Monthly Archives: January 2006

Master Designer

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As I’ve mentioned before, I’m reading through the Bible this year (or at least I’m starting). Currently, I’m in one of those sections where it is easy to get bogged down. It is the passages in Exodus where God tells Moses how to build the tabernacle, and the ark of the covenant, and the altar, and the table, and the robes, and the curtains, and . . and . . .and .. . It reads like a shopping list from Trading Spaces. I think our modern day language it wouldn’t be far off. 10 8′ 2×4′s, 5 sheets of plywood, fabric for the drapes, a little paint for the table, etc . . .

This time, the passage that hit me was Ex 31:2-6:

See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, ?3? and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts— ?4? to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, ?5? to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. ?6? Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you:
The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ex 31:2-6). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

The Lord chose the people specifically. He had a specific plan for them. He had given them the skills, ability and knowledge to perform a specific task. WOW! What a designer. We focus on how He created the world, but we dont’ have many details of the process. This passage shows a more specific example of how He designs and how He works. He knew exactly what He wanted and who He wanted to do it. He could have just said, “Throw a tent up over there and pray!” He is too creative for that.

I found myself praising Him for his creativity and taking comfort in the fact that He has a specific task that He created me for.

What a blessing to get an insight in this difficult passage. I guess I’m not dreading Leviticus as much any more.

Thanksgiving in January

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Today was a day of thanksgiving for Valerie & I. No, there was no turkey, cranberry sauce, or dressing. We spent the morning writing thank-you notes to people that gave to our ministry in the past month. Writing thank-you notes is not our favorite pass time as it takes a lot of energy and time, but it was wonderful to see how the Lord has provided for us.

In order to make the process more palatable, we went into downtown Budapest and ate breakfast at the Vista Cafe. It is a great little cafe that has wonderful American-like breakfasts. I had some type of egg, hash brown, sausage scramble and Valerie had a Mushroom, Onion & Spinach Omlette. It was nice and not too expensive.

After breakfast, we stayed at the restaurant and wrote thank-you notes for a couple of hours. As each name came up, we wrote, prayed for them, and thanked God for his provision. We have had significant expenses related to my back surgery and the Lord continues to provide. Amazing.

Thank-You to those of you that are partners in our ministry. Your prayers and gifts are such a blessing to us.

BRRRR!

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The report says “Fair”, but this isn’t fair at all!!!

Here’s the weather report from Yahoo Weather this morning. Ouch! It’s cold. When I woke up this morning it said 3 degrees, but I didn’t clip it then so you’ll have to take my word for it. Valerie thinks that we have had negative temps (fahrenheit) since we have been here, but this is the coldest I can remember.

The doors to my car will hardly open because they are frozen shut and there was ice on the inside of my car windows. Also, my car doesn’t warm up very fast so after taking Kirby Ann to preschool, it finally warmed up just as I was turning into my office parking lot (about 30 minutes since I left home)!!

It looks like it is going to be like this all week.

Weird place for a family visit

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One of the major projects that I’m working on right now is creating a measurement tool for our campus ministry. It will be a web-based application that will allow our staff to measure their activities and use the information to better lead their efforts.

We are working on the project for Eastern Europe & Russia, but we learned along the way that there was another effort to do the same for Campus Crusade globally. Since we were working on a similar project, we were invited to participate in the global effort. The first face to face meeting of this team is going to be in February in Singapore. I am going to represent our area at the meeting.

I then heard that my good friend, Trey Lewis, who is the director of my old department in Orlando was going to attend. I sent him an email telling him that I was looking forward to seeing him and that he should bring my dad along (For those of you that don’t know, my dad is a project manager for Campus Crusade in that same department).

Before I knew it, I got an email from my dad saying that Trey couldn’t go to the meeting and that my dad was going to go. I didn’t believe it until I heard it from my dad’s mouth, but it looks like it is going to happen. Now I’m really looking forward to it! I would have never guess that dad & I would have to go halfway around the world to see each other. It will be good to work together again. I told him that he should bring my mom along, but she wasn’t too keen on taking a 30 hour flight to spend 3 days on her own while we are in meetings (I can understand that. 30 hours sounds brutal). My flight is similar to flying to the US from here and takes 8 or 9 hours after a short hop to somewhere in Western Europe.

Look foward to seeing you Dad!!!

Six Weeks Down . . a Lifetime to Go

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I’ve been really busy this week so not much blogging.

I thought I needed to celebrate the 6 week mark since my surgery. It is hard to believe that it has been that long. One of the things that I’m excited about is I was able to take all of the metal out of my brace and it is much more comfortable to wear. I’m getting pretty tired of that thing, but only 3 more weeks to go.

My recovery is still up and down. I’m mostly functional, but it seems that I still need to rest or the pain starts to build up. I took most of the day Monday to just rest and that helped a ton. Since I was with the kids all weekend, I didn’t rest as much as I needed to. We had a great weekend together, though.

Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement that have helped us make it this far. If I can just stay patient, then I’ll be back to 100% before I know it.

A three hour tour, a three hour tour . . .

