Mike's Musings

Found a Job in Clearwater, Florida!

2008-01-27T17:52:00.000-05:00

This update is long overdue! So much has happened, and I've been so very blessed in the past several weeks!

My trip pretty much ended in Gainesville. I had thought of continuing along the east coast and ending up back in Michigan. But, while staying in Gainesville with my brother Brian, I made some contacts in the area. Florida has held some appeal to me for quite some time now – especially since my youngest brother lives there and has had a positive experience. While Gainesville did not hold any openings, I came across an outfit in Clearwater (2 ½ hours to the south and west) that had need for some technicians. I sent an email and received an answer very quickly. I was asked to come for an interview the next day!

The interview went well, and I was offered a job at a Clearwater Toyota. They are constructing a brand new state-of-the-art 46 bay air conditioned facility! Despite a very significant set of changes, I have felt God’s leading and direction in all of this. I started working there on January 7! So finally, after 6 months I have a job lined up!

To those who I missed along the way, I ask your forgiveness for bypassing your place when I was in the area! And to those who I never made it to but had intended to, I ask for your understanding! I returned to Michigan directly from Gainesville. After a short while, I flew back to Clearwater to get an apartment lined up. I drove back down to Florida over New Year’s Eve, sleeping in the car at various rest areas along the way.

I extend an open invitation to any of you who may be in the Clearwater area! You are highly welcome any time! Just give me a shout or send me an email!

Gainesville, Florida

2007-11-28T12:13:00.001-05:00

My initial "final" destination has been reached! It's been so very nice to reconnect with my brother Brian! He's got a nice house here in Gainesville, and he's been so very hospitable to his old and boring brother!

Florida is MY kind of place! Forget about the women, (altho I think they are here somewhere!), the weather in just plain gorgeous! I see on my Grand Rapids weather link 29F right now! In Gainesville right now it's a cool 69 (truly cool for this time of year!)! Sure, it does get hot (Lagos hot) in the summer time - actually, come to think of it, it's probably hotter and possibly even more humid! Lagos is always right around the same temperature - year round! 89 -93. This area gets up to the upper 90's, and they are surrounded on BOTH sides by ocean. Yep, it's hot and humid here!

I've started looking for a job in this area. So far, no luck, but I don't expect to find anything right away! I have dropped off resumes and filled out applications where I can and in places that interest me. Gainesville is smaller than I anticipated (95,000). But boy does their weather appeal to me! In the end, I will probably be stuck in Michigan, but I can always dream now that I have that chance, can't I? I certainly do hope that I can relocate to this area! Give me hot weather any day!

Oh, and the SAND is so WHITE along the Gulf Coast! Brian and I went fishing there a week or so ago. Fishing sucked (or the fishermen), but the sand was amazing! So white and very fine! It could be mistaken for salt if you set it on your table! Incredible! Since I have not caught any fish yet, I guess I DO have a reason to come back here! :)

Arizona and Texas

2007-11-28T11:49:00.000-05:00

When I thought about Arizona, I thought about the arid dryness that it's famous for. I thought of the cacti and the brown front lawns, the wide open spaces with nothing in them. Well, for the most part, my perception was accurate! It's truly a dry place! Pretty much nothing there. Of course, you do see the odd cactus sticking out of the landscape, and it holds a beauty all of its own. Amazingly, I only saw the cacti in Arizona! Nowhere else! I was a bit surprised by that...

Texas is big, but everyone says that! It's basically the same size as Nigeria, with almost no people (23,500,000). Yes, they have great big cities with huge roads that suddenly widen and become so large you think you're in Los Angeles! But there's really not a whole lot to Texas, from what I could tell! And I know most of my Nigerian friends will think of the weekly show "Dallas" when they think of Texas. Perhaps there is incredible wealth there, but in the areas I traveled, I didn't really see it. I'm sure there is significant affluence some places, but I guess I run in the wrong circles! Of course, when I travel, I like to take roads other than freeways whenever I can. That way, you SEE the country! Driving along freeways is a sure way to miss anything that might be out there of value to see! Driving along the old Western Highways where settlers and pioneers first traveled was really neat! Stopping at the DOZENS of little "Historic Monument" signs was interesting, giving just a hint of flavor of the Old West and what sorts of things went on the very place I was standing.

