Home Improvements

Well home improvement is definitely happening in our home today. We are having new windows installed in the guest room and our bedroom. Also, the window installer is able to fix our sliding door. There is an expression out there "Measure twice, cut once." Well let's just say those who installed the slider originally probably measured once and cut a few times. As of now the front window is installed and the window in our bedroom is being worked on. My dad came up to be in our house for the day so the installer could get the work done. We are both very glad Dad come up to help us. I don't think we would have been able to get this done otherwise. Friday the carpet will be installed and the living room will be successfully unrecognizable :) I am excited we are getting this work done. I hope you're having a great day! tmsaisti (I'll try to get some after pictures posted in a few days so you can see the exciting improvements.)

Laundry Love

This is the title of today's meditation in the Our Daily Bread. I have been challenged a lot over the past days and weeks with my attitude at work. My work can be stressful at times, but I need to have a good attitude and I do want to demonstrate this. God has provided this job and I want to serve Him where He has placed me. The meditation from the ODB talked about a university student who worked in a residential treatment center. When the teenagers at the center received new clothing from their parents, this man offered to wash the clothing separately. The word of this kindness spread quickly throughout the center and soon he was doing a lot of special laundry. This special laundry was a great act of love and kindness. This challenged me because I should want to do the same for anyone I meet, whether I really like them or not. As I read this article I was reminded of customers at work I find annoying or people at our church that we do not agree with. I John 3:18 says we are to love in deed and truth, not in word and in tongue. I don't think that means I should say loving words, but the act of love should go far beyond my words and proceed to actions. What a powerful witness it would be if we showed love regardless of what someone has done and leave the judging to God Himself.

The Enemy is definitely still on the job...

I have been convinced for a long time that the Enemy is still at work, but this reality has been driven home to us today. The church we are attending had a no confidence vote today for the current pastor (who is a very good friend of ours). The vote ended up being 13 having no confidence and 3 having confidence. I can't say the pastor is perfect; no one is perfect except Jesus Himself. I also can't say he hasn't done anything wrong because I am sure he has at some point, but what I can say with certainly is, I believe the vision he has for the church is from God and the reasons for no confidence in him are from Satan himself. I could say the unfavorable people are just against change, but I don't think that accurately covers the scope of what is happening. Spiritual warfare is being waged and we must stand up and fight. I am thankful the pastor of the church wants to continue to fight amidst must opposition. Please pray for him and his family. Also, please let this story and others which could be told serve as a reminder "...Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (I Peter 5:8).

More Alaska Pictures

Some pictures from Alaska...enjoy

our home away from home - the m.s. oosterdam

We're back

What an amazing week we had last week on the cruise! I honestly think I need to go on a diet because of so much food that we ate. The scenery in Alaska and British Columbia was beautiful. We had a great time with my parents and sister. We had so many adventures once we were off the boat getting to the hotel. The customer service was amazing on the boat, however once we got off the boat, things did go down hill. I don't want to sound ungrateful because we really did enjoy the vacation. I'll just say things were more interesting once we left the boat.

 

I'll be sharing more stories and hopefully pictures in the days and weeks to come. Hope you're having a great day

The vacation starts tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well tomorrow is the long awaited day Becca and I go on vacation. Our day will start very early in the morning when we get in the taxi at 4:30! L Our flight leaves Grand Rapids at 6 and we’ll be in Seattle by 10:30. I’m excited we have some time to explore Seattle before my parents and sister arrive. We’ll get on the boat on Saturday and the cruise begins! We’ll take lots of pictures and hopefully we’ll be able to share some of them with you when we return. See you in 10 days!

Happy 4th of July

Hope everyone in the US enjoys the day today. Hope my friends around the world have a good day too. We are very excited with the trip to Alaska coming up on Friday. It is exciting to look at the weather and the sites around Seattle and other cities will be visiting. We had a scare yesterday as some of flights were changed without the airline letting us know. My plan is to call the airline everyday (except today) to see if anything changes. It is sad I cannot trust the airline to give me the information but I'm over it.

 

That's my story for now. Nothing too exciting around here. What are you up to today?

9 days!!!!!

I was reading a magazine today during lunch and learned how Seattle’s Best Coffee received its name. Many years ago (the number 35 comes to mind) there was a competition amongst coffee companies in Seattle to see who had the best coffee. At that time, this company’s coffee was rated #1 so they changed their name to Seattle’s Best Coffee. They had done their best to maintain this reputation ever since. Perhaps I should find their coffee instead of one of their competitors. Who knows?! J

 

2 weeks and counting!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 weeks from today we will be on vacation in Alaska on our cruise. I am really looking forward to our time away together. I must say the 1^st thing on my list once we arrive in Seattle is to find a latte stand and find coffee. Seattle is a coffee lover’s “Mecca” and I must take advantage of this. Hope you are having a great day! Have a good weekend!

Back From the "Dead"

A friend of mine strongly suggested that I post something on my blog so here I am. I can post by email so that is helpful. Many things have been going on in our lives the past few months. It would take a really long time to catch you up on so we can start again from where we are now. The exciting news is we are waiting for our cruise vacation in July. We’re headed to Alaska with my parents and sister. We’ll be there for a week and it should be very nice! Everyone is telling me it is a very beautiful time of year to go to Alaska. If you have been there, please feel free to comment about your experiences there. More later…

 

Lent update and weekend

I think I've decided what I'm going to "give up" in observance of Lent. I must warn you this is not a traditional item given up for Lent. I've decided that I will stop biting my finger nails. This is something I need to do anyway, however "giving it up" for lent is a good short term goal. Feel free to ask me about this from time to time.

We were in Cleveland this weekend visiting my parents. Spent some time with Mark & Margie on Saturday night. The restaurant where we ate was horrible. I will not put their name on here but I will say we waited close to 10 minutes to be seated and more than 40 minutes for our food (Part of the food we waited on was appetizers that should have been served right away). Suffice it to say, our waitress received about $2 in tips between our two bills which were about $40. I know the waiters and waitresses out there are going to say that they need tips to make a decent hourly wage. I agree with this, however I think tips should be earned and not given (like a lot of things).

Well I better get back to work...

tmsaisti

Lent - What Should I Give Up?

Lent officially starts tomorrow and I'm looking for your input. I have never really observed lent, but I have been thinking about it the past couple of days and I think there are some merits to it. I think sometimes we focus on the celebration part of Easter but miss the preparation part. Lent is that preparation.

One popular part of Lent is giving something up. I don't think I'm going to come anywhere close to sacrificing like Jesus did, but I think giving something up is a good idea. Becca and I talked about this tonight. She is probably going to give up sweets and chocolate. I'm not sure what I'm going to give up. I do not want to give up coffee. I am drinking less each day, but I do not want to give it up altogether. This is where you all come in. Please send me some comments with what you think would be something good to give up. I look forward to reading your feedback.

HELP...I'm trying to sell my PDA

Hello worldwide friends...I need your help. Here is a link to an eBay auction where I am trying to sell my PDA. This is really a good deal. (Yes, I know this is shameless promotion, but work with me.) If you add up the retail value of everything I am selling, it would be more than twice what I am asking for. If you or someone you know is looking for a PDA, please direct them here.

