If you are bored...

I Just came across this article. Thought some of you might enjoy reading it. It made me laugh.

The article is about the Mayor of Kiev, Ukraine. He seems a little crazy, as illustrated by this quote - “My voters are ordinary people, and I speak to them in one language, the language of ordinary people, even though, of course, I am not an ordinary person.”

or maybe this one - “Who sings better than me?” he asked. “Nobody does, besides God.”

And if you read the article you will be able to sound smart in a conversation today. Just think what people will think when they hear you say, "I was reading an article today in the New York Times about Leonid Chernovetsky the Mayor of Kiev and..."

You can find the article here.

Wedding Stress

Planning a wedding is a pretty stressful thing at times! There are so many decisions to make, so many peoples lives to work around to make sure everyone can celebrate with us! Do we serve a meal or just eat cake? Do we have camels at our wedding or maybe just the rehearsal? What caterer do you choose? What do you do when every hotel in the area is booked? How do you pay for all of it? These are just a few of the questions Kara and I have been wrestling with in the past few days.

I'm also having a lot of fun! I know that in 81 days I get to take the most beautiful and amazing woman in the world to be my wife! If you had a few hours I could type away about how beautiful of a person Kara is. She has such a big heart, so much joy, an intense passion to follow Jesus and one of the most amazing smiles you will ever see!

I hope all of our friends and family will be able to celebrate this amazing day with us. Invitations will be out sometime soon! (We still have to set the time...did I mention planning a wedding could be stressful?) If you haven't yet, check out our wedding website you can find it here

And to lighten the mood a little I thought I would share this video with you. We are tossing around an idea like this for our wedding. I think our parents and grandparents would love it! What do you think?

No One Kicks A Dead Dog...

I've had a pretty difficult few weeks learning to deal with criticism. Criticism is not something that I've really had to deal with to much in my life. But as situations and circumstances have changed for me I'm now available for all to critique and examine and sometimes people can be pretty cruel.

Last night I was thinking some things over and trying to figure out how to respond or not respond to several different criticisms that have come to light recently. For some reason I picked up a Dale Carnegie book that I had laying on the floor in my office and began to flip through it. He had a section on dealing with criticism and I turned immediately to it.

Now I know that criticism can be a good thing. Many times in the past I have had to deal with criticism that was justified. I messed something up, I did something wrong, I was lazy, I was uninformed; I learned from those situations and they helped to make me a better person. I've never had to deal with unjust criticism before. It's a little different, it doesn't benefit me, it doesn't encourage me. Then I read this:

"An event occurred in 1929 that created a national sensation in educational circles. Learned men from all over America rushed to Chicago to witness the affair. A few years earlier, a young man by the name of Robert Hutchins had worked his way through Yale, acting as a waiter, a lumberjack, a tutor, and a clothesline salesman. Now, only eight years later, he was being inaugurated as president of the fourth richest university in America, the University of Chicago. His age? Thirty. Incredible! The older educators shook their heads. Criticism came roaring down upon this "boy wonder" like a rock slide. He was this and he was that - too young, inexperienced - his educational ideas were cockeyed. Even the newspapers joined in the attack.

The day he was inaugurated, a friend said to the father of Robert Maynard Hutchings: "I was shocked this morning to read that newspaper editorial denouncing your son."

"Yes," the elder Hutchins replied, "it was severe, but remember that no one ever kicks a dead dog."

Yes, and the more important a dog is, the more satisfactions people get in kicking him..."

The next time you feel unjustly criticised, first consider if the criticism is true and see if you can benefit from it. But if you are criticised and it is unjust, if it is meant to simply tear you down remember, No One Ever Kicks a Dead Dog! You must be doing something right!

Engaged!

Just thought I would let all of you know that I am no longer in Hong Kong and I'm engaged to the most beautiful woman in the world!!! Here we are,

Hong Kong!

I'm in Hong Kong right now!

Who would have ever thought I would end up in this city! Its so amazing! The city is massive and the people are so cool. We flew business class last night out of Tokyo. (which was amazing! My seat turned into a bed!)

We are staying in a pretty shady Hostel. The hostel isn't too shady, its just the area outside of it that is.

We only have one day here. We fly out tomorrow morning around 10. My schedule is pretty hectic. On my original ticket I had a lay over in Tokyo so I thought I could just skip the flight from Seoul and get on my connecting flight out of Detroit. Boy was I wrong! It would have cost $500 to change.

