THAT WAS ME

A few weeks ago I was in Starbuck's and bought Paul's new CD.

This is my favorite song on it.

I like the bass part. I also like the line that goes "spade and bucket by the sea" because it sounds so terribly British.

In case you need to know, here's a link to conkers.

It would also be a good song for anyone trying to teach prepositional phrases.

My blog has been rated G. They found two questionable words. The words were "punch" (which I think I used in the beverage sense and they assumed it to be the boxing kind of punch) and "missionary". Now, why in the world would the word missionary be a word that might affect a blog rating?

Parmesh

This is a picture of Parmesh. He lives in India and is two and a half years old.

My niece Mindy (who spent a year in India last year) learned of his condition from the YWAM family she worked with while there. Mindy writes: "He has congenital heart disease and has been told by Siliguri (the village) doctors that he needs corrective heart surgery in order to live. He is very small and has never been able to walk. His parents are Hindu; his father an alcoholic laborer. Cindy (the YWAMer Mindy worked with in India who knows Parmesh and his family) tells me he is a remarkably joyful child - ready smiles for everyone. But he doesn't have long to live unless he can get this surgery."

Mindy continues, "According to Cindy's research, the heart surgery they suspect that Parmesh needs will cost 160,000 rupees - roughly $3800. Then, of course, there are travel costs and hospital/hotel stays. God has really put it in my heart to raise the money for his medical costs and be able to show this family the love of Christ. I have informed Cindy of my desire to see a group of Americans sponsor the cost of his care, and with this knowledge she has gone ahead to seek treatment for him. This week she is traveling by train to Calcutta with Parmesh and his parents. Wednesday they will meet with the heart specialists there."

"I know this cause will resonate with many of you. I am asking if you would join with me and with the Andersons as we pray that God would spare the life of this little one. And I'm asking if you would join with me in giving money toward the costs of his medical treatment. Let's show this family that there is a true loving God who sees their need and longs to meet it. Let's be Jesus to them, even from a distance of many thousands of miles."

If you want to give, please write out a check to "AFC Global", and mail it to:
Steve and Diane Dahlen
4016 W 82nd St
Bloomington, MN 55437

"No need to write anything on the memo line. We will bring all the gifts to church, who will send it on to the Andersons. Your gift will be tax-deductible, just as if it were tithe. I am hoping to raise $5000 by the end of July, so that Parmesh can have his surgery in early August. If there is any money left over from this project, Todd and Cindy will use it to help other needy folks they come across every day."

Terry and I learned about Parmesh about a month ago and are happy to see that there is a way to help him. I just wanted to pass along the info so people can pray and send support as they feel led. (FYI: Diane Dahlen is Mindy's mom and Terry's sister).

Lions, and Crocs, and iPhone Shoppers, oh my!

My boy has to work this weekend at the store that he is not allowed to talk about due to a contractual agreement and as his mom I'm not sure I'm allowed to mention said place of employment. Although, I signed no such contract.

However, as his mom, I read with interest this article and find the 20 - 1 odds of someone getting trampled at his place of employment a little sobering. I guess Friday night will be like Wedding Dress Day at Filene's Basement.

So, wear a good pair of running shoes (and maybe a helmet) and as they tell you in the movies, please take a moment before work to locate the exits.

Battle at Kruger

I saw this posted on the Bayly blog, but didn't want to look. I thought it would be too sad. Terry told me it was worth watching and best of all it has a happy ending.

One Ugly Dog

This dog just earned the title of world's ugliest dog.

I think he's cute in an ugly sort of way.

He was going to be euthanized for his ugliness, but someone rescued him, entered him in the ugly dog contest, and won $1000.

Evan Almighty

We got 4 free passes to preview Evan Almighty last night.

It gave us quite a few laughs (before it turned all PC on us...you remember how the flood wasn't to judge mankind, but to teach us to work two by two, and also all Congressmen who own a business are polluters). We enjoyed it in spite of the lecture. It was worth every penny we paid to see it. :-)

Favorite line: "It sounds like Evan, but it looks like a Bee Gee."

It ended with a dance party.

I thought I'd make a list of movies that end with dance parties.

Let's see:

Night at the Museum
Princess Diaries

Help me out.

26th anniversary of the birth of my first son

Happy 26th anniversary of your birth, Chris! There was supposed to be a cute little newborn photo of you and me to accompany this, but it's on a computer or a disc somewhere other than at home. You were born on the first day of summer and Father's Day. What a great present!

Also, Katie, don't think that I didn't mean to acknowledge the 19th anniversary of your birth last month. I remember it well, especially the part where the midwife asked me to not hurry off to the hospital because she had a rhubarb pie in the oven that needed a half hour more to bake. I was going to have a nice family photo of you and your pirate cake, but it's in my camera and I'm scared to take it out. All this new-fangled computer stuff scares me. Help me, please.

