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.

1.3 Miles from Church

Right now I'm so thankful that the Lord has allowed us to find and move to a nice (and relatively cheap) apartment that's 1.3 miles from our church. I say that because we've been here most of the day and there's a long night ahead for Happy & Nick as they finish the YUGO video for the Youth/YUGO service tomorrow. The entire service will be run by the youth and Happy will be preaching for the first time in front of our church. It's supposedly a 23 minute sermon, but most who've heard him preach know it will more than likely go a tad over :-) There's just so much to say! What a blessing to have a husband who loves God and His Word! The rest of the service will be filled with the video, music led by the youth and several testimonies from the students who went down to Mexico earlier this month. I'm really looking forward to it. Please pray for Happy and all the students involved tomorrow. Pray that it would go relatively smoothly and that the spark that God has lit in the youth will spread to the rest of our church. Pray that God would receive all the glory.

YUGO Update

Okay, it's not going to be that exciting. I did get to talk to Happy on Tuesday for approximately 12 1/2 minutes :-) He's doing well, even though he forgot his notes and Bible for the first message he was giving at an evening service. I didn't get many details in that 12 1/2 minutes, but do pray for him as the week is winding down.

Lisa, I figured out why you couldn't see the haircut album.... and now it's there. I had accidentally made it "Unlisted" instead of "Public." Oops.

For those of you who have been praying for me as Happy is gone all week, I greatly appreciate it! So far, the week seems to have gone fairly quickly and I did get to take my accounting mid-term last night. I'm feeling a little less pressure at the moment. This post isn't all that exciting, but I decided it was worth it to share that God answers prayer! I'm thankful for my relatively uneventful week :-D

YUGO, I Go, Some of Us Go to YUGO

Hello faithful readers of this not-often-updated-anymore blog!

I'm writing to let you know that today I'm leaving on a week-long mission trip with several adults and a bunch of high schoolers and college students for Mexicali, Mexico. We are going with a mission organization called YUGO (Youth Unlimited Gospel Outreach). Our church has been to Mexico with this mission a bunch of times over the last two decades, so we have many veterans going on the trip. Amy won't be able to come, because of work, so as you pray for our team, please pray for Amy back here at home.

I'll come home with an update and hopefully some pictures. Hasta luego!

Quote of the Day

I'm reading Unfinished Business: Return the Ministry to the People of God by Greg Ogden. It's required reading in my Theology IV class (Church and Last Things). Here's the quote:

The analogy has often been drawn between the way we play church and a football game. Bud Wilkinson, legendary former head coach at the University of Oklahoma, was asked, when he became head of the President's Council on Physical Fitness, "What contribution does professional football make to the fitness of Americans?" He answered, "A professional football game is a happening when 50,000 people desperately needing exercise sit in the stands watching 22 people desperately needing rest."

How true that is, especially in America. What can we do to change this?

Amy's Hair Cut and Other Stories

This is for you, Lisa. And if you want a few more pictures, they are on the second Web Album in the sidebar. Wow, I've posted twice in one month!

Tonight we're having dinner at the home of a family at our church. The husband/dad has a personality very similar to Happy's and, we've been told, makes some really good meat. I'm looking forward to the evening, which I'm sure will be filled with laughter and really, really great jokes :-)

Tomorrow morning we'll be helping some friends move to an apartment just down the street from their current abode. I think we have a free Saturday night after the move.... whoa.... more than likely it will be filled with homework. Some times I think back on college and wonder why I thought life after college would include more free time. Does life ever slow down? My co-worker told me yesterday that she thinks we are always busy. I sort of just stared blankly at her. Some days I need a reminder of why I do all the things I do, but most days I don't even think about it. What a blessing to be a part of a church where we can stretch ourselves and serve others with joy!

As a youth group, Happy challenged us to read through the Bible in a year. Right now we're in Proverbs and Titus. It's been a little while since I've read Proverbs, but it's pretty much killing me every time I read it--mostly in the wisdom area. How much I have to learn! I'm thankful for all the examples of wise people the Lord has put in my life (one of them being my husband!), but I look forward to heaven even more when I see these glimpses of how far off I really am. Praise the Lord that His mercies are new every morning!

New Apartment!!!

Here is a very exciting tour of our new apartment. There are new pictures on the web album too, if you'd prefer to get some still ones... or if the video doesn't work :-) And yes, I'm crazy and unpacked in less than a week. I don't like living in chaos. My commute is a tiny bit longer but Happy's is much shorter, and we're a 3 or 4 minute drive to church--what a blessing! We've already taken advantage of the short drive several times.

In other news, the 30 Hour Famine went very well and we appreciate all those who partnered with us through prayer and financially. Fasting is a wonderful way for me to see the sinfulness of my heart, but I'm so thankful that the sin is already paid for!

I'm still working at the same company in the accounting department, running payroll each week. We've had many layoffs of the guys on the field and there will be many more to come. I've heard we're letting go of 100+ guys within a month! Makes me a little nervous, but I'm trusting in the Lord's provision--whether that's here or through another means. So, I try to remind myself to be thankful for my job, especially on the third day in a row that I've worked on ONE audit all day long.... I can say for sure that I'm thankful that my work day is only 8 hours long :-)

Also, please pray for Happy in Greek. I'm not sure he'll like me advertising this on the blog, but it's not an easy language! Pray that the Lord would grant him clarity and understanding as he studies. And pray for the upcoming YUGO trip to Mexico! There are many details involved in leading a mission trip, and it's that much harder since he's never been there.

That's all for now. I know it's been a long time since I've updated the blog, but my mom-in-law did request photos of the new apartment :-) You'll have to come visit soon!!