2 Years Later

I was on my friend Jamie's blog and saw a video he posted about Katrina now, two years after the hurricane. Please continue to pray for those affected by the hurricane. It seems to me that when something disastrous like this happens we pray and act until the media stops talking about it then we stop caring. We need to stop letting the media tell us what is important and search it out ourselves sometimes. Just because something is not on the news, or is hard to find on the BBC or CNN doesn't mean that it is taken care of or over. I know we realize this, but do we live this way? I do not for the most part, but I am trying. Jesus, please continue to carry the people affected by Katrina. -Amen-

Praise the Lord

I just read today that the Taliban has agreed to release the 19 S.Korean hostages that have they have held for the last 4+ weeks. This is an answer to prayer for many people, including me. I figured I would add the link so you could read for yourself if you have been following this. I am just thankfull that they can go back to their families. Continue to ask Jesus to be with them as they have a long recovery ahead, both physically and emotionally.
BBC

Abby Walks

Today Abby walked with the baby walker. She is on the run. Here is the 1st glimps for you.

Welcome home to me.

Well we are finally home in Seattle after 3 months of being gone. Our family left Winnipeg at 9am Monday and arrived in Seattle at 5pm on Tuesday. We drove straight through with a 3 hour sleep break at a rest stop in Montana. It was a great trip and the girls did great strapped into their car seats for hours and hours.

It is so good to be home. It is good to see friends, it is good to sleep in my bed, it is good to have home cooked meals and it is good to be at World Cup cafe in the U-District. We have been able to get together with a lot of our friends since being home. On Tuesday Gordon and Deborah came over for dinner. They have been very kind friends to us. They picked up some groceries for the house and brought over dinner. Thank you guy's so much. Later that night our staff came over to hang out and have a short meeting, as we have not all been together this summer. I am greatfull for all of you who I get the priviladge of working with. Thanks for being good friends and continuing to help me to think and grow. Last night we went over to Zach and Amandas house to celebrate Amy's 30th birthday. It was so fun to be with good people, eating good food and laughing a lot.

I pray that I never take these things or my friends for granted. It is sadly true that for the most part we don't know what we have until we are far away from it. I want to be appreciative of the things and peope that God has placed in my life when I am in the middle of it, so that it is not to late. Thank you Seattle, and thank you my friends for all that you do for me and all that you let me do for you.

John Rambo

I appologize that my blogs have been less than deep and meaningfull lately, I have been on a rest/vacation with my family. I will start posting more of my thoughts on things next week. My family and I leave on 3 day jouney to Seattle tomorrow. I am excited about sitting in the car and driving. I hope I will be able to process this time at home and what is coming up. Here is our trip plan.










Also, to keep you busy for the next 3 minutes, here is the trailer for the new Rambo movie. I can't wait.

Tim Hortons

So after reading a comment from my friend Chris Whitler's blog on coffee which read "While I really try to be fair trade, I am also a coffee slummer (I like light/mild roasts) so there is a special place in my heart for Tim Horton's. I left the house and headed to Tim's for a coffee and a maple dip while listening to Road Apples by The Hip. I felt truly Canadian. Thanks Chris.

Starbucks

This morning I woke up early and went for coffee. I am in Winnipeg, so my options are slim. I have Second Cup, Tim Hortons, Smitty's or Starbucks. I heard my mom leave the house approx. 15 min. before I got up and I knew that she would be at Starbucks, so I went there. The last time I was at Starbucks was approx. a year ago when I was in Winnipeg last. I was hesitant to order a coffee, as last time I checked I didn't really like Starbucks, but I ordered one just because it was early and there was coffee. Well, my memories served me correctly. I don't like Starbucks coffee, it is just gross. I can't wait to get home to Seattle on Wednesday and get a tasty short with room americano from my friend Rachel at Caffe Fiore.

Still around

I just wanted to let you who read this blog know that I do still walk the earth even though I have not posted in a while. I have been in Winnipeg, Canada with my family and not posting for some reason. It has been good. Doing lots of projects for mom like painting the house, re-screeining the doors and stuff like that. It has also been good for Amy and the kids and I to spend time together. A couple let us use there place at a resort for 2 nights which also ruled. Anyway, things are good and more blogging will come.

later

Family

I am sitting in the Vancouver airport at 6:16am waiting to board my flight. I am 4 hours away from seeing my beautiful wife Amy and my two girls Emma and Abby. This is the second time that I have written this and both times I have been overcome with emotion and tears. It has been a very long summer without them, almost 5 weeks and in just a few hours it will be over.

The reason that we were apart was that we were helping to start the YWAM Mission Adventures program in Costa Rica and Amy had to leave half way through the summer. Amy’s brother was having a wedding reception in Saskatchewan and so Amy and the girls went back for it while I stayed in Costa Rica to see the program through. The result is that now we have a Mission Adventurers program running in Heredia, Costa Rica and hopefully in the next year we will see, for the first time Costa Rican students going through the program and being sent out to do Missions locally and abroad.

It is not often that I feel we make hard sacrifices for Jesus, but I feel that this was definitely one of them, not just for me, but also for my whole family. I pray that God never asks this of us as a family again, but regardless of how hard it was if He asked we would do it. Not to put this whole thing on God, we did schedule the summer knowing it would be long, but we do feel that it was the right thing for Amy to be home and for me to stay.

I wonder as followers of Jesus if we have or are willing to make the sacrifices for Christ that He has asked, or may ask of us. For me at least I feel that my walk with Jesus is just natural, it is who I am. It is not really hard, nor is there many sacrifices to make. Is that OK? Am I to comfy in my walk with Christ? Is there room for discomfort or will I just bitch and moan if it gets hard or uncomfortable in any way. Do we feel that if things do get hard in life that it is not Jesus, but the Devils doing? God would never ask me to do anything hard, or that would cause me pain.

I don’t believe this is right. I believe that God does and will ask us to do the hard things. I believe there has to be sacrifice in my walk with Him, it needs to stretch me and it needs to hurt. Jesus life was full of hardship and sacrifice, why should mine be any different? I just ask for strength and courage when the difficult times come.

The News

I am sitting in a Hotel in San Diego this morning, as I got bumped from my flight (sorry Jim for now calling) and looking at all the stuff that is going on in the world. It is breaking my heart for the people who are hurting so badly due to these disasters. I just wanted to show a few images and ask us to pray and stand with the hurting.


Almost 20 million people have been displaced as some of the worst floods for years have hit a wide swathe of northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

"Everything is underwater," says mother of seven Musamat Manwara Khatoum as she stands knee-deep in water.

"We've lost our crops, there's nowhere to put the children down, not even a place to cook."



I went down not long after the bridge collapsed. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There was a bridge that I had driven over not long before - gone! I think most of us were in disbelief. I kept getting text messages asking if I was alright. People were having trouble getting cellphone reception. I know my own mother was in tears when she was finally able to reach me. What a strange day!
HJJ, Minneapolis, MN





The Korean Christian workers - 18 of them women - were seized on 19 July as they travelled by bus down the main road from Kabul to Kandahar.

The aid workers' leader, Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, was the first to be shot dead by the militants. His death was reported over the weekend.

On Tuesday, South Korea confirmed that a second hostage had been killed - 29-year-old Shim Sung-min, a former IT worker.

At least two of the remaining hostages are seriously ill, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency

Morphing

So I found this site tonight that morphs photos. It is on morphting.com and it is great. I wanted to see what me and the typical on line picture of Jesus would look like morphed and here are the results.





It is a great site that I think I will have lots of fun with now that I am almost done speaking and doing Mission Adventures for the summer. If you get any cool morphs from it let me know.

Good night.