Interestingly enough, right behind this placard here was a Police car occupied by a sleeping policeman! I thought about running over there to take his picture, but figured he would wake up about the time I took the picture! The thought of another four days in Texas being followed by a patrol officer just waiting for me to slip up so he could seize my camera did not appeal much to me! I just know I would have slipped up somewhere in those four days!!

9,872 miles / 15,887 kilometers

2007-11-17T10:32:00.001-05:00

Worship

2007-11-12T09:34:00.000-05:00

“The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. Where briers grew, myrtles will sprout up. This miracle will bring great honor to the LORD's name; it will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.”

It’s not difficult to be in a state of worship when all around me are clear indications of God’s creation and his handiwork! I can see where Isaiah got those words – now more clearly than ever! It’s truly difficult to imagine the scope of the sights that I'm seeing! Words fall far short of what I see! And once again, so do photographs. My eyes cannot fully comprehend the distances I am seeing; they are incapable of taking in the vastness of the vistas in front of me!

Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Glenn Canyon, Natural Bridge National Parks all have unique and inexpressible beauty! Each have a magnificence of their own. To say one is better than another is to make one less impressive or important than the other – and yet all have such tremendous majesty that it would be a travesty to try to rank them! Not only are the parks themselves beautiful, so are the sights between them! One of today’s most remarkable experiences was dropping 1,100 feet in only 3 miles! When we came to the first corner, seeing a sign read “5 mph” we thought that must have been a mistake! But then, upon reaching that corner, it became very apparent why we needed to go that slow! Were anyone to miss that turn, it would be a 1,100 foot free-fall to certain death! The drop-off was incredible! Once again, pictures cannot show the extraordinary view I got from that mountain. Nor can they get close to giving you that uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach!

A Pick-up

2007-11-09T23:24:00.001-05:00

I am no longer traveling on my own. I was warned that on this trip I may meet someone special and end up taking that person along with me. I didn’t really expect that to be the case, and I certainly wasn’t out looking for anyone! But, they do always say that it’s when you are NOT looking that you stumble across what at one point, you were seeking! So yes, I am traveling with someone now…

My Dad joined me on Wednesday evening in Las Vegas (a preacher, no less, in Las Vegas!). We spent the next day visiting an exhibition called “Body – The Exhibition” (I think that’s what it was called…). It was very interesting indeed and tastefully done. I would recommend you take the time to see it if it comes into a town or city near you!

From there, it was the Hoover Dam and then off today to see Zion National Park. Currently, we are just outside of Bryce National Park staying at a hotel in Panguitch, Utah. We expect to head to Bryce tomorrow and take the time we need to. Dad will be with me for a week, and flies out of Phoenix early Wednesday morning. So we have a leisurely schedule in this area and should be able to do some hiking and trekking much as we did today. The scenery is incredible! It’s hard to believe that this country can have so many varieties of landscapes and sceneries! I am often left in awe at the surroundings! This is indeed, a very beautiful country! If you have not made such a trip, it’s well worth it – never mind the cost!!

2007-11-09T23:05:00.000-05:00

I went back to the west coast along California Highway 1. Once again, I saw more clouds and fog than anything else! Perhaps this is normal for this time of the year. Even when I visited Hearst Castle, it was very foggy and I could not see the entire castle for the fog in the air! Still, it’s not the weather that makes the experience pleasant. It’s the freedom to travel and the ability to take the time to do this. What has become boring, tedious and mundane to the familiar is exhilarating, exciting and stimulating to me, a newcomer…

Foggy Thoughts on Nigeria

2007-11-09T22:28:00.000-05:00

We’ve had to set our clocks back. Now it’s dark a whole lot quicker! Driving along a dark, lonely and winding road, I thought back to the risk I would have been taking in Nigeria. I would never consider driving like this at night in Nigeria—especially when several minutes passed with no oncoming traffic! That would have been a sure sign of armed robbers ahead!! But I was in the United States and that was not an issue here!

