First Pictures

"For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them." Psalm 139:13-16

We had our first "real" appointment today with the midwife. As you can see, an ultrasound was part of it, which included seeing and hearing our baby's heartbeat. I must admit I was sort of shocked to see an actual little baby on the screen... Our baby... This whole pregnancy thing is REAL. I think one of the first things I said out loud to Happy was "There's really a baby in there!" The midwife poked around a little and we saw the baby's arms flail a bit and a tiny leg kick out. I went back to work and showed EVERYONE pictures of our baby. Yes, I'm excited :-) I'm a bit scared, but mostly excited. When we heard the heart beating it was strong and consistent; I was praising the Lord for good reports of health and lots of just-as-it-should-be from the midwife. I know it's still early, but I'm amazed at how quickly God works to make a tiny little baby! Children really are a blessing from the Lord!

The little things...

First off, I realized that we never posted on our blog that I'm pregnant :-) Really. I am. This isn't a joke. I know it's not a joke because I threw up, ironically mainly in the morning, once each day since Tuesday. Today has been a bit of a fluke since I haven't spent any time with my head in the bowl, but I'm definitely not complaining.

Secondly, and the real reason for this post, was to share my joy in the little things that the Lord provides. This morning my Aunt Laura called me after we've played a long game of phone tag (perhaps two weeks now). It's been a blessing to keep in better contact with her since our visit to the East coast in June. Part of our conversation was talking about finances with a baby on the way. I shared that I am mostly excited and confident that the Lord will provide, but I have my what-if days. She encouraged me with what she tells her two daughters, "Somehow it always works out." I'm thankful to serve a God who does always work it out, whether through trials and difficulty or through orchestrating events in a surprisingly pleasant way. He knows just what He's doing and it is exactly what is best.

After such a lovely conversation on my ride to work I realized that I still was feeling good (as in, not queasy) and thanked the Lord for that and my aunt's call. Since then, the day has been fairly uneventful as I've had an abundance of energy (which is abnormal) and been able to get much done. The next little thing came when I was supposed to be taking my lunch but working through it because food didn't sound pleasant. At about 12:20 someone came in with Chinese food and it smelled SO good. Unfortunately, I needed to be at the front desk answering phones at 12:30 and didn't have time to go get food. Chagrinned, I came downstairs to relieve Kelly from her phone duties thinking maybe I might convince her to stay a few minutes longer so I could run and get food. Here's how the exchange went:

Amy (carrying a bunch of papers and work to do at the front desk): Are you ready, Kelly?
Kelly: Oh! I'm so sorry! It smells a lot like Chinese food! I don't want to make you sick!
Amy: No worries, I've REALLY been craving it since Alicia brought it upstairs.
Kelly: Really?? Do you want some of mine? They gave me WAY too much!
Amy: YES!!! I would LOVE some!!! You just made my day!
Kelly: Okay, just take this (handing me her to-go box FULL of chow mein) to the kitchen and get a plate and take what you want. Thanks! I thought I was going to have to throw a bunch away!
Amy: Kelly, you are my best friend right now. Seriously. I'm so excited for this chow mein.

I know, I'm a huge dork. But I walked away thinking I have nothing to fear because my God will take care of me... Even when I don't think it's "important" enough to ask. Yeah, it's been a good day all because of the little things...

Knowing God

I'm finally reading a book I've always wanted to read. That book is J.I. Packer's Knowing God. I'm reading for my Theology I class and it has already proven in the first several pages why it is a modern classic. Today, I found this warning especially helpful:

If we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited. The very greatness of the subject matter will intoxicate us, and we shall come to think of our interest in it and grasp of it; and we shall look down on those whose theological ideas seem to us crude and inadequate and dismiss them as very poor specimens.

May we all take heed.

A Day With Mark

On Friday, September 11, I spent the latter half of my day with our Senior Pastor's son Mark. Mark's mom - Susie - was with the women of our church (including Amy) at the women's retreat, and Pastor Ron was attending to the needs of a grieving family that had just lost a husband, father, grandfather, et al. So I volunteered to hang out with Mark and we had a great day going to Corona Del Mar and playing at the beach, and then heading back to Garden Grove to play on a playground. Check out the pictures here.

Throw 'Em A Bone!

Okay, keeping up with this blog has been next-to-non-existent, so to prevent me from going crazy in my office right now, I decided to post the books I'm reading/studying right now for those who care:

The UBS Greek New Testament
Christian Theology, Millard Erickson
Knowing God, J.I. Packer
Kregel Dictionary of the Bible and Theology, Henry Holloman (my Theology I professor)
O Pioneers!, Willa Cather
Get Outta My Face!, Rick Horne
College Ministry 101, Chuck Bomar
Everlasting Dominion, Eugene Merrill
Exodus, Philip Ryken
Exodus, John Currid

Exodus, R. Alan Cole

Exodus, James Bruckner

Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, Daniel Wallace

Moral Choices, Scott Rae

There it is!

End of Summer

A lot has gone on this summer. Amy and I have been all over California and New England. As life stays busy, we update the blog less and less. One major contributing factor to less blog time is more Facebook time, but I plan to post on Facebook every time that I update our blog. For today, how about some updated pictures?! Go here to see pictures of our trip to New England in June, our camping trip with Jacob and Sarah Ailes, our trip to the Huntington Library and Gardens for our anniversary, the VBC college/career camping trip, and my trip to climb Mt. Whitney.

