Soon

I shall return.

Smiles

The past few days have been long, but they've been really good. Me & the Mr. Mike attacked the foyer of the church & established dominance over it, bringing it into proper submission. With help from Kristopher, Pastor Eli, & moral support from LG, we made it happen. Over the past few days I've learned a few things:
1- Mike is one of those guys who can do everything.
2- Pastor Eli reminds me of me..a lot. He asked more questions that anyone I've met, other than myself, & he is my equal when it comes to persistence. I told him these were good traits to have.
3- Painting passes time crazy fast

If you've called the church in the past 2 days, there's a good chance no one has answered. That is because my secretary is in Virginia this week. One of the things that brought joy to my day is that Elijah answered the phone once. He answered, "Hello this is Pastor Elijah, can I help you." Awesome. Too bad it was his mom on the phone.

I've been teaching Ellie to pray before bed for the last week or so. I have her repeat after me, but the last two days, she goes for it herself. Pretty awesome. Tonight she started after her bath before bed & prayed for just about everyone, including her books Lou Lou & Mack Mack.

Swine Flu Article

Interesting...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1206807/Swine-flu-jab-link-killer-nerve-disease-Leaked-letter-reveals-concern-neurologists-25-deaths-America.html

Waiting...

We're still waiting on the baby. It's not late or anything like that, but we'd like it out. It's interesting how stress can creep up on you. Exhale. Ah. Espresso.

Today, I was downstairs reading. I hear Ellie yell from upstairs: "Dad!" She usually calls me dada, but when she's being demanding, it's dad. So I walk to the bottom of the stairs & tell her good morning. She throws her sippy over the safety gate & down the stairs. It landed at my feet. She said, "orange juice." She knows what she wants. I'm in for it.

old lady

I went to LA a few days ago. There were about 38 people, mostly between 20-29 years old. Pretty much all of those in attendance were doing similar things with their lives, ie, working in ministry etc. It was...well, it was one of those times that are too few & too far in between. It was a little uncomfortable at first. Being in a room with people I'd never met for the purpose of getting to know them. There were other purposes as well, but later.

I was flying back to Reno on the 4th, which is something I'd never done before, flying on the 4th. I figured it'd be slow but man was it slow. I started off in Ontario airport. No checking baggage is the way to go, so I went straight to the security. Much to my surprise, I was the only person to be found, other than the security personnel. I made mention of this as I got closer. "Wow, I get airport security all to myself." Luckily I didn't get the extra frisking, but it was special. Things were relatively smooth. The first trip was to San Fran. I flew United because it was the cheapest. The plane was tiny, really tiny. The lady next to me said she was thankful that she got to sit to a small person. I liked her immediately. That was all the chatting that happened. She dove into her women's mag & read all the way. Me to, except in my book.

This is where Jesus enters the story. I deplaned & looked up. There it was...Peet's Coffee. Truly blessed I was. I said, thank You God for my Americano with whipped cream & room for cream.

The next leg of the flight was a short jaunt to Reno, about 35 minutes of actual flying. I hate landing in Reno. It's always a little sketchy. We landed early, so as soon as I was able I called Jessica to let her know that I was ready. I was finishing up my phone call as I walked out of the tunnel into the waiting area for the next flight. This old lady caught my eye. She was crying. Like crying, crying. While I was finishing up with Jessica I was scoping the immediate area. There was no one around the lady, but lots of people around. Most were quite aware of her & looked uncomfortable with what was happening, but they were doing their best to pretend that they were busy & unaware that there was something definitely wrong. I was a little nervous, but I hung up my phone & approached her. It got pretty quiet. I asked if she was ok, if I could do anything, get her anything, help with anything. She said that she was traveling with her son & that she was ok. She thanked me. I said ok. I slowly walked off, thinking about the crazy situation I just witnessed & questioned if I had done "enough," or if I did it "right." Who knows. I do hope that someone else picked up where I left off.

...

Later today I'm leaving on a roughly 50 hour trip to LA, which means I'll be back on the 4th in the afternoon. That is also the day that North Korea have threatened to launch a missle at Hawaii. Yeah, that would suck. I'm flying down to spend time with other people my age to get to know them & to have meaning of life discussions. I'm not sure what to expect, but I'm going in optimistic. I'll either be blogging there or later about my trip & the discussions we have.

...

When you squeeze a lemon, lemon juice comes out. When you squeeze an orange, orange juice comes out. When a person is squeezed...no, this is not a poop joke. The pressure that life brings is a lot like squeezing a piece of fruit. Under pressure, under the squeeze, what's inside comes out. We can't stop it. We can try to ignore or deny what's there, but it's pointless. It comes out. I'm finding that there are still mindsets, attitudes, beliefs, etc that find their way to the surface when I'm squeezed. What to do, what to do...