I sat in the motel I stayed at that night and looked out the window—another stark reminder that Americans live in a very safe, secure and sheltered world. No bars, no alarm, no guards, no razor wiring atop 10’ walls… This is a country where people tell me there is such corruption and insecurity, yet they live in homes that would take less than 5 seconds to break into! No one has heard of a strong room. No one has 10’ walls with razor wiring as fences between them and their neighbor. No one is protected by 24 hour guards and closed steel gates. At least, no one I have met. Even when I lived in an area closer to “the hood” than most, it was still far safer than living in Nigeria!

Yet, living in Nigeria was such a wonderful experience for me! It definitely has its security issues, and it definitely is a corrupt society, but it’s the average Nigerian I care so deeply about. That person who is working for pennies and doing his very best to make the most of the position he finds himself in, knowing that he or she is accountable to God for his or her actions on this earth. They are the ones who make me realize how good I have it and how easy it is for me to be a Believer. They have so little, and yet they are able to be happy and find satisfaction and joy in a very difficult situation. Kudos to my Nigerian friends!

California Coastal Redwoods

2007-11-02T15:01:00.000-04:00

It’s hard to describe adequately the Californian Coastal Redwoods. Pictures fall far short! To say they are huge is still an understatement! They stand 300 feet tall, with those tallest stretching to 370’! The AfriOne communications tower that I have climbed on occasions is only 200’, still falling 100 feet short of the Californian Redwood! I remember shots I took from the top of that tower, and how even the tallest trees were far below me! Even the birds were flying well below where I was perched atop that tower!

I was not able to see the tops of most trees, but I think that was more as a result of the fog than anything else! Taking a walk along such well-defined paths was enjoyable; I was amazed at the work that went into creating these paths that are there for the enjoyment of tourists passing by. No one asked me to pay anything; no one stopped me along the way to hassle me for being on the wrong path. No one bothered me at all! I could have been totally lost in that forest (except only a blind man could really get lost on those paths) and no one would have known otherwise! It amazes me that so much money would be spent on literally hundreds of paths that are randomly selected by passing motorists. They are marked, but nothing other than a small placard indicates what is on those paths. It’s up to you to check it out and to follow a path to its destination. I followed one to “Big Tree”. This sign I only saw after having walked into the forest for 200 meters. I decided to follow it, thinking that if this tree was big, then it must be just immense in size as all of the trees around me were big! I also decided to follow it because I knew I could complete 5km in an hour of trekking. Upon arriving at the Big Tree, I can attest that it is indeed BIG! Very much so!

I did enjoy the trek, but I found that had I just driven 500 meters to another spot, I could have saved myself 50 minutes of walking! The Big Tree was really not that far off from the road – I just chose to come at it from a distance that encompassed 4 kilometers of forest path!

As I drove into the little town of Eureka, I noticed a line of trees along the road that I actually knew! These were obviously planted and I was surprised to see eucalyptus growing in temperate climes! Didn’t know they grew in any place other than tropical areas (though I think they may be an indigene of Australia)!

Eureka. The name of the town I stayed at. All I can say is that this town had its eureka moment a great many moments ago!

I can now attest that I have found a Nigerian hotel in northern California, complete with cockroaches! This was far and away the dirtiest and dingiest hotel I have stayed at yet! It was also the noisiest, situated on the inside of a very busy corner with trucks passing all night long! All in the name of trying to get back on budget… At least there were no prostitutes banging on the door all night long to boot!

Boeing

2007-10-28T23:39:00.001-04:00

The highlight of my time in Washington was the trip to both the Boeing factory and the Museum of Flight. Fascinating! I got to see the very first 787 Dreamliner under construction. It is expected to make an inaugural flight early next year, with commercial flights starting by the end of 2008. It was really neat to see "Experimental" painted along the top of the plane. There were two being built - one for test flight purposes and another that will be destroyed by fatigue testing. They will actually bend the wings until they break - just to find out exactly how much stress they can handle. I was enthralled by the entire tour! Unfortunately, no pictures...

