A Variety of Topics

Yesterday marked Beverly's and my 32nd anniversary.  We are actually celebrating tonight.  It has been an incredible journey -- the process of two very different people becoming one.  We have gone through valleys and mountaintops.  We have so many rich memories to look back on.  But I don't want to dwell there.  I look forward to our future together.  Hopefully we are less than half way through our journey.

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Today is a round-the-clock day of prayer at our church for students, teachers and the next school year.  Jacob and Heather do such a good job of putting this together, and Tanya Hamilton worked hard setting up and decorating the room.   What a blessing they are!

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So the Chinese gymnastics team is in danger of losing some medals because they may have forged some birth certificates.  Earlier in the Olympics they did a story about how children are removed from their families and forced into training as gymnasts.  Even when they beg to come home, their families won't allow them to.  Apparently the government pays the families for the "use" of their kids.  Sad, so sad. 

We take SO much for granted in the U.S.  Yes, we have our problems.  But I have about had my fill of U.S. bashing -- and also, of church bashing (I am not intending to connect the two here.  The kingdom of Jesus is not of this world.  These are two separate things.)  It is so easy to find the faults in a system.  I would rather work within that system -- encouraging what is good and tweaking what might be done better.  The danger in only finding fault is that the faults become exaggerated disproportionately so that the good becomes blocked out.