Sunday Church service

After a breakfast of blueberry pancake (1) and sunny-side-up eggs (2), we finished getting ready for church. We had walked there yesterday to clean it (I'm the janitor). The church is only about 6 blocks away if we cut across field. So we waded through knee deep snow to get to a street that leads us straight up to the church. A lady from the church, was there with a few girls from the church. They were practicing an interpretive dance kind of number to perform this morning. So we asked if we were going to have church today. She replied that she had asked our associate, who is defacto pastor now, and he reminded her that they are from Alaska. So this snow was no big deal to them. Plus they live just across the parking lot from the church. So they would be there whether or not anyone else came. She told us she and the others living in her house would be there, because their car gets around very well in the snow. So after our Sunday morning routine, we got ready and walked (the long way) to church. The long way means about 8-9 blocks instead of 6 because we followed the streets instead of cutting through now thigh deep snow and ending up soaking wet for worship, and all this in the snow and moderate wind. So we got to the church and (you guessed it) no one was there. It was 9:30, which is the time our worship service is supposed to start. Lights out; doors locked. So we walked back home. :) Well we got to enjoy God's beautiful world. Right?

White Christmas coming?

So, nothing new today: Just MORE snow.

Kasama generally seems hesitant to go outdoors when he feels the cold air. But once he's out, he seems to thoroughly enjoy running in the snow. Here he is spending a little time with one of the neighbor's dogs, Lucy. I think she had just marked her spot in the snow and Kasama is getting ready to respond in kind. :)

Last night when we went to bed, our car had ZERO snow on her (her name is "Blanca", ergo the feminine pronoun). Now below you can see the snow that came just overnight.

I just talked with FS (favorite sister), who told me that "No, we did not get transported to S.D.; they have -27 degrees wind chill. Thank you, very much, I'll stay here! But yes, on the level we have more snow. They have 2 foot drifts next to bare ground. We have 2 feet of snow on the level.

This is the overhand above our front door. I took this shot, simply to show the snow built up so far.

We hope to get to Mom's for Christmas. But forecasts have all the ingredients that lead to closing the I-84 freeway through the Columbia River Gorge. So...

"I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams!"

ttfn

Getting in the Christmas spirit

FIRST I WANT TO SAY:

NOAH ONLY HAD RAIN!

There is a reason I live in the lower 48 and not in Alaska. There is a reason I live in western Oregon and not certain other parts of the country: Snow. It's supposed to snow in those other places. It's okay to snow in our part of Oregon a few times each winter--maybe 3 or 4, interspersed with an olio (look it up) of clouds, rain, drizzle, clear, windy, and other kinds of winter weather.

IT CLEARLY IS NOT SUPPOSED TO SNOW NON-STOP FOR A WEEK AT A TIME!

Well, now that that is off my chest, I can move on to other things: specifically, giving a glimpse of our world today. It is mostly from indoors, showing the decorations BW has made for the Christmas season. But I could not resist a brief visit outdoors at the effects of a week of snow storms, and more to come. (I just measured it out back at 14" and still falling.)

It has long been my contention that the nativity should receive the greatest attention in Christmas decoration. Thankfully, BW agrees with me, although I suspect she thinks I'm a bit extreme.

So we have agreed, from the first year, that we would have this small, artificial tree. Believe it or not, for me this represents a compromise:

So we had all this additional garland-type decoration. And where to put it? Just when I was starting to get "concerned" about its destiny, BW started draping it over and along-side the railing of our stairway. I think it looks great and gives a warm first impression to some entering out home during this season.

Thank you for sharing these moments with us.

We hope you have a happy Christmas.

We pray the joy of Christmas will surprise you!

Quick trip with Mom

Last weekend, Mom and I made a quick trip to Northern California. (More about the reason for the trip and what we did in Cali on a later post.) Here I just want to share some of the incredible scenery we enjoyed along the way. Not sure exactly where these pics & vids were taken. But we followed US 101 from Newport, OR to Eureka, CA. Went down on Sat, 25 Oct, and returned the next day. Beautiful weather to enjoy gorgeous scenery.

Somewhere on the south Oregon coast...

Same place as above vid...

This was the home of a lumber tycoon in Eureka.

On the return trip, back in Oregon...

