Good food in the house

Isn't he really cute? I meant the little guy on the right ;)

That is Braeden, who is one of my housemates!!





Here's Cary and Nitzia, and their 3 month old baby boy Braeden.




From the left is Cary, Nitzia, her sister, and her brother-in-law Gary. Cary's birthday is on June 30th, but we celebrated it early. This was the first time since I moved to my house did we use the dining table for food. Any other time you come home, you will find a desktop computer and a laptop on our table!!

We had great fun together, and were chatting almost till midnight!!

Happy Birthday Cary!!

Press on towards the goal....

My first ever baseball game............

I went to my first ever baseball game yesterday, with folks at the Church.
We had a tailgate party with Hot dogs and Hamburgers BBQ.
I learnt a lot about baseball from Ken, Linda, Ruth, Diane, and other folks at the Church.
I've posted some of the pictures from the game:

























































































The local team lost the game, and as I was watching the game, I realized that the whole stadium (almost all of the 19,287 present) were cheering the Oakland A's team, who had the lead for almost more than half of the game duration.

The visiting team - Florida Marlins, got three successive runs in the same innings towards the end, and A's were not able to catch up till the end of the game.

Paul, in his letter to Philippians, says "I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus" Philippians 3:14.

This set me thinking, especially after going to the game.
Am I pressing on towards the goal?
I can hear all the angels cheering for me to stay in the right path towards the goal.

When the A's got 3 "outs", I could hear the whole stadium groaning in disappointment.
And I wonder how I would grieve the Holy Spirit, and all those who cheer for me to win the prize which Paul states, if I stray away from the path.

I pray that God give me the strength to be his favorite Child!!!

God Bless!!

Godly Play

Can you recognize what is in the picture?
Do you know who drew this?
You would think a small kid did it - but No!!

It was a bigger kid - ME!!!!!!!

I seriously can't remember when was the last time I ever used a color pencil.
As a kid, I was never too keen on drawing.

In the Church that I go to, I was curious to know what Godly Play is all about.
Since I was involved in Sunday School in India for many years, I thought it was going to be easy here.

Was I in for a nice surprise!!

I went to an Introduction to Godly Play at my Church last evening.
And I was amazed at what I learned.
It was so different from what I was used to in India.

We actually had a Godly Play Session where we (the participants - the curious ones) were told a story and could experience the actual Godly Play that happens every Sunday.
Ofcourse, there were no kids last evening, but it was great anyway.

We were asked to go out of the room, and then one by one, we went in.
The "Door Person" (Kathleen Krentz), welcomed us, and announced us to the Story-teller.

We sat on the floor in a circle, while Di Pagel (the story-teller last evening) elaborated the story of Abraham and Sarah beautifully.

Then we had a question and answer session where Di asked questions like
"I wonder what you liked about the story",
"I wonder what you would leave out of the story",
"I wonder how you would relate this story to your life", etc.

After that, we were given a choice to do what we want - coloring, painting, drawing, or just sit and read the Bible (becoz the audience this time were all adults)
Something in me said, "Alex, why not draw something". I thought to myself I'm not a good artist, never was, and never will be, simply because it wasn't something that interested me.
But what the heck, I need to do something, and why not do something which I haven't done in a long, long time!!

It was a good experience for me, and took me down memory lane when I was a kid at Sunday School at my Church in India!!

Then we got ready for the "feast".
Napkins were passed around, and then some grapes, and water, and some crackers.
We did not begin to eat until we prayed.
That too, was an option. You could pray aloud, or you could pray silently and then say Amen to let the next person know you are done, or you could just say Thank you, and even choose not to pray.

Some observations I made:
Story-teller never made eye contact with the kids while telling the story.
Her attention was always on the story in front of her (we actually had a box of sand for desert and some wooden figures for Abraham, Sarah, Isaac & Rebeca, and some stones for the altar).
And I could see why. All our attention was drawn to what she was saying and doing.