But I WAS able to take pictures of the Future of Flight display area. Notice how LARGE the tail fin on the Boeing 747 is! Hard to believe until you see it in perspective with someone standing next to it! The engine behind it is in excess of 8' in diameter! If you want to see how much thrust these engines produce in a practical experiment, check out this: http://www.stupidcrazy.com/videos/play.cfm?id=274&title=747%20engine%20blast%20vs%20car

Ferries

2007-10-27T00:10:00.000-04:00

My perception of the ferry has changed. The precariously tilting barge tied to a canoe with people expressly told to get out of their car and sit along the highest side of the canoe so as to “level” the barge was nowhere to be seen. Rather, a large platform consisting of two levels extended before me. I was directed, not by four people all shouting different directions at the same time, but by one person, silently waving me forward up a ramp, while not having yet even seen a boat! This brought me to a ramp that was wide enough to fit four vehicles at the same time. From there I was directed to the left, and alongside a row five cars wide, hardly noticing I had already entered the ferry! I parked where indicated, and that was that. The car vibrated and shook slightly in a rhythm that I could not make out as anything but random. Perhaps the two engines were slightly out of sync as they idled while we all drove on. Amazingly, I could not even feel the slightest adjustment to our ferry as more and more cars and large trucks got on! Below me was another deck filled with more vehicles than were on mine. Above me was a large seating area for perhaps 1,500 additional passengers, besides those who chose to wait out the 1½ hour ride in their one of the 360 or so cars on board traveling at an average speed of 22 knots (25mph/40kph)! So much for the three cars sandwiched onto a dilapidated and worn out World War II section of floating bridge attached to a hollowed-out hand-crafted canoe that regularly tosses its load into the river at some point!

The passenger seating area had a gift shop, a restaurant, restrooms (toilets), and any manner of seating areas and positions. Once again, I was struck by the ingenuity and ability of mankind when they work together to accomplish something far bigger than themselves that benefits so very many people who have come to rely on and expect such services! When will we in Nigeria come to realize that the ONLY way to move forward is to set aside our differences and work together?! In Nigeria, we easily and quickly state our differences and claim that Westerners have more mutually in common than Africans. Yet, I am coming to realize that this is an inaccurate perception on the part of Africans. Rather, the cultural differences are truly diverse! Chinese, Japanese, Indians (First Nation as they are now supposed to be called), Dutch, Italian, Danish, Kenyan, Sudanese, and pretty much any nationality you can think of, all set aside their differences to accomplish great things!

The past few days have been spent visiting with friends and lost acquaintances. I was privileged to spend time with some dear friends I lost touch with over the past years. To have a common bond and to so readily feel comfortable in the presence of people I have not seen in over 25 years is just amazing! There is this common bond with people who have shared a common life and experience. Few can relate to such experiences, and so when we meet again, we have a common bond that eludes most other friendships. Somehow, that shared African experience has bonded me to even those I have not met earlier in a way that surpasses expectations.

Rain

2007-10-19T01:25:00.000-04:00

I was hoping I'd have a superfluity of experiences regarding this city to share with you, but Mother Nature had other ideas. MSN Travel says the first two things you can't live without in Vancouver is an umbrella and a coffee cup. I think I understand why – now… Rain, rain, rain. I've seen my share of it and then some in the past few days! Come to think of it, I think I saw about ten minutes of sun the first day I was here. Since then, rain… I understand why the umbrella is needed.

It took me a little longer to figure out the coffee cup thing. I think I have it now, though! You need to carry a coffee cup with you so that you can warm up at any one of the dozens of coffee shops along your route to one bus or the other! The weather’s not really cold, but it’s miserable when it’s wet. It’s been in the upper 40’s and low 50’s (9-13˚C) ever since I arrived – and it varies little between day and night. Having that coffee cup may keep you warm between stops and give you a chance to dry off in a café.

Meeting Bernie and Annemarie has been wonderful again! It’s been so good to see them! Bernie has been a very dear friend ever since we met in Nigeria. His wife Annemarie has been keeping us well fed! We went to Ineke Lodewyk’s place for lunch, meeting Wiena Groenewold there as well! It was great to reconnect with them and reminisce on past experiences that we share.

Hopefully within the next couple of days, it will brighten up some. Until then, plan your trip to Vancouver in the summer time…

Back Online!

2007-10-14T19:41:00.000-04:00

I've been without Internet connectivity for the past three days, so it's high time I got back online!!

