A little bit jealous

Could you imagine if all this rain was snow? I love snow. I love winter. I love playing in the snow be it skiing, tubing, snowball fights, whatever, snow is just so cool (pardon the pun). And yet we here in DE suffer mostly brown winters. We get plenty of rain and a little ice but not much snow. And you know what I just talked to Matt Grace the other night and they had 4 inches of snow in Denver!! Not only that but Matt and Bri had spent their one yr. anniversary (Woot) in Vale, CO and they had 8 inches there!!!!! So I am a bit green around the gills as they say. I so want to move out there and Lord willing I will.

How young is too young?

So how old should pastors be when they start preaching? Reagan started at 16, Graham at 19, but how about before they hit the double digits? How about at age 8 or 9? Can they really know the gospel well enough to preach it? Are they truly mature enough in their faith to be able to preach the word? What if they are being manipulated by parents? If they are a proven preacher should seminaries relax some standards and allow them to learn?
Well we have two kids that are doing just that? They are preaching the word to their congregations and in one case the kid is preaching to many churches. Is this some of the foolishness that Jesus warned us about would happened in the end times? Anyway here is the article, tell me what you think....
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3717627&page=1

Praise!!

So if you had been ill, had to be fed via stomach tube, had not physically eaten for 150 days, how good do you think food would taste to you? What would you want to eat? It is something we take for granted but many of my patients who have been on a feeding tube say it is torture to not be able to chew food or taste what they are eating. Well Charity has been in that situation for a long time now, but no longer..read an excerpt from her web blog...


Charity had only one therapy session today. She was preparing us all for an unusual surprise!! SHE ATE NEARLY A WHOLE CONTAINER OF APPLESAUCE!! How would applesauce taste after nearly 150 days of not eating anything? Join us in giving thanks to the Lord for this special moment in Charity's life. This afternoon, Matt and Lori (friends of Charity) stopped by just after Jeremy and the girls had left for Holdrege. They offered to sit with Charity while Sylvia and I took a coffee break together. During that time Charity had her scheduled Speech Therapy. The therapist tried the applesauce and crushed ice again. Lori reported that Charity was swallowing good, and frequently the therapist would ask her to say "ahhh". She was clearing everything good. She tries crushed ice with her as well. The bigger chunks were actually easier to swallow (because they don't liquify as quickly). She ate nearly a whole container (the size of a small yogurt). It was quite a moving experience for Lori who has been with us through some of those most torturous days. At one point Charity was not swallowing the applesauce and the therapist noted that Charity was probably just "holding it in her mouth" to savor the flavor. Charity nodded her head, "yes" she was enjoying the taste! Later the therapist then asked Charity to say the names of her kids. She said, “SOFIA”, then “ELLA” for Bella which is a shortened form of Isabella. Then she was asked to say her husband’s name. With such clarity that it surprised the therapist she said, “JEREMY”. Then she asked Charity who the friend was in the room. Charity answered with “hori” for Lori. In the session Charity also said to the therapist, “I want more ice”. As we’ve mentioned before in our Journal, speech therapy is one of Charity’s most important sessions, today it was so good to see her not only producing speech, and eating but demonstrating good memory and cognitive strength. AN IMPORTANT PRAYER REQUEST Nearly every time something good takes place a setback happens. There is a concern we are monitoring this week-end. They x-rayed Charity’s abdomen today and there is an increased amount of free air in her abdomen cavity. She needs to see the GI (Gastro-Intestinal) specialist. We had the option to transfer her today to the hospital BryanLGH to check this out. So far we have chosen to keep her here at Madonna. Reasons: While somewhat uncomfortable she doesn’t seem to be in acute pain from it The GI surgeon who has followed her is not on call this week-end. We would prefer him to examine her since he knows her case history best. We would rather move carefully and do as little invasive work as possible. I will be “hanging out” with Charity overnight. So I want to have wisdom to know if there is anything of concern developing. As you pray, praise the Lord for this very special experience in such a long battle for her. -Phil

