New year's resolution 1--Wear my "Praise Glasses".

On the last day of 2007, about 2 hours before the countdown, I had prayed that the Lord would help me be more positive & praise Him for everything this year...

Here's a message from Jesus I read this morning that I believe will help me & all others with my same prayer to do just that...


You are special, created by My hand. You are unique, one of a kind. There's only one you, and I made you to perfectly fit the role and purpose I had in mind for you. You have special talents & qualities that I know you need for the job & calling I have for you, and you have liabilities that help balance you out, and keep you humble & close to Me.
The secret to finding My peace and contentment in your heart & mind is to thank Me for making you the way you are, flaws & all, and letting Me live through you. Praise Me for your weaknesses, which make you dependant on My strength. Glory in your infirmities (2 Corinthians 12:9) and in times of sadness which deepen your life and make you cling to Me more fervently. Be happy in the sad times, knowing that they are working in you a far greater eternal glory (2 Corinthians 4:17).
When you come to Me at the end of your days, I will gather you into eternal glory, where all tears will cease, and where there will be constant joy & happiness forever. I have some wonderful surprises for you up here that you will be deligthed with. I can't wait to have you here, but in the meantime, I will be with you in your heart, whispering to your spirit, and helping you through each day. I love you so much, and I love it whenever you think about Me and acknowledge My presence.
Thank Me for everything! Thank Me for the little things I do for you throughout the day. Thank Me for the loved ones I put along your path, and revel in My joy & prescence. This will keep you happy till you come to be with Me here. I love you.


--From Jesus with Love, Link, Issue 30, January 2008

Yankari/8-year-Africa anniversary 10th Jan, 2008!

pic by Ikumi

we just got back yesterday from a 3-day holiday with the other homes here at the National Game Reserve in Yankari, Bauchi state, north of Nigeria...

It was great! I had a blast! Being in nothing but God's creation, surrounded by nature & wildlife, enjoying hot springs, BBQs, fellowship & safari trips was just the vacation the doctor ordered...truly refreshing. Getting back to work is gonna be tough, but I know I'm gonna enjoy that too as I get back in the groove. Let Adventure 2008 begin!

It's also my 8 YEAR ANNIVERSARY IN AFRICA TODAY.--I was so busy cooking that I forgot to tell me home...8 years ago today, Josh & my sister, Phebe picked me up at the airport in Lagos. I remember it like it was yesterday. Landing in Lagos, was like visiting a foreign planet...without telling you my whole life story, I'll just let you enjoy the Safari pics...(I would post the whole remembering-my-time-in-Africa pictorial, but it already takes me half a day to post a review of one year, or one place I've been...8 years would probably take me just that...)

Have a good one!

P.S. All pics taken by me, unless otherwise noted (copyrights apply...;) )


7:00 sunrise on the way to early morning Safari...


by the river where we saw Crocs, Egrets, Herons & later that day Hippos..


I had the privelege of going on 4 Safaris in 3 days ("How?", you may ask..). Here's what I saw between the 4:

Baboons, Bushbuck, "Brown-Shoebill-Bird-Thingie", Crocodile, Elephants, Egrets, Guinea Fowl, Hippo, Kingfisher (the most brightly colored bird you ever saw...but they're so shy & fly away quickly.."I neva snap am") Vulture, Waterbuck, Water Buffalo, Wart Hog, Western Hartebeest, another kinda monkey...forgot the name..and a few more animals whose names I can't pronounce..if I could remember them...



Mother & baby elephant I "snapped" on "Safari 3"...

On "Safari 4" we got up at 5 a.m. to go & find Lions...ended up being a "wild Lion chase...but we did see elephant, Bushbuck & a couple monkeys, and riding in the trunk of our pickup (the only Safari I went on with our own vehicle) with dust in my eyes, getting stuck in the sand & eating Safari snacks (literal name) was all part of the adventure...


All of group 2 during Safari 2 (go figure) in front of about half the herd of Elephant that we found just near the water front at a certain spot where the ground is phosphorous & they dig for salt/minerals & kick dust everywhere...about 3 of the males charged us (bluff charges, TTL)...should have brought our camcorder...


