2nd Annual Blogprophet Calendar Auction

The 2nd Annual Official Blogprophet 2010 Calendar auction will begin soon.

Tell your friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The beneficiary of this year’s funds will be the people of Honduras who get their food from a dump.  Trey Morgan has visited this mission and knows the people involved.  He and Steve Tucker will be going down there soon.  Check their blogs for the latest information.

Here is some info on the situation there in the past year:

Go to this link and start at the bottom for the beginning of the story.

Here is the blog of a missionary who lives and serves God in Honduras.

The auction will commence on Monday, December 7th, right here at this blog.

You will bid by leaving a comment, then I will have your email, even if you choose to be anonymous.

The bidding will close on Monday, December 14th.

The winning bidder(s) will send the amount directly to Trey Morgan.

I may provide a sneak peek of a couple of fotos from the calendar.

I am Thankful…

…that I don’t have swine flu.

…watching my kids play with people who played with me when I was their age.

…my blogging friends.

…that the security/TSA officer used the back of his hands when frisking my “sensitive areas” at the Newark Airport.

…seeing church family who knew my parents.

…going to my Uncle Tom’s cabin in Bowling Green to see half my family for Thanksgiving day.

…getting to visit with high school friends and see their new baby.

…a Sunday when I can be fed instead of feeding.  Plus sit with my wife and family the entire time.

…my church home in New Jersey.

…to worship with the congregation that supported me while in Italy and at Harding.

…celebrating 9 years of marriage with my great wife yesterday.

…that I will be able to be at Tulsa this spring, thanks to my church.

…in-laws who used their skymiles to gift us plane tickets to see my family.

…good food.

…my sister and her family.

…Father, Son, and Spirit.

…the Cross.

My Son has Discovered Lust

…in a magazine.

That’s kinda provocative but it’s true, although not what you are thinking.

It’s a toy magazine.  And even though it is mostly educational type toys, he is obsessed.  He kept talking about his “wishes” and finally my wife told him to circle the things that he wanted.

He has a lot of wishes.

I came home the other day and he met me at the door to say, “I need a dollar because I cleaned my room.”  The kids do chores, some for money and some just because they should do them.

He lost his first tooth and we are playing the “tooth fairy” game.  He asked if he would get $5.  We laughed in his face.  He got 50 cents.

He wants to go to the toy store as soon as money comes in.  He loves Lightning McQueen as most boys his age.

The life-long battle of materialism has begun for my 5-year-old.   I know I am still in that battle, as well as much of the world, especially developed first-world countries like the USA.

I remember the excitement of toy catalogs, especially near Christmas time.  G.I. Joe and Transformers.  I also loved the Johnson Smith (wow! still in business and online) catalog that had magic tricks, pranks, and novelty items.

For me, I guess it’s books now, or some electronic gadget.

We like to preach and teach about hot topics like homosexuality, or any sexuality period.  Worship problems and denominational doctrines.

But millions and millions of people, including Christians, are losing the war against stuff.  Christmas time is upon us again.  The economy is down so spending will probably be down.  And the government and CEOs are hoping for as much materialism as possible to help our economy.

But at what cost?

1 John 2:15-17

Learning about Prayer from my kids

First of all, we have a kindergartner in the house. He has been three days.  The first day didn’t go so well.  He was a little anxious about the little girl who “didn’t follow instructions” and got in trouble.  It seems whatever the teacher had to do to work with this girl bothered him.  The second day he expressed his concern/frustration with big hand gestures as he talked about how much she cried and yelled.

So, Friday on the way to the bus-stop we decided to have a prayer.  I asked him what we should pray about and he responded: his teacher, his friends, etc.  I then asked if we should pray for the girl who keeps getting into trouble.

He scrunched up his face as if confused, and said plainly, “NO!”

So far, our kids only get the thanksgiving part of prayer.  The thought of praying for a problem, or problem child wasn’t natural.  But I wonder if the same isn’t true for many adults.  Our natural response isn’t to pray for enemies or those who bother us.

Then…there’s the three-year-old girl who lives with us.  She likes to pray because she likes to talk.  Her prayers are often a recounting of recent events.  At VBS, she cracked up the adults in the room but talking about her trip to go potty just moments before class started while she was praying.

So, at lunch she was telling God everything, I mean everything that had happened that day and even included a statement about the fact that she was praying.  Obviously her awareness of who she was talking to didn’t sink in.

That’s a pet peeve of mine.  Whenever someone prays in the assembly and seems totally unaware of the presence of God, it distracts and irritates me.  Often, it sounds like a speech, or the person refers to God in third person.  We don’t refer to each other in third person when talking to each other.

What have your kids taught you about prayer?

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Not prayer related but two “gems” from my daughter this morning during church and a third from bedtime:

“I think that baby has poop in his diaper.” as the mother in front of us was taking out a crying baby.

