The End Is Near!

It has been a few days since I've been near the internet to blog. Life has been wild and interesting. I have learned a couple of things: 1. Tearing off a roof and installing a new roof complete with two valleys is not something you should take lightly when you are past 50 and don't do that kind of work every day; 2. Listen to your wife when they tell you to see a doctor regarding awful looking lumps in the space between your upper lip and your nose.
My sons, Michael and Paul, and myself have been installing a new roof on Michael's home in Peoria. Thirty years ago I did this kind of work while going to college and both of my son's have done this kind of work to encourage them to finish college. It has been a real joy working with them but I constantly ache from the physical labor involved in this process. Plus, upon returning from our Brazil mission trip I found my leg had a nice infection brewing which required treatment with a course of antibiotics; while on the antibiotics a "lump" formed under my nose which I decided needed broken. Mistake! It didn't break but continued to grow, increased in pain and I finally had to go to a Medfirst clinic on a Sunday for some relief. It appears that somewhere I have picked up one of those nasty infections that don't respond well to treatment. I am now on my third course of antibiotics (internal and topical) and they hope to have it cleaned up by the time school starts. I can't even shave so that beard I once thought would be cool is now a partial reality. I really don't want to start school with this little hole right below my nose.
I am learning, again, about pride; about age; about pride and listening to my spouse.

Where Does the Summer Go?

Where does our time go? Vicki and I have the summer "off" so where does our time go? Yes, we are reading and preparing for new classes to be taught this fall, yes, I make her help me hoist sheeting in the garage attic, yes, I have been biking each day, yes, I have been keeping up my SOAPY, yes, I have been working on a Missions budget for church, yes, I have been making recruiting calls for BT 2 at our church, and a number of other things around the house that "must" be done. Time. . . .we never seem to have enough but we always fill our free time so there will never be enough. The picture, from the Simon yard in Brasil, seems to remind me to take time to smell the . . .
I am currently reading 1776, by David McCullough. What a book! If you want to understand the beginnings of our nation I recommend this book. I didn't realize that Washington was the "old" man of the founding fathers at age 42 or 43. Thomas Jefferson was 32! Would we trust our future to a 32 year old today? The issue that is most troubling to me is whether or not I would have even supported the revolution. I am a fiscal conservative who believes in very slow change, would I have been willing to give up the security provided by the most powerful nation on earth for the unknown? If I had been a middle class businessman would I have sacrificed my nice little life and possibly my future security for a new and untried system? At age 52 I would not trust a 32 year old to faithfully communicate the ideals of the Enlightenment and then see them carried through. Were they perfect men? No, none of us are but what is our vision for our future?

Fruit of the Spirit

Church today was tough. Galatians 5: 22 - 6:2. Did you ever think about the church exhibiting the fruit of the spirit? We are called to be witnesses of the work Christ is doing in our lives. I was hit between the eyes when our pastor commented how many believers are concerned that visitors pass the beliefs test before being considered worthy. They must understand and adhere to the "party line" as visitors instead of us treating them as visitors with thoughts of their own. Christians need to initially accept visitors for what they are . . . visitors. We can dialogue on wide variety of topics initially without an "I'm right and you are wrong" mentality taking over. We should be gentle in allowing the Truth of the word to penetrate their heart, mind, and body. God has never needed our help in communicating when change is needed in an individual's life. Two things stay in my mind; how am I doing exhibiting the fruits of the spirit and how is my church doing? Thank you, Dr. Bias, for challenging me to think bigger than I normally would.

Is this reality?

