Happy Birthday, David!

David came home for the weekend so we could celebrate with him. We took him to Ton's and we took him to Beauty and the Beast and made cheesecake and Italian Cream Cake.

Rachel's Week

..ended better than it began. On Tuesday she had a job interview that she felt went well, but she hasn't heard anything yet. Wednesday through Friday she had full days of teaching these four kids whose parents were attending a conference. I was truely amazed at how well she organized all the activities, and how much the kids seemed to enjoy it.



14-year old Jeremy was a big help too.


Today she took them on a nature walk.

Then made puzzles from a group photo.


Then made empanadas.


Then after she dragged herself home she looked up on the internet and found out that she had passed the last Texas teacher test--yay! I had been saving this gift for her till she passed--a set of stamps about children's books and the books to go with the stamps.

Dr. Simons

All the academics at SIL are trying to get their professional websites updated. The webmistress was complaining that Gary's didn't have a photo, and Gary was complaining that all the photos we did have looked bad. So at lunch I told him to stop complaining and go put a shirt and tie on and we'd make our own "professional" photo. It isn't all that great, but it is the best out of the 20 we took. Ain't monopoly film great??

I'm thinking it might be time to shave the top of his head. What do you think?

A Thousand Pieces

Rachel's boyfriend broke up with her last night. No fight, just a quiet, "this isn't working and I don't think it ever will." He was kind enough to talk with me about it too, which I know wasn't easy for him, and which I appreciate.

I had suspected this might happen, so I wasn't exactly surprised. I'm not angry, but I am sad. I will continue to pray that God will bring the right woman to him at the right time--the same thing I've been praying for three and a half years.

Needless to say, Rachel's heart is broken. She had been convinced for some time that he was the one she would marry. Besides her emotions, she will have two other things to deal with. First, it will be hard for her to face the fact that she thought she heard God's voice in wanting to marry him, but apparently she didn't. Something like that could shake one's faith.

Second, in some ways the worst part of this for Rachel will be losing her best friend, because he was that as well as her boyfriend. But they have tried the "let's just be friends" route in the past without much success, so I have asked them not to do that again. I fear they will just find themselves back in the same situation if they spend time together as friends: attracted to each other, but he unwilling to marry her. I don't want her to go on that emotional roller coaster again, so I've asked him not to see her again unless he wants to marry her.

Even so, they will need to come to some kind of understanding about their lost relationship, and they will need God's grace and wisdom as they move on with their lives.

If I were allowed to arrange marriages, I would have arranged for him to marry Rachel. I always thought the two of them fit together pretty well (though not perfectly). And--no offense to either one of them--they are both somewhat odd ducks who seemed to be able to accept the other's eccentricies.

The only negative thing I have to say about his treatment of Rachel comes from the fact that, indeed, he never loved her: he was generous with her in all ways except with his time. It was sad to me to see him doling out his time to her in measured drops, when I felt she deserved to be flooded. I guess that is how he will one day know he has found the right girl--he will want to always be with her.

Let me end by saying that I appreciate the kind and gentle way he always treated Rachel, even if he never loved her.

I'm blocking public comments, but you can email me at thainamu at gmail.com if you have anything to say.

www.pinkunderwear.com

We're not quite sure why Gary got these for his birthday. We'll have to ask his mom. :-)

I spent some time this past weekend adding two new sets of photos to my website--one of Gary's recent trip to Bremen, Germany and the other of David's trip to Ethiopia last Christmas. Unfortunately, the space I am allotted for my website on Comcast is full, so every time I want to add new photos, I have to take off some of the older ones, which is a bummer. I also updated a few things on David's page. I need to update several other things.

Rachel has a 3-day job this week taking care of 4 kids whose parents are at the Center for a conference. She is busy, busy preparing lesson plans, craft projects, and a fun nature hike. The pay is pretty good, but it is taking her hours of preparation ahead of time, so that makes up for it. Tomorrow she will volunteer at the Center childcare too, then lead the lesson on James at her singles' group, so she has lots to do this week. We are still praying for her to find a real job.

How and What to Pray

I didn't go to church today, because I'm sick. Well, I am probably not so sick that I had to stay home, but I didn't think I should work my shift in the nursery, and I didn't want to listen to people say, "Oh, you sound so bad, you should be home in bed." I am feeling better than a couple days ago.

