Occasional family and ministry updates
In April of 2002 I was bored. Not just a little bored either, but mind-numbingly, depressingly, discouragingly bored. Having recently been laid off from a job I had held for several years due to the company closing, I was working as a system administrator at a small company in downtown Oakville. The pay was decent…
By the midpoint of this article all those people who homeschool their children will probably be giving themselves a big pat on the back. The strange thing is that I might not blame them. The following conversation took place over dinner a couple of nights ago. My five year old son had a few questions…
Last week Laura Brumley, she of A Practice in Belief fame, wrote a little article she entitled (rather verbosely, I thought) “blogging, the ninth commandment, and your prerequisites to reading this blog.” It seems odd to me that Laura can read “A Reformation Debate: Sadoleto’s Letter to the Genevans and Calvin’s Reply” and “The Enchiridion…
Today is my 29th birthday. Yes, I know that I’m younger than you thought and that you have children older than me. I get that a lot. Actually, having a birthday in December has always meant that I’m younger than my peers so I am quite accustomed to people saying, “You’re younger than I thought.”…
There were some things I had hoped to say today before all of my American readers disappear for a long weekend filled with thanks, gluttony and excess. Unfortunately, because of the unexpected call last night which took me out of the house for much of the night, I am awfully tired today and don’t trust…
We finally got the call. For the past couple of weeks we’ve been on “baby watch.” Our friends are expecting a baby and had asked us to watch their children while they go to the hospital for the birth. Today, sometime shortly before 2 AM, on what just so happens to be the due date,…
I am desperately jealous of Josh Harris. Of course I would assume that there are lots of people who are jealous of him. After all, he wrote a silly little book about dating courtship that must have sold more copies than The Prayer of Jabez and probably made him filthy, stinking rich. If my understanding…
I have no idea where she picked it up, but my daughter has begun to answer my son’s apologies with the phrase, “Sorry doesn’t know how to count!” She may have made it up. Wherever she got the phrase from, she does not seem to understand what it should logically mean. To her it means…
I have received a few “complaints” of late that I have not been writing enough articles of a personal nature. That is probably true and I hope to remedy that, at least somewhat, next week. In the meantime I thought I’d share an article I wrote a couple of years ago to honor my father…
This afternoon Aileen and I went out to look at homes in various neighborhoods in this area. We know that we want to buy a place of our own but are not quite sure where. Having rented for the past seven years we are growing increasingly tired of paying other peoples’ mortgages and feel it…
My son has recently taken an interest in wars and the military. I have a 39-volume Time-Life series of books covering the Second World War and he loves to sit and look through the pictures. He often bemoans the fact that he cannot yet read as he would love to be able to learn about…
Earlier this year I posted an article in which I described a method I use for personal worship (or devotions, quiet time, etc). At the time I was hoping it would spark discussion from others about how they spend daily time with God. While the article brought about some discussion few people shared about how…
For the past couple of years we have been able to observe an industrious pair of robins building a nest in a tree directly outside our bathroom window. Just about a foot below the window and perhaps 8 feet out from the house, in a little crook of a crabapple tree, they build a nest…
It has been nearly a week since I updated the look of the site. Initially there were quite a few people who objected (sometimes quite strenuously) to this. I know that in the ensuing time some have come around and have learned to appreciate the new design. To the rest of you, well, you’re clearly…
I have been offered the privilege of liveblogging the 2006 Shepherd’s Conference. This conference, as you may know, is affiliated with Grace Community Church and, of course, John MacArthur. It runs from March 1 to 5 of 2006. I am thrilled to have this opportunity, not only to learn from what I’m sure will be…
The long-awaited new design is now live. While I am sure to hear a lot of complaints about removing the old design, I feel that this design will serve us all better. Here are a few of the new features unique to this design: Comment Equality – There is now equality between the comments in…
1:59 PM – I am currently upgrading the site. Please bear with me as I make these changes. I will update as I make progress here… 3:57 PM – We’re getting there. Another hour or so and I should have most of this done. So far commenters appear to be 1 Pro and 1 Con.
My friend Bill has been on the lookout for the 1000th registered user of the forums here at Challies Dot Com. Just a few minutes ago he let me know that we have reached that lofty goal. A user registered as N_student replied with a comment about book suggestions for college students. He indicated his…
In the past several days I have found myself turning time and again to a particular song, a song that has been in my collection for many years and which I have always enjoyed. Sung by a short-lived band named “Doulos,” the title of the song is simply, “Again.” The song seems to capture something…
Yesterday afternoon I attended the funeral of my friend Mike (context here and here). It was quite a nice funeral, as these things go, and was more a celebration of his life than a time of mourning for his death. There were hundreds of people in attendance, enough that my friend and I, and many…