Life has been busy...

Last week someone was always sick in the house. What a long week. I plan to get back to posting this week with some updates of what we have been doing. I love lapbooking but I have been getting lazy with taking pictures of our homeschooling stuff. I must get on track.

How to write great resumes.

The duties of a teacher don't end with just taking class. The responsibility is much more than just teaching the subject.

I have to keep myself constantly updated on various aspects such as informing my students about new educational courses to study, education loans avenues, how to write an effective and appealing resume etc.

For my knowledge, I visit regularly Qoolsqool, a free and open educational resource for educators, students, and self-learners around the world.

This is a great resource for students, teachers and parents. The content is top class in this website.
An Example:
How to write and effective resume
In this article posted by Jacobt, a step by step guide to write a resume is nicely explained.

Share this resource friends.

Cricket lovers betrayed.

India is playing its first test cricket match against South Africa, a few minutes drive away from my house.

But I can't watch it in my TV. I can watch cricket match between England New Zealand and Srilanka vs West Indies. I can watch some odd sports event taking place somewhere in the world.

That is India for you.

And this country's cricket officials are said to be richer than Bill gates but still they indulge in other activities and getting arrested.

Gavaskar, an influential member of the ICC, a past Indian cricketer that I like very much, is voicing his opinions rather late and is being watched in shock by all his fans.

That is India for you.

Pagan Christianity? A Book Review

by Pastor John Sleadd

I recently read Pagan Christianity?, by Frank Viola and George Barna, which explores the roots of our church practices. The authors claim that, according to credible historic research, the majority of what takes place in today’s institutional church can be linked to Roman and Greek pagan traditions. They assert the following, and more.

That Emperor Constantine transformed Christianity into a state religion and instituted sacred sites, sacred rituals and sacred officers to unify and control his empire.

That church buildings evolved from pagan religious shrines

That preachers evolved from Greek sophists, who were gifted, yet often unscrupulous, orators

That pulpits evolved from Greek stagecraft used for entertainment

That salaried pastors evolved from pensioned, Roman government officials

That church music practices evolved from Roman pagan customs of pomp and formality

I confess that I found Pagan Christianity? a fascinating read. In it Viola and Barna criticize the authoritarian, high church system of clergy, costumes, customs and cathedrals. They say this system puts a few men in charge of lifeless congregations. They are equally critical of the pop culture, consumer system, which keeps the religious customers entertained in auditoriums with celebrity speakers, professional praise bands, and youth ministers who widen the generation gap. A return to the old ways is needed, they say. Out with professionalism and institutionalism. In with relationships and organic community. Back to the habits of the early church at the ground level, where believers met in equality and simplicity.

Viola and Barna are sincerely concerned for the health of the Lord’s church. I found many, perhaps most of their arguments to be persuasive. Their historic evidence was compelling. I would therefore recommend this book to anyone who is interested in church history and practice. I would, however, offer a few words of caution.

Viola and Barna seem to disregard legitimate authority and hierarchy in the body of Christ. They advocate an “every-member functioning” model of church meeting, and they rightly condemn the practice of professional clergymen dominating over a passive laity. Yet, in their disdain for abusive authoritarianism in the church, I believe they have overreacted and thrown the baby out with the bath water. Allow me to explain.

I believe the authors have ignored the hierarchy that exists within the Trinity and in God’s ordained institutions of family, church and state. In the Trinity, the Holy Spirit plays a supporting role to the Son, and the Son plays a submissive role to the Father, yet they are one and they are equally God. In the family the husband is the head of the wife, and the wife is commanded to submit to her husband, yet they are part of a one-flesh union (Ephesians 5:22-23). Together, they have authority over their children, who are commanded to honor and obey their parents (Ephesians 6:1). In the church the Elders are given the authority and responsibility to rule (1 Timothy 5:17), and church members are commanded to obey and submit to them (Hebrews 13:17). Yet the Elders are told to govern with gentleness and humility, predominantly through the power of example (1 Peter 5:2-3). In the state, we see evidence of hierarchy as well. The ancient Hebrew republic had a hierarchy of military commanders and judges to lead the Jewish nation. Furthermore, a hierarchical chain of command is an essential part of our United States constitutional republic today. It can be said that hierarchical authority is both biblical and essential for right conduct in human interactions.

There are other troubling issues that bubble up from the pages of Pagan Christianity? The authors assume that all church members have equal privileges to share, to lead, and to teach, during each meeting, but this is in conflict with what the scriptures teach about the distribution of spiritual gifts and about church leadership. In their criticism of church liturgical practices, they imply that spontaneous sharing is more biblical than preplanned worship services that are directed by select individuals. This begs the question why the Holy Spirit cannot work through preplanning just as well as spontaneity, and through the specialization of gifts as well as through every member. Such things reveal a personal bias that taints an otherwise timely call to reformation of church practice.

I agree with Viola and Barna that every member of the Body of Christ should be fully functioning and contributing. But we must steer clear of the tendency to democratize the church into an egalitarian social construct. My prayer is that the Lord would continue to bless and refine His church, according to His perfect will and purpose. I recommend you read Pagan Christianity? for yourself and enjoy interacting with it as I did.

Savings.com promo coupons.

“Bye son, take care and always be in touch”-I told my son when he left for his job training. Though we are all happy that he got a very high paying job, we felt sad that we have to live without him. The house would be so empty without him.

Though he is 23 years old, he did not learn to be independent. I had to pack all his bags ensuring that all the recent purchases were safely in his suitcase. My son has accumulated a lot of promo coupons and I was happy to use all of them that saved us substantial cash.

Since his job involved a lot of research in the internet, we bought a new DSL internet access from Bell South. We were able to save $250 in this purchase alone by way of $125 cash back in addition to the $125 cash back that we received as a joining incentive.

My son required fresh set of clothes. Not that he is short of dresses but still, he wanted something new. Understandingly, he did not burden me with heavy purchase. It was so sweet of him to pick up something from clearance sales. We saved about $75 using online promo coupons.

But in spite of all the promo codes and money savings, I was sad to see him off. God bless him.

LiveOffice Hosted Exchange offers.

