So much has happened since I have written an article for this site that I apologize.
I’ll try to be brief, but cover a lot of territory.
We have been busy, in fact I haven’t been calling everyone like I’d like.
I’m writing this at 11:00PM just to get something into my full day.

Abigail (the reason people check this site) is doing well.
She’s got the tip of one tooth protruding from her bottom gums, and another one on its way up next to it.
She’s not walking yet, but she’s getting close.
She’s standing up on her own every once in a while, but still is not taking any steps.
Most people warn us that when she starts taking steps she’ll be running shortly after that.
I don’t care, she’s such an amazing little girl that her ability to run to me when I get home will only make work seem longer.

She did crawl towards me with an outstretched arm one or two mornings, which made it hard to go to work.
However, work has been going well, and Jessica has been doing well around the apartment when she’s here.
Jessica is often on the phone with her mom… every day.
We got SBC’s new all in one package that gives us faster internet connection (ADSL), unlimited long distance, and a slightly better rate on our cell phones.
Linda gets to talk to Abby most of those times as well.

We went to Austin (I’ll post some video footage soon) and had a blast with Tony & Erin and Josh & Davis.
I took a class on Dispensationalism from Arnold Fruchtenbaum @ Tyndale.
We went to Sherman this last weekend to visit Jess’ cousin & family.
And my parents are coming into town tomorrow.

Last week we started discipleship (I’m leading) with a family we’ve enjoyed getting to know (the Gomez’s Rob, Amy & Kaly).
And, most importantly, I’m going to go to bed now.

Resting in Him,

Randy

Frenz

Jessica and I have known Tony and Erin Nuzzi for more years than I can
remember (or at least I am being too lazy to calculate).
We’ve known them for a long time and they were both in our wedding.
However, they’ve since then had two boys.
Those two boys, Josh and Davis, are fabulous kids, the kind of kids you’d
sell your old used car to help sell enough boy scouts popcorn so that
they could go to Nasa space camp and learn a bunch of lies about how
old the universe is and then, when they got home tell them everything
about macro-evolution is goofy – I think you know what kind of kids I’m
talking about.

Friday

So we had them up, being Resurrection Weekend (Christianese for Easter
Weekend – “Easter” is a Pagan holiday.) so that our families could spend
time together.
Last year we had Resurrection Weekend together in Austin, so it was nice to
have it here.
Friday night Jessica and Erin went out after the kiddos went to bed and saw a
movie.
I don’t recall what movie it was, but obviously their review of it didn’t
impress me enough to remember…surprise.
Tony and I stayed home and watched some Fawlty Towers and then started to
watch a 1970’s (MAYBE 1980’s) Christian movie – the content of which
was not worth finishing – it was too hokey.
Then when the gals got home we all stayed up until about 1:00 chatting and
then went to bed.
I can’t tell you what we talked about because this is the web and all the
people who read it may not understand our inside jokes.

Saturday

Saturday morning came about 3 hours earlier than it usually does because
we’d stayed up so late.
The kids think that since they didn’t stay up they should get up at their
regular time – what an inconvenience ;).
So Saturday we got up expecting a huge storm, the weather forecasters had
been prognosticating its arrival all week long.
As is typical the weather was not accurately following the instructions
that the weather men and women had prescribed.
So since it was a sunny day we went to ride a train, the tarantula train.
It wasn’t running on Saturdays like we had thought so we used this as an
opportunity to teach Josh (the only young kiddo with the cognitive
understanding to know he’d been lied to) about how politicians twist
the truth.
OK, so maybe we didn’t use it as an opportunity to twist the truth, really
we used it as an opportunity to go to the Britsh Emporium store and
bay exorbitant amounts of money for imported candy.

We then (after grabbing a bite to eat at Quizno’s Subs) went home and hung
out while Josh watched Larry Boy and the Rumor Weed for the 183rd time
of his life.
After dinner we went to Putt-Putt and played miniature golf.
Tony has an unfair advantage because IBM owns a mini-golf course in Austin
and he practices multiple times a week.
So after sweeping the game he and I went on some bumper boats and hosed
one another off.
This of course presented a real problem – my boat stopped squirting water
in the middle of the session.
So, just as you suspected, I got soaking wet without causing anyone else
to look like they had just taken a bath.

Later on, after golf and the kids were in bed Tony and I went to
Alt-N and jammed and talked about guy stuff.
If you’re not sure what guys talk about, just ask one…nothing.
This is, as Jerry Seinfeld points out, the exact thing we’re thinking when
you ask us.
Men talk, think and do nothing most of the time.
Even when we’re doing something it equates to not much or nothing in the
grand scheme of things.

