Last night, at the invitation of my wife, I took her out on a date. It has been some time since we last had a 'date night'. It was a simple date: a meal at The Great Wall here in Warsaw and some shopping for the kids. I tried a new dish at The Great Wall: Szeuchan Pork. It was shredded pork, onions, Chinese mushrooms and water chestnuts. It was excellent! i highly recommend it.

Today the alarm never sounded. I lay awake around 6:00am, waiting for 7:00. When it finally rolled around, I rose and made some Gevalia Mocha Java. It was a good cup of coffee: strong, with a bit of a bite. I was on my way to the church for our scheduled Spring work day as the raindrops began to fall.

Arriving at the church, I noticed that the clouds were clearing overhead. Through intermittent rain I trimmed a large tree, raked the clippings and some leaves, packed them into bags, washed the exterior of many windows and yanked out some concrete footers to our old sign. During this last project the skies opened up and the rain poured down. It was clear to me that this would be the last outside project I would help with. I was soaked by time we got everything cleaned up. It was a good half day of getting things spruced up around the church, and I am very appreciative of all those who came to help.

I am excited about this weekend: tomorrow we have our Annual Business Meeting and there will be ample opportunity for God to promote growth within His body. God is good all the time!

I finished a book this weekend called The Long Walk. It is the supposed true story of Slawomir Rawicz, a Polish soldier arrested by the Russians in 1939. He was allegedly banished to Siberia where he and others made a daring escape in a blizzard, aided by the Russain commandant's wife. These former prisoners of war fled southward and covered over 4000 miles on foot, through desert, mountains and forests to India.

If true, it is an amazing story of individualistic determination against all odds. If not, it is a spellbinding read.