Constitutional Authority

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One of the things that I have always appreciated about my Dad is that he has a great sense of humor. He has worked for INS for over 27 years and has some pretty interesting stories! He emailed me this one today.

Dad, thanks for all the laughs.

One of my officers was testing an applicant for citizenship on his knowledge of U.S. civics and history. The officer asks the, to that point, seemingly astute applicant the following question: "Under our constitutional form of government, who or what body has the authority to declare war?" After just a moments hesitation the applicant responded with confidence "the Republican Party."
After living here as a legal resident the last 7 years, he thought he had this one nailed, for sure...

(The political views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Conor & Koren. Nevertheless, they did find this pretty funny!)
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Prayer Beacon

I know, I know... Your shocked at what a wizard I am with paint. Ijust feel like I need a bat-beacon sometimes. We could really use your prayers! Emma just got over pink eye and then had a head cold at the same time. She is getting better, but still has a really bad cough. Then Koren just came down with strep throat. She started taking antibiotics today. She is really hurting. The past few months there has been a lot of sickness in the family and I wanted to ask for prayer. Thank you!

Only Jesus

Going Somewhere

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Koren and I have been thinking a little about our next visit to the states. Lord willing this winter. Koren has spent hours online looking for deals to get our family back the cheapest way. As many of you know once you tack on a couple kids the price starts to get scary! We were shocked at what it was going to cost us for this next visit. Then we remembered a travel agency that we used once when Emma was sick and we had to fly to the states last minute. It's a group called Golden Rule Travel. They're a christian travel agency (if you couldn't tell by the name) that specializes in international adoption, humanitarian, and missionary travel. We ended up emailing them just to see what they could come up with and were really happy with what they found. Great tickets, times and prices! I was just thinking about all my fiends here in Ukraine with big family's and everyone I know going on short term mission trips all the time. Anyway just wanted to let you know about these guys before your next trip. They can probably help.

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[© Flickr Bubba ]

Preach Jesus

I posted this when I first started our blog in June. I was reading it again tonight as I prepared for tomorrows service. I love how it just crys- Jesus is everything! I really enjoyed reading it tonight once again. So I thought you might as well.

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Posted June 17 2007-
In 1999 I was in a used Christian book store in York, England. Books lined the walls of this little shop and I scanned the room for something interesting to take home. At the time all I wanted to do was find a cool, old, book that I could take home as a souvenir. What I ended up finding that day was much more then just a souvenir. It was a book entitled Papers On Preaching. It was published in 1887. It is a series of articles on sermon preparation and preaching written by different pastors. Since that day in York, England I have probably read one particular chapter well over two hundred times. I have not come across such powerful words in any other book, besides the Bible, that encourages me so much to lift up the name of Jesus. I read these words often before I teach. They have brought me so much encouragement in my life that I thought I would share them with you.
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BY THE RIGHT REV. MAURICE S. BALDWIN, D.D,

BISHOP OF HURON.

"We need a ministry that believes in Jesus Christ. I mean by this, a ministry that believes in Jesus Christ against the whole world; that not only merely believes that Jesus Christ is a power, or even a great power, but that all power in heaven and earth is His; that he is before all things, and by Him all things consist; that He is not only King, but King of kings, and Lord of lords; that believes when it enters the pulpit, Bible in hand, to lift up Christ as the infinite salvation of God, a blessing not only may, but must follow, because He is the power of God, and because this is the hour when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.This is the ministry we need: one not afraid , as has been well said, to step out on the deep blue of God's promise and trust where the whole world derides ; not afraid to stake the awful inviolability of Christ's word against the despair of a nation, and to rejoice in sunlight where the world sees only the blackness of the storm. Oh, we need always to be wrapped round in the very folds of the Redeemer's garments, to realise Him so personally present, that above us we can see His glorious form towering up into infinite divinity ; His head crowned with many crowns, and shining above the brightness of the sun ; beneath us, as the Rock of Ages upholding the whole church with the omnipotency of His power ; around us, as the hills are about Jerusalem, that we being encircled with His presence may be saved from all our adversaries, and rest in the fulness of His peace."

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A Flickr Of Ukraine

I was surfing on flickr the other day and I ran into ERayza's photos. This guy has quite an eye! He captures the feel of things here in the winter very well I thought.

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There Was A Little Girl.........

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Soviet Art

Today as I was signing on to my blog and I saw a list of blogs that are getting a lot of attention. One of them caught my eye and I had to take a look. It's called A Soviet Poster A Day. This guy posts a new soviet poster everyday and writes about the history of each one. For me it was fascinating looking at the different artists work and reading the story behind them. Here are just a few of them. I thought my friends (especially on this side of the world) would enjoy taking a look at this blog.

To fly higher than all, farther than all, faster than all! D. Pjatkin, 1954



Resintrust Galoshes V. Bayuskin, 1925

The finishing ribbon says: all world records must to be ours. Govorkov V. I., 1935

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7 Great Years

I love you too my boy! God has blessed us with a wonderful marriage. So many wonderful memories! These are some pictures I dug up to celebrate our special day, only a few of the happy times we've had. I looked forward to a million more! I love you!

7 Years

I should be preparing for a Bible study right now, but I just have to do something first. You see, I have a date tonight after church. I'm taking out a wonderful, amazing, beautiful woman that I've been married to for 7 years today. And I really want to leave her a note on here.

Koren, I love you! I am so thankful to God for you. The grace and love that God shows me through you speaks to me everyday. I love being married to you! Thank you for your love these past 7 years.

O.K. I'm good now! Just really excited about today and my date with my girl. Back to studying...........


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Jump Back

Sorry it's been so long since our last post. Things have been really busy lately. Lots of good stuff the Lord is doing. I hope to get posting and share a bunch of it with you. For now I want you to meet Tolik , he's 10. This is some footage from the other day while I was at the boarding school I introduced you to a couple posts back. I knew Tolik could play soccer better then anyone I know but I had no idea that he could do this.

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