I've been wondering how to pray for the people I love. It seems like I'm not smart enough to know how to pray specifically. I mean, I could be tempted to pray for a certain specific thing or another, but what if that thing isn't what God wants? After all, I'm not omniscient, I don't really know what specific things God wants for a given person.

Instead, I'm looking at God's Word, and finding things from scripture, things I can pray for myself and for others that I know can't possibly be the wrong thing to ask for. I'm using the 1st person singular pronoun here, but it could also be 3rd person.

Lord,

• make me hunger and thirst for righteousness
• make me find joy in obeying the Law of the Lord
• make me meditate on your word day and night
• help me to draw near to you, oh God
• let the Spirit direct my life
• give me your Spirit to make me wise
• reveal yourself to me
• open my mind to see your light
• help me to know the hope you've called me to
• help me to know how great is the power working in me
• help me to live a life that measures up to God's standards
• give me power in the spirit to be strong in my inner self
• make your home in my heart
• make my roots and foundation go deep in your love
• make me come to know your love
• make me be filled with the very nature of God
• make my heart and mind new
• help me be like you
• control me with your love

...to be continued.

Sick

I've not been feeling all that great this week with a sore throat, achy muscles, and a stuffy head (I hate when I can't breathe through my nose). I wondered if it were allergies, which I've never had, but which people who live in Dallas seem to get overnight, even at an advanced age such as mine. But then I had a fever yesterday, so I guess it must be a cold or the flu. But wait, didn't I get a flu shot??

If I'm not feeling better by tomorrow, Gary will have to take my turn in the nursery, which he kind of enjoys doing, even though he never volunteers.

10 Commandments in Court

Remember all that fuss a while ago about having the 10 Commandments displayed in a courtroom? Well, if they want to get rid of them in Bremen, Germany, they will have to tear the whole building down. At the bottom of the wall there is a carving of Moses with the tablets.

Not too much going on here. I'm done making breakfasts. Gary is trying to catch up on his work from being gone a week.

Rachel has applied for two more positions. One is at a childcare in town that advertised an opening in the local paper. The other was a completely unexpected phone call from the elementary principal at a Christian school asking her to send in her resume. She has no idea how he got her name. That, IMHO, would be an ideal job for Rachel. Please continue to pray that something will open up.

In the mean time, she continues to pick up a few small childcare jobs and she has agreed to volunteer two days a week at the Center childcare until she finds a paying job. This gives her a chance to play with the babies, and gives her a reason to get up in the morning. She will work there Tues and Friday, 7:45am-12:45pm. She's also helping Andrew send out tickets that he resells, and is still helping the folks with organizing their book of poetry. And she is teaching children's church once a month and working in the church nursery once a month, and singing in an upcoming Easter production. So she has a few things to keep her busy, but not all of them generate income.

Speaking of income, we've been happy with the way Rachel has saved nearly every penny she has made at these odd jobs in order to save for a car. So we will try to give her some funds to add with what she has so she can buy a car soon. We really feel like she needs to be practicing her driving again, so we are hoping to find a car sooner rather than later. That is a prayer request too.

More Cake

Turns out Gary had an early birthday cake too, this one at Doro's house during the first part of the week he was in Germany. He really enjoyed his time with her too, and we hear a rumor that she is thinking about coming to visit us again, maybe next summer.

One more day of making breakfast for visitors. Not as many have been coming the last few days, so my job has not been hard. Rachel has been getting up to help me, so that has been nice too. Gary seems to think it is nice to have coffee and cooked breakfast waiting for him--I hope he doesn't think this will continue...

Rachel still looks for a job. She applied at another day care in Duncanville today. We sure wish she would get hired soon.

A little bit of good news for the Impact Children's Library in Ethiopia. Andrew's boss was willing to carry 50 pounds of these books with him as he goes there to visit, so I shipped two boxes to him today. Pray they get there by the weekend so he can have them on time for his flight.

An Extra Long Birthday on Two Continents

Gary's birthday started out with a bang--or at least a sparkle--with a cake served to him at one minute after midnight in Heilbronn, Germany. Our first German exchange daughter, Sandra, made Gary stay awake watching X-Files DVDs until midnight, when her mom woke up her dad, and Sandra produced a birthday cake with sparklers. They also gave him a nice leather toiletries bag for a gift.