So here is my flight schedule for tomorrow and Sunday:

I fly out of Hong Kong to Tokyo in the morning. I have to go through immigration in Japan to pick up my bags, I paid to store at the airport. Then I go through customs again to leave the county.

I will then board a plane to Seoul. Go through immigration and customs in Korea. Check in for my flight. Then go through customs again to board the plane.

Then I fly back to Tokyo. Wait 4 hours then board a plane for Detroit. So I have 4 flights in one day! And two of the flights are to the same city!

Pray for me!

I need to run. I can't wait to be home in 3 days!

See you soon!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Dragon Mountain

This past week has been pretty amazing! On Sunday Kendall and I got lost in some tiny town for three hours in the middle of no where. It was pretty cool. I don't have any pictures from it but I will try to tell the story on here some other time.

Two weeks ago I went into town on a Sunday and the sea was full of ships coming in or leaving the port. I told Kendall I thought we should go to this big cliff we passed and watch the sun rise over the sea with all of the ships out there. It never really worked out.

Well last Sunday I talked a few people into going for a bike ride to watch the Sunrise. The plan was to leave Sunday morning at 6:15 A.M. and ride for 30 minutes to a place called "Dragon Mountain." We woke up on Sunday Morning an it was raining! We all went back to bed.

On Monday morning we didn't start work until 11:00 A.M. so we decided to try it again. This time only one other person wanted to join us. We set are alarms and forced ourselves out of bed at 6:00 A.M. Kendall, Ian and I meet in the lobby and decided we were really going to do this. The biggest problem was that none of us had bikes. But we were told that we could just "borrow" some bikes from the bike rack in front of our building. So at 6:15 we were test-riding what bikes we would steal! We found the correct bikes and headed out for "Dragon Mountain." The first section of the trail is about 25 minutes through a rice patty! It was amazing. It was pitch black outside and we are on a tiny trail in the middle of a field. We had no clue where we were going only that we wewre heading for Dragon Mountain!

We left the field and ended up on a small road leading into a town. When we reached the town the sea appeared on our right. We rode for the remainder of the trip all along the cost! It was beautiful. We rode, and rode, and rode for a while. After about 1 and a half hours we were exhausted and decided to just stop. We had obviously missed Dragon Mountain. But we did find one of the most beautiful places I've been to in Korea. We were on top of a large hill and decide to climb down to the sea coast.

When we reached the bottom the sun was just starting to rise above the water and the mountains in the distance. It was beautiful. The colors were vived and bright! The location we watched from was covered in massive rocks. We spent time jumping around on the rocks out to the sea!

After the sunrise we left the beach to head home. The ride back was even more beautiful with the sun actuly in the sky. We could see where we were going and the beautiful coast.

We also had our eyes open for Dragon Mountain. By chance we stopped at a bridge looked to the right and saw this temple on the side of a mountain! It was Dragon Mountain. We approaced the Mountain and discovered that there was indeed a giant dragon on the side of this mountain. It was a large tunnel that went up the side of this mountain and ended on the ground in a giant dragon head! We were examining things when out of no where a Buddhist monk appeared and told us to go inside the dragon. We followed him and were greated by this sight:



It was amazing! The monk left us and we were inside of the dragon alone. We followed the tunnel all the way to the top. All of the walls were lined with pictures and statues and at the end there was a large statue of Buddah with a prayer mat. We spent some time there and left.

As we were getting on our bikes another monk appeared and motioned to us to follow him. He took us into a private building and offered us coffe. He couldn't speak any English! We figured out he was the dish washer for the monks! We spent a little time with him and then went to leave. He bowed and told us good bye. As we were getting on our bikes he again called ups back and this time invited us into a different buiilding. This time he gave us each a calander!

We finally got on our bikes and finished the rest of the ride back to school!

Well I need to run. I'm leaving for china in about 2 hours! I'll be in Hong Kong Tomorrow! I miss everyone back home! See you soon!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Temple:

Relaxing...

Coffee! My favorite way to relax no matter where in the world I am! This is a shot of my Latte at the Illy Cafe. I rode the bus into town on Monday by myself to read, write and spend some time alone. I had a really good time and I was able to get some good reading done! I'm just about to finish F. Scott Fitzgerald's "This Side of Paradise."

Camp ended on Friday at about 1:00 P.M. and I have had some time to explore and relax. The next camp doesn't start until Monday morning at 11:00 A.M. so we have plenty of time to do whatever we like.