School resumes for me next Thursday, and I look forward to moving to the halfway point of my seminary education. This summer, I have also learned a lot about how to help in the kitchen. I've made many meals, though most of them have been very simple. Someday, Amy and I hope to have several children, and we hope that Amy will be able to be at home with them and not have to work. As crazy as a dream that that is in Southern California, we pray that God would allow us to do that soon. Doing the laundry, cleaning the apartment, shopping for groceries and making dinners have helped me appreciate my mom and all the hard work she did around our house growing up. It also points me to a day when I'm done with school, working full time and able to come home to a loving, helpful, creative wife and beautiful babies. Until that day comes, we will work hard for the glory of God, "knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord" (I Cor. 15:58).

Today is . . .

John Calvin's 500th birthday. Happy birthday Johnny!

Hated by many, loved by a few and known by virtually all to some degree, I believe that John Calvin was a great man, evidenced by his fierce love for God and his undying desire to see God glorified. Don't tell an Arminian, but he was also an aggressive missionary trainer and sender!

Although there's tons of websites to go to today about Calvin, let me recommend a few:

Desiring God (John Piper)
Between Two Worlds (Justin Taylor)
Reformation 21 (Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals)
Calvin 500 (Calvin Conference in Geneva)

The Ankle

It's been a eight days, so I figure I'd post quickly about my ankle. Yep, that's it over there. Well, that's it last Monday, June 1, a couple hours after I sprained it playing basketball. Here's how it happened:

On Mondays and Thursdays this summer, we have early morning basketball gatherings in our gym at Village Bible Church starting at 6:30am. As we were playing last Monday, I got a rebound underneath the basket. Because I was almost directly underneath the hoop, I took a dribble out and jumped up for a shot.

I made the shot, but I hardly noticed that because when I landed my left ankle rolled (inversion is the technical term. You learn a lot from injuries!) and I and at least one other person heard a loud POP!

As you can imagine, I immediately fell to the ground, writhing in pain and trying not scream, cry or whimper. About a minute later two guys helped me up and carried/dragged me to the pew that runs along the side of the gym wall. I laid down and elevated the ankle. Someone got a baggy of ice from the kitchen and I began to ice it. The teams began to play again and about an hour later, I limped very slowly to the car after locking everything up.

The picture above is a few minutes after I took my shoe off, allowing the ankle to swell up.

Today my ankle is much smaller but still swollen. I went to the doctor a week ago today and the X-rays came back negative so I have still never broken a bone in my body, praise the Lord! However, several people have told me that sometimes a severe sprain like this takes longer to heal because of all the "soft tissue" damage. We'll see. The bruising that began on Tuesday and especially Wednesday is still around. I guess the blood find natural "gutters" in the body and so all around the base of my foot there is a purple "stain." It has even spread to my three smallest toes, coloring them a nice shade of purple. I have been icing and elevating and using a nifty boot from a friend at church who broke the growth plate in his ankle last year. The boot has been very helpful, as it allows me to get as close to fully functional as possible.

We leave tomorrow for New England, so we'll see how my ankle does at 30,000 feet. I also plan on bringing the Ace bandage and an ankle brace for the trip. Someone mentioned that Satan may be trying to discourage me from all the youth activities we have planned for the summer. Because I believe that God is sovereign over even Satan, I have looked at this as an opportunity to be reminded of my frailty and vanity. It is humbling to hobble around on crutches. It requires patience to take much longer to get places and to do even the easiest things. Whatever the reason, to God be the glory.

Click on the huge ankle above to see some updated pictures!

Just a Thought

Sometimes when not a lot of youth show up for our Tuesday night service (we call it Reality Check), I begin to feel discouraged. I have to fight that feeling with the knowledge that God is sovereign and then investigate how I'm doing as the teacher and "overseer" of Reality Check. This quote by 19th century pastor John Brown from Mark Dever's What is a Healthy Church? was really helpful:

I know the vanity of your heart, and that you will feel mortified that your congregation is very small, in comparison with those of your brethren around you; but assure yourself on the word of an old man, that when you come to give an account of them to the Lord Christ, at his judgment-seat, you will think you have had enough.

One Down . . . Several More to Go!

Well, we've come to the end of another school year. I took my last final Thursday morning. It has been a long semester and Amy still has a few weeks left to finish her Managerial Accounting class. We're relieved as there were times during the semester where it felt like there was absolutely time to stop and take a breath together. I am so grateful to God for a loving wife who puts aside some of her desires to work hard full-time so that I can serve at our church part-time and go to school full-time. I love her and long for the day when she can be at home with little Gilmores. We wait for the Lord.

Yesterday, in order to celebrate the end of one year in seminary, she surprised me with a skimboard! I lost mine in college, and every time we go to the beach I remember how fun it was to look like a moron falling off my skimboard onto the sand or into the waves. Guess what we'll be doing Memorial Day weekend?

Here are some pictures from our recent trips to Tucson, Arizona and Caldwell and Meridian, Idaho.

This summer will be a full one with many youth group activities, a trip to New England, a trip to hike Mt. Whitney and many other things. We look forward to see what God has for us this summer.