 

Let's join together and get this great PDA sold :) Thanks for your help!

The Second Chance Movie

Hello again everyone. Sorry for the very long silence.

 

Last night Becca and I went to see The Second Chance Movie. I hope many of you were able to see the movie where you live. It seems like this weekend might be a test before they release the movie in more theatres next weekend. I know here in Michigan the movie is only showing in two theatres: Celebration North in Grand Rapids and Cinemark 20 in Grandville. If you are at all able, please go out and support this movie. I will not promise a huge budget blockbuster, but I think it is a good movie. Michael W Smith is the star and he portrays an associate pastor of a suburban church with a ministry to an inner city church. You'll have to watch the movie to learn more. Let me know what you think.

End Of the Spear

I wanted to do my part to get the word out about End Of the Spear. This movie opens in theatres tomorrow January 20th. The movie is the story about 5 missionaries who were martyred in the jungles of Ecuador, attempting to share the Gospel with the Waorani Indian tribe. I am really excited to learn more about this event that has inspired so many to be involved in missions around the world and here in the United States.

 

Will post my thoughts on here when I've seen the movie. Let me know what you think when you have seen it.

Coffee quiz link

Here is a link if you want to do the Coffee quiz below. For some reason, the link wasn't included when I posted it here. Enjoy!

What Kind Of Coffee Are You?

You Are an Espresso

At your best, you are: straight shooting, ambitious, and energetic At your worst, you are: anxious and high strung You drink coffee when: anytime you're not sleeping Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Does Your Sneeze Reveal About You

I actually could not believe I heard this phrase on the radio this morning. However since reading the article about it, I thought this was too funny not to pass along.

Being good isn't good enough...

The following is an email I received from a missionary friend in Thailand.

 

I just sat down to check my e-mail... I didn't have anything. My eyes caught one of the older guys who is working for us building the water tank and future garage. These people live just down the road from us in make shift homes made out of tin and bamboo. They are construction workers and live like this all their lives. He was taking a break; a well deserved break, and just staring at the tree or something in that direction. I noticed as he was staring, that he has a large tumor on his neck. My guess is that he probably has cancer because he smokes tribal cigarettes and chews who knows what. Unfortunately that is common around here. Anyway, he has those kind of eyes that are soft and tender looking, non-judgmental, and non-condemning. As he stared at whatever he was staring at, the thought ran through my mind of how hard it is sometimes to be here in Thailand among people who have been blinded by our adversary and do not want to hear about the gospel. Yes, they are good people, honest, caring, and quite generous even though they have very little... but that isn't good enough is it. The road is straight and narrow. It demands only one thing. That we confess that we are sinners and by faith we accept the finished work of Jesus Christ... his death, burial and resurrection. This is the only acceptable payment for our sin. It is so simple and yet for the most part Thai people will have nothing to do with it. Not all of them of course. Christ is building His church in Thailand, but the blinders have been put on and most of them don't even know it.  It is hard and yet I know that it is through our lives and the life that we live in Christ that many will be drawn to Him. One of the people (a lady) that was working for us for these past 3 days mentioned to Dave that she would have liked to not work at the other job that they had off from for the New Year celebration, and would like to continue to work for us. "We were so kind", she said. "We were different", she said. Just pray with us that they would one day understand the story of Salvation... the life that WILL set them free.

 

God is doing a work around the world and in Thailand. Matthew 16:18 says "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it" (NIV). This promise of God toward Peter applies to all of us who have called upon His name and accept Him as Saviour. Please pray for this family that God will encourage them as they serve Him.

Happy 2006!

Well this is the long overdue blog entry from the Holidays! Becca and I were with her family on Christmas Day. Wonderful time had by all. On 26 December we went to Ann Arbor to spend time with my family. Ann Arbor was the pre-determined "mid-way" point between Grand Rapids and Cleveland. We ate at a wonderful restaurant called Paesano's. If you are ever in the area, I highly encourage you to check it out and do not forget to bring your credit card with you.

 

The week between Christmas and New Years is a pretty dead week at work so I took as much time off as I could...2 days :( The other bad thing is that I was in the office on both days that I was supposed to take off. I need to reconcile that this week and take another afternoon off I think. We were closed on 2 January which was nice. Becca's work was also closed so we spent the day together. Let me back up to the weekend before New Years.

 

Before we moved into our condo we knew that we would need to replace the toilet seal in the 1/2 bathroom downstairs. This project has gotten away from us, but in light of leaking onto the washer downstairs, this project became an urgent priority. Becca and I went to Home Depot and got a toilet seal (this was a story in and of itself...will post more about it later). On Saturday morning, Becca's mom came over and she and Becca took care of this. I am not the handiest person with house work so I defer to the experts and help out in any way that I can. This policy works very well with Becca and her mom. A few months ago Becca and I purchased a cabinet that sits on top of the toilet for the 1/2 bathroom. Becca and her mom also put this together. In addition to all of this, Becca (with some help from me) painted the 1/2 bathroom so the really horrible pink color is gone. I will post pictures of the bathroom with the new gray color soon.

 

For Christmas, Becca and I bought ourselves a stereo from Target for the living room. After Becca put away the Christmas decorations we put up the stereo. It is certainly very nice to have a stereo in there.

 

We spent New Years Eve night with a family from our church and some other couples. We played some very fun, but interesting games. Got home close to 2am and was at church later that morning at 9:30. Needless to say we both took a nap Sunday afternoon. New Years Day night we were invited to dinner at the Keizers. Spent a lot of time reflecting on the Thailand trip this past June. I really enjoy times like this because it reconnects me to the trip. It feels like it was so long ago that we were in Thailand. We started talking about when the next trip would be and where we might go. Exciting discussions!

Well I'm back at work now. Back to the grind I guess. How was your Christmas and New Years? Does your family have any traditions you do each year?

Christmas Gift

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. Spent Christmas Day with Becca's parents and met my parents and sister in Ann Arbor yesterday. Did check out the University of Michigan while we were in town.

 

I would be remiced if I did not mention one of the gifts I received on Christmas. Here is a link so you can see what they look like. Enjoy!

Pistol Packin' Mama

This is a true account recorded in Police Log of Sarasota, Florida. An elderly Florida lady did her shopping and upon returning to her car found 4 males in the act of leaving with her vehicle. She dropped her shopping bags, drew her handgun, and proceeded to scream at the top of her voice, "I have a gun, and I know how to use it! Get out of my car!"

The four men didn't want for a second invitation. They got out and run like mad. The lady somewhat shaken then proceeded to load her shopping bags into the back of the car and got into the driver's seat. She was so shaken that she could not get her key into the ignition. She tried and tried and then it dawned on her why.

For the same reason she did not understand why there was a football, a frisbee and two 12 packs in the front seat. A few minutes later, she found her own car parked 4 or 5 spaces farther down. She loaded her bags into the car and drove to the police station to report her mistake.

The sergeant to whom she told the story couldn't stop laughing. He pointed to the other end of the counter where the 4 pale men were reporting a car jacking by a mad, elderly woman described as white, less than 5 feet tall, glasses, curly white hair, and carrying a large handgun. No charged were filed.