Practicing my monkey communication skills.. pic by Ikumi


enjoying BBQ with Mark & Jenny (& everyone else not pictured)
pic by Simon


Wikki warm Springs

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I prayed for you all today that the Lord will give you a wonderful 2008 & that this year will be better than the last.












my very first 2008 "snap"...




As typically done every year around the world among missionaries of the Family International, we took sometime last night to reflect on last year, thank God for what He did in each of our lives, as well as state our goals, desires, vision, verse/scripture for the New Year ahead.--A wonderful time of reflection & a great way to enter another year--with faith & purpose for what lies ahead.

I thanked God for my family, friends, learning experiences, new challenges, health, happiness, travels, etc.


My goals for this year are:

--2 be a more consistent & active prayer warrior. This year is particularly important to all of us in the Family & I want to accomplish everything that I can, but I know that it can only be done through the power of God working via prayer, our spirit helpers, the keys of the Kingdom, etc.

--I also want to speak His words to others & use prophecy more in my life, to both benefit my own life/spiritual walk, but also to encourage & strengthen others...



My prayer for the New Year:

That I will continuously praise this year & see my life thru the "glasses of positiveness" every day. Rather than thinking about what I don't have, I've determined that 2008 will be a time to thank God for everything He's already given me.--which is so, so much!



Below are a few selective shots I took throughout 2007...enjoy....





Robert, Arturo, Ayla, Mary & Anisa, Ayla's B'day, Oct, O7



Ronald Reagan building, Washington DC, April, 2007



Jasmine during outdoor class, FDTP, South Africa, July, 07



Neighbor kid and friend at his B'day party, September, 07




Botanical Gardens, Birmingham, Alabama, April, 2007

Christmas Day!

A pictorial of how December 25th went for our home...

Of course Christmas eve came first...neighbors/friends came over..a friend gave 2 Turkey's & cooked them for us, as our oven's kinda small....take a look at how that went..


introducing the "spirit's of Christmas present"..


It was also Chloe's 12th Birthday..


some of us enjoying the mini-concert put on by Hendrix & Christina...

Christmas day

up by 10 a.m. (a feat for someone who attempted playing "Secret Santa" till 4 in the morning) for the gift opening..anticipation playing half the excitement..












Last but certainly not least..from one of the kids..
I was actually surprised at how many quality gifts I got...I had gotten everyone in my home a gift, but didn't know I'd get the better gifts...it all comes back...yaaaay!


Jolene with her new tricycle, complete with sunroof...


other happy recipients...


Christmas dinner (in case you hadn't noticed..)


playing "stab-the-olive"....the shirt was my C'mas gift from Abner/Anisa & the tie was from Michelle... "I'd Like to be a Christmas Tree..."



Chocolate Mousse...by Anisa...


Our friend Robert also happens to have his Birthday on Christmas day, so after dinner we went out to his club to "hang"...had a good time & met new friends, bumped into some old friends...




Soho by nite

HAPPY CHRISTMAS..

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!!!

I wish you the very best in love, joy & peace, which is the real meaning of Christmas, as you celebrate Jesus' Birthday & the celebration of salvation that we have through Him...

I thought I'd give you a little Christmas thot via a Christmas story.

What better way to ring in the Christmas spirit...

Much love to all & Happy Christmas,

Brian


took this 1 of Jolene last night....


