Happy Birthday David!!

18 years ago today we were given a wonderful gift....a young man who God has great things planned for. He is now 18, and we love David dearly. He is leadership material and our prayer is that he finds his calling, his destiny, and that he pursues it with all his might.

Happy Birthday Kimmy

Ahh, our dear Kimmy is now 13. Look out world.....

The First Sunday of Advent

Blogger and friend George Grant writes of the season:


"There is something about saying, 'We always do this,' which helps keep the years together. Time is such an elusive thing that if we keep on meaning to do something interesting, but never do it, year would follow year with no special thoughtfulness being expressed in making gifts, surprises, charming table settings, and familiar, favorite food. Tradition is a good gift intended to guard the best gifts." Edith Schaeffer

Throughout history, Christians have marked the passing of the days, weeks, and months of any given year with the sequential details of the Gospel story—with an anticipation of the coming of Jesus during Advent, His birth at Christmas, His trials, temptations, betrayal, and death during Lent, His resurrection at Easter, the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost, and then the growth and maturity of the church thereafter until the cycle is repeated the next year. In other words, the keeping of the seasons is a way for us to retell the Gospel every single year, from start to finish.

Advent is thus, the beginning of the “church year” or “church calendar.”

This season is one of those rare times when even the most spontaneous of us loves to recall old traditions and familiar legacies. We love to sing old carols. We love to break out the old dishes, the old recipes, and the old stories. Advent traditions abound.

For instance, the Advent season begins today--four Sundays prior to Christmas. Traditionally, Christian families and churches have celebrated this season of preparation each Lord’s day with the lighting of one candle in a small table-top evergreen circle--known as an Advent Wreath--accompanied by an appropriate Scripture reading. The candles vary in color from culture to culture, but generally the first three candles are red or purple and the last one is white or golden. For families that find themselves each year vowing that their celebration of the season will focus more on the real meaning of Christmas and less on the brouhaha, this is the place to begin to set the tone for the holidays.

Another enduring tradition is Saint Nicholas Day. Celebrated on December 6, this day recalls the selfless service of Nicholas of Myra (c. 288-354). The fourth century pastor ultimately inspired the tradition of Santa Claus. In reality, he was a model of graciousness, generosity, and Christian charity. His great love and concern for children drew him into a crusade that ultimately resulted in child protection laws that remained in force for more than a thousand years. His feast day is celebrated around the world. In the Netherlands, cookies and gingerbread treats are often placed in shoes or laid out stockings for the sleeping children--which may well have been the origin of Christmas gifts and hearthside stockings.

Regardless of what particular traditions our individual families celebrate, as we begin this new season of glad tidings, let us enter into a new season of Gospel retelling with great joy, remember the old paths, the old ways, and the old traditions, with new and fresh faith.

Happy Birthday Becky!

Our dear daughter, Becky, is now 23. She is a fine young woman who has a heart of gold. Her love of her family, her loyalty to family and friends, and her ability to bring a smile is deeply precious to us.

Becky, we love you dearly! Happy Birthday!

Chris Rice - Untitled Hymn (Come To Jesus) Lyrics

Weak and wounded sinner
Lost and left to die
O, raise your head, for love is passing by
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus and live!

Now your burden's lifted
And carried far away
And precious blood has washed away the stain, so
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus and live!

And like a newborn baby
Don't be afraid to crawl
And remember when you walk
Sometimes we fall...so
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus and live!

Sometimes the way is lonely
And steep and filled with pain
So if your sky is dark and pours the rain, then
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus and live!

O, and when the love spills over
And music fills the night
And when you can't contain your joy inside, then
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus and live!

And with your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side, and
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live!

Chris Rice: Come to Jesus

The Most Beautiful Picture in the world....

This past Sunday, the kids sat us down and presented us with a large photo they had arranged to be taken this past summer. Telling us it was instead of a party for our anniversary, it has to be just about the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

My thoughts ranged from are they all ours, to who is this crowd of people? But the truth is, their all ours, given to us by God as a gift.

I, above all men, am truly Blessed.

More photos coming....

Happy Birthday Marina

The love of my life is having a birthday today! Alas, she is still in Germany but returns home this week! Yahoo!

Happy Birthday my sweet!

