What am I still doing here?

In my heart there’s such a deep calling to get to work! Serve God somewhere in the vast-expanse-of-a-country known as Russia!

My efforts to find a missionary society willing to send a whole family of 6 has not revealed the open door I’d hoped for. WHERE IS IT?

Meanwhile, it’s time to plan for my short-term commitment – the St Petersburg summer camp at Kastyor (костёр). I’m so excited about going, but praying for support from my fellow believers.

Pray with me… support me… come too!

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
Isaiah 6:8

Time Flies... and the end is nigh!

(Taken from my editorial in our church newsletter, 15 November 2009)
Yesterday my first son, Eli (I’m sure you all know him) turned 10. Yes... TEN! For me it’s astounding how fast those years have gone.
You can’t justifiably call them ten “short” years, as they’re the same length as any other ten years in history (except the ten that contained Joshua’s “long day”–You better read Joshua chapter 10).
However, for all of us, there’s a common perception of life going by so fast as we get older.
As youngsters, it takes forever for Christmas to come. As adults, today we can’t believe that Christmas is only 5 weeks and 5 days away - because we only just had Christmas!
Is it because our lives are progressively filled with more and more concerns, chores, family members (and birthdays), TV shows, commitments... I think so.
What will eventually be apparent to us all is how fast the end of our Earth years have snuck up on us. It will be then that we’ll experience the regrets of what was or wasn’t done and said.
It takes wisdom to recognise NOW what those regrets might be and work to make sure we live the life God prescribed in the Bible.
Make the neccessary changes TODAY, because Today is the beginning of the rest of your life!
For insight, start with the Bible verses listed below.

• Matt 6:30-40
• Phil 4:4-9
• James 1:22-27
• Eph 6:10-18

Double goodness

TWO great things have happened.

UNCLE DAVEY / VIKTOR HULIGANOV
Firstly, my favourite YouTube channel, starring a guy named Viktor Huliganov (an alter-identity of "Uncle Davey", an English guy) has explained his awesome language vocabulary learning technique "THE GOLD LIST".

Viktor, a pseudo-Russian who speaks in a very strong Russian accent while giving very good Russian grammar lessons, telling funny jokes and singing songs in English & Russian has already described his technique on his website: The Goldlist (click it)

BUT my happy discovery was his YouTube video post (a.k.a. vlog) describing the process of learning vocabulary to the Long-Term memory using his Gold List method. I highly recommend it. It works for any language, and probably for just about any other thing you have to memorise (formulas, botanic names etc).

I'd already begun using this technique, but wasn't sure I was making the most of it, but Viktor has described it well in his vlog.

STAPLE REMOVER
Yippee! Secondly I got my staples out of my gut-skin today. The skin where each staple was holding on was getting red, sore and itchy; effectively driving me bonkers.

The little staple removing device was pretty cool. It hurt a bit, but not much more than when Janene squeezes the pimples on my back (you know, the ones right on the edge of your back above your kidneys? Very tender area!)

Now I'm feeling much better. I can laugh again without that excessive pain which felt like it was causing internal haemorrhaging.

Life will be even betterer when I get my wound pads removed and Janene thinks I am sexy again.

Body Piercings

I've had my guts chopped and the hernia is all nicely repaired. The side effects are temporary, but obvious :-) I'm looking forward to doing normal stuff again, when I finally feel better.

On the left here you can see one of the 3 entry points that the surgeon created to shove his laproscopic tools in and do his work.

There's lots of vids on YouTube to show the process involved. Search for "Inguinal Hernia Repair".

(click here for one)

We have transmission!

Like a deserted Mars probe on that silent planet... this blog has sat abandoned. Like an alarm clock in the desert, its purpose long forgotten.

But there's a stirring, a brief moment of animation and suddenly with a puff and a whirl we're off again! I'M ALIVE!

There's an old philosophical question: "If a tree falls in the middle of the forest, and nobody is there to hear it, does it still make a sound".

Of course it does! What a stupid question.

My real question is IF there's a blog in the middle of cyberspace and nobody's there to read it, is there a point? So... is anybody reading this? I guess the answer is YES, because I'm reading as I write.

In any case, here I sit with a bunch of metal staples in my aching torso following surgery to repair my inguinal hernia on the right side.

Walking, and movement in general, has been awkward and painful. So then, what better way to fill some time than to resume my presence in blogland?

Glad to be back.