Our flight for Ukraine leaves in just over 10 days and I am ready for some time away. Friends are preparing for our arrival and most of the logistics have been worked out. We will stay at the Ukrainian Education Center - a place that has undergone some change since we last saw it. Days will be filled with visits and at night we will see those we could not be with during the day. I know several are taking vacation days to be with us. We have been asked to participate in the church's retreat and I will be preaching on Sunday morning - always an honor.
In most ways I am thinking of how wonderful it will be to return. In some ways, though, I am hesitant about how much time has passed and where we will fit in.
My time in Kyiv was like nothing else. God has blessed Maurie and I with the opportunity to return and I plan on soaking it up.
28 September 2005
20 September 2005
Grace is Here
Quick picture of Grace Lee Hanauer. She was 7 lbs and 8 oz. Everyone is healthy and happy.
Baby Grace
It must be strange to know precisely when your life is going to change so drastically. At 1 p.m. today is just such a moment for my brother Jason, his wife Mandy and their son Hunter. Grace is coming! I will be an uncle three times over and have two nieces. My parents will have three grandchildren. With video cameras rolling, 35 mm film snapping and smiles all around we will celebrate today. Grace is coming!
18 September 2005
45 MPH
You guessed it! Maurie and I are talking Greyhound - and not the bus. We looked today and retired racing greyhounds and fell in love. After we make a return trip to Kyiv - coming soon, we will adopt our very own. I will keep you posted.
10 September 2005
Regent Fire
The picture is of a house in Bond Hill that was on fire at 8.24 on Thursday morning. Truck 32 responded with Truck 2, Engine 9, Engine 32, District 3, District 2 and Rat 19.
The Fire was in the kitchen but had spread to the living area on the first floor. I went to work with my officer on the roof (shown in the photo). We cut a hole to vent the fire and the smoke and then pushed the ceiling through. Flames rushed out and we were ordered off the roof by District 3 - Regent Command. I was then ordered to pop windows and start pulling exterior structure off to see if the fire was "running". The fire was knocked down in about 15 minutes and we were back in service for lunch.
Engine 32 beat the 9s to the fire - though it was in the 9s' area and got first water to the seat of the fire.
As fires go, this one was textbook. No one hurt, fire out and a great day for the Avondale Raiders.
The Fire was in the kitchen but had spread to the living area on the first floor. I went to work with my officer on the roof (shown in the photo). We cut a hole to vent the fire and the smoke and then pushed the ceiling through. Flames rushed out and we were ordered off the roof by District 3 - Regent Command. I was then ordered to pop windows and start pulling exterior structure off to see if the fire was "running". The fire was knocked down in about 15 minutes and we were back in service for lunch.
Engine 32 beat the 9s to the fire - though it was in the 9s' area and got first water to the seat of the fire.
As fires go, this one was textbook. No one hurt, fire out and a great day for the Avondale Raiders.
07 September 2005
The Role of Government
The question is a fair one: What is the role of government in an event like Katrina?
Though I am sure that the motives are pure behind the question, I am curious as to its asking. Do we seek to know the role of government in our lives and in the lives of others so that we may find our role? Is knowing what government will do critical to what we do? I will tell you that I am ignorant when it comes to government. Reading the NY Times and listening to NPR certainly does not give me the right to expound very long on America's governmental responsibilities. But, everyone has an opinion and so do I.
Government will do in a crisis more of what government was intended to do when government was first created. It will not find you a job, help you seek shelter or give you a drink of cold water. It will not clothe you, bath you and watch after your family pet. It will never wipe you tears, give you a bear hug and brainstorm ideas with you as to the future. What the government will do - though admittedly, not in all the above examples, is provide an environment suitable for those things to occur. Perhaps make it so it is more likely that those things occur.
The United States Government is the people of these States and this - as the thinking can sometimes go, makes it great. But what if the government takes the place of common sense and replaces it with a bureaucracy that cannot love and will not be caring. The people of New Orleans and Biloxi will rebuild their cities and find hope again. And government will take a traditional role of organization and command. It sends money - billions of dollars to be used in relief efforts dreamed up by people. In these times the government is said to be there for people - or absent as some have suggested.
Then, government gets narrowed further to Bush. The leader of the free world has a burden to carry that I dare not mock. And though "President Bush does not like black people" and other thoughtful statement get spoken when speaking about how government handled the current crisis. We must further evaluate how much government is enough. We control our day to day and do not like Big Brother peeking in on us. But, in times of great need Big Brother and his Billions perhaps aren't quite as evil as we thought. We like to see men with camo and guns when chaos reigns. We welcome the military-industrial machine into our living rooms when they are six feet under water. We demand to be housing, food and water just as the surf once did from the king. Government cannot give us hope or even a levy system that works.
But we would do well to remember that the government is not the Spirit of God working in the hearts of men to bring about his will. We would do well to seek that will inorder to find what we should do and let government worry over itself. But I don't vote and so I do not complain.
What think ye?
Though I am sure that the motives are pure behind the question, I am curious as to its asking. Do we seek to know the role of government in our lives and in the lives of others so that we may find our role? Is knowing what government will do critical to what we do? I will tell you that I am ignorant when it comes to government. Reading the NY Times and listening to NPR certainly does not give me the right to expound very long on America's governmental responsibilities. But, everyone has an opinion and so do I.
Government will do in a crisis more of what government was intended to do when government was first created. It will not find you a job, help you seek shelter or give you a drink of cold water. It will not clothe you, bath you and watch after your family pet. It will never wipe you tears, give you a bear hug and brainstorm ideas with you as to the future. What the government will do - though admittedly, not in all the above examples, is provide an environment suitable for those things to occur. Perhaps make it so it is more likely that those things occur.
The United States Government is the people of these States and this - as the thinking can sometimes go, makes it great. But what if the government takes the place of common sense and replaces it with a bureaucracy that cannot love and will not be caring. The people of New Orleans and Biloxi will rebuild their cities and find hope again. And government will take a traditional role of organization and command. It sends money - billions of dollars to be used in relief efforts dreamed up by people. In these times the government is said to be there for people - or absent as some have suggested.
Then, government gets narrowed further to Bush. The leader of the free world has a burden to carry that I dare not mock. And though "President Bush does not like black people" and other thoughtful statement get spoken when speaking about how government handled the current crisis. We must further evaluate how much government is enough. We control our day to day and do not like Big Brother peeking in on us. But, in times of great need Big Brother and his Billions perhaps aren't quite as evil as we thought. We like to see men with camo and guns when chaos reigns. We welcome the military-industrial machine into our living rooms when they are six feet under water. We demand to be housing, food and water just as the surf once did from the king. Government cannot give us hope or even a levy system that works.
But we would do well to remember that the government is not the Spirit of God working in the hearts of men to bring about his will. We would do well to seek that will inorder to find what we should do and let government worry over itself. But I don't vote and so I do not complain.
What think ye?
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