Last night we went to a karaoke house as a group. It was amazing. We all paid 1,000 Won ($1) to get in and then they took our group to our own private Karaoke room. There were about 15 of us crammed in the room with a flat screen T.V. two wireless microphones, and about 6 tambourines. We all took turns singing our favorite songs for about 2 hours it was a great time! Its a pretty cool way to Karaoke!

Here is a video of our group rocking out to a Korean pop song:



Today we went to a place called Jukdo Market in the city of Pohang. It was amazing. There is no way I could ever describe the feeling, the sounds, and the smells that fill the place! Its a very large market with lots for sale. There are live fish everywhere, socks, fruit, vegetables, candy, blankets, and anything else you might need! People would be shouting and yelling and pushing and buying. I tried dried octopus, puffed rice, tofu chips, and dried squid legs!

Here is a picture of the entrance to the market:



Kendal, Lisa and Asha Looking for a good deal:



Squid for sale:



Fish for sale:



Fish Drying:



Tomorrow morning we are going for a bike ride really early to hike up a mountain named Dragon mountain to watch the sun rise over the water. Should be cool! Hope all is well! Love, Joy & Peace!

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My Class!

Our first camp is over and we are enjoying a long weekend break! We got off work on Friday at about 1:00 P.M. and are off until Monday morning at 8:30 A.M. So I've been relaxing and seeing some sights! I'll have another post after this one with some pictures of my time off.

During the camp I had a homeroom class that I was responsible for each day. They would start everyday in my classroom for a time called "Mission to the World." In that class we were assigned a Missionary from Cairo Illinois of all places! Each day we would discuss missions and our Missionary and the United States. Each homeroom was assigned a city and country to learn about during the camp. My class was the city of Chicago! These were the only kids I had in class everyday. So you get closer to these kids than the others.

Here are some pictures of my kids and my class.

My Classroom:



My Class:



My Boys



Our class project! We built our own version of the Chicago Skyline. They spent 3 days building this and our American Flag. Check out all of the little details:



My Boys proud of their city:



Boys and Girls with massive American Flag. Allice the girl in the back cut out every star on the flag!:

Pictures

Hello Everyone! Things have been pretty busy around here and I haven't had to much time to post on my blog. I usually have time to send Kara an e-mail and that's about it! But its Sunday night here and I have a little time before bed so I just thought I would put up some pictures really quick and you can see what I've been up to!

There are some hiking trails behind the dorm that I am living in. My roommate Kendall and I decided to go take a hike on Saturday afternoon. It as amazing. We stumbled upon a rice patty where there were shacks built for rice workers! They were pretty cool, but a little creepy too. They seemed like someone might jump out of one at any time!

We saw the sunset from the top of a really big hill. It set behind this large row of mountains it was amazing! Then we walked home under the light of a huge full moon!

So here are some pictures from that Hike:

Kendall and I checking out the Mountains in the distance:



In The Middle of a random rice patty!



Today we went to this old Korean folk village it was supposed to be around 600 years old! We walked through the village and along the river and then ate a traditional Korean dinner. The food was amazing! We all sat on the floor and ate from one big bowl in the middle. Here are some pictures of the village and our meal.

A Cool Building in the Village:



Kendall and I by the River:



A Beautiful Shot! Tea dried up with the Mountains in the background:



A cool mask that is worn for traditional dances. The mask was inside a mask museum we went to:



A group shot (minus me) after our dinner!



Kendall with his meal (he had a separate meatless meal from the rest of us):



Our Meal just before we devoured it!



The Remains of our Meal:



This is pretty amazing! It's a Korean version of the see-saw...except you launch the other person into the air!



Here is a video of some Koreans showing us how it's done! It's pretty Scary!



And Finally a video from class on Saturday. My kids were playing a game where you had to try to get the student to guess the word or phrase written on the board behind them. This kid is trying to guess "Anything is Possible for God." I thought you might enjoy seeing my kids in action!


I hope things are great for you and that all is well! Have a great week!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Sledding! Korean style

All week long the staff from outside of Korea has really been looking forward to today. We had been told that we were going sledding with the students this afternoon.

We later found out that Koreans don't exactly sled like they do in America. Actually they don't even go sledding in the snow.

