Excuse me, Jesus, but who’s my neighbor?

I wrote about this on Facebook earlier this week and thought I’d include it here too.  What you see below are my Facebook status updates and comments, unedited.  Not a typical post, but hey, why not?

We’ve got this neighbor, 59-year old man, unemployed but trying to find work, has arthritis, out of money, hocked his car title at a pawn shop and needs between $300 – $400 to save his car. Anybody want to pitch-in and help?

As a follow-up to this thread for anyone else who’s watching this unfold, his name is Brian, and I’m going to suggest that he’s not going to be able to pay anyone back. But then Jesus said not to expect that to happen either.

We’re going to invite him to join us on Thanksgiving day for all he can eat, and even though this has been our worst economic year out of the past ten or so, we’re still going to help him keep his car.

And so I’ll ask again: anyone else want to help out?

Update to an earlier status: Our neighbor, Brian, just called to see if our church was going to be able to help him out. Told him I didn’t know yet, but a friend had heard about his plight here on facebook and donated to the cause, which brightened his day.

I also asked him to join us for Thanksgiving day dinner and he turned me down at first – said he didn’t want to impose his lifestyle on anyone or take their food away from them. I said that’s ridiculous and there will be plenty of food. He then said he hadn’t been invited to something like this for 20 years and started to get emotional…and then he finally agreed to come over.

Looking forward to it.

(If you’d like to help, let me know by commenting on this post.  If you don’t want the comment published, let me know that too.)

The incredible irony of Black Friday

Does it seem ironic to anyone else that the day after Thanksgiving is now known (in America at least) as Black Friday?  A day dedicated by many to the full expression of greed and materialism that our Christmas holiday has become.  Christmas – the holiday when we typically remember that Jesus was born.  In the fourth gospel the apostle John said this about Jesus, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  (John 1:4, 5)  This is the same Jesus whose light still shines today, even in the darkness of a land where days like Black Friday are among the “holiest” of days.  And the same Jesus who told us not to lay up treasures on earth, but in heaven.

Here’s an earth-shattering announcement: You don’t have to join in the commercialism that Christmas has become.  Watch the video again, and then decide to help someone who is far less fortunate than you are this Christmas season.  Someone, for example, who has to get their drinking water from a mudhole.

To learn more about the Advent Conspiracy, click here.

If there had been television in 1517

This comic showed up on one of our tests in The History of Western Christianity back in Bible college.  Thanks Dr. Bierma – this is classic!

Winter in October

Here’s a sampling of the weather from the past week…

So what’s under the hood?

Ever wonder what the inside of a Dell Precision 690 Workstation looks like?  Here’s mine: four Western Digital hard drives (150 GB Velociraptor, 74 GB Velociraptor [local web server], two 250 GB data drives in Raid 1), two Xeon processors, 1 GB nvidia GeForce 9800 GT graphics card, 4 GB RAM, and an assortment of cooling fans.  Not a gaming machine, but it gets the work done.  Right around 80 pounds of computing fun.

In Time…It’s Time

In the early months of 1994 I wrote the following poem for Amy, and almost scared her off! Fortunately she held her ground and later that year, with the help of my fellow conspirators Scott, Kendra and Alysia, at a picnic table on the campus of Reformed Bible College, by candlelight, on October 10 at about 10 pm I read the other poem to her, It’s Time. She said yes and fifteen years later to the day, here we are!

In Time

A diamond is an object of beauty and strength
highly desired, a sign of devotion
though as coal it began in the midst of the earth;
unseen and unwanted…
yet time yields a diamond.

A rose, red in petal and perfect in bloom,
captures the eye and melts the heart
though it grew from a seed and arose among thorns;
hidden and guarded…
yet time yields a rose.

An eagle soaring high in the heavens cries ‘freedom!’
for all who’ve ever dreamed of such things
though it began without flight, bound to the earth;
defenseless and weak…
yet time yields an eagle.

Who can fathom the mystery of what happens
between a man and a woman?
An acquaintance, then friendship, the bond growing stronger;
time together and time alone,
but never a time when God is not there,
for Christ is the answer, the reason there’s love;
and seeking God’s will together in patience
love may develop and grow.

Love is a diamond, a rose, an eagle
beauty, perfection, freedom and strength.
Love takes time, but time creates love,
while much is given, much more is returned…
for time yields love.

It’s Time

Life is a journey, a path that we tread
at times it is smooth, and other times rugged.
Each person in life must make their own way,
though some seek a partner to share the load,
to explore what’s ahead, and remember the past,
every day a new memory to cherish and hold.

You and I have traveled this road for some time,
though who would have thought we’d come so far?
A movie, Christmas, then together again,
getting to know each other still deeper,
spring break, though short, seemed like forever,
a greyhound which seemed never would end.
Then summer – what summer? It’s over already?
Back to school, let’s do it again,
but the load seems lighter, with you by my side.

Some would call it love, this thing that we share,
though we know it as more, much more than they can.
Our love is a diamond, a rose, an eagle,
beauty, perfection, freedom and strength.
Our love has grown in the passage of time
till I can hardly contain myself as I say,
“Time yields love, and love says it’s time –
to ask, ‘Will you marry me?’”

