For the past month, our lives have been somewhat different. As mentioned below, my Maria's sister got married on October 17th, and therefore the whole family has been here for several weeks. Some of them have been here since September.

I love having them around. I work a lot from home, and it gets pretty lonely here when there's no one around. Having my mom and grandmother here has been a great blessing. I have also been eating very well too--Colombia's culture eats a big lunch. Every day...a nice lunch...wonderful company.

It's had it's hard points too. Company is nice, but it tends to slow your work down. I say, "So what?". I may not finish my work but it was worth it if we could be together and encourage each other.

Having all that said, the house is now empty. I am alone, and it is very quiet. Most might see that as a relief, but I do not.

OK, that's a little morose. Here's a little something a bit more upbeat. I mentioned in a blog below that I was going on a trip. Carlos, Flor, and I decided to travel up north to visit some of the churches that have helped support work in Colombia. This included my parent's home in Wheelersburg, OH.

We drove up all Wednesday night to get there around 4 on Thursday (see previous blog). My two sets of parents had a blast! My bro came down to see me/us a few hours. We also had a blast--as is seen from the photo.

On Friday we visited Fred and Fran Pollock in Cincinnati. They are two angels without wings. On Saturday we visited with the church at Mill Road, and traveled to Bowling Green. My grandparents live there so we visited with them. I saw my cousing there and she is huge! One of those things that makes you feel old. On a aside note, I got to drive my aunts Honda Insight (hybrid car), and I like it a lot.

On Sunday morning we got up to visit the church in Columbia, TN...Collegevue that is. There, Carlos and I gave a report, but also an explanation of how the truth went to Colombia. It was great. Sunday evening, the same thing in Florence, AL...also College View.

Sunday eveing we went back to Tampa--got here around 9:30 AM. What a great trip...lot's of fun with my laws. If you're still reading these ramblings I impressed..but hey, it is MY blog, right? I can write what I want!

So I left Tampa with Maria's father and mother to visit some churches inthe north. The first stop? My parents house in Ohio.

So we decided to travel through the night to take advantge of the time. I had the car checked out and a bunch of work done so we'd have no problems. Well...at 3:00AM somewhere on the Macon, GA bypass our tire decided to explode.

I pulled the car to the right, and we stopped next to a rest area. We assessed the damage...must have hit something sharp because the tire is gone. This, however, presented a problem. We can't really go far with just the spare on. Those tires aren't made for high speeds. On top of that, it was 3:00 AM. There was nothing open to buy tires. We had no choice but to keep going slowly until 8 AM when something might be open. Before we set out, I went up to the restroom.

Well, after using the restroom, I left to wash my hands, and I thought I was seeing things. About 6 guys from Tampa (from the North Livingston church) were there too! What are the odds?

So we left. 5 hours on this tire --stopping every once in a while to check the tire, and going 50 mph-- we came to Knoxville. We stopped in a likely looking place to find tires and got the run around for 30 minutes. At the end, guess where this guy (with a lot of rings and weird hair) said we should go?

Walmart!

If you have ever strayed from the narrow path of Walmart, go back. Walmart is a great place--not perfect--but a great place. Walmart sold me tires at a good price and changed them pretty quickly.

We finally made it home...roughly 3 hours later than we wanted to, but not too bad considering the circumstances.

Always an adventure with the in-laws!

Here's a little thought that cam up while I was translating my father-in-law's preaching report.

For those who might not be aware, all preachers I know that receive support from other congregations are required to write monthly/quarterly reports on their activities. While translating my father-in-laws report, I realized that that is a very personal thing. Some of them want to know specific things about your income including amount, sources, use. All of them want to know how you make use of it. So, it's kind of like you justifying your worthiness of support. That's a weird thought.

Try to do it. Sit down a write a report to God about how you are using the support He provides you. The relationship is the same. God gives us financial support and he wants to see fruits. Write down all you earn, all the sources, and how you use it to benefit His purposes.

Two thoughts come to mind:
1) I am not using my God-provided income completely justly. I am highly overcompensated. This pushes me to do more and more.
2) Maybe I do many things that do do work for God, but I do not see them that way. I believe that calling brethren, talking to people, having people into your home, being an example to unbelievers, raising godly children, etc. all are ways we work for God.

In both cases we need to expand our minds. We need to become more open minded about doing more--finding more ways to serve is not an easy thing to do. You have to go looking. We also need to see the connection between the everyday things we do in our lives and the spiritual effects the have.

