Getting Old Is Different When It's You!

Getting older is so much different when it's you that's moving up in the age bracket. I was talking to a friend recently and asked him if he had turned 50 yet, he responded, "No, not until next year! But I just had an epiphany of growing older. My daughter had some music on that was "rocky", Gospel, but rocky and caught myself banging on her door telling her to turn that noise down. I stopped myself there in the hallway and said, I've just turned into my Dad!"

Those of us born in 1959 are very quickly approaching the half century mark, but it doesn't feel like 50. I am still young inside. Perhaps I am young ONLY in my mind. My body reminds me that it is well aware that 50 is very near. When my Dad turned 50 he was very old....but the 50 I am facing in about 14 months surely is not the same 50! I am so young! Ha! This comic strip is the epitome of the way I feel.....dumb mirror!!!!!

Wheels of Life

Thought you all would enjoy this one!

Praying for Our Friends In Harm's Way

We have many friends in the Houston and surrounding area that will be experiencing the brunt of Hurricane Ike. Our prayers are with you and your families and churches.

Incredible UPCI Impressionist

Tyler Sullivan had this on his blog and I thought it was great!

Judge backs UC on Christian textbooks

This article was on yesterday's front page of our newspaper, DAILY BREEZE:

Judge backs UC on Christian textbooks
By Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle Article

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution.
Disputing claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said the university's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking.
Otero's ruling Friday, which focused on specific courses and texts, followed his decision in March that found no anti-religious bias in the university's system of reviewing high school classes. Now that the lawsuit has been dismissed, a group of Christian schools has appealed Otero's rulings to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
"It appears the UC is attempting to secularize private religious schools," attorney Jennifer Monk of Advocates for Faith and Freedom said Tuesday. Her clients include the Association of Christian Schools International, two Southern California high schools and several students.
Charles Robinson, the university's vice president for legal affairs, said the ruling "confirms that UC may apply the same admissions standards to all students and to all high schools without regard to their religious affiliations." What the plaintiffs seek, he said, is a "religious exemption from regular admissions standards."
The suit, filed in 2005, challenged UC's review of high school courses taken by would-be applicants to the 10-campus system. Most students qualify by taking an approved set of college preparatory classes; students whose courses lack UC approval can remain eligible by scoring well in those subjects on the Scholastic Assessment Test.
Christian schools in the suit accused the university of rejecting courses that include any religious viewpoint, "any instance of God's guidance of history, or any alternative ... to evolution."
But Otero said in March that the university has approved many courses containing religious material and viewpoints, including some that use such texts as "Chemistry for Christian Schools" and "Biology: God's Living Creation," or that include scientific discussions of creationism as well as evolution.
UC denies credit to courses that rely largely or entirely on material stressing supernatural over historic or scientific explanations, though it has approved such texts as supplemental reading, the judge said.
For example, in Friday's ruling, he upheld the university's rejection of a history course called Christianity's Influence on America. According to a UC professor on the course review committee, the primary text, published by Bob Jones University, "instructs that the Bible is the unerring source for analysis of historical events" and evaluates historical figures based on their religious motivations.
Another rejected text, "Biology for Christian Schools," declares on the first page that "if (scientific) conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong," Otero said.
He also said the Christian schools presented no evidence that the university's decisions were motivated by hostility to religion.
UC attorney Christopher Patti said Tuesday that the judge assessed the review process accurately.
"We evaluate the courses to see whether they prepare these kids to come to college at UC," he said. "There was no evidence that these students were in fact denied the ability to come to the university."
But Monk, the plaintiffs' lawyer, said Otero had used the wrong legal standard and had given the university too much deference.
"Science courses from a religious perspective are not approved," she said. "If it comes from certain publishers or from a religious perspective, UC simply denies them."

Camp Meeting 2008

Here is a slideshow of some of the pics we took at Camp. It was one of the best Camps we have ever had. I want to thank everyone who attended and made it great! I have a long list of "thank you's" that I will add to this post. Enjoy the pictures!

For more pictures of Camp Meeting 2008, make sure you get to the following blogs. They have some great shots.

Shirley Buxton
Ronda Hurst
Tena Valenti

Happy Birthday Steve!

Steve turned 22 on August 1st. This was the first year in a while that his birthday wasn't in the middle of Camp Meeting. We are late in our posting due to being in Santa Maria this past week. We are very proud of Steve or Stevo as we call him. He's a great young man that lives for God, is our drummer in the church, works at Western Credit Union and is going to school at a neighboring college. He is the life of the party....whether it's here at home or at a major conference. Buddy, we love you and pray God best for you! You make us laugh and our hearts warm by the love you show to us. It's hard to believe our little boy is all grown up!