trust and I must love...there are ample opportunities to do both, wherever He places me.

Happy Birthday Steph!

The wonderful daughter that is Stephanie is now 14. Watch out world!!

On Vacation

Yes, tis true. Took the troops to sunny California and wonderful Oregon Coast. 15 days...hence, no posts here.

More coming.

Thought for the Day

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along not by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”
-Helen Keller

Life....

(Psalm 36: 5-7 NIV) Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.

Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast.

How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Happy Birthday Steven!! 8 years old....cool dude!!

Home safe

Arrived home safely from Portland with Natalie. Alas, the good physicians there confirmed what docs at Children's hospital had already said...That there really is nothing they can do to help Nat's scoliosis. Nat was disappointed, to be sure, but she wants to move on and continue with her life. This brave young lady has had 10 operations in her life, some of them life threatening, and still she has a beautiful smile (like her Mom's) and a wonderful outlook on life that is contagious.

Our van is fixed. We decided to bite the bullet, use the old credit card and get it fixed. We are off camping for a week in August to recharge and keep away from all forms of electronic media in order to hear "that still small voice". (And thank you Derek and Simone for thinking of us)

Elissa is home this week. Yahooh!

(Jeremiah 29: 11-12 NIV) For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Car troubles and more...

Alas, once again our family van has expired. This time it is a "front-end job", which translates into $2-thousand and I am, as usual, not flush with cash. The van has been a blessing to us, though, and the 300,000 km on it have really gotten our family around. With children growing up and reaching for their dreams, we are almost at the point where we can down-size to a mini-van. But, that too costs money...thank God for our wonderful little Echo, which manages to transport various members of the Gerk clam to and fro and even makes 2 trips to Church so we can get everyone there and back. Not sure what we will do

Tuesday will see Natalie and I travel to the Shriner's Hospital in Portland. Nat is having an assessment done regarding her scoliosis. Please pray we have a safe trip and that the examination goes well. They may or may not be able to help her, but we wanted to at least try!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW!!!

(Epheseans 5:20 NIV): "...always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Currently Watching:
Batman Begins: 2005

Wow, a great movie. Marina and I took Kimmy to see this, and we all agreed you can pretty much dump the old Batman movies and start again...which is what they are doing. Well done, believable and once again pointing to the age-old battle between good and evil.

(Revelation 17:14):They will go to war against the Lamb but the Lamb will defeat them, proof that he is Lord over all lords, King over all kings, and those with him will be the called, chosen, and faithful."

Currently watching (and listening to)
Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Original Soundtrack: 2005

Marina and I went to see this movie...certainly not for kids, nor is it a "family" movie. Best scenes: The Assassin's Tango and the scene where they both hunt each other in their home. Best music from the soundtrack: Mondo Bongo and Assassin's Tango. Other than that, stay at home.

Currently watching:
The Pelican Brief
(1983: DVD)

Currently watching:
Runaway Jury: DVD
(Widescreen Edition) (2003)

A Moment of Silence

(Thanks to Small Dead Animals)

Honest, I wasn't driving....

The Captain of this vessel deserves a medal. David told me as we heard the horn blow non-stop: "Well there's no doubt that ferry has a horn". Little did we know....

Home again...

Got home after my whirlwind trip to the island with David. I will sure miss him!! (He's working with some friends for a month) With the ferry mishap (photos on the way) to the wonderful and interesting drive to the middle of no-where, it was another Gerk adventure.

We sure do pick em.

Currently watching:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: DVD Boxed set
Jeremy Brett

Another scam in Nigeria?

Evangelist Benny Hinn needs a time out.

The BBC is reporting that Hinn was upset over smaller than expected crowds in his Nigerian crusades (They expected millions)

Stated the BBC:

"Four million dollars down the drain," he shouted into the microphone from the huge rostrum.

So much for priorities.

Ahh, this is the life

What can I say? I've been spoiled. Father's Day and my birthday all in the space of a week.

Marina made a wonderful dinner..and the kids....well...Mars Bars and Pepsi for Dad! A new PC game from David and Andrew (Cossacks 2)...movie from Steph and Nina....

It really doesn't get any better than this!! I love you all!! (And I still would even if you never gave me another Pepsi or Mars Bar again!)

Honest!!

God Bless Reader's Digest

You gotta love them. Most of us have, for years, endured the various telemarketers to manage to call us at all hours...in their never-ending quest to separate us from our money.

My Dad, John Gerk, died on November 27, 1992. He was the most awesome Dad anyone could have. I'll even write more about him in a later post.

What does he have to do with Reader's Digest?

My Mom just received another of those nice offers from Reader's Digest...contest and all, addressed to my Dad.

Only 13 years after he died, they still are trying to sign him up for the contest of a lifetime.

We did notify the nice folks at RD of my Dad's death, as Dad was always getting mail from them. It stopped for a time. Starts up every now and then.

But 13 years? I guess my Dad didn't realize that not only was his name written in the "Lamb's book of life", the Condensed version is being kept by Reader's Digest.