Dessert

Now I love desserts! I blame my affection for almost all confections on my grandmother who at 86 still eats desserts on a regular basis. I love my desserts so much that if I get a dessert with my meal it goes down the hatch first. It doesn't matter if I have prime rib with shrooms and onions or grouper stuffed with crab imperial with dollops of lobster on top, that dessert is going bye-bye! Desserts must be a a good line item for most restaurants as I see sinfully, small slices of cake for the same price as a huge plate of buffalo chicken nachos or 8 wings. And while I love dessert, sometimes you can go a little to far...like paying$14.500..insane...
http://www.zimbio.com/The+Fortress+Stilt+Fisherman+Indulgence/articles/2/Most+Expensive+Dessert+World

Edit: I apologize for my misspellings. I confuse the spelling of desert with dessert fairly easily and for years I had it spelled correctly. Then, recently, I was challenged by someone in the teaching profession and thought, "Hey they teach, they know what they are talking about." I guess not.

Ouch!

So a guy who was pronounced dead in a hospital was not as dead as he had appeared!! Man that is scary...I definitely do not want to have to go to our morgue now.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/autopsy_dc

Should Marriage be over in 7 years?

So it would appear that a politician, thankfully not from the USA, in Germany thinks that marriage should be over after 7 years. She believes that, "The basic approach is wrong ... many marriages last just because people believe they are safe," she told reporters. "My suggestion is that marriages expire after seven years." After that time, couples should either agree to extend their marriage or it should be automatically dissolved, she said." Anyway if you want to read the rest of this trash. check out....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070921/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_germany_politics_marriage

My exercise regimen

So after having my Rower take up space in the living room for the last two weeks, I have finally put it together and it is ready for rigorous (I hope) use. Now that my Ultimate season is pretty much over I am going to need to work out to stay in shape on a regular basis. So for the foreseeable future. I will be working out on my elliptical and rower 4-5 times a week for up to 1 1/2 hours. Man I miss Ultimate already :P

P3

So I am midway through my first week of my residency. Orientation is over (Thanks God!) and so it is time to visit patients. My clinical assignment is Pain and Palliative and Pediatrics (or as I like to call it P3). And what that means is that I will be visiting Peds patients (ages from 4-24) that may be trauma patients, young mothers, etc and trying to support them and their families through their time in the hospital. For me that will be easy. The much tougher part will be the Pain and Palliative Units.

The pain unit is for patients that have chronic pain from an infection, surgery, cancer, etc that just will not go away and is so severe they have to come to the hospital to relieve it. Usually they are very hard to interact with as they need to have their pain brought down to a level that is bearable. Once they are at that level they still may be hard to support.... well b/c they are in constant, high level, pain. And if you have ever been in a high level of pain for a long time you would know that the last thing you want to do is talk to someone. Or on the flip side if you are with someone who is in a lot of pain, it is hard to be there as we as humans find it hard to be around someone who is in a lot of agony. However they still need to be supported both Spiritually and emotionally.

Finally, the hardest unit, is the Palliative unit. This is end of life care. Every person who is in the unit will die. They may not die in the hospital, they may be sent to Hospice, but they will die normally within 1-2 months. And they stay with us for that time, if the patient can not be stabilized to be discharged. This is hard. Death is hard. Even for Christians, whom have an amazing hope and future after death, Death is hard. Who here wants to loose a parent, sibling, relative, or friend? We all want them to be here for as long as possible and when we are told they are going or are gone even the strongest Christian will be brought to their knees; and that is OK....Grief is normal. It is hard trying to help a family deal with a patient who has suddenly become terminally ill/stroke/heart attack and whom they may not be communicative with their loves ones even unto their death. Thus their love ones will not have closure. It is hard for families whose love one has been fighting for years, whom they have been with each and every day (maybe hour) of the patent's illness, and yet they still do not want them to die. It is hard to tell families it is time to stop being aggressive in treating their loved ones and that we, the health care team, have done all we can do and it is time to say goodbye.

Believe it or not this is exactly where I want to be. I am thinking of becoming a hospice chaplain when I finish my residency next Sept. And so this year will be very hard but it will be a great training and learning experience for me. I believe God will be stretching me very far beyond my usual limits and I will be way outside my comfort zone (remember I am a introvert).

I ask for prayer. I have already had two deaths, one of which I was in the room for and I expect many more... right now I know of one that will be happening soon. And that is a lot different than my internship as I would normally come and be with the family after the patient had died. Now, a majority of the time, I will be with the family when the patient passes and man will that be hard! And man I CANNOT DO THIS WITHOUT GOD or your prayers, thus I thank you in advance.