Dear Admiral McDonald...
Author unknown
Dear Admiral McDonald:
This letter is a year late. Nevertheless, it is important that you receive it. Eighteen people have asked me to be sure to write to you.
Last year at Christmas time, my wife, three boys and I were in France, on our way from Paris to Nice. For five wretched days everything had gone wrong. Our hotels were tourist traps, our rented car broke down, we were irritable and restless.
On Christmas Eve, when we checked into a hotel in Nice, there was no Christmas spirit in our hearts. It was cold and raining when we went out to eat. We found a drab little cafe, shoddily decorated for the holiday.
Only five tables in the restaurant were occupied. There were two German couples, two French families and an American sailor by himself. In the corner a piano player listlessly played. I was too stubborn, too tired, and too miserable to leave.
I looked around and noticed that the other customers were eating in stony silence. The only person who seemed happy was the American sailor. He was writing a letter, smiling to himself.
My wife ordered our meal in French. The waiter brought us the wrong thing. I scolded my wife, she began to cry, and the boys defended her. Then on my left, at the table of one French family, the father slapped one of his children for some minor fault; the boy cried. On our right, the German wife berated her husband.
All of us were suddenly interrupted by an unpleasant blast of cold air. Through the door came an old French flower woman. She wore a dripping, tattered overcoat, and shuffled in on wet, rundown shoes. Carrying her basket of roses she went from table to table. “Flowers?”
No one bought any, and wearily she sat at a table between the sailor and us.
To the waiter she said: “Bowl of soup. I haven’t sold a flower the whole afternoon.” To the piano player she said hoarsely: “Can you imagine, Joseph, ordering only a bowl of soup on Christmas Eve?”
Joseph pointed to his empty tipping plate. The young sailor finished his meal, and got up to leave. Putting on his coat, he walked over to the flower woman’s table.
“Happy Christmas,” he said smiling, and picking out two roses, he said, “How much are these?”
“Two francs, Monsieur.”
Pressing one of the flowers into the letter he had written, he handed the woman a 20-franc note.
“I’ll have to get some change, Monsieur,” she said.
“No ma’am,” said the sailor, kissing the ancient cheek. “This is my Christmas present to you.”
Straightening up, he came to our table, holding the other rose in front of him. “Sir,” he said to me, “may I present this to your beautiful daughter?”
In one quick motion he gave the rose to my wife, wished us a Merry Christmas and departed.
Everyone had stopped eating. Everyone had been watching the sailor. Everyone was sitting in thoughtful silence.
A few seconds later, Christmas exploded through the restaurant like a bomb. The old flower woman jumped up waving her 20-franc note. Hobbling out into the middle of the room she did a jig, shouting to the piano player: “Joseph, my Christmas present! You shall have a feast too!”
With sudden enthusiasm the piano player began to play “Good King Wenceslas,” beating the keys with magic hands, nodding his head to the rhythm. My wife waved her rose in time to the music. She was radiant, looking twenty years younger. The tears had left her eyes. She began to sing and our three sons joined in, bellowing loudly.
The Germans jumped on the chairs and began singing. The waiter embraced the flower woman. Waving their arms, they sang in French. The French man who had slapped the boy beat a rhythm with his fork against a bottle and the lad climbed on his lap. Then the owner of the restaurant started singing “The First Noel,” and we all joined in, half of us crying as we sang.
People crowded in from the street until many were standing. The walls shook, as hands and feet kept time to the rousing Yuletide carols. A few hours before eighteen people had been spending a miserable evening in a shoddy restaurant. It ended up being our happiest Christmas Eve ever.
This, Admiral McDonald, is what I’m writing you about. As top man in the Navy you should know about the very special gift that the U.S. Navy gave to my family, to me, and to the other people in that French restaurant. Because your young sailor had Christmas spirit in his soul, he released the love and joy that had been smothered within us. He gave us Christmas.
Thank you, sir, very much.
(Christmas in the Heart! Part 4 [#050])

Christmas Thots....

The simple irony is that during the time when there's so much to blog about, you can't, cause you're too busy doing all there is to do & you don't have time...



a black dude, Art & Rich at Dantata's yearly Christmas party...don't mind my huge grin, I'm just excited that I'm about to dig into the contents of the pictured plastic plate...I can taste the food again just looking at the pic...mmmmmmm
I've actually really enjoyed going on different people's blogs during this time...again, so much going on..(u have stupidity to thank for the fact that I still can't put the correct links with urls, but just have to resort to spelling out the whole web-site here...

