Sunday, November 11, 2012
Election 2012
Yes, it's been a while since we last posted something here. The summer and fall semesters have been jam packed, and it's not letting up now, but there have been a couple of things that we've observed lately that are worth noting.
The first of them is the election. We've seen a number of US elections before from NZ obviously, but it's quite another thing to be here during it. The hype and the opinions are unavoidable and the vastly divided country is painfully obvious. While almost everyone agrees that the country is in bad shape, there are starkly different opinions as to how the country should proceed. The economy, the 16 trillion dollar debt and how to turn the ship around were the big issues for the debates and the news reels.
In America there's no such thing as unbiased media. Every radio station, every TV station and every newspaper has a political leaning and they make it blatantly obvious. It's not like they even try to be impartial. You turn to Fox news to hear how the Republican party is doing great things and how the Democrat party are a bunch of idiots, and then you turn to CNN to hear the exact opposite. It's quite amusing.
Not so amusing, however, has been the secondary debate that divided the country perhaps even to a greater degree. This election brought the abortion debate to the forefront of many people's attention. Essentially, President Obama has come out in his first term to support the current legal status of abortion. Romney on the other hand if he had have come to power would have been able to make appointments that would have allowed him to have Roe v. Wade overturned and remove the legalization of abortion at the national level. It would then have been up to each individual state to set their own laws on abortion. We assume he would have done all this, but we'll never know now.
I've had the sad opportunity on a couple of occasions to go down to our local abortion clinic early on a Saturday morning (with a small group from our church) and plead with women as they go from their cars to the clinic to consider other options and to not abort their child, and to offer help for keeping and supporting their baby. While there have been a couple of instances where we have been successful and a mother has instead gone to a Christian run Woman's Support clinic to have a free ultrasound and get help for supporting their baby, the vast majority of the women continue on into the abortion clinic. It is an extremely sad and sobering ministry. To know that humans are being killed inside the shop-front before you and that the government tells them that they have the right to do it is unbelievably heartbreaking.
While there are many that are disappointed with the outcome of the election, it has at least made the church, and in fact the nation, sit up and consider afresh the topic of abortion. We need to continue to pray for the governments around the world, and do a better job of speaking up for the unborn in our nation and in our communities. There have been 55.6 million abortions in the US alone since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. Future generations will probably look back on this period of time in wonder at how we let this systematic killing take place. Something to think about for sure...
The first of them is the election. We've seen a number of US elections before from NZ obviously, but it's quite another thing to be here during it. The hype and the opinions are unavoidable and the vastly divided country is painfully obvious. While almost everyone agrees that the country is in bad shape, there are starkly different opinions as to how the country should proceed. The economy, the 16 trillion dollar debt and how to turn the ship around were the big issues for the debates and the news reels.
In America there's no such thing as unbiased media. Every radio station, every TV station and every newspaper has a political leaning and they make it blatantly obvious. It's not like they even try to be impartial. You turn to Fox news to hear how the Republican party is doing great things and how the Democrat party are a bunch of idiots, and then you turn to CNN to hear the exact opposite. It's quite amusing.
Not so amusing, however, has been the secondary debate that divided the country perhaps even to a greater degree. This election brought the abortion debate to the forefront of many people's attention. Essentially, President Obama has come out in his first term to support the current legal status of abortion. Romney on the other hand if he had have come to power would have been able to make appointments that would have allowed him to have Roe v. Wade overturned and remove the legalization of abortion at the national level. It would then have been up to each individual state to set their own laws on abortion. We assume he would have done all this, but we'll never know now.
I've had the sad opportunity on a couple of occasions to go down to our local abortion clinic early on a Saturday morning (with a small group from our church) and plead with women as they go from their cars to the clinic to consider other options and to not abort their child, and to offer help for keeping and supporting their baby. While there have been a couple of instances where we have been successful and a mother has instead gone to a Christian run Woman's Support clinic to have a free ultrasound and get help for supporting their baby, the vast majority of the women continue on into the abortion clinic. It is an extremely sad and sobering ministry. To know that humans are being killed inside the shop-front before you and that the government tells them that they have the right to do it is unbelievably heartbreaking.
While there are many that are disappointed with the outcome of the election, it has at least made the church, and in fact the nation, sit up and consider afresh the topic of abortion. We need to continue to pray for the governments around the world, and do a better job of speaking up for the unborn in our nation and in our communities. There have been 55.6 million abortions in the US alone since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. Future generations will probably look back on this period of time in wonder at how we let this systematic killing take place. Something to think about for sure...
