Nathanael’s Gecko Party
Nathanael had a gecko theme at his 2nd birthday party. He loves geckos – in fact, gecko was one of his first words. I'll try to upload some photos soon that will show a few more geckos, but here's an overview of the party…
Jim
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Helpful article on The Da Vinci Code
Today the movie The Da Vinci Code begins its journey into theatres all over the world. It opens in North America in 2 days, and in some parts of the world today. I’ve mentioned resources regarding this topic before (Da Vinci Code post 1, Da Vinci Code post 2), and I realize some of you have been overloaded with information. But I have one article I feel is worth mentioning, if you’re looking for good solid information.
First, in summary for those who have been living in a monastery over the last couple of years. The Da Vinci Code is a book and now a movie. It’s a fictional story that in some circles has been passed off as “based on fact”, about a conspiracy to cover the truth about Christianity. The supposed truth has to do with secret societies, lost documents and the revelation that Jesus was in fact married to Mary Magdeline.
Now anyone who has taken any time to look at the evidence soon discovers that there is very little fact mixed in with a whole lot of fiction. So in a sense, it’s hardly worth mentioning, except for the fact that some of the hype continues to give people false impressions. It seems the media loves a mystery, and loves to give the impression that there really is very little we can know for sure about Jesus.
On the contrary, there’s a whole lot of reliable historic information about Jesus. And that truth is more amazing than fiction could ever be. And although it’s amazing that some of this fiction from The Da Vinci Code is being taken as fact, it’s a great opportunity to clear up some misconceptions about Christianity that were around long before the book was published. Where did the Bible come from? How do we know anything about Jesus? Who was He?
Anyway, my Dad wrote this article, and I thought it was worth sharing. Why not print it out and have a copy on hand for those who ask you about it? He also pointed out a collection of info from Lee Strobel. He has a collection of short video clips you can watch online from several experts and teachers with the facts about the Da Vinci Code. And here’s the article from my Dad’s website:
A CRITIQUE OF THE NOVEL
Read about Mexico
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I’ve been reading this collection of essays by Octavio Paz Lozano, who was a Mexican poet, writer, and diplomat. In 1990 Octavio Paz won the Nobel Prize in Literature. El Laberinto de la Soledad, or The Labyrinth of Solitude is what I’m reading now (yes, I’m reading it in English this time!), and so far it’s very interesting. It was written in 1950, so obviously times have changed, but he still gives a lot of insight into what Mexico was and is. He also compares Mexico with the United States, which gives interesting insight into the USA as it was and is. Octavio Paz died in 1998.
If you’re looking for insight into Mexico, I have another place you can look. Our coworker in Mexico, Rod Fry, has started another blog. It’s called In the Shadow of Volcanos. I especially enjoyed the entry from April 29th, Guilt, Freedom and the Power of the Gospel. It’s long (as blog posts go), but it’s worth it.
Geckos and travelling Birth Certificates
This week we’ve been trying to get some of the paperwork that we need for our VISAs. It’s quite the procedure, as you may imagine! You wouldn’t believe all the paperwork that’s involved. Unless you’ve moved to another country, in which case you know exactly what I’m talking about. I figure that my birth certificate alone will have travelled 5x farther than me by the time we’re all settled in Mexico. That’s hardly fair! But of course, we’re paying for its travel. Each new form, each new stamp and certification, and another few bills leave our wallets. But I’m learning lots of things that I didn’t know before about the whole process.
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We’ve also been looking into the remaining immunizations we need, other needed paperwork and various things we need to deal with as we move. We’re getting together some Rubbermaid Roughneck bins to pack our stuff into. We can always use more of these – I’ll have to put the specs on our Get Involved! page, in case you have some kicking around that you don’t need. They’re on sale this week at Zellers, so I got a few to get us started. If we get a bunch of these the same size, they’ll be easier to stack and store on the road, and they’ll keep out dirt and bugs. Mostly.
In the midst of all this, we’re getting ready for Nathanael’s birthday party tomorrow. On Sunday he turns 2. Nathanael is having a gecko party – he loves geckos. In fact, gecko was one of his first words. So that should be fun. He just saw his birthday cake, so he’s pretty excited about that!
So that’s a bit of what we’ve been up to lately.
Wanted: 1 van
It’s been a whirlwind around here! Hannah’s birthday party is tomorrow, so we’re all a-flutter getting ready for that. It’s a butterfly party.
Anyway, we have a general idea what kind of a van we’re looking for, for those of you that have been curious. I have the details up on our Get Involved! page. If we could get this specific van donated (and yes, God could indeed do such a thing) then that would save us almost 1/2 of the Outgoing Funds we still need to raise. Of course, we may still need to raise some of that because we need to buy a trailer for it as well.
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We’re looking for a 2000-2005 Chevy Astro or GMC Safari passenger van, white, in good condition. Of course, the newer the better. I went to look at a couple this week, and I wrote a couple specifications down on the Get Involved! page. One thing that mystifies us are the child seat anchors. We’d like 4 of them, or more importantly 2 in the middle seat, so that Hannah and Nathanael could both be behind us. Some have 3 anchors, and some have 4, but we’re not sure if we can install a 4th or not. If anyone knows the answer to that one, let us know.
Anyway, if you know of anyone that might have one to donate, we could likely find a way to give them a tax receipt for it as a gift in kind.
In other news, do you know how much our rent is increasing? 9,171 Yen a month! That’s $90 Canadian, US$81.50, MXN$893 – however you slice it, it’s a HUGE increase. We’ve never seen an increase remotely close to this. And that’s not the only increase we’re facing, so we’d appreciate your prayers about that.
The good news is, we got news of some new pledges for our monthly support this week. Praise the Lord! I don’t know if our rent will be much cheaper in Cuernavaca, but it sure would be nice to be paying rent in Mexico instead of Canada. Here’s hoping…