Christmas Letter 2011

Hockey season starts

This was the start of our Rusty Blades hockey season.  I am on the Blue Flames team, and it is lots of fun and great exercise too.  We play twice a week so that ends up being about 50 games for the six month season.

Birthday surprise fishing trip

 It was Paul's birthday (orange) so Gary took several friends and men from church on a Halibut trip.

 It takes a lot of weight fishing in the high tide currents of Cook Inlet, and it is a lot of work bringing that weight back up from the ocean floor to change bait.

 Bringing one up now.  We each got two which is the limit.

This one is about 25 or 30 pounds.  It is possible to get one 300 #s.

Debt thoughts

Not many folks talk about this, that the US spends more on defense than the next 17 nations combined. (We are 11th as a percent of GDP @ 4.7%.)

If i was loaning money to a neighbor and he spent it all on guns and ammo... i would be a little worried about trying to collect that debt.

Are we really intending to pay off our debts??? Or, do we really have to worry about paying it off?

Another thought; "the borrower is servant to the lender" i wonder if the lenders to the US are controlling what is happening in this country behind the scenes.

That is probably enough crazy thoughts about debt.

A person with zero debt is free from many worries.

Coicidence or Connection

A few months ago a book was recommended that shows many connections between natural disasters and market crashes; and how the US treats Israel. Since i like to study the markets and am also a fan of controversies and conspiracy theories it caught my attention. The book is As America has done to Israel by John McTernan. He starts out by showing how we supported Israel in the earlier days of the new nation. But later during the reigns of four or five recent presidents we have been methodically telling Israel to give back land and settlements. Often on the same day or day after we do this bad things such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and market crashes happen! Is it just an interesting coincidence or is God really trying to get our attention? Perhaps monitoring this type of news can help the decision to go long or short the markets.

Exodus and Exile

We are living during very trying times lately and for several years now. I found an interesting introduction to Lamentations written in the Message Bible by Eugene Peterson that might have a parallel application to 'what in the world is going on anyway??' I will copy one paragraph:

"There are two polar events in the history of the Hebrew people: the Exodus from Egypt and the Exile into Babylon. Exodus is the definitive story of salvation into a free life. God delivered his people from Egyptian slavery (in about 1200 B. C.). It is a story of freedom. It's accompanied by singing and dancing--an exuberant experience. Exile is the definitive story of judgment accompanied by immense suffering. God's people are taken into Babylonian slavery (the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. marks the event). It is a time of devastation and lament. It is a terrible experience. The two events, Exodus and Exile, are bookends holding together the wide-ranging experiences of God's people that fall between the exuberance that accompanies salvation and the suffering associated with judgement."

We hear the Exodus story a lot in churches but rarely hear about the Exile. 2Kings 23 shows how bad things became in Israel before the judgement of exile. The way things are becoming in this country and world, are we ripe for judgement or exile ourselves?

This is kind of a negative posting, but it is something i just noticed this summer while reading and a light went on and it had to be written to remember it... Seventy years after the exile God was gracious and let a few go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple and the walls (Ezra and Nehemiah). Yet those who went back to the promised land were slaves and had to give their harvests to foreign kings. (Nehemiah 9 and check out v. 36, 37.) Maybe these difficult days can be explained by the exodus AND the exile story.

Final step to Egypt

Will find out in three or four weeks if i get a work visa.

Training Holly for Mt. Marathon race

We took a training trek up Mt. Marathon on June 30th. Holly ran the race in the ladies division on July 4th.







Practicing skipping down the mountain.











Rest stop with a view.








Highlander hiking outfit.








Made it to the edge of the world.

First grandson, second grandchild

Yesterday afternoon Heidi called and John sent photos of Leeland, our newest grandson. He was a big boy at 9lb. 4oz.!! We are very excited and will be visiting them soon. It is amazing how quick we can see photos of the baby and talk just minutes after he was born. Emery looks like she has her hands full. Nice family photo on top.

Yancey - What Good is God?

I have always liked reading books by Philip Yancey because he tackles the tough issues that most folks would rather ignore. In this one he talks about ten places he traveled to for speaking engagements. He shares background circumstances about the places and people he visited. Following each chapter is a talk he gave at each place. He really shows how God's grace and love can work in today's world.

What's next???

It has not been a quiet week in the world. I'm going to try to make some links and/or photos to help remember this for later. http://www.spiegel.de/flash/flash-25462.html if it works has some satellite before and after photos of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. There is a slider bar to compare the two photos.

Here is another list since 2001 borrowed from Big Picture and also Doug Kass http://www.thestreet.com/story/11043072/1/kass-a-contagion-of-black-swans.html

Black Swan events over the past decade

• Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon;
• 78% decline in the Nasdaq;
• 2003 European heat wave (40,000 deaths);
• 2004 Tsunami in Sumatra, Indonesia (230,000 deaths);
• 2005 Kashmir, Pakistan, earthquake (80,000 deaths)
• 2008 Myanmar cyclone (140,000 deaths);
• 2008 Sichuan, China, earthquake ( 68,000 deaths);
• Derivatives roil the world’s banking system and financial markets;
• Failure of Lehman Brothers and the sale/liquidation of Bear Stearns;
• 30% drop in U.S. home prices;
• 2010 Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, earthquake (315,000 deaths);
• 2010 Russian heat wave (56,000 deaths);
• 2010 BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill;
• 2010 market flash crash (a 1,000-point drop in the DJIA);
• Surge of unrest in the Middle East; and
• Thursday’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Quite a scary list above and if that was not enough the middle east is still very unstable in Libya and Saudi Arabia...

Of course stock markets hate uncertainty.

Three woes, all in one week: natural and man made disasters, political unrest, and economic downtrend!

Building churches in Peru....fast

In the last half of February i went with a group to build 3 churches up the Ucayali river. It was a tough week with the heat - 80 to 100 degrees day and night. Each 24x36 building cost about $5000 each for materials. The first took about 18hrs., the second 16, and the third took 12hrs. to build. The lumber was heavy and all cut with chain saws!
Prayer time. No one was injured in the making of these photos or from building
Setting the posts.
Floor
Multitasking - building trusses
Check out the long chain saw!
Multitasking - building church pews
Standing up trusses
Roofing
Finishing the top and front
View from the inside
Dedication service, very thankful folks!