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This page contains the latest news in Doug and Marsha's life
and
a list of the most recently developed pages on this large web site.
Date: December 31, 2023
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Dear Friends,
The year 2023 enabled many wonderful trips throughout 5 continents.
Benefits were wrought from the stockmarket turning a 25% profit for
the year. The Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship (FGBMFI) elected
a new International President, Francis Owusu, from Ghana, who asked
Doug to continue to serve as the International Secretary, one of
four executive officer positions in the non-profit organization,
serving in over 80 nations.
Doug continued to work productively for JPMorgan Chase &
Co. as a Software Engineer, serving many people in his role.
On multiple trips, Doug had the opportunity to print, use, and share
more copies of his highly regarded (and recently republished) book in
three languages:
Doug earned "Diamond status" on
Delta Airlines in 2023 (for 2024) as a result of flying (and spending) a
lot. Doug often stayed at Hilton Hotels, being a Diamond in
2023.
Among the many trips and events were the following:
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January 28 - February 15, Bali Indonesia (for
Outrach meeting & vacation); Kualau Lumpur, Malayasia for FGBMFI
International Directors Meeting; Hong Kong, China to visit close
friend and family who lost mother.
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March 10, Sarasota, Florida, for FGBMFI
Sarasota Chapter Meeting (also on Sept. 8, Oct. 13, and Nov. 10)
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March 17-19, North
Carolina - FGBMFI North Carolina Men's Advance in
Oak Island, NC
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March 23-25,
Miami and West Palm Beach, Florida for
Personal meetings with Chapter leaders in
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March 29,
Tampa, Florida, for Meeting of International
Secretary with Assistant to Interational Secreatary & wives
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April 14-16, San Pedro Sula, Honduras, for
Latin Presidents and Naitonal Directors Regional Conference
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May 17-20, Houton, Texas, for FGBMFI USA
National Convention.
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July 9-17, Accra, Ghana for 2023 FGBMFI World
Convention
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July 28-30, Charlotte North Carolina, for Fire
Team Outreach
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Septempber 1-2, Managua, Nicaragua, for FIHNEC
Latin America Convention
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September 12-17,
Adelaide, Australia.
Speaker at FGBMFI Australian National Convention.
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September 29 - October 1, Trinidad of Trinidad
& Tobago, Key speaker at Caribbean Convention
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October 20-23, Viena, Austria, for FGBMFI
European Convention (Representing International President)
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December 6-9, San Diego, California for FGBMFI
Leaders meeting with FGGF Leaders; Los Angeles, California for
meeting with Spansh/Chinese chapter & Chinese Leaders meeting.
Glad to serve the Lord, Doug contributed time, service, and lots of
travel expenses for the non-profit organization, Full Gospel Business
Men's Fellowship International (FGBMFI), for which he continues to serve as
International Secretary, under a newly elected International President. He "chaired" all three International
Directors meetings this year, including the ID meeting in Fegruary
2023 in Malaysia, where Francis Owusu (from Ghana) was elected
International President. Doug has served as an executive officer since
February 2018, and he enjoys serving the Fellowship and its people and
mission.
Doug continued to enjoy participating in international
computer programming contests
(via TopCoder,
and a few with CodeForces).
Doug
has continued to run once or twice a week with one of the two dogs, averaging 13 to 15
minutes per mile for 2 to 5 miles. He feels fortunate to be able still
run at age 57. The dog, Napoleon, is getting much older than Doug (in
dog years) and seems to have trouble keeping up on Doug's longer runs,
thus Doug normally takes Dimitri's younger dog, Daisy, for the runs
and takes Napolean for a short walk upon returning with Daisy.
Marsha continues to work as a sales lead in
the Cosmetics Department in Dillard's (at Brandon Mall) for a premium cosmetic product.
She's received accolades from top management for her work.
We celebrated our 23rd
anniversary by enjoying
dinner at Tampa's
Oystercatchers, one of Marsha's favorite places.
Dimitri turned 22 in February. He and his dog, Daisy
continue to stay at our home. He has become responsible in working
and paying for his monthly car payments.
Isaac
turned 32 in April. Isaac lived in Birmingham, Alabama
throughout the year and visited for a few weeks during the holidays
of Christmas & New Years. Further, he has been working full-time
and enjoys being a part of the team of workers.
Margaret turned 101 years old in March! While she has been
healthy, her mobility has decreased, yet we are thankful for her
caretaker, Anita, who lives with us to help Margaret.
