A Few Thoughts on The Kerry Controversy and Election Day

Dear friends and family,

In response to an email that brought the latest controversy to my attention, I wanted to share a few thoughts. Here's the link to the story about recent comments by John Kerry that sparked the uproar and accusations that the troops in Iraq had been insulted.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,226490,00.html

After reading the article, I guess maybe it's different being outside everything. It didn't seem like anyone said the troops in Iraq were uneducated but that if people don't take that time to think things through you get stuck in situations like Iraq. I didn't vote for John Kerry, but I think he has a point. It's hard to describe how much the Iraq war has harmed the US overseas and at home.

For those of you, most of you, who are fellow Christians, I know in most churches everything is very Republican, but living in the UK they don't care so much about our parties as about what the leaders of the US are doing. When people hear about phones being wire-tapped or see the chaos in Iraq it makes them question whether the US really values and believes in the freedom it says it wants to spread. We've had the blessing of being like the children on Israel under the judges. We don't have a king. We have a leader appointed by ourselves and accountable to and reliant upon God. It's as if people are willing to trade that away and give the power that is rightfully given them by God to a man or a government so that they can be safer.

I hope you'll indulge the brief rant. It's just been really disheartening to see the US political situation from afar and to see how few people have any idea of how bad things are for the US. All the sympathy and goodwill from September 11 has been drowned in blood and bombs and there's no sign of it stopping. We have a President who thinks he is responsible for the security of the US and so has the power to do anything necessary to that end, even though the Constitution clearly places that responsibility in the hands of the citizens themselves. (Look at the second amendment, which is usually called The Right to Bear Arms; it is actually about making sure the people are able to create citizen militias to police and protect their own homes and towns.) We have a Congress that has passed hundreds of billions in deficit spending that our kids will be paying for, and that has done less actual work than any Congress in modern history. (They will have convened the House only 99 times by the end of the term, less than any Congress since 1948, which was the Congress historically referred to as the "Do-Nothing" Congress.) We have a judiciary split between judges who deny the basis of justice being from God and others who deny equal treatment to all people He created. I've been praying a lot for our country because I think it is very very sick and the more I learn about other dominant powers through history, the more alarming the US situation becomes to me.

Please give a lot of prayer to your vote and for the US. We can't afford to be known as the country of bikinis, bombs, relentless materialism, and injustice. Every country has its own problems and ours isn't worse. In many respects, it's better than most countries. But the fact is that it is the most powerful nation to ever exist and that every decision affects the whole world. God has given, for this time, stewardship of the entire earth to the people of the United States, and so the people of the United States have an unprecedented responsibility to build a country worthy of that calling, whether we build it on our knees in prayer, on our feet in the voting booth, or with our heads and hearts in the world of ideas.

I hope this finds all of you well, and I'll do my best to put up a proper post soon about our comings and goings in St Andrews.

Take care everyone :-)

Quests and Requests

Hello again,

Unfortunately this will be a short entry as I have a lot on my plate this week. However, I need to ask for some prayer on a couple urgent needs. As the title of the post indicates, these requests are primarily related to our quest to fulfill God's plan for our lives. So as we seek to follow His leading, we ask for your support in prayer for the following requests:

1. Accommodations payment- Thankfully, we finally received a federal education load check to cover tuition fees. However, because of the poor exchange rate, we still owe the entire cost for our University housing, which is roughly equal to $11,000. This must be paid ASAP, or at least a considerable portion of it, the rest of which can be paid in installments. Please pray for miraculous provision for these funds and that we can honor God by timely payment.

2. Denied health claims- My old insurer has denied nearly all of my claims from my treatments in Virginia, which add up to over $14,000. I am mailing an appeals letter today and believe that God will grant us the appeal. Please pray that they read it favorably and approve and pay all of the denied claims in a timely fashion, so that our credit rating and finances are not negatively affected.

3. PhD applications- This one is more exciting. After an immensely enjoyable 4 months in Scotland, Elizabeth and I have decided we would like to stay so that I can pursue my PhD and so that she and the boys can continue their lives here as well. I am applying to 3 different PhD programs here at St. Andrews and another at Oxford. Either way, we'd like to get into something that includes funding for tuition, housing, and expenses and there are several opportunites for this kind of package at the PhD level. If God allows us to stay here in the UK we'll have the added benefits of maintaining our health coverage, Gabriel and Noah can both attend nursery school for free next year, and Elizabeth can continue going to her mothers' groups and Bible studies. Please pray that God directs my studies and helps me to construct a PhD research proposal that will serve His kingdom, and that will attract the interest and funding of the departments to which I'm applying. Please also pray that he gives us wisdom as to where to live this summer and what path we should take this coming school year.