Revelation 21: 22-27 (NIV) I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Graduation

This past weekend was probably the busiest of our lives. Our #3 daughter, Natalie, graduated after 12 long and tortuous years. (that's how she would describe it) We are so proud of Nat, and our hope and prayer is that all her dreams will come true. She's gone through so much with all her surgeries, yet she is still here with a destiny! What can we say...we love her desperately and are thankful that God blessed us with her! You go girl!!

Romans 15:13 (NIV) May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

How I'll spend my summer vacation....

Or, the books I "hope" to read this summer.

Epic by John Eldridge
Five Days in London by John Lukacs (started but need to complete)
Created to be God's Friend by Henry T. Blackaby
Gulag by Anne Applebum
The Brother's Karamazov by Fydor Dostoyevsky

Allergies

Torture 101. That's right, I had my yearly allergy test where they stick about 50 needles into me, only to discover...are you sitting down...that I have allergies!!

The truth is, the test, the medicine, etc makes me grouchy for that day. What helped is my conclusion that King David must have been suffering from allergies too, because he writes:

Psalm 6:6 (NIV)I am worn out from groaning;
all night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears.

Obviously the symptoms of an allergy attack!

So, after 3 years of monthly allergy shots, I get to have a go for another year! Wahoo!

Pray for me.

Remember those in prison...

Voice of the Martyrs now has a blog: Christian Persecution Blog.
I encourage you to bookmark it and return often. (Thnx: BTW)

Hobbies and family go together...

Currently Reading:
Los Abuelos Alemanes del Volga
by Alberto Sarramone


From time to time you will see some sort of weird, foreign-language book posted. Usually that means I have been helping someone find family. Given our ties to Russia, I get a lot of mail, both snail and e-mail, from folks who have left Russia and settled in Germany. In most cases, they are looking for family that they have not heard from for over 50 years. During the time of Stalin, it was usually a death sentence to even admit you had relatives here in the west. The children of these folks, desperate to discover something about their past and that of their family, write in hopes we can provide leads to relatives that got out while they had a chance. Over the years I've had the priviledge of helping with the reunification of a number of these "returnees" and their families in North America, and in some cases, even Argentina. It's very satisfying and I work on it when I can. I'm currently helping a 90-year old lady in Germany find various family who either settled in the US or in Argentina. She usually writes to me in dialect, which means it takes me about 3 hours to decipher. This letter, however, is in Russian so Marina can read it for me while I take notes.

Psalm 78:1-7 (The Message) Listen, dear friends, to God's truth, bend your ears to what I tell you. I'm chewing on the morsel of a proverb; I'll let you in on the sweet old truths, Stories we heard from our fathers,counsel we learned at our mother's knee.
We're not keeping this to ourselves, we're passing it along to the next generation--
GOD's fame and fortune, the marvelous things he has done. He planted a witness in Jacob, set his Word firmly in Israel, Then commanded our parents to teach it to their children So the next generation would know, and all the generations to come--
Know the truth and tell the stories so their children can trust in God, Never forget the works of God but keep his commands to the letter.

Mazel tov!

Our good friends Dan and Bonnie will see their oldest daughter, Jessica, get married this weekend. A typical June wedding. Marina is busy helping out where she can, trying to be a blessing to the family. Our whole family is even invited, which is a blessing because we are a crowd wherever we go! It promises to be a joyous time with much feasting!!

Next week, Natalie graduates! Our third daughter will complete her twelve, long, grinding, never-ending years of school. Well done!!!

I'm working on a book list for the summer...that's right...an actual list of books I want to read during the summer months. I'll post them soon, you'll get a good idea of my interests (which are really all over the place).

Listening to:
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers [SOUNDTRACK]
Howard Shore

Memories of a life lived...

He came to this country in April of 1924. Born in Russia in 1902, he along with his wife, Elisabeth, left all their family in hopes of starting a new life. The plan was to bring the rest of the family here, but the iron curtain slammed shut, never to be opened for them. My grandfather, Paul Gerk, whom I never knew, died 51 years ago on June 3, 1954. From time to time I will mention my work on "the book". This is, of course, my attempt to document the life of my family in Russia, the sacrifices they made, the faith that sustained them, the terror that they lived through. I started this "hobby" when I was 18 years of age..so it really has been my life's work. I wanted something to give to my children, so they could tell the story to their children. Every year I say, "this is the year" and I plan to print it up. But of course, I was talking about THIS year...I'm publishing it this year...don't you know?In my spare time...honest. I really mean it this year!

Currently Reading:
Five Days in London, May 1940
John Lukacs

Listening to:
Welcome to Diverse City
Tobymac

Life is sometimes sad

Sad news from Russia. Our dear friends, Len and Olga, lost Olga's mother this past week. I know they had spent many hours speaking to her about God and faith and all those things that have changed their lives. I know she made a commitment to God, but her lifestyle was typically Russian, sad, melancholy with little hope. One wonders at times like this...we have all had loved ones, dear friends and others who have died and we ponder their ultimate fate.

I always think of that scripture:

"Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Genesis 18:25

It comforts us that no matter what, He will do what is right in His eyes. It's a matter of trust with us, isn't it? God gives an individual every opportunity to establish a relationship with Him. And I like to think that even in those twilight hours, when life slips away, He still works in a person's heart...attempting to lead them home. He never really gives up on us, does He?