Over the last several weeks my wife and I have been going through the process of applying for a foreign exchange student. My wife received an email about a program in Iowa that was short on host parents, so we tossed the idea around for a few days. I felt this would be a wonderful opportunity to minister to a teen, and perhaps to strengthen their faith and share the gospel of Jesus Christ, whether they are Christian or Muslim. The students for this program all come from either Nigeria or Tanzania, and are approximately 50% Christian and 50% Muslim.

After a week or so of examining and reading student bio’s we chose a student from Nigeria. I am keeping his identity hidden to protect his privacy. We decided on a boy student because we felt for our first year it might work out better due to the fact that we have 2 boys ourselves.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been preparing our spare bedroom for his arrival. The students are already all in the United States and have to do orientation for their stay here in America. They also get to take a trip to Washington D.C. to visit some of the historic sites from America’s history. In 3 days we will travel to Omaha to pick up our student. We are extremely excited to meet him and to start our yearlong journey. We can’t wait to teach him some American culture, watch him experience some American foods (which they have almost no exposure to). In the process we hope to learn more about his home culture as well.

All in all we hope the whole experience goes well and that our student can learn about American life in a Christian home as well as teach us about his own country and customs. If this goes well this year we just may continue to do this every year from now on.

I will be sharing some of this experience on this blog over the next year. How much I will share about our student has yet to be decided, and will be up to them.

After reading an article in my local newspaper(Grand Island Independent) yesterday, it got me thinking about our society and the trends arising from evolution being taught in public schools. The article had nothing to do with evolution or schools, it was about a couple of young adults who were being charged with child abuse in the death of their 7 week old infant. Now granted on the surface this has nothing to do with evolution. If we dig a little deeper however we see underlying issues that are on the rise in our society. One of these issues is the rise in child abuse and infanticide. The writer of the article interviewed Diann Muhlbach, the coordinator of the Coalition for Children and secretary of the Association of Child Abuse Prevention in Grand Island who was quoted as saying, “Our biggest challenge is getting people to understand a child is a valuable human being. If you have something that’s valuable to you, you take care of it. A child is a precious gift.”

I see a big problem when a child advocate says that their biggest challenge is convincing parents their children are a valuable human being. This is a direct result of what evolution teaches our young people in public schools. They teach them that we are nothing but another animal, a highly evolved animal and that we don’t have to answer to anyone but ourselves. With this kind of attitude about life it’s no wonder our young adults have no value for life or their own children. We also see the trend of abortion increasing steadily, which is another result of evolutionary theory.

Muhlbach was also quoted as saying, “We need to look at how we value children. How do we get people to look at children as valuable?” I would have to agree, society needs to look at how we look at our children. I also have an answer for her second question. How do we get people to look at children as valuable? All People need to look at children as God sees them. God values each and every life that He creates, and forms each and every being by His own hand with lovingkindness. If society looked at human life as God does then society would have a wholly different attitude.

Update (3-4-2008)

This is a forum where I state/express my views and my perceptions. This is not an open forum to debate these views or perceptions. If I wanted to debate my views on creation or evolution I would go to one of those such forums. I recently had to delete several comments due to this reason. Those people who want to discuss my views or my perceptions can either do it in a positive encouraging way or go somewhere else to do this as I will not post any comments with the intent of bashing, berating, or malice. If those people do not like my views or the fact that I will moderate every comment that gets posted publicly they do not have to come here and read my views or look at my blog.

Inspired by a post on a fellow Christian’s blog(Joy@the pure interest) about the things that bring us Joy in our everyday life; I decided to snap a few pictures today and throw them up here along with some personal thoughts on what and why they give me Joy in everyday life.

Here goes:

My favorite book in all the world. His Word. It seems that everyday I open it’s pages I find something to encourage me, I learn something new about God, and gain a better understanding of Him and His plan for my life.

It seems every time that I get the camera out to take a picture of anything, my son feels the need to show off. This is him being…well his cute little self.

This is what I was originally trying to get when I took the camera out, however it took a dozen pictures and some coercion to get it. He is truly a blessing from God, and possibly the real reason why I am not another of the lost sheep still wandering in the darkness.

My beloved wife blogging away. She really didn’t want her picture taken here, however I needed a current photo for the day for this post. I know she will understand the use on this page as it is out of love. She brings me joy everyday we are together. I thank the Lord for everyday that I have to spend with her.

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The following pictures weren’t taken today, however they did give me great joy when I took them this last week or two.

Here my son is taking immense joy in the entertaining uses of the diaper box. This is something I find amazing, especially considering he’s entertained himself with it for the last 2 weeks. He enjoys just hanging out in it watching his cartoons, or placing a number of toys in it and proceeding to kick it around the house. Hours and hours of fun in a simple box. I wish I could have so much fun with something as simple…ah the days of childhood.

More entertainment from a box. This one isn’t good enough for just his train and accessories. He almost looks as if I’m going to scold him for sitting in the container. Purely adorable though.

In the lap of luxury. A rare occasion in our house to have a plate full of food and sit in the living room watching tv. We were all sick this week and we decided to let a few things slide. He was very well behaved that morning despite the way he was feeling.