Trip to Brooklyn

All my Brooklyn friends should be proud of me for venturing into the heart of Brooklyn this week. We had to get Christina to LaGuardia airport in the morning, and were looking for places to hang out for the day before seeing "Elf" that night (a lot of fun, with several good moral messages). After looking around, we chose the Brooklyn Museum of Art, only about a half hour drive from the airport.  This is a beautiful museum, newly renovated and spacious. It has a great and large Egypt collection of artifacts, which have always fascinated me, since they are just about the oldest civilization in the world (thousands of years older than Israel, which is itself incredibly old). We spent an enjoyable 5 hours there without even seeing everything. And it is not half as crowded as any of the famous Manhattan museums.

Bible reading

Each year I read through the Bible on the church reading plan, along with all the notes and annotations of a different version.  I have been through the Dake's Bible, John Maxwell Leadership Bible, Message, Cottonpatch Bible,  and various other Bibles this way.  But the Archaeological Bible this past year was by far the best one I have read through.  I originally picked it up in preparation for the trip to Israel, but was enthralled by its history and description of places and customs.  It is really good, and has pictures of most of the famous places we saw.  If anyone wants to borrow it, let me know, it is that enriching.

On to the "Life Application Bible" this year.  Ask me in 12 months how it was.

God speaking

The other day I read Col 4:2-3, where Paul talks about God opening a door for him.  I felt God speak to me that He was going to open a new door for me and the church in the coming months to share the
Gospel.  Let's see what it is!

Haiti trip

2010 earthquake memorial  (over 25,000 buried here)

Beautiful Haitian orphans at orphanage

Food at Convoy of Hope warehouse-note the label

Last week I traveled with a group of 18 NJ ministers to Haiti. We were sponsored by the Convoy of Hope ministry, which does incredible relief and emergency work throughout the world . We visited schools, orphanages, a Bible school,  churches and a huge warehouse full of relief food and supplies.  The country has rebounded some from the 2010 earthquake, but still needs lots of help. We met many Christian and secular groups helping out. Most churches have grown dramatically since the quake. We took a team there in 2010 six months after the quake. Maybe we will go back!

Ken and Pastor Dort from Elizabeth

Power angels among us?

We finally got our power back on day 13 after the storm.   How it happened was unusual.

In church I asked who still did not have electricity in both services, and was surprised to find out that we were the only ones left powerless in the whole church (over 800 people present that Sunday).  Various people prayed for us after hearing this. Right after this a man came in from Pittsburgh who said he was working on lines in the area.  He asked if the church was fully on.  Someone directed him to my wife Louise.  She said "yes, but I wish someone would get our home back on- line."  He asked where we lived, and wrote it down.  He said he would get someone to work on it.

When church was over, I called home, and was shocked to find electricity was back on (the answering machine worked).

Could he have been an angel of power?

Election names

I read the other day about twins born on Election Day.  The parents named them Mitt Romney and Barack Obama (plus the last name)!

I feel sorry for these kids in a few years when they have to explain this.

Hurricane Sandy lament

Today is day 11 of our exile as refugees from Hurricane Sandy.  It is getting old, but several wonderful people have given us shelter.  Our power has not been on at all since the hurricane.  Some in my area had power for a few days and then lost it again after the surprise snow storm of 2 days ago (13 inches fell in Freehold, the highest amount in the noreaster) when many trees and more power lines fell.  We have been in 4 different locations since this started, since our house got pretty cold.  My wife was pretty sick when the storm started.  My cell phone did not work for the first several days usually.  But I think I missed the internet, email and news even more than heat and electric. On one call, the power company told us that our entire street was listed as having electricity (6 houses around us are powerless) when we were in the dark.

We had church in the dark last Sunday, which actually was kind of cozy and fun (as a one-time experience).  We got power back after 8 days and then lost it after the storm for a day.  And during this we lost water for 3 days as a bonus.  Today it is all back on.  I feel like a king in the office with power and water!

We go daily to our house to pick up clothes and other things and to feed our cat, who almost attacks us demanding food and affection ("where have you been?", she says).

I have joked that our goal is to be the last home in Manalapan holding out without power (they say only about 10% are left now).   But seriously, we would like to get power back soon.  This part of NJ is  a mess.