2 Corinthians

I heard C.J. Mahaney (the pastor that wrote ¨The Cross Centered Life¨) talking about 2 Corinthians. He said it is Pauls most passionate letter, and is filled with self-disclosure, unlike any of his other letters.
So I am reading through 2 Corinthians again, and it is amazing to me the grace that Paul showed to the Corinthians. Mahaney was right when he said that Paul was more focused on the grace that was available to and working in the Corinth church than their sin. Paul loved them very much, and that is very easy to see.
Maybe the reason Paul had so much love and grace in his own life is because his focus was on God´s grace, and not on his own sin. His focus was outward and not inward. Paul did not judge himself. Paul moved forward, and held fast to the Gospel. He did not forget about Christ´s death on the cross, but instead that was at the center of his heart and life. If it had not been, his love and joy and peace would have faded, but it didn´t, because his focus was on God´s grace through Jesus Christ, and that filled Paul with love and grace that he spent his life showing to others.

Having fun

Andrew has been sick. Yesterday evening was rough for him, but last night and today he is much better. And here is a video of him today.

Death is not dying

“Cancer does not define me. Neither does being a wife or a mother. All these things are part of who I am but they do not define me. What defines me is my relationship with Jesus.”

Rachel is a wife, and mother of 2. She has terminal cancer. In March, she spoke to 600 women, and below is the link to the video.

I don´t know how she is doing now. I tried to read about her condition now, but could not find much.

Here is her site with the video: http://deathisnotdying.com/

Love Story (Taylor Swift) meets Viva La Vida (Coldplay)

His new toy!

I think those toys are hard to find in Peru, and also are expensive. But God cares even about the little things, because we prayed that we could have something like this for Andrew, and God helped us to get it.
It has lots of toys on it, and Eliana tied his monkeys on there, and a few other things, so he would have even more toys on there.
When we first got it, we put him in it, and I think it was because he was tired, and maybe getting hungry, but it did not go well. I think he was also excited, and it was too much for him to handle. So he cried pretty hard, and we got him out of it.
But now, he loves to be in it, and does really well. As you will see in the video, he likes to get his mouth on the toys. One of the toys lights up and makes music.
It has wheels on it, and he likes to be pushed around. And then it will convert to a rocker, but I think he likes the wheels better.
It collapses down for storage, or for taking it in a car or something. But I didn´t like that, because I was afraid it could collapse with him in it, and if his legs were not in the right position, it could hurt him. And so I made it so it cannot collapse down, and now I am not worried when Andrew is in it.

Poor Yo-Yo, he got tied onto it, and was hanging upside down.

(above) Andrew says ¨now that I have this toy, I never want to sleep¨

(above) Andrew says ¨yep, I will be awake all night!¨

(above) well, he didn´t make it. When he gets tired, and we push him around in it, he will go to sleep.

And now the video..

today

Today we had to go to the hospital, because we had an appointment for another vaccination for Andrew. It would have been just some drops in the mouth. But it turned out they were just doing newborns today, and we should not have been scheduled for today. So we will have to make another appointment.
But then we went to Elianas sisters house, because her son David has a birthday today. We gave him a board game, and he really liked it. We also ate some delicious chicken and rice. I am not a big fan of white rice, and that is part of almost every lunch and supper. I usually just want a little rice. But the rice they made I really liked. Our other nephew Cooper, who is 18 years old, made that rice. Eliana asked him how he made it, and he wouldn´t tell. He must have a secret recipe.
Andrew did not want to sleep. Usually he takes a nap about 10 or 11 in the morning, but he would not fall a sleep at their house. I tried laying him down and patting him, and walking around with him, but it didn´t work. On the way home, he slept a little bit, but not much. It is now 4:30, and he has had his bath, and ate, and taken his medicine, but has not slept anymore.
But I think Eliana will soon get him to sleep.
Also at her sisters house, they have a new computer, and a webcam. So my mom was able to see us and Andrew. We have used webcam before, but this one was much better, and since it was a good computer, the webcam was not freezing up.
On the way home, he really got to fussing, and I know it was because he was tired and getting hungry. We got to the house, and I told Eliana, ¨watch, when we walk into our bedroom, he will be happy¨. And we walked in, and I laid him on the bed, and he was happy.
Oh, as we were leaving Elianas sisters house, David (he is now 8 years old) stopped me, and told me what to get him for his coming birthday. It is only 1 year away, ya know. At first I didn´t understand completely, but I think he is wanting either another game, or a remote control car. So he is certainly thinking ahead.