In a webmasters discussion forum, I read some knowledgeable questions and answers about the need for comprehensive solution to keep you in touch with your business 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Though the subject was beyond my comprehension, I could sense a longing for such a service. When I visited the websites of those participated in that discussion, I could see them in a big business avenue and I guessed they have quite a number of work force. It seems they are on the look out for better communication between through email.

Live Office might their need.

Live Office's Unified Messaging:

Unified messaging offers a great deal of flexibility to meet your workforce’s varying needs. You’ll save time and money and increase productivity by consolidating all forms of communication in one unified inbox with Hosted Exchange. Employees can access their email, calendar invites and contacts through Outlook, Outlook Web Access, a mobile device or even a standard telephone when Internet access is not available.

Mango Crockpot Chicken

Originally posted here: 4 Reluctant Entertainers

Mango Crockpot Chicken

Spray your crockpot (any kind of cooking spray)
Fill with whole chicken (boneless) breasts
Cover with ½ container of Costco’s Mango Salsa (any salsa works, but this particular kind is the best!)
Cook on LOW all day long – do not stir

It’s time to eat!! Shred the chicken with two forks (do not drain off any juices), salt lightly, and your chicken is ready to go!

I shredded lettuce and cheese, cut up onions, olives, tomatoes and cilantro – set out a pint of sour cream – and then we cooked tortillas, though we sometimes use flour tortillas.

Another AMAZING recipe and a definite keeper in my house. Everyone liked this and talk about an easy dinner.

Creamy Chicken and Broccoli with pasta

Creamy Chicken and Broccoli with pasta

• 1 pound uncooked pasta (spaghetti works well or egg noodles)
• 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
  
• 4 cups broccoli florets
• 1 tablespoon margarine/butter
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken - cut into strips (I used chicken tighs)
  
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2/3 cup chicken broth
  
• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, cubed and softened
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• italian seasoning to suit you taste
  

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place spaghetti in the pot, and cook 4 minutes. Mix in the broccoli florets. Continue cooking 4 to 6 minutes, until spaghetti is al dente. Drain, and transfer to a large bowl.
2. Melt the margarine in a skillet over medium heat, and cook the chicken, 1 clove garlic and onion 5 minutes, until chicken juices run clear and onions are tender.
3. In a bowl, whisk together the soup, milk, chicken broth, 1 clove garlic, and cream cheese until smooth. Stir into the skillet with the chicken and onion, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer 5 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Toss in the bowl with the spaghetti and broccoli to serve.

Very professional SEO services.

A SEO company that I know of proved their skill in their domain name selection, Customermagnetism.com
They have been in the organic search engine optimization field since 1977 and their service areas include the following:
Professional copywriting,
Internal optimization,
External (inbound) link building,
Social networking,
Pay per click advertising
Press releases

They do this service with the sole aim of getting your website in the top position of Google, Yahoo and MSN.

I had gone through their website thoroughly which speaks volume of their experience and detail oriented information presentation.

Call them toll free 1-866-798-3862

Small business web hosting.

My husband was raising his voice to be heard by the co-passenger sitting opposite to him in the metro railway because of the outside noise. The train was going at a breakneck speed and was crowded. That was another reason for the extra noise.

The discussion was about the advantages of hosting the web sites and blogs on our own. I own one website and 11 blogs. Though I have no complaints with the existing web hosting companies, we have been contemplating to buy our own server.

We can always sell the excess space to others. There are so many college students who approach my husband seeking guidance on various aspects of a web site maintenance and internet marketing. So there is scope for earning a few extra bucks a month from our own servers.

But I remember reading somewhere in the web that many internet service providers (ISP) block traffic going to a customer's Web server. I must collect feedback on this issue.

Who knows, our web hosting company may offer stiff competition big names in the web hosting industry.

Image courtesy:Google images.

The best gold coins you can buy.

History accords gold an ancient status. Beyond history, gold has existed. But despite is pre-historic background and universal appeal, investors treat gold as only another commodity in the bullion market.

If you think on it deeply and honestly, what would be your answer for “Why we are attracted to gold”?

My answer will be the color of gold and nothing else. All the gems and stones are great companion to the color of gold. Yellow in its absolute majesty, is the most attractive color and costly when it takes the form of a metal.

As Monex keeps saying ever since I came to know them, there may never be a better time for buying gold bullion than right now because against all the upward movement of its price in the last two months, there is a slight downtrend now.

As an investment product, gold is available in coin or ingot form. Ingots are generally gold ingots of pure bullion cast in a convenient size and shape. You can buy in either form from Monex, home to a large and dedicated staff of hard asset professionals committed to serving your precious metals investment needs and being America’s best dealer with a convenient market and competitive precious metals prices.

Image courtesy:Google Images

Yuvaraj's six 6s in six balls.

I rued and rued because I slept on that historic day in South Africa when Yuvaraj Singh of India, scored 6 sixes in a row against England in the first ever Twenty20 world cup cricket tournament.

The England bowler was Stuart Broad and man, won't he remember those 6 balls for ever and I wonder will he ever find an eraser to rub the memory off his brain.

Since that, I wanted to watch the replay of those six sixes and today, I found that video clip on YouTube.



Enjoy and share it please. Thanks.

He Is Risen. He Saves.

Much hangs on the truth of Christ’s resurrection. No resurrection, no victory over sin and death. No resurrection, no certainty that God’s Word is true. No resurrection, no Lord Jesus mediating from the throne room of the Father on behalf of sinners. Like me.

The apostle Paul wrote that if Christ has not been raised from the dead, then our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. If we hope in Christ only in this life only, then we are to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:12-19).

Fortunately, Christ has been raised from the dead. The resurrection is an historical fact. The empty tomb was solid evidence of His resurrection in the days and years following Christ’s public execution. Jesus’ appearance to a multitude of eyewitnesses in the weeks after his certified death are irrefutable. The conspiracy theories of body snatching, or mass hallucinations are flimsy concoctions of fiction, which have no credibility in light of the data.

Death could not keep Jesus in the grave. The Lord of creation, who has made all things and sustains all things, demonstrated His sovereignty over death itself. He was summoned to life. He lives. He reigns. And this is good news for us.

Jesus’ resurrection confirms His power to save us. He summons His elect into new life by the regenerative power of His Spirit. Thus, one can be born again.

The Bible says that all have sinned and offended God (Romans. 3:23). It says that we suppress the evidence of God and deny His authority over creation. It describes mankind as law breakers and rebels.

