This Pilgrim's Progress

Katrina - How You Can Make a Difference

Hugh Hewitt had a great idea yesterday.

He suggested that organizations (businesses, churches, schools, clubs, etc.) look for a counterpart in the area affected by the disaster to "adopt" and partner with during the recovery period.  I passed that suggestion along to the leaders of my church. I hope they decide to do it, or something similar.  I think Christians really have an opportunity here to show their love to their brothers-in-the-faith and partner with them to help their churches and communities recover from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. Churches especially are always well-plugged into the local community and know where the real needs are. 

An email was read at our Bible-study that was from the PCA presbytery and churches in the disaster area. There are some real pressing needs, and over the long haul as recovery begins, those needs will increase and be there for many months.

Katrina Flood Aid

Hurricane Katrina has devasted the Gulf Coast. If you are interested in donating to relief efforts for this disaster, I highly recommend Samaritan's Purse. Their web site is at: http://www.samaritanspurse.com/ . They are a reliable and hardworking Christian relief organization led by Franklin Graham.

The Salvation Army of course is always one of the first organizations to respond to a disaster of any size: http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/

FEMA also has a list of legitimate relief organizations: http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18473 .

FEMA says the most important need right now for most organizations is cash donations, but they also list organizations that take volunteer help if that's what's in your heart right now.

Instapundit is coordinating a big Flood-Aid Blogburst Thursday, 9/1/05 to encourage the blogosphere to donate and support relief efforts in this disaster.

Random Thoughts

Tech-Ed

I have to go out of town next week for a professional conference. I'm not looking forward to the flight or the time away from the family. It should be beneficial though career-wise.  I'll be flying to Orlando, Flowreeduhh, so pray for me!! I'll be at Microsoft's Tech-Ed 2005, which is basically a huge marketing gimmick aimed at us MS geeks, but they have to share some real information to get our attention.

Toby

Toby-update: wife and kids got a Dogloo for Toby yesterday. The thing is huge and could shelter 3 homeless people!! The kennel panels from Home Depot are supposed to come today. Hopefully we can get it assembled tomorrow so we can get Toby acclimated to it next week. He's growing fast, but is still cute and beautiful!!

Shoes

Went shoe-shopping yesterday. Made the mistake of going to Nordstrom's, but I was in a hurry and I knew they would have my size no matter what. Tried on a $150 shoe that felt like something designed by an Al Quaddi torture-lab. Then I tried on a $295 pair that fit like a glove and were very comfortable. Guess which one I left the store with! Used to be you could get a good pair of shoes for $100 to $150 a pair (ok it was 25 years ago, but it seems like yesterday!!).  One unusual thing that stood out about the shoes I bought...they were U.S. made!!! I've tried to find hiking boots, tennis shoes, casual shoes that were made in U.S. , but with no luck. Even long-time American brands like Redwing are making their products in China.  I bet the $150 pair was Chinese-made. I can now say I have a least one pair of American-made shoes!!

Waltzing

Our second dance class is tonight. Debbie and I are trying to learn to waltz for our 25th anniversary. So far it has been fun, and I'm looking forward to getting to the "real stuff".  So far we've learned a 3 count box step, and somehow this will eventually become a graceful waltz movement...we'll just have to see how it goes.

Spineless Republican Senators

I haven't commented on politics in a long while. Really what's there to say that the politics-blogs haven't beaten to death and driven into the ground. I have to say though the gang-of-seven's antics really amaze me. We need to get some party-discipline going in the Senate, it's just a loose-cannon on a sinking ship (sorry I've been listening to Rather-isms on Laura Ingraham's show).

Too Many Photos and Videos

I've got a backlog of about 100 photos and 3 hours of video-tape that I need to process and publish. Maybe I could go part-time on my job and catch-up?? No chance of that for about 10 years, until the kids have been edykated and married off. I've neglected my genealogy hobby terribly these past 10 years. Nice thing about dead relatives though is that they aren't going anywhere!! And sometimes over time it gets easier to find them... the 1930 census data is public domain now, but I haven't had a chance to search through it. And it's amazing how many genealogy files are now available on the web. If I wait long enough I'll be able to say "genealogy on maternal grandmother's side going back 5 generations" and my refrigerator will put in a request to the home mainframe which will link up with the Ecumenical Family Database in Salt Lake City  and Rome and spit back a detailed family tree in XML format!! That will be a reality in the next 10 years,  you heard it here first!!!

Yosemite

Our family is looking forward to our vacation at Yosemite in July. The waterfalls are fantastic this year. We're camping at Toulome meadows for the first time this year. Hopefully it will be less crowded than the valley. Last time we were at Yosemite it was hard to sleep because of the gentle murmur of a hundred generators and satellite dish motors.

DIY Project from Hell!!

Finally finished the French drain!! I still can't believe it's done. It's on the level of the Pyramids or Hoover Dam for our family!!

Later....

Darwin Awards

If you need a chuckle or two to brighten up your day, I recommend the Darwin Awards website . The Darwin Award is given posthumously to those who die after doing something really stupid, thereby removing themselves from the gene pool. This site is well done, and will provide many moments of amusement. Some of the items are true, and some are urban legends.

