Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Fun weekend

Hope you had a fun Memorial Day weekend! We went to Cleveland to see my parents. On Saturday we went to Put-In-Bay. Saturday was the first day people came over for the summer and I was amazed how many drunk people were on the island. Sunday we went to my parent's church. The church is sending some of their youth on a mission trip to Florida in June and they had a fundraiser lunch after church. It was nice to attend a fundraising event without having to work at it; simply come and enjoy! That night we saw my Mark and his fiancé Marjie. We can't go to their wedding in September so it was nice to spend time with them for a bit. We came back to Grand Rapids last night. Fun times!

We are getting more and more settled in the condo. The washer and dryer were delivered today. Since was purchased a gas dryer, the company has to come back on Thursday to install it as the people who deliver can't install gas dryers.

That's about all for now. How are you doing?

Sunday, May 22, 2005

We have moved...

Well the big move day has come and gone. Becca and I are now living in the condo. As I have said before, the process of moving makes me not want to move. Hopefully, the lesson learned during this weekend will stick and thus prevent us from moving again soon. We'll see how this works out...

I would say about 90% of our things are moved into the condo. At this point, we have to go back to the apartment to clean and paint some of the walls back. Our lease ends on May 31st so we have some time before everything has to be done. Fortunately, Becca already started painting so we don't have too much of that left to do.

Even though moving is a lot of work, as is owning your own home, I think I am going to enjoy life as a home owner. It was exciting to be able to put some things into the storage area in the basement so they are out of the way. It is also nice to have a separate living and family room. We decided to put the TV downstairs. I am glad we made this decision so we don't watch so much TV (though since we won't have cable here at the condo, the TV viewing will decrease anyway).

It has been nice to meet a couple of our neighbors since we moved in yesterday. I am hoping we will be able to meet many more in the days and weeks to come. The condo association appears to be a great neighborhood with many nice families. I am not 100% sure why God has lead us here (though I really like our condo) so it will be interesting to see how God uses us in our neighborhood.

On another front, 22 days from today Becca and I will be leaving for Thailand with the Vision Trip team from our church. We had a good weekend last weekend in Newberry, Michigan getting to know the team members better and seeing the team member interact with each other. We remain excited to see how God will use this trip in the lives of the teens, as well as ourselves. As I have said from the very beginning, I cannot help but be excited about what will happen when 12 teens and 3 leaders go to Thailand, learn about missions and cultures. When they return, I can't help but think they are going to want to do something. I have no idea what that will be, but I can't help but be excited about it.

Well, that's about all for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Satan is at work

This posting may be seen as controversial, however I feel the need to post this information and I pray God will use it for His purposes and for His glory.

I have been thinking a lot about the work of Satan lately. I think it is easy for me to forget about this in my daily life.

I Peter 5:8 says, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (NIV)

It is easy sometimes to overlook difficult times in life and not see things as instruments of the Devil for his purposes.

Romans 6:13 says, “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.” (NIV)

Satan's schemes and activities can make us discouraged. As I think about somethings going on in life right now it is easy to become discouraged. The more I think about these things I realise in the grander scheme of life and God's work they really just do not matter. Let me give you an example so you can understand better. On the mission trip my wife and I are leading along with one leader, there have been many discussions this week about what can be worn while we are in Thailand. Of what eternal significance is there to what we wear while we are in Thailand. How easy it is sometimes for Satan to distract us from the really important to the temporal, unimportant things. I have purposed to trust God to lead me into matters which are of eternal importance and leave the rest for God to handle. He is in control anyway. I need to surrender control to Him.

The challenge I receive today is to not be naïve to the fact that Satan is at work and his desire to use whomever and whatever to achieve his objectives. I need to continually bathe the work of God in prayer that God's workers may be protected from the enemy's attacks.

Addendum: Today I was to submit the quarterly Discovery Series booklet for the October-November-December Spanish & Portuguese offer. My boss informed me of a change in this booklet due to the great popularity of The DaVinci Code in Latin America. We will now be offering our Discovery Series booklet called The DaVinci Code: Separating Fact From Fiction. RBC Ministries has created a website with information about this book. Feel free to check it out. Also, let this serve as another reminder of Satan's work in this age.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Thailand Blog

As we prepare to go to Thailand I have been reading a lot about Thailand on the Internet. There is a link to this blog on the left hand side of this page. The guy who writes this blog is an expat from the UK. A lot of cultural information about Thailand on this page.

Friday, May 06, 2005

Change is good

I was inspired by the new layout on Amelia's blog to make some changes on mine. I am not as graphically inclined as Amelia or Ked so I borrowed this new layout from someone. I hope you like it.

I finally have some pictures of the inside of our condo on the internet. Click on the link to the left or here.

Becca and I plan to continue with our home improvements tonight with more wallpaper removal. She has also started painting our apartment back to white. There is much to be done, but fortunately we have until the 31st to be completely out of the apartment.

Becca posted on her blog last night so be sure to check it out.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Ah the joys of owning a home

For an update on the joys of owning a home, I refer you to a post on Amelia's blog where Becca and I have made comments. Hopefully there will be more comments forthcoming.

Have a great day!

Monday, May 02, 2005

Where's the pink????

One of my fellow bloggers has been talking about something pink for months but we have yet to see it. Please take this opportunity to blog a comment on her blog to ask about the pink. Hopefully if there is enough response, we'll learn what the pink is :)

Picture of our condo

Here is the long awaited first picture of our condo. I hope to post a link to more pictures later but here's one for now.