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). God cannot tolerate sin and His holy character requires that sin be punished. He has created hell, a place of unquenchable fire, and eternal suffering reserved for those who hate Him and reject Jesus, His Son.

But here’s the good news: The Bible says that God shows His great love for us, in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

We are saved by God’s grace, not by our own works (Ephesians 2:8). We cannot say we have earned salvation. It is a gift.

We have a place in heaven. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9).

Jesus came to save His people. Are you one of them? Have you trusted Jesus?

Affordable four color brochure printing.

The annual admission carnival will begin next month. My mathematics coaching academy will be completing 21 years of existence by this month end.

Every year, I will be printing a few hundred brochures that will enlighten the parents and students about my mathematics coaching center, my aims and goals, the fee structure and conduct codes etc.

Normally I will leave the job of brochure printing to my husband who has a creative head. Since we recently moved to a new place, I told my husband to order printing of business cards also.

I was recommended to look into the printing services of a professional printer by one of the parents of my students. He informed be that his company recently engaged the services of wholesaleprintingdirect.com, a Ohio based company that is offering cheap brochure printing and printing of other office stationeries that include letterheads and envelopes, marketing materials like brochures, business cards and presentation folders and many more.

Myy husband and I sat together and carefully browsed through all the pages of wholesaleprintingdirect.com. The whole exercise was fun and easy. For my brochures, I was given various options that are:

5 different sizes

Colored front and back or black only at the back of the brochure

Coated paper and non-coated paper

5 various folding options with an instant preview facility

I will stop here writing about all other features and request you to try it out for yourself. It is all a breeze including how you select to read the proof.

All your business printing needs are met under one roof.

Environment friendly gift wrap.

One of the toughest jobs for me is not in selecting a gift for an occasion but selecting an attractive wrapper for it.

The shop keeper will show me a lot of choices. All will look attractive to me. Finally, after much scrutiny, I will decide on one. But the moment the gift is wrapped, I will have second thoughts. Does this happen to you too?

But why I have not thought of this new environment friendly gift wrapper before? Day Tipper says we can use pillow cases to wrap the gift. This idea is so good. Paper wraps invariably meet with cruel handling and find their way very quickly to the garbage basket.

But pillow cases can be useful always-right? Kudos to this idea!

St. Patrick's Day Lapbook

We did a lapbook for St. Patrick's Day.
We didn't go into much of the history and stuff as my LO
is just too young for that and she was definitely lose interest.

Cover

Back

left flap

inside

flap turned up!

Pepina Bronze Dutch Novelty Pom.

--> Pepina Bronze Novelty Pom Bronze Flower

The wind was quite strong but not cool. Well, the summer is on and I can’t expect a cool breeze after 9.00 PM.

Fighting against mosquitoes, we were on the terrace when the discussion came up on the wedding invitation that we received a couple of hours earlier through courier.

We all disagreed on one point and that is the color of the invitation. It was awesome. Whoever designed that and whoever okayed it, must have been in a sullen mood. However we all agreed on one point and it was the image of the wedding bouquet.

The bouquet consisted of a bunch of Choice Daisy and the flowers are of stunningly beautiful bronze color. A fresh bronze flower, the Choice Daisy is a spray flower that has a classic bloom with many ray petals radiating from a green center.

I read somewhere about a belief attached to this bronze flower; if a bride is hoping for pregnancy early in the marriage, ancient folklore suggests that she place a daisy in her left stocking.

Choice Daisy Bronze Flower:

I hope the wedding ceremony organizer buys the garlands made of Choice Daisy flowers or Pepina Bronze Dutch Novelty Pom for the bride and the groom from FiftyFlowers.com, the trustworthy online source for wholesale flowers. I am sure the garlands of unique bronze daisy would add an alluring appeal to any wedding bouquet.

FiftyFlowers.com has been specializing in wedding flowers for almost 10 years, delivering the highest quality, fresh cut flowers directly from the flower farms in Ecuador, Colombia and other exotic locations.

Photo editing made easy.

It is of course easy for others to edit photos across any sites but not for me. I am afraid to learn even. Anything to do with art, photo-I am off. On second thoughts, I think I will give it a try. Foto Flexer claims to have made my job easy. It is supposed to be the the words easiest online photo editing tool and also advanced.

But I really can't say how advanced it is because I don't know what is the basic photo editor.


Hey, this is fantastic, I could manage with it all the functions like stretch, rotate, add clip art, color the focussed area with a different color and all that.

Look at this:














Do you think you too can match my creativity?


Source inspiration: Mashable.com

Playing her File Folder game

Here is my daughter playing with her alphabet file folder.
She also got her Penguin lapbook and played the game inside it too.
I just love that she goes back through lapbooks and file folder
games that we have made and uses them over again.

Library Day

Grabbed some books so we could start our pig lapbook.
This was my daughters first choice of things she wanted to learn about.
Trust me the movie Charlotte's Web played a big part in this choice.

I plan on doing a little Easter lapbook so I picked up a few Easter theme books.
I personally think she is a bit to young for a whole lapbook on the
Resurrection and will save that for next year.

Just a couple of books from the library that we both liked.
I can't wait to read the top two.

The Infamy of Rousseau's Selfish Socialism

I decided to write my third letter to the editor of our local newspaper. After the last letter, I received four public commendations and two criticisms. One writer said that I should go back to my pulpit and get a life.

I expect to be attacked in print. I write to inform and provoke. I also hope to stimulate Christians to rise up and challenge the culture. Here's my latest contribution to the cultural conversation.

Jean Jacques Rousseau was an eighteenth-century, French philosopher with a penchant for siring and abandoning children. Five of them. Rousseau was a dead-beat dad with a disdain for paternal duty. He championed the cause of self-love and personal entitlement.

Rousseau denounced civilization, social conventions, and traditional values. He believed the state was the perfect agent to liberate the individual from such oppressive relationships as marriage, family, church and work. He claimed that each citizen would then be completely independent of all his fellow men, and absolutely dependent on the state.

As an Enlightenment thinker, he postulated theories of socialism and nationalism, which inspired Robespierre in the French Revolution, as well as Marx, Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler, Mao and even Pol Pot. Curious, isn’t it, how the seeds of radical individualism and entitlement can produce a crop of totalitarianism.