I'm sitting in the local Panera bread company, drinking a latte, eating a tuna salad sandwich and blogging. Pretty American activity for the 21st century. Closed down the home internet provider so now I spend my time looking for the freebie hook-up to check e-mail and, of course, keep up my blog. I have already lost my new economics teacher so interviews are set up for the next two days to fill that position. I pray good, quality people are still out there. It doesn't appear that econ. is high on the priority list of graduating social studies or history ed. majors. It obviously isn't important to our government officials except in figuring out to manipulate numbers to make the economic picture pretty. I believe our clerk at the local gas station is the norm, works two jobs to make ends meet. You have to love this service economy we have created. WWJD? This would come as a shock to many of my friends and not a shock to many others, Jesus would not be a Republican or Democrat. He simply stated to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" does this mean we might have a higher calling? Might our task be modeling Christ to a lost world? Might our task be to show love to those who are unloved? Might our task be feeding those who are hungry and quit worrying about whether they are taking advantage or not? Vicki and I watched Pursuit of Happyness last night, the church that fed and housed the homeless was profound. Am I being profound in my Christian life?

My Brasil photos show how they form concrete. Interesting process that works well in a climate where the parkas come out when it hits 78. There is no rock added to this mix since eventually tile will be laid over the top. There is no heaving to worry about so no wire or rebar is used. A tile leaning against a board holds the form in place. Very unlike my constant expansions and contractions against Christ. He wants to hold me in place but I continually want to expand my control which is where problems come in.

Two final comments: I just finished The Crucible and am just about done with Huck Finn. These are just two of the books I need to get read this summer for American Studies this fall. What books, worthy of a whole blog themselves. Both books are highly recommended reading for thoughtful people.

Pictures

Picture on the top was taken at the Sunday morning market in Altamira, these are the "delivery trucks" for Altamira, people buy products too large to carry and so these age old animals come to the rescue. The middle picture is the view just across the street from the delivery animals. The 19th and 21st centuries are very, very close in Altamira. Be thankful for what you have. The picture at the bottom was taken of Deb playing volleyball with a group of Brazilians during our Xingu River trip. She jumped right into the game to help "balance" the two teams.

Home again

Here we are at the Belem Zoo. We left Altamira on July 3 amid tears and joy. There are so many people who mean so much to Vicki and I and leaving is difficult. We did get to Belem in time to visit their Amazonian Zoo, it is fantastic! Birds, fish, animals and all are native to the Amazon region. We even ran into American students who are spending a month in the region doing science studies. However, hunger took over and we caught a taxi back to the Vila Rica (our hotel). We walked across the street to the Italian Restaurant that came highly recommended but it didn't open until after 6:00 p.m. and so we walked around the corner and went into another recommended restaurant and said a quick prayer and picked two meals off the Portuguese menu. After a long wait our food arrived. . . . it was amazing. . .salad, mashed potatoes, rice, fillet Mignon wrapped in cheese and ham and covered with a Parmesan sauce. Becca had ordered chicken and it's a good thing we didn't order three meals because we couldn't begin to finish the two we had ordered. July 4 began early with our flight leaving for San Luiz then Fortaluza (sp) and then on to Rio. All connections went well and were on time. Our plane for Atlanta boarded and we met a young man from Spokane, Washington who was finishing 7 weeks in Sau Paulo with Campus Crusade for Christ. Their team had been doing college ministry and the excitement was catching. We both see Brazilians as very open and relational people which fits perfectly with the Christianity taught by Jesus. He was headed on to Minneapolis where he would catch the train for a 24 hour ride home. We thought our travels were long and tiring. It is good to be home, cats have been lonesome. Now is the time for debriefing our experience and that is the difficult part of this process.

That morning cup of java

We just experienced something truly American (joke). At 8:15 a.m. Suzanne's home study group all show up bringing a surprise breakfast for Suzanne. That's American isn't it? A half dozen friends bringing an unannounced breakfast to your home on Sunday morning. . . that truly determines whether or not you have a relationship with the people. I actually had an official cup of Brazilian coffee, one quarter cup of coffee, one quarter cup of milk and a teaspoon of sugar that is nearly 2 inches high. This recipe could replace rogaine. Laughter, a gift for the soon to be Simon and then study of the Word. Relationships, allow for all kinds of activities to take place that wouldn't normally happen, including drawing others and ourselves nearer to our Creator and Redeemer.
See you all very soon.