I've had a wonderful three days, having spent a couple of nights at Teus and Marja VanderVlis's house, the parents of my good friends Bernhard and Annemarie (whose house I am on my way to now).

Couple of things struck me: I had to concentrate at times to understand Teus' heavily accented Dutch brogue and now I'm starting to say, "das is dok ridekulus!!". Also, I SUCK at 5-pin bowling! It sure is a whole lot harder than it appears! Give me 10-pin any day. Okay, so I suck at 10-pin too, but at least I do a little better! They were so very hospitable and it was a great couple of days there too - plus, got to eat some meat again! Thanks, Bern!! :) (Bernie's Dad is a butcher)

Yesterday I went to Radium Hot Springs. That was a very interesting place! I had a blast there! When I read a sign (31C) on a brochure and calculated the temperature in Fahrenheit (why are Americans the ONLY people in the world that refuse to use Celsius!?), I came up with 88. I would hardly call that a hot spring! But since I was that close, I thought I had better check it out anyway. Thankfully, I did, as the COOLED pool was 31C, and the other was 40C (104F)! Now that was a hot spring! I joined about 80 others in that large pool (a big man-made swimming pool to accommodate large crowds with jets of hot water entering at certain locations at the bottom of the pool from a natural spring), and spent a full hour in there! It was sure nice to relax in that pool! I would highly recommend it to someone else making a trip in that area!

NOW I can honestly say I have seen the Canadian Rockies! Absolutely gorgeous! The last time I was in this area with Bernie, well, the weather was lousy with more clouds and fog than anything else. So this has been a wonderfully refreshing comparision! The weather has been absolutely perfect! That said, I've had frost (ice) on my car the past two days. This morning's was pretty heavy too! If it freezes overnight here tonight, I'll take a picture of that for my Nigerian friends too! :)

Today was a short day of driving. I'm now splurging and staying at a Best Western in Sicamous, BC (what classifies as high-class in my book - so you know I'm on a budget!! :)).

Yesterday, on my way across the Rockies and past the Continental Divide, I saw three moose (now, what's the plural of moose? Let's start a new one - meese (you can have mouse and mice, why not moose and meese?)). So, I saw three meese, one black bear, an elk, some rams and some sort of mountain goat. Not bad, I'd say! Sorry, I didn't take any pictures worth showing, so you will have to make do with these instead!!

Made it to the Rockies!

2007-10-10T23:17:00.000-04:00

I saw my first real cowboy today! With the stetson hat, hot chick, and driving a PINK Camaro! Yup, sure as shootin'! Dead nuts (maybe in more ways than one!). That was one man very confident in his masculinity - or perhaps very in touch with his feminine side... At any rate, that certainly broke up the monotony of driving in such a vast space while I burst out laughing!

About the time I was on visual sensory overload with the repetition of ever widening spaces and ever rolling and never-ceasing hills, they were assaulted anew with a different scene! All of a sudden, there before me lay my first view of the Rockies! It came just like that! One moment, it was the usual wide rolling spaces, and the next, I climbed a hill, and there they were~! It truly came as a shock. I knew they had to be close, based on my progress on the map, but it still shocked me when, still more than 35 miles away, I saw them, protruding above the flat expanse of farm and grazing land.

This trip has been such a wonderful experience! It's been filled with moments (hours, actually) of pure solitude, time in which I could reflect on my past blessings and struggles. Then, when I came into a little town, having to slow from 70mph down to 25 in far less time than just releasing the accelerator pedal would allow, I would be enamored and enthralled by another little town, trying to figure out what kept it going. Most showed all the signs of depreciated and dilapidated houses and buildings. I wondered what sort of future there was for those little towns. Really, they hardly passed as villages. Yet, all around them were huge expanses of farmland. Surely, that must be the only real vocation available to people who opted to stay there! Many had not even a single fuel station! Some had "rest areas" where even the toilet was nothing more than a pit latrine, much as I'd used in Nigeria - only with a seat...