We drove 50 minutes up this huge mountain range. It was beautiful! But when I looked out my window I was terrified, it dropped down further than I could see and I was on a big tour bus with about 60 kids. We arrived at this rice patty unloaded the kids. They were each handed a wooden sled made out of shipping pallet with something like ice-skate blades on the bottom and two sticks each with a large nail at the bottom. Then we walked around a building and they had a rice patty that they had filled with water and it was frozen. The kids would sit on their sleds and scoot around with the wooden handled nail things. It was AMAZING!

After we were done sledding we went to another area where old men had been cooking potatoes for us! They had these huge open grills filled with rocks, with a big fire beneath them. They rolled up regular potato's and sweet potato's in foil and threw them in the rocks to cook for about an hour. They tasted amazing! (I ate a sweet potato so Aunt Gina you owe me a $1 at Thanksgiving! Sorry Mom!) All the kids would stand around and fight to get one when they threw it out of the grill! Here are a few videos from today's festivities!

The first one is of Kendall introducing you to Korean sledding, and the second is my friend Ann Brill (a teacher here) falling down! She had never seen snow before and was very excited for the little that was there. Hope all is well for you! Love, Joy & Peace!

Who wants a Lobster?

I went into town last night to buy some rice for class. We ran out of rice for our shakers. While we were waiting for the bus one of my friends said you have to see this! We walked around a street corner and found this machine...I'll let the video speak for itself.



Love, Joy & Peace!

A day in Korea

When I’m not sick and in bed sleeping I have a pretty busy schedule. The whole month that I am here is one big camp that kids from all over Korea have paid nearly $3000 to attend. The purpose of the camp is to help improve the English skills of the children in a Christian environment. So the structure is a lot like a camp in the U.S. would be. They have a pretty set schedule that they follow every day.

What is hard for me and probably many Americans to imagine is that the age of the campers is from 7 or 8 years old to about 16. Could you imagine being sent away to a camp to learn English for 3 weeks by yourself when you were 8 years old? It’s pretty crazy! For the most part the kids are pretty good with being away from home.

So here is what I do all day!

I usually wake up around 7:30 A.M. and get ready in my dorm room. We have bathrooms and showers on our floor just like a college dorm in the states. I finish up any last minute lesson plans, check my e-mail and rush out the door for breakfast and staff meeting at 8:30. At our staff meeting we discuss the day and any other specific things that need to be addressed.

Foyer - Outside of Dorm rooms and Staff Lounge -

Staff Lounge - In Dorm

Dorm Room Hallway -

At 9:00 A.M. I have a homeroom class. Every teacher has a homeroom class. This is the only class that I get to see every day. Each homeroom is named after a different city around the world and is assigned a missionary from that area to learn about during camp. My homeroom city is pretty easy for me…it’s Chicago! Our class missionary lives in Cairo Illinois. So every homeroom period we have a game and a lesson about missions, Chicago, or our missionary. They are a pretty fun class. Here is a picture of my homeroom class.



At 10:00 A.M. I have my first class followed by another class at 11:00 A.M. I am teaching bible and was assigned a text book to teach from so my lesson prep is fairly easy. I usually begin the class with a game (the kids love hangman!) and then I have the students go around the room and read one paragraph at a time from the book. I then write some vocabulary words on the chalk board and have the students write them on a sheet of paper. Then I will have the students pronounce each word and I then define it for them. After we define all of the words I read the story out loud to the class. I will stop every few sentences to explain what is going on or act scenes out.

My Class Hard at work -

Its really neat to teach bible to these kids. Korea is a pretty Christian country but some of these kids are still shocked by the stories! My first lesson was on the birth of Jesus and in several different classes it was amazing to see the shock on some of the students faces when I told them that God’s Son was born in a stable! I hope that I always have that sense of wonder and awe about Jesus!

After my 11:00 A.M. class I have to take my students to lunch in the cafeteria. It is about a 5 minute walk from my class room but it is very cold out! I will eat lunch with whatever class I happen to have that day and after lunch I will walk the class back to the dorm room. I then have a break from Lunch until 2:00 P.M. (I’m usually online around then which is about 11:00 P.M. in Indiana if you want to try and catch me on msn or facebook!)

After my break I have a 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 P.M. class. At 5:00 I am responsible for leading a club. Each teacher is required to lead a club every afternoon. Some of the clubs offered are soccer, beadwork, film, African dance and card games. I am co-leading the Music club with my friend Kendall Ludwig. Students go to their club with their homeroom class and get to go to a different club every week. Last week I posted a video of our kids playing shakers that they made in our club to a song that I said Kendall wrote. I know that Kendall didn’t write “River of Life” I just uploaded the wrong video! So here is a new video of our kids shaking their shakers to Kendall’s song.



