You gotta love cats!

Random Intentional acts of goodness

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ometimes we need a boost to get us through the difficult times—just a small sparkle of hope, a small glimmer of kindness—to remind us that there is still good in the world. And if I let myself get too focused on the bad things going on around me, I just might miss those small glimmers.

But sometimes the glimmer isn’t just a glimmer. Sometimes the small spark of a glimmer builds into a huge explosion that captures everyone’s attention. And this is just such a story.

Yesterday a Wisconsin family visited the Milwaukee Brewers' Miller Park to enjoy a baseball game—complete with their three young children. And the act of kindness shown to them at that game is so heartwarming the story has been on the news, picked up on internet news radio, and the mom’s blog post [The Mystery Man at Miller Park] about what happened has gone viral. The story is so good and so heartwarming, I will say no more about it.

If you would like to have your faith in humanity restored, please go to the Arena Five blog and read the story. It will warm your heart!

Daguerreotype photography

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hotography has experienced many changes as it has evolved from Thomas Wedgwood’s early experimental captures of light and shadow in 1790 into today’s high-speed advanced digital capture.

In 1826, Joseph-Nicephore Niépce captured a picture of the street from his window. That exposure took eight hours to capture and is considered the earliest example of an actual photographic image.

Niépce became friends with an artist named Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre. This artist grew very interested in photographic capture and by the time of Niépce’s death in 1833, Daguerre had learned quite a lot from his friend. By 1837 Daguerre had figured out a method by which images could be captured and produced consistently. This process known as the Daguerrotype consisted of treating silver-plated copper sheets with iodine to make them sensitive to light, then exposing them in a camera and “developing” the images with warm mercury vapor. This process allowed for the widespread production of photographs.

Now that almost everyone carries a high resolution camera with them in the form of a cell phone, these historic things are being forgotten through the ease of digital photography. But some hearty souls are helping to keep this history alive. One such artist is Dan Carrillo:

Any questions?

Blog header - July 7, 2013

Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.

A message from Pastor Gelina

FYI - for context

For those who are unaware of the context of this post: Dale City teacher charged with raping student

I am posting this private email from my father to help answer some of the questions that have arisen around the recent news of Chuck Stallard’s arrest. May God bring healing and justice to this situation.

Please pray for both the perpetrator and the victim(s). And may the name of Christ be glorified always.

Dear Rich,

Thanks for contacting us this morning to alert us about Brother Stallard's arrest.

Both of us are deeply distressed and disturbed by this news. He was a dear brother and a well respected teacher. But to tolerate such sin is to invite the wrath of God upon our school and the entire church assembly. Let's pray for him and pray much for his victims.

As you know, we were already in South Africa when this broke open. We had resigned in 1984 and left for the field in 1986. It was only in 1990 when we learned that he was fired because of his inappropriate behavior. We heard nothing more until this morning when you told us that this began in the days of my leadership at Evangel Baptist Church. I can assure you that had we known that this was happening during my tenure, I would have stopped it immediately. God frowns on any such evil. What is now known goes far beyond anything I had heard or imagined. Oh, how sad!

God bless!

Dad (and Mother as well)

Please remember that this is a personal email from my father to me after I had informed him of the situation. He was as shocked and taken by surprise as many of us in this situation and would probably like to address things much more deeply if he knew more details and had the proper forum to do so.

Under my father’s administration of Evangel Christian School, the school was fully compliant with local, state, and federal laws and pedophilia would not have been swept under the rug.

Blog header - May 21, 2013

Blog header - May 17, 2013

This image has a wistful look that I really love. In these crazy days when the world seems to be encroaching in ways it never has before, this image seems so peaceful and happy.

Blogheader - May 12, 2013

I love the expression on this young girl’s face. I have always been particularly interested in spontaneous portraiture and candid photography. Kids are among my favorite impromptu models.

Mmm Bop!

It’s Friday and we need some music and some comic relief. Maybe we should combine them. Here’s Hanson: