Acts of the Apostles - Bible Study

This year our small group from church has been working through Acts of the Apostles. We just finished last week. Some of our meetings were virtual through video teleconferencing software so that we could meet during the COVID-19 lock down.

FCBC Life Group Acts 2019-2020

The Scroll of Isaiah - Bible Study

Last year, our church small group studied the Scroll of Isaiah. We worked through the scroll, taking bits at a time every two weeks. Here is a link to the content we went through in our small group:

Small-group-2018/2019-Isaiah

May the Fourth...

New Garden Beds

Our house came with some garden beds, but they were in a very shady place and in a bit of disrepair. So, Melissa has been working on setting up a new garden area. We used some Behlen galvanized bottomless planters, which look like stock tanks, but do not have a bottom (allowing water to percolate through). The garden has been very happy and getting much more sunlight.

5 weeks of Lock Down

We are five weeks into the Stay Home, per the governor of Idaho. The governor is rolling out a phased plan to return the interaction of people to normal. Social distancing has worked pretty well so far to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. The CDC reversed their stance on masks, but I think they didn't want an additional run on personal protective equipment (as there has been apparently a short supply for hospitals and medical workers), so they said that your should fashion your own masks. It looks like social and economic factors will be affected by the new ways of operating for a long time. Businesses are realizing you can effectively manage employees remotely, and still be productive. The lessons learned from online education are now being learned by traditional business.

COVID-19 and Stay Home

The world has caught the Corona Virus. The governor of Idaho has issued a state-wide 'Stay at Home' order. So here we are, staying at home. It was nice we hit Disneyland a month ago, as it looks like we are not going to be out much for the next month, or three.

Americans seem to be adverse to wearing breathing masks. Other cultures, such as Korea and Japan are much more culture friendly to wearing masks. From photos of the great pandemic of 1918, it looks like people were more apt to wear masks in the USA a hundred years ago. The CDC reports that wearing masks is more helpful if you are sick, but it seems like there is push back from various physicians about that information.

Information, in the information age, is a precious, but yet also an abundant commodity. Good information is precious, but that it rests in a sea of information that is opinion, misinformation, and ignorance.

On the social media platform Facebook, I saw an article re-posted by the Rockbridge Virginia Historical Society about the 1918 influenza pandemic:

This was encouragement from another time from another pandemic, and I think it is good medicine for the heart. The verses were apt:

• 2 Chronicles 7:13-16 NIV
• 13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

• Joel 2:12-18 NIV
• 12 “Even now,” declares the Lord,
  “return to me with all your heart,
     with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
  13 Rend your heart
     and not your garments.
  Return to the Lord your God,
      for he is gracious and compassionate,
  slow to anger and abounding in love,
      and he relents from sending calamity.
  14 Who knows? He may turn and relent
      and leave behind a blessing—
  grain offerings and drink offerings
      for the Lord your God.
  15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
      declare a holy fast,
      call a sacred assembly.
  16 Gather the people,
      consecrate the assembly;
  bring together the elders,
      gather the children,
      those nursing at the breast.
  Let the bridegroom leave his room
      and the bride her chamber.
  17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,
      weep between the portico and the altar.
  Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord.
      Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
      a byword among the nations.
  Why should they say among the peoples,
     ‘Where is their God?’”
  18 Then the Lord was jealous for his land
      and took pity on his people.

• Psalm 3:5-8 NIV
• 5 I lie down and sleep;
      I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
  6 I will not fear though tens of thousands
      assail me on every side.
  7 Arise, Lord!   
  Deliver me, my God!
  Strike all my enemies on the jaw;   
  break the teeth of the wicked.
  8 From the Lord comes deliverance.   
  May your blessing be on your people.

• Matthew 11:28 NIV
• Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

• 1 John 2:1 NIV
• My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

Addendum (6/17/2020): 

Apparently the government was 'down-playing' mask efficacy to ensure health care workers got the n95 masks first. We've reached stage 4 of the recovery in Idaho, and most people (outside healthcare and job-requirements) are not wearing masks at all.

• "Fauci Confirms Public-Health Experts Downplayed Efficacy of Masks to Ensure They Would Be Available to Health-care Workers"

Space Engineers

Been playing a bit of Space Engineers recently. A fun game with a load of engineering and physics. Though the physics is a bit truncated to allow the game to run efficiently.

Anyway, good fun with explosions and whatnot.