Same for Stephruns.

Oh well. Know that you are loved, even if we are not connected.

Brady
 

The artist told me it took her about 50 hours to cut it out, this art form (découpage) only found, to my knowledge, in some of the mountain villages here in Switzerland. Black paper, folded over and finely cut with scissors or razor… Laid on a white backing and framed. (Sorry it’s distorted, but click for finer details.)

You’ll find the whole family in it somewhere… From Wife in the kitchen to a CSi to a girl with her hair tied back… A student reading C.S. Lewis (or maybe Leviticus) under a tree to a dad trying to pass a slow moving cow, without much luck.

It was for Wife’s 50th, and it’s beautiful. You’ll have to come see it. Delicate and fine, it springs from the Vine and branches top and center.  

Yes, here she is, the beautiful blonde in the middle, in a dress (YES, in a DRESS!) thrilled after having her High School diploma.

She’s a gem and we’re proud of her, for more reasons than I can tell you in just 200 words. 

At least, that’s the plan.

We are wonderfully made, but it’s amazing what a little science and $10,000 can do.

Happy fourth of July to you all. My heart is with you, and ticking just fine, praise God.

• The doctor told me to lay down for 3 days and take Valium. I managed 3 hours and have taken about 5 of the pills the last 10 days.
• I took a flight to Kiev and worked as a observer for simulations for heads of Human Ressources for leaders in the hospitality industry. More to come…
• Sunday I worshiped with one of the churches of Christ in Kiev. A good afternoon, from 3 to 6 p.m. I got to speak for 1.5 houea. (Sorry Greg and Randy.)
• Daughter finished her exams on Friday and passed everything. Her High School graduation is tonight.
• Son 1 finish his last exam on Monday. We won’t have any news for a couple of weeks. They really worked him hard this semester. Things aren’t like when I was in college.
• Wife started a blog called Stephruns1958, Do check it out, specially if you like to read about others’ suffering.
  
• I get my heart operated on tomorrow morning. It’s called a thermo-ablation, and the’ll go in through my leg, up into my chest, up into my heart, and see if they can’t take care of the tachycardia.

We made it to the wedding in plenty of time: an outdoor event, which is an act of faith. Northern France is not Southern California, and you could count the number of dry days these last 3 weeks on one finger.

Wish I had a picture of the couple: They met at church camp about 10 years ago, an on again-off-again kind of thing, and are now married at 24 years old. They have both been camp counselors themselves, and are very active in serving Christ and his church.

The party was still going on when we left at 20 past midnight. I had drunk 3 coffees. The seven-hour trip actually took 7 hours. Wife and daughter caught some sleep. I listened to sermons (which actually tends to keep me awake) and made it through the night with little difficulty. Light was already showed itself in the eastern sky at 4 am, a welcome sight. We were home  by 7:30 and promptly took a nap.

All-night driving reminds me of college days, and I wasn’t sure to still be up to the task, but sometimes the college kid lives on.

VIP means you get greeted at the door by well dressed people; to sit wherever you want in the covered seating section looking down on those who had to pay for their seats and on the thousand who decided to stand for free; most importantly, you get to eat and drink whatever they’ve got on hand until you make yourself, or others, sick.

Before arriving, MIBP and I were thinking: What does a bank that just lost 40 gazillion dollars in the sub-prime market offer for dinner? Fish sticks? Hot dogs? All the water you can drink and a boloney sandwich? Well, don’t despair. There was all that stuff just mentioned (except for the fish sticks and the hot dogs) and lots, lots more. Since the second game was Greece-Russia, there were only 12 of us trying to finish the desserts that had been prepared for 200 people.

Though I never made it to a real stadium, I got to enjoy both MIBP and the Euro 2008 ambiance, and waddle home content that I hadn’t had to stand for 3 hours.

Now if I could just get VIP treatment from the airlines.

Wife and I went to a tent where about 300 gathered in the name of UEFA for the first part of last night’s match. It was noisy, smoky, hot, hard to understand the speaker… A lot like church. I felt strange chanting “Hopp Suisse” for a team that was 140 miles away, but what the heck, we yelled anyway and were encouraged when the Turko-Swiss YAKIM scored a go-ahead goal against Turkey. Other chances passed by, but we finished the first 45 minutes ahead. For good, we hoped.

We biked home and watched the second half in the quiet of our own home with Son 1 and Daughter. We saw our lead disappear, then we fell behind in the final minutes. Commentators complained. We wept. (Well, sort of…)

Now, since that stress is over, the kids only have to worry about final exams (a different stress). And they still have another team in the tournament: Whoever is playing against France.

Stéphane Fournier wrote an article in the local paper and asked the question: Will a spirit of catastrophe threaten [Team Nati]? Bernard Challandes, wise coach of FC Zurich replied:

No. I don’t believe it will. What is essential for the players to do is to hold on to what is positive. There were some positive things shown by [the team’s] level of performance. I can imagine very well Michel Pont [assistant coach] making a highlight video of one-on-one actions where Swiss players excelled and other actions that offered opportunities for possible goals. In fact, I believe he’s already prepared it.

The other aspect is mental. [The players] have the ability to manage these events. Frei [injured in the first half, see picture above] will not announce tomorrow: I’m quitting football. They have the right to talk about bad luck and to express their frustration because of it, but they don’t have the right to wallow in it. They can even find in it their motivation. It’s just like everyday life.

I find his words refreshing and applicable to my own life. It’s just too easy for me to become cynical about stuff, about people, about ministry, about me…

So, excuse me for a minute, I’m off to work on my high-light video.