Godly Play does not force the kids to do anything, including imposing our thoughts on the kids.
It is not about correcting the kids when they don't get their facts straight, but about letting them think on their own.

The story-teller just initiates and facilitates the 40 minutes to an hour that we have.

And the Godly Play room is actually off-limits to adults when the session is going on.
Children and Parents are encouraged to treat it as a Church Service, where people don't just walk in and take their kids!!

It was a great experience, but very different to what I am accustomed to.
I have always taught that the kids what is right, what is wrong, and when I tell stories, I also teach what it means, and how to relate it to our lives.

Am not sure how good I will be if I ever choose to become a Godly Play story-teller, but I need to do some praying about it!!!


By the way, I'm going to my first ever baseball game later this evening.
Looking forward to have loads and loads of fun.

Will post some pictures later!!

Have a great weekend all of you!!

Weekend with the Cobbs

I just got back from visiting the Cobbs at Wasco. After seeing their blog, I decided that I needed a blog too!!

I had a great time yesterday and today. It was fun playing with Hannah, Gracie and Sarah.
I also did some bowling, shooting, playing Golf, etc. But it was on the Wii!!
It wasn't a bad experience, since I had a little bit of beginners luck.

Papa Aaron, a friend of the Cobbs, managed to beat almost every record on the Wii - right from skiing and doing pushups, to doing some yoga stances!! It was fun watching!!

I also enjoyed listening to Rob on the guitar, and decided that I should probably get a guitar and learn how to play. It's a great way to spend spare time. I wish Rob stayed close to where I live.

Keri cooked some spicy Mexican dinner for me while I was there, and that was great too.

After the kids went to bed, Char, Keri, Rob and I watched the movie "Bucket List", while enjoying Keri's Brownies and Ice Cream.

Keri and Rob celebrate their wedding anniversary today. They are a great couple, and I wish them all the best.

Here are some pictures I took of their family........

God is so partial to me

I have said this to many people in the last few years - "God is so partial to me".
It always amazes me how God always manages to exceed the expectations I set.
I know that nothing is impossible for God and all that, but when I expect something really big in my life, I sometimes wonder if I'm asking for too much.
I think that I may not get what I ask for, because I do not deserve it.
But well, God thinks so differently. Let me elaborate.........

Since this is my first post in my blog, a brief history about me is in order..
I was born 27 years ago, the same year my mom and dad separated.
Mom struggled to bring us up - my sisters Christy, Mary and me.
All our school studies were sponsored by foreigners.
In 1996, 16 years and many prayers later, my dad returned home.
In 2001, I got a job, working in night shift, at a low salary.
By the time I was 23, I was made the manager of a project.
In just 6 years from the time I got my job, my salary was close to 10 times as much - in the same company.
In 2005, my sister and I bought the house next to my mom's.
In 2007, I bought my first car - used ofcourse!!

In 2008, I got the opportunity to come to the United States of America, to work for 18 months.
My friend, boss and "American" mom (all three are the same person) Char, and I worked on getting a work visa for me in the US which will enable me to work here for atleast 6 years - I could apply for permanent residency in this period.
There was approx. 30% chance of my application being selected in the lottery for processing. Guess what - it did get selected!!
But then, the application needs to be processed. Guess what - it was processed, and approved couple of days ago.
I kept praying to God, and telling him that "Your will be done". I was prepared to go back to India after 18 months if the work visa didn't come through. But deep down, I wished to stay.
God probably looked deep into my heart, rather than just the words on my lips.

I told Char few weeks ago - it is amazing how the last few months have been for me - from the time she and I decided that I will come to the US, things just went very smoothly. It was a bit eerie for me. There were no glitches in my 18 month visa getting processed. I got my SSN, car, place to live, wonderful Church to go to, CA drivers license (flunked the first time though!), good people all around me, and now my work visa getting approved.

Getting back to how I started this post, do you see why I feel that God is very partial to me?
Our God is an Awesome God!!
He rocks!!