Five hours later they drove him to Frankfurt where he got the flight home, and was on the curb waiting for me when I got there right on time this afternoon. (The flight arrived early, but I didn't know that because our stupid internet connection has been down all weekend due to rain.)

So when he got here we had another little party for him--cheesecake, books, and Starburst jelly beans for him, and the rest of the presents for us: German chocolate, German gummy bears, and a specialty call "Snowballs" that are some kind of pastry that is kind of hard to explain.

Privy to Certain Information

It is mostly kids the age of my kids who have blogs, and mostly the parents of those kids don't even know what blogs are. And mostly kids who have blogs know, or at least think they know, that their parents do not read their blogs.

For instance, there are a group of kids I know who all have blogs, and they just happen to be the offspring of adults I also know. So what happens is this: I hear the parents say things about their kids when the kids are not there, and I read about the lives of these same kids on their blogs. Sometimes I realize that I know more about a young person's life (at least a given situation in their life) than their parents do. Sometimes I realize that I know more about an adult's life than their child does.

This situation makes me feel a tad awkward from time to time.

Breakfast with the Missionaries

My job for the next 8 days is to have breakfast ready for 0-16 people who will walk in at 7:15am (the dining hall doesn't do breakfast). Coffee is the hardest part--since I don't drink it, I hardly know how to make it. The overheard conversation (I pretend to be busy in the kitchen) is the best part--today it ranged from worms growing in the dirt floor of one's village house, to federalism, to happy herbs pizza,

Answers to Prayers

Last Sunday our Sunday School class was very low in numbers due to the bad weather. The four of us who were there sat in a circle and shared "prayer and praise." A woman told how her teenaged daughter had recently turned away from a bad crowd she had started to get involved with and was showing real signs of seeking the Lord. That was a joy to hear in and of itself, but then it slowly dawned on me that several months ago I had felt a real burden to pray for this girl, which I did, for several days. Then I forgot all about her and the fact that I prayed for her, until her mom mentioned this change in her life.

What does that mean?

Downy Woodpecker

This isn't that great of a photo, but you get the idea. I've been enjoying all the feathered friends who come for lunch, including this small male Downy Woodpecker.

I talked to a young single friend today who asked me who I was refering to in my first Valentine's post. I laughed and said, "No, I'm not naming any names." "You don't have to, I know you were talking about me!" she laughed. One reason she was so forgiving is because she has recently started dating someone. Now she needs to bring him by so I can see if I approve!

A Woman's Place is in the Kitchen--Sink

I worked in the nursery at church today. I thought this photo was too cute to resist.


We had some bad weather this weekend, including more than a 50 degree drop in temperatures since last week. What was worse was the freezing rain, sleet, mist, drizzle, and ice pellets. Thankfully, God protected us as I drove Rachel to her teacher test very early yesterday morning, and then back to pick her up at 11am. (BTW, she thinks she did OK on the test, but it will be several weeks before she knows for sure.)

I would have stayed home from church today after hearing on the radio how many crashes there were on the roads, but that would have left too many responsibilities just hanging. So after getting Zach, Scott, and Wesley to scrape the ice off the car, off we went, and God took us safely.

After I finally got out of nursery, I was upset because I couldn't locate Wesley and Scott, who had spent the weekend with us. Turns out they had left with Wesley's parents and failed to tell find me and let me know they were doing so which made me somewhat frustrated and anxious.
Rachel's choir practice and my Bible study were canceled due to the bad weather, so I'm presently just chillin' (and I wish that weren't literally true--I really dislike the cold weather).

In other news, Gary called from Bremen, Germany. He went to church twice today--the regular service and the contemporary one. Doro found someone to do simultaneous translation for him during one of the sermons. He said that after church they had been to town to see the musicians.

Interesting Statistics

For more information, check the IFOBA website (which I think is still somewhat under construction). Sometimes it is nice to see various Christian groups working together.