Moral of the story: If you're having a senior moment, make sure it's memorable.

This Year In Pictures

I just looked at the year in pictures 2005 on MSNBC's website. These pictures are amazing. Make sure to look at both Editor's choice and reader's choice. You can cast your ballot for the pictures you like too.

Twas the Blog Before Christmas

'Twas the blog before Christmas, when all through the house
No blogger was stirring, no hand moved the mouse.
The postings were stacked by the tag cloud with care,
In hopes that more readers soon would be there;

The users were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of updates danced in their heads;
And me with my podcast, downloaded like that,
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,

When out from my laptop there arose such a clatter,
I sprang to my desk to see what was the matter.
Away to the portal I flew like a flash,
Tore open the reader and refreshed the cache.

The enclosure attached soon gave me to know
That new entries were here, more news I should know.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a raft of new updates, eight headlines so clear,

With a quick Wiki update, who could it be?
Our investor, of course, a leading VC.
More rapid than eagles his portfolio came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Blogspot! Now Feedster! now, Movable Type!
On, FeedBurner, FeedBlitz! (On Marketing Hype!)
To the top of the feed! To the top of them all!
Now blog away! blog away! blog away all!"

As valuations that before the wild bubble do fly,
When they meet with a fund, mount up to the sky,
So up to the top of the investments they flew,
With RSS data, and named it Web 2.

And then, with a twinkling, I read in my news
Each notable posting, contrary views.
As I drew back my hand, and was turning around,
Down to my trackback he came with a bound.

His comments were brief, what was ado?
Were adwords OK? Did users click through?
A bundle of mashups he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

Our AJAX - how it twinkled! Our tagging - how merry!
We socially networked to his brand new BlackBerry!
Our RSS valid, we were well syndicated,
We subscribed to the feeds that we loved (and we hated);

The stump of our web site held tight in our teeth,
The hyperbole encircled his head like a wreath;
We tagged Technorati, we blogged with the best,
On Feedster we surged and made the A-list.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And marked us on Frappr, and Flickr he searched.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
Updated his blog, up our OPML rose;

He sprang to his feed, gave his investments a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!"

(c) www.feedblitz.com 2005

2005 Year-End Google Zeitgeist

Google has released their 2005 Year-End Zeitgeist. To quote the site:

 

It turns out that looking at the aggregation of billions of search queries people type into Google reveals something about our curiosity, our thirst for news, and perhaps even our desires. Considering all that has occurred in 2005, we thought it would be interesting to study just a few of the significant events, and names that make this a memorable year. (We’ll leave it to the historians to determine which ones are lasting and which ephemeral.) We hope you enjoy this selective view of our collective year.

So here's a link to their findings on the top 10 searches on google.com, news.google.com, and froogle. Interesting stuff.

Snow Globe

Just saw this on Topher's blog and wanted to share it with you all. Thanks to Topher for putting it on your blog.

Fun times...

Hope everyone had a splendid weekend. At 4am on Friday morning Becca and I were at St Mary's Hospital ER with me in much pain. As it turned out, I have/had a kidney stone. Bill and Deb became my new friends when they brought the pain medication. I took the day off Friday and did a lot of sleeping thanks to the pain meds.

 

I returned to work today hopeful that the stone has broken up and I am over another kidney stone (for those of you keeping track, this stone was number two for me). I have not taken any pain meds since Friday so I think I'm over it but we'll have to see.

 

Anyone has any fun kidney stone stories to share?

Lunch at Bennigan's

Yesterday my team at work went out to lunch at Bennigan's. We had a wonderful time and good food. At the end of the meal after everyone had paid, everyone was given an envelope. Inside the envelope could be a certificate entitling me to one of the following: a 42" HD Plasma TV, iPod nano 4GB, free appetizer or free dessert. Our waiter told us that we would definitely receive one of the last two. We cannot open this envelope until January 2006 and we must open the envelope in the presence of a manager at Bennigan's.

 

My team was planning on all of us bringing our envelopes in January and sharing free appetizers, but I just noticed that you can only open one envelope per party. Marketing ploy! (Though an iPod nano 4GB would certainly be nice.)

grbloggers.com

I am of the opinion that if someone or something helps me out, then I must give credit where credit is due. I have noticed hits on my site going up since I became a member of grbloggers.com . This is a group of people who live in Grand Rapids, Michigan who have blogs. If you live in Grand Rapids and have a blog, go to grbloggers.com and sign up. All you need to do is put some code in the HTML of your blog so that visitors to your site can be directed to other grbloggers.com sites or the main site itself.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

So has anyone seen this movie yet? I think Becca and I are going to see to this tonight but I wanted to get your opinions on the movie. Comment below...

Why am I so tired?

A member in my small group just sent this to me and it was too funny not to post on my blog. Enjoy!

 

For a couple years I've been blaming it on lack of sleep, not enough
sunshine, the kids, too much pressure from my job, low blood
pressure or anything else I could think of.

But now I found out the real reason.

I'm tired because I'm overworked.

Here's why:

The population of this country is 273 million.

140 million are retired.

That leaves 133 million to do the work.

There are 85 million in school.

Which leaves 48 million to do the work.

Of this there are 29 million employed by the federal government.

Leaving 19 million to do the work.

2.8 million are in the armed forces preoccupied with finding Osama BinLaden.

Which leaves 16.2 million to do the work.

Take from the total the 14,800,000 people! Who work for STATE and CITY GOVERNMENTS.

And that leaves 1.4 million to do the work.

At any given time there are 188,000 people in hospitals.

Leaving 1,212,000 to do the work.

Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons.

That leaves just 2 people to do the work.

You and me.

And there you are sitting on your butt, at your computer, reading jokes.

Nice, real nice.

New Office

Well we are in our new offices. I am very glad that I threw away so many things before we moved because now I have work surfaces that are completely clear and clean. Very nice! There are a few boxes of things that will be shipped to Brazil soon. When those boxes are gone I will have more space and that will be nice.
 

My new office is a 10x10 whereas my old office was an 8x10. I did not request a bigger office, but because of the way the room is setup here, they had to give me a 10x10. I'm not complaining at all.

Greetings from Singapore

Here at work they are rebuilding my team's offices so today our computers have been moved into the Singapore room so we can work while they build our offices. It is definitely different to be working so close to my other co-workers (though they have been away from their computers for a lot of the morning so far) but at least we can be productive. Fortunately, I have a lot of podcasts to listen to so the day won't be too bad. Thank God it's Friday! Enjoy the weekend. Hopefully I write an entry on Monday from my new office.

Where have I been?

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Thanksgiving adventures

Sorry for the silence everyone. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving (for those of my readers who are in the US). We went to see my parents in Cleveland and returned last night. It was a good visit and a relaxing weekend away for Becca and I. The ride down to Cleveland was quite interesting. The drive normallly takes about 4.5 hours, but this time it took over 6 hours. On the way we stopped in Brighton for dinner (Panera for dinner was a wonderful thing!) and we never thought we would get there. We were driving around 10mph from Lansing to Brighton. For those are you in Michigan, you can understand how annoying that might be. For those of you from around Michigan, please consult Google Maps. Fortunately, the drive back from Cleveland to Grand Rapids was uneventful. A bit of rain on the way but I will certainly take rain over mass snow anyday of the week.

