Huh...

What place does love have in our lives? Where do we put it? How do we work it in? Is it something that pours from our every being; in a sense then our essence? Or is it something that is external? Do we then let it in or shoo it away. Does it blow in under the crack of the door like water in a storm? What then is this love that is held so dear in this world? It would seem to be multi-faceted; is it? Then that does complicate matters, does it not? It is hard to find place and reason for one entity, but what do you do with many? All for one and one for all, with no mention of love. Should we mention it and all work collectively towards one love? Interesting as this is and as much as I would love to continue, go I must.

Another Week

Well, the weeks are starting to tick away as I find myself busy in Amsterdam. I thought by now I would have acclimated and been at rest. Unfortunately the days seem to get busier and the waves lap farther and farther up the side of the boat. It seems that eventually they will swell upon the deck. What then will I do???

I have not been joking about the Holland bikes. I been having to walk these past couple of days because of my knee. These things will wear your knees out rather quickly. If the weather is nice, we have a big ride coming up on Tuesday. I will just have to hope that my leg does not fall off. It would be hard to explain cause most folks would ask jusy why I rode cross country on a bike such as that. I would not really have a response.

If anybody knows what happened to all of the bread, then please let me know. Otherwise I am left to think that the stuff just got up and walked away, because the mice do not look big enought to open the freezer door.

More Tidbits

I have learned much more today than the ins and outs of cycling. To start off, I will not lie to you. I had what we in America call a bad day. In American style, it is of course someone else's fault. But not to dwell on that but on the things learned. When one has a bad day they are much more open to suggestion. And hence I have assimilated more knowledge to help keep my tomorrows a little brighter. Though my day was bad, it was still wonderful. I thank the Lord for another day of living and for all of the blessings that He has given me.

A banana split is called a banana royal. Both split and royal are fitting terms. And this royal was that indeed; even without the cherry on top that signifies an American ice cream treat. Needless to say (though I am) I thouroughly enjoyed the banana split.

This is another tidbit that I forgot to remember. Drinks in a can are more bitter than drinks in a bottle. It is a scientifically proven fact and something to keep in mind.

The dutch word tabaa does not mean taboo. It is a pleasentry along the lines of goodbye.

While these realizations will not bring world peace (not even whirled peas); still I must persevere (with patience of course). After all, world peace will not be solved in one fail swoop but instead in many small advances.

Patience

I think that I have it figured out finally. I would not have thougt of it but there is a purpose to the uni-speed ghetto bicycles that abound in Holland. In one word, patience. Yes, you need this in life. You also learn this biking around the city on a Dutch special.

Also I know why the bikes have the flat ungrooved pedals; so your feet can slip off when they are a bit wet. (It is wet quite often in Holland.) It is a lesson from Kindergarten that I forgot to remember. When it is wet you need to exercise more caution; something you would do had you more patience about you.

I know why the seat on the bike is loose. It acts as a sort of suspension. See, and I thought that the bikes were so ghetto. No! The loose seat makes up for the lack of suspension. I would not jump to rash conclusions if I had more patience.

The bell takes up a lot of the handlebar. This is so that I do not grab hold of too much of the handle bar. When one has patience, they do not grab more than what they need. (A person acting rashly hoards half of the handlebar with their hands.)

Also, the bell dings when I hit an irregularity in the road. (It happens quite often in Holland.) Because I am an American I do not sound the bell enough. As an American we think that people just know that we are coming. But here in Europe we need to give them the courtesy of ding on the bell in alert of our encroachment.

A new Week

Oh, we are in a new week. One day follows the other but yet another week is not something to scoff at. New things for this week are not that spectacular from what I can see. But good thing I am not looking for spectacular.

Speaking of not spectacular. I got another bike today. It seems a girl wanted the girl's bike so I got a non-girl's bike. This one is okay, but a bit smaller than the other. I guess I am used to it already but I am tired of these Holland specials. I am tired of pedaling my knees off and getting nowhere. A multi-speed bike is better than knee replacement surgery. But maybe the Dutch have good health plans.