Unfortunately, Rousseau’s theories are alive and well in America today. Perhaps that’s why we have no-fault divorce, same-sex unions, and abortion on demand, all supported by our government. Maybe that’s why a U.S. court ruled that parents have no exclusive right to teach their children about sex education, but must permit the state to teach them the legitimacy of homosexuality. Maybe that’s why a California court recently declared that home education is illegal unless the parents have a state-issued teaching license.

Statesman Edmund Burke reportedly said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Men of conscience, I adjure you to take action. Pray, speak, write.

Pastor John Sleadd
Coram Deo Church

Fun day yesterday!!!!

Monday we just had a fun day... trying to get back into the routine of things.
My husband was laid off last week so today we played alot.
This is my daughter having fun on her computer.

Free online file storage by Microsoft.

Microsoft is offering us free on line file storage. If you have Hotmail account and if it is active, you can start uploading the files immediately.

Go to Skydrive.live.com for this. You are given 5 GB space. You can store word documents, music files, pictures and video clips.

You can store your files exclusively for your access at anytime from anywhere in the world.
You can store and give permission to a few designated persons to access your files.
You can also store and share the files with anyone in the world.

The main advantage for this free online storage is you can do away with portable hard drives like pen drives. Also the storage is offered by none other than Microsoft which means it is safe and secure.

I have started using this space and it is just a breeze.

Here We Go

We're off to retreat. I'm leaving you with our photo and names so you can pray for us. (And if you click on the photo, it will get much bigger. Perfect for a screen saver! :) )

And below you'll find the blog entries I mentioned for each of the four weeks of the Exercises. Each has a bunch of songs, usually one per day. We start the 13th of March. Feel free to join us in this way (or any other).

Thanks in advance for your prayers.




Back Row: Chun Ng (Malaysia/Singapore region); Adrian Lyons (Tertian Director); Radek Robak (Poland); Ansgar Wiedenhaus (Germany); Mars Tan (Philippines); Woo-Bae Sohn (South Korea); Rytis Gurksnys (Lithuania).

Front row: Michael Gilson (California); Dennis Recio (California); Joseph Sobb (Assistant Tertian Director); Raymond Manyanga (Tanzania); Rudi Hartoko (Indonesia); Me.

First Week

Grace to be Prayed for:
That I Might Intimately Know My Own Sinfulness and God's Love for Me

Instructions: Below you'll find a song for each day of the week that fits the themes of the week. To listen to any song, click on the little right-pointing arrow at the left end below the bar. (It's right next to the little volume control symbol.)

If at first you don't see bars, but instead some sort of symbol (like a big "Q", for example), be patient. The bars will appear.

With some songs, I also found lyrics. If you click where it says, you can read the lyrics, either while you're listening, before or after.



Day One: God's Abiding Love
Father and Daughter, Paul Simon
Click Here for Lyrics


Day Two: Righteousness
Hallelujah, Rufus Wainwright
Click Here for Lyrics


Day Three: Holding Back
For You, Barenaked Ladies
Click Here for Lyrics


Day Four: Denial
Wise Up, Aimee Mann
Click Here for Lyrics


Day Five: "...and I Love You Still"
Still, Alanis Morissette
Click Here for Lyrics

Second Week

The Grace to be Prayed for:
To know Jesus better.


Day One: Baptism
Down To the River to Pray, Alison Krauss
Click Here for Lyrics


Day Two: Invitation
Put It There, Paul McCartney
Click Here for Lyrics


Day Three: Freeing Others
Save Me, Aimee Mann
Click Here for Lyrics


A Way Back to Then, from the musical [Title of Show]

His Eye is on the Sparrow, from Sister Act II
Click Here for Lyrics


Day Four: Unexpected Friends
The Birthday Party, Peter Mayer


Day Five: Facing Skepticism
Do I Disappoint You, Rufus Wainwright
Click Here for Lyrics

Third Week

The Grace to be Prayed For:
To witness the sufferings of Jesus.


Day One: Jerusalem
Going to a Town, Rufus Wainwright
Click Here for Lyrics


Day Two: Facing Death
The Deer's Cry: I Arise, Theresa Donohoo


Day Three: Pie Jesu
Pie Jesu, Andrew Lloyd Webber
Click Here for Lyrics


Day Four: Crucifixion
Strange Fruit, Nina Simone
Click Here for Lyrics


Day Five: Taking Him Down
Into the West, Annie Lennox
Click Here for Lyrics

Fourth Week

The Grace to be Prayed for:
To Enter into the Joy and Consolation of the Resurrected Jesus



Day One: Gratitude
Thank U, Alanis Morissette
Click Here for Lyrics


Day Two: Gratitude
All My Relations, Ulali


Day Three: A Desire for Discipleship
I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light


Day Four: Looking Beyond the Retreat
Time & I Feel So Much Spring, from A New Brain




Day Five: God's Promise
Answer, Sarah McLachlan
Click Here for Lyrics

Easter Lapbook and Teachings

Right now I am trying to get things together for a Lapbook on Easter and looking for some creative ideas for teaching my daughter about Easter. If you have any ideas please share them.

I came across this Resurrection Egg game with printable PDF file. The kids go through the house finding the eggs and have to match or find the clues which also can be hidden. We won't be hiding the clues as our daughter is to young but that would be fun also.

I also found some devotions for Easter on Christianity Today. This is for the week leading up to Easter.

Decorate Easter Eggs with Attributes of Jesus: Faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9) Righteous (1 John 2:1) Holy (1Peter 1:15) Forgiving (Psalm 86:5) Loving (Romans 8:35-39) Merciful (James 5:11) All-Knowing or omniscient (John 1:48) All-Present or omnipresent (Psalm 139:7-12) All-Powerful or omnipotent (Matthew 28:18) Eternal (Genesis 21:33) Full of Truth (John 14:6) Full of Wisdom (Isaiah 11:2) Compassionate (Mark 1:41) Just (Acts17:31) Kind (Ephesians 2:7) Gentle (Matthew 21:5) Unchanging (Hebrews 13:8) Creative (Genesis 1:26) Infinite (1 Kings 8:27) Sovereign (Jude 4) Goodness (John 10:11) Trustworthy (Psalm 19:7) Generous (2 Corinthians 8:7-9) From Focus on the Family

This is what I have so far and I will update this as I come up with more ideas. I have to get things together for the lapbook. The St. Patrick's Day one really isn't going to work out most of it is a big too hard for my little one this year. So on to Easter we go.