Thank you for all of your love and support!! We are so grateful to be blessed with such a multitude of faithful friends and family. I'll post again soon with some updates, pictures, and God-willing, some praise reports with answers to these requests.

God bless!

Jeremy

A Day Late, But No Short Dollars in Sight

Hello Everyone,

Here is the post I attempted to create on New Year's Eve, or Hogmanay as they call it here in Scotland, so that you could see some of our Christmas pictures as promised. Unfortunately, I closed the post and lost everything. For a description of what we did for Christmas and New Year's be sure to look at Elizabeth's blog, www.homeschoolblogger.com/Betsyfriend.

It's almost time for me to get back into study mode, so I thought I'd better get this post done as soon as possible. Yesterday for the New Year we had an awesome day out as a family, Virtually everything in St. Andrews was closed and will be until Tuesday, so we had to be creative. We packed a picnic in our new $20 picnic backpack, loaded the children into the double stroller, and headed for the West Sands, which is the local beach where Chariots of Fire was filmed. Here are some pictures we took of it yesterday:




And here are some of the long-awaited Christmas photos :-)







I'll post again soon with some of the cool photos we took around town yesterday.

God bless in 2006!!

Haggis, Hustle, and Happy Christmas

Hello all you lovely people,

It's 2am and I need to go to bed but I need to update you before Christmas on some important happenings since my last post.

First, we celebrated St. Andrews Day for the very first time on the 30th of November. This is obviously a BIG day here in St. Andrews. We had a graduation ceremony for the university, a porridge cooking contest, and the mother of all entertainments- the opportunity to cook and sample Scotland's most famous (or infamous) beast- the HAGGIS. Locals love to tell how the haggis is a shy creature that runs aboot on the braes (hills) and as such has two short legs and two long legs to allow it to run steady on the inclines. The reason they have to tell this cute little lie is that the truth is a wee it frightening to us non-natives... it is a glorified sausage created with the lungs and other miscellaneous organs of a sheep which are mixed with sage and other savory herbs (pronounced Herbs like Herbert of course). This is misleadinly referred to as a type of pudding in these parts. Regardless of what you call it, this rather questionable concoction is then loaded into a sheep's stomach, which is then tied off at the ends. After a bonny 45-minute boil you've got a lovely speckled off-white sickly balloon that smells like burnt rubber. Plop it on a platter, bring it to the table before your admiring guests and then plunge a dagger into it to reveal its detestable.. I mean delectable....contents. A quick dig and scoop maneuver later and you have a classic and renowned Scottish meal, made complete by pairing it with neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes).

Yep, we bought it, we boiled it, we almost barfed when carving it....but we ATE it!!! :-)

Actually, it didn't taste that bad.. imagine oatmeal and gritty sausage mixed with stove top stuffing and you get a rough idea.

But enough about that. The "hustle" in the title refers to our busy lives. I spent much of the last month continuing my aggressive reading schedule while working on, and finishing, two essays on political philosophy and research methodology that totaled roughly 50 pages of work. Needless to say I am exceptionally glad to have that over with and to be enjoying some time off from school work.

Gabriel continues to go to nursery school and loves it. One of our favorite sights is to see him wearing his shirt, no pants, shoes without socks, his Mickey Mouse sunglasses, and his Thomas the Tank Engine backpack (or his "pack" as he likes to call it) while he tells us how he's gonna go to school cuz he's a big boy.

Noah is also highly entertaining. He's quite good at communicating, although sometimes the questions he comes up with can be a bit surprising. The other night, for instance, when I was giving the boys a bath, he looked at his brother grabbed one of Gabe's buns and asked "You got poop Gabriel?" Then he grabbed his own buns and stared at them and said "I don't got poop." Guess that potty training talk with Gabriel is at least making an impression on him.

Elizabeth remains Miss Popularity. When she was away in Minnesota visiting family recently you wouldn't believe how many of her friends called to offer help with dinner or to check on us or how I managed to run into some woman who mysteriously knew who I and the boys were when we were out in town. I think that girl knows at least half the town. Once she even stopped to talk to a lady who was picking weeds in her flower bed because she recognised her, and sure enough she was a librarian in town that she had chatted with for several minutes. She stays very busy with Bible studies, book clubs, toddler groups, and a variety of other decidedly Ozzie and Harriet type activites. Best of all, she is happier and more beautiful than ever.

