Visas by 9 AM, Milestones Achieved...

Our passports with visas arrived this morning by 9 AM!

In God's kind providence, our visit home resulted in accomplishing many objectives:

• Re-adoption MN (birth certificate included)
• Medical appointments
• Dental appointments 
• SSN 
• US passport
• Visas
• Applied for Certificate of Citizenship
• Family, Friend, Church re-connection and introductions!

Still to do this week before returning this weekend:

• Family and Friend time
• Taxes to complete
• Pack
• Last minute miscellaneous

Family Photo Shoot

Thanks, Debra!

At the Guthrie:

Re-adoption, Birth Certificate, SSN, Passport, Visa...

These are a few of the to-do list items we are working on these days for our son!

Bible Translation, Ethiopians, and MN

This week, I read this Star Tribune article reporting on the Christian Oromo community (a people group in Ethiopia) celebrating 100 years of their Bible being translated.

An Oromo slave named Onesimus was freed by some Swedish Lutheran workers and he subsequently went to work translating the Bible into his mother tongue, Oromo.  The Oromo people have experienced great persecution from many sides: political, religious, etc., and so there is a significant Oromian diaspora.

The 100 year anniversary of the translation was in December 1999, and since there are a number of Oromo Christians who are Lutheran who live in the Twin Cities, there was a celebration at the Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.

Praise God for His severe and kind providence!

Regions Hospital (St. Paul, MN) Closing Abortion Facility

What great news!

40 Days for Life reports:

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, my cell phone rang with the exciting news from Brian Gibson (head of Pro-Life Action Ministries and Minneapolis/St. Paul 40 Days for Life campaign leader) that Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota was closing down its abortion facility! 

This closure follows SEVEN 40 Days for Life campaigns held in the right-of-way outside the hospital, publicly exposing their deadly side business. 

In news stories over the weekend, hospital officials admitted that abortions at their facility had declined by 40% over the past few years and that abortion was no longer economically viable. 

Praise God for answered prayers, and congratulations to all the Twin Cities groups and individuals whose efforts over the years contributed to this victory. This makes the 19th abortion facility to close following a 40 Days for Life campaign outside its doors!

Adoption and Christian Thought

Two conferences Elizabeth and I have highly anticipated are going on right now and we are trying to "attend virtually" as well as we can:

1. Together for the Gospel in Austin, TX which you can live stream (with us)
   
   togetherforadoption on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free
2. Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God in Minneapolis, MN

Healthy Mixing in France

Bike mixer we saw in Grenoble during September, when we got our visas.

Reminded us of the Pedal Pub that we saw in South Minneapolis, but one difference there is that you pedal while you drink, instead of pedaling before.

Don't Waste Your Life...Sentence

Announcement from Desiring God today (this event looks to be very edifying!):

What can convicted felons teach us about an un-wasted life? We invite you to find out. 

The Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, LA, is the largest and historically one of the bloodiest maximum-security prisons in the USA. In 2009, John Piper and Desiring God visited Angola to learn about prison life, hear from men who have been radically changed by the gospel, and minister to many of the 5,000 inmates.

On August 20th, we are hosting a premiere of our new DVD documentary created from the experience -- Don’t Waste Your Life Sentence: Voice from the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Join us at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis for the premiere, a live Q & A with some production staff and local prison ministries, and some refreshments.

Shingle Creek Parkway

What first comes to mind when you read that word shingle?

1. Roof shingle: I have a collocation clash with roof shingles and roads (I can't think of a usage of roofing shingles that also fits with the context of a street/road), so this association does not fit.
2. The Viral Disease?: I default to thinking this, even though the road name is singular but the disease is "plural" - shingles. 

Makes me wonder from where this Minneapolis road name really came!