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Fun At Sea World

Posted by on Sep 28, 2007 in Blog | 0 comments

Sea World of San Antonio hosted a neat little thing today. They opened up some of the animal exhibits to the families of homeschoolers. From 9:30 until 1:30 we had access to the dolphins, sharks, clydesdales, sea lions, walrus’ and killer whales. For eight bucks a head we could watch the animals and were also treated to shortened versions of a couple of their shows.

My favorite part is the dolphins because you are able to feed them fish and even touch them if they swim up close enough to you. As you can see, I got some really good pictures of the kids feeding the dolphins, but wasn’t able to get pictures of other things because my backup set of batteries were not charged. That did not make me a happy camper. Aside from that, we had a good time and made some good memories for the kids.

My 40th Birthday!

Posted by on Sep 27, 2007 in Blog | 0 comments

Monday was my 40th birthday! Although we had the party on Saturday, my actual birthday was Monday the 24th. We had some good friends show up, a number of whom who I did not expect. I was honored that good friends would spend their time with me celebrating this event.

On my actual birthday, Becky and I went out to eat at Red Lobster and I had all you can eat shrimp. MY personal best is more than 100 shrimp, but I took it easy tonight and only ate about 60 because I knew we were going to have cake later on that night.

Speaking of which, check out my birthday cake! I love anything chocolate and usually have chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, but this time Becky had something different for me. It was a chocolate cake, but as you can see, it looks a little different.

I’m Home!

Posted by on Sep 20, 2007 in Blog | 0 comments

I am glad to be home! Yes, it has been a week since I’ve posted because I wanted to take some time off before I jumped right back into the madness. I arrived home Saturday night on time, but without my luggage.

Once we were on board in Frankfurt, we sat at the gate for an hour before we took off. That left me with less than 50 minutes to make my way through customs and get to my flight in Cincinnati. I made it, but my luggage didn’t. It arrived the next day in good condition. I’ve yet to finish unpacking and sorting through tons of e-mail, but I am working through it. I’ll post my final journal once finish writing it. It is good to be home!

Moldova Journal # 10

Posted by on Sep 13, 2007 in Blog | 0 comments

A couple of days ago I received a comment on my Moldova Journal # 7 blog from an American who is here in the city of Kishinev. Justin and his wife Joni are here for five months working with a Christian agency. They, “are working with the Christian Agency for Micro Enterprise Development (CAMED) in Moldova. This agency provides micro and larger loans to small and medium-sized enterprises there, as well as provides Biblically-principled training for aspiring entrepreneurs. The agency sponsoring us is Business Professional Network, an international group of Christian businesspeople who desire to help local economies grow through business development. “

I just got off the phone with Justin and it is too bad that we were not able to connect earlier because they have many of good things to say on their blog, The Tapps to Moldova! They have been here a month already and have learned a lot about the country and its culture. I will be keeping up with their blog while back in the US and encourage you to do the same. I pray that they are able to make a great impact for Christ in this country.

Moldova Journal # 9

Posted by on Sep 12, 2007 in Blog | 0 comments

Here is a picture of some Jehovah’s Witnesses distributing Watchtower literature on a public sidewalk. They are everywhere in this country. I do not have the statistics available to me right now, but I do know that there is a greater ratio of JWs here in the country of Moldova than there are in the United States.

Notice what is in the background. Do you recognize those colors and that flag? They are right in front of the McDonald’s which is across the street from my apartment. McDonald’s! They’re in front of McDonald’s? Is there nothing sacred anymore?
“I’ll have a Watchtower burger with a side order of LIES, please.”

Moldova Journal # 8

Posted by on Sep 11, 2007 in Blog | 0 comments

On Sunday I had the privilege of hearing one of my former students preach. Serghei Moraru is one of the pastors at Kishinev Bible Church and has numerous responsibilities both at the church and at Moldova Bible Seminary. He preached a good sermon on having vision and what kinds of things that God dreams for us.

After church we had lunch at their flat and then I traveled out of the city to visit some other former students of mine. Pasha and Snejana live in an apartment attached to the
house that Snejana’s parents own. As you can see, the driveway is covered with grape vines with tons of tiny grapes. We had a good time of food and fellowship.

Moldova Journal # 7

Posted by on Sep 10, 2007 in Blog | 0 comments

Serghei is a friend of mine who is one of the pastors at Kishinev Bible Church and is also the dean of students at Moldova Bible Seminary. He was also one of my students four years ago. He called me Saturday morning to see if I wanted to go down town to do some shopping.

While we were walking down the sidewalk, we saw this woman begging. Usually people just stand on the street and beg, but this woman was going all out. Serghei explained to me that she was probably working for someone. It seems that beggars have defined territories and a hierarchy of sorts. One beggar often works for another. If a beggar is working in someone else’s territory, the one who “owns” the territory will either kick them out, let them work there for a percentage of their donations or let them work all day and then kick them out… after they have taken all of the money.
The gap between the rich and the poor is growing here in Moldova. Clothes are often times more expensive than in the US and rent is outrageous. Most people who are moving to Kishinev from the villages move in with other family members who have previously moved here or rent single rooms from other people who have their own apartments.

Moldova Journal # 6

Posted by on Sep 9, 2007 in Blog | 0 comments

After class on Tuesday, I went to go visit Tania and Adela. Tania use to work for the Gospel of John missions and one of her responsibilities was to arrange for my airlines tickets. Adela is a former student of mine and has recently returned from her first trip to the US. Her first language is Romanian, but she also speaks Russian and English. On past trips I have used her as a translator because she speaks all three languages well. She use to have long, long dark hair (she’s the one of the left), but as you can see, she has cut it.

Tania and Adela use to live in a flat owned by the Gospel of John, but now Tania lives with her parents and Adela recently moved in because she just got back from the US. We visited for a few hours and then I had to get back for the evening meeting that I taught on Mormonism.

Moldova Journal # 5

Posted by on Sep 8, 2007 in Blog | 0 comments

These two pictures are of my students taking their first quiz. From left to right, they are, Pasha (Paul). He has been a believer for 11 years, is a missionary to Muslims and likes ice cream with jelly or caramel in it.

Olesya is the quietest student in the class. She has been a believer for seven years, is in the children’s ministry and likes vanilla ice cream.

Anna is probably one of my smartest students. She has been a believer for six years, is involved with the youth ministry at likes “fruity” ice cream.

Olga K. is the girlfriend of Yura who was in the very first class that Becky and I taught in the year 2000. She is easily the most vocal student in the class. Not in a bad way though. She is also involved in the youth ministry and likes chocolate ice cream.

Nina has been a believer for five years, is involved in the children’s ministry and likes vanilla ice cream with fruit mixed in it.

Olga T. has been a believer for five years, is involved in the children’s ministry and likes vanilla ice cream. Speaking of ice cream, here in Moldova it doesn’t come in cardboard boxes like in the States. It comes in these plastic tubes shaped like Jimmy Dean sausage tubes. They just squeeze it out into your bowl.

Moldova Journal # 4

Posted by on Sep 7, 2007 in Blog | 0 comments

Our first year teaching here, I met a young boy named Genia. The English name would be Eugene. He was interested in the drums so after church, I showed him a few things on the drums. It seemed like all of the little kids liked to hang out near the drums. Now, seven years later, Genia is 18 years old and plays drums with the worship team. He is already a much better drummer than I am. That was cool to see.