You always hear about this happening, but do you personally know anyone who's experienced it?

We met Will and Fiona last year when they moved to our town and came to our small church. And we got to spend the better part of the year getting to know them in our couples' group before they moved out of the country (Will serves in the Australian Army).

Fiona's been expecting their second child for months, and here's a snippet of some big news that happened to them on the way to the hospital... http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/special-delivery-baby-born-in-qbn-street/1968595.aspx

Crazy huh?

Ahhh- the exchange rate!!!!

Holy cow (yes, I've been told that's very American, sue me...) the exchange rate of Australian Dollars to American Dollars is the highest it's been in like 27 years.... 1 AUD = 0.983 today according to Google. This makes funding our ministry a bit harder...but God's still in control.

did I mention- Holy Cow!

World Record Breaker at UC Irvine

In my college years, I went to UC Irvine. We didn't (& still don't) have a football team, much to the chagrin of many students & alumni. School spirit & UCI don't exactly go hand in hadn. BUT... some UCI students have just set a Guiness World Record for something pretty fun, and fairly athletic. And it happened in Bren Events Center.

Why didn't we do this when I went there?
http://uci.edu/features/2010/09/feature_dodgeball_100922.php

This was in our church bulletin a long time ago and I found it quite engrossing. Have fun… and if you get stumped and want some help, let me know. BTW, I don’t know about the OT prophet’s name variant… but I have a guess.
Enjoy & pass it on if you do!

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Can you find thirty books of the Bible in this paragraph? Actually there are 31 just find the variant of an OT prophet’s name.

This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an airplane seat pocket, on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping him occupied for hours. He enjoyed it so much, he passed it on to some friends. One friend from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his john boat. Another friend studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it she mentioned it in her weekly newspaper column. Another friend judges the job of solving this puzzle so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot. That’s a fact. Some people, however, will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. Truthfully, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or a scholar to see some of them at the worst. Research has shown that something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have in seeing the books in this paragraph. During a recent fund raising event, which featured this puzzle, the Alpha Delta Phil lemonade booth set a new record. The local paper, the Chronicle, surveyed over 200 patrons who reported that this puzzle was one of the most difficult they had ever seen. As Daniel Humana humbly puts it, “The books are all right here in plain view hidden from sight.” Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation that may help is that books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. Also, keep in mind, that punctuation and spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude attitude will help you compete really well against those who claim to know the answers. Remember, there is no need for a mad exodus; there really are 30 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph waiting to be found. God bless.

A few random questions that come to mind....

Please don't look for deep meanings here, just a few questions that sometimes / quite frequently come to my mind. And I finally got around to typing them:

--How is it that 120Gb of storage just really isn't enough for me? (That's my computer's hard drive capacity). And how is it that an original Apple/Mac back in 1984 came standard with a whopping 128Mb (yeah, that's megabytes!) of internal memory and that was cutting edge?

--How can people really live in places like Tucson or the deep south of the USA without any A/C whatsoever?

--How have I lived in Australia for over 3 years and yet still not seen the great barrier reef? (Well, I guess I have a bead on that one since Oz is about the size of the USA).

--How can 65MPH not be fast enough for me to drive? How come I'm always in such a hurry?

More to come as more random questions emerge....

What's So Amazing about Grace? How about this Edition of it....

I recently borrowed a friend's copy of "What's So Amazing About Grace?" but not the regular book (which I have & I read years ago) but a small paperback copy called the Visual Edition. I was a bit skeptical at first, and I'm not a real artsy person by nature. And Phillip Yancey mentions in the intro that he was initially skeptical too about "someone messing with his book." But what that "someone" (a bunch of artists, in reality) has done is create a beautiful, thought-provoking piece on the marvelous and counterintuitive idea of grace, by mixing excerpts from the book along with some great photographic and other visual imagery.

Their use of fonts, colors, and spacing is superb. This book will make you think. It will make you uncomfortable. It might even make you cry as you realize more of the depths of God's unquenchable grace towards us as rebellious people, and towards you as a rebellious person (Romans 5:1-2, 17).

I've put it on my Christmas list, and I suggest you do, too. Who knows? Maybe someone will give it to you even if you've been naughty this year...

Quick funny quotes

Rita is 5 1/2 months and getting stronger (and more self-willed!) everyday. She wears us out and makes us smile so much. I can't believe how fast time's passing...we can't wait to visit our family & friends in the USA over December.

Here's some quick quote from Meagan's "Moms" baby calendar from this month:

Baby Bibs
"If you're close enough to read this, you're close enough to change my diaper."

"Don't Talk About Me Like I'm Not Here" (that one's my favorite)