After our club Kendall and I take our 20 kids to dinner. We eat with them, walk them back to the dorm and then we are done for the evening. It’s a pretty full day. Once I get feeling better I will have some pictures up from around town and some different buildings on campus and things.

Hope all is well!

Love, Joy & Peace!

M.A.S.H.

If you have been following my updates on facebook, or have happened to catch me on MSN or facebook chat you probably know that I have been pretty sick these past few days. Well apparently I’ve been really sick! I’ve been in bed for the past 2 days with the Asian flu! I know…real exotic!

The staff here actually made me go to the ER yesterday afternoon. I had to walk downstairs and then a driver drove me about 20 minutes to the city of Pohong to go to the hospital. I was a little afraid to go to a hospital ER in Korea (maybe to many episodes of M.A.S.H.?) but then I began to think about how many doctors I know from the states that are Korean. My fears subsided a little…until we walked into the ER. My translator Cu said to me “You might see something interesting in here,” right before we walked in.

It was crazy! The ER was like a trauma center and there were people on cots all over the room! Their were no dividers between beds and you could see everyone. Some were rolling around their beds in pain, some had blood over them and some weren’t really moving at all.

We talked to the man at the front desk and he told us that it would cost $100 USD to see a doctor today (Sunday) but if I waited until tomorrow I could see one for only $10 USD. So we went to the grocery store and bought some fruit instead! I didn't go back today. I'm feeling a lot better!

The camp nurse gave me a bunch of pills to take so I have been taking those. I have been drinking lots of water, sleeping a lot, and I even found some mint tea (my favorite!) at the grocery store. I’m starting to feeling better but my voice is still a little rough and I’m pretty congested still. It’s much better than cold chills and sweating all night with a high fever! So please keep praying for me that I continue to improve. I had to have someone teach my class today which means I don’t get paid for being here today!

Hope all is well for you!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Dancing in Korea

School has been going great!

Things are a little different than I expected but its been very fun and interesting. I wish I had more time to sit back and write out all of the funny things that these kids have said and done! They are so much fun. I'm off on Sunday so maybe I will be able to share some stories then!

I am teaching 5 classes a day. Some classes are pretty advanced and some have a hard time understanding the word "wave."

I am also responsible for a "Club" each day after class. I am co-teaching Music club with my friend Kendall. Our plan was to sing and learn some new songs. That didn't work well. Apparently Korean kids don't like to sing. But as you can see from the video below they love to shake! We made the shakers yesterday in class and today we had them shake along to some of our songs! It was really fun!

I'm off to bed. I'll try to put some funny stories together for the week end! Enjoy the videos. Love, Joy & Peace!



This last video is of me walking my kids back to our dorm after dinner! They had a bit of energy and I wanted them to say hello to you!

Korea

So...I'm in Korea.

It only took me 30 hours to get here! I flew out of Detroit on the 26th at 1:45 P.M. and the adventure began. When I left my moms house in Michigan the roads were covered in ice. I had to drive 20 MPH for 1 1/2 hours! I arrived at the airport and had to wait in line for two hours to check in. I boarded my plane and flew to Tokyo. Once in Tokyo I immediately boarded another plane to fly to Seoul, Korea. Once I was on the plane we sat for an hour. After an hours wait we were told that we needed to get off the airplane. They had just replaced the brakes on the plane and needed to simulate a landing before we could take off. Everyone exited the plane and then 20 minutes later we had to board again. Once on board we had to wait 2 more hours before we took off. It was great...not really. We arrived in Seoul 3 hours late and then we had a 4 1/2 hour drive. We didn't arrive at the school until 7:15 A.M. our first meeting began at 9:30. I have been going all day on an hour of sleep. So if some of this doesn't make sense I'll blame it on that.

The camp has been really fun so far. We spent all day today in orientation. We went over rules, where my classroom is, discipline, philosophy, cultural understanding and where to go to eat. The food is very spice but is really good. Lots of rice and noodles and soup with every meal.

Most of the other teachers are from South Africa and it has been fun to get to know them. I have been spending some time with a guy named Nate who is from Birmingham Alabama. He is a great guy and this is his first time at the camp as well.

I'm sharing a room with my good friend Kendal Ludwig. His luggage got lost so we've been sharing a lot!

