Month: May 2007

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Are Christians in America Persecuted

That was the subject of a recent post by Stacy over at the Persecution Blog.  I hadn’t posted anything in a few weeks, so I thought I could comment on this (I have an opinion on everything).

Before I answered the question, I thought I would define some terms:

  • Christian — one who is “like” Christ.  A follower of Jesus.  I am not using the term Christian to define people who simply “go to church” or who “grew up in church.”
  • Persecution — Excruciating punishment (from Answers.com)

So, do Christians in America undergo Excruciating punishment for their beliefs?  I think if we are honest, we must say the answer is no.

 Look at our brothers and sisters overseas.  Look at the reports on Voice of the Martyrs.  Then come back and tell me we undergo anything like them.  Just to give you a taste of what I’m talking about, here is a video I found on YouTube of VOM founder Richard Wurmbrand talking (and showing if the compression weren’t so bad on YouTube) about his 1st hadn experience of torture:

{youtube}7MofYRU0dyg{/youtube} 

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Shulpska

When Cyndi and I were in Serbia I wanted to eat “real” Serbia food. I had in my mind that they would have “strange” food (just like Haggis in Scotland). Well, it turned out that much of what they ate was fairly normal to me. But our friends told me that one thing that was excelent was Shulpska (I don’t have a clue how to spell it, but that is how it sounded). I ordered it everywere we ate. Our friends even made it at their house for me.

Well, I made some the other day and thought I should blog about how I made it just in case anyone else wanted to give it a try.

Peel 2 cucumbers
Slice longways into 4 wedges
Cut into slices about 1/4 inch
Cube up 2 tomatoes (make about 1/4 inch cubes)
Cube up about 1/2 an onion (again, 1/4 inch cubes)

Put all of that in a bowl and mix it up.

Take Fetta Cheese and sprinkle this on top of the veggies (2 standard size packages you get in Wal Mart will work. It will turn out better if you can buy imported fetta as it tastes different).

Eat and enjoy!

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Surgery

My boss’ dad is having to have surgery next month. I won’t go into all the details here. Remember him in your prayers. He is a believer.

—————-Email From My Boss—————-
My dad is scheduled for a MRI on 5/19 and surgery on 6/14. The wait is required in order to coordinate the schedules of the 3 surgeons. The wait is hard for my dad. We need to trust that God will have him in the hospital at the exact time that He desires and that God’s purposes will be worked out during this time of waiting for His glory.

————–End Email From My Boss—————

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14 Week Update

Obviously I never got around to posting a 3 month update, but 14 weeks is close enough!

My how our little one has grown 🙂  I don’t have new height/weight stats since we don’t go back for her next check-up until 4 months, but she has outgrown most of her 0-3 month clothes and continues to have chubby little cheeks and legs.  So I think all the healthy growth indicators are present.  She eats very well and has been sleeping through the night consistenly for more than two weeks!  I still wake up every now and then and have to check on her, but I’m slowly getting used to her new sleep routine.  She is awake and alert, and HAPPY,  much of the day.  Lydia talks and laughs (and coos, chortles, gurgles, etc.) with great frequency.  She waves her arms and kicks with excitement.  She also holds her head up very well, when being held and when having tummy time.  Her biggest new thing is reaching out and grasping objects.  She’s been clasping and chewing on her hands, even occasionally singling out her thumb, but on Thursday she was  reaching for the dangling toys on her car seat handle.  And on Friday, she started reaching for the hanging  toys on the bar across her bouncy seat.  She has been grabbing and playing  with the mirrored star in the middle all weekend 🙂 (she already enjoyed her bouncy seat because it plays music and has colored lights that flash across the top of the bar…she’s been watching the show for several weeks now!)  I also added the lap tray to her swing the other day because it has two plastic animals that attach to either side,  She’s not big enough to twist the heads or make them rattle yet, but she stares and reaches.

