Boys and Girls Club Benefit Dinner & Variety Show

This evening I attended our church's Boys and Girls Club Benefit Dinner and Variety Show. The proceeds went to support both relief and mission work. The boys and girls served as our waiters for the dinner and then entertained us with skits and music during the variety show. They performed skits filled with humor that communicated a Biblical message. At the end of the variety show, there was a slide show of Boys and Girls Club activities with maxims and proverbs attached to the various actities. They put a lot of work into this. I was impressed. They raised over a $1,000 through this project.

Service Project To Begin This Saturday

This Saturday, I am to leave for San Pedro Sula, Honduras for nine days (January 14 - 23). I am going with a team from my church under the MAMA Project. The MAMA Project focuses its ministry on the health of mothers and young children in Honduras. We'll be assisting with medical clinics in Honduras; my team has a doctor and two nurses on it. I'll appreciate your prayers. It will be a new thing for me. If we have an internet connection as our team organizer thinks we may, our team plans to keep a blog at DRE MAMA Project Journal. It has already been set up with beginning prayer requests if you would like to take a look. If you believe in prayer, pray that our team works well together in doing and receiving ministry to and from the Hondurans. Thanks.

So I probably won't be posting again until January 24. But don't forget about me! :)

The Haj and massive crowds

Today I was reading on Yahoo! News about the death and injuries confirmed from the Haj. It reported 345 deaths and an additional 289 in hospitals for injuries. The deaths were reported as resulting from people in the crowds crushing each other to death. That's fearsome.

But many years ago, I felt close to that when I was leaving a Promise Keepers' Convention in either Baltimore or Washington, D.C. [I forget which city it was.] But everybody was leaving the arena at the same time with most heading towards the nearest escalators for the subway system. As we had to narrow for entering the escalators, I just about had the breath crushed out of me. And you could not stop moving; it was skin to skin people. That was scary; I've never been in such a crowd since.

Shadowfall and The Godslayer Chronicles

Today I completed reading Shadowfall: Book One of The Godslayer Chronicles by James Clemmer published in 2005. It's a book of the fantasy genre focusing on the battle between good and evil. The action takes place in a world called Myrillia settled by gods and humankind. He writes in such a way that often the "good" characters actually turn out to be the "bad" characters and vice versa.

Weird Habits Meme

I've been tagged by Ma Beck of WardWideWeb to list five weird habits of mine. That's a challenge for me; I think others can more readily see my quirks than myself. But nevertheless here's a stab.

• I get up a half hour earlier in the morning than I need to so I can eat a leisurely breakfast and get in fifteen minutes of reading before going to work. I even do that when I need to be at work by 3:30 a.m.
• I always add a quarter cup of raisins to my breakfast cereal each morning no matter what the cereal is.
• Frequently, when I make my dinner meal, I make enough to last a whole week and then I eat the same dinner all week long. It saves time and energy.
• I generally eat left-overs cold and even find that I like them better cold than warm.
• I put no butter or mayo on my meat, cheese, and lettuce sandwiches that I eat for lunch.
• And one more for good measure: When I get the chance, I love listening to the comedians Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, of Car Talk hosted by NPR.

Any who read this may feel tagged if they so wish. Now, I completed my assignment. Actually it was a bit of fun coming up with this list. ;)

The Diary - Miscellanea

This past Saturday, I watched the movie Happily Ever After and episodes of MASH, Stargate SG-1, and Stargate Atlantis series all on Fox Television. I also worked on preparing a blog for the upcoming MAMA Project trip to San Pedro Sula, Honduras by a group from my home church. The trip will be from January 14-23.

Today, attendance at church was slim; I think too many people stayed up too late last night. But I had a blast teaching and talking with my two sixth grade Sunday School students. Normally, there are four students. After church, I went to Mom and Dad's for dinner and played the word game Upwards with them. This evening, I've been reading some fantasy fiction and browsing various blogs as well as working on mine.