Sunday

Sunday we went to church and listened to an Easter, I mean Resurrection
Sunday, musical.
Over all it wasn’t bad, but it had room for improvement because I’m a
whiney pickey musician.
Then we came home and ate large quantities of food and still left enough
left-overs to feed a small family (such as ours) for a couple days.
This is good because the expense of Ham is such that it seems no Orthodox
Jewish family can afford it.

And now it is now.
Sunday is not over, but this news update is.
I mean, I can’t really tell you about what happened the rest of today if
it hasn’t happened yet.
So, you’ll have to check back and see what’s happening.
Also, I hope to get some more pictures of Abigail online shortly, we got
them developed, but I haven’t scanned them yet.
Maybe some day soon I’ll get a digital Camry.
Although probably not because I’m not a big Camry fan, I fancy myself a
Honda guy in general :)

Resting in Him,

Randy Peterman

Caffiend

Friday the 28th of March we got up at 3AM, this is something like seeing bigfoot.
I don’t get up before 6:00 unless its an emergency or the stupid fax service decides to send us a fax to our home line at some odd hour of the night.
We were on the road by 4:30 and started our journey to Central America – err, I mean the Mid-West.

Missouri Loves Company

Our first destination was 12 hours later in Jackson MO.
The only thing sweeter than the Iced-Tea in Jackson is Joan (Jo-Anne in modern spelling) – she’s a sweet, sweet gal.
Jessica’s Grandpa Hiram and his wife Joan hosted us for a day and a half.
We ate more food than was necessary, but that is typical for anyone who drives within 20 feet of their home.
Joan is a cook who likes to think of small portions somewhere between 2-3 pounds of whatever it is :)

Some ‘Ware’ in IL

Saturday we drove to the Bald Knob Cross.
This is something close to a religious monument, except that its in the middle of a mountain range and its really housing a radio transmitter and looking pretty hideous.
It could be cool to go there when the leaves are not on the forrest floor and instead are attached to the trees.
On the way to the cross is Ware IL.
Ware IL has about 30 people in it and most of them work at a hunting club.
There are at least 6 hunting clubs, when you see the first one it doesn’t strike you, but when you see the sixth one you’re ready to make stop buy the county court house and make sure that there aren’t more any marriages between a brother and sister.
I don’t think that it’s red-neck, because that would be an understatement!
Upon arriving at ‘bald knob’ we walked for 5 minutes and then drove back – 2 hours for 5 minutes of mountain top experience with a monument to man :(

Getting Into IN

Sunday Morning we got up and got ready, Joan had fixed us a ‘little’ breakfast that consisted of 5 pounds of breakfast goods, all of which were ‘low in cholestrol and fat’ (where the word low is interpreted as ’super high’).
Then we drove for about 6 hours and arrived in Plainfield Indiana where we promptly lost contact with our daughter as a swarm of wild relatives erupted from the house and snatched her away.
As we stood bewildered and lost, wondering what had happened to Abby one of Kelsey’s (Kelsey = sister-in-law) dogs licked our hands and brought us out of our confusion.
We went inside and had a good afternoon of relaxing and catching up on important things.

Another Year Closer to Heaven

Jessica, following the traditions handed down by Adam and Eve, had a birthday on the 31st, she’s 25.
To celebrate we went to the Cheesecake Factory in Indianapolis on the 1st.
Which was good, because Karen kept faking us out like we weren’t going to go (we couldn’t figure out a schedule) I think she was going for an April fools joke, but nobody got it.
Jessica enjoys the Cheesecake Factory immensely, and all of us complained on the way home after eating there.
Of course our complaints were of full tummy’s and 5 o’clock traffic :) (Thanks for a fabulous meal John!)

In the Inn in IN

Tuesday we drove to Brown County Indiana and checked into an inn in Nashville.
Not Nashville TN mind you, but Nashville IN.
After a few false turns (Thanks so much Yahoo!!) we made it to the ‘Inn in Brown County.’
This was a cool travel destination because it had (gasp) things for families to do on the premesis.
They had swimming, basketball, tennis, shuffleboard, miniature golf (free as well) and a playground with the most haunted sounding merry-go-round I have ever heard.
I wanted to sample the merry-go-round so I could use it in a song, but since I don’t have a sampler, I just remember what it sounds like.

Trail Dust

Wednesday we went shopping for stuff (you don’t actually hunt for things on vacations).
Jessica bought some stuff, and I desperately wanted to spend about $1,200.00 at a music store on things like an autoharp, a mandolin, and some percussion instruments.
Needless to say, I did not buy those things, but I did come home to Texas and buy a hand drum called a “Doumbek.”
It’s made by Remo and is probably not the fanciest hand drum, but I play it while Abby plays the bongos, which is a kick in the pants.
Speaking of a kick in the pants, we went horse back riding.

