Evendays

No, I don’t have one. But if you’ve got one, I’d like to use it…

Two things I saw on USA Today’s web page:

Al Gore’s Nashville home used 191,000 kilowatt hours of electricity in 2006 (and I don’t think he’s even there all the time). The average Nashville household uses about 15,600 kilowatt hours per year. The ex VP also has two other homes. What is sure is that if the people in Florida knew how to vote, Al would be in the White House and would be using even more electricity.

45% of women in the USA between the ages of 14 and 24 have HPV. The very good news (no sarcasm intended) is that Merck has developed Gardasil which protects women against the HPV strains which cause 70% of cervical cancer cases. (No where did the article talk about all the other good things (intended) the sexual revolution has brought us.)

There’s a new post up at Biblos for Theobloggers on Yancey’s book: Prayer: Does it make any difference? And keep praying for Randy (house), Sandra (Lex), Greg (job change?), Steve (recuperation from operation). Find their links in the blogroll on the right…

Wife and I try to remember every 26th of every month. Sometimes the day slips by without one of us greeting the other with the mandatory “Happy 26th”, but not often.

However, the 26th of February is a never-to-forget day. For on this 26, Wife and I celebrate 24 years of happy marriage.

It’s amazing, phenomenal, blessingtudinal and humbling to see that, even at a young age, when so many things you do are infinitesimally stupid, God led you in the most important decisions in life.

Thank you, God. And thank you, Wife. Je t’aime…

We are having a weekend retreat with the Geneva church. It has been very encouraging. I would appreciate it if you’d keep “Mary” in your prayers. I have not heard from her. I informed the police in the part of the country where she lives so that they could contact her. After a couple of hours, they were able to get into her apartment but she was fast asleep. She was taken to the hospital and is “Okay” according to the police officer.

Continued from February 20… (see way below…)

Wife’s Dad (F-I-L) finally told me that if I got a Mac, I could make a printer network and use his LaserWriter. So I bought my first Mac, an SE FDHD, in March of 1990 (8 MHz). It had a 9 inch monochrome screen and cost about $2,900.00. It came with a 1.44 Mb floppy drive, 4 Mb of RAM, a 40 Mb hard drive, used System 4 and Finder 5.x (and updating to newer systems was FREE!). Man, few sermons had ever looked so good. I also got an ImageWriter ($450.00) for those times I couldn’t use the LaserWriter.

I’ve still got the SE (Son 2 would not let me throw it out and now it’s part of his inheritance). I used FileMaker to make databases and to keep track of expenses. An early version of Microsoft Word set me back $225.00. I loved the French spell-check. When the kids were old enough to manage a mouse, they enjoyed playing freeware games. I bought a golf game and Hunt for the Red October (never figured it out). Wife hand-made a cover for the SE. The screen saver displayed Romans 8.1. It was a great machine.

More this weekend…

Wife’s dad (F-I-L) loved technology. In 1984, Mother-in-law already had one of those daisy wheel typewriters that could remember a one-page letter. It would even pause so you could type in a name for a personalized letter. We used that machine to write our first mission newsletters. Amazing. Plus, F-I-L had two IBM Selectrics, one with a Cyrillic “golf ball”.

In 1987 I bought a used IBM XT and a dot matrix printer for about $2000.00. My sermons got better right away. The printer was terrible and would print an “@” for an accented “à” and “&” for the “é”. But I used them (and sold them 3 years later for $500.00).

Wife’s dad bought a MacPlus (circa 1986) and a LaserWriter printer. He wouldn’t let me touch his tools (toys) at first, but when I showed him how MacPaint worked and actually printed something out for him, we both stood amazed at our creation: A checkered, striped, gray-scaled EPI (his first name) with a happy-face background. And we did it all with three key strokes and a thing called a mouse.

He could write his radio scripts in Ukrainian with a QWERTZ keyboard (I think that’s how you spell it…) and run off printable Ukrainian text in PageMaker, type-set and ready for eager readers. Now that really was amazing.

