Month: October 2009

Lindsey

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The Prettiest Pumpkin!

Lindsey is coming to visit us!  We are so excited!

Lindsey is my little sister who has Down Syndrome, and one of the most precious people in the world!  Just before her birth, the doctors held a special conference with my parents and explained that Lindsey would probably never breath her first breath.  They proceeded to advise my parents to abort Lindsey.  When my Mom and Dad calmly said no, the Doctor insisted even to the point of growing frustrated and angry.  Unaffected, my parents again said, no, we understand she may not live, but we have peace about that.  (That “…peace of God, which passeth all understanding,…“)  The doctor gave up…good thing…leave my sister alone!  And now, Lindsey is a precious eighteen year old, who has accepted Christ as her Saviour, and lives a wonderful, active life of serving the Lord and blessing others!  And to think that Doctor would have had her aborted…

She attends the sixth grade at Fairhaven Baptist Academy, and loves her teacher dearly.  In fact, one of my goals of her coming here to visit Dustin and I, is to regain my “favorite person” status I had held for so long, but since marrying and moving away, I fear her teacher has dethroned me!  Of course I am joking, (I think Linz has many “favorite people”!) and truly, I am grateful she has such a caring teacher along with a class full of true friends.  These are the children who love Lindsey so much they want her to be in their class.  And they choose her to be on their team for contests knowing she will never win the competition!  When she has a birthday party, there are more presents than any of us ever deserve!  And through the tough time of losing her mother, it goes without saying that these people, among so many others, meant much to her.

Now, if any of these classmates were dubbed “Honor Roll Students”, Lindsey has them beat.  For though not in percentages or grade point averages, it is in devotion and time where she has them far surpassed.  Why, they dread homework usually; do only what is required of them most times; and never insist on doing homework, when a diversion is proposed.  Lindsey on the other hand, is religious about her homework.  She willingly goes to the school library carrying a heavy, pull-behind suitcase for a backpack, spreads all of her books out, and writes loops on notebook paper for hours if allowed!  “How much homework do you have tonight, Lindsey?”  “Four homeworks.”  And often she must be convinced to finish up and go home when the time comes!

She attends Sunday School, and all other services faithfully at Fairhaven Baptist Church, and finds many opportunities to serve the Lord.  She goes to a nursing home facility with friends on Saturdays to see and hug “the Grandmas and Grandpas.”  Then during the week she empties the trash in the school office each day along with helping out in the cafeteria at various times.  And for that “work kitchen” part (cafeteria), she is about as religious as with her “homeworks”!

To top it all off, she is the pride and joy of her family, and dearly loved by so many friends from Church.  She is a blessing to more people than I probably ever will be, and has the uncanny ability to draw smiles on more faces than I could ever wish to do!

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An Adventure Worth Remembering

Here is a story about a little adventure I took while travelling once.

A year and a half ago, I was on my way to Aguascalientes, Mexico to visit Andrea.  The problem was that I had a four and a half hour layover in Mexico City.  Now, I had never been in Mexico before, let alone Mexico City (which is the largest metropolitan area on earth).  But still, it was FOUR AND A HALF HOURS!  I thought I could just hop out of the ‘aeropuerto’ for a bit, see the city square (Zocalo), and get acquainted to the country.  I asked two veteran missionaries to Mexico City if that was a good idea or not.  Both flat out told me, “No.”  Did I care?  Believe it or not, yes!  I didn’t want to get kidnapped or robbed or killed!  However, when I landed at Benito Juarez Airport, the idea all of the suddeIn the Zocalon sounded good again.  So I took a taxi (another bad idea, they said), and told them to take me to the Zocalo.  I had read that if you get a certified taxi, you are safe though.  I paid the extra and got the certified one.  Now, I know just a little bit of Spanish; but I figured as a HUGE multi-cultural city there would be plenty of English-speaking people…not!  For the next hour, I walked around, guarded my wallet, and took some pictures.
Then, I did another crazy thing.  I wanted to eat some authentic Mexican food, so I looked out for decent looking restaurant.  I found one after looking for a little bit just off of the Zocalo.  The first surprise was trying to figure out the prices that were on the menu.  Here I was, a lonely American in big Mexico City, not knowing 10% of the Spanish that I