This Christmas, we have no Christmas tree for the first time ever and our house is the most decorated one on the whole street...we have one string of coloured lights in the window! If you think Christmas in the US is too commercial, you'd love it here. We don't miss all the trappings too much, but it will be hard to be so far from all of our family and friends back home. Thankfully, God has given us an awesome set of friends here and we have a candlelight carol ceremony on Christmas Eve and a huge potluck Christmas Day that we'll be able to attend. So we'll still be with family in a way.

Please pray that God continues to bless our family, especially as we get Gabriel evaluated for Asperger's Syndrome and that He provides the additional funds we need to pay for our rent and living expenses (it's far more expensive to live here than the States and so our budget has been forced upward). In praise, my last CT scan shows me to be cancer free and I'm sporting ever-thickening wavy hair, my federal student loan finally came through so I'll be able to pay about 60% of my tuition and housing fees right away, and my marriage is the best it's ever been thanks to some painful but crucial breakthroughs Elizabeth and I had recently. God is so very good.

I'm off to bed.

May God bless you all and give you an amazing Christmas filled with "the wonders of His love."

(With any luck we'll figure out our digital camera and have family pics in the next post.)

G'Night ;-)

Turning on the Lights and Turning up the Heat

This past weekend we were privileged to join in the festivities for St. Andrew's Week here in St. Andrews. Not surprisingly, this holiday is a big deal in this town and incorporates events like the "Golden Spurtle Contest," which is a porridge making contest; a food festival, which allowed us to sample local specialties like whisky marmalade, heather honey, port wine jelly, oatcakes, and porridge; and a local fair and town lighting ceremony. Tomorrow night is actually when the biggest part of the celebration occurs as it is actually St. Andrew's Day. This day is commemorated by eating none other than the infamous Scottish dish -haggis. (cue the scary music)

So in addition to praying that we survive the eating of this specialty, we could also use prayers for our financial situation and our plans for the future. On Friday I have an interview for a full-time job as the Annual Giving Officer of the University. This job pays relatively well, is managerial, and would qualify me for staff tuition rates. I think it should be possible to keep up with my studies and maintain this job for the duration of its 11 month contract, but only God really knows, so we are anxious to see where that possibility leads. I'm also preparing applications for PhD programs, which is a truly intimidating process, but one I'm eager to be done with. After starting my Master's here I've come to the conclusion that, if possible, a PhD would be a terrific goal to pursue for the purposes of the study itself in addition to the obvious career benefits it would have.

Today I'm working on one of my two 20-page essays that are due next Friday, so I could definitely use prayer that they are well-written and compelling (and completed on time).

Thanks again to everyone for your support!!

Enjoy this Christmas season with the ones you love and with the One who loves you!

Raisin Parties and Medieval Potties

Yeah, sounds crazy but here in St. Andrews it is Raisin Weekend, which kicks off St. Andrews week. This being a university town, Raisin Weekend is basically an initiation period for first year undergraduates where they are adopted by academic "parents" and dressed in unflattering costumes to participate in a war waged with cans of shaving cream. If only all wars could be fought thus.

In other news, Elizabeth arrived safely back home on Monday. The boys and I picked her up from the airport in Edinburgh that morning and I even managed to make back home in time for class. We've all been trying to recover from sleep deprivation this week- Elizabeth because of her jet-lag and me because of not sleeping well (as in only 3-4 hours per night) while she was away. I think we're finally getting a handle on it and should be in better shape this week.

That's a good thing because we have a very busy week ahead. Gabriel begins nursery school this week. I am working on two 15,000 word papers and attending class and I also have a CT scan and dr. appointment at the hospital in Dundee on Friday. This being Scotland, they don't do Thanksgiving, so I will be going to class that day and then it looks like we'll be going to Holy Trinity Church (which is several hundred years old) for a community American Thanksgiving Dinner. It will be interesting to see how it turns out because in our experience the Scottish versions of things tend to be a wee bit different.