To be continued…

Haylina, one of your sisters from Marseilles, is in a hospital bed dieing from cancer. She has a boy who is 16 and another who is about 9. Their father is violent and has never taken care of them, so the Marseilles church has stepped in. They are caring for the boys now, and after, they will do all they can to “adopt” them so they aren’t split up. They will also be able to continue living with their spiritual family.

Even though we hate sickness and death, once again they bring out the best in God’s people and become opportunities for displaying grace and compassion.

Yes, we do celebrate Valentine’s day here. Wife and I get little gifts for the kids… I for Daughter and Wife for Sons 1 and 2.

My mom would always get us something special for the day: A MAD magazine or a spy novel. And she would always sing to wake us up:

Be my Valentine,
Be a pal of mine.
Promise me the whole day through
You will be my friend so true.
Will you be my Valentine forever.

I think Sister One still calls Mom up and sings to her, though Sis gets water-ful eyes at about the third line. I don’t know if she makes it all the way to the end of the song. (I don’t even try…)

Of course here, people give flowers and CHOCOLATE. And frilly under-things (or so I’ve heard).

But I saw a German Chocolate Cake in our oven last night. Now THAT’S a pretty good Valentine’s Day present.

Enjoy the day.

In 2006, 59,600 people died in Switzerland. 800 less than expected, according to government authorities.

But, as George Bernard Shaw put it:

“The statistics on death are quite impressive. One out of one people die.”

So, my friends, live well today. I know you will.

Mary* became a Christian about 3 years ago. She moved to another part of Switzerland last year and I encouraged her to dedicate herself to a local church in that part of the country (where there are no churches of Christ). She found a charismatic group not too far away and has been attending there ever since. We study the Bible by phone once a week, working through portions of the New Testament.

Mary hears a voice. It’s quite destructive, has led her to eating problems, lack of self-worth and much grief. She once asked me if I thought the voice was demoniac in nature. I told her I didn’t know, but would pray with and for her.

The voice continued after she became a Christian. She sought help from the local pastor and he assured her of what I couldn’t, that is, the voice is demon-inspired. She has asked for healing… The pastor there has prayed for her.

Recently, an acquaintance had a dream about Mary’s voice, and through this situation Mary was advised to attend an African Pentecostal group. Their pastor claimed that Mary had something in her that was destroying her, but that she  couldn’t be healed because her faith wasn’t great enough. (Her local pastor has told her the same thing.)

We talked yesterday. Mary was quite broken up. God has been very active in her life. She has grown, has joy in her life, has made some difficult moral choices, has prayed every day for liberation, but she is not free of the voice and does not understand why. On top of that, she has learned from two of her spiritual guides that her slavery is her own fault (lack of faith) and this has inflicted deep spiritual hurt, doubt and tears.

I know she has at least the faith of a grain of mustard. I think the prayer, “I believe, please help me in my unbelief” is sufficient for God to act. If demon possessed, it is not her lack of faith but that of the exorcist that is called in question.

Mary and I will speak on the phone again tomorrow. Your input… your prayers… would be appreciated. We can discuss this more in the comments section.

*Of course, not the person’s real name.

Last week, our just-turned-Swiss Son 2 got his first official letters from the Swiss authorities. One of the envelopes contained his tax forms for 2006. Not too hard. Just zeros across the board and a signature on the bottom of the last page.

He also received a letter from the Army. Every Swiss man must do military service. It consists of 4 months of boot camp, then 2 to 3 weeks of service every one or two years. And that continues till, more or less, you turn 40 years old.

If you are a conscientious objector, and can prove it, you can do a year of civil service. It’s just started up as a possibility, but I hear there have been many takers. You used to have to do jail time if you didn’t serve. And many companies wouldn’t hire you without military service experience.

The last international conflict the Swiss were involved in was about 500 years ago. There have been skirmishes within the borders, and Switzerland does supply the guards for the Pope. But for most Swiss, the military serves as a time to meet Swiss Germans, to live on 5 hours sleep, and to learn how to drink beer.