Honor God

In this morning's News and Observer, the lead article is on the lifting of water restrictions in Raleigh from Stage 2 to Stage 1. There's a quote from Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker: "We're all very pleased, and I want to say a word of thanks to everyone who's worked so hard on overcoming this drought."

 

I understand his heart in wanting to show appreciation to the employees who have worked hard, BUT... the irony of his statement is quite humorous and sad. Thanking people for working hard to get the rain to fall. Saving water is good stewardship and wise. But if there is one person to thank it is God.

 

From His sermon on the mount Jesus says, "He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matt. 5:45)

 

First of all I like that it is His sun - not the sun. It is also His rain. He is the source, and He sends it. Let us be wise stewards of His rain - conserve water. Let us honor and give thanks to the one who supplies the rain: the one true and living God and His Son Jesus Christ.

 

Fun Reminiscing

The Carolina Tar Heels had a good season. Ranked #1 most of the year. Regular ACC champion and ACC tournament champion. Final Four appearance (well sort of...) It's questionable whether they team showed up or some frat boys stole their uniforms. It wasn't the team we've been watching all year. Tough loss last night against Kansas. Roy Williams looked shell shocked. I can't believe he didn't call a timeout until they were down by 26. How bad does it have to get until you call a timeout and regroup?

 

Last week a friend sent me about 7 links to YouTube videos of the greatest basketball player who ever played (in my humble and probably slanted view). He also happens to have been a Carolina basketball player.

 

Enjoy MJ: click here

Shared Hope International

Last night a group of us from Grace Church had dinner and spent the evening with Linda Smith from Shared Hope International. Linda is a marvelous woman who has given her life to ending sex trafficking in the United States and around the world. It was a sobering and inspiring evening hearing what is going on in the world of sex trafficking, and what efforts are being made to put it to an end.

I believe that local churches and Christians should be in the lead to make a difference. We've come up with several ideas on next steps.

Linda is speaking today at UNC's conference "Combating Sex Trafficking: Prevention and Intervention in North Carolina and Worldwide.". It's at the Friday Center. Yesterday was great (today is day 2). Some amazing speakers who really are working hard to make a difference around the world.

Shared Hope released a report this week on sex trafficking in Las Vegas. 
(By the way, don't think this is a Las Vegas problem. It happens right in Chapel Hill and Durham).

Shared Hope has a lot of great resources on their website:

We can make a difference!

I am actually reviving my blog. I've decided to keep all the posts in case you need to get to sleep some evening and don't want to take a sleeping pill. 

I'm having problems getting my archived posts to work - it's been like that for a long time. Argh... not sure what to do. I need some expert help.

Vacation Photos

We just got back from a week of family vacation. We visited Roberto and Zaydee, my good Cuban friends living in Miami. Then we were off for a cruise on Royal Caribbean - Liberty of the Seas. It really was a great family time. The kids had a blast.

As you'll see in the photos, we had great weather. Our three ports were San Juan, St. Maarten, and Haiti.

Caribbean Cruise '08

Let me catch you up on the last year of our lives...

1. Nana had a baby - Amelia Grace.
2. Kendrick Jr. got a hole in one. 135 yards. 7 iron.
3. Joseph got his orange belt in karate.
4. Aliesha turned 9 last weekend while we had a family getaway at Sea Trail.
5. Gabriela waterskiied this summer for the first time.
6. Amelia is the cutest baby in the world.

Okay, now that I got that off my chest. I can start posting a few more blogs. :-)

Fall Fun

We've had an exciting fall - never a dull moment. I've put together a gallery of photos from a few things we did. I recently returned from Neiva and Bucaramanga, Columbia. DeWayne Watson and I were serving Steve Fatow at one of his crusades. Our Global Impact Celebration was a big success.

Tonight Joseph and I went hunting together. We had two deer real close but didn't get to take a shot. A dog ended up chasing the deer. Oh well... fun Dad and Joseph time.