Worldwide Bible Translation Statistics

• World Population--—6.5 billion
• Languages spoken in the world--—6,912
• Languages with some or all of the Bible--2,403 (26 first published in 2005)
• Translation programs in progress in languages without adequate Scripture--1,640
• Languages The Jesus Film has been translated into--—919
• Languages needing Bible translation work to begin--2,529 (representing approximately 272 million people)

Living Roses

I think this year was her first Valentine's Day that Rachel enjoyed the holiday rather than dreading it. More details on her blog if you are interested.

Gary and I took a day off work for our Valentine's Day. Well, not really. Really it was to take Gary to the Low Vision Clinic to get his once-every-five-years eye check up and get the magic letter that lets him renew his driver's license. The eye appointment went well, and they said his macular degeneration had not gotten any worse, though he is now show some signs of far sightedness due to age. Then off the DMV for a two hour wait and a young lady who had no clue how to deal with the magic paper. Eventually, Gary was able to talk them into renewing his license. Yay, done with that for the next five years.

Gary leaves for Germany on Friday. Today each of our German daughters emailed a shopping list to him. So tomorrow it is off to Bath and Body Works and the Cowboy hat store to do some shopping.

Rachel still hasn't heard any news about any jobs, but she continues to earn a little money by helping an elderly couple in our neighborhood to prepare a homemade book of their daughter's poetry for printing. Her big brother also has her doing some legwork for him as he buys and resells tickets in his spare time. Pray for Rachel--she takes her last Texas Teacher exam on Saturday.

And speaking of brothers, David emailed me today saying he might finally get paid for some engineering work he did back in 2003 in developing electronic chaos system. Scroll to the bottom of the PASCO catalog page and you'll actually see his name in the credits. Yay for delayed gratification.

Singleness - part 2 - Men

Now about single men. Remember, I'm talking about Christian single men.

1. Later - As with women, many young men today see the value in getting an education before getting married (often including a graduate degree). But then many go from there to get a job, buy a car, buy a house, get a better job, buy a better car, buy a better house. I wonder if it has ever occurred to them that maybe a woman would be interested in them not just their stuff?

2. The age aspect - If a man is still single at age 30, he shouldn't expect a woman of age 20 be attracted to him. If he felt the need to wait to get married until he was older, then he should expect to marry someone near his own age, not some beautiful young thing just out of high school.

3. The physical aspect - unless he is in perfect physical shape himself, he shouldn't expect all the available women to be tall, blonde and skinny. If women wait to marry as do men, they are already past their prime in physical beauty.

4. More on the physical aspect - Yeah, it is easy to become overweight in this sedentary society, but if a guy is considerably overweight, he should quit thinking about it and do something about it. That may mean getting some help with a weight loss program or a personal trainer, or an accountability partner. Losing weight will make him more attractive, and at his age, he might need a little help.

5. The social aspect - women can live with a less-than-perfect physical specimen, but she can't live with someone with no social skills. So single men need to learn to talk. At least a little.

6. Some men think they can serve the Lord better as a single. Yeah, maybe so, Paul may have thought so. But don't ask anyone in the OT. It seems to me if we read the entire Bible, there is considerably more evidence that God is in favor of people getting married than people staying single. It is not good for man to be alone. Or women either. It is well known that men think about sex "all the time." Is it possible that God gave men sexual urges SO THAT THEY WOULD GET MARRIED?

7. Time to grow up. Maybe living with one's parents is convenient and easy and cheap. But maybe the convenience of mom being there is an impediment to growing up and getting one with one's own life.

8. Young single men need to quit criticizing young women because they have "feelings" or because they want to get married. Yeah, they do. And they also want to have babies. I dare say that most women in their mid twenties or older are quite possibly going to have these feelings. Nesting is natural for women.

Whoops, looks like my list for men is longer than for women. Maybe so. Maybe that is because I see more men putting off marriage than women, and with Christians, if not with our society in general, it is up to the men to make the decision to marry. A woman can say no if she want to, but she can't initiate marriage regardless how she feels.

9. Fear of divorce - I just thought of one more item to add to my list, but it goes for women and men. Some Christian young people are afraid to marry because they have seen too many marriages fail, including those of their peers who married when they were young. I can't deny the statistics but I also don't accept this as a reason not to marry. It is a reason to let scripture, not Hollywood, form one's attitude about marriage.