A story that can now be told

Just shortly after the Russian revolution, during the time of the civil war in Russia, scores of young men found themselves trying to eliminate Bolsheviks that ruled them with an iron hand. While the Red Terror spread across Russia, one of my grandfather's older brothers, Jakob Gerk, fought alongside various groups of men trying to oust the commissars that ruled them. Communist officials sought to arrest Jakob, couldn't find him, so they arrested my grandfather instead. While languishing in prison, my grandfather heard a familiar voice...that of his brother Jakob who they had found after all! Not quick to correct an error, it took the forging of documents by Josef Hoffmann to arrange the release of all the men from our village. Near death, my grandfather and his brother returned to the village, with my grandfather having made the decision that he would flee Russia.

Uncle Jakob, for whatever reason, chose to stay. The next few years would see him marry and have children. One of those children, Lydia, we would meet at our family reunion.

The Stremel Family (Lydia Gerk Stremel on far right)

Lydia would fill in for us the missing information on what happened to this brave man. He would go out of his way to look for ways to feed his children, even as communist officials would make it more and more difficult for people to survive. "Sow what you have hidden" was the command from these cruel taskmasters, to people who had nothing. Thousands would starve in the 1930's (that's another story). Jakob would be arrested in 1938, charge with the crime of stealing grain to feed his children. He would be sentenced to 5 years in a labour camp, where he would die of starvation sometime in 1942. I say sometime, because our family never heard from him again. A fellow prisoner would later contact the family to let them know how Jakob perished. But this would be years after the fact.

But Jakob was a hero. I have one of the secret documents detailing communist officials disdain with Jakob and my family, dated 1938, from the archives. It's a fascinating read...accusing members of my family with anti-soviet activity...even my great-grandfather is accused of fighting against the Bolsheviks, and of course, our family was branded as "Kulaks".

One of my kids once suggested I worked on this hobby to show how we were related to royalty. How wrong that is! No royal blood flows in our veins. Instead, our family is made up of simple people who were, in my opinion, heroes. They loved their families, protected them, fed them, and then died for them. These are the stories I want to pass down to my children and their children.

I was proud to get a copy of a photo of Jakob and his wife, which I've posted here. It's amazing to see how our lives are made up of such stories, and that in the midst of hurt and tragedy, there are hopeful stories of faithfulness.

Happy 10th Birthday Steven!!

Steven is 10 years old! This young man who is so serious and already has plans to change the world! Wow...I never looked at life that way when I was his age. May God continue to shed His grace upon Steven...and we are so thankful he is a part of our family. We love you Steven!!

Summer...

The summer is whizzing by. Thankfully, we got a week of camping in and the weather was wonderful! But of course, our tent trailer died and sits in our driveway broken. What to do next? Who knows..it is ancient - from 1972 and they don't make them anymore. We love camping..I guess we will see what God will come up with.

Marina leaves on Monday for a whole month!! Her Mom and Dad had a holiday planned to Germany - Marina's Mom won't travel on her own so she is using her Dad's points and travelling with her Mom...it will be a good break for Marina but a month is a long time. I think I'll be OK but the little things like doing Ashley's hair and doing laundry do intimidate me. Meals and everything else I can handle. I'll keep on going into work at 6 so I'm home with the kids relatively early. This will be an adventure that is for sure. I'm feeling positive about it and I know God will take care of all of us!

Derek, how about lunch?

Happy Birthday Andrew!!

Our oldest son, Andrew, is now 19 years old. Wow!!

Andrew has grown into a fine young man and we pray that God will continue to lead and guide him into his destiny!

Andrew, we love you and we pray for good things for you!!

Weird Guy

Gotta love this post:

Weird GuyTopic: "God Is Not Great"
Christopher Hitchens is interviewed in the latest Atlantic Monthly about all the debates he was in promoting his book on atheism. That would include, of course, the CT debate he had with me. Some fun stuff shakes out in this.

"What I haven’t had from anyone, in print or in person, is any argument that surprised me, that I couldn’t have completely predicted."

This is amazing stuff, really. I have never met anyone before who could completely predict all the questions he wouldn't be able to answer.

And the interviewer -- a very sharp someone named Jennie Rothenberg Gritz -- brings up the CT debate:
"What about the question of morality without God? Al Sharpton spent a lot of time grilling you on that. And it was also a major theme in your email debate with the Christian author Douglas Wilson at Christianity Today."

Hitchens responded here with a two word answer: "Weird guy." Okay, so we don't disagree completely.

The interviewer then summarized my argument, showing that she understood it completely.