Afer church today we had lunch and took the kids to play at the castle. There was a group of about 10 young boys there with plastic swords and shields who were doing some sort of history outing and storming the castle. Of course Gabriel thought he was one of them and instantly joined the throng so that he could help liberate the prisoners in the dungeon. Seeing as he was about half the height of these boys I decided it would be wiser if we found something else to do. So I took Gabe (kicking and screaming) and Noah up a small tower into what would have been the bishop's room. The distinctive feature remaining in this area was of particular interest to the boys. The castle is ruined so all that is left is a window with a gorgeous view of the North Sea and a deluxe Medieval toilet. This primitive "potty chair" as our boys like to call it, is made of stone and has a hole in it that allowed all of it's contents to go directly into the sea. This was considered phenomenally luxurious in its day. Even now it is fancy enough that Gabriel admired it and talked about it for at lest 15 minutes and refused to leave the side of this marvel. What's really funny is that no one in their right mind would want such a contraption today. If you've never visited Scotland, then you may not know how incredibly windy and cold it gets, especially at the seaside. You can imagine how jolting it must have been to plop your buns down on that freezin' stone loo and then to have the sea air blowing in beneath you. Man I'm grateful we live in the age of indoor plumbing.

Tonight we had a nice British dinner. I made baked potatoes and then topped them with Coronation Chicken. This is a dish that was created for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. It is a mixture of cubed chicken breast, mayonaise, curry, apricot, white wine, mustard, celery, onion, and various other spices. For the sake of convenience I altered the recipe a bit and came up with a fairly accurate alternative version. The most distinctive thing about it is its flaming yellow colour. Of course, I think the taste is pretty great too and it's surprisingly yummy on a nice hot baked potato. The Scottish people also top their potatoes with things like tuna salad, cole slaw, and a variety of other fillings you'd more often find in sandwiches in the USA.

Well I'm sure there are tons of other things I could write about but I must get going so that Elizabeth and I can read the next chapter of Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby.

With any luck I'll have another post very soon to give you our impressions of the town cinema and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which we're going to see tomorrow night!! Our dear and wonderful friends Simon and Alexandra are babysitting so that we can go on our first date here in Scotland!

Take care everyone!

10 WHOLE DAYS!!!

Hello Everyone!

Yep..I'm all alone with our 2 adorable boys for 10 days while Elizabeth visits her grandma and mom in Minnesota. We had a fun day today though. The boys let me sleep in til 7:30. After that we had some breakfast and play time. Then we picked up all of the toys and I made the boys some lunch. After that I took the boys to feed the ducks. Lucky ducks...today I didn't have any stale bread so they got to eat cheap crumpets. What made our little outing interesting was the fact that it was raining fairly hard and I decided to be brilliant and just walk with the boys. They stayed dry with the umbrella and their hoods, so no need to be too worried about them. Gabriel met a little girl his age by the pond and became quite enamored with her. He chatted up a storm with her and stood near her and her mommy while he fed the ducks. Of course, I don't think he was concentrating too much on the ducks since he just threw in half a crumpet to the ducks and then another so that he could focus on his little friend. Needless to say, he was extremely upset when it was time to go back home.

Thankfully he got over it and he rested downstairs on our couch while Noah napped upstairs. I really was blessed to have them both sleep for me. That hour of nap time gave me the chance to pack up their diaper bag and clean a bit more before bringing them over to a friend's house to be babysat while I took the bus to Dundee for my oncologist appointment.

After getting the boys settled, I walked to the bus station and made the 1.5 hour trek to Dundee (it's only about 18 miles to the hospital so that tells you how much stopping we did). Because of the phenomenally long ride I was nearly an hour late to my appointment, but thankfully my doctor was more than happy to see me late.

Dr. Windsor and I chatted for a bit and she is going to have me stop by once a month to meet with an oncologist in addition to having monthly CT scans until May/June. Although I don't relish spending all the time on the bus, it's great to know they're serious about making sure my cancer stays gone, and even better to know my treatment is completely free.

I didn't get back to St. Andrews to pick up my poor babies until almost 8pm. They seemed quite content when I arrived though since Thomas the Tank Engine was playing on the TV. We got back home very quickly and I got the boys all snuggled into bed. Tonight was fairly routine in that sense, except that I had to sing about 6 songs before kissing them goodnight instead of the usual 1-3. I guess they just needed some extra love with their mommy being away.

Well it's 3am and I'm not sleeping because my wifey is away. However, since the kids will be up in a few hours no matter when I go to bed I'd better hit the hay.

Please keep Elizabeth's trip in your prayers, especially that she would have very special time with her grandma who has been very ill, and of course that she has safe travel. Come to think of it, I crave prayer too. Namely, that the boys and I would have a terrific time and that I would be able to make progress on the two 15-page papers that I have due next month.

See you again soon I hope...same BLOG time...same BLOG channel.