 It’s amazing to watch her grow and change every day.  Mother’s Day was a wonderful experience and such an awesome reminder of the blessing, privilege, and challenge it is to be a parent.  God teaches us about Himself every day as we let go of our own wants and wishes to meet the needs of each other and of our daughter.  We could never do it alone…it is only through the Lord, His strength and guidance, that we can succeed in marriage and parenthood!! 

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Gameplay 5-13-2007

My parents and sister came over yesterday afternoon. After eating dinner, we played Carcassonne with a new expasion they bought Cyndi and I: Traders and Builders. Let me tell you…that expansion totally changes the game (not in a bad way…it’s just different).

I farmed, like normal. After counting up the normal points and farmer points, I had a 1 point lead over Cyndi. Well, she ended up with an extra 30 points because she had the most of all of the trader tokens! I don’t yet know how this will affect my gameplay, but it certainly adds a new dynamic.

By the way, the new builder piece is cool. You place it just like a normal meeple; however, you have to already have a guy on the thing. The builder allows you a second turn if you add onto the thing with the builder. This is great for those big mega cities you think will never get done.

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Bike Route for 12 May 2007

Wallace and I went out for our normal Saturday ride today.  My dad joined us, so we rode up to his place then on up to Ashland.  We used RABAs ABC route as the basis.  It was pretty good…just short.  I don’t think I could do just that.

This was the longest ride this year for me (46.43).  And this was on top of commuting 4 days and taking a special ride on Friday.

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IMAX, Wired to Win, and the Science Museum of Virginia

Earlier this week, Cyndi and I went by the Science Museum of Virginia to find out when Wired to Win was playing (it’s a movie about the Tour DAY France). We found out that it only had one showing per night…at 9pm. From what Cyndi said, there was only 1 sign in the lobby that had showtimes on it (remember this…it becomes important later). I had today off work, so Cyndi and I planned to go to the showing last night. Well, we show up at the museum last night, I drop Cyndi and Lydia off, go park, then walk up.

The first thing I notice is that is appears as if there is a shindig at the museum. No problem I think…we’ll walk in, get tickets, go to the movie, then leave. We walk in only to find the lobby full of “stuff.” No signs anywhere telling anyone what is going on, no one keeping “unauthorized people” out, etc…. I walk back to the ticket desk but no one is there. No signs anywhere explaining what is going on or anything.

Needless to say, we didn’t go see Wired to Win (We went to see Spiderman 3 instead). This morning, we look up on the website and find out that movies shown after 6pm are only shown on Friday and Saturday. ARG! Why didn’t they have that posted in the lobby? Why didn’t they have some signs up last night talking about what was going on? ARG!

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Krispie Kreme and Samples

I had today off work so I decided to go for a little bit longer bike ride. On the way home, Krispie Kreme sounded like a nice treat. The hot light was on, so I went in. Normally, you get offered a sample when that is the case; however, today I had to ask. Well, I found out that “We don’t do samples anymore.” Those were the exact words of the [kind of grouchy] lady behind the counter.

From what I understand, Krispie Kreme has always given samples when the hot light was on. I guess this is the companies way to increase profits. But arg…how much does it really cost the company to give people a free hot glazed donut? My guess would be no more than 25 cents.

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Funny, or Sad…You Decide

I had a lady at work show me this video from YouTube today.  It is both funny and sad.  It is sad because so many people think that this is what being a Christian is really about.

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WOW!

I was looking through the stats for maxsons.org and noticed that someone came to the site after quering for Dale Jarret RIR 2007.  Occasionally, I’ll go out and do an identical search just to see where we fall.  Well, when I did the search , the link to my post of his qualifying laps was #1 on the list!  WOW!

I think this is interesting for several reasons:

    1 — I don’t do any kind of Search Engine Optimization. 
    2 —  I post about what I want to post about and link to what I want to link to.  I don’t worry about getting more hits or less hits.  I don’t worry about linking to someone else because they might be “bad.”
     3 — There aren’t many links here on the web.  I’ll occasionally go out and search technorati to see who is linking here.  The last time I noticed, there were only a handful.