"Wilson insisted that if you took Jesus out of the equation, the words 'right' or 'wrong' would have no meaning. Thoughts in the brain would just be a series of chemical reactions, like bubbles in a soft drink. As he put it, 'If you were to take a bottle of Mountain Dew and another of Dr. Pepper, shake them vigorously, and put them on a table, it would not occur to anyone to ask which one is ‘winning the debate.’ They aren't debating; they are just fizzing.'"

Quite admirable. But then Hitchens soars off into something that a translator of the King James Version would have described as an observation "that followeth not, no way."
"What he’s saying is that if he ceases to believe in Jesus, he’s going to instantly become an immoral person. It’s a terrible admission to have made! It’s an awful insult to human self-respect to say that. And they don’t seem to understand that they give themselves over in that way. It’s like saying that nothing would stop me from raping you now if I weren’t under the supervision of a heavenly dictator. And I have a higher opinion of myself than that."

Oh, well. One more time, for old time's sake. No, I am not saying that I would become an immoral person. It is in the highest degree likely that I would become an irrational person, like Hitchens, using words like "self-respect" and "awful" and "immoral" when I have no concrete way of defining those terms, or defending the definitions once I had hauled them out of my pile of emotional residue from my Christian upbringing. I would be, in short, just like Hitchens, pinned to the wall. I would extricate myself by saying that "I have a higher opinion of myself than this."

We dare say you do.

Happy Birthday Kristina!!

Wow...our "American" girl is 14...A delight to have around and a great basketball player.

May she do great things for the Kingdom of God.

We love you Nina!

Father's Day

Ahhhh, once again I am a man blessed like no other. My family gives in to my chocolate cravings at various special events, and today was no exception!

Thanks gang, for thinking of me!!

So I'm busy....

Sigh...am I so predictable?

Your Russian Name Is...

Igoryok Jeirgif Novikov

What's Your Russian Name?

You Are Ned Flanders

A good neighbor and a devout Christian, you are a community leader. And you are called to make the world a better place, especially for left handed people. You will be remembered for: your goofy expressions - "hi-dilly, ho-dilly!" Your life philosophy: "I've done everything the Bible says - even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff!"

The Simpsons Personality Test

Mexico

As I've written before, the Grade 11 class from heritage Christian School is in Puerto Escondido on a misisons trip for six weeks. I encourage you to read their blog...the kids are writing some fascinating accounts of life there and the lessons God is teaching them. David is among them. We heard from him the other day as he was tring to call home for Mother's Day. He's sick with an ear infection and working. We miss him but this is an adventure like no other.

Ramblings....

In Abbotsford for a meeting of home schooling Mom's. A great chance to PR the school as well as meet a number of our enrolled families. Marina got to go with me, so this was special!! Adult conversation for Marina! A quiet dinner, IKEA and the dollar store were on the agenda. Life doesn't get any better. Took a walk at Bridle Falls, my fav place, and it was wonderful!

Greg is in Russia meeting with Len and staff, so we will get the lowdown on possiblities in Russia next week. God is good!

Happy Birthday Ashley!!

Wow, our very own princess is now 6 years old! It seems only yesterday we brought her home from the hospital (yes, we made it to the hospital for this one!).

She's a special little girl whom we love a lot!

The Great Debate

With thanks to the folks at Christianity Today for this fascinating debate....read on...

David in Mexico

On his second missions trip, our David is now in sunny Puerto Escondido, in Mexico, with Heritage Christian School. He is there for 6 weeks!!

The students have a blog, and naturally, don't post in it because they are sooooo busy with studies, surfing and making a difference.

Seriously, it is a great program that kids not only get grad credits for, but they make a difference in the lives of students in Puerto. It is called the Global Citizenship Program, the dream of Steve Smith.

A great effort and we are praying daily for the team and for David!!

Johnny Hart

My good friend George Grant has written on his blog:

In 1996, the Los Angeles Times and a host of other newspapers around the country refused to print Johnny Hart’s Palm Sunday BC comic strip. It was apparently too politically incorrect--or perhaps, too evangelically incorrect.
The comic had Wiley--a brooding, poet-wannabe in the strip’s pre-historic cast of characters--sitting against a tree, tablet in hand, writing a poem entitled "The Suffering Prince":

Picture yourself tied to a tree,condemned of the sins of eternity.Then picture a spear, parting the air,seeking your heart to cut your despair. Suddenly—a knight, in armor of white,stands in the gap betwixt you and its flight, And shedding his 'armor of God' for you—bears the lance that runs him through. His heart has been pierced that yours may beat,and the blood of his corpse washes your feet. Picture yourself in raiment white,cleansed by the blood of the lifeless knight.Never to mourn,the prince who was downed, For he is not lost! It is you who are found.

