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Well, I've spent all weekend working on this web site. I've stared at this computer screen till I'm silly. But, I did manage to get what I consider to be some valuable stuff up on it. I posted God's plan for salvation last night, and today, I posted a bible study I did on baptism in the Holy Spirit. My brother and I have been searching for God's truth on Spirit baptism and the Holy Spirit's role in the Church today. In my opinion, Pentecostals tend to misinterpret Acts, and too many non-Pentecostal denominations tend to try to keep the Holy Spirit on a leash. I think there is a balance of spiritual truth in between that I tried to explore in my devotional entry.
I was encouraged again today by our gathering with other believers this morning at Ghedi. Our group is so small, but the Lord is still present. He is so faithful. In discussion today, we learned that one of the couples that has been attending are either brand new Christians or may have not even made the life-changing decision yet. I should have known that before, but they were seeking the Lord so eagerly, I just assumed they were long-time believers. What an opportunity! Here I was praying that the Lord would first give us a core group, then help us reach out. Instead, He's placed a couple desparately seeking Him right in our midst for us to minister to. I'll be printing out what I wrote up for God's salvation plan, and meeting with them this week or next weekend to make sure they understand what is necessary to ensure everlasting life with Jesus. I just thank God for the opportunity, and I pray that they keep coming.
Well, I'm done sitting in front of the computer today. Ciao!
02 Sep 02
Well, this one is going to be short. I didn't do much of anything today. I bummed around with my wonderful wife. We went for a walk down the river with our temporary dog. We watched "The Fugitive". Then I came down here to write another devotional for the web site. This one is on forgiveness; check it out.
Amy is upstairs baking caramel chocolate chip brownies! :-) I'm about to shut this thing down and go have one. I hope you're all enjoying our web site. We'd love some feedback and suggestions. Is there anything you'd like to see here? Do you like what we're doing? Do you have any questions? Let us know!
God bless y'all!
03 Sep 02
Whew, what a day! I have some very bad news, and some very good news. My heart is heavy, but full of thanksgiving and praise.
It started out to be a normal day at work: busy, but not too bad. Lot's to do, but nothing that stands out at the end of the day. Well, I was at lunch...Actually, I had just finished lunch, and I was sipping a cappucino at the Italian military cafe' as is my custom. The cappucinos are great, and they're only 40 cents. They are a wonderful compliment to a tasty Italian lunch...Anyway, one of my coworkers suddenly approaches and tells me that Amy has had an accident, but she is okay. My face dropped. My first thoughts were "How okay? Okay, okay or just alive okay?" Once my friend reassured me that she had been seen walking around, apparently unharmed, I was a little relieved, but not much. Where was she? Where there any Americans on the scene yet? How bad was the accident? How would she communicate with the other driver and the police? Was she emotionally okay?
One of our biggest fears since we've been here has been getting in an accident--even a fender bender. We have learned enough Italian and adapted enough to their customs to go shopping, tour sites, and visit restaurants, but we dreaded having to try to communicate if there were ever an accident. We wouldn't know who to call or what to do. It was just something I sincerely hoped would never happen. Knowing this, I was afraid Amy was frantic. I just felt horrible for her, and I wanted to get to her as soon as I could.
Well, I finally got to her, and the first thing I did was hold her and make sure she was all right. PRAISE THE LORD she is fine. She has absolutely no injuries, although I'm sure she will be sore tomorrow. She had been out there for about 30 minutes before I got there. Most of the time, it had been just her and a bunch of Italians. Fortunately, the Italians were all very kind to her, but it was still intimidating because she felt outnumbered.
Well, evidently, she was attempting to pass a slow moving truck at the same time it was trying to make a left turn on to a side road (without a blinker). By the time Amy realized what he was doing, it was too late to avoid collision and she ran into the side of his truck at a considerable speed. The initial impact was on the right front corner of our car, but the truck spun around the front of our car as it was pushed toward a guardrail. We ended up with the left front corner of our car under the left middle of the truck. Fortunately, both drivers were unharmed. The truck sustained some light to moderate damage, but was able to drive away. Our car was totaled. Thank the Lord God that Amy was wearing a seatbelt, because, after seeing the crash scene, I'm relatively certain she would have gone through the windshield had she not been strapped in.
