¡Viva la Vida!

ENOUGH! A Nation Rises in Outrage...

Things aren't going so well down south of the border these days.  Mexico has become a war zone.  As we've been reporting here on this blog, things have really gotten worse over the past year.  The violence here is staggering - on one hand we've got drug cartels here that make al-Queda look like the Girl Scouts and on the other there has been a horrifying increase in kidnappings.  Kidnappings used to only affect Mexico's wealthy upper class but now the growing middle class is being targeted.  Reported kidnappings are up 9 percent this year - 65 per day, according to the Associated Press.

The outrage among ordinary Mexican citizens has grown so much that mounting public pressure has pushed the government to open a well-funded special anti-kidnapping unit with nationwide jurisdiction and the president is set to announce a comprehensive, 74-point anti-crime plan.  Special anti-kidnapping public marches have been called this weekend for citizens to take to the streets and express their outrage.  The demonstrations are taking place in 55 large cities in all 32 Mexican states and millions of people are expected to march.  As I type this, a TV news station is reporting that there are more than one million marchers demonstrating in Mexico City (see pic at left taken just hours ago).  Nearly all of them are dressed completely in white. 

Please pray for this country.  It's hard to sit and watch and not want to get involved but we feel our best involvement is to keep on doing what we're doing - raising up and discipling quality, competent men and women of character who will go out and make the needed difference in their country.  The corruption and violence which are so embedded in the culture can only be overcome by people committed to the Kingdom of God.  There is no other answer to Mexico's problems.  It is time, however, for the church to rise up and be the light it's been called to be..."your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven..."

It'll all be worth it...

Let's face it... we all have tough days. It doesn't matter if you are in Mexico, Nigeria, or the US - we all have those days when we wonder, am I even making an impact at all? I love this song by Rita Springer, and I wanted to share it with you. I'm thinking about all of our friends who are struggling today with raising kids, working, trying to make a difference in their worlds for Jesus. It's gonna be worth it all.

Reading Shakespeare in Mexico

Shakespeare is one of the necessities of a good, well-rounded education.  I (Greg) remember my first introduction to Shakespeare in my tenth grade English class with Mrs. Duncan.  I remember the general consensus of the class being one of dread when Mrs. Duncan told us we were going to study the classic English dramatist.  Shakespeare???!  Oh no!!!  So we began reading Macbeth and, much to my surprise, I completely got into the play.  I can say that I was absolutely riveted by the unfolding action of the play and enchanted by Shakespeare's deft and clever use of language.  You don't realize how dumbed down our language is until you've read the Master!  So Zack and Max now have the chance to experience the wonderful world of William Shakespeare.  They're starting with the Twelfth Night, a hilarious comedy of mistaken identities.  Later they will read the play that so enthralled their father - who hopes they will be as enthralled by it as he was.

High School Homeschool

Why do my boys like homeschooling? They can lounge on the couch, read in their pajamas if they want, not even brush their hair... a big contrast from school desks, uniforms, and hair cuts!

I had pictures to post, but they aren't loading today. I'll work on it later. We're doing the History of God's Kingdom by Sonlight Curriculums. It should be an interesting year as we study Ancient Rome, persecutions, missionaries, the advancement of the Gospel, and the fight against Islam - just to name a few subjects!

IMC Students Return

Today begins the orientation for the 2008-09 academic year at Calvary Ministerial Institute.  The students arrived this morning all fresh and ready for another year of being prepared for ministry.  I'm (Greg) excited and ready to get back in the swing of things.  For some reason several people told me today that my Spanish has improved to the point of being almost accentless - which was a surprise to me especially after being in the States for the past month and a half and not speaking Spanish.  Oh well, I receive it!

The Way We Were: Our Engagement Pic

We're in the news!

Go read about us...

Rest In Peace, Brave Warrior

This morning, for some reason a song was circling around my head - a song I haven't heard nor thought of in years.  It's a song called "Ride Across the River" from the band Dire Strait's 1985 album Brothers in Arms.  The first line of the song says, "I'm a soldier of freedom in the army of man" and I was thinking about that as I logged onto the internet this morning.  And then as I was checking the day's headlines I saw that one of my heroes, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, died yesterday at the age of 89.  Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970 with his famous novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which revealed to the West the horrors of the vast Soviet hard labor prison system (known as "gulags")..  He later further documented the horrors of the Soviet labor camps in the 3-volume series The Gulag Archipelago.  Alexandr Solzhenitsyn was a champion of human rights in an age of dictatorships and authoritarianism.  We would do well to remember his legacy.

I'm a soldier of freedom in the army of man
We are the chosen, we're the partisan
The cause it is noble and the cause it is just
We are ready to pay with our lives if we must

Gonna ride across the river deep and wide
Ride across the river to the other side

- from "Across the River" by Dire Straits