Lady Red Hawk Day

Look what Electra did today!! I'm the one in the back of the jet. We got to taxi on the runway and make a half-takeoff (not actually leave the ground) then saw behind the scenes in the control towers and even got in the simulators, where I got landed on the carrier! The simulated catapult wasn't so hot; I flipped my jet into the blue yonder right off the edge of the boat!My big red wings callsign: "Belle." Boards was one of the volunteer van drivers, a great tour guide if you ever need one. He's very patient with giggly girls in baggy, hiked-up rolled flight suits!

Thanksgiving

From the summer family reunion to the Thanksgiving feast at the Herrings this year, we have much to be thankful for!
We ate dinner with about 30 family members and then a few friends from our neighbourhood. Afterwards, some of the guys started a game of toss the football in the car-lined street, where our various minivans and suburbans and SUVs didn't seem to mind the occasional missed ball. The girls joined in after touring an ancient graveyard across the street. By sunset, we were ready for Round Two of pie before everyone departed for more gatherings at each of the grandparents' houses. Eric and I joined the Hoeses who live across the bay from Rockport, tucked away in a dense semi-tropical jungle. Neither of us wanted the fun to end, but sleep has a way of stealing away our best intentions.

one fine day

The last flight is scheduled. It's a bittersweet moment, for all the memories of toil and struggle, a precious few airtime epiphanies, and then the fellows who went down to be cast out only highten one's awareness of impending failure--for no one's "too good" to be un-selected. For Kermit, the end is in sight; the beginning of a new day of more training. In between, we will be glad to waste some rubber on the road and cruise at the hum-drum speed of 75 to meet Christmas in the southern mountains.

A star was born

Two and something decades ago, a baby called Rahab was born. Today we celebrate from afar. Happy Birthday! I hope USPS hand-delivery guy can find your doorstep.

Lovely Sunday Afternoon

Here it is November 2nd, and the the weather down here has finally gotten cool enough to ENJOY the outdoors. Last Sunday we had the opportunity to spend the day on the bay with our friends. Thanks Steve and Michelle for the link to the pictures!

What a day

This week brings many happy and some unwelcome changes to the neighbourhood. One of my friends is leaving, leaving me with her students, and their loss of an inspiring young teacher. So, we'll have to do something to throw her a mini classroom party. Then there's the winging this weekend of the Duncans and Dowds, among others, which signals the imminent departure of those families. But the winging is considered a great celebration of accomplishment and no small mercy: the triumph of God's work in our patched up heads and bandaged hands. Finally, the Marine Corps Ball. Dinner and dancing and dressing up like queens and kings from ever so many kingdoms.

Fall came to K-ville....

and lasted for about two days... Well, it is cooler which is a very welcome relief. To celebrate, we and our friends held a Fall Festival last Friday eve. It was a glorious affair. We carved pumpkins, ate pumpkin pie, enjoyed good conversation, and held frog races. Yes, frog races.

We were introduced to this fine tradition by our friends from the upper penninsula of Michigan. Known as "Da Yupers" by those close to them, they have certainly added a whole new dimension to the celebration of changing seasons.

The Frog race goes as follows: A circle is made with a rope, or line, that is ten feet in diameter. The frogs are then let go in the middle and the first one out of the circle is the winner. Mine won! In fact, I think he set some sort of frog record; 5.7 seconds from the center of the circle to the outside.

New

If you peruse the right hand side of the page you will find a new link to Reformation 21, a website that contains all kinds of good stuff for the discerning Christian. Speaking of the Reformation; what are YOU doing for Reformation Day?

Conservative Gayness and Liberal Living

Whenever I have the opportunity to get to know a new friend and our conversation turns to what I do, the new friend automatically assumes that I am extremely conservative and am Republican to the core. Even among many Evangelical Christians it is widely believed that you cannot be a Christian and a Democrat, or even worse, a liberal. Accordingly, the media and our culture at large feels that the Christian right is a demographic to be feared and an enemy to homosexuals, prostitutes, hard charging businessmen, as well as any form of art or pleasure. While this may characterize some of the Church, it does not encompass it all, and I would argue that we as Christians are the most prepared to live fully, gaily(in the old English sense), and liberally.

What does God require of us as Christians? Well, the prophet Micah sums it up very well: "he has told you O man what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (6:8). Justice and kindness are done by living fully under the Word of God. Instead of being a chain to bind His people down, God's Word is freeing, allowing His children to live liberally and to enjoy His creation. As Peter learned: "What God has made clean, do not call common" (Acts 10:15). God's creation is good; He called it good Himself. It is man, fallen and depraved, who has taken what God had created and used it for evil. But even this is not outside of God's will, and even now, creation is anticipating the redemption of God's garden.

And so, where does that leave us? Liberalism without wisdom and prudence is like "a city broken into and and left without walls" (Prov. 25:28). Likewise, Conservativism without wisdom and discretion is doomed to die a slow, grumpy death. We Christians are called to live a full, liberal life under the freeing realm of God's word. We are to care for the fatherless and the widow as well as love the unloveable and care for the needy. Yet at the same time we are to govern with wisdom, subdue the earth, and be fruitful and multiply. In other words, we are to wisely and humbly tend the garden in which we temporarily dwell.

We went to the big city over Columbus day, and found the Botanical gardens to be a pleasant morning's stroll. the night before we stayed at the Bonner House Inn, which is in a beautiful old neighbourhood within walking distance of some "upscale" Mexican food. One of these days, we'll make a veranda of our own to mirror this one.

Kermit flies the desert

While he's gone, allergy season sets in and gives every other person the heavy eye, the nasal voice, the alligator cough. The time has come for a few friends to take their leave, passing on to happier flying grounds. Those left behind are rather forlorn.

Take a drive

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