The Yankees are stinking it up right now. Last place in the AL, 9-14 in April = NOT GOOD. Manager Joe Torre had this to say:

“I don’t think the standings are an issue at this point. We all know we’re going to start winning consistently sooner or later, and obviously sooner is more appropriate.”

For some reason, I find that end part hysterical.

-j

Easy to say, extremely difficult to mean.

Where You lead me, I will follow
Where You lead me, I give my life away.
Where You lead me, I will follow forever and a day.

-j

This is your song of the day. They’re usually pretty timely.

I don’t know what the future holds
Or what lies beyond my horizon
The years ahead are just out of sight
Well, I think sometimes that you hide them
So that I walk by faith, not sight
So that I take Your hand holding tight

Through 26 summers and 26 winters
I’ve laughed in the springtime, I’ve cried in the rain
Though I’ve questioned the meaning of some of life’s seasons
It’s true that they’ve left me holding on tighter to You

My one desire for the road ahead
Is that we would walk it together
Friend and King, You’re my everything
May I stay by Your side forever
For when my heart’s afraid, You’re near
Whispering to my soul, “Don’t fear.”

Through 26 summers and 26 winters
I’ve laughed in the springtime, cried in the rain
I’ve questioned the meaning of some of life’s seasons
It’s true that they’ve left me holding on tighter to You.

I will trust in You alone
For you’re the hand that’s leading me home

I’ve spent 26 summers and 26 winters with You
Through all of the seasons and my search for reasons
You’ve carried, You’ve carried me through

I will keep holding on to you.

I am clinging to You, Jesus.

-j

“Twenty Six Summers” by Vicky Beeching

I had another post waiting in the wings, but I really want to do this one first.

Several of you may know that JC and I are going on a mission trip to Paraguay this summer. I am SO PUMPED! I just spent some time reading Ellen Sabo’s (from Edmonton) blog, and I absolutely can’t wait to go. For those who don’t know, we’ll be working at La Escuela Privada Adonai, which is the private Christian school that our church started near Asunción. I’m not entirely sure what we’ll be doing, but I told Karen Caballero that we wanted to help teach English. We’ll probably be working with Ben Shurance and Ellen. At some point, a crew from Kitchener is coming down as well, so I’ll probably help them with the construction they’ll be doing.

From reading Ellen’s blog, it sounds like I’ll have a lot to get used to. Even though they speak Spanish in Paraguay, with which I think I’ll do fine after a few days, they also speak a native language called Guaraní (gwa-rah-NEE) which doesn’t even remotely resemble Spanish. It’s definitely an indigenous language. I am excited about the mate (MAH-tay). It’s a fun tea that you drink through a filter; it was called chimarrão (shee-mah-ho, roughly) in Brazil. Maybe this time I’ll actually get a set to bring back. But I’m digressing. It sounds like the people are very friendly and always have time to sit and chat with you while drinking some mate, which totally reminds me of old-school southern culture. So maybe in that sense I’ll feel like I’m at home. I’m a little disappointed our trip will be so short, because I definitely think I’d love to be down there for a few months.

If you’d like to help out, send your donations to the ACC Foundation and earmark it for our trip. Jimmy knows all about it, and all the money goes through his house anyway. Any extra will be donated to the mission. I know they’re working on an addition to the school that is fairly pricey, but I don’t know where they stand financially with respect to that project.

So please begin praying now. I bought tickets yesterday. We leave Richmond on Friday, August 3rd and get back Sunday August 19th. Pray for these things for now:

• Visas come in a timely fashion
• Spanish studies bring back everything I have forgotten
• The missionaries can figure out what we should do
• We get enough funding

I’ll post while I’m there, as I hear they have internet cafes here and there. As more fun info comes my way related to the trip, I’ll post it. Thank you for your prayers. I am so excited!

[Update: I created a page to sort of contain all the information about the trip as I get it. It also has a button for you to donate to the trip.]

-j

Seek God’s face, instead of seeking to understand. Trust that God will give you insight and understanding when the time is right. Until then, he’s developing your faith in him. – Jon Walker

These days there’s always at least one large vase with some shooty plant, some fake rock jewels, and a betta in every company department. I used to have one myself at my previous job. Like Emeril, I decided to kick it up a notch.

My 10 gallon reef is finally starting to turn around. The algae is not growing like it has been, and I’m removing it through water changes as quickly as possible without throwing off another cycle. I’ve decided I want to start a tank in my office, but I want it to be different. 10 gallons is too big, 5.5 might even be too large. After reading several forum posts about so-called “pico” tanks, I decided that’s what I want.

I’m not sure the size of the tank yet; it will be at most 3 gallons, but probably less (I can get a standard dimension 2.5 gallon). I plan on putting some sand and rock in it, and as far as corals go definitely zoanthids and mushrooms, maybe some ricordia and other soft coral. For livestock, I’ll probably stick with some kind of shrimp. There will be no filter (the rock will provide the filtration), so I don’t want stuff that causes a lot of waste. A tiny pump will offer circulation, and a small fluorescent light will illuminate the critters. Hopefully it will be a success. I’m really excited about it.

-j

Once again, from the Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional:

But slowly we began listening to God, and gently … very gently … he taught us that our perspective was extraordinarily narrow. We’d placed our hope in our answer to prayer, insisting we knew best what should happen. We did not trust that God knew what he was doing, that with his Father’s heart he had figured it all out, making plans to take care of us and Kathryn, plans to give us the future we actually hoped for in the depths of our hearts.

We’d hung our hopes on the wrong hook, forgetting our Creator is a God of hope, and that his hope will not disappoint. – Jon Walker

It’s amazing to me when God shows me why I have friends. Not the fact that I have friends, but specific people. Today He used one of my most favorite people to exhort me to diligently seek His face throughout this week. This isn’t in the Bible, but it could be: Blessed is he who has godly friends, for he shall be encouraged to draw closer to the Lord.

Last Friday began the Feast of Unleavened Bread. 2000 years ago, Jesus had this meal with His disciples and gave them a sacrament by which to remember Him; they didn’t know He would not be with them a week later. You can read about it in Mark 14:12-26.

This week I am going on another TV fast. In addition, I will not be recording the shows I will miss, and I will also refrain from being signed on to IM. I hope to spend much more time in prayer and reading the Word this week than usual. On Friday at 3:00pm, coinciding with the time Christ gave up His life, I will begin a food fast. I will break the fast at our Sunrise Service at church on Sunday.

The purpose is several-fold. Primarily, I want to study the Lord’s last week before His death for me. I want to know more about what it was like to die for me. I want a renewed vigor for serving Him with my whole life. I want to know what my sin did to Him, and I want to hate it like He does. And I want to feel His love in a way I haven’t ever felt it. I also want to have deeper fellowship with Him so that I may more easily recognize His voice now and in the future, and in doing so be able to discern where He is leading me.

Please pray for me as I do this. If you would like me to pray for you during my quiet times, please leave a comment or email me. I will check the blog comments daily. Let me also exhort each of you to join me if you feel led. Perhaps not the whole week, but maybe from Friday on. I promise it will be life-changing. Afterwards, we can talk about what God showed us. If nothing else, take the time to read the accounts of Jesus’ last week. Meditate on them and ask God to show you something new about it.

May the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

-j