Anyway, I am blessed to have such great kids.

Love you guys, Mom

Anniversary Week Continues...More on the Hat

Here's the cake. I think it was marble. I forgot how big it was.

This shot is a great one because it offers you the opportunity to see the back of my hat. About two weeks before the wedding I realized that I had to come up with a head covering option. I also liked hats. So, I found myself at the clearance table at Dayton's (which later became Marshall Fields and is now Macy's, but I still call it Dayton's) where I found a white hat with a big fake red rose attached. It was $7.

I brought it home and pulled off the rose. Then I went to Northwestern Fabrics and bought a bunch of tulle. (If you've ever planned a wedding, you know what a lifesaver tulle can be. Cheap and communicates the "essence of wedding".) Anyhoo, I grabbed several feet of the stuff, tied it around the brim of the hat and made a huge bow. The rest is history that is documented in this photo.

The reception was catered by the "Church Ladies". Church ladies are great. They made lovely little finger sandwiches (the cool spiral and checkerboard kind) and had a very artsy cornucopia made from a watermelon that spilled out fresh fruit. They had silver candelabra and real plates, silverware, and punch glasses. They made everything, set it up and served it. My dad had to pay the bill for the food and punch (I think it was under $400) for 250 people and I think there was a $1 or $2 per plate donation to the women's missionary fund also. The ladies all served for free in exchange for the donation.

Taking a break from anniversary week...

At the Bayly blog (Out of Our Minds, Too...), I found a link to a great article by Doug Wilson.

(Wasn't he a magician??? That must be a different Doug Wilson, this one is a pastor, in Idaho, or Montana, or one of those states, I'm too lazy to check.)

While lounging at the Bloomington pool (one of my favorite summer activities), I have been re-reading (or to be honest maybe the "re" should be taken off the reading since the first "read" was more of a "skim"), Above All Earthly Powers by David Wells. He spoke at the Postmodern conference done by the Desiring God (aka John Piper's peeps) last fall. Anyhoo, or is it anywho, the quote from the Doug Wilson article (which I will get to in a minute) fits in with the message of the Wells book.

The lesson I am learning is: You know that seeker church idea? Bad idea.

Why would I say that, you ask? Don't you think the seeker church is just a way of "contextualizing" the Gospel? Shouldn't we be "missional"? (I hate those newly made up terms so I threw them in for fun). Now, back to the "conversation".

Here's part of the Wilson article:

While speaking of the true calling of the preacher, A.W. Tozer once said, "We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum." Of course, some might object to quoting a writer like Tozer, a man outside the Reformed tradition, but we live in confused times. Men like Tozer might be worth half a dozen of our contemporary pretty boys, men who subscribe to the Westminster Confession because they think they might have read it once.

The point of preaching is never to make Christ acceptable. But in a man-centered era, this is automatically thought to be the task of the preacher -- how to make God acceptable to man? The problem which confronts us in the Bible is actually quite different. The real problem is one of sin, and how to make sinful man acceptable to a holy God. With this as the true problem, the solution, one which made holy angels stop their mouths, was the Incarnation, Cross, and Resurrection. That is how sinners are made acceptable to God. And how do they hear of it? The word must be preached, and preached to every creature.

But reverse "the problem," as we have, and we discover that "the solution" is necessarily reversed as well. And when the solution is reversed, we discover at the end of the day that we still have the gospel in our hands, but it is backwards and upside down. If we try to make God acceptable to sinners, we find that we are busily engaged in altering the faith once delivered to the saints. We should be preaching in such a way that sinners are altered, not accommodated. We should be preaching in such a way that the truth is adorned, not draped in tinsel.

I will end by repeating the point that hit me the most, and what I believe is wrong with the seeker church. Wilson writes:

The point of preaching is never to make Christ acceptable. But in a man-centered era, this is automatically thought to be the task of the preacher -- how to make God acceptable to man? The problem which confronts us in the Bible is actually quite different. The real problem is one of sin, and how to make sinful man acceptable to a holy God. With this as the true problem, the solution, one which made holy angels stop their mouths, was the Incarnation, Cross, and Resurrection.That is how sinners are made acceptable to God. And how do they hear of it? The word must be preached, and preached to every creature.

It's not my job to make Christ attractive to people. In fact, what arrogance to think that I could do something to make Him more acceptable to the world. He's done everything. The problem with fallen people is that they are not attractive to God and there is only one way for them to be accepted by Him, turning from their life of sin (repentance) and putting faith in His Son who bore their sin in His body on a tree.