Monday, March 5, 2012
Crazy Kentucky
Three days ago, we had 24 degree weather (Celsius). This morning, we woke up to this...
Saturday, March 3, 2012
A Stormy Spring
With the unusually mild winter we've had, everyone said that spring would be dangerous with lots of storms and tornadoes. We are three days into spring and it has already lived up to expectations. You have probably already seen on the news that yesterday tornadoes ripped through Southern Indiana and Kentucky. We had some terrible destruction only about 40 miles from us, and even a tornado or two touch down here in Louisville.
Yesterday afternoon was a bit of a nervous one. Our neighbor came to warn us that the storm warnings were serious and that he was gathering supplies down in his basement. We got the kids together, got them to help make a list of all the things they thought they would need in the event of an emergency, and then started to gather things together as well. I think we would have been able to survive without the outside world for about a month. There were cans of baked beans, cans of salmon, (yes, plus a can opener) baked goods, muesli bars, weetbix, long life milk, flashlights, walkie talkies, an axe, blankets, sleeping bags, plus a whole lot of other things that may or may not have been useful.
Everything was ready. We were talking to Mum and Dad T on Skype to let them know what was going on and to get them to pray for us. Then the emergency siren sounded, blasting all over the city. We disconnected from Skype, got the last few things together and ran down to the basement. The kids huddled around a small laptop screen watching a cartoon to help keep their minds off things. The adults were all keeping an eye on another laptop screen to see the progress of the storm.
The wind grew strong. The rain came down hard. The sirens continued to wail. And then... it all stopped. The sirens wound down, the wind and rain stopped, and a few minutes later the sun was out and the birds were chirping. That was it. No great damaging tornadoes. No wild winds. No prolonged power outages from fallen trees. The storm had split and passed by the north and the south of us. Other places in Louisville and in towns not far from here there was great damage - you have probably seen them on the news. But thankfully there was nothing here. It was all a bit of an anti-climax, but an anti-climax that we were very thankful for. We were only hours away from being in the path of the great Joplin tornado last spring, so we are very weary of them - we have learned to take the warnings serious.
We were warned that this spring might be a rough one for storms. Three days down - 87 more days of spring to go.
Yesterday afternoon was a bit of a nervous one. Our neighbor came to warn us that the storm warnings were serious and that he was gathering supplies down in his basement. We got the kids together, got them to help make a list of all the things they thought they would need in the event of an emergency, and then started to gather things together as well. I think we would have been able to survive without the outside world for about a month. There were cans of baked beans, cans of salmon, (yes, plus a can opener) baked goods, muesli bars, weetbix, long life milk, flashlights, walkie talkies, an axe, blankets, sleeping bags, plus a whole lot of other things that may or may not have been useful.
Everything was ready. We were talking to Mum and Dad T on Skype to let them know what was going on and to get them to pray for us. Then the emergency siren sounded, blasting all over the city. We disconnected from Skype, got the last few things together and ran down to the basement. The kids huddled around a small laptop screen watching a cartoon to help keep their minds off things. The adults were all keeping an eye on another laptop screen to see the progress of the storm.
The wind grew strong. The rain came down hard. The sirens continued to wail. And then... it all stopped. The sirens wound down, the wind and rain stopped, and a few minutes later the sun was out and the birds were chirping. That was it. No great damaging tornadoes. No wild winds. No prolonged power outages from fallen trees. The storm had split and passed by the north and the south of us. Other places in Louisville and in towns not far from here there was great damage - you have probably seen them on the news. But thankfully there was nothing here. It was all a bit of an anti-climax, but an anti-climax that we were very thankful for. We were only hours away from being in the path of the great Joplin tornado last spring, so we are very weary of them - we have learned to take the warnings serious.
We were warned that this spring might be a rough one for storms. Three days down - 87 more days of spring to go.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
...give them grace...
i love, love, love this quote from Elyse Fitzpatrick's book "give them grace".
{even though our children cannot and will not obey God's law, we need to teach it to them again and again. and when they tell us that they can't love God or others in this way, we are not to argue with them. we are to agree with them and tell them of their need for a Saviour!} p.35
{even though our children cannot and will not obey God's law, we need to teach it to them again and again. and when they tell us that they can't love God or others in this way, we are not to argue with them. we are to agree with them and tell them of their need for a Saviour!} p.35
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