Anyway, I am soooo thankful that Amy is all right. She's relaxing this evening in the hopes that she can diminish the soreness she'll experience tomorrow.
I can't help but wonder if this was a spiritual attack by the enemy. Lately the Lord has been bringing revival in my life. He has breathed life into a ministry here at Ghedi. He has helped me get this web site up with some content that I hope is uplifting and encouraging. He has really been working in our lives, and we have been trying to serve Him. This makes us prime targets for the evil one. "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy" John 10:10 "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12 But I am not discouraged. I know God is in control, and I firmly believe that He protected Amy from further harm today. I am thankful, and I praise Him for His mercy.
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31
4 Sep 02
Ciao! Well, I spent most of today looking for a car. I think I've settled on a '91 Chrysler Le Baron 2 door convertable. It's an old car with several miles, but the price is right (around $1400). A big plus is that it is American specs. That means that, as long as it is still running, we can ship it back to the States when we return and use it there. If we bought anything else, we would have to sell it before we left. Oh yeah, and did I mention it's a convertable? :-)
Amy is quite sore today. She looks quite pained, but no hidden injuries have emerged. I am just really thankful. I was overcome by tears several times yesterday as it sunk in how close I came to losing my sweet Amilee. If this was an attack from the devil, it just goes to show how big our God is. Satan threw us a pretty big blow yesterday. I can just picture him hunched in the shadows wringing his wrinkled hands in sick anticipation; waiting to see how we would be hurt, how we might hurt each other, or how we might hurt God with anger or bitter questioning. Well, he didn't score a single victory. God sent His angels to protect Amy from all harm. God has given us both the grace and peace to support each other perfectly. And God has helped us cast all of our cares on Him. I trust that He will help us through this and set us on even higher ground. Yeah for God!!! :-)
Anyway, ciao for now!
7 Sep 02
It appears that I'm falling behind on my journal entries. :-) Everything just seems kind of anti-climactic after Amy's car accident. Nothing much has happened that is very interesting.
The Lord continues to amaze me and bless us. Today, we were contacted via email by a Rev. and his wife who maintain a web site for witnessing and encouraging other believers. They were offering us permission to use a 9/11 tribute they had created. It was really good, so I put it on our 9/11 anniversary page, and I linked to their home page on our links page.
I'm hoping to get at least one or two more devotionals up this weekend. The Lord has been encouraging me daily with His word, and I just don't have enough time to get everything I would like up on the web site. As the Lord allows, I will share what I can with all of you. Check our devotional page regularly to see if there is something new.
Amy is healing well from the accident. Her muscle soreness is mostly gone everwhere except the shoulder that was restrained by the seatbelt. That may take a couple of weeks to be 100%. She still has a little bit of nausea from time to time, which I'm guessing is mostly an after effect of the stress. I'm still so thankful that the Lord protected her the way He did.
We'll be taking possesion of our new car tomorrow. I just can't believe the wonderful timing of all of this. We have been watching the car of a coworker friend who has been TDY to Germany. If this was going to happen anyway, what a wonderful blessing that it happened while we had another means of transportation readily available. Then the Lord helped us find a new car so quickly! Praise God! :-)
Well, arrivederci a tutti! (goodbye to all!) A prossima volta! (Until next time!) God bless!
10 Sep 02
Whew, it feels like I've been busy lately. I'm working about 9-10 hours a day of course. Then on Mondays and Wednesdays I have Italian II until 9:00 PM. On Tuesday nights Amy and I meet with a group of friends to watch some marriage enrichment videos by Gary Smalley. By Thursday, I'm tired, I've got to study and complete homework for Italian II, and I'm trying to catch up on chores that need my attention. Saturday is usually a restful day, but it never seems to last long enough. Sunday, we meet with a few other believers at Ghedi for a worship service/Bible study. Then, after dining at a fine local Italian restaurant, we usually spend the evening getting prepared for a new week. Compared to someone like my mom, that's an easy schedule, and I'm not complaining, but it sometimes leaves me little time or energy for updating this site.
Still, I intend to do my best to keep putting new stuff up here on a regular basis. I've been praying that the Lord would use this site to encourage not only our friends and family, but others who might find their way here. Our Protestant Chapel POC here forwarded our web site address to 50 people on the Protestant Email distribution list. Hopefully some of them will find something fruitful here. If any of those 50 people are reading this, WELCOME! :-)
Two of my coworkers who have been at school for 5 1/2 weeks get back tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to getting them back. They will really ease the burden on the rest of us. We will be on standby half as often as we are now, once they get back in the ball game. This will make it easier for Amy and I to start travelling around Italy again. When I'm on standby, we're stuck in the local area. Unfortunately, we have to give back our temporary dog tomorrow though. I've grown kind of attached. He's really well behaved and kind of sweet. I think I'm gonna miss him.
Well, I'd better go for now. It's time for Amy and I to go watch our marriage video. :-) God bless!
11 Sep 02
I'm sure you remember where you were. I had just arrived at work on Ellsworth AFB. We were gathering for our flight's morning meeting, when our flight commander called out from his office "Have you seen the news this morning yet?" I said no, and he said "Turn it on." We had a projection system in our meeting room that included a television receiver, so I fired up the system wondering what would be so important that the Captain would let it interfere with his meeting.
At first, I didn't understand what I was watching. I saw newscasters acting confused and scared, and I wasn't getting a clear picture of why. Then, only seconds after I turned it on, I saw a huge live explosion in the second WTC tower. I still didn't understand what had happened. I remember the newscasters soon said it was a plane, but they weren't initially sure if it was a small or a large plane. Then that haunting video played on our 6'X8' projection screen of a passenger size airliner flying full speed directly into the WTC tower. As I began to piece together the scope of this tragedy, my heart started to sink.
When I realized that both towers had been struck in a similar manner, I realized it was not an accident. I was trying to comprehend why someone would launch this kind of attack against us and how someone could justify callously sacrificing so many innocent lives. I still can't comprehend it to this day, and I've decided that this kind of evil should not be understood.
I was having a hard time wrapping my mind around what was happening. It was so much like a movie script that it was hard for me to believe this was happening in real life. Yet, it was real. Someone hated us this much. I was feeling a mix of anger, disbelief and sorrow. I wanted to cry, but I didn't want to do it there.
I watched in horror as the news told of a plane hitting the pentagon. It was at that point, that I knew we were at war. I knew that no responsible administration could let these attacks go unpunished. I sensed that my life was changing as I watched; along with the life of every other American with whom I shared this great land. I knew my job in the military would be different from that point. I knew that our country's real character would be revealed through this kind of trial. And, I knew that we would never again be so complacent - at least for a generation or two.
However, the worst horror was yet to come. That massive structure...the building that defined the skyline of New York and had withstood an enormous bomb blast just 8 years earlier...just collapsed. I was horrified. I couldn't imagine anyone surviving. I couldn't fathom how many people had just died. I couldn't think of how it would affect each of their families...their kids...their husbands... their wives...their friends and parents. Then the other tower fell......
I, like every other American, was in shock. I was enraged. I was heartbroken. I was afraid. I was confused. I was unprepared for such horror in my lifetime. It was a black day for America and for the world.
Over the last year, I, like many others, have moved on. I've gone back to work, although my job has changed. I've gone back to focusing on my own family and friends, although I still feel the pain of the victim's families. I laugh, I play and I travel, although I am a little more cautious and aware of my surroundigs.
The good news is, America has healed pretty well. This tragedy brought out the best in this land. People turned to God for comfort. People gave generously from their hearts to help their brothers and sisters who were suffering. Patriotism swelled in the hearts of everyone everywhere in the country. We really came together and illustrated to the world the strength of the U.S. of A.
Today, we continue to fight the war against terrorism. Thousands of people are overseas right now on the front line to try to protect our nation from future attacks. We also continue to heal. Thousands of people are still hurting, and need empathy and comfort.
Today, especially, we remember...
13 Sep 02
Well, hello again! It's Friday! :-)
I just finished eating the most marvelous meal. Amy made a roast today. It was the juiciest, best tastin', melt in your mouthenest roast on this side of the Atlantic! :-) I really really enjoyed myself!