The border crossing posed more time-consuming than I thought it would. I got flagged for further questioning after the initial drive-by. I'm not sure what I did, had, or said wrong, but I came to realize after about 30 minutes of questioning and sitting and waiting, that they were worried that I had come to Canada to seek a job! Little did they know my apprehension of cold weather! What would possess me to move to a place where the weather rarely gets hot enough to sweat with a tee-shirt on?? I think that when I answered his question, "Do you know the laws pertaining to employment in Canada?" with, "No, and I could care less what the laws are - I'm not interested in working there!" he was satisfied! Not that I had any place to get to in a hurry - he could have searched my car and made me sleep there! At least it would have been a warm place, and I would not have had to pay for another night in a hotel! :)

I'm now in a town called Cardston - 80% Mormon and 20% other, according to my waitress. She knew I was new to the town when I asked what types of beer they had... Apparently, this is a dry town! Ah well, I used the opportunity to talk to her and get to learn a little about this town. Only she's not from here, and is among the "other" - which one, I don't know... Her husband is a semi-pro hockey player, just back from New Jersey playing for a team there. It's neat to talk to people and find out a little about them - but I only talk to those who are open to it and want to share a bit of their life with me. I hate it when people ask me all sorts of questions.

And that reminds me of the little kid that walked into my hotel room yesterday and asked me what I was doing! It was really neat that he felt comfortable enough to talk to me and to go against the "don't talk to strangers" grain, but he asked so many questions that I really didn't know how to react! In the end, I picked up my clothes to wash, lead him outside, and locked the door behind me while he followed for a bit, then got tired of the silence in my answers...

By the way, if you click on the picture, you can see a higher resolution photo

Huge Spaces

2007-10-10T09:58:00.000-04:00

More than once, my mouth burst forth with what some consider to be a Canadian expletive (I'm no longer a missionary!) as I would come over another rolling hill, only to have the full extent of my vision filled with yet more rolling fields of grain and hay - seemingly with no end!

I was not disappointed with the sight, but rather, very much in awe! It just kept coming - more of the same, yellow fields just harvested or ripe for the harvest. Don't ask me what they were (tho I could recognize when there were sunflowers in the field), but of one thing I'm certain - no garden tractor was used to harvest those fields! I wondered at whether it was possible for a single family to own such a large expanse, or what this the corporate farming I have heard so much about...

I now have some inkling of an idea what is meant by Big Sky. Truly, that's what I see so much of! The scenery is amazing, as is the bright and sunny sky! Anyone who can contemplate that there's no God just plain doesn't get it! It's clear to see, if you want to accept it, that this was put in place for our pleasure and to initiate awe for a great and powerful God!

I was very impressed with the scenery in Minot. It's obvious why people moved into that area! Gorgeous rolling hills, with a river running through it. I could live there - for the scenery... My mind kept going to wind power. I wonder why there are not more wind turbines in this area. surely, they have plenty of wind!

Another impression of mine is that everywhere I went, at each little house or trailer, there was a power line attached! It actually came as a surprise to me that a power company would go thru all the trouble of running a power line to a single building out in seemingly the middle of nowhere! Surely, they cannot expect the cost of providing power to pay for itself any time soon! Again, an indication of how Americans look at the bigger picture and see how each person is a player in a big team of Capitalism that keeps the economy and country going...

Cold Front

2007-10-08T23:22:00.000-04:00

They said a cold front was coming through... Boy, were they right!! The temps dropped from 75 this morning to 44 this afternoon. And now I hear that there may be wet SNOW tonight and a low of 35 (okay, for you Kanuks, that's about 1-2)! Say what??!! This is NOT what I like... Still, we have had temperatures well above what is normal for this time of the year. But snow? It's been a very happy 16 years since I have seen snow! If I did not see another flake, that would actually be fine by me!!

As the cold front came through, so did the rain. The colors were magnificent, but hidden behind the rain drops and I saw little aside from streaks of rain running up the windshield, being slapped aside by wiper blades. For just a very short period of time, two lines of dry pavement appeared. But that was shortly followed by more rain. It's still raining now at 10:30 local time...

I've been traveling along US Highway 2 and plan to stay on this road until I get ready to enter Canada. It's a beautiful drive, and being able to stop along the road is also nice. But the "rest areas" are just that - areas to rest. I stopped in one thinking that I could use the opportunity to relieve myself, only to find out that there was little besides trees, a picnic table, and garbage (in Grand Rapids, by the way!). Being mostly African, that posed no problem for me, tho... That said, I stopped at others that were far better equipped - and one was even staffed by some tourist advisor or whatever name they have...

