The lecture last night was interesting. Dr. Shaefer spoke for about 2 hours. The crowd was so big that they moved the lecture from the fellowship hall to the santuary. I went in under the pulpit (glad they hadn't started yet) and was looking for John Fender so I could sit with him. Well, I saw Scott Powell and while I was waving a familiar voice called my name. I wasn't expecting my dad to be there. I guess when you leave "home" you loose communication on where people are going to be. Caroline was in the back row, too. I saw a bunch of people that I knew.

The topic, the relationship of Christianity and science, was an interesting one. Shaefer gave many, many examples of great men of science and said that historically the only environment in which there is sustained scientific progress is a Christian one. He gave examples of Christian scientists who had no problem with the cohabitation of Christianity and science and non-believing scientists who saw no purpose in life and also those who held that the there is a reason the universe is understandable.

The one thing that I disagreed with was his belief in an extremely old earth. He didn't say he was right, just that he believed that it was some billions of years old. There are some sovereignty issues associated with that but I had to get home after the meeting let out at 9.

This weekend, Jenny's on call and we may take a trip to Savannah for gas and a huge yard sale in the civic center... and maybe some geocaching.

Tonight, I'm going to IPC to hear Dr. Fritz Shaefer speak on how science and faith can indeed coexist. Hopefully, it will be a good well thought out exploration of the topic. I can never quite put my faith in someone who doesn't believe in the inerrant Word and I haven't met many scientists who are outspoken on creation science in the Georgia Educational System. Surprise me... please.

Anyone know what this flower is?

Last night I got home from my bike ride through Bluffton (BRTB) and Emma and Kate were getting through with their rice, peas, and carrots. Emma had peas and carrots smeared all over her including her face. She couldn't have been happier though. She just looked up at me and grinned. I'll have to try to get a picture of her grin one of these days.

Don't know what came over me last night but I had it in my head to try to replicate my great aunt's chocolate cake icing. Well, I had it... I could taste it (get it?). I got the wise idea to try to put a stick of butter in my concoction and it messed the whole thing up. Jenny cooked the cake and she wanted cake before we went to bed so I poured the icing on the top of the cake. I was hoping for the caramelizing effect that was a characteristic of my aunts icing. Well, Jenny and I decided that we had concocted something very new last night - chocolate cobbler. I think the butter made it what it was... not at all Aunt Dar's icing.

Saturday, we went with Jenny to make an early morning nursing visit. Then we went GeoCaching, or at least we attempted. I picked up a nice 90's Garmin GPS for free courtesy of the Beaufort Freecycle list and I just couldn't resist playing around with it. I've wanted to do the Geocaching thing for quite some time now.

Then we went to Savannah for the Savannah Jazz Festival. We had planned on meeting my family there but there ended up being more people from Trinity. We got there about 5PM and stayed until about 9PM.

The jazz played late into the night but we headed home. I love the group in the picture, the Ben Tucker Trio.

This is a photo of the girls ready for church last Sunday.

We also have started on solid foods here very recently. This is an example of the newly found messes that we are capable of making.

Jenny took the girls to the Children's Place outlet and bought some discounted clothes. I think these where her favorite outfits but I'm not sure Emma knew what to think of them.

We have been spending a little time in the backyard lately. The girls seem to get grumpy in the evening and they seem to love the yard. Its a good thing... fresh air and non-grumpy girls.

Saturday, Jenny went to see patients whilst I attempted to hold down the fort. The girls are typically very patient in the morning but I was instructed to keep them occupied from 10-12. I set their quilt out in the yard while I fixed a large patio umbrella that I scavenged. With help from my work-next-door-neighbor who is a master carpenter/woodworker guy, I got a few pieces of spanish cedar (really good for outdoors) and drilled the appropriate holes. Of course at the same time, I had to keep Kate from getting bored. Emma likes to watch things and typically that will keep her busy. Kate on the other hand wanted to be held. I got finished just in time for a morning bout of grumpiness.

Monday has to be filled with diversions. Work doesn't ever provide any diversions on Monday - such is life. I did come home and jump on my bike for a ride. I had picked out a non-busy route for my ride and about 2/3rds through my ride I must have picked up a nail. So I think I probably rode a mile and a half and walked about 3/4ths of a mile - through the ghetto we call Old Town.

Last night, I also did a little DIY project. I put three pieces of PVC in the bottom of a large flower pot. The center piece is large enough to hold the shaft of the umbrella. The other two pieces of PVC are for plant drainage. The bottom 16" of the flower pot is filled with ~60 lbs of cement to provide a large counterweight. We should have a nice umbrella holder - flower pot after the cement sets! Cool, no?

Last night we took a stroll down Calhoun Street, which is the art district of Bluffton. None of the shops were open, we really just walked for the sake of walking down to the May River. We only stayed for a second. When we walked on the dock, there was a fiddler crab hanging out there. We think he was someones leftover bait, lucky enough for him the key word was leftover. I got a cool picture of the Methodist church's spire with the moon in the background.

