Statue of Liberty or Jesus

We are driving down Higgins Rd and Stephen sees this statue and says:
"Hey, hey - it's the Statue of Liberty!!"

Priya: "No it's not, it's Jesus..."

Priya's Tooth came out

Today Priya's tooth came out at school. She said the teacher helped take it out and the whole class went wild.

True Story - Baldwin to Baja

I grew up in a small town in Northwest Wisconsin called Baldwin. When I was in grade school our town had about 2200 people and I remember getting our first stoplight at the intersection of Highway 63 and Main Street. I thought "wow, we are getting big time" having a stoplight and all. In the last 30 years or so Baldwin has grown to about 3300 or so and now has like 3 stoplights! Mostly for all the Minnesotans going up to a lake in our fine State.

I moved to Chicago area after college and began working at Willow Creek Church and got the opportunity in 2002 to lead a mission trip to an orphanage in Vincente Guerrero in Baja Mexico. Vincente Guerrero was an even smaller town than Baldwin! It was rather impoverished and we stayed there for a week serving at the orphanage. It was an awesome trip!! One of our activities/jobs while there was to take the garbage from the orphanage to the dump. Everyone said you just have to experience this at least once, I wasn't sure what the big deal was but I decided to volunteer for that job one morning. So we loaded up the truck and trailer with the last few days garbage and began the 20 min drive to the landfill. When we got there the first thing that amazed me was the size of the landfill. It was huge! It felt like it went on forever. I think we drove for 10 minutes once we got inside the landfill! It look like a scene from "Terminator" or something. There was burnt up twisted metal, garbage and junk everywhere. And there were little cardboard huts here and there, not too many but very distinct. There were people living in them. There were people, including children, living at the landfill. That was a little gut wrenching. We packed some peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches for people we would met there. They would keep and eye on your truck and want to pick through your garbage right away.

We began to unload our truck and trailer and I saw a couple of Mexican guys just kind of hanging out around us and they had a nice Ford F150 pickup - it looked new and a little out of place in a dump. So we finally started talking in spanish even with my horrible, limited spanish - and the one guys (I think his name was Juan Guerrero) starts talking perfect English!! We talk about this and that, sports and the usual guys stuff and then he asks where I am from. So I tell him I am from way up north, in the midwest, and I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin. I am speaking really slowly and phonetically because I figure he's never even heard of Wis-CON-sin. I explain it is kind of near Minn-E-sota sort of kind of near CAN-a-da.

He looks at me and says, oh yea "I know all about Wisconsin and Minnesota, in fact I just recently got back from there. I was working up there. So what town are you from?"

So, I tell him, it's this little town called Baldwin near the Wisconsin & Minnesota boarder, I tell him it's a nice little town. He looks off in the distance and says... "Baldwin, Baldwin? - is that the town near interstate 94 and Hwy 63? I think there is an A & W Rootbeer stand there?"

I practically faint! I told him it was.

He says, "Oh, yes - I've been there, in fact I worked there last year as a drywaller, on that new development on the Southside of town."

My mouth hits the ground! I am standing in the middle of a huge landfill, a massive, stinking dump, in the middle of no where, in the middle of Baja Mexico, 2000 miles from home, talking to a complete random stranger who has not only heard of Baldwin but worked there and likes the Rootbeer stand my friend Chad use to work at! By this time I am without speech, I am thinking this is just impossible, maybe he is my guardian angel or something... I am just waiting for him to tell me he used to shake dice for coffee with Uncle Dave at Bark's Bakery on Main or he likes to fish at "Big Jim's!"

I knew that day our world had changed forever.

Priyas Proverbs - Kindergarten Theology

Priya and Stephen are talking in the back of the van today... blah blah blah blah and then I hear Priya say, "Well that is because Jesus IS God!"

Stephen, "But he was from Mary and Joseph.."

Priya, "It's complicated..."

Big Water - Big Birthday present for Grandpa

It was windy and dangerous out on the big water. Not much for perch but we got some Salmon