Rainbow over Indonesia Rainbow over Sumatra Islands Rainbow over tsunami relief supply station Genesis 9:8-17 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you-the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you-every […]

The highlight of my Christmas is when Tom and his long-haired brother, Andrew, were up for the game point in the James Bond Edition of Scene-It. They had tied the previous question, which made the next challenge particularly intense. The room fell silent as the seconds counted down to the tiebreaker, which is random and […]

This week, I went to a routine doctor’s appointment. While I waited to be called, a woman sat across from me reading a ‘how to please your man in bed’ article from a women’s magazine to her friend, who was sitting next to her. It was loud enough, it was impossible for anyone in the […]

Thanks to the help of some kind scientists, when a loved cell phone dies it turns into a sunflower.

Lately, my children have been singing the Crazy Bus song from the PBS kids show, “Arthur”. They run the loop between the kitchen and dining room, screaming Crazy Bus at the top of their lungs. Yesterday, I said, “YOU GUYS ride the crazy bus!” and Thomas replied, “Yeah, but you DRIVE the crazy bus!”

This week, I received a mailing from Peacemaker Ministries that included an “Operation Peace on Earth” calendar with thought-provoking daily assignments for “holiday peacemaking”. Holidays can be stressful for some, as are forced to see people whom they have avoided for the rest of the year. The calendar goes from 11/21 through 12/25 and a […]

This story made the CNN headlines today. A father in New Jersey called the police to report his 16 year old daughter, who stumbled in ‘drunk and unruly’ around 2:45am. When the police got there, she claimed she felt threatened by her dad and led police to his 600 vial stash of cocaine and an […]

This morning, between 4 and 5 AM, the power went off and on at least three times. It actually woke me up. It was the whole block, not just our house. I stood in one of the rooms that overlook the city, and I saw a huge flash – but no noise. Then, a number […]

TokyoNov2004/PocariSweatadFood in Japan is unlike western food – where everything is segregated on the customer’s plate. Things are piled on top of each other, even to the extent of having fried food sticking out of soup. Interesting things I ate:

On noticeable difference between Tokyo and Philadelphia is cleanliness. It was almost freaky to wash my hands after our first day of touring. After countless subway stops, sitting on park benches, holding hand railings, etc., the water rinsing my hands ran clear against the white porcelain sink.

TokyoNov2004/898_9861On our second day here, Tom took me to see the Meiji Shrine. If you look through the photos from Tom’s first trip here, there are a number of pictures of the Shrine. (Though, there may be a few more coming.) Just a few steps from the subway stop is the entrance to the shrine. […]

TokyoNov2004/IMG_9834Ahhh.. Japan. I’m having such a pleasant visit. I had hoped to write more in my blog, but have not had much time to just sit and write. This morning, we were able to call home and talk to the children. They are having a wonderful time at their grandma’s house – Tabitha screamed into […]

10.30.2004 Gentlemen, A friend gave me a copy of the bulletin, and let me know that they have missed our family in our church recently and had been praying for our children to get over their chest colds. They wanted to make sure that in our absence, we were still kept abreast of the announcements […]