Have a great night!

The West Wing - Season 5 - available December 6th

My friend Jason Holzhausen just told me that Season 5 will be available soon and I had to share the great news with all of you. Thanks to Jason.

Dr Rex M Rogers - pretty in pink

For all my Cornerstone University friends - again I'm stealing from Ryan's site, but I feel I must do my part to ensure that as many people as possible see this picture.

 

Enjoy...

Frappr - add to my map!

I have joined the ranks of over 900,000 people my creating a map on Frappr. Check out the map and add yourself to it.

Also, created one showing the offices for the ministry I work for.

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME AND BECCA

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME AND BECCA

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME AND BECCA

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME AND BECCA :) :) :)

Psalm 23 for the work place

The Lord is my real boss, and I shall not want. He gives me peace, when chaos is all around me. He gently reminds me to pray and do all things without murmuring and complaining. He reminds me that HE is my source (and not my job). He restores my sanity everyday and guides my decisions that I might honor Him in all that I do. Even though I face an absurd amount of emails, system crashes, unrealistic deadlines, budget cutbacks, gossiping coworkers, discriminating supervisors and an aging body that doesn't cooperate every morning (maybe not for all of you :) ). I still will not stop... for His is with me! His presence, His peace, and His power will see me through. He raises me up, even when they fail to promote me. He claims me as His own, even when the company is cutting back and may let me go. His faithfulness and love are better than any bonus check. His retirement plan beats every 401k there is! When it's all said and done, I'll be working for Him a whole lot longer and for that, I bless His name!

So many meetings....

This week is one of those weeks where good things are happening, but I will be glad when it is over. Sunday night I had a strategic planning meeting at church. Last night I had another strategic planning meeting. Tonight I have an Elder board meeting. Tomorrow night I hope to spend some time with Becca since I will be away Thursday night on a men's retreat. I'm coming back early from the retreat on Friday so that I can have a worship practice on Saturday and small group on Saturday night. Whew...let me catch my breath now.

On another note, my friend Debby Li has changed servers for her website so please check out her blog at the new location. The link to her site (My Thoughts...My Say) has been updated in the links on the left of my blog.

Have a great Tuesday!

tmsasti

Sorry for the silence...

Sorry for the silence. I know it has been deafening :)

 

Life has been very busy for Becca and I. I hope we have opportunities to slow down soon and spend time together. On more than one night recently we both have had meetings at different places. Tonight we are both home so that is good.

 

I had so much fun at church this past Sunday morning. I was part of a praise team who lead worship. I can't remember the last time I had this much fun during a worship service. The music we did wasn't that complicated but I felt a very deep presence of the Spirit in our midst. I have received a lot of good feedback on the service. I know that God put this service together and I am just glad to have had a part in it. I am hoping to bring this group back for a worship service I'm planning on the 6th of November.

 

An interesting story for you all: Last Saturday we had blood drawn as we are starting life insurance policies. The nurse came to our condo on Saturday morning. We had to fast 12 hours prior. It was so hard to not make coffee first thing in the morning. We had to show the nurse our driver's licenses. After the nurse was done with Becca's license it was just sitting on table so I opened her wallet to put it away. Just doing something nice for my wife, right? Becca had already bought my present for our birthday and the receipt for the present was in the wallet. I saw what she bought me. I felt so bad because I was just wanting to do something nice and it backfired. :( :( :( My self-inflicted punishment is waiting until our birthday (9 November) to receive the gift.

 

tmsaisti

Interesting story...

The following was written by a girl's aunt who niece (the girl) passed away very suddenly last week after being hit by a car. What a wonderful story!

A Princess Story
By Aunt Linda

This was the day! The castle was prepared for the arrival of the princess. The King had prepared for this moment. The seamstress had finished the royal gown. The necessary funds were arranged. The choirs were assembled. The princes and princesses of the land, young and old, from all of the ages, were gathered at the gate to welcome her home with great love and joy. The King, with his glorious smile, was ready to receive her into his open arms.

Many of the royal court who surrounded the princess, serving the King in a foreign land in which they abode, would soon hear of the princess's departure. They would be left to continue the work he had given them to do bringing those lost in the foreign land to the royalty he had planned for them.

This foreign land was not the princess's home. She had once been lost in the land and then one glorious day, she had found the King. (The King had always known where she was and sought for her to come near. She answered his call for her.) The King drew her near his heart.

Now this foreign land was a place where the princess was left, temporarily, to complete the assignment given by the King. She had faithfully completed her task. It was finished. The joy she possessed through knowing the King would now be proclaimed throughout the foreign land to offer hope and refuge in the King's palace.

It would be hard for the tenants of this princess to see her off. She would be sorely missed, for she was truly a lovely princess with a golden heart who showered her courts with the blessings of encouragement, enthusiasm and generosity. But it was time; time for her to meet her King. He orchestrated the moment with perfect precision to bring his precious child home. He had made the way clear. It was time.

The King offers all of those in the foreign land a home in his kingdom; not only a home, but a place in his family as his child! They, too, can become a prince or princess of the King! His kingdom was made for them. He only asks them to choose. Once they believe in His Way, trusting fully in his provision, their gifts will be bestowed upon them for service in his courts. They will remain in the foreign land for the days he has determined, and on his determined, glorious day, he will gather his royalty to his side.

Remember this princess. Follow her example. Be faithful to the King. His love and the life he gives are everlasting.

The princess lives happily ever after, today and always.

THE BEGINNING!

Prayer Request

Please be in prayer for my friend Debby Li. She found out that her uncle passed away over the weekend. We praise the Lord that he is now in Heaven, but his passing is difficult for Debby as she is away from her family and relatives in Singapore.

"I didn't know Smitty was at our church this morning?"

This is what one lady from our church said to me after the service yesterday morning. I wrote in my previous entry that I was not able to share the video of Healing Rain with my church so I shared the link with you all. About an hour after making that post, a friend called me and said I have the video you wanted. How exciting!!! I brought it to church and with some help was able to show it on the screen as I sang the song. I was excited this worked out and was glad it blessed many people.

Healing Rain

I am singing the song Healing Rain tomorrow in church. I so wanted to have the video playing on the screen as I sing the song but I don't think that will be possible. I found a site this morning where you can watch the video but only while streaming from the Net. At least I can share it with all of you. (NOTE: You must have Windows Media Player to watch the video using this link. Sorry, can't find a Real Player version.)

 

Hope you enjoy the video. Have a great weekend!

The Nature of Degeneration

I have been reading My Utmost For His Highest during my quiet time lately. I have been struck by the clear, convicting messages from the devotionals and I wanted to share the one for today.

The Nature of Degeneration

The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man's sin, but that the nature of sin, namely, my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race through one man. But it also says that another Man took upon Himself the sin of the human race and put it away - an infinitely more profound revelation. The nature of sin is not immortality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realisation which leads us to say, "I am my own God." This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality, but it always has a common basis - my claim to my right to myself. When our Lord faced either people with all the forces of evil in them, or people who were clean-living, moral, and upright, He paid no attention to the moral degradation or one, nor any attention to the moral attainment of the other. He looked at something we do not see, namely, the nature of man.

