For someone who deserves it..

The fact that this is EXTREMELY belated, makes it a surprise..at least I'm still in the right month..

Anj is a great person..multi-talented, organized, Aries ;), caring, good with people, strong spiritual connection with Jesus, an inspiration to be around, grounded in the Word, etc., etc. & of course (most importantly..ahem.), hot! ...& what's more she's a good friend...one of the highlights of my time in Iceland 2 years ago was meeting her...

Anj, have a great year! May this year just get better from here on out & may the Lord grant you wild things fit for an Endtime soldier during the offensive..

With love, prayers & wishes for all the fun stuff too,

Brian

My first Nigerian Wedding!

This is my hundreth post, btw..shall we celebrate? (I should have called this blog "celebration for a lifetime"..hey..next time..)

A friend of ours got married weekend before last...Richard was the best man, so a couple of us got to go down to Benin City (where his wife is from) and attend..it was the first time I'd attended a Traditional African wedding, so it was quite the experience...

Traditional wedding first on Friday evening..

They had all sorts of entertaining traditions like the 2 "sides" (families) presenting each other with gifts, the preacher blessing the cola nut & drinks that were passed out, women bringing out the wrong bride a couple times b4 the real one showed, etc. ...Amusing to say in the least..

Didn't get many good shots that day, as the whole thing was indoors & we were sitting, but here's one we managed with the groom. I donned one of my traditional "wears" for the occassion..


The Bride had actually waited for the groom and last guests (us included, who left the hotel with the groom) for about 4 hours...here she's managing a smile despite her tiredness..

Church wedding ensued the following morning...

W/ Bride's maids, etc. The bride is an air-hostess, so there were plenty of fine air hostesses in the house that day...

W/ Best Man (aka Richard), Maid of Honor, Groom's men & a few friends..

Rich & Angela looking "shap, shap", as the Nigerians say...

The only proof that i even attended the white wedding that day...i was behind the camera 4 the rest of the time..

2 questions!

They aren't the brightest of questions, so don't hold your breath or anything...but at least it won't take a genius to answer them...

1) How do I actually post pics along the sides of my blog page? I've seen so many do it, but haven't quite figured..

2) I still don't seem to be able to succesfully post a url from this blog..

I have a blog for the YP in W. Africa..and I've done the url thing from there, but somehow here I add them, yet it never shows on the page...it's ridiculous..

any advice?

The Shiny-Walled Box Thingie

This one I thought was cute...(absolutely NOTHING against the Amish, personally, btw...little disclaimer before we start..)


An Amish boy and his father were visiting a nearby mall. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny silver walls that moved apart and back together again by themselves. The lad asked, "What is this, father?" The father, having never seen an elevator, responded, "I have no idea what it is." While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed, an old lady in a wheelchair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched as small circles lit up above the walls. The walls opened up again and a beautiful twenty-four-year-old woman stepped out. The father looked at his son anxiously and said, "Go get your mother."

PARADOX!

Jesus had no servants, yet they called Him Master.
He had no degree, yet they called Him Teacher.
He had no medicines, yet they called Him Healer.
He had no army, yet kings feared Him.
He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world.
He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him.
He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today.

--Author Unknown


HAPPY EASTER!!

Not Getting Any Younger...

although thank God i still look it..somehow this pic looks more like i'm turning 22, then 28..but, hey..that means that when i turn 40, i'll look like i'm 35? time certainly WILL tell.

Well, that's how fast a year goes...

Wow, this is a time when you can tell if you're loved. My big day is today & my home & friends went out of their way to make it really special..The fact that my B'day is the day before Easter Sunday this year also makes it memorable..

This is the halfway point, but tomorrow I'll do an Easter post, so I figured it best to post B'day happenings now...

The celebrations started a day early this year with a boys bowling trip in my honor (this was meant to be a surprise but someone accidentally told me where we were going just before we left..)..anyways, just as well I didn't take any pics because I LOST..came in last of the 4..but hey, I enjoyed it anyway..

Then it was back home & off to the squash court where I had my 2nd loss of the day, but this time to Martin...great fun, though..played best out of 5 & he won 3..

After a full 2 hours of that it was back home to a delicious dinner (not in my honor--remember it's still not actually my B'day) & then off to the club for a drink to ring in my B'day.

My A. Darice has her B'day the day before mine, so I was able to call her in the States before I went out & surprise her...also got my first pre-B'day wishes from her..





This morning I was awoken to the Birthday song & told of a "surprise" downstairs...aye, that it was..a FULL BRUNCH (pictured) where everyone sang for me, appreciated all the things they liked about me & made me feel all "warm/fuzzy"..



I thank God for bringing me through another year...I thank Him for equipping me & empowering me with the Keys to His Kingdom & the power of Heaven that helps me in all I do..I thank Him for bringing hardships, tests, challenges, trials, sickness, loneliness, etc. into my life this year, as it helped me appreciate the love, joy, friendship, family, health, blessings, bountiful provision, miracles & beauty in my life even more..

Thank You for another year, Jesus!
(a little prose now & then is always good, ain't it?)

somehow last year's B'day treats repeated...Also had Pizza & Chapman on my 27th. Just chance, funny enough..



