Good morning from Rio. At our kid's school they have been having a "hero" theme throughout the year. It is a way of giving recognition for students who go out of their way to help others or show positive character traits that another student feels is commendatory. One example of this is when our son Naaman was nominated for "hero of the week" because he broke up a fight between two younger classmates.
Well, this week I've been working on a talk that I'm supposed to give this weekend. I probably should be doing this right now, but am being distracted writing this instead.
A part of my talk is supposed to cover my personal testimony in Christ, my history of chemical dependency, my current recovery and how I utilize the Celebrate Recovery ministry in my daily living. As I'm trying to create this talk (actually more the power point that goes along with it) I began to have a creative block because I really wanted to show a couple of pictures from my growing up years in Wichita, Kansas. I knew that I had some personal photos of that time somewhere around the house, but could not find them.
I expressed my disappointment of my failed search to my wife. She could see that I was stuck and tried to help me find these "great moments in Jeff history". After looking in all of the common places, finally I hear a "Jeff, come up here" call from Sharon. Sure enough, she found my lost photos (they were not in the normal places). I was over joyed!
Do you remember the cartoon "Mighty Mouse"? When the mouse was saving the world from impending peril the music would play, "Here I come to save the day" and Mighty Mouse would show up and all of us could breathe a sigh of relief. Well Sharon, honey, you're my Might Mouse! You're my hero. You saved my day!
Now I guess that I'd better stop procrastinating and get back on the creation of my talk and its accompanying power point.
Here I come to save the day . . .
Hello once again. I've been watching the news about the situation there in the States from here in Rio. As an outsider looking in, as a person who is proud to be an American (I think that there is a song in there somewhere), as a ex-patriot who is still very concerned about his country, the news from the States does not look good. I'm not talking about who was elected as our new president. I feel that (1) if you voted you have a right to make comments about your government, that being said, if you didn't vote, then keep your political opinions to yourself, (2) also, if you voted and are a Christian, then I feel that the Bible clearly states that God allows the people in politics to be in their positions of service to their country, so (3) the current leadership is the leadership that God has allowed to be placed there at such a time as this. So, what is the current "such a time as this" that the United States is in? I am concerned when the people that we've elected to represent us and our voice have pushed through a "financial package" that is way beyond even the politicians to comprehend. A massive bill that will soon be in front of our new president that is around 1,100 pages long, has hand written corrections and comments in it, was presented to Congress with less than 12 hours to review before it was put through to a vote and is going to place the American people in such tremendous long-term, multi-generational debt that there is no light at the end of the tunnel! What are we doing and where is this thing going? I know that there are some people who feel that God owes it to America to keep her forever strong and safe. Well, 9/11 has taught us other wise. The current Wall Street market yo-yo effect is telling us something else. The massive lay offs of people who once thought that their jobs and retirement plans were safe from being messed with. The greedy corporate heads who get a bail out from our government and then take a plush holiday retreat at our expense and honestly think that this is owed to them. The Madoffs of the world and other ponzi schemers that have stolen billions from honest investors and Madoff himself is complaining because he is under a penthouse arrest and can't take his limo out for a cruise around the block. Excuse me, but as an outsider looking in, my soul is screaming "what is going on here"? If you have some insight, please let me know. I don't believe that we, as Americans, should just sit back whining and saying, "but what are we to do?" Enough already! If you have a vote, make it count! For those of us who are registered in Oklahoma, your Oklahoma Legislature site can be found at http://www.lsb.state.ok.us/. It's easy to find on the web, no matter where you live. Look it up. See who represents you. Make a phone call, write a letter or an email, voice you opinion. After all, these are the people that we voted in. These are the people who are supposed to represent us. Remember, they work for you, it is your tax dollars that pays their salaries. That's what makes this country great and that the Founding Fathers wanted you to have some input, their beginning thesis was "no taxation without representation". That "representation" means YOU!!! If we don't speak up and speak up quick, then we will be the ones flushing this country down the toilet all the while whining about about how we can do nothing. Think about it, ask yourself where this country is going and then do something.
Well, hello again! It's been a while since I've been here. If you remember right, I began this blog by stating that I would not use it just to waste people's time, but to use it to share my thoughts. Thus the reason I've been away for a while.
As many of you know, my father-in-law (Junior "Jay") is not doing well fighting emphysema. I have been praying for him and was concerned that my wife Sharon would not get to be with him as his illness progresses. Finally we made the decision for her to go to the States and spend some time with her daddy. So, on January 14th Sharon left Rio and went to Wichita for three weeks.
Now, I've always considered myself to be a guy that could survive if he were faced with the sudden loss of his wife. So I felt pretty comfortable with being the solo-dad as she headed up north. After all, our children are no longer babies, the oldest one at home right now is 18 and the youngest one's 12, so it's not like I'm stuck trying to figure who gets formula when. I'm fifty years old now, so I thought that I ought to have this parenting thing down by now.
OK, Sharon leaves on Tuesday and Friday I leave to pick up the kids from school. One small problem, I locked the keys in the house. Now for any of you who have been in Brazil, you know that houses here are not like most in the States. Here the houses have bars on all the windows and locks on all the doors. No problem! I have kids at school that have keys, I'll just go pick them up and we'll get back into the house. We all laughed when I told them what I had done. After all, we've lived in this mission house for 4 1/2 years and this is the first time that this has happened to me. Lesson learned, let's move on.
The next day, Naaman and Willa-Ann were with their Youth Small Group, Priscila and I had picked up a new Chinese friend to have her over for dinner. I realized that I needed some lemons (actually in the States we would call them "limes", but here they are "limões") to make some sour cream (yes, we have to make our own sour cream in Brazil). We were going to have baked potatoes with the roast I was cooking and the sour cream was for the potatoes. Anyway, I'm all ready, Hilary (the Chinese friend is ready) and Priscila is ready. Priscila says, "why don't we take the dogs?" Good idea, let's get them ready and let's go! I've got Daisy (our boxer) ready, but Priscila's having a hard time with the harness of Madeline (our dachshund). I stop to help Priscila, we get the harness on, head out the door, closing it behind us and I reach for my keys. It's then that I discover that the keys that I was sure that I had with me, I had set down on the coffee table to help Priscila with the dog harness.
Now, I'm in a pickle. Priscila has no keys, I have no keys, the only other set of keys that I'm aware of are with Naaman and Willa-Ann which is across town at their Youth Group, the cell phone and car keys are in the house. Well, thankfully, the car was left unlocked and the garage door opener was in the car. We decide that since we already have the dogs ready to go for a walk, we might as well head on out. I buy the lemons/limes that I need and we head back home. On the way there I hatch a plan of leaving Priscila and Hilary at the house, I'll flag a taxi, find Naaman and Willa-Ann and return home with, once again, my children's set of house keys.
The plan works pretty good, except that the Youth Group decided not to stay at the original site, due to painting of the apartment. So I am in a taxi with the meter running, traveling around Rio, looking for a group of adolescents and their adult leader. Sure enough, I see them down by the lake, getting ready to cross the street and I'm six cars behind them watching and thinking, "this is not going according to my plans". Thankfully the traffic started to move, my taxi driver started honking his horn and I was able to get Naaman's attention.
When everything was said and done, the taxi ride and the lemons costs me R$42,00 (or about US$18.50). Now my question is, was this just old age or expensive lemons?