Sin is something I am born with and cannot touch - only God touches sin through redemption. It is through the Cross of Christ that God redeemed the entire human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a person responsible for having the heredity of sin, and does not condemn anyone because of it. Condemnation comes when I realise that Jesus Christ came to deliver me from this heredity of sin, and yet I refuse to let Him do so. From that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. "This is the condemnation [and the critical moment], that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness right than light because their deeds were evil."

Taking the day off

In honor of my Aussie friends, in lieu of Labour Day, I will take the
day off from blogging :)

Barn Jamboree

Last night Becca, Roy and I went to my church's annual Barn Jamboree. This is my annual experience with country music and dancing. We had a wonderful turn out and a great time. This event always brings new people to our church. There is a couple who came to this event last year who since have become very involved in our church. I hope the same is true this year.

It is always interesting to see people, who like myself, do not dance well have to dance to music for hours on end. I think the most important thing to events like this is the caller. His job is to guide our dancing, but also make the nervous ones feel more comfortable. We have had the same caller for the three years we have had this event and it is obvious to me that he is talented. Last night I noticed on more than one occasion that he was almost subconsiously giving the calls while drinking coffee or looking for another record. Speaking of records, I can't tell you the last time I saw records or a record player. The caller uses records and record player. I suppose he is used to this format.

Anyone have any fun barn dancing stories to share?

Conference Fun!

What an amazing week! I can't believe today is Thursday and the majority of my co-workers go home tomorrow. It has been an amazing time to fellowship with them and get to know my co-workers better. Tonight there is a special banquet dinner prepared and we will be giving gifts from Discovery House Publishers and Walk In the Word. Tomorrow morning I will leave at 7am driving some of my co-workers back to Grand Rapids and taking many people to the airport.

Last night I was sad about the end of the week coming but I am doing much better now. I am looking forward to going home, seeing my wife and returning to "normal" life. Thanks for all your prayers and concerns for our conference.

Are you a horse or an alcoholic?

This morning Albert Lee challenged us as we look toward the future of our ministry. He asked are you a horse or an alcoholic? Both have the same problem, thirst. The difference between the two is their response to the need. Albert related this to us in examining how we respond to the needs for our materials around the world. We also must examine if the people are going to really use our materials or if they are just taking something that is available for free.

I am very excited about all that God has been teaching me during this conference and can't wait to see and experience what He has for the rest of this week.

Conference update

It is so exciting for me to interact with my co-workers from around the world during this International conference. In the mornings we have a time of worship including country reports and teaching time from the Bible. Yesterday David Roper spoke and today Alice Matthews encouraged us from the Word that our God is a God of hope. During the afternoon we have various types of business sessions including Graphics, Bible Conferences, Information Systems and Member Services. This morning we had a session with some of the writers of the Our Daily Bread. This afternoon we have reports from the Church Ministries, Outreach and Information Systems departments. I was particularly impacted by the Outreach department report. I think there is a great potential for impact here in the Americas region as we expand our Outreach.

 

More tomorrow...
 

Pre-Conference update

AHHHH crazy but very fun times here at RBC. Today our guest count rises to 25. The 1st day of Executive Leadership Team meetings has started and meetings are going well so far. I met Kevin from the UK today. He handles the finances for our offices in the UK region. He comes to us with many years of experience in inventory management as well as accounting and finance. I am excited to meet co-workers like Kevin whom I have only known as a name in an email. Each day at the office reminds me there are so many details to be cared for and at the same time we cannot handle them in our own strength. All of us, all around the world are dependent upon God everyday for the tasks He has given us to do. There is a great mission to fulfill and God has entrusted this task to us. May He alone give us the wisdom needed for this needful task!

Keep praying for us

As of tonight we will have 18 guests in Grand Rapids for the International Conference. By next Monday we will have 88! On the one hand I am very excited about these days of meetings and fellowship here in Grand Rapids. On the other hand, I realise that we are dependent upon God for every facet of this conference. Please pray for us that God would direct our steps, guide our thoughts and attitudes, and glorify Himself through this conference.

The month long mission conference has started

Guests for our International Conference have started to arrive. 6 guests arrived on Tuesday night with 3 more arriving last night. It is so exciting for me to see people whom I have met before as well as meet people for the first time who I only knew as a name on an email. One thing that impacts me a lot with my Asian friends is their work ethic. Once they arrive they start working right away. After our chapel service yesterday the RBC staff normally leaves and the Building & Grounds team starts to clear the chairs. Some of the International team there instinctively saw chairs that needed to be put away and chipped into help. I am very impressed and blessed to work with these servants of the Lord.

 

Hopefully I can post some pictures of my friends later on.

Car, friends, and a conference

Well my car is back in Grand Rapids are all fixed. My dad's client fixed the brakes on all four wheels, replaced two tires and did an oil change all for the bargain price of...FREE!!! Free is much lower than $377 don't ya think.

 

My friend Debby Li has arrived in the US to continue her education. Check out her blog and welcome her to the US!

 

In a couple of weeks many of my co-workers from all the world will be here in Grand Rapids. I am very excited as the International Conference comes closer. My co-workers will start arriving on 30 August and all will be here by 12 September. The conference will take place over two weeks, one week in Grand Rapids and the second week at Gull Lake Bible Conference. I will share more about this conference as we get closer. Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures from the conference here.

Car Repair update

Well let me update you on what happened today with my car repairs. My mother-in-law recommended another car repair company rather than my dealership as sometimes they can have more reasonable prices. I went to the car repair company first thing this morning and they gave me an estimate after looking at the car. The estimate they gave me was $100 more than what the dealership told me over the phone. I gave my dad the estimate info and he checked with a car repair station near their home. This company has serviced my family's cars for years and we trust them a lot. They also are one of my dad's clients for his accounting business. They are able to do the brake job for around $200 which is almost $200 less than the estimate I received today. So...Sunday night my dad and I are meeting half way to trade cars. I will use their mini-van for the day on Monday. Hopefully, Monday night we will again meet half way to trade back cars after my car's brakes have been repaired. Are you confused yet? :)

 

Amidst all of this, my dad will be getting some carpet for our condo from his carpet business (he is partial owner, does not do the installing work but helps with accounting) and a futon for our basement. Many changes ahead. Hopefully I can post some pictures of the new carpet and futon once they are at our home.

Brake Work

Tomorrow I will have another exhilarating experience in the wonderful world of car repair (can you sense the sarcasm yet). During the past few days I have noticed a squeaking sound in my car when I first start driving. This sound is normally stopped by applying the brake. Last night as Becca and I were going to church, we noticed the sound continued longer than normal. My wife encouraged me to call the dealership today to find out what is wrong. As I described the problem to the service writer on the phone I learned something new about Saturns. There is a safety measure installed on the brake pads that cause a squeaking sound before the pad is destroyed and rotor damage happens. I am certainly glad the squeaking caused me to call the dealership, though I'm not sure I will be excited when I see the bill when all is said and done. I can't complain too much because my car is paid off and does not require too much service outside of regular maintenance. I am hoping this car will last me for a few more years. We'll see...

