We just got home with “Emmawee,” as Daniel calls her. Sarah is recovering nicely, and Emmalee loves to sleep. Daniel is a super-proud big brother. He had to help me carry Emmalee in her car seat down the hall at the hospital.
An evangelist who tried replicating Jesus’ miracle of walking on water has reportedly drowned off the western coast of Africa.
Pastor Franck Kabele, 35, told his congregation he could repeat the biblical miracle, and he attempted it from a beach in Gabon’s capital of Libreville.
“He told churchgoers he’d had a revelation that if he had enough faith, he could walk on water like Jesus,” an eyewitness told the Glasgow Daily Record.
The story makes reference to an earlier story, in which researchers surmised that Jesus was able to walk on water because the water was, in fact, ice.
Um, if that’s the case, then how come Peter couldn’t do it?
Hat tip: Zoner
Hilarious video of Albert Mohler.
Hat tip: Challies
“Can I take her to my home?” That’s what Daniel asked not long after seeing his baby sister for the first time.
What do you make out of this?
My two youngest daughters, Catharine and Eleanor, are two-and-a-half and nearly five now. I’m still breastfeeding them both, and my husband Gary and I are sleeping with Catharine. I know some people find it strange and even disturbing but, to me, it’s all perfectly natural.
Count me among those who find it strange and disturbing. Would “heebie-jeebies” be an appropriate description?
Hat tip: Joel
Emmalee Ruth Ellsworth, born at 11:12 a.m.
Named after her great-grandmother, Emma Lee, whose birthday is today.
8 pounds, 15 ounces
19 inches long
Mother and baby doing well.
Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. The Lord is good.
Good news — I just found out that I can access the Internet from my laptop here in our room. We got to the hospital about 7 a.m. this morning, and now we’re sitting here in the room waiting. We think the surgery will take place about noon, but it may end up being later if there are any emergency C-sections necessary.
Our nurse was asking Sarah a bunch of questions as she was filling out the paperwork. She asked if Sarah had any false teeth — twice. I wondered if there are a lot of women giving birth who have false teeth these days.
I had a thought this morning as we were leaving the house — you know you’re a baseball junkie when, on the day your child is to be born, you’re obsessing about whether to start or bench Scott Olsen tonight on your fantasy baseball team. Right now I have him benched, which means he’ll throw a shutout. If I change my mind and decide to start him, he’ll give up eight runs in three innings. Count on it.
Dear Daniel,
Tonight, for the last time, I put you to bed as an only child.
Tomorrow is the day we’ve been anticipating for the past several months. Your baby brother or sister (we don’t know which one yet) will be joining our family. It’s an exciting time for all of us.
We’ve been trying to prepare you for this day for a while now. We’ve been telling you that we’re having a baby, and you’ve been observing a lot of changes in the house. You’ve watched us carry in diapers en masse. You’ve seen the nursery taking shape. You’ve noticed us bringing down some of your old baby toys from the attic. You’ve witnessed mom’s belly getting bigger. You’ve repeatedly asked, “Is your baby moving, mommy?”
Tomorrow is the culmination of all that. A new life, another precious treasure from God, will finally be here. I still can’t believe it’s been more than three years since we went through all of this with you.
I talked to you about some of these things again tonight as I tucked you into bed. I told you that things will be changing around here. I talked about how mommy will be in the hospital for a few days, and when she gets home how you’ll need to be a good helper to her. I told you how, as a big brother, it will be your job to look out for and protect your baby brother or sister, and how you’ll have so many things to teach him or her as your sibling grows up.
And I reminded you how much I loved you, and always will.
I don’t pretend to understand what’s going on in the mind and the emotions of a 3-year-old. I’ve heard of some children who make transitions like this seamlessly. For others, it poses more problems. After all, for a child used to being the center of attention, I can see how it might be difficult to share your time with mom and dad with someone else. I have no idea how fully you understand what’s taking place, and I don’t know how you’ll respond.
Regardless, I pray that you’ll grow to love your baby brother or baby sister with a love that will last the rest of your life. I can already imagine all the laughs the baby will provide for all of us, you included. You’ll have many happy memories of these years you’ll spend growing up together.
