Keller Family Blog

My alma mater is bringing back the University Choir!  That is wonderful. I have great memories and think of many of my friends from U-Choir over the years. And to make things better the come back page has a picture of one of the choir years I was in.  Of course it is so small it is hard to see all of the people in it to identify everyone.  Anyway congratulations Purdue Musical Organization on bringing back the U-Choir.  http://www.pmojo.com/uchoir/

To bad I am no where near them to come and see a performance.

We went to the Royal Botanical Gardens today with Rachael and Nate and her parents.  As we were re-entering the park after a bit of morning tea, Rachel noted a little boy crying as he came out of the park. As he was walking through the crowd, Rachael wondered if he was lost. We kept an eye as he passed several families that could have been his. Rachael and Karlissa then took off toward him as he was getting to the road. I headed into the edge of the park with Jaden looking to see if we saw anyone frantically looking for a child.

Crystal and the girls followed as they crossed the street and headed to the memorial monument. The boy looked to be about 5 and they didn’t know how his english skills were when they tried to ask him about his family and stuff. (He was of Asian descent). They found some guards that the monument and a park employee who had a radio.

Meanwhile Jaden and I watched the park. I prayed that we could find his family. Crystal and Shay did too. I approached one Asian lady who told me that she wasn’t looking for anyone. I spotted a lady talking on a mobile phone walk toward me and then then look back and walk away. I spotted her a few minutes later talking to some older ladies and one walked away saying something over her shoulder in . I approached the lady and asked her if she was looking for a little boy. She said “YES” and confirmed he was wearing a blue shirt. I said he was with a friend and my family. Since we saw him leave the park alone. I called Crystal to let her know I had the mum and to ask where they were.

Rachel said as he was walking to the memorial that he kept saying “Mum here” something so she assumes that they were at the war memorial earlier in the day.  They with the park employees started walking toward us and we walked toward them. We were probably about 500m apart when we started toward each other. Needless to say there was quite a joyful reunion for the mum. The boy looked scared still. (Probably wondering if he was in trouble) We let them hug and we left. I had hoped for more conversation but knew that we had fulfilled the part God wanted us to in the reunion bit.

Well, I started an upgrade. As you can see from our  blog that it looks a little bit different.  I need to get the image of us (or an updated one) back on the top, but too tired to finish that now.

Looks like my site is broken…No matter which thing I click on I come back to the home page.  Guess it is time to upgrade Wordpress…Been putting it off while doing other things. Perhaps later today or on Monday.

In all of the tragedy surrounding the fires here in Victoria, we have had a small chance to help. Crystal and Karlissa two days ago went to church to help at a memorial service for a mother and her sons.

But I just learned of a story from the fires that was quite incredible. I thought I would share it with you. I just saw this article today. In the article it talked about a son hiring a helicopter and sending it to pick up his parents. The son was using Google Earth on his PC to pass the cooridinates to the pilot as the clearing was obscured by smoke. Incredible story.

Wow.

Ever since we moved to Australia and bought a mini-van (people mover as they call it here) our interier dome light didn’t work when we opened the doors.  So when we would pull up and park and open the doors, the van remained dark.  If we got in the car at night it would be dark. We could push a button and get light, but it wasn’t quite the same. On Tuesday this week that has changed. The light was fixed as it was under warranty. Now when we open the doors, light instantly bathes the front seats and there is enough residual to illuminate the rear for the kids as well. Also when the back hatch is put up a light now comes on back there too. (unrelated but similar fix) Being able to open the door and get light right away is amazing.

After experiencing the light, I wondered how we ever tolerated the darkness. The same goes for our Spiritual lives. So many (up to 97% of Australians by some estimates) are living in the dark spiritually. Jesus IS the light. And His light is available to be shined on any life. Why someone would choose the dark when the light is available, still baffles me, but the truth is that they have never seen the light. So many times we as Christians obscure the light in our lives. We just need to live and let the light shine. As we shine the light then others around us may notice they are in the dark and will want some of the light too.

It may not seem like the right thing at first as there are a bunch of things we like to do in the dark which we don’t want others to know about. But again, unless the light shines there is never true healing.

Jesus said: “I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in darkness.” John 12:46 (NET Bible)

May the lights at Christmas remind you of the Light that came into this world.

Yes, we voted in the USA elections and sent our Abseentee ballots back to FL.  Whether they will ever be opened and counted I have no idea.  They only open them if a race is close enough to warrant opening the ballots.  Basically if the race is won by 2000 votes and there were only 1000 Absentee ballots then there is no need to open the Absentee ballots.  If the candidate is leading by 1000 votes and there are 2000 Absentee ballots they will open as many Absentee ballots until the outcome is decided.  Therefore my ballot will only be opened if it is a very close race.

Wow, here is a theory with some potentially huge implications for Evolutionary Theory. Why, it impacts our perceived age of the universe. If the universe were to be proved less old than the current thinking about the age of the Earth, that would require a rethink.

Basically a new theory has emerged to explain the oddities of needing Dark Matter and stuff. It is that the Earth (whole Solar system) sits in a “cosmic bubble” of less material. This would act like a lense and altering the perceived distance of things.  Here is the article from Fox News. The yet to be fully peer-reviewed theory will be published later this month. Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,430943,00.html

So on Sunday evening Jaden ate his first ever Pizza.  We had bought an Orgran Pizza Crust mix several months ago. The kids were itching to make something last night for dinner instead of having leftovers so I mentioned to them that they could make a Jaden Safe Pizza.  Shay and Karlissa jumped on it.

We greased the pan with Nuttelex and sprinkled some Polenta (corn meal) on it.  Then we followed the directions to make the Pizza Crust. The kids did all of the kneading and such.  We rolled it out with a round drinking glass since we don’t have a rolling pin in Australia. Then all four helped pinch the sides, put sauce and meat on it. We used some left over roast chicken, some ham and some Green Capsicum (Green Pepper).  Wish we had had some more veggies in the house we could have put on. Of course there was no cheese put on the pizza as there is no dairy free cheese substitute that is free from Soy (at least not that we have found).

Anyway after 15 minutes in the oven Karlissa pulled out the pizza (and dropped it but we had a great save).   We carried it to the table and fed one very excited boy and an excited family.

The neighborhood directly south of my old neighborhood in FL found bombs near it.  Surprise, Surprise they say.  Hmm.  I heard many years ago (at least that it was next door to a WWII practice bombing range. A co-worker at least a decade ago was looking for land for his church and he found quite easily that the area had been an old bombing range.  He said that it was mostly duds used for practice, but still there would be a LOT of lead and shrapnel in and around the ground area.  We figured there would need to be a lot of cleanup on the site if anything would want to be built there.  That really didn’t take a lot of work to turn up, but now the school board cries foul in that they didn’t know there was the possibility of bombs in the area.  I suspect they are taking the play it ignorant stance. If I knew there had to be plenty of others that knew the possibility.  If anything the land that we knew was a bombing range started maybe 500 yards/meters south of the land where they found the unexploded shells last year, but still someone else with more authority knows there was a potential problem.  I also think it is a little silly watching them use metal detectors in the video story below looking for bombs in an area that is now 5 feet higher than it was a decade ago. All of the dirt in the area shown on the video was taken from a couple of holes that have been turned into lakes.  That should mean that any bombs left in much of the housing area would likely be 5-8 feet underground and very difficult to detect.

Reference:  http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=8861633&ch=4226713&src=news