yummy!

Don´t miss the video at the bottom.

(above) mama feeding him rice cereal.

(above) He thinks he is big enough to feed himself already.

(above) that´s what happens what Daddy feeds him.

This is called the Hubble Deep Field, and I believe is the farthest the Hubble space telescope has seen. Each light in the photo is a galaxy, each thousands of light years across, and many containing billions of stars. It is amazing how big, and how wonderful, and how beautiful is this universe.

Could a God so big and so powerful that he could make such a universe, actually care about us?

The universe Maker, hung on a cross like this one:

This is how much we are loved.

We are planning on doing a class about the universe on Saturday, although I still don´t know how to do it. But I have been trying my math out, and this may help show how big the universe is:

I wanted to know how many grains of sand is in a big desert. Well the Sahara desert is the worlds largest hot desert, covering most of Northern Africa. It is about 3,500,000 square miles.

I don´t know on average how deep the sand is in that desert. I imagine if you dig deep enough you would find regular dirt, or clay, or rock. I read that some of the sand dunes are 600 feet high, but there are also a lot of low spots, so with my expertise (a wild guess), I estimated the sand being an average of 300 feet deep.

I took another guess, and guessed that 1,500 grains of sand is in a square inch. A fine sand would probably be more, but a big grain sand might be less.

So, supposing there is an average of 1,500 grains of sand in a square inch, here is the number of grains of sand I calculated there to be in a desert 3,500,000 square miles, and the sand being 300 feet deep: 11,767,472,640,000,000,000,000.

That is a big number, too big to even comprehend.

And now, let´s try to get a number on the number of stars in the universe. By the way, the largest known star in our galaxy is called VY Canis Majoris. I heard that if the Earth were the size of a golf ball, VY Canis Majoris would be the size of Mount Everest. Louie Giglio spoke about that, and he said 7 quadrillion Earths can fit inside of Canis Majoris. If the Earth were the size of a golf ball, that would be enough golf balls to cover the state of Texas, 22 inches deep. There is a photo of Canis Majoris.

Anyways, back to trying to figure out how many stars are in the universe. There is estimated to be between 200 and 400 billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy.

A lot of astronomers think there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe, but nobody really knows for sure.

If there are 150 billion galaxies in the universe, and each galaxy contains on average 100 billion stars, then there would be 15,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the universe.

And so here is the number of grains of sand I estimated there to be in the Sahara Desert, compared to the number of stars in the universe I estimated:

Grains of sand in Sahara Desert: 11.7 sextillion

Stars in Universe: 15.0 sextillion

Sextillion is a number followed by 21 zeros.

And here is a math problem for you:

The Milky Way Galaxy is estimated to be 500,000 light years in diameter. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. How many miles wide is the Milky Way Galaxy?

Also, feel free to check if I calculated the other stuff right, and tell me if I didn´t. It´s really not very hard to do.

Andrew has a cold, and the doctor said he also needs to be drinking some plain water. Andrew doesn´t seem to like his bottle much, so we give it to him in a spoon. He also eats his rice cereal with a spoon. When he see´s the spoon coming, he opens his mouth wide open. It´s pretty funny. Of course he spits a lot of the water right back out.