Last weekend, Kendrick Jr. and I played golf with two Duke golf team players (Clark Klaasen and Michael Quagliano). Kendrick Jr. had one of his better rounds. He shot 33-42 for a 75. His front nine was on fire with four birdies, four pars, and one bogey. Clark shot a 70 and Michael a 72. I limped in with an 84.

Gallery of Fall Fun Fotos

My first eagle!

I scored the first eagle of my life today. For those who don't know what "an eagle" is - it's two under par on a hole. For a par 3, it's be a hole in one. Or a two on a par 4. Or the most often eagle is a 3 on a par 5.

My first eagle came on #5 at Chapel Hill Country Club (a par 5). I do have three witnesses: Chris Hallaren, Kendrick Jr., and Joseph.

My drive came to rest just next to the 200 yard marker. The pin placement was #3 (-13 yards), so I had 187 yards uphill with wind at my back. I hit a 6 iron just right of the hole by about 15 feet.

As I stepped up to the putt, I asked Chris to pray and fast while I putted. He did both. The putt broke just slightly to the left and caught the right edge as it just barely died into the hole. I did a victory run around the green and posed for the picture that you see. Yeah!!

The Lion King

Nana and I went to see the Broadway production Lion King for the 4th time last night. It was awesome.

The first two times we saw it was 9 years ago when the original cast ran the show for 8 weeks before opening on Broadway. The Lion King has sold out for years straight on Broadway. In May 2005, we saw Lion King in London.

If you ever get a chance to see it, don't miss it.

Church Planting

I've had two fun weekends supporting two wonderful church plants. The weekend of July 9th the family was with Jerry and Nan Daley in Columbia, SC. They are doing a fabulous job. They're really reaching out to the community, and their Sunday service is going great.

This past weekend I've been in Vancouver, Canada with Rich Kao. A team from Grace Church led by DeWayne and Michelle Watson have been running a children's camp during the day and a youth rally at night. They really knocked it out of the park. The attendance was excellent. It gave Rich and his church a big boost.

It stirs my heart as I know that Grace Church will be planting churches soon. This year we're putting systems in place so that we'll have something excellent to export. I just know it's part of our destiny. Maybe it's one year or maybe two years down the road, but it won't be long. For now we get to cheer on and support others.

Google strikes again with Google Short Message Service

Another very cool techie tool from Google. It's a free service for receiving text messages on your cell phone. Simple send a text message to: 46645. Then put your inquiry into the body of the text message. You can get phone listing, movies times, stock quotes, word definitions, sports scores, pricing on an iPod, etc. Very impressive and free. It just counts toward your text message total that you receive from your cell phone carrier.

Check it out Google Short Message Service at: Google SMS

News and Photos

The big news around the Vinar household is that Nana is pregnant. Yes, that's right. Hope you were sitting down. We're super excited. No, we were not surprised. Felt inspired and peace to go for it. Nana really desired to have one more child. I had always wanted a trailer (as I call a one that comes later after the others). Nana's calculation for a due date is January 11th.

Had a blast on our Southwest vacation. We called it "The Wild West Adventure". It was wonderful family time. Stunning scenery. For me, it was very refreshing (didn't know my soul needed such a break).

Here are some photos from the trip.
Wild West Adventure Gallery

A Few Updates

It's pretty hard to update on three months. :-) I have a few photo galleries that I'll probably post. We went to the mountain for 5 days in April. DeWayne and Michelle Watson were up there with their kids. We had fun hiking, visiting Grandfather Mountain, and eating meals together.

We've had a fun week of break-through with kids and sports. Joseph got his yellow belt in karate from Wayne Pollard's dojo. Joseph was awesome. I am so proud of him. He's got a new punching bag hanging in the garage. That bag is taking a beating. Kendrick Jr. started golf lessons at Duke. He's doing really well. Aliesha learned to ride an electric scooter. Gabriela learned to ride a two-wheeler bike without training wheels. Quite a week for the Vinar kids.

