Prayer request

If this hits too close to home for some of you, I'm sorry; but I need to get this out there.

For those of you who don’t recognize this picture; it was the last good picture taken of my wife and me. On October 4, 1997, I was incredibly blessed to call Jean my bride. May 7, 2005, our life together was ended when cancer won its battle against her. Anniversaries are always more challenging times and I’m noticing it again this year. It seems strange how I can be living life the same as I did the week or month before, but somehow my body decides to not have as much energy, my mind doesn’t focus as well, motivation for anything goes down, sleep comes harder; and it takes a few days for me to realize why. I noticed it again this time and as I looked back, I found that the symptoms started on the exact day of the year that Jean’s final downturn started. It intensified on the date she went to the hospital for the last time. Realistically, I need to be prepared to face more of this on the date of her death and the days leading up to it. So, I’m putting this out there for anyone who cares and anyone who believes in the power of prayer – I could use a little more of that for the next week. Overall, I’m doing very well, but certain times of the year are major trigger points that I still have to deal with. Please pray for me in this. Thank you.

Response to Ryan's post

In case you're wondering what this is about, check the link to Ryan and Amy's blog...it could be worse :-)

Party time

Each week there is a social gathering after Saturday night church for those aged 25-35. This week one of my housemates was asked to host it so you can guess what I did that night.




Even though the party was at my house, I had very little to do with hosting it. The food was all prepared for us (although I did help out a little). Take note, no pepsi!!!!!!!






I wanted to get a few pictures of the people in the house and ended up getting one with a number of people eating. One person in particular was a little embarrassed being caught with an open mouth. Oh well. It lead to a good conversation. Still no pepsi!!!!!!!!

And some more people enjoying the party. You guessed it. No pepsi!!!!!!!!!!

I had a few other good pictures, but I think my point has been made. Interesting; a few people said this was the best party they had been to yet; and there was no pepsi. Any correlation????

Easter Weekend

Sorry these pictures are a bit late. I went to the Blue Mountains on Easter Monday instead of doing assignments as I should have been. That's ok, it just finished a weekend of not doing assignments. Saturday I spent most of the day helping a friend move, Sunday, well it's Sunday, and I went to a friend's place for dinner, and the Monday was this trip. Thought you might like to see some of the pictures...



I'm intentionally not putting a picture here of how high this cliff actually is. See the bright blue sky????








The trail we went on was a bit wet from the rain earlier in the day and over the last few days.








Here's everyone in the group I was with. Sorry the background scenery isn't the greatest. It was really nice. I guess you'll just have to come visit if you want to see the real thing...




I learned something new about Australia again. There are too many traffic accidents so in select places they have set up stopping points and at these points hand out free coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and biscuits. The Aussies in our group insisted that we stop and then they thought it a good idea to get a picture of this Canadian at the stop so I told them if I'm doing an Aussie thing, I was going to get the Aussies with me. Besides me (so far) there is one other non-Australian in the picture.

Good Friday?

Being a day ahead of Canada, We’re celebrating Good Friday today. We’ve got some great church services planned; expecting a lot of visitors this weekend. I went for coffee yesterday with one of our pastors and we passed a fish market on the way. There was a huge line-up stretching out of the store with people waiting to buy fish because of a religious tradition that forbids eating meat on this day. That store has actually been posting a sign for the last few weeks saying they will be open today – while all other stores are closed! Stores are selling so much chocolate you’d think every woman, man, and child was having PMS at the same time – or maybe we’re all pregnant – there’s got to be something to bring on such a strong craving. Statistics show that this weekend and Christmas are the two times that the largest number of people show up in church; so as churches, we need to make sure we take the opportunity to present the Gospel message clearly and in a relevant way! Good Friday is a national holiday in many nations of the world. So why the big deal? Two thousand years ago a man was sold by one of his friends into the hands of a group that had been plotting for a long while how they would murder him, He was disowned by another friend and abandoned by most of the rest (by the way, if Peter disowned Jesus, where were the rest of the disciples at the time? Why was Peter there with the crowd and the rest were not to be found? We usually think of Peter as the one who denied Jesus but what about the rest? Do a little research and you may find an answer) He was beaten, tortured, disfigured beyond recognition, mocked, ridiculed, then killed in the most painful way people had thought of to that day. I actually wonder sometimes if Jesus embraced the cross because he knew it was the end. I wonder if he embraced the cross because the torture had been so severe it made the cross look welcome. Just a thought. And I wonder, what’s so good about that? What’s so good about that day that we celebrate it today, 2000 years later? Are we some sort of sick generation that revels in the torment and death of another man? I think not. The Bible tells us it actually pleased the Father for Jesus to suffer (The only place I can find where it pleased God to see anyone suffer – Isa 53:10 – so if any of you think God is happy with your suffering, I challenge you to find Scriptural evidence to support that thought!!!) but even in this case, the joy is not in the suffering but in what the suffering would accomplish. The Father was pleased to see his Son suffer because through it, we would not have to pay the price for sin. He loved us so much that He was happy to let His Son go through that to save us! I don’t know about you, but it sure makes me think twice when I take it so lightly. The other day I heard someone singing a Christmas song and while those around me had strange looks on their faces, I thought “How fitting.” At Christmas we celebrate the start of what Good Friday and Easter Sunday finished! What can be more fitting than remembering the whole deal together? And yes, it truly is a Good Friday – not because of what Jesus went through, but because of what His suffering accomplished for us.

Who are you?

Just a friendly reminder that I love to hear from people but when someone posts a message, I'd like to know who it is. So I'd appreciate some sort of identification on the messages. If you want to stay annonymous to the world, please send me an email with some other sort of identification that I will recognize when you post a message so at least I can figure out who it is. Thank you so much, keep posting!