Thailand report to our church

The following is an email sent by one of the trip leaders to a missionary friend describing our report on Sunday morning. Praise the Lord for what He continues to do in hearts and lives as a result of this trip to Thailand!

Absolutely, positively, humanly unfathomable.  Our church has not
experienced 90 minutes like that since, since we shipped 50 guys
out to a Promise Keepers Convention in '96.

The sermon interspersed between 17 - 2 minute testimonies, was
titled "when cultures collide, spirits connect."  We had slides and
movie clips running in the background behind each person.  By
"coincidence" we even had Laura Percy home from Thailand participate
in the service, as well.  Phil, who preached and moderated, did
impromptu interviews following some of the testimonies.  After
watching video clips of the jungle service we sang the same songs
with the GLCC congregation.  We had a cool "Creative Memories"
display table in the lobby with stuff we got from the village and
the cities, pictures.  The edited DVD played in a loop on the
display table, as well.

We, I sat all the kids down, along with the lighting guy, the
sound guy, the PowerPoint guy, the musicians and told them absolutely
nothing we did with all the technical production, no matter how
cool, mattered one bit, zero, nodda, if the kids were going to read
hand written scripts for their testimonies.  There would be NO
travel log this morning.  If the testimonies were not delivered
from the heart we might as well go home.  The content of the
testimonies had to be paramount and central.  I explained that
my dozens of hours of work on the multimedia is only there to
enhance the Spirit's message being delivered through them.  They
were given full authority to let it fly, say things that preachers
cannot.  AND THEY DID.  Hair got blown back all the way to the
sound booth.  The kids even ditched the offering in lue of plates
at the exits.  When we let the kids decide that, they knew we were
serious that the order of service was up to them.  They set up
the stage with living room furniture and end tables.  They had
a fireside, big screen chat.

I sat behind my son on a stool.  He caught me snorting my tears
of exhuberence a couple of times during the service.  Ben snapped
me out of it with a subtle yet firm, "Hey, Carl, Carl, what's up,
how ya doin'?"

I am converting the service video tapes into a single DVD.  It is
amazing how it is impossible for a nonchristian video camera to
capture the presence of the Holy Spirit.  The video tape just
does not cut it.  It provides a taste at best.  I will mail a
full trip movie DVD, (already complete), and a DVD of the service.
Hopefully you will see how your investiment paid off in eternal
dividends.

One of the kids who surrounded himself with the wall of Jericho
spoke Sunday.  Somewhere in Thailand is left a crumbled wall.
He did not mention it, but he has been out of communication with
his unforgiving grandfather since he was 8 or 10 years old.
The service was not even done and he was off the stage, in the
car and on his way to Grandpa's house.  (Grandpa visited our
church for this service but left during closing comments).
Jeremy spent quite some time with Grandpa and applogized for
not following lawn mowing instructions 8 years ago.  One thing
Jeremy learned in Thailand is that in missions there is no
instant response.  "Christianity is a relationship, not a
lifestyle."  Relationships take time.  Jeremy was satisfied
with simply opening this lines of communication with Grandpa.

After church 60 members of the Vision team and their families
came to the cottage on the lake for the afternoon.  What a
gala fest.  (Last of the folks left at 9 - 10 pm)  Folks did
not want the day to end.  We basked in the the spirit and in the
Spirit.

SOOOOO, in answer to your question, "How Did It Go,"  I guess
it went OK.

The political candidate to vote for this year!

New blog

Our friends Jared and Susan Benthem are headed to Honduras on 22 August. They will be teachers at International School for the coming school year. They have started a blog and there is a link to it on the left side of mine. Please check out their blog and pray for them as they prepare to move.

Ministry attitudes

Sorry for the silence friends. I hope people are still going to my blog because I haven't received emails screaming at me for posts. If you have not been to Kedron's blog lately, you really should go. In particular, I have been challenged by his current post called Ball Kicking. This post challenges me in my attitude when doing ministry. I heard Bill Gaither say at a concert once that Christians are the only people who shoot their wounded. Sometimes in the name of ministry, or advancing the cause of Christ, we can do things that actually hurt those who are on our team.

 

I think an anonymous comment on Ked's blog put's it well:

Bottom line, it's safest for all of us to remember when kicking balls down the ministry that it's just not about us in the least, and that humility and love are the skills we need to hone most of all. Because it is sad to watch teammates injured by the arrows of the righteous.

 

Our International Director puts it this way:

Leadership is only our responsibilities.

Servanthood is truly our position.

Child of God is definitely our status.

 

Bedroom painting

I am very pleased to say that we are painting our bedroom today. To this point we actually have been sleeping in the spare bedroom of our condo. The pressure on us is two-fold: 1) We are hosting someone for work during the International Conference in September, and 2) The temperature drops at least 10 degrees when you leave the spare room. For these and other reasons, we very much want to move into our bedroom and leave the spare bedroom days behind.

 

At this point the room is basically painted. We just need to come back and care for some details and it will be done. Once we put up window treatments we will be able to move in. We are very much looking forward to that!

 

Hope you have a great weekend!

More Thailand thoughts

This picture is a collage of the Sunday Morning Christian celebration service and a couple other winners.

Much of the last day in Thailand was spent briefing the Vision Team Members how to answer the question, "So, how was your trip to Thailand?" Dave warned the kids that folks back in the States would have absolutely nothing to relate to when attempting to understand what the team had experienced. Dave prepared the kids to expect very short attention spans on the part of those listening to Vision Team adventures. There is just no way for folks to imagine what is being conveyed.

As a team leader the best way to sum up the entire Thailand experience was verbalized in a testimony given by Clark Perry at the Karen jungle village Christian church service. In paraphrase Clark expressed; "I didn't know what I expected when I came [to your village]. But what I found were 'on fire' Christians who knew more scripture than us, understood the meaning of the scripture better and understand what freedom in Christ is better than us. It puts us to shame." When the service concluded the village pastor did not pray for his poor small church, but he prayed that the Vision Team would gain in understanding and grace in their life in Christ. In salutation he looked forward to heaven where we would all have
no language barriers, just sweet fellowship.

Dave explained that the prison of animal sacrifice, spirit worship, and Buddhism gives the Thais a formula to follow to get to heaven or at least to an elevated level of reincarnation. If a white person offers the plan of Christian salvation to a Thai they will quickly accept it then ask for the new formula of works to follow to heaven. That is why missionaries spend 3 years laying out the gospel chronologically so that the Thais understand unequivocally that Christianity is a relationship, not merely a lifestyle. When a Thai grasps the gravity of the message, the freedom from works to get to heaven, they cannot clean up their homes quick enough, they cannot memorize scripture fast enough, they cannot walk 12 miles through the jungle to the the next village with the Good News soon enough. They cannot contain themselves with their new found freedom in Christ.

What so gripped the Vision Team was the fact that since the Thais from the Karen village had never been to "Church" they were totally and absolutely unencumbered by having to conform to a "Christian Lifestyle" immediately following a verbal decision for Christ. Bottom line, all the Vision Team saw was the freedom of Christ living through the Karen village people. There were no human rules or traditions tacked on, just a fresh, exciting new life in Christ.