We went horse back riding at a stables in Brown County (or a county near there, I don’t recall).
While we were at the stables the ’stable master’ (I don’t know what else to call the guy in charge of the stables) asked who had ridden before, and who wanted to go beyond a walking pace with the horses.
My group was the ‘experienced’ group (I am not making that up).
So I was excited to go faster than a walk, we cantered (which isn’t a full gallop, gut it’s more stimulating than a walk).
I was the only boy on the trail, and I think I know why: cantering tends to cause damaged body parts on guys as their pelvic region is smashed into the saddle over and over again at a fairly quick rate.

As we were nearing the end of the ride (I suspect 5-10 minutes from the end) we were really going and a woman was thrown from her horse.
We all stopped and the trail leader quickly jumped off.
She of course was ahead of the fallen rider (she was the leader after all) and I came up behind the fallen woman.
I also quickly jumped off and the trail leader looked up at us and (I swear I’m not making this up either) time slowed down as she said the words that every paying horse rider wants to hear:

“W-h-h-a-a-a-a-t-t-t d-o-o-o- I-i-i d-o-o-o-?-?-?”

After a democratic vote (since that’s what should be done in emergencies) we voted the trail leader should take off in a gallop and let the stables know they had a downed rider, and to call 911.
Without much philibustering we decided this was a good idea for the following reasons:

1. She was the only one who had actually ridden at a gallop intentionally
2. She knew how to get to the stables from where we were at
3. The rest of the horses were so keen on staring at the other horses back sides that without the visual aid of a horse tail they may have gotten any of us very lost on the trails.

While we waited for the emergency crews the gal who fell recovered pretty well, her glasses were found, and she was able to get in a standing position.
She was very embarrassed and apologized for ruining everyone’s ride multiple times.
To make matters worse, when the emergency crews got there (an amazing 15 minutes or less later) we all backed up leaving the woman standing alone like a beer in the headlights.
Well, OK, maybe more like a deer in the headlights.
The emergency crew consisted of a Police officer, a fire and rescue bigfoot truck (in case they needed to run over trees, Bambi, ford rivers or use a winch to climb small mountains), and an ambulance.
I think an attorney was following them, there was another vehicle – a minivan.
The emergency crew sprung into action by walking cautiously up to the woman and asking her some questions:

• Do you remember your name?
• Does everything feel OK? Are you hurt?
• Where did you get those pants? I’d like something like that for myself.
• Who’s the president?
• Yeah? Which one?

OK, so they didn’t ask all those questions, but some of them were asked.
We got to ride back to the stables a different route so that we didn’t spook the horses riding between an Explorer and Bigfoot.

A Peterman Homecoming

We had a great time – we drove through 4 states, we played multiple games in IN, we had good talks, Abigail was spoiled rotten with attention.
She fell in love with dogs.
I didn’t sleep half as much as I normally do (which is one of the reasons I accidentally walked into the wrong bathroom at the PLainfield Gold’s Gym – oops).
Jessica had a birthday, we all celebrated that by eating too much all week.
We drove home and were relieved to get off of the road.
2,264 miles were added to the Honda and we’re glad that we made it back.
Drive carefully, because if you don’t, I will.

Maranatha (Come Lord, return for your bride, the church)!

Randy Peterman

As it gets later tonight I can see that as this war with Iraq is not going to be a super fast adventure in world domination.
This is sad for a lot of people and there is a lot of angst around the world.
I don’t think this is too much of a surprise because there are a lot of angry people out there anyway.
But as this war is now here I’d like to make a few observations, most of which I hope you already know.
If not, hopefully they’re useful.

Jihad

I have had some recent conversations with family and friends regarding the absolutely asinine
view that this war is political.
The US says that it is political: defending the US from missiles and terrorism.
Both of those reasons are legitimate politically, except that it ignores the religious reasons
that the Iraqis and the Al Quaeda members are doing what they’re doing.
Because the western thought process generally involves the splitting of the spiritual from the
physical and furthermore makes the spiritual purely subject opinion we don’t recognize that
someone else who holds a religious belief could not have this dichotomy.
In fact, ignoring the fact that Fundamentalist Islam
¹ hates infadels
(non-Islam) makes the US and the rest of the world more succeptable to terrorist attacks
and missing the point of any Islamic military action.