We had to give back our temporary dog today. It was very much sad. :-( We grew quite attached to Lobo. He was so sweet and well mannered. He was probably the best behaved dog I've ever seen. Other than the shedding, we're really going to miss him. I keep catching myself looking around the room for him and then pouting when I remember he's not here.
We got two of our coworkers back in our shop today. That doubled our current manpower, so obviously we're very happy to have them back. One of them is coming over tonight for a movie, and we're going out to dinner with the other couple tomorrow night.
I probably won't be doing too much to the web site this weekend because I fell behind on my Italian class, and I'm trying to catch up for our midterm next Wednesday. I will try to at least put up a journal entry or two though. We've got to give you reasons to come back, right? :-)
Well, sorry this is short, but I can't think of much to say today. God bless you; we love you! Ciao!!
15 Sep 02
Ciao! It's been a wonderful day! We met for our small group worship service this morning on Ghedi. It was very encouraging. We watched the last of a series of educational videos about the Bible and Christianity. These videos were created by the Church of Christ, and they did have some bias, but they were also very educational. This was perhaps the most controversial video of the series, but it spawned a fruitful discussion of what the Bible really did say.
One of the regular attendees to our worship service was raised in a church, but had wandered away from God as I did during his teenage years. Like me, he never really shook his fist at God and never ceased to believe in Him, but he spent a while living a life that was very displeasing to God. Well he recently decided to rededicate his life to the Lord and be baptised, praise God!
Well, I had a similar past. I understood and believed who Jesus was when I was 5 yrs. old. I asked Jesus to come into my heart and I was baptised in Trinity Baptist Church, San Antonio, TX. However, around age 12 or 13, I started to rebel. I gradually stopped caring what God thought or wanted for my life. I still believed in God and was not hostile to Him in my thinking, but I put me first for many years. It wasn't until around the very end of 1998 that I began to put my life back in the hands of the Lord. I finally realized that I could not live a joyful and succesful life if I was in control. I decided to make Jesus Christ the Lord of my life.
Since that decision four years ago, I have tossed around the idea of being baptised again, but I wasn't sure it was necessary, since I was baptised so many years ago. Well, I finally decided to do it. I'm still not sure whether or not it's necessary, but I figure, at best I will be taking a needed step of obedience, and at worst it will be symbolic of my earnest desire to return all of my life to Christ for good. Anyway, praise God for the precious blood of Jesus.
I am preparing the message or lesson or whatever for next week's worship meeting. We've talked a lot about God's desire for unity in the church, so I think that's what I'm going to discuss next week. I've done some Bible study on what it means for the church to be unified, how we can achieve that unity, and how we can and why we should accomodate some differences in the body of Christ. I think the Bible's got some great things to say on this subject, and I look forward to presenting it to our group. I will also put it on our devotional page after next Sunday. I think many of today's denominations would do well to look at the Bible's teachings on this subject as well.
Anyhoo, Amy and I went to a local Chinese restaurant this evening. It was pretty good actually. One thing that is odd here though is everything is brought out one dish at a time. We have to order everything separately and then eat everything separately. We had to eat our fried rice before they would bring us our meat. It was all good though. The hot and sour soup was particularly good. We had a strange experience though. Both Amy and I, about 5 minutes after we had eaten, began to feel lightheaded, warm and tingly. It was almost like a mild high. It was quite odd, and we don't know what caused it. We're still alive though, so hopefully it wasn't food poisening. The final odd aspect of our Chinese dining experience was the fortune cookies. THEY WERE IN ITALIAN! HA! :-) Okay, so we should have expected that, but we didn't and it was funny. :-)
Well, I gotta go! God bless everyone and Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law Troy!
17 Sep 02
Well, I can't think of anything to say today. I've done stuff the last couple of days, but nothing interesting enough to write about.
I did win a $100 scholarship from the Aviano Chiefs' Group the other day for writing an essay. I suppose I could post that essay here in case anyone is interested.
The importance of the Air Force’s mission and inherent responsibility to the nation requires its members to adhere to higher standards than normal found in civilian life. Discuss some of these higher standards and how it affects you as an Air Force member, whether as a supervisor or subordinate.