Hey all,
Sorry for the lack of postings. I have been busy trying to figure out what exactly I will be doing for India and readjusting to being a chaplain after a three week hiatus. More posts will be coming soon.

And this is faith

This is an excerpt from the journal on Charity Goeorge's web page. This is from her father....

Charity arrived back at Madonna around 5 pm. It hasn't been as peaceful of a day as the previous two days, particularly her eyes and vision seemed to be bothering her. Even so she was quite responsive to questions asked of her. One thing we noticed the resulted from the abdomen abcess and her not being able to take medications through the feeding tube together with the transfer between hospitals is that her medication list got somewhat messed up. Some medications were dropped and some weren't resumed as we thought they had been. This however might give us a bit of an idea how her body responds to some of the medications. Because she was off the Celexa anti-depressant for several days (she is back on it) we are watching to see how that might affect her emotions. I arrived back in Kansas City near 10:30pm so that leaves Sylvia solo at Charity's side until Jeremy gets back to Lincoln later this week. We keep looking for answers, and hang onto hope for as long as the Lord gives Charity life. There still are some promising possibilities for her. We look for the Lord to allow, and guide all the pieces to come together to make those possibilities, realities for Charity. While this spiral of events in these last months continues to leave us all deeply wounded, perplexed, and uncertain of the future we cling to the reality that God is, He is sovereign and He is ultimately good.

Another year another piece of me gets older

So as I have gotten older pieces of my body have started to break down or need to be stretched before I do things. Such as before I was 29 I never had to stretch before sports or hiking unless it was a big game. However, now, unless I want to waddle like a duck for a few days I had better stretch before hand. Or my hearing slowly becoming worse over the years, but that might not be a bad thing because by the time I am 40 I wont be able to hear my wife {edited*} ask me to do things :). I kid.. I kid...Well I had to get my eyes checked for a physical recently and I did rather horribly. I use to have 20/20 but a week ago I found out that I cant see below line 5 in my right eye and below line 4 in my left. You know you are eyes are going when the doctor says "And they let you drive w/o glasses?!?" So when my insurance kicks in (My hospital insurance gives me an allowance per month) in Sept. Ill be getting some glasses. SO LADIES WATCH OUT!! Because my sexiness will increase 100 fold.

*nag

Nickel Creek: So long and thanks for all the fish

Well I got the chance to see Nickel Creek live this past weekend and they were really good. I heard most of my favorite songs and they mostly stayed away from their 3rd cd which is my least fav. album of theirs. Unfortunately the night was broken up by a few things. First, was the realization that this was their farewell tour. That is not cool! Second, was the drunken idiots who were heckling the band. Third, was Fiona Apple. Now to be somewhat fair to her the MANN did not have speakers pointed in our direction and as I am going deaf by degrees it was hard to hear what she was singing. And she had a great voice and probably would make an excellent blue singers instead of whatever genre she was in. However even if I could have understood her voice I would have still hated her performance because of her dancing. Her dance looked like someone dressed in a Salem witch outfit, on cocaine, animated by Tim Burton while moshing. Now this was interesting for all of 5 min. but to have to endure her weird music and her "dancing" for 45min that was unbearable and I will never pay $ to see her again.

Side note 1: If you go to the MANN do not sit in the balcony unless you really know the bands', whom you are going to see, music. There are no speakers up there.
Side note 2: If you know from what book comes the title of this blog, You win.

This week

So this week is much more open and not planned. By the end of the week I fully expect to be stir crazy and wishing I had to go to work. My plans are: Read a few books that Brett gave me, work on my elliptical, mem. some vs for appropriate use in the hospital, Disc Golf and Ultimate, and read Our Greatest Gift: Meditation on Dying and Caring, A by Henri J. M. Nouwen and
Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World by Henri J Nouwen. I also have a book coming via mail Getting Serious About Getting Married: Rethinking the Gift of Singleness by Debbie Maken which is probably not much different than some of the issues brought up in Passion and Purity,: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christs Control by Elisabeth Elliot but Ill read it anyway because Ill get pie. And ladies and gents you can never have too much pie.