Don't we need to help people see this? Isn't that the Gospel? Forget the cool clothes, or cool music, or messages on how to have a more successful family or business. Just preach the Gospel.

Wedding Week Continues...

Mr. D and I had a lovely anniversary. He gave me 30 red roses and a little blue box from Tiffany's. Hint: Little blue boxes from Tiffany's always contain good things! In this case it was a sterling chain with a sterling heart that had a lovely pearl going through the heart. Apparently, it was our pearl anniversary and had I been on top of things and looked it up I would have purchased him a set of pearl handled revolvers instead of the black iPod Nano with his initials engraved on it.

Here is a photo of the wedding party. The bridesmaid's dresses were Jessica McClintock, off the rack from Braun's. Now, about the brown tuxes, with the ruffled shirts. What can I say except it was the 70's.

The bridesmaids carried baskets of ivy and white and yellow daisies. I picked daisies not because they are cheap, but because, as Meg Ryan says in You've Got Mail, "I like daisies, they're such a friendly flower." I carried a bouquet of gardenias, stephanotis, and ivy...just like Princess Diana did when she married Chuck in 1981, apparently she saw my bouquet and wanted to copy it.

30 years as Mrs. D

It was 30 years ago today, June 18, 1977 at 2:00 in the afternoon at Faith Presbyterian Church in Minnetonka, Minnesota that I became Mrs. D.

The choice of groom was a homerun. The choice of the hat, on the other hand, was a strike out, or at least a wild pitch, or maybe a balk.

Happy Anniversary, Mr. D.!

Wanna go for 30 more?

Death by Starvation: A Rant

I have been surprised by the silence from the right to life people about the Ruth Graham assisted suicide through starvation. I'm afraid no Christian leader wants to touch it because they feel it might reflect poorly upon her memory.

Remember, Kevorkian did time for this. I guess his actions seemed a little more "active".

Here's an article from the Dallas Morning News that addresses the topic as it relates to Mrs. Graham.

I first learned that it was legal to stop feeding someone through a feeding tube 10 years ago. Our 34 year old next door neighbor was starved to death by his wife against the wishes of his parents who had offered to be his caregivers and gave her permission to divorce him and move on with her life. He was not terminal, but had a brain injury from a car accident. The day he died, she dolled herself up and went off for a motorcycle ride with his therapist who was an usher at our church. (And, to think I had put her on my "Harvest List" and was praying for her to go to my church!) They vacationed in the Caribbean a few months later (probably on the life insurance money she collected) and she moved away shortly after the death by starvation. They are now married.

Then, 4 years ago, my not-terminal aunt was starved to death. She didn't even have a feeding tube, but had gone into the hospital with an electrolyte problem and learned she had a form of cancer in her bones that could be treated with a daily pill...it didn't even require chemo and she was in no pain from it.

Lesson learned: Stay away from hospital care givers if you can cuz you don't know who wants to starve you and tell everyone you want food and water.

Again, I, Linda Dugan, being of sound mind, want food and water. If I ever say I don't want food or water, I want that request ignored.

End of rant.

Feed Me

I was sorry to hear that Ruth Graham died today.

I was sickened to hear that she starved to death.

The Houston Chronicle reports:

"In recent weeks, she had asked that a stomach tube used to provide her with food and fluids be removed, Ross said Thursday.

When the tube accidentally fell out earlier this week, she again renewed that request. It was reinserted, but after consulting with family and her longtime physician, the Grahams decided to stop giving her nutrients.

"In consensus with her family and others who have observed her levels of deterioration, and in consultation with her physician, she has not received foods or fluid for several days," Ross said."

I think the Grahams have set a really rotten example. Anyone who doesn't receive food or fluids for several days will die.

I know that removing the feeding tube is the way things go now, so I would like to go on record as saying that I would like to be fed. Also, if I, at any time say I don't want to be fed, I want that request ignored.

It is truly a frightening thing to me that many Christians have come to believe that food and water constitute "medical treatment". To withhold food from someone at their request is assisted suicide. To decide to withhold food and water from someone who cannot decide is homicide.

Sadly, I know of several cases where this has happened against family members wishes. For all of you who have lost a family member this way, I am truly sorry.

God Loves Me

This is an encouraging article made more fun by the fact that I know the person who wrote it.

Evan, the new spelling champ, has asperger's--a form of autism which explains some of his quirky behavior.

This, perhaps, explains why he is schooled by his mom at home, but as I understand it through a program provided by his local school district.

The CNN reporter, on the other hand, does not have aspergers, so what do you suppose explains her quirky behavior!

Stumbled upon this site

Anybody know anything about this site?

The people who started it live in Rochester and moved there in the early 80's so they could hang around Francis Schaeffer.

Great Article

This is an amazing article for many reasons.

Pro-life. Anti-communism.