Even though the teens had heard this 'sermon' dozens of times it came to life when they saw and experienced it through the lives of those in the village. "I get it. I finally get it."

This understanding of who we are in Christ may have been made possible for some of the team ONLY by being placed in this environment after such a great investment of money, time, effort and prayer.

Thank you to all who supported this effort that so revolutionized the lives and understanding of all fifteen Vision Team members.

Long time, no posting

Sorry for the silence on here. It has been a good week at work and we are headed to Cleveland for the weekend. My friend is getting married in September. Since I can't go to his wedding, I am going to his shower with Becca on Sunday. Actually Becca will be going to the shower. Mark and I will hang out while the ladies exchange gifts. Looking forward to a good time with my family and will be singing at my parent's church on Sunday.

 

Let me leave you with one thought from today's Our Daily Bread that challenged me. The Scripture reading for today was Matthew 6:25-34.

 

Look at it this way: Whether or not you live only for money, you'll ultimately leave it or it will leave you. But if you focus your life on God and doing His will, all these other things will be provided.

 

Does your concern for making money and keeping it overshadow your concern for doing God's will? If so, stop and look at the birds.

Counterfeits

The curriculum the Vision Team experienced in Thailand is a modification of the Summit Program. A portion of that program involves cultural studies. Without understanding the culture it is impossible to relate to the people. Buddhism is the driving force in Thailand so David spent much time in preparation of materials in the study of that cult. Dave was amazed at the parallels between Buddhist practices and Old Testament Jewish traditions.

At the top of the mountain, overlooking Chiang Mai, at the premiere Buddhist temple, Dave asked the team, "Why was Satan banished from Heaven? Because he wanted to be equal with God." Instead Satan created a counterfeit cult setting himself up as the head. No place is there a better counterfeit to the Israelites temple than the Buddhist temple, with its encompassing wall, overlays of gold, the holy of holies, the offering of three incense sticks, the list goes on and on.

Below is a picture of the 300 steps leading up to the temple and the gold steeple at its peak, center between the walls.

Thailand - A Land Of Contrasts

Thailand was a land of many contrasts. The picture below parallels the open sewers of Bangkok with a Karen mountainside tribal garden.

In Bangkok some of the team were nauseated by the smells and even some of the sights. Teeming populations live along these sewers, drying their laundry in the methane filled air. Children swim with crocodiles in the same streams and rivers underneath their homes. In the Karen mountain village hard work and simple living accompany the tranquil setting on the attached photo.

Even though each of these sets of folks live in very different environments they are still bound to the same prison of animal sacrifice, spirit worship and Buddhism. Some work the entire year to pay for the animals required in fear, with no assurance that their efforts are recognized.

The vision team was able to see these prisons, but they could also clearly see the the sanitary, almost invisible prison that we as Americans have allowed ourselves to construct. As the teens lived in the homes of Karen village Christians they could see that what is important is their life in Christ and teaching others how to be free from their prisons. Material things of life have no value.

A completely different set of priorities.

Even two weeks later the teens are still making sense of it all. Somehow Nintendo is less important now.

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We're home

Sorry for the delay in this posting. We arrived back in Grand Rapids last Thursday afternoon around 4pm. There were no problems on any of the flights coming back from Thailand. The trip was a wonderful experience and I look forward to sharing more about it on here in the days and weeks to come. Thank you again for all your prayers and encouragement.

Back in Bangkok

We are back in Bangkok awaiting our flight out 1am local time on Thursday morning. Our thanks to everyone who has prayed for us during our time here. God has worked in hearts and lives and I don't think we'll be the same for having been here. We took an overnight train last night from Chiangmai to Bangkok. No problems on the train and I think everyone slept well.

 

We arrive back in Grand Rapids late in the afternoon on the 23rd. Please pray for us as we travel home, particularly the long plane ride from Seoul to Chicago.

Thailand Trip Update

Things continue to go well here in Thailand. We just returned from being in the village for the weekend. We left on Friday afternoon and returned this afternoon (Sunday). Tonight we are headed out to dinner and tomorrow we do the Buddhism package. Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for us that we would be open to everything God has to teach us while we're here.

We're in Chiang Mai

We arrived early this afternoon in Chiang Mai. We took the overnight train from Bangkok and let's just say that was an adventure. Tonight we went to a traditional Thai dinner. Tomorrow we head to a village for the weekend.

 

Things continue to go well for us. Please pray for us as we adjust to the heat and that we would have teachable spirits.

We're in Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok earlier this morning around 1am local time. We spent the night at a guesthouse and plan to see the sights in Bangkok today. Thanks for your prayers for our team. All is going well.

We're in Korea

We have arrived in Seoul, South Korea. The flight from Chicago was certainly long but uneventful. We are here for about 3 hours and then we fly to Bangkok. Thank you for your prayers. Please keep praying for us.

Off to Thailand

Well today is the day we leave for Thailand. The trip that has been a year in the making is now hear. Our ride to the airport should be here shortly. Please pray for us as we go. My prayer is that nothing would distract us from what God wants to teach while we're there. I hope to post some updates on either this blog or the trip blog while we're there so keep checking both of them.

 

Talk to you all later.

 

Robertson out

Personality Assessments

Today Pfitz put a link in his blog entry to an online, free personality assessment. It is not the Myers-Briggs test but it is close and quite accurate. I am an ISTJ meaning I am systematic, thoroguh, cautious, serious, applying past experience, logical, analytical and skeptical of new ideas that don't seem to have immediate and practical application. Pretty accurate test for only taking 5 minutes.

Hotel Rwanda

Last night Becca and I rented Hotel Rwanda. Needless to say this is a very well done movie and I encourage all of you to view it. The movie recounts a modern genocide that has taken place in Rwanda between the Hutus and the Tutsis. The following is a portion of the story from the movie's website.

 

Over the course of 100 days, almost one million people were killed in Rwanda.  The streets of the capital city of Kigali ran red with rivers of blood, but no one came to help.  There was no international intervention in Rwanda, no expeditionary forces, no coalition of the willing.  There was no international aid for Rwanda.  Rwanda's Hutu extremists slaughtered their Tutsi neighbors and any moderate Hutus who stood in their way, and the world left them to it. "Ten years on, politicians from around the world have made the pilgrimage to Rwanda to ask for forgiveness from the survivors, and once more the same politicians promise `never again,'" says director Terry George.  "But it's happening yet again in Sudan, or the Congo, or some Godforsaken place where life is worth less than dirt.  Places where men and women like Paul and Tatiana shame us all by their decency and bravery."

 

This is indeed a very powerful movie and I hope it receives the recognition it deserves. Check it out!

 

What God Has Joined Together

A professor of Hope College has recently written a book called What God Has Joined Together. This book unfortunately makes a case that Scripture supports homosexual marriage. I have not yet read the book and am not sure if I want to purchase it. Part of me wants to read it so I can learn more about the author's argument. However, another part of me does not want to support the author financially by purchasing this book. We'll have to see.