Recap on last week

So on Monday, my Bible study and I went kayaking down the Brandywine and it was a very relaxing time. I am sure though both Dave and I would like the river to be higher next time, so Mark get working on that.
On Tues. I did nothing but chill.
On Wed. I got schooled by Brett on the Disc Golf course and had to dish out some $ for dinner at Sofritos. It was a great day to be out but a crappy day to loose. Plus I lost two disks.
On Thurs. I met with Pastor Bo and told him how my internship went and when I would like to start working on my ordination. I also had a so-so day playing Ultimate.
On Fri. I went out to lunch with my Dad, read The Hostage by W.E.B. Griffin and played a new CPU game.
On Sat. I declined to go disc golfing with Brett and Brian (due to my earlier performance) and later was called by Brett to tell me it was a good idea that I did. The rough had been deliberately left to grow about waist high and so a course that normally took 1hr-1hr15min. to do took 21/2 hrs. Plus Brian lost two disks. Later that day I helped a new friend move into her house and then I went to see Nickel Creek.

WED Aug 15th

So The day has come, or will come, that I have been looking forward to for many a yr. My disc Golf partners and I have been talking about doing an all day disc golf tourney between us for a while now and we are finally going to do it. Tomorrow we will start at Cape Henlopen, then go to Killen Pond, and then to Lums. It will be Hot, it will be grueling (that is why I am getting a massage on Thurs), and I will be the victor!! Winner get dinner at a decent restaurant! Stay tuned and Matt sorry you can't be here to help pay for my dinner.

Chappie#5

So my internship is over and I have learned a lot. I plan to give a few insights over the next three weeks but for now I am enjoying my second day of my three week vacation.
What will I be doing? Well yesterday I kayaked down the Brandywine river with my small group, saw a good movie (review forthcoming), and ate at a new, new for me, Chinese Buffet. Today I am working around my room, reading Spurgeon, blogging, making dinner, and playing video games. Tomorrow I will be playing disc golf all day and Thurs I will be getting a massage and of course playing Ultimate. Fri is up for grabs and Sat. I will be going to see Nickle Creek.
So I do have some fun stuff planned, but I think the challenge for me will be to stay spiritually focused and to be preparing for the year to come.

Kite Runner

So I know I said I would have a review up a month ago, but my internship was requiring more and more of my time so I did not get a chance to put a review up.

I liked the Author's use of words and images. I felt that I could easily visualize where the main character was at all times. I especially enjoyed the first Kite tourney. I also liked the author's use of foreshadow and irony. Finally I enjoyed the frailty of the main character as I see any of us acting in the same way, in his situations, if we did not have God as our Rock.

However to me this book was not an amazing piece of literature and I have read books that are far harsher in their depiction of reality. There was no huge revelation at the end of the book that made me want to realign my views to the authors nor was there a challenge to any of my beliefs etc.

The reason I think that so many people loved this book was that it was their first time initiation to this type of reality. Sure this book is ficton, but I believe it depicts accurately the reality of Afghanistan and in many cases is much worse. I also think that many people were surprised at the fact that someone with Afghan roots could be a good writer, which I think is a shame.

Anyway the book was decent and if you need something to pass the time please pick it up. Or if maybe you are thinking of being a missionary to that area then this could be a good intro to Afghanistan.

Saying goodbye

I have had the pleasure of knowing Jeremy George since we were kids. We were pretty good friends up until 2nd grade when I moved to a new school and I believe his family went to a new church. However we reunited first in Kairos in 1997 and than as interns for Pastor Bill Heider where we once again became fast friends. Jeremy was part of the tri-fecta of men who once said that doing youth ministry is like getting paid to eat Ice-cream. We became so close that in the summer of 2000 I was invited to be in his wedding where he was married to Chairty. Now it is 2007 and it is hard to believe that he has been married for 7 years....7 years that regardless of what happens in the future he would not give up for anything.
For those of you who do not know Charity had a brain lesion that has severely impaired her. She cannot eat on her own, can only move her head a little, and can barely breathe. My heart has been broken time and time again as I have read the journals of Jeremy, His parents, and her family. However as many times as it has been broken my heart has been restored and encouraged as everyone involved has spoken of their faith, and how it has grown, in our Lord despite their situation.
Today Jeremy has sort of said goodbye to Charity. Not that he has given up hope nor has Charity spelled out anything more than "Thy will Be done", but they are starting to say their goodbyes, in case the Lord decides now is the time for her to go home. Here is today's journal, read, be broken, and be encouraged