Our room is on the 5th floor of a college dorm. Once you reach the top of the stairs for our floor you take off your shoes and put on slippers or walk around in your socks! I love it. Plus, the floors in our room are heated. It feels really nice when you roll out of bed in the morning.

I'm really tired and need some sleep. I'll try to have some pictures up in the next day or so. Keep reading and I'll keep telling you whats going on.

Love, Joy & Peace!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend! I had a great time! Kara came to North Vernon on Wednesday night and went to Jubilee (our church youth group) with me. After church we loaded up the van and headed to Michigan. We pulled in the drive way at my moms' house around 1:30 A.M. it was a long drive!

On Thanksgiving day we all had a wonderful breakfast of bagels together and then Brad Gallup took Kara and I off for a photo shoot. This is my favorite picture of the shoot! It was really cold out, the wind was blowing hard and there were birds everywhere (which is a big problem for Kara!).

 

That night Renee and Don and the Girls girl's joined us for dinner along with my parents neighbors Marty, Mandy, Macie, and Mason! We had turkey and ham and all of that other delicious Thanksgiving stuff. I always enjoy eating anything my Mom makes. After dinner we hung out in the living room while everyone took turns playing the Wii.

On Black Friday we all slept in and Kara and I left at around noon for her parents house in Lima Ohio. We stopped to pick up her Grandma in Fort Wayne along the way and we had a really good time with her for about an hour as we traveled.

Kara's Mom had a huge meal prepared for us for dinner that night! There were 13 of us around 2 tables enjoying the feast. Kara's Grandma even cooked oysters for the occasions! Nothing says Thanksgiving like fried oysters! That night we went and look at Christmas lights, sang Christmas carols in the living room and watched Home Alone 3!

On Saturday morning after being woken up by Caleb and Tyler (Kara's 16 year old brother and his friend) we all enjoyed biscuits and gravy for breakfast!

Kara's brother Jonathan left around 2:00 in the afternoon to drive back to Olivet. He had been gone for about 20 minutes when the phone rang at the house. Jonathan was calling to tell his Dad that while he was pumping gas a couple in the car next to him could not get their car started. Jonathan tried to help but they couldn't find out the problem. So he called and asked his Dad to come and help.

So Kara's Dad got up and traveled to the gas station while we all made plans to put up the Christmas tree and other Christmas decorations. About an hour later as we were moving furniture and boxes into the living room Kara's Dad walked into the house with two strangers behind him. The strangers came in and sat down in the living room. They were introduced to us as Stan and Lucy. They were both seem to be around their 50's. They were from Toronto Canada and their car had broken down at the gas station.

They figured the problem was with the starter so Jon and Stan purchased a new one and were on their way to install it. They asked Lucy if she wanted to stay at the house instead of waiting in the cold while they worked on the car. Lucy agreed.

So here we were with a perfect stranger in the living room as we were about to put up the Christmas tree. We talked with Lucy a few minutes and then asked her if she would like to help with the tree. She smiled and said yes! Lucy jumped right in and even started vacuuming the living room at one point! After the tree was up we talked a little more with her. We learned that Stan and Lucy moved to Toronto in the 70's from Krakow Poland, the home town of Pope John Paul II. When they were children they were confirmed by Pope John Paul II while he was still Bishop in Krakow. I was so impressed with how comfortable she seemed given the situation. Kara's Mom then made hot chocolate and coffee and had us all gather in the living room as Lucy shared how they celebrate Christmas in Poland.

Kara and I had to leave at 6:00 and Lucy was still at the house when we left. We figured that her Dad would fix the car and they would be on their way. That night we called to see how things went and we were told that they couldn't get the car started and Lucy and Stan were going to spend the night at their house!

On Sunday morning they still couldn't get the car started and Lucy and Stan needed to get home that day. They decided to get a ride to Detroit and take a train into Toronto and then ride the subway to their home. Their son-in-law drove up from Cincinnati to drive them the 1 ½ hours to Detroit. But before they left Stan walked into the house and told John that he would have a hard time having the car towed into Canada and that it would be difficult to get back to fix the car, so he pulled out the title and the keys and gave them to Kara's Dad and said, "You can have the car!" They hopped in their son-in-laws car and drove of to Detroit!

The whole thing sounds like it should be in a movie! It was great. We have their address and phone number and I'm hoping to meet up with them this spring while I'm in Toronto!

