Farewell to Zach

One of my favorite Indiana boys has finished his schooling here and will be on his way to Nigeria as soon as he can raise the funds he needs. He plans to spend three years surveying languages in Nigeria, determining where Bible translation projects are needed.

After cheesecake and Zach's speech, they played spoons. If you want to see this game in action, click here.

2 Out of 3 Ain't Bad

Praise the Lord with us! Today Rachel signed a contract for a job and got a car!

She will be teaching 2nd grade at Christway Academy, a Christian school only a few miles from our house. Her job doesn't really start until August, but she is already making plans for bulletin boards, telling me she "needs" to go shopping to buy classroom supplies, and wondering out loud about all the things teachers have to deal with. And in spite of currently being certified as a teacher in both Oklahoma and Texas, she now has to secure yet another certification, this one for Christian schools.

The car is an older model Subaru, and for being as old as it is, it only has 80,000 miles. We haven't actually bought it yet; we're test driving it over the weekend and will decide by Monday. But Rachel drove it home and seems to like it pretty well.

Thank God with us for his blessings to Rachel.

I'm Dyeing

As a good missionary, I cannot in good conscience, throw a perfectly good pair of Gary's pants away, just because he doesn't like the color. So I'm trying my hand at changing them from almost white to dark brown. I'll just hang them up in his closet and when he gets home from down under, he won't even notice that they aren't white anymore.

On My Knees

Last Thursday at my Bible study we sang this song, and we sang it again yesterday at church. It is a simple, quiet song, but has a powerful message. I was especially caught by the words of verse 3--sometimes we do find ourselves in a sadness that is not of our own choice, and there really is nothing to do about it except turn to our Lord.

When I don't know what I need
I need to get on my knees
When waves of doubt crash over me
I need to get on my knees

On my knees I find refuge
On my knees I find grace
On my knees I can feel You
Like we're meeting face to face
When I don't know what I need
I need to get on my knees

When I don't have strength to stand
I need to reach for Your hand
When life feels like sinking sand
I need to reach for Your hand

In Your hand I find refuge
In Your hand I find grace
In Your hand I can feel You
Like we're meeting face to face
When I don't have strength to stand
I need to reach for Your hand

When life leaves me with no choice
I must listen for Your voice
When lies confuse me with their noise
I must listen for Your voice

In Your voice I find refuge
In Your voice I find grace
In Your voice I can feel You
Like we're meeting face to face
When life leaves me with no choice
I will listen for Your voice

On my knees I find refuge
On my knees I find grace
On my knees I can feel You
Like we're meeting face to face
When I don't know what I need
I need to get on my knees

And just to prove how much I like this song, and spurred on by my efforts of yesterday, I purchased this song for download for $.88. Only after doing so did I learn that I'm not able to import it into iTunes. It can only be played by Windows Media Player.

Free Music Downloads

I suppose all my young readers will roll their eyes and say, "duh," but I'm just now learning about all the nice free music one can find on the internet. A while ago, my daughter showed me iTunes software and how to "rip" my small collection of CDs. Recently I found that if you find a place that says "free download" and click on it, the song goes straight to iTunes. Cool.

Today I found a bunch of songs by a group called PBC & Onora. I couldn't find any biographical info about them, but I like their Celtic sound, pure and simple, strong female voices.

And if you want to hear some less-beautiful, yet still entertaining, music--then click over to Linda's Family News and see the video from today's church hoedown. Yee-Ha!