I am glad that more than me realize that. I think sometimes like what i said in the post that we can overlook it alittle too easily and if we overlook greeting people what else are we not taking into consideration:) But anyways i am glad that we saw you i know amber was happy to see you and Jason since she knows you too:) We will definitely be back to visit again i can't tell you when tho we still are up in the air on where we are going sunday...but hope everything is going well for you and i am sure i will talk to you again soon.
Not off of it, just down it, as I managed to hold on as I fell, kind of sliding/scraping myself against it along the way.
No worries -- I survived.
Nothing even bled.
I was then lectured by the Stage Manager on proper ladder use. I agreed to be more careful, but when I tried to explain that there is no way to climb up a ladder safely with a bird in one hand, he insisted that there is a way, and that he would happily meet with me the next chance we have to figure out one for me.
I'm very curious to see what he comes up with.
Injury Tally for this Week:
Wounds from own clumsiness: 8 --Concrete Burn on Shin(s): 1
--Hand-Pinch from Gate: 1
--Skin removed from foot by contact with cement ledge: 1
--Bruises from falling down ladder: 2
--Minor ladder burn on arm: 1
--Scratches from Emu bite: 2 (my own fault; fed him a grape the wrong way)
Wounds caused by animals: 2 --Scratches from Emu bite: 2 (technically my own fault)
Thanks again for showing me your wedding dress :).
By the way, I love the Critters Castaway show. I go see it just about every time I'm at Busch Gardens.
Today I found myself wondering if it's possible to die from multiplicity of scratches. Just surface-level ones, I mean, not deep cuts or gaping wounds or anything, just shallow scratches over a large surface area of the body.
My work scars are spreading, but strangely enough, they are not animal-related. Other than an emu bite which mildly scratched up two of my fingers, my most recent injuries are entirely due to my own clumsiness. I fell down a few days ago and scraped my whole left shin up against a piece of concrete, and then today I pinched my hand on a gate.
This proves that I am, in fact, my own most imminent danger.
On a lighter note, it has been pointed out to me that none of the animals I work with are capable of fatally injuring me, unless through a series of incredibly rare and bizarre circumstances which would never really happen. So, now I can proceed to tussle with emus and tumble with storks with no fear for my own life.
That is, of course, unless I find myself being chased by a stork down a hallway and forget all about the realistic lack of danger, trip over my own feet, and end up seriously injuring myself.
There really is a point to all of this, and it is this:
I find it interesting that I fear things which really provide no actual danger. Sometimes I'm nervous around a bird that may bite me, and then I realize -- even if it did, what's so horrible about that? A 5-pound bird couldn't possibly do any serious damage, and it's small enough that I could really just pick it up and put it in a cage if it ever tried to chase me. So what am I afraid of? Is it fear of pain? Or of feeling like I'm not in control of the situation?
And then there are roaches... I can't stand roaches and in spite of my best efforts to remain calm, if one crawls across me, I freak out. But there's no logical reason for that. They don't sting, they seldom bite, and they aren't poisonous. They're just gross, and last time I checked, it's not possible to be grossed to death.
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Speaking of roaches, Jason's little sister accidentally ate one yesterday. It was in her bowl of corned beef hash -- turns out there were two roaches packaged inside the can! This is especially hilarious (and disturbing) considering that she is a germophobe who compulsively washes each pot and dish before using it just to be sure there isn't any dust on it.
I got a papercut from a gift card last night. And my shift supervisor smashed her finger and bled all over the place. That's about it for our job-site injuries.
hey out of curiousity what time does N. terrace start on sundays? AMber and i were thinking of visiting their sunday morning... hope to hear from you soon:)
Yesterday, an old friend of mine called and asked me a favor. She's recently moved away, and her ex-boyfriend was struggling spiritually and needing someone to talk to. I called him yesterday afternoon, and left him a message inviting him to come to church with us on Sunday.
Sunday afternoon, he called back. I'd never met him, or even spoken to him, but he explained that my friend had told him about her beliefs, and that he wanted to come with us to evening worship services, and to have a Bible study with us afterward.
He came to services, and afterward, we studied with him for about 2 hours.
He believed he had been saved through a direct experience with the Holy Spirit. Jason and I talked and studied with him, and after much discussion, and much deliberation on his part, he came to a conclusion: "I need to be baptized," he said. "I want to do it right now."
He wanted to be baptized in his parents' pool, so we got in the car and followed him toward his house -- but then he pulled over, and explained to us that he had called his mother, and she had refused. She didn't want anyone coming over.
We had stopped in a hotel parking lot, so Jason ran inside and somehow convinced the girl at the desk to let us use the hotel pool.
We went out to the pool, got down into the water -- all of us still in full clothes.
A lady was sitting by the pool, reading. "Are you guys crazy?" she said. "I've never seen anyone swim in full clothes before!"
We smiled. "Yep, we're crazy," Jason joked.