Thrift Store Find and Target find...

My husband and I decided to take a trip to the USA yesterday
and pick up a few things. This was not on my list but I had been
pricing them here in Canada. A magnetic white board and supplies
for it and it was going to cost me about $60 with taxes and today
while at Target my husband pointed it out to me for less than $10
I have a white board for our homeschool/craft room. Talk about a deal.

Today we went to our local Bible for Missions thrift store.
They tend to have really neat treasures in there from time
to time. Well today was one of those times.
We found a VTECH Monster Academy portable computer
for our daughter in there for $4. Yep... $4. She loves it.
There are a lot of very educational games on it and we love
that it has a volume control. All kids games need a
volume button. Best thing is we had an adapter to be able
to plug it in to the wall instead of wasting batteries.

Spiritual Exercises FAQ

1. Didn’t you already do this?

Yes, but I'm a slow learner! Actually, every Jesuit makes a long retreat both during their first year as a Jesuit and when they are in this final stage of formation that I'm in now.

2. Do you really have to be silent for 30 days?

It is in fact a 30 day silent retreat. But no, that doesn’t mean we never speak. I’ll talk to a director once a day about the things that are going on in my prayer. I’ll also say all the responses at mass. I might have to ask someone for someone to pass the salt at some point (though for the most part our meals will be in silence, maybe with classical music playing). And oh, we get break days, in which we will most definitely talk.

The real question is, why do you have to be silent? And the answer, we're trying to step away from all the things that usually draw our attention, so that we can be more aware of the invitations and presence of God. So, no email, no TV, no phone calls, no blog posting, no talking. In fact, it might even mean no reading! For those who have known me since I was that kid who walked (or rode) to school with a book in his hand, that might be the real jawdropper.

But the fact is, I can read anytime. I can talk anytime. But retreat is a special opportunity to get closer to God, and I want to do anything I can that might allow that to happen. (Which also means, if talking would help, I should probably do that, too. The rules aren't hard and fast. Most likely, though, I'll pretty darn quiet.)

3. So what will you do for 30 days?

I'll be doing what are known as the Spiritual Exercises. The Spiritual Exercises are a set of well, spiritual exercises (go figure) that the founder of the Jesuits, St. Ignatius, created to help people get closer to God and get in touch with their deepest desires. Ignatius in his early life was a soldier and probably something of a playboy. After a cannonball accident (how weird does that sound?) he began to notice for the first time strong movements of feeling and desire within himself: I think I want to be like the Saints! I think I want to be the chivalric hero! Over the course of the next months and years he grew more adept at noticing these different spirits and how they affected him, and he slowly moved from a sort of hyper-dramatic, romantic vision of Christianity to a very close, intimate relationship with Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Out of the lessons he learned from his own experiences, Ignatius created a set of exercises to feed and focus a person's spiritual life. He organized them into four “weeks”, which correspond somewhat roughly to the four chronological weeks of a long retreat. Each week has a specific theme and graces prayed for: The first week is about getting in touch with God’s abundant love for us, and our own need for his love in the face of our own sinfulness. The second week is the life of Christ, and invites the retreatant to come to know Jesus better and desire to follow him more closely. The third week continues in this vein with the crucifixion, and a desire to witness Jesus’ suffering. And the fourth week is the resurrection.

4. You call it the "long" retreat? Does that mean there are other forms?

Most Jesuits do a yearly 8-day retreat, which is sort of like taking parts of the Exercises or doing the same general pattern, but over a shorter period. But there are other forms of the Spiritual Exercises, too; in fact, you’ll sometimes hear Jesuit-insiders talk about the “19th Annotation” retreat. In the 19th annotation at the start of the Exercises, Ignatius imagines a sort of a busy person's version of the retreat, in which a retreatant might keep on living their lives and move through the dynamics of the retreat over 9 months or a year (or whatever), meeting once a week with a spiritual director. (I suspect today this is the most common version of the Exercises; it definitely is for people who aren't fulltime religious. And it can be just fruitful. (Plus, no silence!))

It's a great thing about St. Ignatius – when it came to mission and the Spiritual Exercises, he was incredibly flexible. If one approach works for you, do it. If it doesn’t, find a different one that does. God is working with each and every one of us, and given that, there can be no one size fits all ministry or retreat method. It’s great advice for all of us.

5. So when will you back online?

Our retreat ends the 13th, after which we'll do some sharing, and then we're away on vacation until the 22nd. I might post some stuff while I'm in Melbourne (the 17th-22nd) but the safe bet is to check back on the 23rd or 24th.

It could be that my blogging is going to slow way down after the retreat, as I'll begin working full time at a parish doing some spiritual direction soon after that. I won't give up entirely, but it may only be a couple times a week. We'll see.

BONUS TRACK!
I'm going to leave you with one more thing which I hope you'll enjoy. As of Monday, I'm going to post four entries, one for each week of the exercises. (The one you'll see when you come to the page will be the first week, the next scrolling down will be the second, etc.). Each entry will allow you to listen to different songs that relate to the themes/graces hoped for in that week. So the top post will have songs that I think touch on God's love for us and our own struggles with sin, etc. Most of them are not explicitly religious songs, just pop songs and show tunes that I thought would be accessible and also fit.

I and my classmates would be very grateful for your prayers these next five weeks. And if you're so inclined, take a couple minutes each day or every couple days and listen to the next song down (I'll be putting them in a sort of order from top to bottom). You might find it a nice way to relax or pray at some point in your day; and it might give you a little taste of the retreat for yourself.

OK, talk to you in April!

LONG RETREAT COUNTDOWN: 6 DAYS.

First Fleets

Before I shut things down here for the long retreat, thought I might tell you a little bit more about one of the "foundings" of Australia.


On May 13, 1787, Arthur Phillip of the British Royal Navy (right, from a plaque near our house in Pymble) set out with a fleet of eleven ships from England to Australia. The fleet, known today as “the First Fleet”, consisted of 160 marines and 729 convicts who together would form the first British colony in Australia. The trip took 7 months, and not a single ship was lost. Between the time it took and the vast distance they had to go, that fact alone is an astonishment.