 

Here is an excerpt from an editorial review on this book from an amazon.com:

Coauthors Myers (who serves on the board of the National Marriage Project) and Scanzoni (of the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus) "take marriage... [and] our Christian faith seriously." Bringing together those two commitments to build a Christian case for gay marriage, they begin by arguing that marriage is good for society: marriage correlates to longevity; boys raised by married parents are less likely to commit crimes; married moms are less prone to depression than single moms and so forth. Why, the authors ask, should these good things be reserved for heterosexuals? They then consider what Scripture has to say about sexual orientation, rehearsing the by now familiar arguments that Jesus has nothing to say about homosexuality, and though the Bible does talk occasionally about homosexual sex, it does not deal with "loving committed homosexual relationships." Myers and Scanzoni's tone is calm, respectful and balanced. For example, though they present some of the latest scientific evidence about the causes of sexual orientation (including a chart of "mental rotation scores by sexual orientation"!), they also freely admit that scientific studies on this issue are still in the early stages, and that even conclusive scientific information "cannot... resolve values questions." With its traditional defense of marriage and its progressive embrace of same-sex relationships, this book cannot be pigeonholed, and that in itself is refreshing.

 

I think we need to be worried as a society with books like this coming out, especially if they receive a lot of popularity. As Christians we know what the Scripture says and at the same time we must respond to books like this, as well as those who struggle with homosexuality, with the same love that God has shown to us.

 

Hit Me Baby 1 More Time

Well we finally went shopping last night. The disadvantage to moving is that you don't want to have too many groceries in the house because that means you will have to move more. At this point we are moved, however we are leaving for Thailand on the 13th so we don't want to have too much at this point either.

 

Last night Becca and I watched an interesting show on TV. The show is called H1t me baby one more time. The show is kind of like American Idol though different. Participants on the show are artists and groups who were big back in the 80's. They are invited on to sing one of their songs that made it big and then their version of a popular song right now. One of the groups last night was called A Flock of Seagulls and let me just say it was incredibly wrong when they sang Enrique Iglesias "Hero." I think Becca and I are still in recovery over that one. For all you American Idol fans, this show may tie you over until the next season. It is on at 9pm on NBC on Thursdays.

 

Robertson out

 

Ace is the place...

This is the first time I am posting to my blog by email so we'll have to see how this turns out. Last night my in-laws came over along with my sister in law and a friend of theirs. The purposes of the evening were to 1) Install the gas dryer and 2) Plant some flowers and other plants. My mother-in-law is definitely the one with the green thumb in the family so when it comes to flowers and plants, she is in charge. Dad and I took to the task of getting the gas dryer working. The copper pipe was already there so we needed to connect it to the dryer and we're done. Simple, right!

 

This is where Ace comes into the picture. I made 4 trips to Ace last night. First trip to get cabling and plug adapters. Second trip to get an adapter for the dryer cable. Third trip to get a different adapter. Fourth trip to get the correct adapter and a major appliance extension cord. Let's just say the people at Ace know me well and are very helpful for those of us who are not home improvement experts.

 

Robertson out

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?

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!

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

It's closing day

Closing day has arrived. We meet at the title agency this afternoon at 1pm. I am excited that we will have a home, but there is so much else going on right now it is hard to be excited. I am glad we will have a month to move out of the apartment and into the condo. We want to paint the condo and also need to paint back the apartment before we move. These things will take some serious time. Our lease is up on 31 May so we will probably be completely moved in the condo by then.

Please keep praying for us and thank you for all your encouragement.

Change: It is good

Have you ever noticed how Satan can take a good thing and twist it for bad? I'm sure everyone can give examples of this. I'm also sure this is not a new concept to most of you. In life right now there is much change on the horizon. The changes are good and they will help those effected by them, however change at the same time is difficult. An example of a change is my friend candidating at a local church to be their senior pastor. He and his family presently attend the church where Becca and I attend. If my friend is accepted at this church (which is quite likely) they will be changing churches. Though we will still see them, things will be different.

A prayer I am praying for myself is that I would not allow these changes to make me discouraged. I need to trust that God is in control and that He does all things well.

Good condo news

The report for the condo appraisal and inspection was received today. The report calls for no repairs to the condo. The inspector did request a copy of an inspection that had already been done. He should receive that report tomorrow. Our mortage broker is moving "full tilt" on our condo right now and is hoping to close by next Thursday, 28 April.

Thanks for all your encouragement. Please keep praying as we look forward to next Thursday.

Condo update

I am sorry for the delay in updating everyone on the condo. We found out the final inspection & appraisal was not done until yesterday. We are hoping to receive the report on Monday. We still hope to close before the end of the month but this will be determined by how much we have to do from the inspection report.

Thanks for all your prayers and support in this. We really appreciate it.

Another wrinkle

After the inspection we found that we need to apply to the condo association before we close on the condo. I sent the application to the condo association this morning. Please pray that we are accepted so we can continue with the process of purchasing the condo without delay.

Thank you for all your support during this process. Have a great weekend!

Inspections went well...

Thanks to all of you who have asked about how the inspections went yesterday. The inspections went well. Some very minor things were found however we went ahead and requested the final inspection & appraisal of the condo. If the final inspector does find anything, we will have opportunity to fix those things and the inspector who did the preliminary inspection will sign off that those things are cared for. The final inspection & appraisal was ordered today and should happen over the next few days.

Thank you for praying and remembering us in this process. I will let you know more when we here.

Photos

One of my co-workers in Singapore just returned from photo shoots in India and Sri Lanka. He has posted many pictures from his trips on his website and I wanted to share them with you.

For some reason I cannot program HTML today, there is something wrong with Blogger's interface so I will paste the links below. (You'll need to copy and paste them into your browser.) Please check out the pictures and let Alex know if you like them. I think they are great.

http://pachome2.pacific.net.sg/~mouseartist/india%20/india.html
http://pachome2.pacific.net.sg/~mouseartist/srilanka/srilanka.html

Condo Inspection

The first inspection on the condo will be tomorrow afternoon. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Please be praying tomorrow that the inspection would go well so we can proceed with purchasing the condo.

Progress on getting a home...

Becca and I looked at a condo on Friday afternoon. The condo is a 2 story, 2 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom with finished basement. The more I think about condos, the more I think it is a good option for us. Purchasing a condo is a good next step after rental living. You still have some of the responsibilities of owning a home, however you do not have all of them at once. The association still cares for the lawn, snow removal and the exterior of the home. We are responsible for the interior. This is a good balance and next step for us.

We made an offer on this condo on Friday and our offer was ACCEPTED!! We are excited. The next step is the pre-inspection. Due to the type of mortgage we will be receiving, there are higher standards on the inspection. Therefore, our realtor will have his inspector go through the condo and make sure everything is okay. The inspector is very thorough. (When he inspected the other home we were interested in, we received a report that was about 2 inches thick.) If our realtor's inspector does not find any problems then we will schedule the final inspection. I would think appraisals and other closing activities would proceed after the final inspection is complete.

So this is where we are right now. Thank you for asking us how things are going and for praying for us. Please keep praying.

Home saga update

Yesterday Becca did some more searching and found 6 more homes. We went through one of the six today. This home is a condo. We found from the seller's realtor that an offer on this home was imminent so we put in an offer of our own. We will find out by tomorrow night at 5pm if our offer was accepted. We both really like this home and hope our offer is accepted. Please pray about this. We'll let you know tomorrow night what happens.