Saturday, October 20, 2012

Fearless Knight

settleinn

This pic which my friend Kevin took last Saturday of the knight in front of the Settle Inn reminds me a little of a youtube video for boys back in Taiwan.

Another Answered Prayer

Week before last in Lincoln, NE, I heard the following story from Tim and Cori, pastor and wife of a local Alliance church:

For the last year, Cori had been praying that God would bring another girl her daughter’s age into their neighborhood. Specifically, one from a great Christian family and to a house where they could see each other's front yards since Cori’s daughter is only nine. Cori often felt guilty asking it to be a Christian family rather than a family they could share the love of Christ with but since her daughter goes to public school and is around so many non-believers she was hoping God would bless her in this way. Cori prayed for specific houses whenever she saw one for sale and even started to give up on the "front yard" part of her prayer since God didn't seem to answer.

Some time later, the pastor of a sister church in the same town of the same denomination stopped his car right outside Tim and Cori’s house. Cori, assuming he must have been there to meet with her husband, asked what brought him over. He said that they had recently purchased the empty house just a stone's throw away! The front yard is clearly visible. Their two daughters are within a year of being the same age!

Cori adds that prior to this they didn't know each other very well but the wives would visit and the kids would play together one to two times a year when they would see each other at bi-annual conferences. The girls have become fast friends.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Hallam, Nebraska

hallamThe last 3 nights I’ve been staying with new friends Curtis and Joetta in Hallam, Nebraska.

Haven’t heard of Hallam? It’s a small farming town of about 200 southwest of Lincoln. It was also the site of one of the greatest tornados of all time:

http://www.tornadochaser.net/hallam.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2004_tornado_outbreak_sequence#Hallam_Tornado_Outbreak

In fact, Curtis and Joetta’s fairly new home was destroyed in 2004 by the tornado. The home I’m visiting now was rebuilt from scratch. Our Taiwan Field Forum speaker from 2004 is the pastor of the church not too far from here. He came over to share with us just a few months after the terrible tornado.

On another note, day before yesterday Curtis took me to visit his son Darren’s farm a couple of hundred of yards away. As I observed a few weeks ago over in Iowa, the integration of hi-tech in today’s farming equipment is truly something to behold. Perhaps even more than years past, to be a farmer requires one to be a “jack of all trades”, understanding not just how to plant, irrigate, harvest, repair the machinery, accounting, etc. but also much that is new in electronics.