Don’t forget, tonight is the benefit concert at Olivet for Hope Beyond Borders with The Bridge Band, Voices of Judah Gospel Choir, and Zimbabwe Drum Rhythm Praise starting at 7:00.

Tomorrow, we will be heading to a house-warming party for our friends Tom and Melissa in Ridley Park.

And Sunday is a chill day, and Providence in the evening.

Have a great weekend.
Shalom

“…the best questions come out of deepest losses.”

William P. Young
(author of “The Shack” quoted from interview on 7-30-08 on NPR’s show “Here and Now”)

A number of years ago (5 or 6) our friends Steve and Stef Wilson were commissioned by our church as missionaries in the heart of Coatesville. They are two of the most amazing people you could hope to meet. They started the BACC (Bridge Academy and Community Center) for the children of Coatesville and ran it for years with the help of many faithful volunteers.

They recently made a move in ministry that enables them to minister to families in the city, not just the children, as well as families outside of Coatesville’s city limits. They helped start and are leading a church plant called New Community Church. The name of their ministry is Hope Beyond Borders. Their website is obviously still under construction.

They have also partnered with a mutual friend named Katie Forqurean, who started a ministry in Zambia called Mango Tree. And this is the second year that they are sending a team over to continue with that exciting project. You can read about it from a post I wrote last year here.

This coming Friday, they are holding a benefit concert in Coatesville for that trip. If you are in the area, please come out and be blessed by a night of music and worship. And help bless the missionaries who are heading over to Africa in August.

God unseen,

But not unknown,

You redeem,

And atone,

The unclean,

The lost and alone,

You intervene

And call us your own.

God of grace,

You welcome in,

Those disgraced

And stained with sin,

The self-abased,

Conscience thin,

To your embrace,

And your love wins.

God unseen,

But not unknown,

Your grace redeems,

Your mercy atones.

If you are even remotely close to the Boyertown Pennsylvania area, you have to go to Morning Star Fellowship tonight.

Two of the area’s best live bands are playing to benefit Invisible Children.

The Bridge Band and Reilly.
These friends are not only great musicians, but awesome people.

I’m sad that I cannot go, but I would be remiss were I not to compel you to attend.
The show starts at 7:00.

We get to go to the beach again this weekend!
Two in a row!

Tonight, we head down to Dagsboro Delaware, which is about 20 minutes from Bethany Beach, to Michelle’s aunt and uncle’s place.

We can’t wait.
Have a great weekend.

So yesterday, I left work early so Michelle and I could take Nicole and Lauren to the airport. Their flight was scheduled to leave at 5:15 in the evening. So we left our house at 2:00. With no traffic, we are a little over an hour from the Philly airport. So we wanted to allow enough time for traffic and to get through security. Parking was a nightmare. They are doing all kinds of construction, and though the girls were flying Southwest out of terminal E, we had to park in Short Term at terminal B. I definitely walked too fast for the girls. I have longer legs, and I didn’t want the delay in finding a parking spot to be responsible for them missing their flight.

As you will see, I needn’t have worried.

The line for security was long, but we moved right through. Michelle and I were both able to accompany the girls to the gate as non-passengers. This was a pleasant surprise because when we picked them up two weeks ago, they said only one of us could go into the airport. So Michelle went, and I waited by the Baggage Claim.

As I said, we got through security quickly. We got to the gate a little after 4:00, only to discover their departure was delayed to 5:55. No worries, that just gave us more time to eat something. So we found four seats and hung out for a while, talking, laughing, reading. I intermittently listened to Rob Bell and Don Golden’s “New Exodus” series on my iPod. (Thanks Jer!)

You may have heard that Philadelphia got severe thunderstorms last night. So the 5:55 departure got pushed back to 7:30. We hung out some more. Talked more, read more, listened to “New Exodus” more.

7:30 came, still no boarding.

Soon after, they started lining everyone up.

Half the plane was boarded. We said our goodbyes, hugged each other multiple times, and the girls got in line. I heard a guy say, “Don’t look out there!” which of course makes everyone look. Rain was blowing sideways outside. It got stronger and stronger. What looked to be huge drops pelted the ground. We found out a few minutes later that it was actually hail. Of course, the guy who made everyone look, by telling us not to, snidely said, “I told you not to look.” By now, lightening was splitting the sky and thunder was rumbling near by.

We assured the girls (and ourselves) that they would be fine. So they boarded the rest of the passengers. We decided to hang out until the plane actually rolled away from the ramp before we headed home.

They made an announcement that because of the hail, they had to inspect the plane before it could take off. They made another announcement that no planes were leaving or landing due to the lightening.

Finally, at around 9:15, the plane pulled away from the ramp and headed toward the runway. So we made our way back to the car, paid $17 (ouch) for our long short-term parking, and got back onto I95. Suddenly Nicole called. There was a long delay on takeoffs, so it would be another 45 minutes until they took off. Michelle said, “Call us if anything comes up.”

At 10:30, the 45 minutes were up. So Michelle called Nicole. Now they were telling them it would be another hour until they could take off. Hopefully they were able to sleep on the plane.

We got home a little before 11:00. They would not be arriving in Phoenix until the wee hours of the morning.

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”

William Greenough Thayer Shedd

1820-1894

…for domestic abuse?

Michelle’s sisters brought their Wii with them to Pennsylvania. They leave tomorrow. We will be sad to see it–I mean them–go. 

I didn’t play a lot of video games growing up. I always tell people, in a slightly self-righteous air, that we read books and played outside. The truth is, we could never afford Atari or Nintendo or Sega. When I would go to a friend’s house who had video games, I would try once and be so embarrassed at how badly I stunk it up that I just offered to watch. Of course, the other kids didn’t mind “showing me how to do it,” which really meant hogging the game.

Anyway, back to the title of this entry. One of the Wii sports games is boxing. I worked up quite a sweat Sunday afternoon knocking my wife out. Here she is trying to block one of my combinations.

She got no mercy from me. In all fairness to her, she did knock me down twice. And though I knocked her down five times, she managed to get back on her feet four of the five. But I knocked her out. Yessir, I’m a big man.

Did I mention that Michelle’s little sister, Lauren, who’s 12, knocked me out in the second round last night? Yep, I got beat by a girl.

Here I am with my left jab keeping her away, trying to land a right hook, just before she landed the final blow that caused my virtual knees to buckle and me to crumble face-down on the mat.

On a seperate note, I hurt my shoulder playing Wii tennis.
I might need to see a physical therapist.

On the way down to the beach Saturday, Michelle put in Shane and Shane’s cd “Psalms.” I have not listened to it for a long time, and forgot how much I love it.

Psalms is by far my favorite Shane and Shane cd.