As with yesterday's post, I'm not taking public comments. But if you want to say anything to me about this post, you can email me at thainamu at gmail.com

Singleness - part 1- Women

In honor of Valentine's Day, I'm going to post some thoughts I've been having about singles. I have two kids who are in the singles category so I observe them and I also observe their peers. Have you noticed, like I have, that blogs are a medium favored by a number of singles to talk about their singleness? As a single friend once told me, "The internet is an open place" and that's where many of my ideas come from for this post.

My comments here about single women, and those of tomorrow about single men, don't actually cover all singles. I'm focusing only on singles who are Christians; indeed, the Christian singles' scene should look pretty different from the secular singles' scene. Also, I'm not talking about sixteen year olds in this post. In general, I'm talking singles who are post-college.

A number of young people these days think there is value in waiting to get married until they are older. That in and of itself, doesn't sound so bad. But it does bring some problems. So if they're going to wait, they need to be ready to accept what that really means.

1. The biological aspect - For women, it means they are starting to get old. Yes, I know, mid to late twenties doesn't sound all that old, but if they wait to marry, then want to wait a couple years before having kids, their bodies are already past the prime for bearing children. Besides that, do they know how much energy it takes to raise children? and to raise teenagers? These women will be old and tired long before their children are grown.

2. The attractiveness aspect - It seems to me that women reach their peak of physical attractiveness by their early twenties, and slowly go downhill from there. So if physical beauty has anything to do with the relationships they want to have, they need to realize that at 27 they aren't going to look as good as they did at 21, and deal with that. They also need to realize that it is very easy to gain weight and very hard to take it off, especially in our sedentary society.

3. The biological clock aspect - Women, especially intelligent women, are encouraged to get an education, get a job, and put off marriage and/or motherhood until later. Sounds like good advice. But how many intelligent, educated, and working women do I hear whining that they now want to get married and have babies? Why is that? That is because it is a STRONG fact of life that women want to be married and have children. Women have a STRONG instinct to nurture.

4. Expectations - OK, so what do these single women in their mid to late twenties (or even older) want? They've gotten educated, they've gotten themselves a good job. They've proven they are capable and independent. They have put so much energy and time and money into that, they want a man who is as perfect as they are. I know one woman who is whining about wanting to get married, but everytime anyone says, "well, what about so-and-so?" she always says things like "he's too fat/skinny, he's too intelligent/dumb, he's too short/tall, he's too busy/lazy, he's too quiet/talkative." OK, friend, be picky if you must, but realize you may never find a perfect guy.

It is entirely possible that no one except Ma Hoyt even reads this blog, but just in case any of my single friends recognize themselves in today's or tomorrow's posts, please know that I'm not picking on you specifically, rather, I'm trying to synthesize things I've been observing in various places for a while now. I'm also going to save myself a potential problem by disallowing public comments. However, if anyone has anything to say to me about this post, he or she can email me at thainamu at gmail.com.

From a Different Seat

Today we sat in a different pew than we usually do for church, right behind the teens. We attend a medium-sized church with a large number of teens. They have the habit of all sitting together in the front four pews. They are such an assortment:

1. The awkward ones--Though longing for acceptance, they haven't a clue how to act.
   
2. The abandoned ones--From broken or blended families, they seem too old to be teenagers.
3. The naive ones--Wide-eyed and unaware, they seem too young to be teenagers.
4. The sullen ones--Forced by parents to be in church, they pout. In some cases, they actually are happy to be there, but wouldn't want anyone to know that.
5. The confident ones--Though young, many are quite mature in their faith. These are the fortunate ones who have gotten this far in life without hating church or their parents.
   

The youth pastor made an understated plea for parents and teens to TALK and HUG. And if I may turn my blog into a soapbox for the moment--I not only agree with the youth pastor, I would say it much stronger. Parents, don't let your kids hide in their shyness or their introverted desire to too often isolate themselves. Talk to them and MAKE them talk to you. Yes, you can do that. Don't give in to their demands for you to leave them alone--they don't need to be left alone, they need to learn how to relate to people. They need your active expressions of love--emotional and intellectual, for sure, but also your physical expressions of love. And don't believe the lie that you can show your love in any better way than spending time with them.