Have a look at Jeremiah 34:1-6,21-22 and 39:5-10.
King Zedekiah was afraid of the nobles so he did not stand against them and heeded not Jeremiah's warnings. Then, as the Lord had spoken, the city of Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians and the nobles were put to death and Zedekiah was taken to Babylonia and had his eyes put out.
Why would someone, knowing the power of the Lord, not follow His will? Zedekiah's fear kept him bound. Why live in fear? Why not follow the Allmighty, who prevails against men?

Not Much Going On

I have been sick the past 3 or 4 days, but still the show goes on. I slept more and worked the same. Lately, I have had the evening shifts. They are not too bad when it is not stinking busy. But when it is, one feels so understaffed. But when it is slow, one feels so, well slow and dreary. Maybe once I am well, evening work will not feel like a downer. I cannot think of much that has happened this weekend so I am rambling about being sick and work.

I did have a thought earlier today about the Kingdom of God on Earth. It is like the Kingdom of God in Heaven. The Kingdom of God is realized on Earth the same way that it is in Heaven. In Heaven, we will worship the Lord; that's it. When we make our life a living worship, the Kingdom of God is realized on Earth. Our Creator does not want us to wait until we get to heaven to fulfill the purpose which we were created for.

What Truth?

For the past week and some change I have been reading The Case for a Creator. It seems much longer than that though. Tomorrow will be two weeks since I graduated from college, yet it almost seems a distant memory. Back to the point though. This book is pretty informative as well as easy to read; Lee Strobel, the author, is a journalist. I find in this book that many things that we have been taught are not true. The scientific items printed in our textbooks are just not true or presented with more emphasis than they require. One thing, is that Darwinism has been proven wrong for the most part and not so widely accepted. That may not be an insight to many but other things in the book make you wonder.

Java man, an 'ape-man' discovered in 1891 has been deemed as human, not a part of the missing link in the ape to human chain. A forgery and decisively poor science methodology is represented in Ernst Haeckel's embryo drawings. They were basically fake, the book goes into the ins and outs of this 'revelation.' The pensiveness about this is that Haeckel's contemporaries knew of this. Yet a hundred years after his drawings, his work is being printed in textbooks as fact.

There are some interesting historical 'misleadings' presented as well. Strobel brings forth that prior to Copernicus people did not believe that the Earth was the center of the universe. The prevailing thought was that more of Dante and an Aristotle view of the universe. Something that is almost shocking is the claim that prior to Columbus, the European world did not believe that the world was flat. They knew of the Earth as a sphere. Furthermore, the Greeks knew of this a thousand years prior.

The point of all of this is to analyze what you believe. If you find yourself basing your life on things that can or have been proven untrue, then what are you left with? Do you view your life as meaningless? If so then it is fine to let other people not only think for you but to give you a script to life.

And the Truth.....

Today was such a good day that I do not even need to comment on it. I woke up, was able to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I made it to work and back again. I also got a loaner bicycle; a girl's bike at that. I feel stylin now; if only it were pink with streamers and a bananna seat (yes bananna, a banana seat would just be squishy and downright gross). If I had a bananna seat, I would drop the bike a few inches and then I would be pimpin (figuratively of course). If I pimped my bike, I would probably get a scarf and wear it when I ride. In fact, if I pimp the bike myself, I would knit the scarf myself as well. Today was such a good day that I will post here a picture of my friends for no reason and even better, for no charge. Yes, gratis, frei, 19.95 if you call now.

Pictures and More

This morning we had our small group meeting. There were people there this time. We had a good time of fellowship, sharing, and prayer. A great start to the day and welcome addition to the week. I do not have to work until the evening today. While I enjoy the morning shift, it is nice to be able to do some things and have devotion before work.

I finally succeeded in getting pictures uploaded to the internet. Please enjoy them as I thouroughly and continuously enjoy them. They are posted here, or just use the links on the right side of the page to scope out my pictures. I have posted some from my current stay in Holland and will add more. Also, I have posted some pictures from my trip to the Keukenhof, a truly amazing place.