On January 18th, 1788, the fleet landed just south of present day Sydney at Botany Bay (Star Trek fans take note: here's where Roddenberry et al. got the name and idea for the desert planet where Khan and his buddies were exiled).


That's not Seti Alpha Six!

After finding Botany Bay too sandy and shallow, the fleet moved slightly to the north, and settled there, at what is today the spectacular Sydney Harbor.


Sydney Harbor from the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The Pacific is in the distance. (Click for bigger view.)

The city of Sydney was named after Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, the British Home Secretary (which meant at the time that he was in charge of domestic affairs). After the American colonies were lost, Townshend had been responsible for figuring out what to do with British convicts. He had chosen Phillip to begin a new colony in Australia for this purpose. It appears he also believed that sending the convicts away was not simply a sentence of lifelong exile, but an opportunity for them to rule themselves and redeem themselves – a philosophy Phillip would also espouse.

(Let's not forget, however, when we speak of convicts, usually we're not talking about hardened criminals. We're talking about petty thieves and hungry children arrested for stealing a crust of bread.)

Today the city’s denizens call themselves Sydneysiders.

And if you think traveling halfway around the world in boats – and making it – sounds incredible, consider the indigenous people of Australia. They, too, are not native to the continent. And there never was a time when Australia was connected to the rest of the land masses, so there never was any time when people could have walked into this world. No, when aboriginal people came here somewhere between 45000 and 60000 years ago, they, too, came by sea, probably from what today we call the Indonesian archipelago about 60 miles from Australia.

But here’s the thing – if they came by sea, even if it was just by accident, a raft blown 60 miles off course – still, they were traveling in boats of some kind, which puts them (says Bill Bryson) about 30000 years ahead of anybody else in the whole world.

And if it all happened just by accident, there had to be a whole bunch of accidents, not just one, because otherwise you wouldn't get sufficient people to begin and sustain a whole new civilization.

It's all sort of staggering, isn't it?


Sydney Harbor, filled with sailboats. Click for bigger view.


LONG RETREAT COUNTDOWN: 6 DAYS.


Tomorrow: So You Want to Know About the Spiritual Exercises

Free broadband in your area!

Ushering the students and asking them to take their seats in my coaching center is a task that sounds too easy to be true. Employed teachers will immediately stand by me. Let me tell you, it is a job that will test the patience of vultures.

That was how my state of mind when someone barged in without appointment and thrust in my face two sheets of paper and requested me to fill out a survey for a new high speed broadband service that is expected to launch in our area.

I was really furious with the stranger and asked him to meet my husband who knows about broadband connection. Nowadays broadband internet connection comes free with many surprises.

Even our high speed broadband internet service is provided with free landline calls. The telephone instrument is given free. We are allowed 450 free calls every month. That is a real free offer.

Free Broadband is also offered in certain areas. If you want to know whether free broadband is given in your area, go to talktalk.co.uk and fill out a short form.

I heard that they offer a special plan which if you opt for, you get free broadband and free local and international calls.

Return to the City of My Second Birth

On Thursday, February 28, 2008 I drove up to Bellingham Washington for a quick, nostalgic visit. I was in the north part of Seattle with some extra time on my hands, when on a lark I decided to zip up to my college alma mater, Western Washington University, for a blast from the past.

A quarter century earlier I had been an art and music student there at the beautiful campus perched above Bellingham Bay. It was at WWU that I brushed wild colors across stretched canvases in the art studio to the smell of oil paints and mineral spirits. It was there that I spent endless hours shut up in windowless practice rooms as a music student fingering scales and jazz riffs on my guitar. It was in this town that I played and sang in smoky night clubs filled with the rank smell of cheap beer. It was there that I watched the movie Elephant Man and was embarrassed by the overwhelming sense of pity that made me sob in front of my friends as if I had just seen my own pathetic spiritual condition exposed in front of a shocked audience.

It was there, twenty-five years ago, that I first suspected a sovereign God existed behind the canopy of stars, who might call me to account for who I was and what I thought and what I did. I was a Kentucky boy, the casualty of a broken home, who had wound up in the Pacific Northwest to chase after his life's purpose at a university. It was in Bellingham that I was yanked out of my atheistic existentialism and summoned into the Kingdom of God like a hapless islander who gets swept out of his village by the surge of a tsunami, then deposited back into a pile of debris that was his former life. There wasn't much worth salvaging, so I began a new life, trusting in Christ.

I had lived in Bellingham for six years. I had rented various apartments, dated various girls, been indoctrinated by various professors, and partied with various acquaintances. The kingdom of God had sent most of my friends packing. At the name of Jesus, they had grown suspicious and distant, like I was the Elephant Man, the freak of faith. Eventually we parted company, which left me with time on my own to soak up the words of C.S. Lewis, R.C. Sproul and Josh MacDowell, to name a few, who wrote about a God who redeems sinners. Like me.

I read the Bible, too, starting the with John's gospel, which introduced me to Christ, the Light of the World, the Bread of Life, the Resurrection and the Life.

Back in the present, I walked across campus observing students bustling from class to class. They seemed driven by academic purpose, yet adrift in the relativistic culture of higher education with no sense of God’s superintending presence.

I began to pray. I asked God to call His elect out of the darkness as He had called me back in 1983. I prayed for dozens, perhaps a hundred individuals, asking the Lord to pour out His Spirit on the students. I circled back across the campus and aimed at every soul that came in sight, praying that God would redeem sinners and transform them into future husbands and wives and parents of faith, who would bring Him glory.

I entered the music building, where I had sung in the university choir as a cynical atheist, and I sang a hymn aloud in the elevator. I went into the Viking Union student center and asked the Lord to give me the opportunity to witness to at least four people on campus before I left. In my folder I had four spiritual survey sheets that I had developed for sharing the gospel.

For the next two hours I sipped Starbuck’s coffee and interviewed four students. I asked a dozen different questions. I explained the problem of sin and the good news of salvation in Christ alone. I left each of them with this thought to ponder: “Is it possible that God is calling you to believe in Jesus to save you from punishment? “ Two answered “yes,” one answered “no,” and one answered “not sure.” One young man said he thought that if God was calling him, He would probably do it by sending him a dream, or a vision, or something unusual. I asked him if it were possible that God might send a stranger from out of town (me) as a divine appointment to talk to him about faith. He might still be thinking about that.

