At a rest stop in Kansas:

Playing in the garden (in Spokane!):

Swinging:

Having fun in the sprinkler:

Going strawberry picking:

(Can you tell she got really dirty?)

So I found a few sermons by Rachel’s old pastor (the one who excommunicated her). I thought this was a good one. You should listen to the last one-third of it.

Oh, wait, here’s another sermon that talks about how the churches didn’t expel those with bad doctrine, especially those that blend faith with “ceremonial functions.” Hmm.

We were sitting around talking about presidential candidates today, and Fred Thompson’s name came up. While Thompson is the most conservative of the candidates, and I do like conservative views on some things, I get really annoyed with conservative sloganism.

I just heard Michael Moore has a new documentary coming out on health care. Apparently, it’s his most balanced film, though critics don’t think it liberal enough. Anyway, Thompson criticized Moore’s lauding of Cuban medicine, and Thompson…well, the youtube.com video has a quote explaining the video:

As Fred Thompson has criticized Michael Moore for his trip to Cuba and visit with Fidel Castro for his documentary on health care, Moore responded by challenging Thompson to a debate on the topic of health care. Moore also made a reference that Thompson smokes Cuban cigars and is violator of the trade embargo. Thompson responds with cigar in hand. If this is a future glimpse of a Thompson political campaign, it is going to be formidable and really tough to beat with material like this.

This video was circulating the blogs about a month ago, and everyone was talking about how cool it was. I know it’s cool to rag on Michael Moore too, so I didn’t say anything, but I just have to get something off my chest.

I hate America’s attitude toward Cuba (and the rest of the world for that matter). I am not a communist. But the McCarthyism is just annoying. And American Superpower attitude grates on my nerves.

Cuba has twice the number of doctors per capita than we do. They lack good equipment because of American oppression, but they’re well-trained. People don’t die because they don’t have medical insurance. Infant mortality is greater in Boston than Cuba, According to WHO, Cuba has the world’s most equitably distributed medicine. Cuba has sent thousands of doctors over the world, and they work for nearly free.

Cuba is the most effective country in the world when it comes to stopping AIDS. As of 2000, the country of 11 million had only 2,669 HIV positive residents in the past twenty years. 1,003 developed into AIDS. Only 653 have died of AIDS. Only ten people got AIDS from blood transfusions. Five got AIDS through their mothers. That’s incredible considering the trade embargo forced Cuba to do most of its business with Africa.

I think Thompson needs to enter into dialogue instead of being cute.

So I was taking a nice warm jacuzzi bath at our hotel when the sheriff called and the hotel attendants came running to our room. Apparently Kyrie had pushed the emergency button on the phone, and no one believed there really wasn’t an emergency. I had to get out of the bath to talk to the sheriff, getting water all over the floor, and straining my neck somehow. So much for a nice, relaxing evening.

Have you ever been walking through an airport and thought, “Wow, this is just like 1984“?

Think about the phrases you hear over the intercom. You get messages like these:

“The Department of Homeland Security has raised the Terror Alert to orange…”

“For your own protection…”

…intersprinkled with happy messages like,

“We thank you once again for choosing Northwest Airlines…”

“Welcome to Memphis International Airport…”

and they’re all in the same creepy, robotic voice. Every time I am in an airport, I can’t help feel like I am in 1984 or Brave New World or Alas, Babylon or some other dystopia novel.

The packing is going well, the house is staying as clean as possible with Kyrie (the human tornado) inhabiting it, and we’re off in about 15 minutes to pick up Rick from the airport. It will be nice to have him home. I’m looking forward to our trip and hopefully everything goes even more smoothly than I expect.

Karen Roberts, chapel coordinator at Northern seminary, told our class the story of visiting a nursing home with a handbell choir. After 20 minutes of playing, an old lady piped up, “Have they started yet?”

I’ll be leaving Florida in a few hours, and as usual, I’ve gotten to see some glimpses of God’s glory. Friday was Bob Webber’s memorial service. This was the memorial service that the family chose to attend. It was good to see Joanne again, to see that love she has for Bob. You know how they say some couples were “made for each other”? It’s that way with Bob and Joanne. When Jim Hart asked her if she’d rather be called Bob’s wife or widow, she replied, “Wife.” I was standing right next to her and heard her mutter under her breath, “Forever and ever.”

The mother of one of my classmates passed away suddenly on Monday. My classmate handled it with great faith. His father was diagnosed with terminal cancer on the last day of last term and was supposed to be in heavenly glory by this term, so this has been a bit backwards for the family. She had gone into the hospital on Wednesday and seemed fine on Thursday. She found out that a hole in her esophagus. This, in turn, caused acid to leak into her blood and poison it, causing her organs to shut down. She started taking a turn for the worse on Sunday while we were at the beach. By Monday, they were going to take her off the ventilator by evening, but she didn’t make it that long. It was shocking to me how quickly it all happened. I guess that with her husband dying of cancer, she probably didn’t feel the need to fight for her life. My classmate kept saying, “She always said she didn’t want to live without dad; now she doesn’t have to.”

Another classmate who had missed last semester (due to a viral heart attack) was back again this semester. He told the story of how, through misdiagnosis and wrong treatment, his blood was thinned to the point of leaking out of his stomach. He woke up in a puddle of blood (after having been changing bandages for several days). He thought he was going to die, so he prayed with his father, who is also a pastor (I believe). When he came back into the room five minutes later to take him to the hospital, there was a crusty scab that looked like it had been there for days. Incredible.

On Sunday I hit the beach after worship and stayed in the water a couple hours longer than everyone else. After the beach, I went to a worship service. Brian McLaren was the celebrant, and I had a good chat with him on the glories of teaching English (He was an English prof. Before going into the ministry and then public speaking). He reminded me once again why my background is oh so useful for what I hope to do in the future. Of all the well-known pastors and theologians I’ve met over the years, I have to say that McLaren is probably the most approachable. He’s had this “Hey, guys, what’s going on? Can I play?” smile on his face for the last three days.

Hmmm…I’m too distracted to blog anything else.

Just so the grandmothers don’t say I’m holding out on them.

I’ve got my work cut out for me, which is a good thing. It’ll keep me occupied for these last couple days before Rick comes home. We’re heading out of town in 3 days, and I need to catch up with all the laundry, clean out the fridge, clean basically the entire house, pack, and do some shopping for our trip. I haven’t really been motivated to get started yet, but soon enough, panic will set in and I’ll be running around like a madwoman getting everything ready.