So, write your report. Don't show anyone...that's not the idea. Take a long honest look at yourself, and ask, "I am a worthy steward?"

My dearest apologies to my fellow pleonasties. Time has not allowed me to post in several weeks. I thought perhaps I'd write why as a blog for those who are interested by such things. Even if no one is interested, I can read it later on and laugh that I thought I was busy was back then...

I am a graduate student in mechanical engineering, completely done with coursework but in desperate need of completing my thesis. On the Friday before October 6th, I went to the graduate office with some questions about just what was required for the Oct.6th format check. Most of the time they want your title pages and some other easy-to-fake pages. They told me they wanted a full draft. I had only written an abstract AND I have no results. So the pressure was on. Final thesis deadlines are the 14th of Nov. so I have a bunch of work to do in little time. Before the final submission I have to defend my thesis orally in front of my professors--it has to be good.

On top of that I am hired through another professor to work on an engineering programming project for the Department of Transportation. This consumes 20 hours of my time a week. I am also a TA for a class in the Civil Department (incidentally, that's where I am right now). That's another 5 hours. I am currently the Spanish teacher at Florida College Academy--a fun job, but still eats about 7 yo 8 hours of my time a week. These are my funded projects. My thesis is not funded, yet must be completed soon.

That may or may not seem like a lot to you, but to me it is a lot to think about. I am now handling it better although last week I was not.

In addition, Aura (my sister-in-law) is getting married the 17th and her mom and grandmother have been staying with us since the 29th of September (mysteriously the date of my last post). Last Thursday they are joined by her father and brother. Don't get me wrong--I LOVE them very much and would not have them being anywhere else, but it does make things a little crazier.

I hope this is an adequate explanation of my pleonast abscence. This is NO pitty party--not wanted, I'll delete it if you write it. (probably in a couple of weeks when I actually read it)

Do keep us in your prayers. There are a lot of important things going on which need the prayers of the brethren. Hasta pronto.

A couple of posts back I mentioned something about an elf (Luthien) marrying a man (Beren) and part of their decendants were Aragorn and Arwen. The story of Luthien and Beren is a beautiful one. Tolkien wrote a whole epic poem about it--must like Homer's Illiad--entirely in the elvish language (I think). If you're interested read on. If not, go somewhere else.

The story goes back to when Morgoth (again, read below for details) was terrorizing the earth. He attacked a settlement of men who had aided elves in a recent attack. All were killed except for one man who fled through a very dangerous path. His name was Beren. He fled into the woods of Doriath. These woods were magically protected by the elves that lived there. Melian the Maia, married to the elf king Thingol, protected it from evil with her powers. In this time, men and elves rarely came anywhere near each other. Men where jealous of the elves immortality and it caused many conflicts between them.

Well, Beren came to the forest and saw Thingol's daughter Luthien singing in the forest. She was the most beautiful creature in all the Earth. He called her Undomiel which means Nightengale. At first she ran, but eventually they fell in love.

Well, daddy dearest was not at all happy about this, and so as a dowry, he asked for the unthinkable: a simiril from the crown of Morgoth. Now if you just said, "WHAT?!?!", you need to read the SIMIRILLION. Feanor--a very powerful and talented elf--made three stones called the simirils. They were very beatiful and many wars were fought over them. Morgoth stole them, and the family of Feanor swore an oath to get them back at all cost. Morgoth, however, was a Valar. A supremely mighty spirit. So the dowry? One simiril.

Thus beren goes on a quest to regain the lost stone. The Valar send a Maiar spirit (Huan, the hound) to accompany him in his journey. He eventually gets trapped in the dungeons of Sauron. Here, Luthien leaves and comes to save him. Then, they both travel to regain the simiril from Morgoth. She sings a song that puts Morgoth to sleep, and they cut the stone from his crown.

Of course I'm leaving out a lot of details--again, read the book! Well, they flee and Morgoth sends his most nasty hound after them to regain the stone. The beast is evetually killed, but not before biting Beren's hand off--the one clutching the simiril. Beren dies from this poison and his spirit goes to Mandos (kind of like Hades). Luthien then dies as well (voluntarily I think) to go to plead with Mandos to revive her love). He grants her wish, but she too will become mortal. So she makes this choice and they live for a time together. It is not certain how the tale ends.

Kind of nice though--I tell it poorly. Hope that it inspires some of you to read an excellent book. The LOTR is such a small piece of the whole story that Tolkein put together his whole life.