Though it might take some adjustments at first, I have every confidence that the baby will only enhance all of our lives. And even though there will be a new child for your mom and me to love, that will never diminish the depth of our love for you.
I’m praying that God will be gracious to you and help you through these changing days. So get ready, little buddy. Life is about to get a lot more interesting.
Love always,
Dad
Furman Bisher writes about Georgia football coach Mark Richt:
“I was not without my own personal experiences. I’d been a hell-raiser. Then I began to think about giving my life some purpose. I really wasn’t sure just what Christianity was. I thought you had to be perfect, and I wasn’t ready for that. I thought maybe if I followed the Ten Commandments I’d go straight to heaven.”
When he was an assistant at Florida State, the message came through in violent form. One of the football players was shot dead, a tackle named Pablo Lopez. It was a grim Bobby Bowden who called a staff meeting the next morning and looked his coaches in the eyes, then delivered the shivering challenge:
“If that had been you last night, where would you be spending eternity?” he said.
That was it. “I’d been wavering, wondering all that time, but that was the culmination,” Richt said. “It was time to give my life to Christ.”
I’m grateful for solid men like Richt leading college football programs.
Hat tip: Alex Forrest
Cathleen Falsani, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist, writes about whether religion leads to obesity.
“America is becoming known as a nation of gluttony and obesity, and churches are a feeding ground for this problem,” says Ken Ferraro, a Purdue sociology professor who studied more than 2,500 adults over a span of eight years looking at the correlation between their religious behavior and their body mass index.
“If religious leaders and organizations neglect this issue, they will contribute to an epidemic that will cost the health-care system millions of dollars and reduce the quality of life for many parishioners,” he says.
Ferraro’s most recent study, published in the June issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, is a follow-up to a study he published in 1998, where he found there were more obese people in states with larger populations of folks claiming a religious affiliation than elsewhere — particularly in states with the most Baptists.
Maybe a painful column to read.
Hat tip: Tyler
Dallas Mavericks guard Jerry Stackhouse paid to refurbish a building that will serve as a church, which his mother serves as pastor.
The building, which formerly housed a different church, replaces one that Minnie Stackhouse ran in a different neighborhood of Kinston. Her new parish is located closer to the people she hopes her ministry will reach.
“This is a special day for this church and my mother,” Jerry Stackhouse said. “She now has a place where she feels she can best manage her programs and best serve the community.”
Theological issues aside, I’d rather read about something like this than another TO story.
I don’t make this stuff up, folks.
A woman in Hohhot, the capital of north China’s Inner Mongolia region, crashed her car while giving her dog a driving lesson, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday.
Interesting story from The Telegraph about the popularity of “The Sims” video game, especially among girls.
The image of video games still conjures up adolescent boys zapping aliens or directing large-breasted fantasy figures like Lara Croft. Yet across the country little girls are glued to The Sims, set in middle class suburbia. Their patronage has made it the bestselling computer game ever.
Since the game was launched in 2000, it has sold around 60 million copies - half a billion pounds’ worth. More than half of the players are female (fans include the novelist Fay Weldon), compared to 25 per cent across the industry as a whole, a figure that drops to less than five per cent for the most violent games.
Not only is The Sims turning little girls into technical whizzes, it is also making traditional toys obsolete. Just a generation ago, girls used dolls and doll’s houses to make sense of the world. Today they play out stories with animated characters whom they move around screens with a mouse or joystick.
Hat tip: Tyler/Newman
A new study has concluded that boys learn more from male teachers and girls learn more from female teachers.
Some doubt the findings, but I think the researcher is onto something here. I know that most of my favorite teachers, from grade school all the way through college, were men: Mr. Wehmeyer, Mr. Cushman, Mr. Nimtz, Dr. Lindley and Dr. Edwards.
That’s not to say the women teachers I had were all bad (Mrs. Payne especially was one of my favorites). And it’s not to say that men teachers were all great, as Mr. Lehr was probably the worst teacher I had at any level. But for the most part, I think this hypothesis has merit.
I wonder if others have similar experiences. Guys, were men your best teachers? Ladies, were women your best teachers?