I had an amazing weekend. It was so much fun to be with family, to relax, to eat some good food, and it was really good to be with Kara for 5 days in a row.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I'll be posting soon about my upcoming trip to Korea, so check back soon!

Love, Joy & Peace!

The Beast in Me

So I found this video today too. I like it. I hope you do to. Seriously what could be better than Johnny Cash, an old man and a dog?

Johnny Cash |MTV Music

Mc Skat Cat

So I discovered a web site www.mtvmusic.com the other day and it is great. The site has just about every music video ever created. I thought this video was amazing! Enjoy!

Paula Abdul |MTV Music

Momma T

So I'm a few weeks late on my post! But to my defense it seems as if no one cared about my game! Oh well. I had several people make guesses in person and my favorite guess was from Seth who thought that the quote on the last post was from Marilyn Manson. Actually the quote from my last post was from none other than Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa? Really?

The quote is from a book titled "Come Be My Light" by Brian Kolodiejchuk. The book includes some of the private writings of Mother Teresa. Although the writings are not the typical hope inspiring snippets you often find in other books. This book deals with the very personal struggles of faith and love and nearness of God.

A quote from Mother Teresa listed on the back of book exemplifies the tone of the book she says, "If I ever become a Saint - I will surely be one of "darkness." I will continually be absent from Heaven - to light the light of those in darkness on earth."

What I love about her struggle is that although she tried to keep it from the public, it was a very real struggle that she had. Her story is that early in her life she felt a strong call from God to minister to the people of Calcutta and after that point she rarely felt his presence. Could I suffer what she suffered, experience what she experienced and see what she saw and still be faithful to God's calling even though God seemed distant and far away? I hope so.

This book also gives me hope that sometimes the doubts and fears and insecurities of faith that I have are not something that only I deal with. This woman, who for many people exemplifies the word Saint, struggled too, she had doubts too! I believe there is strength from our honesty with one another.

So if you struggle, if you doubt, if you have emptiness or misery and yet are following the calling and direction of Christ seek him all the more. Long for him more. Desire him more. I also urge you to share your true feelings and thoughts with a mature Christian as well.

I love how she ends this section of writing with this, "...here I am Lord, with joy I accept all to the end of life and I smile at Your Hidden Face - always."

May we also be able to say, "Here I am Lord." Even when He feels distant. Even when He feels hidden.

I love this C.S. Lewis quote from the book "The Screwtape Letters,"

“He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”

Who Said It?

So I haven't blogged in a while. I'm sure if many of you are even reading still. A lot has happened in the past few months that I would love to tell you about in some future blogs but for now I want to play a game with you. I want you to read the following quote and post a comment guessing who wrote it. Next Thursday I will tell you who said it and add some comment to it. But for now read it and post a comment on who you think it is. Love, Joy & Peace

"Lord, my GOd, who am I that You should forsake me? The child of your love - and now become as the most hated one - the one You have thrown away as unwanted - unloved. I call, I cling, I want - and there is no One to answer - no One on Whom I can cling - no,No One. Alone. The darkness is so dark - and I am alone. Unwanted, Forsaken. The loneliness of the heart that wants love is unbearable. Where is my faith? - Even deep down, right in, there is nothing but emptiness and darkness. My God how painful is this unknown pain. It pains without ceasing. I have no faith. I dare not utter the words and thoughts that crowd in my heart and make me suffer untold agony. So many unanswered questions live within me I am afraid to uncover them becasue of the blasphemy - If there be God, please forgive me. Trust that all will end in Heaven with Jesus. When I try to raise my thought to Heaven there is such a convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul. Love the word it brings nothing. I am told God loves me and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. Before the work started there was so much union, love, faith, trust, prayer, sacrifice...I don't feel not even a single simple thought or temptation enteres my heart to claim anything in the work.

The whole time smiling...people pass such remarks. They think my faith, trust, and love ar filling my very being and that the intimacy with God and union to His will must be absorbing my heart. Could they but know and how my cheerfulness is the cloak by which I cover the emptiness and misery.

In spite of all - this darkness and emptiness is not as painful as the longing for God. The contradiction I fear will unbalanc e me. What are You doing My God to one so small? When you asked to imprint Your Passion on my heart - is this the answer?

If this brings You glory, if You get a drop of joy from this - if souls ar brought to You if my suffering satiates Your Thirst here I am Lord, with joy I accept all to the end of life and I will smile at Your Hidden Face - always."


Who do you think said it?