Back in the swing of things

Well, the ice has receded from our land. What's left of the trees are generally not drooping anymore. And school has started back up. I'm carrying 15 hours this semester, looking for another job, and as busy as ever. Robin and the girls are now watching some friends children for around 6 hours in the morning. They are really not much of a bother, and generate some much needed extra income. They are actually quite pleasant to have around the house. I am looking for a job that would be a little more conducive to me doing school work/studying while at work. I think I've identified the type of job that would work, I'm looking for a hotel front desk/night auditor position. I've investigated it and even talked with someone in the field and it seems that this job would afford me some time to do school work while at work. The job I have now is good and steady, but allows no time to multi task and study while working. At least not without depriving my employer of work to be done.

I need to keep this short. I promise I'll try not to be so long between posts next time. Maybe I'll also be able to post some pictures of the cleanup effort after the great ice storm of '07.

Come back and see.

And the final count is...

WooHoo, we have power back. Actually we've had our electricity back since Thursday evening but I've not had time to blog about it. It came back on at around 8:00pm. It was very nice to come home to a warm, well lit house.

You know, there are so many things we take for granted that we use in our everyday life. Electricity is just one of them. This whole experience has made me so much more thankful for the nice thing God has given us. Things that make our lives so much easier to live then just a hundred or so years ago. There are also lots of illustrations and analogies resultant from this whole experience that have been dancing around in my head. Maybe I'll write about those later.

For now, just know that all is well with the Porters in Springfield. Thank you for your prayers. I hope to be able to see you, my friends, soon.

Staying Warm,

...........still counting

It is now 12:00 Thursday afternoon and we still do not have power. That's 134 hours or 8040 minutes or 482400 seconds. Yes, I am counting.

It was my intention to post updates daily, but it got cold. Monday we decided to take some friends up on an invitation to stay at their house and their internet was down. They did not have power but did have a gas stove that kept their house warm. As it turned out, their electricity was restored about twenty minutes before we arrived. We had a good time while we were there.

Wednesday some other friends had their power restored and offered us the use of their generator. We also finally found a kerosene heater. Actually, Robin's mother and brother were the ones who found the heater. They had to drive around twenty miles away to get kerosene, and then it cost $40.00 to fill up two 5 gallon containers.

So, to make this long story short, we were able to come back home Wednesday. Still no power from the utility company, but with heat and a generator.

I've got more updating to do, but I need to get ready for work now, so I'll post some more later.

Stay warm.

And the ice came...

I took these pictures today, from around our house.

45 Hours And Counting

It's almost 7:00 pm Sunday evening and we have not had electricity since Friday at 10:00 pm. It's starting to get a little chilly in the house, but not unbearable. The word of the day is layer. We are layering the clothes on and layering on the blankets. Last night the electricity came on for a few minutes then flickered on and off for the next 15 or 20 minutes or so, but thats all. It gave us some hope that we would have electricity before nights end, but to no avail.

Right now we are watching the "new" Miracle On 34th Street, have one light on in the house, and have my laptop and DSL modem powered by my 1000 watt Cherokee inverter running off my van battery while my van is running to keep it charged. Not the most efficient use of gasoline, but, when times are tough, you do what you have to do. We thought we would run the van so we could watch a movie and have some much needed diversion from our current reality. Tonight, we will all sleep in the same bedroom to use our collective body heat to keep warm.

I just noticed that I can see my breath when I exhale. I'll try not to dwell on that thought too much.

Until next time, stay warm and be good.

Shoot me an email sometime or leave me a comment on this forum.

Out of the mouths of babes...

Robin and the kids and I had the opportunity to attend the opening session of the Missouri Independent Fundamental Baptists Monday evening. We had a good time and got to hear some good preaching. There was a pastor and a missionary preaching, and a single missionary lady sang the special music. After the first preacher was done preaching, the host pastor had all the pastors and missionaries stand and introduce themselves. There were probably about twenty-five pastors there. Well, this must have got Serena, my youngest daughter, thinking about things because about halfway through the second preaching session she looked up at Robin with a worried look on her face and whispered,"Mommy, are all the preachers going to preach tonight?" After regaining her composure and explaining to me what all the fuss was about; she reassured Serena that this was the last preacher tonight.

Grades are in...

My grades from last semester are all finally in. I have to admit, I'm rather pleased with myself. In stark contrast to my last stint at college in the early nineties, I got all A's and B's. My cumulative GPA from the early nineties was 1.73. I know, that's terrible, and actually I'm ashamed to 'fess up to how poorly I did. However, I've been reformed, seen the error of my ways and all that, and now have a wife who actually knows how to study and who helps me.