Some random thoughts on Christmas (Introducing the Ghost of Christmas past):

--I wonder if that whole "magical", Christmas feel will be with me every Christmas...
My sister Petra, about 4 years ago or so, told me that Christmas (in the tradition part) was for kids...& that's why she didn't necessarily feel the whole "Christmas spirit" every year now that she's grown (her way of saying "Bah!--Humbug!"...lol..)...but yeah, granted, we have Jesus every day, so I can see her point...
But to me, it's still come every year...as soon as I see the tree go up & I hear the Carols playing, I'm in a different world. I know, I'm rather juvenille for a nearly 28 year old male...but hey...it's fun!--To me, it's an exciting thought that every year Jesus' birthday will be so special for me...

--I've officially concluded that at Christmas especially, giving gifts is funner than getting them...

Kids singing at our Sunday afternoon party for friends & Bible students last Sunday..

Some Christmas snippets I've gathered from near & far (far, mostly)...(you have stupidity to thank for the fact that I still can't correctly post urls here, but have to instead resort to spelling out the whole website for you...)

Nyx Martinez has started up a show troupe with her young siblings...I believe they perform for her LAYA project at the prison....I'm not sure...


Mary & Jolene @ the PW party the other week...

The Iceland team are up to all kinds of winter antics...

You can catch a great pic of my neice (my favorite baby in the universe so far) on Jamez' blog...

Family Care Uganda has been up to a lot with their C'mas show for listeners (250 attendees, I heard)...

The aip for Africa went off the other day (15th). Some of these teens are incredible witnesses...the subscriptions soared...here's the link to our teen blog here...it's still in the "birth" stages...don't expect a lot...

half-empty, or half-full? Trying to look on the bright side of the "low-side" of my Christmas Lager at the PW party earlier this month...

Disclaimer for the pics: No cutting, cropping, adjusting, or anything done on these for this post...during the "Yuletide rush" you get the "shrink & slap-it-on special"...enjoy!

Old Gentleman Gray

Said Old Gentleman Gray, "On Christmas Day,
If you want to be happy, give something away".




So he sent a fat turkey to shoemaker Price,
And the Shoemaker said, "What a big bird! How nice!
And since such a good dinner is now before me,
I'll send the roast I bought to poor Widow Lee."

"This is a fine roast!" said the pleased Widow Lee.
"And the kindness that sent it--how precious to me.
I would like to make someone as happy as I.
I'll send Washwoman Biddy my big pumpkin pie."

"Oh my," Biddy said. "`Tis the queen of all pies!
Just to look at its yellow face gladdens my eyes.
Now it's my turn, I think, and a nice chocolate cake
For the motherless Finnegan children I'll bake."

Said the Finnegan children, Rose, Denny and Hugh,
"Thank you so much, ma'am. How kind of you!
It smells sweet of spice, and we'll carry a slice
To poor lame Jake who has nothing that's nice."

"I thank you and thank you," said little lame Jake,
"For sharing with me your magnificent cake!
And in my basket, I'll save all of the crumbs
And give them to each little sparrow that comes."

And the sparrows they twittered as if they would say,
"We heard the tale from Old Gentleman Gray!
He started it all, saying, `On Christmas Day,
If you want to be happy, give something away.' "


--Author unknown

....btw, have the 12 days of Christmas started?? (scratches head, puzzled...)

Christmas tools!

We got the stock of Christmas CD cards & Christmas kiddie books we'd been praying would arrive....about 500 items in all.--They all went out in 5 days, Hal!

Taking back the claim made earlier that I'd distribute 500 Christmas items on my own. (Do mags & Reflections count?) That ended up being the total number of items sent to us...I think they were short for some reason...my personal (with partners)total for distribution ended up being about 130...

Our friends have been thoroughly enjoying the Christmas CDs & are excited to have quality, meaningful gifts for friends, family etc. We've also signed a personal copy for each of our friends, sponsors, etc. & many have been touched by this simple, yet enjoyable gift.

Many a mag, book, prayer, witness etc. have gone out to thousands for the Christmas time in the last week...Thank the Lord we can help make Christmas special for so many ppl & that we can bring them closer to Jesus on His Birthday...