At the Los Tacos--my lunch for the day
At the Los Tacos--my lunch for the day

should have.  Then I had to figure out what was on the menu and what it meant.  I found something that I had eaten at a Mexican restaurant back home that I liked: Tacos el pastor.  I also had to find a drink, without accidently picking some kind of alcohol!  It was actually a sit-down and tip style of restaurant, so I had to figure out how to tip my waitress too!  However, after finishing my meal and paying, I left thinking I had scored an A+ in my eating experience that day.

The rest of the time I spent looking at the city basilica, the Plaza of Four Cultures, and a few typical Mexican shops.  As it started to get close to the time when I had to leave, I was looking for one of those certified taxis again.  I looked through seas of cars, and found none—only a bunch of regular taxis.  I conjured up in my mind a good idea—if it is a newer looking taxi, they are probably decent people; and if it is an older guy, he probably would not try to rob me.  Plus, I would be able to take him down if he tried.  After looking for a few minutes, I found one to my liking.  He drove me back to the airport in half of the time, and for a quarter of the price of that certified taxi.  From there, I took the last leg of my flight to Aguascalientes.

Guarding my carry-on luggage in the square
Guarding my carry-on luggage in the square

I arrived and told one of the missionaries about my little adventure.  He pretty much told me that it was unwise, and that he would have had to answer to my parents if nothing had been heard of me (ie: robbed, beat up, kidnapped, etc.).  I also heard from Andrea what that Tacos el pastor that I ate was: pork.  Now here in the states, that is no big deal.  But in Mexico, it is a huge mistake to eat pork.  There is very often parasites and diseases in them that could make me very sick.  On top of that, it is roasted on an open-air rotisserie—similar to gyros.

What an adventure!  I honestly had an enjoyable time.  Would I do it again?  Absolutely: but maybe with a little bit more caution…maybe!

Our Attempt at Pizza

Some of you may think this is partly a food critic’s blog.  It does seem to be that way sometimes, doesn’t it?  Both Andrea and I have a love for good eats.  Since we are newly married and don’t have the enormous budget it would take to support being restaurant critics, we like to make our own food, then review it.  I am especially the critical one!  I really enjoy making some things.  Since we have been in PA, I have tried making a few things from pretzels, to Italian Beef, to donuts, and now to pizza.

And it’s not just any pizza that I tried to make today–my evening off from work.  I adore wood-fired/brick oven pizza!  The greasy kind that is made in bulk in rotating ovens at CiCi’s buffet is just what I DON”T want to make–those are pretty easy, and taste sub-par to me.  If I am going to take the time, I figured, to make pizza at home, I want to do it right.  The problem is that brick oven pizzas are not all that easy to make.

Several months ago I was curious on just how those few-and-far-between places that make brick oven pizza do it.  I found out that it took a VERY hot oven (500+ degrees), a pizza stone, and a peal (a big pizza spatula).  Today, as we were out at the store, I saw it–A real pizza stone–included with a little wire rack and pizza cutter for only six dollars. What do you think?  I just passed it up?  Not!

We got home in the late afternoon and I all of the sudden wanted to make it for dinner.  I researched a couple of recipes online and pretty much found what I wanted.  It took a 550 degree oven, and all of the normal pizza ingredients.  We made our own sauce out of those canned tomatoes that we make fun of so much and some spices.  Then I made the dough with mainly 5 parts white flour and one part whole wheat flour (for chewiness, the recipe said).  Then I had to heat up that pizza stone in the hot oven, and…ahhh!!! I still don’t have a peel to put the pizza in the oven with!  So I made a makeshift one out of a cardboard box that we had.