Church life has been excellent. I am so blessed by God to be part of such a great church. I am deeply impressed with the quality of leadership and people at Grace Church. We're celebrating our 20th anniversary this weekend with Jerry and Nan Daley in town. The best is yet to come.

Kendrick Jr. scores!

I shot this picture on my cell phone camera this morning at Kendrick Jr.'s basketball game. He's driving in from the left and scores on this play. I sent the picture to Nana who was at a birthing class this morning. She got to catch some of the game as it happened - modern technology.

No, Nana is not pregnant. She's training to become a doula. A doula is a birthing coach. We had a great experience with a doula when we had our children. Nana is fascinated by the medical aspect but mostly loves helping people. I think she'll be great. She coached

Dave & Glenna Shold (good friends from Minnesota) spent the night with us. We had fun catching up on everyone back at City Hill Fellowship. It was exciting to hear about how the church is moving forward and many people are doing great. It was sad hearing some of the struggles.

Life is short. Live for God wholeheartily.

Music Video

Checkout a fun amateur music video at richkao.com under the Jan. 11, 2006 entry. I told Rich that all that karoke experience must really be paying off for those guys.

You can follow Rich and Memie's church plant adventure on his blog. Exciting stuff happening in Vancouver.

Mucho Happening

It's been a good holiday season. I really enjoyed the time with Grace Church people at our services and parties. On Christmas day, we drove up to Blowing Rock and spent the week in the mountains. It was delightful. We hiked, bummed around Blowing Rock, went to a movie, played quadruple solitaire, read, and slept a lot.

One day Gabriela, my 5 year old daughter, asked me if I wanted to learn how to knit. I said, "sure." Well she taught me, and we made a scarf together. We gave it to Grammie when we finished it. Gabriela did most of it, but I definitely contributed. You know Kendrick has really slowed down when he's knitting. :-)

Twas a good hunting season. A few photos are in the gallery linked below. The big news is that Nana shot her first deer. She's hooked.

A Few Hunting Photos

Jerry's 65th Birthday Party

Jerry Daley celebrated his 65th birthday with friends and family on the Carolina Club on Dec. 7th. We had a wonderful time enjoying friends, dining, and dancing. Many people "chipped in" (so to speak) to buy Jerry a set of golf clubs. Fun evening. We love and appreciate Jerry Daley!

Jerry's Birthday Party Photos

The Disney Experience

We spent last week at Disney World. It was our first experience at the Orlando attractions. We visited all four theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and MGM Studios. We thoroughly enjoyed our time. Here are a few impressions.

1. People need high action to be entertained. Even at the Animal Kingdom safari tour, they made it into an adventure of tracking down the poachers. Almost everything had to be fast or frightening.

2. Epcot was my favorite park with "Soaring" toping all rides. It was a simulated hang gliding experience over some of California's most stunning scenery. God wins the prize for the most beautiful creation.

3. If you're looking for the best rides, go to Busch Gardens or some other place. Space Mountain was still the best ride at Magic Kingdom. It's been there for maybe 30 years. You go to Magic Kingdom for the experience and atmosphere not the rides.

4. Even the "slow times" are busy. We went the week after Thanksgiving, because it was supposed to be a slower time of the year. Wow, I can't imagine the busy times.

We enjoyed the experience. Glad we did it. Won't be rushing back.

Here are some photos from the week: Disney Photos

One Cool Maps Program

Have you ever been frustrated with MapQuest? Never use them again.
Yahoo Maps has been my internet map of choice until today.

Google has come out with the coolest mapping program. First of all the maps are excellent - easy to read, logic, and fun looking. But the best feature yet: satellite photos! You can actually get satellite photos of your location. You've got to check it out. You'll convert in no time. The directions seem much better than mapquest in my view attempts asking for directions today.

Check it out at: Google Maps.

Type in your address and click "search". Then look for the "satellite" option on the upper right hand side of the map. Lastly, zoom in as close as you can. There's your house!

Now that you're impressed try this: Type in "coffee in chapel hill, nc". You'll love it. You're definitely sold.