After I had interviewed the students, I asked them about their majors, their interests, their goals in life. They, in turn, asked me why I was out interviewing people. I got to share my testimony of how I had been a student at WWU twenty-five years ago when God called me out of darkness and into light. He had chosen me for His own, even though I had mocked believers and claimed Christianity was a crutch for the weak-minded. God had allowed me to marry a wonderful Christian woman and start a Christian family. Now, as a father of five children and the pastor of a great church, it was a privilege to return to WWU to speak with others about God's amazing grace. I gave each of them a business card with my email address, along with a reference to Ephesians 1:4.

Now that I’m back at home in Grants Pass, Oregon, my trip to Bellingham seems like a dream. It was a wonderful little side trip from my commitments in Seattle. Since I may not be back for another twenty-five years, I will relish the dose of nostalgia. And I will pray: Lord, send your tsunami again into the city of my second birth.

The Scriptures are Supernatural, Sure and Sufficient

Disciple Makers Basic Training: Week 5

Q: What Is In The Bible?

A: God has given His Scriptures as the highest standard of truth and authority for all of life. The Bible teaches what man is to believe about God and what God requires of man.

God and His Word are inseparable. He designed it that way for our benefit. To know God is to know His Word, and to love Him is to obey His commands. The Bible tells us to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly (Colossians 3:16), yet many of us neither know, or obey it.

Imagine a young woman who doesn’t read her fiancée’s letters. We would question her love. Imagine a soldier who doesn’t obey his commander’s orders. We would question his loyalty. What, then, are we to make of those who claim to follow Christ, but who show no love for His Word, nor trouble themselves to obey it? Do they merely honor Him with their mouths while their hearts are far from Him? (Matthew 15:8).

The Power of the Scriptures
The Bible is powerful and effective, sure and sufficient, life-giving and eternal.
· Matthew 4:4 Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
· Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
· Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
· 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

The Authority and Divine Nature of Scripture
Jesus regarded the Scriptures as authoritative.
The Bible is self-attesting. It declares itself to be the authoritative Word of God.
The Bible records hundreds of supernaturally fulfilled prophecies.
The Bible records supernatural events (mass feedings, healings and resurrections), which were observed by multiple eye witnesses.
The Bible accurately portrays man’s true spiritual condition. It is a book that reads the reader.
The Bible has transformed the lives of many who read it.
The Bible has survived attempts to destroy it throughout history.

The Bible evidences itself to be God's Word by the heavenliness of its doctrine, the unity of its parts, and its power to convert sinners and to edify saints. But only the Spirit of God can make us willing to agree and submit to the Bible as the Word of God. (answer to question #5 of the The Baptist Catechism, 1689)

(see 1 Corinthians 2:6-7,13-16; Psalm 19:7-9; 119:18,129; Acts 10:43; 26:22; 18:28; Hebrews 4:12; Romans 15:4; John 16:13,14; 1 John 2:20-27; 2 Corinthians 3:14-17; 4:4, 6.)

The Contents of the Scriptures
The Bible is comprised of the 39 Old Testament Books and 27 New Testaments Books. It can be divided into the following categories.

Old Testament
1. history of creation and God’s people
2. Laws of God
3. psalms and proverbs
4. prophecies of God

New Testament
5. gospels of Jesus
6. acts of the apostles
6. letters to churches
7. revelation

The Canon of Scripture
The historic Christian belief is that the Holy Spirit who inspired the writing of the books also controlled their selection. The final canon of Scripture is therefore the result of God’s sovereign intervening in the discernment of believers rather than by historical research .

· 1 Corinthains 2:13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
· 1 Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.

Four basic considerations have guided the church in recognizing the canon (measuring rod) of Scripture.
1. Apostolicity – Was the book written by an apostle?
2. Apostolic content – Was the content of the book consistent with the ministry and purpose of an apostle?
3. Claim of divine inspiration – Did the author claim that his words were from God?
4. Acceptance as divine – Did the early churches recognize the author and/or writings as from God?

The Doctrines of Scripture
The Bible is God’s special revelation of Himself and of His sovereign plan to save His elect through the atoning work of Christ Jesus. The Bible reveals the sequence of creation, fall, redemption and glorification for those whom God brings to saving faith in Christ. The major themes of the Bible can be categorized into the following doctrines.

1. The doctrine of the Word of God (inspired, inerrant, authoritative, sufficient)
2. The doctrine of God (sovereign, self-existent, almighty, holy, Trinitarian)
3. The doctrine of man (God’s image bearer, yet spiritually dead & sinful by nature)
4. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit (personal, sanctifying)
5. The doctrine of redemption (election by grace, effectual calling, justification, adoption, sanctification, preservation, glorification)
6. The doctrine of the church (unity and purity, purposes, ordinances, presence in the world)
7. The doctrine of the future (return of Christ, final judgment, new heaven and earth)

Abuse of the Scriptures
This might sound strange, but some people love the Bible too much. That is, they are drawn to its texts, but they are distant from the Author. The tendency to focus on the process of textual transmission and interpretation based on human reasoning can be a form of bibliolatry (book worship) if the texts are divorced from God’s character and will. The theological liberalism of higher textual criticism, which developed in Europe after the Enlightenment, pitted man’s interpretive powers of reason against God’s sovereign ability to transmit His Word through men. Clearly we are not to treat the holy Scriptures with academic detachment. Nor are we to twist the Word of God to make it conform to the plans of man.

As I said at the beginning of this essay, God and His Word are inseparable. And He has chosen to reveal Himself to us and minister to us through His holy Scriptures. Let us draw near to God by reading and meditating upon His Word. Let us love Him with all our heart, and soul, and mind and strength, as we walk in obedience to all that He has commanded, by the power of His Spirit for the glory of Christ.

Follow Up Assignment

Read Greg Koukl’s article, Never Read A Bible Verse http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5466

Penguin Lapbook

Lapbook Cover

Flaps of Lapbook

All flaps of lapbook open
We labelled a penguin and did our Letter P page

Life cycle of a Penguin and a little story we posted last week.

Playing the penguin number match game.