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This weekend, Valerie is attending a retreat with the other American women in Campus Crusade from across our area (Eastern Europe & Russia). It is a weekend to minister to the women that serve in places where there isn’t much American contact. They value a weekend to speak English, sing in English, and just relax.

Since Valerie is gone, it means that I’m holding “Wife Appreciation Weekend” as I am continually reminded of the amazing job that she does taking care of, nuturing, feeding, and loving our family.

The weekend got off to a bad start last night. In order to save money on parking, I volunteered to drive her to the hotel in downtown Budapest. I’ve driven there many times before and it takes 15 minutes with no traffic and maybe 30 minutes with traffic. We left our house just after 4pm and were off to pickup Kirby Ann at preschool. We left the preschool around 4:30. After we had driven about halfway, all of a sudden, the traffic came to a complete stop. Busses weren’t moving, cars weren’t moving, and it was backed up as far as we could see. After 10 minutes, we started trying to cut off on side streets to find a way out. Everyone else tried this as well and so we sat on a side street without moving rather than on the main street. When we finally got to the hotel, it was just before 6pm. That’s almost 2 hours. My back was really starting to get uncomfortable and I was going crazy.

Kirby Ann, Reed and I took a 15 minute break and we were back on our way home. As we left the hotel, I almost pulled out into traffic that was going 40-50 mph. I got about a quarter of the way into the lane when a car sailed passed. I realized what I had done and I about passed out. It could have been a tragic mistake. The Lord was watching out for us. After this, I drove by the spot where the traffic was so backed up and I realized that they were digging up the road. They had taken a major 3-4 lane road and reduced it to 1 lane during rush hour. AARRRGGHHHH!!!

Then, since it was so late, I decided to visit the official restaurant of Wife Appreciation Weekend, McDonalds!!! As we pulled into the parking lot, I saw that the drive-thru was overflowing into the parking lot. Since it was about 6:45, I decided to bail on McDonalds. I didn’t want to wait another 30 minutes. I decided to drive to another McD’s and I finally got some food.

We returned home just after 7pm after 3 hours on the road. I was totally wiped out and spent the rest of the night on the couch and letting the kids wait on me. They went to bed and just vegged out. It was a rough start to the weekend.

The good part of this is that things can only get better as the weekend goes on :) Gotta go, more appreciating to do.

Back in the Saddle

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It’s been 1 month and 3 days since my surgery and I’m finally back at the office. I have worked a few days since surgery and I even had a half day meeting at my house before Christmas, but this is the real thing. We’ll see how it goes. I was in a little bit of pain when I arrived this morning, but that could be from any of the following:

1) Getting up way too early (6:15am) – haven’t done that much in the last month
2) Getting myself and my family out the door for school
3) Trying to jump start my car to no avail in the 20 degree temps
4) Carrying my backpack into the office

UPDATE: I just finished my first 2 hour meeting and I made it through. It is good to be back working again.

Ski Week Comes to an End

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We are back in Budapest after a wonderful week of skiing. Everyone but me skied every day. I never guessed that everyone could maintain that pace. I figured that we would take 2-3 days off because everyone would be exhausted. They all loved it too much and were ready to go every morning.

It all culminated with a wonderful afternoon on Thursday. Valerie, Kendall, Trent & Reed were done with ski school so they hit the mountain together. It was the first time that the kids had skied very much out of their class. They had a blast. The kids were blazing down the mountain and leaving Valerie in their dust. They were racing with their friends and having a wonderful time. We are all excited about the prospects of next year. It’s time to start saving our pennies.

I survived pretty well. I missed skiing terribly, but most of the time I was in enough pain that I didn’t want to ski. I enjoyed a change of scenery and a chance to hang out with other friends and our family. It was a really fun week. I’m back to work on Monday so we will see how that goes.

Thanks to the Lord and our grandmothers who made this possible!!!

(Click the family pictures for more pictures of our week)

Skiing Rocks!!

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It is Day 3 of our skiing adventure and it couldn’t be better! There has been tons of snow (4 to 5 inches per day) and everyone in the family loves it!!

We had a little trouble getting here since it had started snowing overnight on the morning we left. It had already snowed 3 to 4 inches when we left and it continued to snow hard. The highway was pretty well covered and we went 30 to 40 mph all the way out of Hungary. It took us almost 6 hours to get to Vienna (normally a little over 2). It cleared up after Vienna, but it still took us another 5 hours to make it. We turned a 7 hour trip into 12. Fun! Fun! Fun! I drove the entire way so that was a positive thing. I wasn’t in much pain at all. Valerie wouldn’t have wanted to drive in the snow so we were thankful that I was feeling okay.

All the kids and Valerie have been in ski school all week and they are loving it. Kirby Ann didn’t want to come home the first day and even after the lifts closed she was marching up the hill trying to get another run in. The older kids are doing well too and started on the BIG HILL yesterday. Valerie has also been taking classes. She has been progressing so well that she keeps taking the lessons. She loves it.

The only place that I found Internet around here is in the lobby of a hotel at a kiosk so I can’t post pictures. I guess that will have to wait until we get home.

I’ll try to give you another update later in the week.