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Date: December 31, 2022
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Dear Friends,
The year 2022 enabled many wonderful trips throughout 6 continents,
yet the year had a few challenges. Doug's mom (Sigrid) contracted
COVID and recovered early in the year, yet (after struggling to live
on her own again and then being admitted to the hospital for other
reasons) was then no longer able to live on her own, requiring an
Assisted Living Facility (ALF) and for us to quickly move out her
belongings from her apartment by the end of the current lease (May
31st). The year ended with some further challenges including a 20%
decline in stock value for the year, the unexpected death of the
International President for FGBMFI (and close friend of Doug, as he
served him for 5 years as International Secretary), and then a mild
case of COVID that swept through the household in December, delaying
Christmas gift-exchange with extended family until New Year's Eve. We
thank the Lord for the quick recoveries (for those that had the most
shots, it seems), yet our 100-year-old mother-in-law (Margaret) was
then admitted to the hospital on December 31, 2022. We thank the Lord
for His grace.
Doug continued to work productively for JPMorgan Chase &
Co. as a Software Engineer, serving many people in his role.
On multiple trips, Doug had the opportunity to print, use, and share
more copies of his highly regarded (and recently republished) book in
three languages:
Doug earned "Diamond status" on
Delta Airlines in 2022 as a result of flying a
lot. Doug also earned "Diamond status" with Hilton Hotels in 2022.
Among the many trips and events were the following:
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February 9-13, Washington DC, USA, for FGBMFI
International Directors Meeting & FGBMFI Dinner meeting in
Philadelphia, PA
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February 25-26, Denver, Colorado for Memorial
of the passing of Andrew Kaminski
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March 11-13, North
Carolina - FGBMFI North Carolina Men's Advance in
Oak Island, NC
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April 20-24,
Nicaragua, Presidents & National Directors for
Latin America
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June 3-13, Uganda and Democratic Republic of
Congo, for FGBMFI National meetings with FGBMFI International
President.
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July 11-17, California for FGBMFI International Directors Meeting &
World Convention in Anaheim, California, with wife.
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September 27 - October 4, Austria for FGBMFI
European Leaders Meeting, and Germany to visit FGBMFI National
President
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October 18-29, Australia, Fiji, and Hawaii.
Main speaker at FGBMFI Australian National Convention and then at
FGBMFI Fiji meetings, followed by "little" layover in Hawaii while
returning home to Tampa.
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November 16-21, Chile for FGBMFI Chile National
Convention, being a key speaker
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December 7-8, Monterrey, Mexico for
funeral/burial of Mario Garcia, FGBMFI International President
Glad to serve the Lord, Doug contributed time, service, and lots of
travel expenses for the non-profit organization, Full Gospel Business
Men's Fellowship International (FGBMFI), for which he serves as
International Secretary. He "chaired" all three International
Directors meetings this year. A new International President will be
elected at the International Directors meeting in February 2023 in
Malaysia.
Doug continued to enjoy participating in international
computer programming contests
(via TopCoder,
and a few with CodeForces).
Doug
has continued to run once or twice a week with one of the two dogs, averaging 12 to 15
minutes per mile for 2 to 5 miles. He feels fortunate to be able still
run at age 56. The dog, Napoleon, is getting much older than Doug (in
dog years) and seems to have trouble keeping up on Doug's longer runs,
thus Doug has been running more often now with Dimitri's younger dog,
Daisy.
Marsha transitioned in February from her job as the manager of
the Cosmetics Department in Dillard's (at Wiregrass Mall) to sales
lead for a premium cosmetic product at Dillard's in the Brandon Mall.
She's received accolades from top management for her work.
We did not have time to celebrate
22nd
anniversary. On the heels of suddenly moving mom (Sigrid) out
of her apartment and relocating her to an Assisted Living Facility (ALF),
Doug then flew out to
Africa (on morning of June 3rd), while Marsha took care of things at
home.
Dimitri turned 22 in February. After living in an
apartment in the USF campus area with his dog, Daisy, and 2 other
roommates,
Dimitri moved back to our home in August. He
decided to trade in his 2021 Toyota Corolla for a new 2023 Toyota
Corolla, and to be solely responsible for the contract and monthly
payments. He had been working for a good restaurant as a dishwasher,
but is in transition now at the end of the year.
Isaac
turned 31 in April. Isaac primarily lived in Birmingham, Alabama
throughout the year and came back for two months of holidays for
Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years.
Margaret turned a big 100 in March. While she has been
healthy, her mobility has decreased, yet we are thankful for her
caretaker, Anita, who lives with us to help Margaret.