The brouhaha over the censorship did not stop Johnny, a committed believer, from continuing to mark the Christian year with special comics in BC or The Wizzard of Id. And it did not hamper his excellence or popularity--over the years he came to be syndicated in more than 1100 newspapers and he was able to win every award a cartoonist could win and several more that you wouldn’t think he could have.

This year, his Easter Sunday strip was his last. Johnny Hart died on Saturday following a stroke at the age of 76. To the end, he was true to his art and true to his faith:

Christ is Risen!!!

He is Risen Indeed!!!

Happy Birthday Elissa!!

Wow, we have a daughter that is 24. Where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday, she was playing with her dolls, feeding her "family".

Now she is a fine young woman of 24.

Happy B-day Elissa! Mom and I love you more than you know!!

Vindication or choosing an ethical Cola

Those who know me and/or tolerate me, understand my deep affection for all things Pepsi. Vindication has arrived. The universe is unfolding as it should. Read on:

Black heroes of the cola wars

Jonathan Kay
National Post Tuesday, March 13, 2007

The next time you drink a Pepsi, take a moment to think about the role the beverage played in the early days of the civil-rights struggle. Mere sugar water it may be. But in the early 1940s, Pepsi-Cola was one of the only big American companies willing to give blacks a chance to prove themselves as white-collar talent.

The story of the cola wars is taught often as a business-school case study. However, the battle had a fascinating sociological dimension as well. When Pepsi began challenging Coca-Cola in the 1930s, the upstart was decidedly down-market, selling its product in cheap recycled beer bottles instead of Coca-Cola's distinctive glassware. Both drinks cost a nickel.

But Pepsi gave buyers 12 ounces while Coca-Cola delivered six, making Pepsi more popular with impoverished labourers and teenagers. Older readers may remember the famous 1939 jingle: Pepsi- Cola hits the spot. Twelve full ounces, that's a lot. Twice as much for a nickel, too. Pepsi- Cola is the drink for you!(Amazingly, most Americans then believed 12 ounces of soda was more than one person could drink at a sitting. Lord knows what they would have made of the 32-oz. supersize servings we now buy in movie theatres and gas stations.)

Pepsi was then by far the smaller operation: In 1939, its sales were US$4.87-million, a drop in the bucket compared to Coca-Cola's US$128-million. Eager to build market share, Walter S. Mack, Jr., who became Pepsi's president in 1938, began reaching out to a demographic that Coca- Cola had largely ignored: America's 13 million blacks. Thus was born Pepsi's "Negro market" team, a specially recruited cadre of black marketing men led by a charismatic National Urban League veteran named Edward F. Boyd.

Boyd's reps traveled the country, visiting African-American Elks Clubs, black mom-and-pop stores, and jitterbug competitions. Their efforts created a profitable niche for Pepsi, one that helped the company survive at a time when it was flirting with bankruptcy.

As Wall Street Journal reporter Stephanie Capparell describes in her new book, The Real Pepsi Challenge, the bald-faced discrimination endured by Boyd's promotions men was appalling. In the Jim Crow South, finding a hotel room was impossible. When they rode in Pullman sleeping cars, conductors would force them to draw their shades lest white passengers complain. At times, Negro-market agents literally put their life on the line for Pepsi: As late as the 1950s, lynchings remained common in many parts of the U.S. South.

Even at Pepsi's own corporate events, racism was evident. Boyd, for instance, felt compelled to bring his wife to internal social functions -- to allay white co-workers' fears that he would ravish their women then and there. In one notorious 1949 speech, Mack himself reportedly exhorted his employees "to give Pepsi a little more status, a little more class [so] it will no longer be known [merely] as a nigger drink."

The black men who carried briefcases for Pepsi in these early days were heroes of a sort. You often hear people talk about the "emergence of a black middle class" in casual tones, as if this sociological stratum sprang into being spontaneously. But of course, it didn't. It happened because people like Boyd made it happen; because they braved the threats, and exceeded the expectations, imposed upon them by a bigoted society.

The world is obviously very different now. Yet our fixation on race continues. The more Western societies drove true racism into extinction, the more obsessed our elites became with rooting out its faint (or even nonexistent) traces through censorship and propaganda. In the 1940s, the fight against racism was symbolized by men such as Boyd and the great Jackie Robinson (who played his first game at Ebbets Field 60 years ago this spring).

