For Kendyl

Twice during church it was urgent that Bereket tell me something.

      First time- "Mommy, I soooo hungwee" (That happens every week.)
   
     Second time- "I miss Kendyl."

I sure will be glad when he can see Kendyl again.

Good Answer!

This week has been an interesting week.   All 3 boys have been grounded from the TV and video games.

Joshua has been grounded from both television and video games lately because he has still has yet to learn his multiplication tables.  Now, understand that this is the same boy who can read a bunch of cheat codes for a video game and remember them all.  You see, the reason he doesn't know his multiplication tables is not because they are too hard but because he hasn't actually sat down to learn them. 

Anyway, tonight he was practicing them and every five minutes or so he would come and say, "test me."  I'd ask a couple of questions and he would miss one.  With it being Friday night (the night the boys get to stay up and watch TV) he, as well as the other 2 boys, were very anxious to get ungrounded.  We told the boys that if Joshua learned his multiplication tables then they would all be free to watch TV.  Feromsa went right to work on this very important task. 

After a little while of Feromsa quizzing Joshua they asked me to test him again.  Their exact words were, "Ask him any question."  So I asked, "What is the meaning of life?"

Joshua, without any hesitation answered, "To praise God and bring Him glory."

Needless to say, the boys are now watching TV. 

Haiti

You know your hubby is a good daddy when.....

he makes you Dora underwear for Christmas just because your 6 year old thought Mommy should have some!

Coffee Experiment Comes to an End

Well, my 21 days of a cup of coffee have come to an end. Here it is now day 22 since this experiment began and, well, I still am not a big coffee fan. However, I do no longer find it to be completely repulsive. I can drink a cup. I can even enjoy a cup to a certain extent. More importantly, this experiment has given me the opportunity each day to have a moment to remember the over 14o million orphans that are in the world today. With each cup of coffee, as that first sip would hit my tongue, I would have a moment of, "Why am I doing this?" The answer would then hit me hard and I would pause to do the greatest thing that I could do for the orphaned. I would pray. I have tried, in talking about this experiment to others, to stress this time of prayer and reflection that came with each cup. I have tried to stress this aspect because so many would get lost in the details of the experiment with thoughts of, "Can't you just give money?" "Can't you just buy something else?" "Why does it have to be coffee?" To answer these questions I would point you to the discipline of fasting. In fasting one "suffers" the consequences of not eating in order to use this time to pray and to reflect on God. In fasting one learns to use the hunger pains as a call to go to God for the nourishment that the body seeks. In many ways this experiment has been a fast in reverse. Here I actually ingested something that was not particularly pleasant to me and in so doing I would be called into prayer. The practical benefits of drinking fair trade coffee that supported farmers and buying coffee that had proceeds going to orphan care became secondary items to the greater impact of daily spending time with the Heavenly Father to ask for His care of the fatherless.

Now, here I sit, with a cup of coffee. I'm preparing to watch a simulcast with my family for Orphan Sunday. I encourage you to have a cup and to pray for the orphans.

Coffee Experiment - Day 9

It's happening - I'm beginning to actually "need" a cup of coffee. Still don't really like the taste though.


I press on.

Coffee Experiment - Day 6 and 7

Well, the coffee experiment is going quite well (despite my wife's post yesterday). I wanted to say too that if your church regularly serves coffee on Sunday morning that maybe you could buy from one of the organizations that sells fair trade coffee and has the proceeds going to orphanage care. The other day I mentioned one of those: http://gobena.org/.

There are two others that I'd like to mention:

http://www.saintscoffee.com/

and

http://www.landof1000hills.com/

Thank you for continuing to help care for the over 140 million orphans in the world today.