czar craver

One of my friends wishes that she could buy the country of Lichtenstein. It is not for sale, and even if it was, she could not afford it. But did you know that I briefly conquered the former Soviet Union? I decided to give it up, because they actually speak a different language there. It is not just English with a funny accent. Who knew?!

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This weekend, S2 laid out a bunch if Lego people. (He has been studying the World Wars in school.) He asked me which group would win if they had a world war. Nobody. The strongest force he had was the bad Star Wars guys. They had a larger force and far more firepower than any other group. I didn't want them to win, so I stayed up Sunday night, typing out a strategy for the good guys to win. That way we would have the least amount of losses (even among the enemy) and it wouldn't come down to the evil emperor and a couple Super Battle Droids as the sole survivors.

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I like building Legos with him. He likes when I use those newly built pieces to play with him. I guess this was meeting him somewhere in the middle.

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I have a brother who is really good at strategy. I wonder what he would think of the plan I constructed.

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Oh, and I was kidding about overthrowing the former U.S.S.R. You know that, right? The pic came from funphotobox.com.

soul siblings

We held an Arts Festival with all kind of exhibits on Saturday. I entered my photographs. Among the artistic expressions was another church's choir, praise team, and worship dancers. Some of their expression may be a little different, but our bond through Christ runs deep, and this is my family, who I will share the rest of eternity with. Think about that... my blood kin will be my family for a few decades, but my church family throughout the planet, those before me and those to come, these will be my brothers and sisters forever!

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I generally don't care for interpretive dance. I'm not condemning it as wrong, or anything like that... it's just not my cup of tea, that's all. But now that I have the disclaimer out of the way, let me say that I found this very interesting, and even exciting. They artistically, and effectively communicated the ideas of their songs. I hope I recognize some of these church people at the grocery store or local parks. I would love to continue the sweet fellowship that began on such a high note.

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Then on Sunday, we had another multicultural moment. This lady got baptized. She is from Haiti, and does not speak English. She spoke in French or Creole (I couldn't tell which) through a translator.

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She has a sad episode in her past. Many years ago, she was a single mom. She joined a church and wanted to be baptized. After 6 months of preparation, she was finally told by her old pastor, that they would NOT baptize her until she was married. I don't have all the facts, but that doesn't sound right to me.

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Wanna hear something cool? This lady from Haiti faithfully attends my English-speaking church every week. Like I said, she does not understand the words, but participates as much as she can, and then hears the message for the first time, when her son translates the sermon at home for family devotions on Sunday nights.

gift exchange

Mele Kalikimaka-----Hawaii

. Joyeux Noel-----France

. . Feliz Natal-----Brazil

. . . . Kala Christouyenna-----Greece

. . . . . . Maligayan Pasko-----Philippines

. . . . . . . . God Jul-----Sweden

Merry Christmas Y’all! I was wondering if anyone might like to share blogger tech tips as a present to each other. For example, I picked up a book I want to read this weekend, so I’ll make a link for Blessed Are the Uncool and anyone who wants to see more about it can click on the link to Amazon.com. The way you create a link is:

(I will have to substitute the chevrons or arrows (above the comma and period on your keyboard) with [ and ], ‘cause the chevrons won’t show on this page.)

[a href=Type URL here]Type TEXT here[/a]

So if you have any nifty gimmicks that you’d like to share, I’m sure folks would appreciate being able to jazz up their blahs—I mean blogs.

Feliz Navidad!