jardinero

I sort of take a "smorgasbord" approach to church. Sometimes I'm hungry for community, spiritual food, times of worship, singing, prayer, etc.; other times I'm not. After visiting about a half dozen churches regularly, I visit 2 or 3 based on what it is about that church I enjoy. There's one large church that has some great singles, women, teen groups and also is large enough that they have great choirs, orchestra, drama and dance to supplement their special services (I love to go there for Christmas and Easter services). Sometimes I want church, but want to be a little "invisible", so I go there. I more often go to a small, newer church (3 years old). The pastor is the son of a friend of mine and man, can this guy teach and inspire and bring perspective to life! It's a lot of young singles and families who are all very involved in community - - food kitchens, inter-church prayer meetings (we're up to 30 churches that participate), mission trips, legal clinics for the poor, neighborhood "watches" in crime-ridden and poor areas, urban youth programs, tutoring, etc. And sometimes, when I'm in the process of weeding my own garden, I don't want to be with anyone but God and just do my own thing - - worship, prayer, bitching and moaning about life and sometimes just overwhelming joy to be in His presence. Yeah, Hope. I tried the splinter groups. Lots of dead wood there, I would agree. J.

Wow, Chas! The time really DID fly by! I dunno -- with my boys....they were both sort of like "see ya!" and went off on their merry adventure (both had done a couple of years of Montessori pre-school), so the transition wasn't hard. I'm with Bow on taking lots of pics - - so fun to look back as the years fly by. Letting go of #1 son for college was the hardest though, cuz we had grown up together it seemed like. So, not having him around daily was tough. Still miss the little booger :) Now #2 son - - I'm COUNTING the days til he goes!! J.

Happy birthday to my fellow former Californian and "jardinera" :) Hope the day is as special as you are! J.

Happy Birthday, Rummie ~ Hope you're feeling younger day by day. Welcome to the 50s along with a good group of us here at the spot. All the best, J.

O.K. call me sick, but I just loved this ironic twist of fate. 2 headlines just posted. The first: The second: On same day Cruise breaks with PARAMOUNT, 'SOUTH PARK' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone ink two picture deal with -- PARAMOUNT... Pretty funny J.

I was working in SoCal in 1996 when this murder happened and my co-worker was Jeff Ramsey, John's brother. Nicest guy in the whole world. We all adored him, but what hell that family has been through. He told us then that if you knew John and Patsy, you would absolutely know there is no way they were involved. Even Jeff and his family had photographers and wanna-be "investigators" hounding them for years. It was so tough on him and would just bring him to tears at times - - I cannot imagine what his brother and Patsy must have endured. So tragic that a family's entire future can be changed by one day into an utter nightmare. I so hope there is some real proof out there on either this guy or whomever did this awful thing to that little girl. And may the bastard rot in hell. J.

Mark: I remember a few ex-ministers who joined twi from other denominations (whose names escape me at the moment). Not sure I ever heard of their seminary training. I know there were some who were "adjunct" faculty who were learned in Greek and/or Aramaic, though their training also was not disclosed. They, for the most part, were forced to dumb down their training as many of the way corps they taught weren't college material and were somewhere in the range of 8th-12th grade in their language / grammar / reading skills. All they could handle were the most basic of course work. Wayne Clapp at the Indiana Campus (dean for many years) had a Master of something degree and was pursuing a doctorate, but I don't think I recall him actually teaching, just getting his freebee education courtesy of the slave corps. J.

Wow - - five years in August! And nobody's gonna make you move!!!! Congrats, Tom. And you've been a lot like that and more for many people here, myself included. J.

Happy Birthday, dear Andy! Wish I could be there to enjoy a Dodger dog and beer with you!!!! Hope you have a fun night celebrating! J.

Running it now????? Not one greasespotter!!!!!! Even the most adament of wierwillites here on the spot is far too loving and kind to take over that snake pit! Perish the though! J.

This one will probably take great care of the house but not be a gardener J.

You guys are just plain sick. (and yes, that WAS bad, Raf) J.

Krys~ Have so enjoyed getting to know you here at GSC and in chat! Hope your day is as special as you are, dear lady. J.

Speaking of disproportionate reporting, my favorite columnist, Mark Steyn of the Chicago Sun-Times appears to "get it". For your Sunday reading enjoyment: Advocates of 'proportion' are just unbalanced - August 6, 2006 Here's a teaser for those who don't want to read the entire column (but worth the read, IMO):

Thanks, TheHighway ~ Wow, moral relativism at its best. Not that it wasn't practiced all along (such as in our society at large, methinks)...and actively in twi, but just hadn't heard the "official" teaching on this as barfed out by lcm. Thanks. J.

Bliss wrote: Bliss: he actually taught this publically???? Did other leaders also? (I mean, I know they did in practice, but as "new revelation"?) When was this? J.

Belated birthday greetings, Raf! Miss seeing your smiling face around here. Hope you had a great day! J.

BTW, Ductape ~ Please remember while you were grousing about, I did welcome you nicely :) J.

Waysider: Nope. House built on a slab, so no root celler. This is the first year I've NOT had a veggie garden. Was too busy, but did grow some beautiful wild flowers this year that are all in bloom and about 6 new hostas and a few day lillies :) Simon - - J.

J.

Excie ~ I think that's the hardest thing for a lot of people to reconcile. We had a new gal show up in chat the other night. Young gal who's dad was an early leader and she was asking a lot of questions - - like - - was it like this? was it like that? My answer? Depended on what city, state, country you were in and on what day, full moon, or year, or decade. Depended on whim, willies, witches and what else? ;) The inconsistencies - - to the sweetest of people who were the salt of the earth - - was the most difficult. For toughened street folk who didn't buy into some of the crap (later on), we'd just say PFFFFFFFFFFT and move on. But it really bothered many of us too. The two-facedness, the hyposcrisy, the out and out deception. Sucked. J.

TROLL ALERT Geez..............what is it you people don't get about OM, anyway? The guy only want's to argue. He has absolutely no interest in anything you have to say. He has no intention of ever removing the rose colored glasses. Certainly not worth the tapping on the keyboards to respond to him on these threads. Move on. They eventually shut up when they don't get the attention. J.

I watched CNN in the morning this week and a few other stations who seem OBSESSED with the Gibson story while this one seems to have gotten rather underreported: The Seattle shooter who killed one woman and shot five other women in the stomach, Naveed Afzal Haq (I know - - it doesn't roll off the tongue as easily as Mel Gibson's name), after declaring he was a "Muslim American" who was "angry with Israel" has been charged (today) with 9 felony counts including murder, hate crimes and kidnapping. Not trying to get this thread bumped down to the Political threads, but just seemed a tad out of balance to me. But, that's just me. J.

Hey Rummie ~ Good news! Glad it went well and we'll be prayin for you thru new hip #2! May I have the first dance after the new hip???? J.

What joyous news! Congrats, Eagle. Welcome, Ethan! J.