I’LL HAVE A BLOODY MARY, A STEAK SANDWICH AAAND A STEAK SANDWICH
Easier than writing lots of individual emailsArchive for March, 2007
Walnut Creek
I’m in Walnut Creek right now…my home town in the SF East Bay. I have laughed A LOT in the last 48 hours. I’m with my friends Trevor & Christina and they are moving again…I’m here helping, laughing, wishin and prayin’. They just got their beautiful home remodeled to how they wanted it and then went out and bought another fixer with a view of the world. Seriously, you can see a span of about 60 miles from the deck.
ANYwho…I won’t bore you with the details, but rest assured my back is broken from packing and my obliques radiating from all the laughing.
ROSE’S MUSINGS
Sponsoring a Ugandan child through SOS is pretty cool because I get letters like the one I’m about to share! The girl I sponsor is ‘Rose’ and she’s about 6 or 7 years old. I’ve sent her stuff and she’s written me a few times…she doesn’t speak English hardly at all, but they say she is beginning to recognize my handwriting and light up when she’s sees a package or a letter from ‘Sam’.
Here is the most recent letter/Aerogramme I got from her (today)…there are about 4 different, unrelated colored drawings on the page too…Please enjoy the letter as much as I did!
dear Sam
hellomy sponsor
Howyou these days Ihape there
ya are sine in AMARICAHere
ugu sent sor Me
our Vord JesusChrist
Iloveyou Somuch weareresoo
goins bad chsahooLawdJamJsinis
our pabby pex Eold us good th ings
that yada
COOL. ICU. CHURCH.
On Sunday, we had 3 ICU members come to church.
1 came to Church of the Canyons for 1st service and she really liked it.
Then Jennene and I rushed over to Copperhill for their 2nd srvice and met 2 others (who live down the street from CCC). They really liked it. So, hopefully, the LORD will continue drawing these students to the local body and hopefully the local body will enfold them and show them Christ! SOO EXCITING!
TRUTH OR FICTION.COM
Don’t you hate about 97% of the forwards with which people clog your in-box? Fortunately, I have great friends and family that screen and choose wisely. However, I still employ the trusty site of TRUTHorFICTION.com . So I recently rec’d a forward, began my usual screening procedure: did a quick visual scan, clicked over and checked TorF.com, found it to be true, went back and read the very very sad new epidemic that’s happening to our young kids in the world. Since I work with jr high and highschoolers and can picture faces of students, it makes me even more sad. (I also checked the Drug Admin site and read up on their info…so so sad…)
Here’s what I received…
First, I’m going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a Read the rest of this entry »
THAT’S WHAT WE CALL ‘CHEATING’
Setting: La Mesa Public Jr High, 7th Grade Science, the entire class is supposed to be writing down the agenda from the board. I look over and Kyle (a charming bully, who uses a confused look to attempt to disarm teachers), who is sitting 3 inches away from Lizzie, is copying Lizzie’s history vocabulary homework…word for word.
Me: “Hand me both papers please.” (saying nothing more, I walk away and put the papers in a stack on my desk)
-Kyle is staring at me for about 2 minutes (an intimidation tactic on the 7th grader’s part). I act like I Read the rest of this entry »
ONLY THE ZELLERS
would have a site like this! 
Note the header graphics.
AND, please welcome their 3rd child, Randall, into this crazy world!
On a very personal note-I am jealous of their 3 kids. I would do most anything to be an EWZ kid.
THE 8 STEPS OF IPOD
I’ve made it a long long time without an Ipod. In fact, I remember the first time I saw one, years ago, was when Caleb Hagen brought one to an RD retreat in Santa Barbara and we all looked at it and grunted like it was the first fire ever built…we’d never heard of such a thing. And now, years later, it seems like every
3rd grader has one.
I have 8 reasons why I think it’s time
1. I don’t want to touch CD’s anymore. I don’t want to store the ‘jewel cases’ anymore either.
2. I want to listen to sermons and podcasts wherever I am without having to plan ahead and download one and then burn it etc etc etc
3. I want to listen to something other than the same 2 cds that have been in my car for the last 6 months
4. I want to be able to listen/rehearse the music for Worship Team in my car…right now my inbox is clogged with HUGE MP3 files of songs emailed to me…and then I can only listen to them on my PC without all the drama of burning a CD, having more CDs to touch, more jewel cases to crack etc.
5. I want to pretend to exercise and having music or something making sound in my ears makes the disdained activity go by just a wee bit faster
6. I’d like to be able to watch The Office wherever I go
7. I think the compactness of it will fit nicely into my current life…I’m constantly trying to down size and this seems like a GREAT way to do it in my media world
8. I think it will aid in my travels. I hope to begin traveling the world again soon and what better tool to bring than an Ipod (AND a MasterCard AND gifts for the orphans AND a U.S. passport…)
8. It’s time to spend lots of money on and have to learn yet another new piece of technology that will soon malfunction in such a way that I get to spend hours on tech support to India
Summing it up, if you have any good recommendations for me and my needs, please let me know. If you’re selling one, giving one away, or anything that can save me a buckeroo as I venture into this Iland, I’d certainly appreciate it!