The trip has begun!

2007-10-08T09:25:00.000-04:00

The trip has begun! And the weather has been incredibly warm - for now. I'm expecting it to cool down significantly in the next day or two. I just turned on the TV and the forecast is for cooling temperatures and more rain! It's been raining quite a bit while driving, so the scenery has not been what it could have been. I was a bit surprised that the UP did not have as much color as northern lower peninsula! As I was driving along, I thought the color would just get more and more pronounced. Of course, I stayed along Highway 2, so can't speak for what it was like farther north.

I stayed at Keith and Laura VenHuizen Saturday night. They are such a neat family! They opened their homes and their lives to me. I was so pleased to be given that opportunity to meet with them and to get to know a bit of that part of the country. My thanks go out to them for their hospitality.

Speaking at the church there went pretty well. The video started half-way through and the gain was set too high for the sound; they missed the beginning but no one mentioned anything about it...

I'm now in Cameron, Wisconsin - and will be leaving in the next few minutes. I am really enjoying this time, but it's early still...

Pride and Prejudice

2007-09-30T21:34:00.000-04:00

I am just filled with pride and joy when I see the program on ABC “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”. Now there is a program that speaks volumes of how good America can be! It’s about what amazing things can be accomplished in just a short period of time when we get together to make the lives of others better! That can only happen in the US of A! And that show makes me so very proud to be an American! Every Sunday evening I look forward to seeing that show! Every Sunday evening, I have tears in my eyes, seeing what God intended us to be – those who put others’ needs before our own! When communities get together, it’s truly amazing how lives can be changed! I commend ABC for their willingness to air that show – and I commend those who dreamt up the show for putting it together– as well as Sears, for their donations to it ! Wow! What an amazing example of God’s love for us!

But, following that program is "Desperate Housewives", one of the most pathetic and demeaning shows! It’s one of those shows that make the Muslims hate us and our culture and everything we stand for – and yet we proudly advertise it; and others like it – as though that is something that makes us special! I just wish we would have more of the positive and uplifting shows and fewer of those that demean and make fun of wholesome family values God intended! When will we learn that when we stray from his commands for us we are the ones who are left feeling empty and dissatisfied?

Where are the stars?

2007-09-15T08:54:00.000-04:00

The other night I was outdoors just about to leave and talking to my brother. While we chatted, I looked up. What I saw came to me as a new surprise! There were no stars in the sky! Well, there were a few, but only the brightest stars shown! We are very blessed here with good electricity and bright streets, but those lights reflect into the sky and we miss out on the stars! In Nigeria, I remember seeing the bright stars, but also seeing SO many between those bright stars, and then those between them, as your eyes adjust to the dark. Amazing! I have seen so clearly the Milky Way. But here I missed out on those stars... I love the fact that when I flip the switch, the lights go on - all the time! But I miss the stars and seeing that aspect of Nature too...

First Thoughts

2007-08-14T08:56:00.000-04:00

Getting used to life back in the US has and is proving to be quite an adjustment! One of the things that shocks me most is the selection on the shelves in stores! Going into a place like Meijer's where the building alone is so large you can't see the other end of it while standing is quite impressive and overwhelming! Just buying a can of coffee can take you ten minutes while you read all the different brands, and then types within each brand! Cereals are just plain crazy! Having so many to choose from cannot be doing our society any good... In Nigeria, you buy the one or two items that are available. One does not get the option of choosing between dozens of similar items. I wonder if it's healthy for us to have so much STUFF available to us? The more we have, the more we want. And the more we want, the less satisfied we are with what we already have... For me, trying to steer clear of that consumerism drive is going to be a challenge. And so far, I have pretty much failed. I've already bought that new car! And a new color laser printer, and and and... It's so easy to justify what I want rather than base it on what I really need... In the end, we can live on a whole lot less than what we want!

What I intend here by writing a blog is just to get my personal thoughts out there. You are free to agree or disagree with me! I'm okay with that, and it can cause some healthy discussion as well... Somehow, in all of this, I need to be objective about what I see and experience, and that includes hearing people who have differing views from mine!