Soggy San Diego

Southern California has been experiencing a series of heavy rain storms the last couple of weeks. We desperately need the rain, as we've been in a 10 year drought.

The only problem with rain is that the residents of this area react as if they had never seen or experienced this sort of weather before. They do stupid stuff like trying to cross flooded roads, streams, arroyos, etc.  There was a bad mud slide up near Santa Barbara that caused some deaths and injuries, destroying about 15 homes. Our local officials and home-owners are worried about the bluffs above the beach collapsing, as they are wont to do from time to time. 

This kind of weather is not new to San Diego or Southern California. One of the things you should learn living in this area is don't try to cross a flooded road, stream, or arroyo. You also learn that it's not a good idea to buy a home that is on unstable ground (seaside bluffs) or below it (graded hillsides in developments), or in a flood plain or flood prone area. These aren't secrets, and it's actually pretty easy to avoid getting into trouble. But...people don't learn from history, and they suffer the consequences. 

San Diego has a history of periodic 10, 50, and 100 year rain-flood cycles. This timeline of area disasters show that these cycles exist and are well-known (and well-ignored).

One of the most heavily developed areas in the county is Mission Valley. This valley gets flooded from one side to the other every 100 years or so.  The last one was in 1916.  We are overdue for the next one, maybe this is it! The pictures show what it looked like in 1916 with no development.  It will be scary to see what a 100 year flood will look like now!!

And we are also taught the same lessons about wildfires and earthquakes.  The Northridge earthquake caused much needed reforms in construction standards and practices, but the general public awareness is no longer there. We don't seem to have learned much from last year's wildfires,  our local fire and emergency services are extremely underfunded and poorly managed in this county.

I guess my whole point in this post, is that God designed the world to work in a certain way. The natural processes (or "forces") He created are ones we need to learn to respect and deal with. When we choose to live in certain areas, we need to understand the risks and how to live with them or ameliorate them.  And sometimes we just have to pick up the pieces and go forward, because nature is not always predictable and it is always overwhelming in its extremes. 

Tsunami - a Biblical Perspective

I've been silent the last few weeks. It's been hard for me to find anything to write and grouse about since the Earthquake/Tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean. Our petty concerns shrink to insignificance when we are confronted with something like the Tsunami. Our minds struggle to put it into context, to comprehend and grasp the reality of such a disaster and what it means to us.  My Calvinistic/Reform Christian worldview stresses God's Sovereignty, and that helps me understand that as tragic as events might be on the human scale, on an Eternal scale it's all part of God's perfect plan. This might sound trite and smug if you are not familiar with the doctrine of God's Sovereignty. The doctrine may be hard for humanists or post-moderns to accept, but once you internalize it's truths, it provides a real context for all of life.

John Piper, a highly regarded reform Baptist pastor and theologian writes about all this in two excellent articles: "Tsunami and Repentance" and "Tsunami, Sovereignty, and Mercy" .

If you are struggling to understand the meaning of disasters like the Indian Ocean Tsunami, then I highly recommend these two articles for your consideration. He not only talks about the context of such events and what they mean, but also about what our personal response should be as Christians.

Support Our Troops

If you find that the "Soldier's Angels" site that I recommended doesn't quite have the project that you can do, but you still want to help out is some way, the DoD has a web site ( http://www.defendamerica.mil/support_troops.html) that has a rather extensive list of organizations and their web links. All of these support our troops in some way, so take a look and see if anything looks like a good match to your time and talents.

Remember to support our troops not only with these wonderful projects but most importantly through your prayers.

Soldier's Angels

This holiday season we'll have many of our fathers, mothers, sons and daughters serving in harm's way in the mid-east. An organization that works to support them and let them know they are loved and appreciated is  Soldier's Angels. com. Their motto is "May No Soldier Go Unloved",  and they sponsor a number of projects that you can be involved in directly or financially support.

Be sure to look at their "Angels Operations" page to find a project that you would like to support. They make blankets for the wounded, write letters, send "care" packages, donate air miles and phone time, etc.  Many different ways to get involved and make sure that our fighting men and women know that we appreciate and cherish them.

What better way to celebrate the holidays -- Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannuka, Kwanza, Winter Solstice, or the New Year -- than to support our troops in this way!!

Snow in Southern California!!

A storm blew in yesterday and dumped a bunch of snow on our mountains and deserts!!

This url links you to a slide-show from a local TV News station that shows the snow: http://nbcsandiego.com/slideshow/weather/3939652/detail.html?qs=1;s=1;dm=ss;p=weather;w=320

Semper Fidelis

Happy 229th birthday to the United States Marine Corps!!

Today is the day that the Marines were founded in 1775.  I thought it fitting to remember this special day in honor of all our ground forces fighting in Iraq. The Marine Corps has a long and fabled history, and a tradition of service with honor.

My maternal uncles were Marines in WWII and Korea. I always held them in awe and respect because of their service. They were "fleet Marines" in the old pre-Eleanor Roosevelt tradition. The sense of professionalism, dedication to duty and honor, and brotherhood-in-arms with their comrades are the same qualities that our modern ground forces have.  We probably would not be able to fight the War on Terror if we didn't have these remarkable young soldiers and Marines. God bless and keep them during these perilous times.