This is a little boy in our church named Tristan Varner. Please pray for him as he is having an 8 week treatment for Lyme’s Disease. Tristan and his mother actually live in Austin, Texas but are out here for the treatments and are currently staying with the Reids. Great question for you…How old do you think Tristan is?

Just to let you know, Tristan is only 3! He looks a lot older huh?

This picture was only taken because of my wife complaining about us never taking pictures of each other. So here’s to the wife!

I leave you this time with some pictures of the fireworks. Let me know what you guys think.

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The Picture below pretty much best represents my life as of the last two weeks. I have a very intense fascination with cars. That fascination is dependent on one main clause…that they work.

My first car was pretty much a dream first car. It was an Acura Integra GS-R, it was a stick, redlined at 9,000 rpm it was amazing! After I totaled that one in college I got an even more amazing car, a Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T with about 330 horsepower. It was soooooo fast! That wore out with time, I sold it to a roommate and then got a Nissan Maxima SE. Great car, more roomy than any other car I’ve had before but still nice. I then got married to my wife Cristina, who has a Mazda 626. In the last two weeks I have had to replace the front axle and boot on her car, recharge it with Freeon, her car then overheated on Sunday (making for a wonderful time) we replaced all four of her tires, then my brakes started wearing out (wonderful metal on metal sound let me tell you) so I had to get those replaced. All this wouldn’t be bad if getting your car worked on were like going to the grocery store or some other venue of updating your life. However, car mechanics have this wonderful tact of telling you that EVERYTHING on your car is breaking all at once. You’ve been there before, you go in to get a nail taken out of your tire and they tell you, “while we were under your hood…” and then they continue to list off things like…

1. Your transmission is falling out from under your car

2. Your engine manifold left quarter head gasket seal is leaking from the front

3. Every hose or tube that connects something to anything is falling apart, cracked, or just old, so you know need that replaced

4. Your “hardware” needs to be replaced (In my world of computer technology hardware means anything that is outside of the computer’s operating system, you know anything that makes the computer work ram, hard drives, fans ect.) so wouldn’t think mean THE WHOLE CAR!!!!

5.  Now comes the fluid. You know most of your car is driven or runs by things that pump fluid from one part of the car to the another part of the car. Well of COURSE all the fluid needs to be replaced. They use fancy terms like drained, flushed, replenished, recharged, so on and so forth

Yes I know the list can just go on but I will choose to stop at least for now. To make a long story short Heaven will be great! I’ll never have to go into the shop to get my angel wings repaired. I’ll never have to get my halo fluid flushed because it has grown dim over the past 1,000 years. The bearings on my rollerblades will never have to get clean because the gold dust on the streets I skate on each day have clogged them up. I can just live 24/7 (or maybe that will change too because technically we don’t have days up there) 100% in awe of God and glorify Him.

Until my next post…

My thoughts in black and white

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On a side note, Cristina and I had a ton of fun moving Chris and Mel and we definitely enjoyed the bonding time. Thanks for the great get-a-way Mel and Chris! 

The funeral was conducted Saturday by Pastor Perham at Mercer Mortuary in downtown Phoenix. There were many in attendance, from firefighters, nurses, family members, friends, and church members who wanted to pay the respects to the family. Pastor preached a message on…

1. What Logan Could Not Do
2. What Logan Can Now Do
3. What Logan Wants You to Do

It was a serene time of remembrance, laughing, crying, and hopefulness as we watched a slideshow of Logan’s Life, heard a poem from Logan’s nurse (Milinda Preciado), and wonderful praise of the family from Logan’s uncle (Wayne Fournier) The day ended as everyone gathered outside for a balloon and butterfly release.

I couldn’t help myself but get wrapped up in the service. It was very painful to see such a wonderful family go through such a great tragedy. It was not even a year ago that Chris and Shelle went through the time of giving birth to two still born twin baby girls. Now they had to let their son go as well. So much of Chris and Shelle’s life was wrapped up in caring for Logan, from the Conversion Van they drove, to their house, their time, and their many trips to Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

It is times like this when you have a tendency to not look out in faith and ask God “Why?” We must remember Romans 8:28, and it is truly in “All things…” that God will work out for His Glory, our benefit, and the betterment of others.

Below is the front and back of the bulletin I got to put together for the funeral. Even if you don’t know them, please take time to say a prayer for the Harman family.

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Click here to play movie

My thoughts in black and white

AP