We went home and at dinner and Jenny's fabulous homemade from scratch chocolate cake. We have been having some internet related problems recently and the idiots at the local phone services' (Hargray's) tech support are USELESS. I can diagnose some problems (like this one) and all I wanted them to do is send someone out. I think that its a problem with the modem. Its dropping packets like crazy. We get about an 8% loss in packet transmission which doesn't work for VoIP at all. Hopefully we will get it fixed here fairly soon and people will be able to talk to us on the phone. Until then, you might want to use the cell phones.

Last weekend, we went to the beach with Jenny's dad and step-mom (Jack and Karol). everyone enjoyed the beach until it was Emma's and Kate's turn in the water.

As long as they were touching mom, everything was okay. As soon as I (James) took them, the experience was NOT fun.

Emma (amazingly not crying) with her feet in the water.

Emma has found that she likes the taste of her feet. I honestly don't think that I can do this but she is still flexible enough.

Don't mess with Mama... This bad girl walked in and was sitting at my desk this morning. She looks a little wooly because she had several dozen of her babies on her back. She also has only 7 legs...

My mom and sisters and Jenny had a little fashion show/ photo opportunity with the girls in their baptismal gowns. The gowns fit much better now, 3-4 months later. Some of the pictures came out much better than others. All of them are cute. Thought I'd share some with you all. Eat your heart out!

We have little times where we are sure that they know the other one is there. Then other times they seem so disinterested.

Here is an example of Emma getting excited about something . Most of the time Kate is the excitable one.

Kate eating her hand or ribbon or something.

"Today I stood on the side of the road eating chicken with Sam. We were waiting to flag down a bus that would take him on a nine hour trip to Nashville. There he would meet some family and start over. Sam is thirty seven years old. He is a carpenter by trade (all of the homes in N.O. are wooden) was born and raised in New Orleans and has never been out of the city. The first deep gully he ever saw was as we drove to St. Francisville to catch the bus. He had never seen hills, had never seen a creek. Nashville will be a new visual experience for him.

Sam was one of those who stayed in N.O. He had no car and had never been out of the city so, why leave now. He and a friend stayed together in a second story apartment during the passing of the hurricane. After the storm was over they drove in the friends car to see the damage. As they neared downtown the damage got worse and worse. They heard that it was flooding, so Sam decided to go to his home and get some belongings and get out. As he looked up the street, Sam said that you could see the water coming, Not in a wave, but steadily rising. By the time Sam got to his house and retrieved one small bag of possessions, the water was up to his waist.

Sam waded blocks and blocks to the Superdome, it was full. Then he saw busses on the causeway above the Dome going over the river to the West Bank (Gretna). No bus would pick him up so Sam walked across the Mississippi River bridge to the other side. He and many others spent the night under the bridge. The next day, Tuesday, he walked to the causeway intersection and waited two days to get on a bus. The bus was supposed to go to Baton Rouge, but the driver continued past Baton Rouge on towards Houston. Sam and another man asked the driver to let them off and he did. They paid someone twenty dollars to take them back to Baton Rouge. Sam went to a Catholic church that got him in touch with a shelter at the local carpenters union. It is now Friday and Sam has not been to sleep except for a nap here and there. On Saturday he went to another shelter and then on Sunday came to ours.

We helped Sam get registered with all of the services and agencies, no small task. Sam then made the decision to leave everything he had ever known and go to Nashville where he had some family. There to get a job and begin a new life. He said that he is not sure whether he will come back or not. I think he will. After he makes some money and after they begin to rebuild New Orleans, I bet he will be right there swinging his hammer and putting life back into a dead city. [ aside: That's kinda theological. Read Ephesians two]

An hour late, the bus came into view. We flagged it down. I carried one of Sam's bags onto the bus for him. All of the passengers looked tired and weary. They were leaving a life behind (consider that for a moment). The bus pulled out and Sam with it. This man who had never been out of New Orleans is doing the bravest thing he has ever done. Starting over in a world of uncertainty. Yet he has hope, Sam has the Lord.

This same story is being repeated hundreds of times daily throughout the Felicianas. It is one thing to hear a sermon on trust and hope. It is another to look into the eyes of someone whose family home of four generations will be bulldozed because of contamination. It hits home when you hold someone who can only sob because there is nothing else they can do.

We have given them and bed and meals and helped them begin to rebuild their lives. Like Sam, they leave here with only what they can carry in their arms but, Lord willing, they leave with a renewed hope. Hope in the Living God, Yahweh, the God of the wandering Israelites who provided their every need one day at a time. Hope that a Father who spared not His only Son will also give them "all things." Hope born of the gospel message that has been bestowed upon them by the hands and feet of strangers who are strangers no more.

Pray for Sam. Pray for others like him. Pray that this opportunity for the Church to be the Gospel incarnate will not be lost or frittered away. The hungry and sick and poor are at our doors. The " least of these" are among us. "

Richard Bailey
Plains Presbyterian Church
Zachary, Louisiana

With gas higher than we ever thought we would see it, we have turned over a new leaf at the Martin home and James actually left for work at 8 this morning (a time he normally gets out of bed) so that he could carpool with our backdoor neighbor (parent of cotton the dog). Matt (the neighbor) started a job last week right down the street from James so it makes carpooling great. Hopefully it work out as both families stand to save a considerable amount of money. It will be strange to have him home so early in the evenings, maybe we'll actually have dinner before 9pm...