Happy Birthday, Melba

We are in Arizona for Christmas week staying with Peggy's cousins, Melba and Dick Callender. Peg's mom is with us. Melba's birthday is on Christmas day so we have been celebrating that while here in Scottsdale. Happy Birthday, Melba!

Christmas Greetings

(This is Nuggets, a cat we took care of for some friends.)

Merry Christmas From Perky

She was actually this small last year (in June).

I'm on Vacation!

Woo-hoo.

Christmas in Arizona is coming.

Peg Some Better, Still Has Pneumonia

It's been a long stretch. Peggy got the results of her CT scan today. Her lung has recovered. She still has pneumonia though. She's feeling a little better but she's definitely ready to be well.

White Christmas

It's snowing in Springfield. Starting to accumulate a little. So it's sort of a white Christmas for Peggy and me as we are spending the day on getting Christmas stuff sent out. Peggy had an early CT scan as she continues to have breathing problems. Monday we'll know if the pneumonia and/or her partially collapsed lung have gotten worse. She's discouraged, as this has lasted so long.

Perky is in the Christmas spirit, attacking the tree and repeatedly removing the lights.

"Tower of Belem" Wins Award

My shot of the Tower of Belem, which guards the harbor of Lisbon, Portugal, took first place for this week in the We Travel the World contest, a Flickr photo group with 6,669 members. I was invited to submit it. It was my introduction to online photo groups and my first photo submitted.

Click on the photo to go to my Flickr site. There you can view a larger version of the shot. There are lots of shots of this but few from this angle, from a ship leaving Lisbon harbor. I also benefited by shooting at golden time, late afternoon with the sun low on the horizon.

From Alaska in July

This week's TPE carries my Alaska story, plus we have TPExtras, a podcast here, and a slideshow here.

Posing Pakistani Mechanics

I shot this three and a half years ago in a small town in Pakistan.

Niger: A Look Back

My trip to Niger from a few years ago.

Ice

An AP report titled, "Deadly Ice Storm Grips Heartland," said, "Powerful system blacks out 600,000 homes, grounds flights, closes schools, blamed for 18 deaths." But the worst of it has bypassed our little piece of the Midwest. Although my friend Col. Scott McChrystal had his Delta flight delayed a full day because Delta was unprepared for deicing their planes.

It's still drizzly this morning, but not nearly as cold. All of our ice has melted.

Slideshow of last week's ethnicity commission

Here is a larger format slideshow with some highlights from last week. Click here.

Ice storm hit north of us much worse than here.

MO Governor Proclaims State of Emergency

Ice is still lurking in our part of the state as an ice storm warning continues. It has already hit upstate, knocking out power in some locales. Most rural schools in the area have been closed in anticipation of what is supposed to hit tonight. At least one church canceled service tonight. It will be interesting to see what's awaiting when my alarm goes off at 6 a.m. tomorrow.

Peggy is still not doing too well. Still going through her second course of antibiotics and using an inhaler to help her breathing.

We appreciate those of you who have let us know you have been praying for her. Pray for those without power tonight. We well remember that from last winter. It's no fun.

Burkina Faso 2004 Missions

Here is a slide show I did long ago but just recently uploaded. It's of one of my favorite international trips ... to Burkina Faso in 2004 for a World Missions Edition story. Got to do some ministry as well. It was a photographer's dream.

Winter Storm Warning

Well, we are under a winter storm warning. Some are saying it could usher in an ice storm as severe as last year. Hope not. Here are some shots from last year's ice storm. The first one is a juniper in our front yard.

Move of God in Ethnicity Commission

Here I am with my friend Samuel Asiedu, president of the African Fellowship of the AG, after the landmark Ethnicity Commission meeting that took place yesterday. I will be blogging about this on the TPE Blog and also doing an article in the magazine. It was a powerful day. More later.

Please continue praying for Peggy. She received results today from her tests yesterday. She still has pneumonia and she also has a partially collapsed lung. She's a very sick little girl and we really need the Lord to touch her.

Cormorant With Ducks

Took this on a rare day in Oct. 2004 when a cormorant showed up to hang out with the ducks at Drummond Lake.

Other Cameras

On the cruise, all four of us had cameras. Remember when there would be only one camera in a group of vacationers? All the previous shots were on my camera. Here are a few from the other three photographers.

Peggy:

This is a great camel train shot.

Jim:



Sherryl:

Persistent

Peggy is still fighting this bug we caught on the cruise, as are Jim & Sherryl. Peggy has viral pneumonia. I have started coughing again and am fighting symptoms now again. Jim had been over it, then got it again. Never really had anything this persistent before.

Looking forward to tomorrow. I will be interviewing the Navy Chief of Chaplains for our TPE podcast.

Cruise on Slideshow

All the shots I currently have on Flickr in a slideshow. Click "fast" to see them more quickly. Click the bottom black bar for captions.

Last of Barcelona

While we were walking through the Park de la Ciutadella next to the zoo, this beast charged out and grabbed Peggy in its trunk.




These gorgeous parrots are common in Spain. They are originally escapees that have established sustaining flocks. We saw them a number of times. There were a lot of them in this park.

Rose-Ringed Parakeets are technically what they are, though much bigger than our parakeets. The rose ring is difficult to see and found only in the male.


We didn't realize that Barcelona had its own version of the Arc de Triomf. It was constructed for the 1888 Great Exhibition of Barcelona. It is the portal to the Park de la Ciutadella.

View through the Arc, away from the park.

Back to the hotel. Peg and I had left our stuff in Jim & Sherryl's room since we checked out in the morning. We made our evening flight and though we had some long layovers (including all night in the lounge chairs in Amsterdam), the trip home was not as eventful as the one over.

Vacation highlights over! It was a great trip and spending it with Jim and Sherryl made it extra-special.

Then, it was back to work.

Back to Barcelona

The day after we got off the ship, we caught a cab to see some of the major Barcelona sights we had missed before.

Gaudi's masterwork in Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia cathedral, never finished, eternally in a state of construction.




Some detail of the modernistic, sometimes grotesque architecture.



Saint Paul's Hospital


This was a fascinating sight on Avenida Gaudi. Note the six elderly men on the bench on one side of the square, and the six elderly women on the other.

Gibraltar

Jim is not in our Gibraltar pictures. He was the first of us to get sick. He missed this whole day.


This is a common view of the Rock, but it's actually only a small part of it. I shot this from the top of the Rock.


Peggy and friend.


The Gibraltar apes were the best part of this tour. They are wild but used to tourists. This one is commandeering a vehicle.


Mother and baby.




"Nice view, huh?"


View of Gibraltar From the Great Siege Tunnels


Evacuation monument.

We thought we were going to be in big trouble with Jim. He was in the ship sick and we lost Sherryl! She got separated from the group and we didn't know where she was for quite awhile. Our entire group yelled "Sherryl" but she was nowhere to be found. Finally, our guide got a call from another guide. When she couldn't find us, she had hooked up with another group that was part of the same tour.

Oklahoma

No, our next stop after Lisbon was not Oklahoma. We take a brief break from our cruise review as I am in Oklahoma City for my first board meeting as president of the International Pentecostal Press Association. Back to the cruise later.

Leaving Lisbon

The Tower of Belem was erected in 1515 to guard Lisbon Harbor.


The 1960 Discoveries Monument

Lisbon, Portugal

Peggy at Praca do Comercio


Ken at Arco da Victoria


Cathedral




The massive Cristo Rei is an echo of Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer.


April 25 Bridge is fashioned after the Golden Gate. Note Christ the King statue barely visible at lowest part of suspension cables on right of pic.