I slipped that pizza in the oven and, oh no, a slice of pepperoni slid off the pizza an d stone and on to the bottom of the oven.  Do you know what occurs when something like that happens in an extremely hot place?  Fire!  Thankfully, I just blew the flame out a few times until it burnt off.  Other than that, that was the only real mishap.  It only took about six minutes to cook, and came out pretty good looking.  We used our peal-wannabe to take the pizza off the stone and onto the top of the oven.  We cut it up, and served it.

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It tasted delicious!  That pizza stone does wonders!  It tasted just like I wanted, and that’s coming from me of all people!  The crust was crisp on the outside, and soft and chewy on the inside.  Even though the pizza wasn’t perfectly round, it tasted great.  The funny thing is that we live practically right next to a good pizza place: Golden Crust.  Occasionally we can smell it through our open windows; and we both agreed it tastes better.  Take that Golden Crust!  We’ll save that recipe!  Maybe it will even be a family tradition.

History, Geography, and Mr. Speckhals

237365683_oEver since I can remember, I have loved learning about the past.  It all started as a little five year old boy watching a cartoon movie I vaguely remember called The Rescuers Down Under.  I first realized my love for history and geography then, and specifically during a certain part where they showed a world map and a few places an urgent message traveled to.  I had a Fisher Price Globe that lit up and everything–on it I followed that part of the movie when the message traveled.  It was on that globe that I began to learn about all of the places on it–starting with oceans and continents, then going into countries, mountains, cities, and landmarks.  Then my parents got me my first world atlas as a gift, and a road atlas too.  You may think I’m weird–getting a road atlas as an eight-year-old, but there’s something in me that enjoys studying maps and knowing exactly where I’m at.

As a first grader, I had my first history class.  It was there that I learned about what was in those places I had studied on the map.  I think it started with American history, then eventually world history.  I just loved learning about the history of the world.  When I started to attend a Christian school as a second grader, my teachers from then on taught about how God was the one who shaped history, and the Life of Christ was the very focal point of history.  Specifically, these are my favorite periods and subjects of history:

  • Biblical times
  • Ancient Near-eastern empires
  • Ancient Greece
  • The Crusades
  • Colonial Americas
  • Crimean War
  • Civil War
  • British Colonialism
  • The Second World War
  • The Arab-Israeli Wars (1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1981)
  • Collapse of the Soviet Union

Then there are a few things that I wish I knew more about:

  • Ancient Egypt
  • The Indian Subcontinent
  • Oriental History in general
  • Ancient Africa
  • South American anti-colonialism
  • European history from about 1550-1800
  • French “Revolution”

Some people despise history.  That is up to them, I guess–their loss!  I am not particularly fond of mathematics or penmanship either, though both are necessary.  This is a small excerpt from a paper I wrote in college about the importance of history in education:

Does history matter?  This is a question of many students in today’s modern educational realm.  Traditionally, some form of historical education is taught from kindergarten up into a student’s latter secondary school years.  Yet many young people fail to realize this subject’s vast importance in a curriculum; translating into an indifference toward history, which later results in an adult ignorant of the past.  A view of the past shapes every man’s life.  As a Christian, one should have a thirst for some history as a part of education.  The lack of appreciation toward history indicates some ingratitude toward the Bible, because so much of it is historical.  From history, one can obtain a proper worldview of the past, thereby resulting in a proper view of the present.  McClay (1995) discusses the importance of history this way: “Historical consciousness means learning to appropriate into a biblical moral imagination, learning to be guided by it and the distilled memory of others: the stories we never can experience firsthand.”

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And I write this article to say this: I can’t wait until all of my history books are here with us at our new home!  You see, they have been in storage at my parents house since we moved to Pennsylvania, and we didn’t think we would have room to bring them.  Alas though, they will be here when my family comes for Thanksgiving.  A big thank you to my parents for wanting to bring them!  I have most of my devotional and theological books; but literature, geography, and history I am lacking.  We’re also looking forward to seeing Andrea’s family here during Christmastime–especially her dad, who will love to see the US Mint in Philadelphia, Independence Hall, and of course his daughter and son-in-law!