A Voice Less Vivid

With fear and trembling, I mention that you can hear one cut from Ben's band, A Voice Less Vivid, from their EP CD by the same title (I think). You can also hear a live recording of their parody of "emo" music here:
http://www.purevolume.com/avoicelessvivid

Disclaimer: while some of their music is very nice, you must listen at your own risk. However, if you are familiar with the term "emo" music, their parody of it, "Double-edged Words (A Meal of Sorrow in Three Courses: or How I Learned to Love New Pain, Old Tears and Sour Milk)" is actually very funny! But you have to listen carefully- some of the funniest lines are in the quiet, side comments...

Tim's First MIAA Win of the Year

Tim had another great race Saturday, September 23, at the first of two yearly conference meets. He won the race, with the Men's team sweeping the top 5 places. Way to go Knights! You can read an interesting piece in the Grand Rapids Press here:
http://tinyurl.com/hc7gr

Time with Agur

We enjoyed a special treat when our dear friend, Agur Adams came to visit. He is freshly back from his second tour in Iraq, and is now in California preparing for his third deployment as a 1st Lt. in the Marine Corps First Reconnaisance Battalion. He is a wonderful young man, and we are so grateful for his friendship and service! Above, he is standing betweem Marilyn and Dave on a hike we took to the Valle Caldera, on a misty, cool day in the Jemez Mountains.

Celebrating Marilyn

September brought Marilyn's 80th birthday, and five of her children to New Mexico to celebrate! Pictured above, from left to right: (standing): Paul's wife June, daughter Michelle, Dave's wife Chris, Kathleen's daughter Erika, daughter Kathleen, (sitting:) son Paul, son Terry, Marilyn, son Dave, Kathleen's husband Kirk. We enjoyed visiting, hiking, and shopping in Santa Fe.

Calvin Cross Country: Off and Running!

The Inaugural Calvin Invitational, and the first race of Tim's senior cross-country season, was run last Saturday on the Calvin campus in Grand Rapids. The guys and gals did wonderfully, with both teams winning their events. Tim won the men's race in a time of 24:58, and really enjoyed the run, as can be seen by the smile above as he crossed the finish line. He also got to set the course record, since it was the first running of the event on this course. You can see more about the race, including recaps, results and photos, here:
http://tinyurl.com/nen3o
And you can see an article about the team from the Grand Rapids Press here:
http://tinyurl.com/ls8uw

An Exciting Adventure for Tim

As if the start of the cross-country season were not enough for Timothy, he has new excitement afoot, and it has been a real revelation in the wonder and the care and the providence of God!

Tim is a senior electrical engineering student at Calvin, and that means the big Senior Design Project this year. This is a large, discipline-integrated, year-long project. After several failed attempts at putting a group together and coming up with an acceptable project, this week it was as if the clouds parted. Where there was no direction on Monday, an amazing plan is in place on Friday! And all along, God went before Tim, planning and guiding in amazing ways!

Tim will be working on a team with three chemical engineers to design a bio-fuel power generation and power grid system for what will be the first (and only) distinctively Christian University in Cambodia! Through an amazing series of things, which all looked unrelated to us at the time, Tim has taken an excellent class in power systems and grids, so he feels excited and prepared for the work. And it looks like he will be able to take a trip to Cambodia during the January interim mini-semester, spending almost three weeks in the area where the university is being built, and seeing the site and talking to folks in the area about the university. How is that for amazing!

So, we would appreciate your prayers for this endeavor. Since it is so obviously God's plan, we are moving ahead, though we are unsure how Tim will raise the funds to go, and despite the fact that they fly into Bangkok, Thailand, where there was a military coup this week. We'll keep everyone updated on his adventure here! And you can see some more information about the interim class here:
http://tinyurl.com/fmfr8