I HAVE TITLE
I opened my mail today and pulled out the Title Certificate to my car….also known as ‘the pink slip’.
Wow, after 5 years, I actually own my sweet little S70.
Ironically, the completion of my car payments makes me feel like the Alicia Driscoll chapter in my life is now really sealed, as she was the main one who helped me with the downpayment when I was living on RD fumes. Weird that she can’t rejoice with me in one of life’s little milestones. Sigh.
Now, on to paying off the next debt…school loans! Yay!
CINDY WALDECK’S RECENT POST
You can click here for Cindy’s words or just read the copy/paste at the end of this entry.
I was impacted by many things, but mostly that even in a time of such loss, when most people seek self-focus, that the Waldecks joyfully invite us to refer other people to them who have questions about Dan & Cindy’s hope. I am so deeply filled with gratitude that God used this to make their love for Him something they want to share with others rather than to hide away in their grief. So cool. So quieting. AND, cool that the church (local and universal) responded the way the Bible says it should…another witness to the world of His great love!
Here’s the entry for those that don’t want to click to the site… Read the rest of this entry »
YOUR THROAT TURNS SQUARE
We all have certain words that we use as ways of describing shared experiences.
Kristin’s dad says that he knows when he’s about to throw up because his ‘throat turns square’. Well, the only thing that happened in my throat today, right before I threw up repeatedly, was that it produced an inordinate amount of saliva (probably to help it with the pints of acid that were to follow)…and then…it happened…the disgustingness came violently shooting out of my mouth.
I am constantly amazed at the power of the body and how, oft times, we really are just prisoners of its’ whims (I’m not talking about the sin nature, I’m referring to the physical dominance in illness, accidents, shock, etc). Today, I was a prisoner. I had no choice other than to hang my head over the citrus frangrance trash can and brace myself for the wretching that soon commenced. Jennene was there and she’s a good friend. She didn’t freak out. Instead, she ran for my hair and pulled it out of the way. She’s sweet and sweet.
It might be a while before I eat at Carl’s Jr. again.
TMC REUNION-LOGAN’S MEMORIAL
I’ve been to hundreds of hundreds of events in my life and the ‘top ten’ list of those hundreds is pretty elite. Logan Waldeck’s memorial service is now in the top ten.
I think God used her 6 years of life for many known & unknown reasons, but I am confident one of the known reasons was to, in her death, reflect His grace, His comfort, His church, His joy, His majesty, His hope…all through His sacrificed son, Christ! It was incredible on every single level. There were probably about 900-1,000 people in attendance. There were several speakers: one of Logan’s little friends, one of her ‘uncles’ (Dhon Whellons), her dad (he was amazing), Scott Ardavanis, and others. The music was heavenly and the corporate worship seemed sweet and genuine (so much thanks to Placerita Baptist who planned and hosted everything…and it was so nice for me to be able to just sing in the crowd). Throughout the entire event the main message was the joy of Logan’s freedom from a lifetime of sin and now a perfect eternity with Christ (through Christ…she made a decision to follow Christ on Valentine’s day). It was so joyful. To give a frame of reference, Matt Pearson’s funeral is also in the top 10..if you were at his you’ll have an inkling as to the encouragement, the fellowship, the conviction, etc it all was.
One of the elements that also made Logan’s service so powerful was to see the hundreds of TMC grads/staff that came together…some would never have been able to reunite otherwise. Dan Vanderbijl, Steve Merical, The Dresdows, the DeNais, the Garates, the Floyds, the Winans, Reesie…so so so many people from so many eras. It was truly such a blessing to reunite in sadness and then to rejoice in our hope in Christ and our future in eternity. As much as all our hearts ache for Dan & Cindy, it was such a testimony to see that they used their platform of Logan’s memorial to proclaim how good God is and that His giving and His taking away are both perfect in every way.
Amen and Amen
AND LIFE’S REALITIES DON’T RELENT
Cindy and Dan Waldeck’s little girl, Logan, died. Please pray for them and for the comfort of the Spirit…though Ecclesiastes promises seasons…the seasons of death in life can be the most inconsolable.
WHY DO WE CALL IT ‘THE BIG APPLE’?
Cab Fare from JFK to 7th & 55th=$60.
An outstanding pastrami sky scraper sandwich at World Famous ‘Carnegie Deli’=$25
New York with 30 or so of my family members=Priceless
New York was outstandingly fantastic! We had nothing but good times of what should be considered illegal porportions. Thank you for all the well wishes and recommendations from many of you. I tried to heed as many as possible considering the circumstances. This post can’t possibly contain all the blessed merriment that Thur-Mon held for me, but I will give some highlights.
EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
-Russos, Jelery (my flight attendant to NY..whose sister’s name was Rhashad, dad’s name Vivian and Read the rest of this entry »