Merry Christmas!

In earnest...

Granted, events since November have pulled us "Christmasward"...but this week's activities really "thrust" us there fully...

Our Christmas products arrived--we just don't have them yet, as they're sitting in Lagos. (Pray, pls..tx!)

Mary & the kids decorated the tree.

The cultural day & Christmas party for the school went well.

We had a great time partying with our friends & sponsors at PW's (Irish construction company) annual Christmas party...

Enjoy a few snapshots...(now I know why all the Africans say "Snap me!" when they want their pics taken...actually I knew that about 10 yrs ago, but I just wanted to add that here...heh, heh!)


all of us with a friend at last night's party...


Angela, ...don't remember who the guy in the middle is.. , & Simon..

Different groups of kids performing at yesterday's cultural day...

3 scuffs!

I think...ther r probably even mor, ha!

I have to tell you this b4 it gets old...

na-wow for me-o! I am learning an incredibly lot incredibly fast about driving in Nigeria & the what-to-dos & the what-not-to-dos...--real fast!--but maybe not fast enough... read on & c wat I mean!

(not necessarily in chronological order)

scuff 1)

Now as it would be...the embarassing moments only happen when I'm with someone else in the car. The few times that I go out alone, the things a synch (probably cause I'm going somewhere close, or cuz I'm less nervous... go figure).

I was going with Art to do some banking & as we pull in to park, Art goes:

"Oh yes! The parking's real tight here--perfect for u 2 practice!"

"Oh, great!", I thought. I prayed, "Lord send Vigilance to help me not do anything ridiculous" (like get bumped into by a parked car...). So as I was extra-carefully driving into the bank, I had to go around the back to park, (which was basically down an alley way on the side of the little bank, with cars parked on the left & a little squeeze on the right). Made it fine. The available space was in front of the bank's gen.

In Nigeria the security guards most often help you park. So as I'm parking the guard's on my left, in front of me, & motions like "come, come"...& he just kept repeating the motion.

Just as I was wondering if his arm was on "stuck mode", or if the "CD" of his brain was on skip, I simultaneously said to Art, "I never know whether to listen to these guys..." as I tonked straight into the generator. (???!???)
Art had a good little chuckle. Thankfully, he didn't like, point & laugh at me, but I know he was wondering at that moment, if I should even be legally on the road (or parking, n-e-way), or was seriously doubting the clarity of my vision (or prescence thereof).

"Very interesting park job", he said kinda quietly!

I made up some excuse & quickly blamed the security guard, while promising in my mind(& I think out loud) never to listen to those guys for real again....

..Just as well...check out this next bit...


scuff 2)


The same day, about 4 hours later, I was pulling out of another park spot at a mall in Central area...(this story's mainly a lesson in Nigerian English, actually)..

The security guard was doing the motioning thing again....(go figure)
I reminded Art of my "generator-confirmed" decision not to listen to these guys in earnest, as I'm sloooooooooooowly backing up.

I really didn't have the greatest of views, but I knew that I was getting really close..

Next, the guy starts clamly repeating "you're ok"... "you're ok"... "you're ok".. like this...

Now what do any of you think this means? Exactly as I thought! I kept going, as I was "ok".

Next thing he shouts "YOU'RE OK!" & he slaps on the car real hard! Art joins the security guard in the now key-phrase "you're ok", as I now realize that "you're ok", means, "you've gone far enough"--AS IN, STOP!

wow...who would have guessed... I mean, I know I'm dense, but...

so that lesson's down pat.. & the actual miracle in this, is that if I had not earlier that very day, tonked into that gen because of that guard at the bank, I would have carelessly trusted my understanding of "you're ok" at the mall & either smashed a light on, or scratched the little, but new, yellow, Peugeot 406 parked behind me. (little chick car...who knows, might have got me introduced to a lovely Nigerian lady...)

Ha! God got me out of that one in a funny way.....And Art had more to laugh at!

"I'm ok!" (btw)

third scuff later...