1. The Messiah is from the Line of David.
2. To be able to verify that the Messiah is the true Messiah, you need verification that he is indeed from King David’s line.
3. No Jew alive today can trace their descendants to King David, because those records were destroyed in 70 AD when the Romans sacked Jerusalem. Those records were kept in the temple, which was burned and totally destroyed.
4. With no viable record today, the only option left is that Jesus is the Messiah.

While I don’t agree that this line of reasoning is the most compelling, it does make you stop and thing a bit. The most compelling argument is over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament pointing to the Messiah, which were fulfilled by Jesus.

I remember sitting in a Synagogue listening to one speak that the prophecies in the Old Testament “didn’t really mean what they said.” Let me ask, that if the text didn’t mean what it said (if God was unwilling to make it understandable), then who is the ‘ultimate authority’ to be able to let us know what it meant? Do we each get a shot at it?

If you need an outside source to say that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, then that outside source has become your final authority, not the Bible.

Scraping frost off the windshield is becoming a normal part of the day. Only 25 or so last night (-4 for you Canuks) and humidity enough to put a layer of frost makes for a beautiful morning, though it does add a few minutes to the work schedule. Until yesterday, where I took my back seat cover, and use it to cover the windshield. Worked like a charm, and might just become another evening ritual.

Long days again. Still packing books for all the orders that come in, then trying to get some of my projects whitteled down. Today (after shipping) I was able to get the fonts figured out for the Russian Lamb, get those sent out and even approved today. There is a slight delay in getting on that project - some notes were taken and sent to the translator to verify. Once I get that back, I’ll probably format it - hopefully before the end of the month so it can be tested in Russia for a couple months. This is all before the print stage, so don’t get your hopes up too soon!

Another project is working on The Lamb - but a DVD version. Finished off the Closed Captioning for the 10 lesson format, where the 5 day still has work to do before I can finalize it. Just found out tonight that I’ll have to re-work the audio on a section. No worries - part and parcel to the job!

Just a quick report of the 32 orders that I packed today. 34 boxes went out UPS, the other 3 went USPS.

The bad thing is that we are just about out of Lamb books. Not something we tried to do, but we did have an order that took about 400 at once a while back. That took us a little by surprise, and hence - the shortage. The good news is that we have submitted the files for a re-print, and everything should be in order for that to go to press.

I just ran into town, so I thought I would write a quick update.
This week has been very busy, as we have had people from Russia, Canada, Australia, Luxemburg and Brazil. I don’t know if I can count all the languages that can be spoken by this group!
This week included many things, like shipping boxes of books (may come to an end next week as LR returns!), printing out several copies of different translation works in progress for some of these folks to check, and trying to get further along on some of my own projects. I tell people I only work half days—12 hours. (Got that from Mr. Gavitt in RI.) But—some days even stretch into 14 (and some less…)

But for Friday - Sunday we are having a time in the Word, and are enjoying every minute of it.
I’ll have to post photos later - I need to get back and go to sleep (even though I get an extra hour tonight—so they tell me.)
Dr. Renald Showers is the main speaker, discussing the 2 different views of world history - Covenant Theology and Dispensational Theology, and has been a good time learning about both. I have learned a lot this weekend!

Not yet. Still have one more day to go. But a busy week it has been. With a full-blown TERM seminar underway, most of the GS staff are working there. I (and 2 others) run the office, take orders, answer questions, pack boxes, and run for things that the other folks at TERM need ‘last minute.’ (The latter has included things like: plastic chain, serpent on a pole, white board, etc.!)
Been to the Post Office 3x in the last 2 days, Best Buy for memory upgrade (JC’s computer, not my mind) and other related items.
With all that, I’m still trying to get some projects further down the line.
Thankfully, I’m feeling better. That virus I had, has been hanging on for almost 2 weeks now. Better get home to see if I can put it to rest!

Yes, it’s hunting season here. Even so, the deer population has not seemed to diminish much. See, where I currently live, I can count up to a dozen deer on the way home most days. It’s only a 4 mile drive, and all of it is a residential setting. I’ve seen 3 deer hit by cars this season just in this short commute. I think part of the problem is that they named one of the roads “Deerhaven”. I think if they change the name to “WolfCreekRoad” or something similar it would help out some.
Oh well.
The office is still capturing my time. Covering for Lloyd, I still get to do all the shipping, as well as price out shipping on international orders, keep inventory, and generally do all that type of stuff. It hasn’t consumed all my time, though today it was a little stressful. We had an overnight delivery to go out, but it depended on some inventory coming from Canada. 2:30, still no Canadians! UPS came to pick up at 3:00pm yesterday, so I was a little antsy (sp?) (Not to mention that there has been major communication to get this order figured out - not only within our office, but with the CDN office and the customer—he’s going overseas tomorrow and wanted to take this w/ him.)
Well, the CDN’s arrived—with 2 cases of English instead of French. I’ll have to chalk this one up to better communication on my part. I didn’t enjoy calling the customer and telling him the story, but he was gracious and we’ll have to try better next time!
I’m still under the weather, but working late tonight anyhow. I think I already know, but we’ll see if it’s a smart decision tomorrow!

Just wanted to plant a post with a quick update. My week has been here in the office (a little under the weather, but not major). I’ve been formatting The Lamb in Portuguese and Dutch. Russian is next on the list once I figure out what fonts to use. These are not final - will have to be proof-read and changes made, but making progress. Will be several months before it’s printed.
LR has been out of the office for 2 weeks now, as he has had cataract eye surgery, with the second eye done last Tuesday. He’s doing well, but will be out for another 2-3 weeks. All that means is I get to ship as well as do whatever it is that I do over here. I enjoy it - might not give the position back! (Well, I think I can let it go when the time comes…)

Today I hopped into the little car with my bike and went for a ride. I went to the Hiawatha bike trail, where I rode up 13 miles (1,000 foot elevevation up) to hit the closed tunnel, turned around and went back down. I might type more later, but for now you get photos.