Links for Lapbook:
I first want to say I got most of my resources at Lapbook.com.
The penguin letter sheet came from Christian Preschool Printables.
I am really sorry if I forgot any links for anything else that was done in the penguin lapbook. I am going to try to remember and jot down the links so I can give proper credit to those who have put them on the internet.

Finishing up the Penguin Lapbook

Finishing up working on our penguin lapbook.

We got the globe out to show where the penguins live in relation to us.

Lessons Learned

The last three weeks we tertians have been doing seminars on community life, leadership and authority, intimacy, the Spiritual Exercises and St. Ignatius. It’s been very rich and also very provocative. Our presenters and the guys in my group have had some really great ideas and images to share. Thought I'd share a couple humdingers:

Organizational Leadership: Bring People in at the Level of Myth.
A myth is a story that shapes our world and the way we act within it. We're not talking about truth or falsehood here, but rather what is the story that gives our lives meaning. So, for Christians, the stories of Scripture constitute our central myths.

If you had to make a flow chart of how things should proceed in an organization, the process ideally would look like this: myth -> vision -> goals -> objectives -> programs -> operation. Each step flows from the last and gets more concrete, until you're talking about specific actions we're going to do. And the ground is the story. The story has the power and the clarity from which everything else comes.

The problem is, oftentimes in parish or school meetings, we skip myth, skip maybe a lot of the earlier steps, in fact, and move right to programs -- "Here's the problem, now what are we going to do?" "Let's get to the point." But in doing so we keep the group from having access to that which is essential and grounding, the stories that help us make sense of everything.

When we are working in a group setting, we should begin with some kind of evocation of the myth. Our facilitator spoke of starting parish council meetings with prayer: a brief time for scripture, some quiet prayer and some sharing. It’s amazing, he pointed out, how much other issues will dissipate if you start here. Because now the group is proceeding grounded in, reminded of the story that’s at its heart.

Bringing people in at the level of the myth... good stuff.


An Image for Liturgy: Breathing Exercises.
People talk about doing breathing exercises as a way of slowing down or even of praying. And if you’ve ever done them, just sat down and slowed down your breathing, got conscious of each breath, you know that when you do this, you begin to slow down, but also to notice the air going in, going out. You begin to savor and maybe see in a different way.

Catholic mass is our breathing exercises. It’s something we do for just the same purpose – to become aware and savor, not just the air but life, and God.

If you ever chafe against going to mass every day or every Sunday, I thought that’s an interesting way to look at things. It’s not about fulfilling an obligation, it’s not about whether Father has anything good to say to me, though hopefully he does, but probably not always; liturgy is a space meant to allow us to exercise our spirits.


An Image for Planning Your Life: The Glass Jar.
Do you ever find yourself saying, I have no time for the things that are important to me? Well, we were talking about time management as priests, and somebody in the group told us an image he's used to try to deal with that.

Imagine you have a big glass jar, and outside of it you have five big stones, 50 smaller stones, and sand. If you put the sand in first, and then try to put the stones in, you’ll find that not everything can fit.

But strangely, if you put the big rocks in first, and then the smaller stones, and then the sand, the sand very naturally will find all the little crevasses that are left, and everything will fit in that glass jar.

Think of that jar as your life. When we don’t plan ahead – and sometimes we just can’t – we let the busyness and the immediate moment demands (read: the sand) fill the jar. And the more important things (the rocks) may end up getting pushed aside, and if we’re not careful, not just temporarily.

So, if you feel like your life is sort of getting away from you, it’s good to stop and ask yourself – what are my 5 or 6 big rocks? What are the things that mean the most to me? Some might be obvious; but take your time naming them, so you can be confident they’re what you think they are.

Once you have them, look to your schedule. Make sure that in your schedule over the course of each week or each month you’ve set aside time for each of them.

It’s not easy; you’ll have to recommit to them regularly. And maybe the big rocks will sometimes change. Fine. But it’s a process to help you do the things that make you happy.


LONG RETREAT COUNTDOWN: 7 DAYS.

If You Wondered Whether I Need This Retreat...

My friend Boom Martinez, a Jesuit of the California Province, has been in tertianship in Weston, Massachusetts and Jordan this last seven months. He just finished a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and I wanted to post a couple photographs. They're just amazing.

The Sea of Galilee.




A shot of the Garden of Gethsemane. Those olive trees are 2000 years old.



Mt. Sinai.


Sign outside the Shepherd's Field in Bethlehem.

Is it me, or is the whole sign thing a little over the top? I feel like it should be surrounded by cast members from the musical "Hair". (Ha!)


And this is... (Wait a second, that's not the Holy Land. Those are my nieces.)


And this is Jack and Demi. (Who?) They're my favorite couple from So You Think You Can Dance Australia. (What?)

This is Boom and Michael Gilson last summer in Florence. (Last summer? What's going on here?)




This is sunset over the Dead Sea. (...That's better. )



This is a shot of some of the pools at Bethesda, from above. (They are mentioned in today's readings, in fact. Great shot.)



This is Boom and his tour group living out the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. (That's funny. It really does look like the end scenes of Indy.)



Seriously: It's the Last Crusade. (Wow, you're right!)





I'm not kidding. (Yeah, we got it.)




Here Harrison Ford and Sean Connery are standing right outside the same location.(Dude, enough.)


They just need the Holy Grail:

(...uh, that's not the Holy Grail.)




Is too.






(Is not. That's the idol from the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Now, get back to the photos.)


















I couldn't find a Grail photo.

























I looked really hard. (The photos.)























This is Jack and Demi's second routine. It's really good. (For God's sake, show them the PHOTOS.)































(Hello?)


































(Do I have to come back there?)





















This is...(Ok, we're done.)




I seem to be having some sort of issue with my system.

I guess I'll have to call it quits for the night before things get out of hand. Thanks, Boom, for sharing your pictures. They're really amazing.

(What is with the Demi and Jack stuff?)


(That is Boom, but it's not the Holy Land.)














Here's where you can get a preview of the next episode of Lost. I think it's a Juliet episode! (No one's reading any more.)





But...
(You blew it.)







This is the advertisement for the new Indiana Jones film!
I heard the Ark of the Covenant is going to be in it! (You drove them all away. They've all gone home. )














Bring back Belloq!
(You are really scary.)







LONG RETREAT COUNTDOWN: 8 DAYS.








































Found it!