Today, it is symbolized by the windbags from the United Nations' Geneva- based Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, who last week commanded the Canadian government to expunge the term "visible minorities" from official documents, in favour of some other (unspecified) warm-and-fuzzy euphemism. One good reason to read The Real Pepsi Challenge is to remind us that, until relatively recently, the campaign against racism was a profound life-and-death phenomenon for millions of blacks, not the politically correct farce it's become in the hands of the human rights mandarins who run our universities, government tribunals and NGOs.

Men such as Edward F. Boyd represented the best of the civil-rights struggle: the ideal that individuals should be judged on the content of their character, not the colour of their skin. Sadly, we've turned that noble creed into a cult of collective rights and whiny political correctness. Too bad the original spirit couldn't be put in a bottle and passed around like sugar water. I'd buy that for a nickel.

Jkay@nationalpost.com

Now, if we can set our sites on this silly PC vs. Mac war, my Mac-obsessed friends will see the error of their ways.

Sacred Space

Ahhhhhhh, like cold water on a hot day, this web site gives nourishment for the soul. I've added it to my list of special and favorite places.

Take time today to nourish your soul, too. It's a busy world. Grace and Peace to you!!

Made it...

The weekend is over. Family have gone home. Now the healing can begin, again...

It's amazing how I come across songs that express things in my own life. Again, Ortega captures life in amazing ways... I am blessed!

A Place On The Earth

Find me a place on the earth
Where a weary man can rest
And listen for your voice
In the turning seasons

A quiet place in the world
Where I can bow
And confess that I fear
Where you have brought me,
Mysterious God

All of my life
You have been with me
My comfort in loneliness
My hope in the dark
All of my life
Lord, please stay with me
Be my sustaining breath
Guardian of my heart

My days are passing by
Like falling stars
That blaze across the night sky
Then they are gone

But Father, at your side
I will never be afraid
For you have held all my days
In the palm of your hand

All of my life
You have been with me
My comfort in loneliness
My hope in the dark
All of my life Lord,
please stay with me
Be my sustaining breath
Guardian of my heart

All of my life
You have been with me
My comfort in loneliness
My hope in the dark
All of my life
Lord, please stay with me
Be my sustaining breath
Guardian of my heart

Be my sustaining breath
Guardian of my heart

Be my sustaining breath
Be my sustaining breath
Be my sustaining breath

Now the hard part....

The next few days will be the most difficult of all. First, is the viewing and family time on Friday night...an old custom. Then the service and burial. The children are going through all their own emotions, as can be expected. As a Dad I need to help them understand that this goodbye is NOT forever! We WILL see Opa again...because he humbled himself and accepted the wonderful gift available to all of us.

Many family members are here, Mom and Marina are working hard at making sure everything goes smoothly, everything has fallen into place, as it always does at a time like this.

Believe it or not this is a precious, special time. When a death occurs in a family, the heart is tender, because a door to heaven has been opened, leaving the mind clear to sense the presence of God. Life and its true meaning are layed out before us. Questions never asked are pondered.
God can use this time to remind us what is important.

May I learn His lessons.

Safe now with Jesus

Early this evening, about 5:45 pm, Marina's Dad, Hans Loewen, passed from this world into eternity. Marina and I were with him at the time of his passing.

He was 67, just 5 days short of his 68th birthday. He recommitted his life to Jesus in the final days of his life, and so we do not grieve as those with no hope.

The family comforted themselves by reading Psalm 23 and then praying together.

God is faithful. There is really nothing much more to add than that!

Again, please pray for the family, especially the children who will miss their Opa. Also pray that God will use the opportunity to show Opa's brother, Peter, his need for Him!

Sing to Jesus

Just discovered this artist, and his work is profound!!

From the album, Storm, by Fernando Ortega, this song gives me much strength and hope!! May the Peace of Jesus fill you and surround you as well!

Come and see, look on this mystery
The Lord of the Universe, nailed to a tree
Christ our God, spilling His Holy blood
Bowing in anguish, His sacred head

Sing to Jesus, Lord of our shame
Lord of our sinful hearts.
He is our great Redeemer.
Sing to Jesus, Honor His name.
Sing of His faithfulness, pouring His life out unto death

Come you weary and He will give you rest
Come you who mourn, lay on His breast
Christ who died, risen in Paradise
Giver of mercy, Giver of Life

Sing to Jesus His is the throne
Now and forever,
He is the King of Heaven.
Sing to Jesus, we are His own.
Now and forever sing for
the love our God has shown.