Andrew tienes un poco gripe, y el doctor dijo por darle tambien agua. Andrew no gustas mucho de su botella, pero le gusta mas su cuchara. Le damos agua en una cuchara y tambien cereal de arroz. Cuando le ve la cuchara, él abres mucho su boca. Es muy gracioso.

I am very blessed.

Eliana and I are leading a youth group at the church. When we first started teaching it, the second class was really hard because some of them really were acting up, but it´s getting better. Although tonight was also hard, because we could hardly get them to quiet down even for a little bit so they could listen to Eliana. But they enjoy the class, and that is great. Friday we went with the youth group, and played soccer and volleyball. There are some really good soccer players in the class. And the girls had an especially good time playing volleyball. We didn´t have a net, so 2 people held up a piece of rope, but had a blast none the less. Tonight Andrew did great in the class. When everyone was singing happy birthday and clapping, he loved that, and let out a loud yell.

I am wanting to have a class on the universe. Did you know that the Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have more than 200 billion stars, and the sun is just one of them. And our galaxy is just one of billions of galaxies. So we are wanting to borrow someones laptop, and then hook it up to a projector or something so the photos can be big enough for everyone to see. Also have the lights shut off during the presentation. God can measure the universe with his hand, and I want everyone to be in awe of how big and powerful God is. But then the last part I want to put a picture of the cross, because the Bible says that through Jesus all things were created. It is incredible that someone so huge and all knowing, and all powerful, that he came to this tiny speck in the galaxy called Earth, and died for the sin of the people, so that some may be saved through believing in Him. So that is what we would like to do, and want it to be a really great presentation. I really like how Louie Giglio speaks about the universe and Jesus. You can see him on youtube, just type in Louie Giglio. I especially like his ¨indescribable¨ video.

Anyways, we are all doing well. Andrew keeps growing and growing. I don´t think he is going to stop very soon. The other day Eliana had to leave for a few hours, and so it was just him and me. It was time for him to go to sleep for the night, and I put him in his crib, and he did not like that at all, and started crying, and when I patted him to try to get him to sleep, he just cried harder. I would carry him for a while, and he would fall a sleep, but I would put him in the crib, and he would wake up real quick and cry. Also he did not want any formula. I think if he was very hungry he would drink it, but wasn´t hungry. Just tired, but at the same time didn´t want to be put down. So finally I carried him, and turned off the lights, and walked around the room, and he fell a sleep, and I just kept carrying him, and he slept. The next day my shoulders really hurt, and I think it was because of carrying him for so long. And so when Eliana got home, I had put him down, and he was sleeping, but soon woke up. I think she then fed him, but he did not want to be in his crib. So I carried him like I did before, and his head was resting on my arm, and he would suck on my arm and then fell a sleep. So Eliana saw that, and thought it was good. When he is wide awake, and she tries to feed him, he often will jerk around and kick his legs, and will feed for maybe 3 seconds, and then jerk his head back, and look around. So it can be really hard for her during the days. A lot of Peruvians wrap there babies a special way in blankets, and tie it around there shoulders, and the babies can be carried on the backs or in front. So Eliana wrapped Andrew in a special blanket, and I help to tie it around her, and she can walk around with Andrew, and he is snug inside. And he will feed and feed until he falls a sleep. So he really likes that, and so I think he is drinking more milk, and so that makes him sleep more, which he needs. Last night Andrew slept real close to Eliana (the crib is next to the bed, and the side of the crib is off, so Andrew can actually make his way onto the bed, but usually doesn´t) But anyways, he slept real close to her, and would wake up, and start crying, but Eliana would talk to him, and as soon as he knew she was there, he would fall back a sleep. I think he was just checking to make sure she was there.

Well I have rambled enough. We sure are looking forward to coming to the United States. We don´t know when yet, but I really think Eliana will have her visa in God´s time. And until then, God has a purpose for us here.

Dios te bendiga, and enjoy the video.

video from birthday party