Today at 7:00, Tom and I left for the Awana conference. My job was to run the GoodSeed table while Tom was out and about teaching some workshops. I had my computer, and I was working on formatting The Lamb in Porguguese. It was rather slow for me, because people didn’t know much about us, though some did. I sold only 2 books and a video set.
Titus came in over lunch, and was my replacement. He said that ever since I left it was a mad house. I do have a shot of how mad it was before I left (cleared out to nothing during the workshops) then picked up steady after that.
I came home to a nap, and Paul and Ros came over to spend a couple nights here. I worked with them in PNG for a couple years. Sure good to see them again.

Still no word on Buttercup.
Today was spent supply buying - notebooks, highlighters, peanuts (the polystyrene kind), pens and whatnot for TERM and Bible Camp. Not my favorite job, but got it done anyhow with no problem.
Only packed 11 orders today. 12 yesterday and 31 on Monday.
Other than that, just a typical day in the office!

Here’s a link to a video that was shot a while back. 7.3 mb - of me cutting the top out of a ‘telephone pole’ - or a tree with no branches. It’s a *.mov - so you’ll need Quicktime to play it. It’s un-edited, and shot from the neighbor’s camera from inside, so there’s not the right audio.
Cutting the top out of a tree.

The things flying out of the top of the tree are plastic wedges. Tom should have been wearing a hard hat!

Up at about 7:30, got cleaned up, and had breakfast w/ Beat and Clivia. It was a nice time to sit and chat one more time with them.
Then Roger and Renee and I went back to the office to finish things up. Like tie down my bed, and ladder, and bed frame, and bike and plywood off my tailgate (I had to remove the 3/4” plywood off my tailgate to get it to close.) Renee helped clean up my office, and was pretty well set. I left, got gas, and started driving west, when I could hear the tarp flapping around (that was around the bed.) Didn’t surprise me any, and the only way I could think of to fix it was to put a piece of plywood underneath (you’ll see it in the photos.) So I went back to the office and Roger and I did that, and I was off again.
Trip was fine, and I want to put some stats together comparing the 2 different routes between offices. At first glance, going through Radium is shorter than Crowsnest (by 6 miles.)
Pulled in here (CDA) at around 7:45 and unloaded most of the GS stuff, and my bed for the night. The rest will have to rest and wait for another day to be moved.

One might ask, “How come you don’t have more people pictures.” That’s a good question and I might delve a little into my more personal life to answer. There are a few reasons:
1. I like to take photos that are ‘frame-able quality’ - and that’s hard to do with a quick snap of someone.
2. Most people don’t really like their photo taken, and I don’t like making people feel uncomfortable. And if you’ve seen my camera, you’ll know a little more than the average reader here on this one!
3. While I usually have my camera somewhere close, it’s bigger than most (refer to point #2) and not the easiest to wield.
4. I’m lazy.
5. I’m doing something else.
6. I forgot.
7. Um… I really should take more people pictures.

Well, today was a busy one. I wasn’t sure how much work was involved in moving my stuff down south, but it was more than I bargained for! After ‘living’ in a place for over 5 years, you tend to have a lot hanging around. I was thankful to have help for this endeavor (Roger, Renee, Rod were the main contributors - (thanks!)) and at the end of the day (9:30) the truck was full and there was things left over yet. I’m not totally finished yet, will tie things down in the morning and re-think the idea of getting a small trailer to take the rest (since I am not leaving first light.) It’s only a 8 hour drive, so it’s not a critical thing to leave early.
It’s unbelievable how much stuff is here. I remember fitting all I owned (and my computer equipment) in my old Ford pickup and coming out here some 6 years ago. It all fit in ok, but times have chanced a little. Not a problem, just a little more work is all!

Today Friesen went to work, I went to town to buy some last minute stuff, and finished off the electrical. Was outta there by 2:00 or so.
Back at the ranch in Olds, started in on the grueling task of going through all my old stuff (and cleaning files off the Snap Server at the office.)
The Kary’s had me over for supper, which was a real nice time.
Seemed to be running a fever, so I quit early (8:00) and hung out at the Graf’s for a bit before retiring.

The day started out like most up here - breakfast at 8:00, leave for work at 9:00. Oh, wait, Bill was late (and he was driving today) so we left around 9:30. We drove to Gwynn, then decided to go to town and pick up some facia, so that all 3 of us could at least do something. By the time we got to the barn, it was around 10:30. Bill and I put on wall tin (it took a while, as just about every piece had to be cut) and John took the lift and did the facia. It’s looking real good.

We got back home at around 5:00, had supper, then I went out to finish off the electric, and John torched a hole in a culvert - that goes under the waterer for the cows. Just about done with the project, but not quite.

John and I took a trip to Edmonton to get some supplies for his electrical project going on in the yard. Prices of wire has trippled in just a year or so - it’s really getting out of hand. 4/0 is around $36 a meter, and thankfully we didn’t need any of that this time.
Well, all in all we were able to get what we wanted in 3 different stores, and came home (at around 2:30). We then went to work installing what we just got. We are running 2/0 to where the shop will be from The House That Bob Built, and 8 gauge copper to the pole shed, then 10 guage to the cattle waterer. Basically all this work is for the waterer, but needed electricity to the other places as well.