Philippines, Day 2: Sights, Sounds, and Traffic

On Friday, we went with Uncle John and his brother-in-law to see the Taal Volcano. We ate at a restaurant called Leslie’s and then we went and looked at the volcano. On the way there and back, we saw tricycles, hundreds of roadside markets, water buffalo (carabao), pineapple fields, and shanty houses. I feel bad for those people.
Once again, the traffic was pretty bad. People were even driving on the shoulder (Dad and Uncle John called it the suicide lane) so that they could pass other people! Read Full Post

Philippines, Day 1: Journey to the Other Side of the World

Seven years ago this month, I visited the Philippines with my dad and sister Jennifer. It was my first time back there since my parents were missionaries to the Philippines in 1990. While there in 2005, I took a long an old Pocket PC and wrote about my experiences each day. This year, I decided to look back and read it, and share my experience with you. Hopefully you learn something too as you read. Thanks! Read Full Post

2011: The Music, a Musician, and the Maestro

Orchestra

Have you ever thought of time as a piece of music? Perhaps a concerto with millennia as movements, centuries as periods, years as phrases, and weeks as measures?

You and I are each musicians in the largest orchestra ever created, the universe as our hall, the earth as our shell, the angels as our audience, and God as the Maestro. We each have our own responsibility to play our parts correctly, but ultimately it is God who masterfully controls the performance and receives the credit for a piece well-played. Read Full Post

A New Day: Pudding the Past and the Present in Perspective

Kraft sign that Dad designed

“Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” – Lamentations 3:22-23

Today is a new day.

Today God’s mercies are new.

But today, God is the same.

For 20 years my dad worked at Kraft Foods Jell-O plant in Mason City, IA, the source of every single Jell-O cup on the planet. It was a physically-demanding job, especially after my dad was severely injured in an elevator accident 10 years ago. Add to that his age and the demands of taking care of a growing family at home, and his full-time job continued to take a toll on him. Read Full Post