Saturday, August 28, 2010

She's gone!

Thanks to all who prayed for my daughter Christina to get a job. She received and accepted an offer last Friday, and arrived in Grand Rapids, Michigan yesterday. She will be working as an editorial assistant with Baker Book House, a Christian publisher (I have many of their books, which are published under several names).

Why did she go so far? (I ask that myself!). There are only about a dozen major Christian publishers, of which about 4 are in Grand Rapids, 4 are in the Wheaton, Illinois area (where she spent the past 4 years, and interned with IV Press last semester), and 4 are scattered in other places. She is blessed to have gotten a job with one of them.

So, Thursday on our anniversary, Louise and she loaded up the car and drove out to Grand Rapids over 2 days. I am told it is a beautiful city, a very different world from Detroit, which is 150 miles away (and what I usually think of Michigan as). They have 3 days to get Christina a place to stay, to furnish it, and to move in. We believe that since God opened the door, He will provide all this quickly, plus a church, friends, etc.

But I miss Christina a lot already. After coming back from college, we were just getting used to her being home again. Michigan is so far away!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

28 things I did on vacation (see photos on post)

1. See sloths (like the guy on top) up close
2. Milk a cow
3. Sight about 10 "resplendent quetzels", a holy grail of birders (the green iridescent bird)
4. Swim in the Pacific
5. Watch capuchin monkeys on the beach (that's a monkey in the tree)
6. Ride a horse (it was really a lot of fun, see the picture)
7. Look for birds at 6am (the early birder gets the...)
8. See Arenal Volcano puff smoke
9. Eat rice and beans, over and over
10. Soak in thermal springs
11. Travel about 10 feet into Nicaragua (this counts as another country) on a river
12. Spend quality time with Louise, my great nature companion
13. Get drenched by tropical rain at a butterfly farm
14. Meet missionaries Bob and Michele Perez
15. See a living ctenosaur in the wild
16. Eat lychees from the shell
17. See the biggest ox cart in the world
18. Have a bat buzz my ear during a night walk in the jungle
19. Appreciate about 25 incredible hummingbirds in one spot in the cloud forest
20. Eat fruit- pineapple, watermelon, and papaya- for every meal
21. Kayak Lake Arenal, near the active volcano
22. See Montezuma's oropendula (a cool bird with a cooler name)
23. Read Mike Bickle's "Passion for Jesus" & George Will's "Men at Work" (about baseball)
24. Get sick and miss the forest zip line (Louise zipped, ask her)
25. Admire scarlet macaws and toucans (the fruit loop bird) in the wild
26. Watch Iron Man 2 on the plane
27. Visit the "paramo", a high altitude environment at 11,000 feet, very unusual
28. Eat flan every night for desert

Pictures from Costa Rica







Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Where is this?


This old sign was seen on my daily prayer walk. The first person who can identify exactly where it is on this blog wins a Starbucks gift certificate!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Marlboro prayer walk



Sunday night we prayer-walked some of the key spiritual power points in Marlboro. Along with the usual (town hall, high school), we visited 2 sites most people don't even know exist, but which set the tone for the town. First, we prayed over the Collier School area, where Peter Collier (a wealthy publisher from New York) settled. It is a beautiful spot, on the side of a huge hill. His parties set the tone for western Monmouth becoming an affluent town, with many addicted to luxury. Today his estate is a Catholic school for special needs kids, and convent.

Later we visited the Old Scots cemetery on Gordon's Corner Road (see pictures above). This was the site of the first church in our area, which was settled by true Christians fleeing religious persecution in England. They built a small church early to thank God for the miraculous story of their deliverance (ask me it some time). Some of them are still buried there. Later the church moved to Manalapan and became Old Tennent church, which was a center of revival in the Great Awakening of the early 1700's.

Eating well

This weekend was the height of summer church picnic-BBQ-party season. I had 5 to go to (Latino, Jester, Berman, young adult, care center), but could only make it to 3. For the sake of our weight, it is good pastors can not be cloned!