Today, Charity continues to show clarity of mind and soundness of mind. As you heard from Phil already, there are some medical concerns that have arisen that are being addressed in a precautionary manner. I am so thankful for that. Our charge nurse is really a quality person who is monitoring Charity in a really wonderful way. She keeps us informed and shows great concern for Charity and us whenever she tells us anything about her condition. Today during speech therapy, Charity spelled out a request. That request spelled out "kilme." At first that seems like a desperate plea, but not if you take the time to sit and ask my wife why she said what she said. I asked her if she was more afraid of living like this than she was of dying. She nodded her head , "yes." I asked her if that was because she knew that there was something much better waiting for her. She nodded her head, "yes." I asked her if it was because it would be better to be with Jesus. She nodded "yes." My next reply to her was, "heaven must be the most wonderful place because none of this is there." She began crying as I embraced her and nodded once again, "yes." I then asked her if she was going to hold on to Jesus through this. Once again, and with an unsettling calm, she nodded, "yes." Jesus, You and You alone have kept my wife in her faith. That is more valuable to me than her getting better, so I praise You, my Lord and my God for what you have done in her heart and what you are doing. I sensed Your smile over her as she confessed her faith in You, and her love for You which today has surpassed her love for me and for our daughters. I praise You Jesus. Be glorified in my wife's life and testimony. Thank you for encouraging me today by my wife's faith. In Jesus' Name, Amen. Jeremy

If you want to read the whole faith story http://charitygeorge.com/index.php?page=blog

The Moo mobile is put out to pasture

So Matt always threatened to buy some rims for my van (The Mooo mobile) as I did not have hubcaps on two of my wheels. He said they would be able to rotate on there own, and he wanted them so he would not be embarrassed by his friend who didn't shell out $50 for two hubcaps. Now in my defense, I have shelled out between $400-900 each year for the last three years for this van and I was sick of doing that. I also knew I was driving this van into the ground and so I was not going to shell out $50 just for cosmetic purposes. But now the Moo mobile has been put out to pasture, it has moooed its last mooo and is now a cube of metal crushed by some compactor in some junk yard.
Why? Well the last thing to go was my turn left turn signal on the left side for both the front and back. And even though my mechanic had looked at it 4-5 times (it had been working intermittently over the past year), he could not figure out what was going on and so he said that he would need to tear apart the door which would cost me $500+. Now I have already spent $400 for a busted sliding door window and so there was no way that was going to happen. Alas I have almost gotten into 4-5 accidents because people cannot tell that I am making a left hand turn. Thus my father, the great man that he is, said I could have his car for awhile as he only worked 2 min away from the home. So for the past 2 months I have had his silver van and things have been going well.
Well at least until he almost got hit turning into our neighborhood because the person did not realize my dad was making a left hand turn. And so someone needed to get a car. And so we did. We now own a brand new 2007 Rav4. It is bluish-silver and is pretty cool. And so now my mom has joined the SUV craze and my moo mobile was turned in for a $900 credit. And now my dad has his van back.... so now what do I have? I bought my mom's 2001 Camery. It is a pretty sweet ride and everything works in it and thus we are all happy and satisfied.

Wednesdays

I love Wednesdays! Why because they are the day before Thursdays. And Thursdays are the day where between the months of April and October I can fly. I fly in the freezing rain of April, soar over the green grass of May, swing through the warm rays of June, float through the heat of July, sloag through the wasting heat of August, then soar once more through the cooling winds of September, and then fly once again through leaving light of October. All those wonderful Thursdays I am doing one thing an done thing only. I may win or I may loose. I may be the big defensive wall that flies out of no where to knock down your point, or the dancing bear as I make an unbelievable leap and grab for the win. Or I may gasp as my asthma clogs my lungs or I may be just too tired to do anything more than stand (yeah right). But I will, Lord willing, play Ultimate Frisbee every Thursday between the months of May-Oct and I will glorify the Lord with playing my best.