Mom and I enjoyed the trip very much! As she commented, it is rare anymore when we get uninterrupted time together. Enjoyed some excellent conversations, discussions and "letting our ears rest!"

ttfn

Air Guitar

Hood River Valley High School, where BW teaches, held homecoming week last week. Those of us from "previous generations" might not be prepared with how homecoming is celebrated here. All month long through October, students and faculty alike are planning various events and competitions. But this post is about one of those in particular: The Air Guitar competition and show held on Thursday of homecoming week. Each year the faculty has asked BW to participate and this year she finally relented. So I attended and took videos. Unfortunately most of the pics and vids were too dark to appreciate. :( But I have a few showing the faculty's portion of the show.

Remember: The people you see in these next 4 videos are faculty at Hood River Valley High School!

No, BW is not in these first 2. They are here just to give a feel for the atmosphere.

The next shows a line of 9 (?) faculty members. Each will do a very brief dance, each of a different style of dance. BW was asked to do a "Robot dance." (Personally I never heard of it.) Maybe you will be able to guess which one in the following vid is BW!



For the Robot dance, she wanted to hide her identity, because she did not want her students to recognize her. Well, I was sitting on the floor surrounded by a bunch of students. When she lined up as seen above, immediately one boy in front of me said, "That's Mrs. Culbertson!"

So a little while after the "Robot" dance, all the faculty who had practiced (and a few who had not) came onto the floor to re-enact the "Thriller" video. Unfortunately, BW was kind of buried in the crowd. But if you look closely you can see her in an Orange Jumpsuit!


They were trying to do a take-off on the video from a few months ago that showed several hundred prison inmates doing the Thriller video. Since those inmates were Filipinos, one person obtained a prison jumpsuit and BW agreed to wear it.

In this last vid, you can see her a bit more clearly.

Last but not least, a couple still shots from the day's event:

Below is a shot of some of the Senior students. I tried several times to get a good shot of the guy in orange & black, but this was the best I could get. The costumes were part of the performances each class presented to the student body.

And last, returning to the "Thriller" production, somehow I got a decent still of the male teacher dressed as a girl. His outfit was leftover from an earlier section of the faculty's portion of the show.

High school was never like this when I was there! :)

ttfn

Chris Wallace interview

Interesting segment of an interview. Chris Wallace of Fox News asks David Axelrod, an Obama advisor, about the times when Obama has challenged the leadership of his party. You might find this exchange interesting!

Do we dare to listen to it?

tyvm

Counting Chicks

Remember the old saying, "Don't count your chicks before they hatch"? Well, I should have remembered that over the past few months.



Last school year, I substituted as occasion allowed for Instructional Assistants in the local school district. I thought my service in this role was appreciated. And I particularly enjoyed my interaction with students in the "Learning Center." This is the group who are only mildly disadvantaged in their learning processes. I got to sit in with them in some of their mainstream classes. And I worked with them in the Learning Center sessions as well, when they worked on special projects designed to help them increase their comprehension and application of concepts and information.



In the Spring, one of the male teachers approached me about applying for one of the upcoming vacancies that would occur in their department. He said that if I was interested, he would campaign earnestly for my acceptance. He felt that the department needed more male presence (at that point, all 4 IA's in the department were young ladies) and that I would be a good fit for their needs.



I figured, with inside support like that, I was virtually assured of getting hired. He did his part. I know he did all he could. But other forces weighed in and other people were chosen--again. (This has happened before.)



Unfortunately, I (and to a degree BW also) had been counting on this job. I/we felt it would meet some definite needs we have for clearing our credit card debts. And it would enable me to take more short term mission trips. We had already been planning some opportunities--tentatively planning. It was more like dreaming.



But when the dream turned sour yesterday evening (I first wrote this on Tuesday, 26 August), I felt the hit particularly hard.

(Following added, 29 Aug:) I'm feeling somewhat better now. It suddenly occurred to me that I think I must have a fair quantity of resilience inside me, because I keep getting knocked down and I keep getting back up and trudging on. So already I'm thinking of some alternative courses of action (no firebombing the Sped department is NOT one of the courses). But I still have occasional, brief spaces of time when I wonder why I keep doing anything.

Thanks for reading!

Ramadan prayer

Tonight I received this note from my VOM state coordinator:

I am writing to share a resource I have found useful in bringing awareness of prayer for Muslims. In particular during the Islamic month of Ramadan. The dates for Ramadan follow the shorter lunar calendar. In 2008, Ramadan begins approximately on September 1st and ends on September 30th. This may vary from country to country because the fasting period begins and ends with the sighting of the crescent moon. ~ 30 Day Fire Prayer Guide~

This link to 30 Days Fire has great information to assist with remembering to pray for Muslims.

www.30daysfire.net

God Bless,
[name withheld]


Lu 10:2 Then He said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

Would you please go to this web site (CLICK HERE) and get involved? After the intro on that page, they will link you to this page. I've only started looking at the info and ideas. But time is short. So I'm doing what I can to get the word out.

