Irvnnan's thot bloggers

It has been an incredible privilege to be involved on My Last Day on Earth. It has felt somewhat like a scene from a short film I saw where the character came to a great chasm where there seemed no way across, but as the character leaps out, steps would rise up to meet his feet so that he could run across in safety. These last few months have felt like such an experience because of what the Lord has been doing through your prayers! For instance, I related in a previous letter that the local company I usually rely on was not available to work on our project. But God provided all the people that were needed. During a trip to California He extended my network of contacts to provide additional people I could hire to do other parts of the work. So far He has provided people that are believers and that are incredibly excited about this project. His provision has also included technical solutions and equipment that have arrived at ‘just the right time’. There have also been volunteers w...

I'm always amazed at the interplay between simplicity and beauty, beauty and complexity - for that matter simplicity and complexity. If you know much about math, fractals come to mind. If you read scripture, our relationship to God comes to mind. Take Colossians 1:9 -11. Here, Paul is writing to a people that had 'secret knowledge' teachers trying to get them to skip past Christ. This would be a forgetting that it's so simple: God's Spirit lives in us when we have a relationship with God through Jesus. His Spirit at work gives us all the understanding and wisdom we need to live a life that honors the Lord and enables us to please him by doing good things in a broken world. We know Him through this process and His power makes us patient and strong enough to endure anything - and be truly happy. In working with God - entering into what He is doing in us and around us, we get all we need and experience more of Him as well. The complexity comes in living that out in a b...

Okay, so I'm not a prolific blog writer. At this point even 'occasional' doesn't fit. But what a crazy time 3 hurricanes in a row was last year. Now the blue tarps on roofs seem to be pretty much gone - but it did take all year for that to happen. There are probably many houses like ours that still have some drywall work inside that needs to be done. And so it goes... In retrospect, a year ago this week, we were reeling from the mess Charley had made of Florida. As we watched the start of hurricane season and no storms actually came near central Florida it was kind of a 'whew!' moment in a way. So what else is new? From our latest letter I wrote: "Right now we are focused on doing one of the parables of Jesus as a short anime film. The immediate need for this is as an evangelistic ‘bridge’ video for a new short film strategy emerging in Europe. Europe is very saturated with media and films, but they love short films – especially youth and college students. ...

Fourth hurricane to hit Florida in a season...last time this happened to a state was Texas, back in 1868. Hurricane Jeanne is pounding us right now. After it came up the Atlantic, seemed to arc out to sea and then looped around straight at us - it came ashore on the East Coast and is looping north just below Orlando and Orange County. This means that we are getting much of the ferocity because northern and eastern sides of these storms usually pack the power because of the counter-clockwise rotation. So far, a new roof is at least 3 weeks away, but the repairs and tarps seem to be holding so far. It looks like some gutters have been ripped off the house and there is banging on the roof, but no leaks so far. Amazingly, no loss of power so far. I guess the previous 2 hurricanes that came through here knocked down all the easy targets next to power lines. Praise God! For a good perspective on how this relates to God see this .

We made it...but it is wet and sloppy here. This storm was a slow mover and dumped a lot of rain for the last day or two...even today now that the eye went over Tampa and is heading up toward the panhandle of Florida, the storm is so big that the eastern side of the circulation is over the whole state and bring winds from north to south with rain and thunderstorms all day. Wacky! I made a quick emergency roof repair yesterday since we were having some leaks, and now I'm back up to the roof when it stops raining to tack down some plastic over another section. We had power restored in about 12 hours so that was a real praise to the Lord. The energy crews are really on the ball here and there were already extra crews here because of Charley. Sounds like we were one of about 20% or less that got it back so soon. Now they tell us hurricane Ivan is brewing and that 'cone of probability' that weather people show keeps pointing to us again along with the East Coast and...

For the second time in 3 weeks, a major hurricane is approaching Florida. As far as I know this is unprecedented in recorded history that two major hurricanes have gone through central Florida in the space of 3 weeks. Many homes and roofs (including ours) were damaged from hurricane Charley, and now Frances threatens to rip up the plastic and tarps and do more damage. The last few days have been spent waiting in line for plywood, boarding up and fixing the roof to better withstand the winds and rains. Grandma and Grandpa also needed someone to board up their house and they are now here as we wait for the storm. Frances is slow moving today so it may come at midnight. The slow movement means 10 to 20 inches of rain. Having done all we humanly know how to do, we rest in God's watchcare for us in this storm. We'll check back in on the other side of it. Irv

Yes, dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age - here is our first blog. So let's get started. Today was the very full day, how better to end it than starting a blog. It started with the much deferred dental visit. It wasn't really our fault; not initially. Our dentist just disappeared and we haven't gotten around to finding one. So with shining smiles we move on... Then it was time to pick up the kids from school. Yes, Aimee is a 1st grader now. Alex loves showing her the ropes at school. Her prayer the other night: '...and help my teacher to give me homework'. I guess she has 'homework envy' compared to Alex and starting out the first week with homework in 5th grade. Oh yes, school was delayed because we went through a hurricane on the 13th, complete with 100mph winds that sucked a great quantity of shingles and some tar paper and nails off our roof (which would explain the leaking). Back to the busy day - tumble class for Aimee (she d...