But the lady watched carefully as Jason baptized our new friend -- Chad -- and as soon as he came up out of the water, she exclaimed, "Praise God. That is the best decision you could ever make."
And then she started crying. She asked if we had time to pray with her, so we went over to her -- Chad with us -- and sat down. She cried as she explained that she had grown up "in the church" but had fallen away, that her son was sick, she felt her life was falling apart, and she felt lost and confused and afraid that God was no longer listening to her prayers.
We talked with her for several minutes, Chad watching anxiously, and then we prayed with her, leaving her with a list of some scriptures -- she said she wanted to study the Bible again but didn't know where to start -- our phone number, and the directions to North Terrace. She thanked us, sure that fate had brought us to her. "Maybe," we said. "Maybe God arranged for us all to be here tonight so that you could start on the path to finding the answers you need."
Chad spent the rest of the evening with us, eagerly coming over to our house to meet my parents and a couple of our Christian friends. He is planning to come to services again on Wednesday.
The lady from the pool, Pam, said she might come to see us at services this week, too.
In one night, through a chain of unexpected events, two souls have been reached... and Jason and I feel a mix of excitement, gratitude, awe and responsibility as we contemplate how serious our commitment must remain to these two souls who are so open to learning and growing in the truth.
We would appreciate your prayers, of course... both in thanksgiving and in petitions for strength for Chad and Pam, and wisdom for Jason and me as we do our very best to relate God's word to them clearly, completely, and with love.
Praise God! It's amazing how many lives God touches through His servants. It's awesome that Chad, just by obeying God and dedicating his life to Him, has already been the example someone needed in their life.
Praise God! That's wonderful! At first I was thinking this was something that happened in some distant part of the country, like TX perhaps, but when you said North Terrace I finally realized who you were. Definitely wakes you up more when it's closer to you. This is Catherine Bishop, by the way.
Hi! I am her mom and she had a link to your blog on hers. This is a wonderful story of how God does work in our lives today. I fully believe that all was arranged according to His plan, including the choice of you and Jason to teach and encourage these two souls. God knows what He is doing; trust in Him and do His will and I'm sure all will work out for the best! Praise God!
The other day, I was working near the cage of a yellow-naped parrot. Seeing me standing there (but ignoring her), she tried to get my attention.
"Well, hi!" she said.
I ignored her.
She tried again. "Hello! Whatcha doin, huuuhh?"
Again, I ignored her, on purpose this time.
Her shrill voice strengthened. "Hello!" she called.
I turned toward her, her little green-feathered head twisting so one of her eyes could focus on me, the small black pupil dilating and contracting as she examined me. "Hi," she said again. "What's your name?"
I humored her. "Crystal," I said. "What's your name?"
She puffed up her feathers triumphantly. "Lo-liiii-taaa!" She sang. She had my attention now, and she knew it.
I gave her a small treat for responding correctly to my question, and she continued. "How are you?" she asked.
"Fine," I said, leading her on. "How are you?"
"I'm a pretty bird," she said.
It was familiar, this conversational dance, repeated several times a day between bird and trainer. I smiled at her. "Good bird," I said. "Want some water?"
"Water," she repeated, pumping her head up and down in an enthusiastic nod. "Yep, yep, water. Yep."
She danced excitedly as I filled her bowl with water, but then looked at me, as if expecting something. "Water," she said again. "Water. Water."
I reached for the spray bottle, squirting a gentle stream of water into her cage. Her feathers ruffled in excitement. "Water," she said, scrambling up the bars to hang bat-like from the top of the cage, swaying happily in the misty liquid. "Water."
I cannot help but marvel at the intelligence of this tiny animal, who so quickly and cleverly responds to my verbal cues, to the sight of the water bottle, to my every movement, rapidly associating word with action and action with reward.
I cannot help but remember God's statement to Adam and Eve:
"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Gen. 1:28).
So often, I think of "ruling" over the animals as simply having them for use as food, as pets for simple companionship, or as working animals -- like horses pulling a cart. But the more I spend time actually working with animals, the more I realize that there really is so much more potential within the animal kingdom.
I know that the birds I work with are functioning on simple instinct. I train animals for a living now, and I realize that a parrot can carry on an entire conversation without ever understanding anything of its meaning. It responds to cues, remembering patterns of behavior, attempting to repeat a behavior that will earn it some reward.
And yet, there is something more there; something that astonishes me every time I hear the parrot call to me -- "Whatcha doin?" -- though it happens every day. It's a sense of awe, not at the bird itself, but at the one who created it; at the one who in His wisdom created animals that so perfectly replicate human speech, an ability that seems truly unnecessary to the bird's survival, yet provides one more small reminder of the fact that God has created this world with such unimaginable wisdom that even the smallest creatures can provide the human race entertaining companionship,and more importantly, a poignant reminder of the God who created them.
Every time I work with a new animal, I find something new to be amazed by, and this is why I do what I do.
