Rach and I are heading off in the morning for a 4 day hike in the Drakensberg mountains. The Management Committees from this coming years teams are going along with a guide and a member of the office staff. We will do some team building exercises and a lot of walking. Its going to be great. I will get some pictures up with when we get back. Cheers.
Chris
Merry Christmas!!!
Rachel and I are enjoying our day before we get back to training in a few days. We woke up and had a great pancake breakfast and are going to go to a movie this afternoon (I love going to the movies on Christmas). I would give up the movie though to watch some football though. Oh well.
Last night we went with some friends to a small methodist church on the outskirts of Jo’burg for a Christmas service. It’s funny that we love this little church because if you can think of the stereotypical traditional church, this is it. Full of old people and lame music, but there is something about the preacher that draws us there. He is this down to earth guy that speaks so beautifully about God in a way that is not flashy or trying to be a rock star or anything else that makes churches so cheesy. He said something that was great. He said that Christianity isn’t about trying to morally superior to everyone in the world or being arrogant about having some understanding about God, rather Christianity is just about accepting the gift of love, forgiveness and healing from God. It was simple and great. I needed to hear that. It’s so easy for me to make God and Christianity my “work”, but it was good for me to hear that God loves me enough to come to Earth and die for me. Because he loves me, that’s all.
Merry Christmas.
Chris
I have never really been a huge fan of county music. I have lied many times and said that I hate it, but honestly while I’m not a huge fan, there are times when it’s ok to listen to a little country (however, it is never acceptable at weddings when there is a slot in the program where the brides cousin gets up and sings some sappy country song while we awkwardly all stare at the two folks getting married as they just lit a unity candle and are making little chit chat and secrets which I can only assume are about sex or how crazy their parents are acting).
Anyways. Tonight I came home and started singing a mid 90’s country song called “That Ain’t My Truck”. I don’t know where it came from or how it was raised from the depths of my mind, but it was there and it made me laugh. It made me laugh on 2 levels: 1-It’s a stupid song about a guy who goes to his girlfriends house and find a different truck in her driveway, sad I know. 2-I love the image of some redneck hick in the mid 90’s driving around in his 4×4 crying and singing this song over and over while it plays on repeat in his cd player. I mean come on that’s funny. Stupid hick. Hahahahahaha. Try to find the song, its really great. Perfect for karaoke. Cheers.
Chris
For you who didn’t know Rachel collects fingernail clippers. Not just normal ones, but collector clippers. She counted them today and she has over 80 pairs of clippers. They break down into different groups: American Cities and States, Foreign Cities and Countries, Pictures (which are nail clippers with different pictures such as butterflies, sunsets or bass fish) and Novelty (which are clippers that are shaped and look like something else, like a ladybug, violin, alligator or race car (thanks Sean Ihrig). Just thought I would let you know. Cheers.
Chris
Right after it gets dark there has been a storm rolling in over the past few nights. I don’t know if its the change in temperature after a really hot day, or some change in atmospheric pressure that I can’t feel, but Guinness gets really excited. She comes alive and starts acting crazy, goes outside and runs around and starts barking at everything. I think she is trying to scare off the coming storm. However, a dog can fight as hard as he or she wants, but nothing that dog can do can stop the storm.
In life there many storms that attack and many times we fight and fight against them, but they still come. It can be an accident that cripples someone, a divorce, a cheating spouse, a best friend dies, cancer. Thats life. It’s not pretty, but it’s life. As humans another thing that we seek is someone to blame and many times that blame gets put on God. As a christian and more than that, as an “ordained minister” I feel people look to me and expect me to be able to have all the right answers, but what I have come to realize is that there are not clear answers to all life’s questions. The other thing that I am learning now as I get older is that I don’t have to have all the right answers. If I don’t know, I don’t know and thats fine, because that uncertainty is part of life as well. It just breaks my heart when people hate God because they have unanswered questions about life. And the more we chase these questions, that have no answers the more it’s like we are barking at the storm.
Man, I wish I knew everything. Because I would write a book that everyone would buy and I would be rich and have a helicopter and a custom chopper built on the Discovery Channel with an airbrushed picture of my book on the gas tank, but I don’t. I am just an ordinary guy who hopes that everyone realizes that there is a God and decides to live their life for God. I don’t think it right for people to be to stop asking questions, but there just are some huge “I don’t knows” out there and It’s in those “I don’t knows” that we see that there has to be something bigger than us, something with the answers. Just thinking. Cheers.
Chris
Ray and I were watching a TV show, Grey’s Anatomy, tonight and the show is set in Seattle. There was a closing shot where 2 of the characters were in a park walking on a pine straw path within a maze of towering pine trees. It was beautiful. I love the that area of America. When we were touring with Traveling Mercies we performed at an even in Portland, OR each year and I must say those trips to Portland were always a highlight for me. The scenery, the people, the city, the mass transit system, the coffee, it’s a fantastic place. If you ever have the opportunity to visit that area I highly recommend it. From Oregon up to Seattle and onward to Vancouver. I would love a chance to go back sometime. I hope that becomes a reality sometime. Cheers.
Chris
Rachel and I bought a Christmas tree last year to decorate our house. It wasn’t a typical green tree, it was a Christmas tree shape made out of sticks and twisted twigs, really cool. Well, when we got back from Europe we were going to get the old tree out, but noticed something strange. Our Christmas tree is being hollowed out by termites. If you listen closely you can hear them eating away. So needless to say the tree is going out with the trash tomorrow (Tuesday is trash day for us here if you had ever thought to yourself, ‘I wonder when Chris and Rachel Holohan’s trash day is?’). So no Christmas tree this year, maybe next year. Cheers.
Chris
Rachel and I bought our first TV today. We got a Christmas present from a host family that we stayed with in London and used the money to get a TV. It’s nothing fancy, but It’s a ton better than what we had. We were borrowing this little bitty TV from a friend that we work with and you couldn’t plug a DVD player up to it, so it wasn’t the entertainment hub of the home. So anyways just thought I would express my excitement. I can finally play my Playstation that has been collecting dust. Cheers.
Chris
We are home. It’s nice. It’s been a long time. Cheers.
Chris
Rachel is sleeping on the floor next to me as we sit waiting during our 7 hour lay over in Dubai. We landed about 3am and are leaving at 1015. Then it’s a 8 hour trip and we are home. I can’t wait.
This Airport is more like a mall than an airport, but that doesn’t make 7 hours shorter. I think I am going to pull up some rug next to Ray and catch a few zzzz’s before our flight. A guy that looks just like Borat walked by a few seconds ago. Oh well. Cheers.
Chris