Mohammad taught Jihad (Holy War against the infadels), Saddam Husein is only living out Jihad, he is
a religious zealot.
While this could be an over-simplification I would point out that he is also a dictator, and he does
have obvious other motivations, but none overshadow Islam.
Saddam is at the very least playing that card to motivate his leaders, soldiers, civilians and most
importantly sympathetic Arabic governments.
Be wary of this man because he is engaged in Holy War.

In fact this Holy War goes all the way back to Abraham’s sons Isaac and Ishmael.
Isaac, being the chosen one (through whom the seed and blessing would come (Read Genesis chapters 15-22 for more)), and Ishmael being the son of the maid-servant (the rejected older child) were the fathers of the two battling ethnicities.
Isaac was father to Jacob who was later renamed Israel (father of the nation now known as Israel) and Ishamel was promised that God would bless his sons as a strong nation as well.
Recognize that there has been bitterness between the two groups that far back!

Back the Red, White & Blue

Further on this subject some while back (1 month or so) I received a chain email
suggesting that due to Romans 12:20 we not go to war with Iraq.

Romans 12:20


20 ?But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so
doing you will heap burning coals on his head.?
²

This is a good verse that, in context, is quite applicable to personal situations wherein if one
person (or small party) finds conflict that the believer should behave in this manner.
However, trying to make Romans 12:20 say that we should not defend the safety of our country and
that we should tell the president to not go to war misses the point of the verse and ignores a verse later on in the passage.

Romans 12:21 talks about overcoming “…evil with good.” and that seems more along the lines of
what the US government is trying to do!
One should not take one verse out of its surrounding context.
In fact Romans 13:1-2 (the very two verses after 12:20-21) talk about subjecting yourself to the
authority of the government because God established them and put them there in the first place.
This of course does not mean we should blindly do what Uncle Sam says to do, but it does mean that
we should not look lightly at what God is doing through them.

Conclusion

Pray.
Pray a lot.
Pray so much that you wear holes in the knees of your pants (or skirts or dresses or robes), but
remember that in what you pray you have an intercessor.
And your relationship with that intercessor is what is powerful, not the prayers by themselves.
While there is physical war remember that there is also Spiritual Warfare (Ephesians 6), but
remember also that the war has already been won.
We know the outcome – Victory was won at the Cross.

Maranatha (Come Lord, return for your bride, the church)!

Randy Peterman

Footnotes

1)
I recognize that there are more moderate/liberal forms of Islamic teaching, but because there
are more liberal forms does not mean that you can lump all of Islam together.
You cannot say that because you know (or heard on Oprah) someone who embraces a more peaceful
form of Islam that no Muslims are really that intense, only a few extremists exist.
Likewise it would be silly to say that all people who claim to be Muslim are extremists.
Fundamenalists (Muslim or Christian) almost always tend to be extreme, they hold to the orthodox

(traditional) teachings of their religion – they take it literally and don’t allegorize like
more liberal practicioners do.
That means that when Christ says that those who don’t receive Him as their savior will go to hell
Christian fundamentalists take it at face value.
This also means that if Mohammad tells Muslims to kill the infadels (Non-Islam) to save them from
worse terror that fundamentalists take it at face value.
Neither view is friendly to the non-believer – but both views are intellectually honest to the point
of obedience and taking something at face value.




2) The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, (La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation) 1996.

OK, so I don’t stick with the look and layout for more than 3 months, and I’m sorry.
I spend more time working on a new look than I do adding new content.
I should be flogged, but I don’t have time for flogging.

Read This!

I’ve got some new stuff that I’m working on for the Bible section.
Note that its really early in its development.
I promise that as I get time I’ll add to it, since its theological you know it will get some attention.
I’m also working on a glossary of theological terms which I hope will be useful since most theological words go over the heads of the laity.

Abby

…is crawling now, she started Sunday night.
Jessica was so excited, I was in the bathroom (I know, too much information), and Jessica started calling for me.
I came out as fast as I could and got there just in time for Abby to look right at me and try to sit up.
It wasn’t crawling, but she did show me later.
I guess all of the pressure was too much.

This morning she got more shots.
This is fun, because as she gets older her emotions are much more developed so crying takes longer to stop (calm down).
But, she’s doing well, and she was glad to see me when I came home for lunch.

Opinion

Because this is my site, and I run the darn thing, and because I’m more opinionated than you (I know what you’re thinking. You’re wrong, I am more opinionated than you) I’m adding an opinion section.
This will house opinions on movies, music, life, and just about everything else that I want to publish an opinion on.
If you don’t agree with my opinion, feel free to write me, call me, email me, or send a messenger pigeon.
Remember, opinions are like belly buttons, almost everybody has one (with the exception of Adam and Eve and people who have them surgically removed).

Resting in Him,

Randy Peterman