Every day thousands (that's right--thousands) of Muslims turn to Christ. How is this happening?

It's simple really....

AND....

it's kind of involved and hard to explain....

BUT....

it all boils down to prayer ....

and one of the best times to pray is when the Muslims are spiritually sensitive--during Ramadan.

It begins September 1. So please join me and get started!

tyvm

Coming out of Babylon

I know the majority of my readers do not call yourselves theologians. I know that 2 or 3 aspire to the possibility and grant that they try to order their theologies. And half of that latter group rarely give any comments here.

But could ya... would ya do something for a brother? (This request is for "non"-theologian types as well as "aspire-to-be-"theologian types.)

Would you look at Revelation 18:4, and tell the rest of my readership: What does the heavenly messenger mean by "come out of her [viz. Babylon/Rome], my people"???

In our home Bible study group this past Thursday, we got into a lively and enlightening discussion. I actually felt pleasently surprised at the turn of the interaction.

Before you take the plunge and reply, however, we should cross a couple things off the list: (1) This is NOT a geographical command, because (a) it cannot refer to leaving the city of Rome because the churches receiving this letter were in Asia Minor, already a few hundred miles away from the city of Rome; and (b) it cannot refer to leaving the empire of Rome because for all intents and purposes they could not leave the geographical empire. So it is NOT a geographical command.

(2) While some of the traditional "do's and don't's" might enter into such a discussion, I hope you will look beyond those because that tends so easily to become legalistic.

So once more: How can followers of Christ "come out of" our modern day Babylon/Rome?

tyvm

Clouds

This past Tuesday evening as we were finishing walking Kasama, we noticed the clouds at sunset. So BW hurried inside for the camera and these are some of the results.

Notice the moon in the background, above. This is looking southeast.

Looking almost due west.



And this video goes 360 degrees.

ttfn

My creation

Okay, so most of my vast readership already knows that I am not inclined to manual projects. I mentioned previously that it took me 2 days to assemble the BBQ. Well, this week's project (after FS & hubby left) was to assemble bedside tables (from IKEA). Fortunately, I've assembled the wall shelves from IKEA previously. So I already had an idea of how to interpret their "instructions" booklet (what a trip that is!). So these only took me a couple hours--after FS & hubby left.
Well, any time I "assemble" something and it turns out they way the pictures says it's supposed to look, I feel kinda proud. So I wanted to show it off to you.

ttfn

Gale and Cheri visit!

My favorite sister Cheri and her husband Gale visited after the wedding!

So of course we had to show off the beautiful Columbia River Gorge.

I met them at Crown Point (not shown) and escorted them through the waterfall area.

The next day all five of us (Kasama included of course) hiked the Twin Tunnels Trail from Mosier. These are pics from that excursion.
I must explain BW's grimace above: This was one of the first times I used the timer. So when I rushed back into place, I banged into her hand! :( We didn't have time to compose ourselves after her injury (which has since healed).

More posts to come! They're stacking up on me now that I've started in again. :)

ttfn

Wedding time

These come from the actual ceremony.

Not sure they need explanation.
Her mother made the dress.
Walking the bride.

I think they called this the "Unity Sand Ceremony." They took 2 containers of different colored sand (green and white). And they poured the contents into a common container, representing 2 separate lives merging without losing their individual identity.

The kiss!

As previously mentioned, you can see ALL my pics from the wedding at webshots.com. Just click here and discover 2 albums about the wedding, plus another about Joe's wedding last year, plus a whole bunch more albums about a bunch of other activities.

Wedding morning

Okay...

Some pics from the pre-ceremony preparations.

The garden area where people will gather.

This is at the Hanson Country Inn, located at Corvallis, Oregon.

Amber & Rick "posing" for the photographer. (Sorry, I don't have his web-site.) His name is Jason and his partner is Amy. They did a great job, getting shots everywhere, before and during and after the ceremony--all without getting in the way or distracting!

The main wedding party: (L-R) Angela, Erin, Amber, Rick, Scott.

(Yes, 2 female attendants and 1 male--deal with it.)

Jeremy, Amber, Joseph, joking while the photographer works.

Almost time, FD squeezed the big wedding gown into a chair in the living room and immediately crossed her legs! Maybe you had to be there to catch the humor in the moment.