I'll end this post with the B'day greeting I recieved from a dear friend named Joy C. who happened to be the sender of my first e-B'day-card this year (1st of 4 so far). Love you, Joy! Your card really touched me & made me feel special. ;)


Dear Brian,
Happy Birthday! I am praying that the Lord makes this year really special and unforgettable. I miss you. Thank you for all the fun, joy, and laugher that we've shared. You are such a good friend. Thank you for taking the time to always listen to me and hear my problems. When I think of March 22nd, I thank the Lord that He chose that date to create an amazing person like you.
I love you.
Joy

Tagged 2!

Ok, this is probably cheating, as she said some "thing"...but this is someone..

Jolene is the cutest baby around & everyone's absolute favorite...she's incredibly smart too & so easy to take care of...I manage to get time with her about 1x in a week when I'm home & for some reason there's no-one else to take care of her (as bad as that sounds)...

We, of course, have the funnest times together & I always look forward to the next..

She is affectionately nicknamed by me "The Shmooch"..(that's right--you can't pronounce that) other nicknames are "Pooches", "Cuteness", etc.

Tagged!

A few weeks ago Curly Cel tagged me:

Hey, Brian, you seem like someone who could have a cool story to tell with this one. - I tag you! ;)

"Show me a special something--something that is important or beautiful or meaningful or full of memories for you--or all of that--and tell me about it. Absolutely anything!! Take a photo of it! =D"

hmmmm...I'm still musing over it (actually I've long since mused over it...but then my trip post was due & now I'm seeming to find it hard to spare time to upload photos..)..

Stay tuned. Meanwhile, I already tag ALL OF YOU!! What about the rest of you? You can post your answers either here, or on Cel's blog at: mycurlythoughtsarehere.blogspot.com

February Happenings...

Well, what I really wanna talk @ is my trip to Ghana/Port-Harcourt just b4 the Feast..

Then of course the 3-day spiritual Feasting was phenomenal (one of my highlights in the year)...

Planning for the Offensive & back to full-on home life since my 2 week trip/Feasting was also worth noting...

other than that...enjoy the pics..

I won't "repeat-post" same pics of Ghana that I just posted for the young people here


but here are a few others..


this in the midst of Africa Cup of Nations, 2008... i didn't realize when i booked out my itinerary for my trip, the dates kinda fell on this event by themselves...i'm glad they did..


photographer should've stepped back a bit...now i don't remember the name of the hotel..this was to be our entrance to the beach...the hotel reminded me of Mombasa...this beach wasn't as nice as Msa ones, though...


relaxing..then i swam way out with Johannes, we swam the furthest out of everyone (there were a couple people out a couple meters behind us, but they had boogie boards)...then we had swam a little too far...because of the current it was a struggle getting back in..a little scary, actually..


Steven & Emily at their home's agriculture project...checking on the bee hives..
ironically, my battery ran out just before i got to take a pic of myself in full gear...it was quite the experience..since i didn't get a picture as a souvenir, a bee decided to sting my hand so i could have a remeberance...boy did that hurt! These African bees don't kid around...i kept that sting for about 10 days, believe it or not...

After a week there it was off 2 PH for a few days of bonding/connecting/visiting/celebrating the aip (activated incentive program) with the teens there..the fun continued...check it out..

This was actually to be the highlight for me, but the Devil had his try at stopping me from entering that leg of the trip...as i was coming into Lagos from Accra the flu that i had caught at Hattso (pronounced Hatcho) home was in full swing...i landed around 7 in the evening (see my post titled...with my head bursting (or so it felt) from the air-pressure)...didn't make it to a hotel till about 9 & thru fever/head-cold, etc. i managed to provision a discount on the hotel room & witnessed to a few of the hoteld staff & checked in my room fine...but by the time i was getting to bed, i was seriously praying about just catching a flight home (Abuja..due North from Lagos), instead of going due East, to my destination of PH where the teens were...
I actually tossled with the idea all night, between mosquito bites & exhaustion...by morning, I felt somewhat rested & claimed the power of the keys of the Kingdom that I would be completely healed as I went...I decided to go by faith.

And it worked...my "do the humble thing" for that week, was talking with the teens like a frog for the first 2 days I was there. Singing never happened at any point...when i read the prophecies the Lord gave for the teens who had finished their activated competition, I had to keep scraping my throat, apologizing, coughing, etc. ha.

But it turned out good.. check the pics...



Managed a nice dinner, between the home & the board sponsoring some treats...

Had Lebanese Bread with Humus & Baba-ganoosh (i'm sure that's not how it's spelled) for starters & then served up Kebabs, Fried Rice & Salad for the main with a nice apple/pineapple punch we made...then Jenny's carrot cake for desert..delish!


with certificates...


"But i didn't bring prizes!!"...."Just certificates!"..

more on the way..

finally...

internet was working extremely slow for the past week...

posting was near impossible..besides that, work kept me working (it has it's ways) & i could not have even if i could have (more puns)...

but it's fixed now & it's weekend...so i'm back..

funny enough these days, when i finally get a little minute to "blog" i end up perusing other blogs instead of posting anything myself...

you know, there's so much to catch up on out there &, hey, i already know what i've been up to...

but 2008 will not be "postless" for me, I promise...don't give up on me..

I'll keep seein' ya'...;)