“Where’s my ticket?  I don’t have a ticket?”  during the collection.  We usually give the kids a dollar or two to put in the basket but forgot today.

At bedtime, after I kissed her goodnight, she said, “make me a prayer.”

Deer Cupcake Award (thanks Frogtown!)

I was tagged by David Kirk of Frogtown a looong time ago and finally realized it so I wanted to play.

1). What is your current obsession?
Evony video online game.  You build up cities, train armies, fight battles.

2). Where are you right now?
downstairs, at computer, at home

3). Coffee or tea?
two cups of coffee for brekkie, occasionally fun stuff at Starbucks;  decaff sweet tea at lunch or dinner

4).What’s one of your favorite movies?
Midnight Run with Charles Grodin, Deniro

5). What’s one thing you’re looking forward to?
my family coming home

6). Who was your childhood crush?
alyssa milano from Who’s the Boss, who has aged very well (still young, that’s the good part of having a crush on a young person while young)

7). What is your (current) favorite Song?
A Deeper Shade of Blue by Del McCoury

8). What would you like to get rid of?
10-15 lbs of my gut

9). What’s your favorite book?
Moby Dick (fiction); How to read the Bible for all its Worth (religious study); The Celebration of Discipline (religious devotional)

10). Why did you start your blog?
around my birthday about 5-6 years ago, it has moved 2-3 times but pretty much settled in now.  I like to write, that was pretty much the sole motivation.

11). If money was not an issue, what is one thing you would purchase for yourself?
A villa in Italy.  Maybe in Sicily, or near Anzio/Nettuno outside of Rome

12). If you could live in a foreign country, which one would you choose?
Already lived in Italy, would be glad to go back at any moment.  Otherwise, not sure.

13). Who is your favorite member of the Baseball Hall of Fame?
Ryne Sandberg, Chicago Cubs.  I was in the left field bleachers for a game in Busch Stadium in St Louis in 1990 when he hit his 30th of 40 home runs just a few rows in front of me.  A few of the most exciting seconds of my childhood.

14) Who is your favorite character on Lost?
still Jack, and he is gonna rock the final season, just you wait!

15). What is one thing you’ve changed your mind about in the last ten years?
a whole lot about religion, church, politics

16). What is one thing you’ve changed your mind about in the last ten days?
when to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame

17) If you had to choose between books and movies and could only read or view one or the other the rest of your life, which would you choose?
books, fairly easy choice

18) Have you listened to the A Better View podcast yet?
Yes, and I love it!

TAG! You’re it!

Have you done this, Lisa?

My sister.  I know the answer to 18 at least.

Frank Bellizzi. You need a break from grading papers.

Ooops! I left out the instructions:

• I must replace one question I dislike with a question of mine own invention,
• and then I must add one additional question.

Tids and Bits

Hey everybody!  I am still alive. 

We had Vacation Bible School on Saturday and it went well. I might even be willing to do it again.  It was my first time not just to help organize, but even to volunteer for a VBS since attending one as a little guy.  I am tired but good.  Boy, I am tired!

My crazy/busy summer is hopefully slowing down.  I can get back to the normal crazy/busy weekly grind of being a minster/pastor/secretary/etc.  I can’t believe the busiest part of my summer is over.  I can’t wait for the cool weather of Fall and big snows of Winter.

The sad news is my wife and kids are leaving for a two week road trip with grandmommy to visit family in 3-4 states.  I will use the time to rest and hopefully plan ahead, maybe even to blog some.

I do plan to spend a day at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. I am a member (never used PEDs) and get free admission for a year.  I hope to see the GI Joe movie even though I am preparing to be letdown on many levels.

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I recently got a new computer.  The old, cheap one was slowly dying so it’s nice to be able to do stuff without waiting.  I really like the flat screen monitor.  I have google gadgets on the right with weather, to-do list, and various headlines.  I can also leave tweetdeck open, and the remaining part of the screen is still about as big as my old HUGE monitor that was a hand-me-down from at least 5 years ago, maybe 9.

It’s just another Emachine but I love it.  There are two weird surprises: the first being that there is no regular printer port, only USBs. So I had to buy an adapter to connect my printer to the CPU.  And I ordered it online b/c I couldn’t find one at the Shack (saw lots of phones, but no Trinity) or Staples.  Unfortunately, I ordered it from Hong Kong.  So now, I must decide if I can wait for it to arrive.  Shipping was free.  Did I get scammed?

Secondly, the CD/DVD drive is vertical…the discs kinda hang there but it works, so…SURE!

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I want to spend lots of time reading.  I am planning a sermon series on the Minor Prophets.  I hope to take advantage of the quiet and spend more time with God, figuring out myself and my ministry.

The one major decision I haven’t made is about food:  Do I eat super light and healthy (cooking isn’t an issue, I enjoy it and will survive that without the wife) or do I live it up and eat what I want for a week or so??