Kelsey’s latest movie

done

Here, in 98 frames of Windows Paint artistry, is the latest homegrown movie from Kelsey, our second-oldest daughter.  There’s no sound track yet, but it’s in the works for later editions!

Dakota 5-O

Well, I decided not to ride the 5-O this year, but the girls and I went to the start and followed the pack up to Big Hill before we had to get back to town and ready for church.  Here’s a few photos from that day…

Brad Laudanskas

One Saturday on the Mickelson Trail

We didn’t do as much biking this year as last year, but one Saturday we made it out to the Mickelson Trail, starting at the Rochford trailhead, and the Carsrud family came along for the ride.  Here’s the story in pictures.

One man's bike rack is another man's utility trailer

One morning in August

Sleep tight!

Liking it…

Lost Cabin Trail #2

During Sturgis Rally week we braved the traffic and ventured down to the Harney Peak area for some hiking on Lost Cabin Trail #2.  Cool trail, great views, plenty of raspberries, and the moonrise over Harney Peak.  Enjoy.

Harney Peak

Old Baldy trail

Old Baldy trail is one of the sweetest trails in the northern Black Hills, with incredible scenery, lots of variety, and some great mountain biking.  On the afternoon of July 31 my friend Drew and I gave it a whirl, documented in the following photos.

Zap ‘em dead! Facebook ads, that is

So I was looking at Facebook this morning and wondering if there is a way to block the script that produces the ads on Facebook.  Did a quick Google search and “Yes!” there is.  You’ll need to use the Firefox web browser for this to work, though there may be some workarounds for other browsers.  Once you’re using Firefox add the Greasemonkey add-on, and then go to www.userscripts.org and install this script.  Next time you load Facebook there should be no ads to be seen.  Ahh, relief.

As time goes on and Facebook changes scripts here or there you may need to make updates to Greasemonkey for this to keep working, but that’s a very small price to pay.

Living in the midst of the Sturgis motorcycle rally

Notice the skulls on the back of the bike...

Even though we live in Spearfish which is seventeen miles from Sturgis, the motorcycle rally encompasses all of the Black Hills for the next few weeks.  Living this close to the epicenter of the rally means that we’re effectively living in it, which is one reason why I decided to go ride the Maah Daah Hey trail in the North Dakota Badlands last year during the rally.  I don’t think that’s going to happen this year so I’ll try to take some pictures during this year’s rally to give an idea of what it’s like.  I haven’t seen any estimates for this year’s numbers, but there will be at least several hundred thousand additional bikers here for the festivities.  And no, these festivities are not family friendly.

Here’s an example of something that happened yesterday: While he was at Walmart my dad met a couple of bikers from the Minneapolis area who needed an emergency heel repair for a leather boot.  One thing led to another and within half an hour I was using my tool trailer to become a cobbler.  Four Torx screws later the boot was good as new and they were back in business, riding away on their Harleys.  They wanted to pay me for my trouble so I said pay me what you think it’s worth.  Apparently it was only worth five dollars.  No matter, it was one of the more interesting jobs I’ve done in a long time.  I didn’t take any pictures but I should have — he had a wild looking leather helmet with extra leather padding covering his forehead.  Bizarre.

The weather in July and the sovereignty of God

Last week at our Wednesday night Bible class we were discussing the sovereignty of God and how that includes the weather.  Along with his sovereignty today’s rain and temperatures in the low 50s makes me think of his mercy — since normal weather at the end of July in South Dakota can be really hot and dry.  Here’s what it looks like this morning:

A few days ago looked like this:

Two laps around Devils Tower

Yesterday afternoon (Sunday) we went for a hike around Devils Tower on the upper trail and when we got back to the parking lot we decided to walk a little way down the Red Beds Trail.  Once we were on the trail we decided to do the whole thing.  All in all we walked a little over four miles — the upper trail is 1.3 miles long and the Red Beds Trail is 2.8 miles.  I only took pictures of the Red Beds Trail, and those were taken with my phone so the picture clarity isn’t great, but if you’ve never been on that trail they give you a pretty good sense of what it’s like.

Siding repairs

One of the perks of being a contractor is that we get to work in some pretty cool locations.  Here’s a siding repair job we did at one of those cool locations.  Earlier this summer these clients sustained hail damage from a hail storm that lasted for about an hour, with up to baseball-size hail.

Bear Butte off in the distance

My dad and the tool trailer in action

Of cattle drives and moths

Watched an “old fashioned” cattle drive from the back deck early this morning, then turned to go back in the house and spotted this moth on the wall.

Very cool clouds

Spotted on a rock in the central Black Hills

My least favorite part of July

Hey, not everything we do is enjoyable, and this past week certainly ranks up there.  Suffice it to say we replaced part of a driveway at a house we built back in 2001.  Our concrete man at the time recommended that we skip the rebar and to my knowledge this is the only driveway we poured without it.  Good thing, too.

No skidsteer on this job due to everything around it being finished.  Hand-carved and hand-loaded.  Big thanks to my dad and Andy for helping out, Pete for the excellent concrete work, and Brian for the use of his dumptruck.  My back still hurts when I think about this job.

Let the fun begin

Concrete Pete

Beautiful sunset

Sunday evening, July 5, 2009

Agua Viva from Living Water International

More from Living Water International…this time from Central America. Providing a cup of water in Jesus’ name.

To see the video on LWI’s website, click here.