Sing to Jesus, Lord of our shame
Lord of our sinful hearts.
He is our great Redeemer.
Sing to Jesus, Honor His name.

Sing to Jesus His is the throne
Now and forever,
He is the King of Heaven.
Sing to Jesus, we are His own.
Now and forever sing for the love our God has shown.

Boring?

One of the nice things about a blog, or boring, depending on who you are, is the fact that bloggers will write about anything that comes to mind. In my case, I write about my thoughts, or at least SOME of them, and what is profound to me at this moment. You might think they are petty, or even silly, but to me, well, it is my life.

Marina and I are currently dealing with all the emotions and activities that a family goes through when dealing with a terminal illness. Marina's Dad is not expected to live through the week. It's been a battle with cancer (and oh, how I hate cancer!!) that has lasted a year. It brings up many questions, things I argue with God about, and has opened some old wounds that are there from the death of my own Dad through cancer.

I ask you to please pray for our family. The children especially, but also Marina because there will be much placed on her shoulders in the coming months, I know she can handle it (God has given her much strength) but still, we can't do anything without the peace and grace that God gives.

On a happier note, Opa made his peace with God through all of this. One of the most profound things in the universe continues to be the forgiveness that God offers ALL of us. His Grace, Peace and Love knows no bounds!

Paradise

Marina and I have returned from our trip to Paradise! It was a tough call whether we would actually go, but in the end after prayer and counsel we decided we needed to get away for a time. And what can we say? The place we stayed was amazing, the people more amazing, and the location....stunning, warm and just beautiful!

We even tried scuba-diving!! It was a wonderful experience!

Becky & Jenna held the fort for us....and what a Blessing!!

More later about this wonderful trip! Meanwhile, you can look at our photo album here.

Happy Birthday to the Natster!!

Ahh, our sweet little Natalie turned 20!! Yikes!! Say it isn't so!!

Nat is 20!!! May your days be Blessed! May God lead you, guide you and keep you in the palm of His hand!!

We love you Natalie!!

The Russians are coming, the Russians are....

Finished a wonderful week with my good and dear friend, Len, from Moscow. Who would have thought a train ride 15 years ago would lead to a wonderful friendship, and impact a nation?

Len was here to see what we do with the Online School, and if the potential exists to work together. Greg is a visionary, so I know things will progress as God gives direction and leadership.

It's a dream and prayer come true.

(Plus I got Len to shovel the walk!)

Happy Birthday David!

Our second son is now 17, well within his grasp of 18! We love David and he holds a special place in our hearts. Happy Birthday David!

Being Real

Lunch with Derek was great as usual. Everyone should have friends such as these...people you can be REAL with, and can speak your mind about this pilgrimage we are all on.

Brought to mind the following song by Casting Crowns:

Stained Glass Masquerade

Is there anyone that fails
Is there anyone that falls
Am I the only one in church today feelin’ so small

Cause when I take a look around
Everybody seems so strong
I know they’ll soon discover
That I don’t belong

So I tuck it all away,
like everything’s okay
If I make them all believe it,
maybe I’ll believe it too
So with a painted grin,
I play the heart again
So everyone will see me
the way that I see them

Are we happy plastic people
Under shiny plastic steeples
With walls around our weakness
And smiles to hide our pain
But if the invitation’s open
To every heart that has been broken
Maybe then we close the curtain
On our stained glass masquerade

Is there anyone who’s been there
Are there any hands to raise
Am I the only one who’s traded
In the altar for a stage

The performance is convincing
And we know every line by heart
Only when no one is watching
Can we really fall apart

But would it set me free
If I dared to let you see
The truth behind the person
That you imagine me to be

Would your arms be open
Or would you walk away
Would the love of Jesus
Be enough to make you stay

Joy in our Hearts....

What can we say? On this date, 12 years ago, God gave us a delightful little package whom we named Kimberly Joy.

Now she has been exactly that. Joy. Kim brightens up our lives in so many ways. And we look forward in great anticipation of what God will do with her and through her.

Happy Birthday Kimmy!!

С новым годом!

Yes, The Russian way of saying Happy New Year!

May 2007 be a year filled with health, happiness and the wonder of God!

Post-Christmas

Our children totally spoiled us. Getting together they pooled their money to give us a large chunk so Marina and I could go to Mexico this winter, all to celebrate our 25th (which, BTW, given all the health issues in the family, we have had neither time nor energy to plan).

Can I write here that our children are the greatest gift we have ever been given? I am in awe.
Thank you Lord for such precious gifts!