As said before, you can see all my pics at webshots.com. Just click here and you can see all my photo albums.

ttfn

Wedding weekend

We enjoyed our "rehearsal dinner" on Saturday evening.Here Sara & BW come back from swinging together (see swings in background).
BW found a climbing wall and scaled the heights!
Here is the "whole crew." I think I could call everyone's name. But following Favorite Daughter's example, I won't name them here.
FD with mother-in-law Carol and sister-in-law Jennifer.
Afterward, we got together with others who had gathered for the big event. Went to a fun spot in Corvallis called, "New Morning Bakery." It's more than a bakery; more like a relaxed gathering spot with great food & drinks.

See more pics at my webshots pages! Click here.

ttfn

Wedding time

Last night we had the rehearsal for Amber's wedding. It's being held at the Hanson Country Inn, Corvallis, Oregon.

Ha! You were expecting the first pic to be of Amber! Weren't you?

That's Jeremy (L), then Rick (fiance) and Scott (Rick's bro-in-law).

The rest of Rick's family: Brittany (L), niece; Jennifer, sister; David, nephew; Richard, father; Carol, mother.

Clowning around as we practice walking in.

Sara (L), stood in for Angela; Erin & Amber.

Overview...

For a full slideshow, you can go to this link and click on the "slideshow" option. It even includes a couple videos that show an overview of the whole garden area.

Dinner with friends

Last night we enjoyed dinner with some friends. To make a short story long, this is how it happened: Last fall, before my trip to India, we had dinner with Bill and Connie. We had never met them, but some friends from our church knew them and recommended we get together since their daughter Emily married an Indian and ministers with him in India serving with YWAM. So we met and had dinner the night before my trip. Turns out Emily and her husband Jaideep live in Jaipur and I spent my first week in Jodhpur, which is in the same state of Rajasthan. We arranged to spend a little time with them during our train travel from Jodhpur to Nagpur. So I got to meet Jaideep and Emily and their 2 daughters at that time and enjoyed dinner in their home. Hopefully, this link will lead you to a you toob video about their work in Jaipur.



Well, Jaideep and Emily have been here in HR for the past 3 months. We enjoyed dinner in their home early in their stay and promised that we would return the favor before they return to their India home, which will occur next Tuesday. So we finally got our schedules in sync and got together last night for BBQ salmon (marinated in adobo sauce), along with various other trimmings: steamed rice (of course) with stir-fry veggies, tossed green salad, cantalope, and leche flan (and they brought cherries).



Dinner was outside. But the evening got too chilly. So we moved indoors for the dessert (cantalope & flan & cherries) and coffee and conversation and getting better acquainted. So while we adults sat around talking, their younger daughter discovered Kasama's bed....


Well, this video that follows is not very good lighting. But it gives a brief glimpse of our evening and the fellowship we enjoyed.

Thank you to Jaideep, Emily and daughters, and to Bill and Connie, for good fellowship in the Lord.

And BIG THANK YOU to BW, for her planning and preparation, and gracious hospitality.

tyvm

Kasama's bath time

Each month my owners give me a bath (whether I want it or not!) So this time they took turns making videos of the event, as if it's something to enjoy. Well, this first one is "Master" getting me in the tub...

Just to be fair, we got a video of "Madam" (she won't let me call her MaMa). Looks like she was having fun putting soap all over me. Well, at least ONE of us was having fun!

At last this torture is over. As soon as I get out of here, I can pay them back for getting me wet.

Ahhhh revenge is sweet!!!!!

arf! arf!

The American Flag and Church

It's almost bedtime. But I just read this article, an op-ed piece, apparently from the Christian Science Monitor. I can't say that I agree with everything she says. But the gist of it expresses something I've tried to say for years.

Christians--especially those who call themselves "evangelicals"--often seem more loyal, more enthused and more devoted to the United States of America. When did we forget that one of our roles involves calling the government to account for her wrongs? When will we learn that our first love must be to Jesus Christ and his kingdom?

When will we return to our first love?

I encourage you, urge you, beg you: Please read this article. Then let me know what you think.

tyvm

Wedding shower

Yesterday we drove to Eugene and back for FD's wedding shower. Here are some pics, with little or no explanation...

This is Joe and Gen's apartment where the shower was held....

We 3 fellas went out to dinner.

Maybe you can already figure out that BW took all the pics....

Grandma C. always makes a new afghan for each couple when they get married.

Isn't she lovely?

ttfn