The importance of our mission and our inherent responsibility to the nation demand that the Air Force hold its members to a higher standard than their civilian counterparts. Both the actual and felt security of our nation’s population depends directly upon our ability to function proficiently as a war-fighting machine. This ability is greatly impacted by the competence and reliability of each individual in blue. Additionally, we are commissioned, funded, evaluated and held accountable by the American taxpayers. They rightly expect their money to be used responsibly by trustworthy professionals. To this end, the Airman of today should have unfailing integrity, disciplined diligence and a steadfastness of purpose.
Integrity has long been defined as a core value for good reason. When faced with difficult choices, the professional can be counted on to choose the right thing, regardless of the decision’s visibility or lack thereof. The professional chooses safety over convenience, fairness over favoritism, and truth over easy answers. The professional is more concerned with getting the job done right than with maintaining appearances. Without integrity the Air Force would decay from within. With it, we are robust and capable, enjoying the confidence of the public.
Air Force members must also discipline themselves to be consistently diligent in carrying out their duties. The money with which we are paid is collected from other citizens who worked hard to earn it. We owe them an honest day’s work in return. Diligence is a decision that we make daily to fulfill our responsibilities to the utmost of our ability. Whether manning is lean or lavish, diligence in each member is necessary to maximize readiness and position us for success.
The most finely engineered machine will not run without fuel. The fuel that drives the Air Force is a steadfastness of purpose shared by its collective members. Each airman must be confident of the worth of his or her contribution and consequently strive continually to offer his or her best. For this to happen, each airman needs to understand how the Air Force serves the national interest and that his or her job is valuable to that end. This understanding is not always intuitive. It is incumbent upon the supervisor to make sure young troops are educated on the big picture and how they help make it complete.
Any large endeavor would flounder without integrity, diligence and purpose. Nowhere is this truer than in the military. We stand to lose much more than market share and stock value; failure in our endeavors costs lives. To ensure mission success and hold the public trust, we must willingly and faithfully adhere to the highest of standards.
Well, that was my essay. It's not all that profound, but it paid for $100 worth of my Italian class.
Hopefully, I'll be able to think of something more to say next time.
19 Sep 02
We got our temporary dog, Lobo, back for a while! :-) Yeah! The reason we have him back is actually quite sad, but our house felt empty without Lobo, so it's nice to have him back (even though it's temporary again). I just dropped off his owners at the airport. They are flying back to the States on short notice because my coworker's granddad is in the hospital, and he's not doing too well. We had them over last night for dinner since they were busy getting ready to go and didn't really have time to cook. This couple is becoming good friends. We like them. I feel horrible that they're having to deal with this. To make matters worse, they had just returned from a long TDY to Germany less than a week ago, and had just had their furniture delivered only two days ago. Please pray for God's comfort and healing for them and their grandpa.
Yesterday was the U.S. Air Forces 55th birthday. Happy Birthday Air Force! :-)
I've been kind of dragging this week. I was hoping to catch up on some sleep today. I have a long list of tasks to accomplish first though, so I think I'll go and get busy. Arrivederci! :-)
22 Sep 02
Well, the Lord was with me this morning. I was in charge of bringing a message to our group at Ghedi this morning, and I think it went pretty well. God was faithful. I told Amy that I was thanking God after rereading my notes this morning. I couldn't have put anything that worthwhile together on my own. You can check it out on our devotional page if you want. It is the entry titled Unity in a Diverse Church. People seemed receptive and we had some good discussion during and afterwards.
This group of ours is an enormous encouragement and blessing to me. We're still only at eight regular attendees, and we're about to lose two as they go back to the States. However, we have some of the most moving a cappella worship I've ever experienced. We have some great discussion that encourages me to search the scripture and learn more about the Word of God. It is very encouraging to encounter people throughout the week that I worship with every Sunday. It also humbles me and holds me accountable because Ghedi is such a small community that now, not only the other seven people, but everyone on base knows I am a Christian and watches me to see if I act like one. It's also awesome to see how God is working in even a place that seems as spiritually desolate as Ghedi. When we first got here, it was tough to find examples of anything but spiritual frustration and discouragement. Now, we and others are growing and being encouraged. It's great to see people on fire for the Lord and eager to learn about his Word. The Lord is also opening doors for us to minister and witness to others as well--people who don't know much at all about the Lord as well as people who call themselves Christians, but have become discouraged here. The Lord has just been moving in so many ways. I have enough thanks to fill my heart for just what he's done in my life over the past several weeks. He is an awesome God. Praise Him!
