GroshLink

For all you wondering minds...

On Saturday morning, Ellen and Hayley excitedly scurried out the door to a friend's birthday party.  They loved their time with the birthday girl and her/their friends at a theatre party room.  AND the opening weekend showing of WALL•E (they even brought home the free blue rubber, promo wristband watch which is only good until the battery dies ... with Ellen's already on decline, check back later for status report).

With regard to WALL•E, Ellen's favorite character was WALL•E.  Hayley loved both Eve and WALL•E (a Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class or do we really have a code name for ADAM, see The Little Robot That Could).  On the ride home we chatted about care for creation, recycling, and not laying around all day drinking while watching TV. 

Ever wonder what's happening at a major conference for your organization, ministry, and/or denomination? The Brethren-in-Christ (BIC)'s General Conference doesn't just have news, it now has blogging and live stream/broadcast (e.g., Jay Smith and Shabir Ally Christian/Muslim Dialogue, 2:30pm, today)! I wonder if the BIC is on the front-end of a trend?

Note: In conference related events, it's good to read on the blog of the strong day one showing of our local congregation's quiz team, i.e., Elizabethtown BIC.

Ellen & Hayley loved their 1/2 week camp sponsored by the Brethren-in-Christ's Kenbrook Camp, so much so they didn't want to leave!  What was their favorite thing?  Everything!  Theresa and I have enjoyed learning all about their time at Kenbrook, last night they shared from their Bible lessons on the life of Nehemiah. 

Here's a pic of them with their friend Kylie. 

Among all the congratulations for the birth of Lily Joy and questions about how our family's adjusting, we've received a variety of inquiries regarding other matters.  One missions team member of a partner congregation shared how a college student, returning from a spring of discipleship in an InterVarsity chapter, presented Carl Ellis' 4-paned window of marginalization with the young adults.  AND the missions team member wanted to know more about Ellis' work.  Why didn't the missions team member just ask the student?  Because the student has already left for a Missions Project with InterVarsity, along with several other collegians from their congregation (who by the way attend a variety of colleges and universities). 

June 17, 2008

I've let Tom and the girls share all the info about Lily Joy thus far, but I know some of you moms out there really want to hear from ... ME!

Lily is 4 days old today and had her first visit to the pediatrician. She weighed 8lbs 11oz at birth, 8lbs 1oz at hospital discharge, and 8lbs 11oz today! It's shocking to me because our other kids took forever to gain weight. Eden was even diagnosed with failure to thrive and had blood work done to make sure there wasn't something else wrong with her! So to have a baby that caught on to nursing from the moment of birth and nurses like a champ is unheard of for me. But what a relief it is!

Our baby's still sleeping a lot, but does have some kind of predictable patterns of sleep/wake. Sometimes Lily wakes in time for a feeding (about every 3 hours), other times I have to wake her. The first night home was pretty easy. I fed her around 11pm and she went right to sleep. She awoke after about 4 hours and ate again and went back to sleep. And then she woke up about 3 hours later, which was an acceptable hour for me to start my day. Last night was more challenging. After I fed her she didn't want to settle and was awake for about 2 hours. I ended up sleeping with her on the futon in her room. At least we both got some sleep.

Is that the Colbert Report? -- Theresa inquired just a few minutes ago as I played an Interview on the Colbert Report in which N.T. Wright holds his own while Stephen shares his idea of heaven as getting a harp, drinking a mint julep and asking Ronald Reagan questions ;-) Check it out.* 

BTW, looking forward to having Wright speak at Following Christ, InterVarsity's National Graduate & Faculty Ministry Conference to be held December 27-31, Marriott Magnificent Mile, Chicago, IL.  If you're an Emerging Scholar, graduate student, and/or faculty member, come join us.

More from Tim Keller, thank-you to my friend Kevin for bringing this piece from the Redeemer Report to my attention!  I find Tim's brief thoughts regarding humor particularly helpful in self-examination.  How easily I'm influenced by the nod, nod, wink, wink era/culture in which we live.  No doubt this has been accentuated by my time in campus ministry, with the issues being present both with students and the academic guild. ....

Father, set my compass for the summer season of extended times with those close to me ... Ellen and Hayley being home from school, gatherings of extended family, various summer social events at our local congregation and in the community.  Fill my life and our family's life with the fruit of the Spirit in all our interactions and grant us the grace to love one-another as we laugh and play together!  In the name of your Son Jesus, Amen. 

Below is the conclusion of The Gospel and Humor:

Thank-you to Miller for emailing me Paradise Lost, Again and Again: A Book Review of Alan Jacobs' Original Sin: A Cultural History. Overall the Wall Street Journal reviewer praises the cultural history presented by Jacobs, although he wishes more pages had been given to the provoking ideas in Genesis than Milton's poetic version in "Paradise Lost." He comments:

The author of Genesis suggests that this [i.e., a radical autonomy wherein the truth is determined not by the nature of things but by your own individual will] is a formula for unhappiness: Genuine freedom is anchored in objective truths that we ourselves do not invent. Otherwise there is going to be a mess. And indeed in the chapters of Genesis that follow, which may have a substratum of historical truth – there was, for example, an enormous flood in the Mesopotamian basin at the dawn of history – mankind lurches from catastrophe to catastrophe.