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WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:" NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous t

Christmas season starts at our house.

Tonight I was watching on my Powerbook one of my favorite movies, The Paper , a great movie about a newspaper set in New York City. The movie came out in 1994--I did a screen grab from one of the scenes from the movie: It always strikes me when I see pre 9/11 movies set in New York, and when they pan to the famous Twin Towers. Whenever I see scenes like this in films I can't help but feel a mixture of deep sadness and also some rage over what those terrorists did not that long ago. And now we are treating those scumbags like common criminals rather than enemy combatants, giving them Constitutional rights in our legal system. This is a war. They did not commit conspiracy to commit murder, they committed an act of war. They don't deserve their day in civilian court, especially in New York City. Indeed something is missing.

I saw  this article  with the headline "Planned Parenthood Director Quits After Watching Abortion on Ultrasound." I wrote about this earlier, how most Americans are pro-life rather than pro-choice.  On a related note, a few weeks ago Chris and I got to see our newest child via ultrasound. Even though the child was just a few weeks in the womb, we saw the beating heart, we saw our baby moving. It was beautiful. I wept.

For the past two weeks we have been ministering with a short term missions team from Capital Life Church (located in the Washington D.C. area). This church is blessed to have Bill Shuler as the senior pastor. I grew up under Pastor Bill's ministry as a student at Oral Roberts University.  During my studies there he was our campus pastor. Indeed, myself along with thousands of other ORU students are a part of Pastor Bill's growing legacy. I am a product of ORU, and much of the spiritual impact I received as a student there was a direct result of his ministry. For several years our family has been blessed to share at their church in Northern Virginia. The last time we were there they expressed an interest in sending a team to minister with us in the Philippines. So this is what we have been up to these last two weeks. We have been doing day camps throughout the Visayas, first in Guimaras and then in Roxas. Through these camps, partnering with area churches, we have been able to