Tuesday, Sept. 14th

Bill and I are empty nesters once again. We woke up at 4 am on Sunday morning to take Chinami to the Will Rogers Airport. As expected, we all cried as we said good-bye. I'm the world's worst at saying "good-bye"! After going through security, Chinami kept looking back and waving. I wrote several notes to our Japanese friends in Yokohma which she gladly agreed to deliver. After making sure that the plane for Chicago had departed, Bill and I drove back to Shawnee and ate breakfast at IHOP. We finished in time to drive to the church for Bible Study. The lesson focused on how the Christian world view differs from secular humanism. I was surprised at how little some people know. I have made it my mission to know what other people believe, and am so secure in what I believe that I have no fear. My Muslim students are always surprised to learn that I have observed prayer service at a mosque in Chicago, and twice in Instanbul, Turkey. Lately, I have heard liberal people calling Christians stupid, non-intellectual and wimpy. Those same people are extremely intolerant and certainly don't know my Christian friends! Christians are those who know how to think outside the box and outside this world as we know it. That is being free. A true believer is also one who continues to "love".

Sunday afternoon I took a long nap, and then Bill and I watched, "Dr. Zhivago". The music is beautiful, the scenery pastoral, and the message timely. The Russian Czar was not exactly a nice person, but the socialist revolution wasn't the answer either. I will never forget seeing how bleak life was in East Germany before the Berlin Wall was destroyed. (It probably wasn't a good idea to wear our Disney World sweatshirts.) Idealism seems to lose when pitted with reality. Human nature has never changed through the centuries, and we don't learn from war. However, we as individuals can make a difference when we recognize our selfishness and share who we are, and what we have with our neighbors. God can change our hearts and make us generous. The government can't do that.

Noel sent me an article by email this week. He said I was right about the "diverging diamond". It really is a diamond. (Sorry, Steve!) And, the city of Springfield is the first to take the risk and try this European method.