So here are my grades for this semester

Personal Evangelism.................A+
Public Speaking........................B+
Spanish I..................................B
Biblical Theology of Missions......B+
Biblical Foundations of Ministry...A

My Term GPA is 3.33
Not too shabby for a reformed flunkie.

Count Your Blessings

Just like that, in a flash, 2006 is gone. I can't believe that we have already been in Springfield for five months and completed one semester of school. Christmas has come and gone, and God has richly blessed our family.

The Hymn writer, Johnson Oatman, Jr. wrote:

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings,Name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done

and Psalms 40:5 says:

Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done...

My list of blessings just since we have been in Springfield:

When we first got to Springfield, God provided a very nice and affordable place for us to stay while I got a job and we looked for a house.

We found a very nice partially furnished house to rent from a single missionary who is charging us the minimum she needs to rent it out.

We have been given furniture to help furnish the house. Things like bunk beds with nice girly bedding, bookshelves, comforters and bedsheets, desks, dining table and chairs.

Robin's father blessed us with a carload of food and toiletries from his church's pantry ministry.

God provided a piano teacher for Crysta who will not let us pay her anything and who also is letting us use her digital piano until we can get our own.

We came home to a huge box from some friends in North Carolina containing a bunch of clothes and shoes for Robin and the kids, and some chocolate and popcorn that I claimed for myself.

We received a basket full of food from the college. (The faculty and others at BBC was able to do this for every married student with children)

We received a basket full of food and some Christmas presents from an older couple in our church here in Springfield who said they remembered what it was like when they were in college.

We have received cash gifts from friends and JCHE in the amounts of $25, $50, $75 and $150 ($300 in all)

I'm sure I'm forgetting some others

I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for being faithful to me even when I don't deserve it.

Thank you Lord!

Ok, some things are just amusing...

...and this amuses me.

It's Finally Over...

Although this semester has gone by very quickly, I'm glad it's finally over. Today was the last day of finals. I've stayed very busy this year with working 40+ hours a week and going to school 13 hours a week plus all the homework and trying to maintain my proper role in my family. It's been exhausting. I must apologize to many of you for not staying in touch better. I hope this blog will help with that. Please give me feedback and respond to my posts if something strikes your fancy. I'm going to try and post some things that have happened this year now that I have a little more time available.

This Spanish textbook cost me $109.00, the companion workbook was about $60.00. I'm not sure why I told you the cost of these except for the fact that it still makes my mad that it cost so much. I think it's a racket. You have to buy them and they know it, so they charge you an outrageous price for them. Someone should do something...

Anyone up for the challenge?

Home sweet Home

When we first moved out to Springfield from North Carolina we stayed in the basement apartment of some friends house on their 85 acre mini farm. This was truly a blessing because we did not have anywhere else to stay, so it gave us time to find a house. After much searching, we finally found a house right off Division street. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a 2 car garage. It is actually the house of a short term BBFI missionary. She rented it to us for a great price and it was partially furnished which saved us from having to buy a lot of furniture. God was really good to us when He worked this out.

The Yellow School Bus

I was leaving for class this morning and ended up behind a government school bus. That got me thinking: What is it that would cause a parent to put their child on that yellow school bus and send him off to a day filled with teaching from fools and a foolish system, pressure to conform to the fads of the day by their peers, and being picked on by the class bullies. I wonder if these parents ever stop to think if this is what they really should be doing, or are they just doing what everybody else is doing. After all, their parents put them on the yellow school bus and they turned out ok, right. Is that the right way to approach life. Unfortunately way too many people do approach life that way. They don't really think things through.

My motto is: Question everything. Why am I doing the things that I am doing. There has to be a better reason then, "that's how we did it when I was growing up." There are so many absolute truths contained in scripture that we can have a definitive reason for why we do the things we do. The problem is for the most part we are too lazy or complacent to take the time to search out the scriptures to find out what God wants for our lives. Yes, God's Word even speaks to the topic of whether we should educate our children.

For those of you questioning my statement above about government school students being taught by fools in a foolish system, consider this verse from Psalm 14:1: "To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. "

Good day

Fun at Sams

There is a wealth of fun you can have even if you are poor. Take our recent trip to Sam's Club. You can go to Sam's and on a good day have a complete lunch for free. Even on a slow day you can usually get a few good snacks. They give out all kinds of samples ranging from pizza to shrimp and cranberry juice cocktail to yogurt. There are all kinds of neat things to look at. Their shopping carts are huge. Big enough for a little girl with a broken shoe to be wheeled around in. And then there are the people. You can see all kinds of people doing all kinds of stuff at Sam's. Check out this man, he was snoozing in that chair for at least 20 minutes. His wife must have been shopping and just wore him out.