The Accident

After work yesterday I was about to head home when a couple of compatriates invited me along to Vondel Park with them. I could not resist a bicycle ride to the park; so we set off for the park. We were rolling along quite well when all of a sudden, the ground came rushing at me. The front of the bike stopped dead and I was slammed into the asphalt quite forcefully. Thankfully, I was not permanently damaged but only had scrapes and bruises on all four limbs. The bicycle was not as lucky; some duct tape came off of the chain gaurd. That is about all the worse that thing looked after the accident even though it was dead in the water. Some nice man even came along and helped me pull the bike off of the road telling me to relax. After we had assessed that the bike was not going anywhere, we walked home across town; the park a distant memory.

Relax, that is something that I did not get to do much of today on my day off. I spent the morning trying to repair the bike. I think that I am going to have to trade it in on another one. Maybe we can wrap the bicycle in a new layer of duct tape and give it a burial at sea. I spent the afternoon trying to get some pictures of my adventures uploaded to the internet; a task that has not yet been completed. But that is a horse of a whole other color and a story for a different kind of day.

I am a joy.

I am a joy.

This is a pretty cool posting. I decided to click the mouse button a few times and something happened. I am not exactly sure of the extent of it but it appears to be interesting. If I accidentally set off an ICBM, then Mr. President and world peace, I formally apologize. In the event that nothing devastating happens, then I may do this, whatever I did, again.

enjoy

Biking in Amsterdam

Well, moving around Amsterdam can be quite interesting. I remeber the first time that I was here. On the first day during rush hour, the traffic was seemingly mindless. It was a colorful parade of cars, mopeds, bicycles, pedestrians, and yes, even boats. Well, it is not as bad as Tegucigalpa, Honduras; but that is another story. So, I finally had time and climate weather to go for a bike ride yesterday. I rode around to Vondel Park.

It was a nice ride over to the park, though I found out quickly that event hough the city is relatively flat, a multi-speed bike would be very nice. I think that I have only seen one of those, which coincidentally looked a lot like my bike back home. The one that I have here is a nice, green spray paint special with a duct tape chain guard that criminals would leave alone. The bikes here look rather ghetto, no offense to the Dutch or anyone from the ghetto. You see these beauties everywhere, no really, everywhere in Amsterdam. In front of every building, lamppost, and on the rail along every canal. I will post a picture of the mass of bikes outside of central station. There is a 3 story bike garage and bikes are still lined up around the corner.

Back to my bike ride. Vondel park is very beautiful. There were many people there hanging out, catching some rays, rollerblading, jogging, biking, playing soccer, tennis, and even a violin. There were people having a good time with their friends, family, and children running around playing. I rode around the park 5 times and then headed home. Later, I rode around Amsterdam, taking the scenic route home. This is a great city for a bike ride or even a walk.

Keukenhof

Today the weather was nice and I had the day off, so I went down to Lisse to check out the flowers that I had been hearing about(Keukenhof). I took some money (that I did not come back with), a train, and a bus to get there. It is a great place with lots of beautiful flowers in wonderful arrangements. There are many people around checking things out, relaxing, or just chatting. The scenery compliments the flowers and the atmosphere is friendly, vibrant, and calm.

After Keukenhof, I decided to check out Leiden, a city near Lisse where I switched from train to bus. It is a great place to hang in or check out. I went to a windmill museum, De Valk, which is a working windmill. It was very interesting to see the inner workings of a windmill; they still grind flour there. Also showcased, is a windmill's place in society and the daily happenings.

Holland

I am currently in Holland; just got here yesterday. I will be here for 2 months. I was greeted by great weather; sunny and warm. Last time here, there was snow to greet us; that was cool. I will be working at The Shelter while here. It is a great place, check it out if you find yourself in Amsterdam. Thankfully, I just graduated from LeTourneau University and thought I would spend my break here. I head back home to Texas to work on a seminary degree.

Velkommen

Life as we know it has already started. Only they did not notify us until about almost 2 decades past the starting point. It took a few confused years to catch up. But I have the last laugh (only if I laugh last though).

And what do you do for a living

Don't, don't you see, marriage is a superstition

You got twelve, they got twelve. The old ladies is just as good as you are.

Arsenic and Old Lace

Electricity plus bookeeping equals state socialism.

Uncle Sam's Billion Dollar Baby

It seemed I constantly had to remind people that the university was not grocery store.

Reading Lolita in Tehran

As the old adage goes:

"More to come.."




What to do?