We tried a new restaurant today. It is called Il Girasole, which means the sunflower. It was good, and it was right here in town. If you come visit us, we'll take you there.
Well, I'm going to go for now. I've got some more work to do on our web site, then I'm gonna do some well-deserved loafing before I have to head back to work tomorrow. Ciao!
24 Sep 02
This has got to be really short because I have to leave for work in about 10 minutes. I just didn't want to put it off any more.
I have a wonderfully sweet wife. She is amazingly supportive and quick to praise me. I did get called out to work the day before yesterday, but I was not out in the freezing cold and I didn't end up being out all night. We fixed the problem and got back home around 2:30 AM. Also, it is no big deal that I bought her a couple of books. She's been wanting them since they came out a couple of months ago, and if we lived near an American book store, she would have already had them. Still, I do love my wife and how sweet she is to me.
I bought 10 little NKJV New Testaments to give out to people. They came with the shipment of Amy's books yesterday. Before I even went home for the day. Three people had already taken one. I thought that was pretty cool. The Lord is so good.
Things are going great here at Ghedi. The weather is getting crisp (but rainy). Work is going well--we got three of our people back from school. The Lord is blessing our little ministry here. There is a lot to be thankful for.
Well, I promised this would be short. Ciao!
26 Sep 02
The Lord continues to bless us over here. We're both healthy and enjoying life. We're making friends and enjoying our temporary dog. Work is going well, although, I must admit, sometimes it's tough to stay motivated. That's something I need to pray about.
Anyhoo, I gave away two more of the New Testaments I bought today. The Lord is actually surprising me with some of the people who seem to be open to His word. If you would like, please pray that the Lord would give me boldness to spread the gospel, tempered with love and grace.
Amy and I went shopping for glasses today. Her perscription hasn't changed, but her last pair was so scratched up that she couldn't see out of them very well anymore. We found her a nice new pair today. They're not much different than the ones she had before, but they're blue. They're cute.
I just noticed today that our site has surpassed our friend Jessica's site in the number of hits. It's not like a competition, but I thought that was cool, because it means that there are at least a handful of people who are enjoying what we've put together. If you're reading this, I assume you're one of them. Thanks for visiting on a regular basis, and I hope that we can bless you with not only our journal entries, but my studies on the Bible and other aspects of the site.
We got confirmation today that my Aunt Karen Sue will be visiting us from the 2nd to the 11th of November. We're looking forward to having our first visitor from back home. It will be nice to introduce someone else to all of the things that have excited us since we've been here.
Well, I'm going to go for now. God loves you all and so do I!
28 Sep 02
Tonight we had a going away party for one of my coworkers, SSgt Clark. He is the last of the "old guard". When I arrived at Ghedi, my shop was comprised of four TSgt's, SSgt Clark and two airmen. The airmen were new like me, and they are still here. The TSgt's and SSgt Clark though, had been here together for quite a while. They had a real bond. They worked well together and joked well together. They really meshed as a team. It was one of the best atmospheres I have ever encountered in a shop. Sadly, one by one they all rolled out and headed off to new locations. We got new people in and the makeup and attitude of the shop changed dramatically. I've mentioned before that I really would have liked to have arrived here 1 1/2 years earlier. They were some great guys, and I think I would have meshed well. Anyway, SSgt Clark was the last of the old crew. He was only here this long because he was granted an extension for the birth of his new daughter. We'll miss him.
Kids say the cutest things sometimes. SSgt Clark's two adorable kids (and his new baby) were at the dinner tonight. Both of the kids have bright blond hair and blue eyes. The boy is around 7, and the girl is around 5. The seem intrigued with our vehicles. They both love our motorcycle and asked where it was tonight. Then, when their boy noticed we had a convertable, he asked if we could show him how to put the top down. So, we went ahead and lowered the top. Then the little girl's eyes got big and she said "Cool! Now you've got a Ferrari!" I thought that was a riot! :-) Even though it was a little chilly tonight, we kept the top down as we proudly drove our "Ferrari" all the way home! ;-)