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Date: December 31, 2021
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Dear Friends,
In spite of the year 2021 being remembered for continued worldwide
COVID-19 pandemic, with variants of the "Delta" and "Omicron", it
was an amazingly good year for stockowners (with
300% increase for Dillard's Stock, and about 30% increase for many
others) and for homeowners (with 30% increase in
home prices in Tampa neighborhood). We are grateful for having
stocks, a nice house, and good health. Thank you Jesus.
Thus, we met our dream financial goal for the first time in our life, after
feeling this would never happen, given the need to support
dependents in our family, the costs in our household, and our desire
to support charitable organizations. Nevertheless, with the
wonderful transition that Doug made from Verizon to JPMorgan Chase &
Co. at the beginning of 2019, resulting in a larger than expected
pension fund, cash bonuses, and continued good
(new) employment, our family has been blessed, and we ultimately
thank the Lord God for this.
Doug had a productive year accomplishing the many goals for which he
set out to accomplish. Doug worked productively for JPMorgan Chase &
Co. as a Software Engineer, serving many people in his role.
At the beginning of the year,
Doug earned an AWS (Amazon Web Services) Developer Associate
Certification. At the end of the year, after taking training in the software Agile
methodology of Scrum and passing a final test,
Doug became a Certified Scrum Master and Certified Scrum
Developer, via Scrum Alliance.
A major long-term goal was accomplished in
updating his 2008 book,
The
Value of Work in the Eyes of God, and having it republished in
2021, this time, by Xulon Publishers, since the original publisher
(in 2008) was no longer in business and there was a need for more
books (as Doug often speaks on the topic and people want the book).
With Xulon Press, Doug published 3 books (in English, Spanish,
and French):
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Published the English version of
The
Value of Work in the Eyes of God, in April 2021
The 13
chapters (and Introduction) in the book are essentially the same
except for updates made to chapter 12, “Profiles of Different
Organizations.” In that, Doug
expanded upon the organization for which he now serves as International
Secretary: Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International
(FGBMFI), and he expanded a little on CBMC and updated the current
leadership of some organizations and updated web site references where
applicable. At the end of chapter 1, “Review of Books”, there is one
new paragraph positively mentioning the Theology of Work Bible
Commentary and The Bible and Your Work Study Series.
Doug's book also includes a few new endorsements including one from
the current FGBMFI International President, Mario Garcia. Doug was
recently honored to have had his book included in the Theology
of Work Project's "Recommended
Books and Bilbiographies about the Theology of Work."
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Published the Spanish version,
El Valor del Trabajo a los ojos
de Dios, in July 2021 Having been asked to speak on the
topic of the book at the 2021 FGBMFI World Convention, hosted in
Monterrey, Mexico, Doug had the book translated into Spanish and
then published and printed in time for its day-view at the
workshop at the World Convention in mid-July. The session was very
well received.
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Published the French version,
La Valeur du Travail aux yeux de Dieu, in November 2021
Having been asked to speak on the
topic of the book at the 2021 FGBMFI European Convention, hosted
in France, Doug had the book translated into French and then
published and printed in time for its day-view as a main speaker
at the European Convention in early November. The session was well
received.
Due to minimal travel done in 2020 by
everyone, Delta Airlines extended Doug's elite "Diamond status" by
another year and he made good use of it when flying in 2021, resulting
in many upgrades and benefits while flying on Delta. Further, Doug was
able to earn "Diamond status" in 2021 as a result of flying a
lot. (Hilton Hotels also extended Doug's Diamond status into
2021 and now into 2022, and he made good use of it in 2021 as well).
Among the many trips and events were the following:
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May - FGBMFI USA Directors Meeting & USA
Convention in Miami, Florida
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June - Vacation in Honolulu, Hawaii with wife
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July - FGBMFI International Directors Meeting &
World Convention in Monterrey, Mexico, with wife. At the ID
Meeting, Mario Garcia (Mexico) was re-elected as International
President for another 3-year term. He also asked Doug to continue
serving as International Secretary, one of the 4 executive
officers for the Fellowship.
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August - FGBMFI North Carolina Men's Advance in
Oak Island, NC
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September - FGBMFI International - Prospective
Hotel Tour for World Convention in Anaheim, California, with
Dimitri Vacation in Las Vegas with Dimitri and my brothers,
Brad especially, and Craig
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October - Memorial Service for son of National
President of FGBMF Canada (Blake Morris) in Michigan Met with
Pastors who were planting Rhiza church in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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November - Vacation on Hawaiian island of Oahu,
visiting friends Paul & Pauline Lai
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November - FGBMFI European Convention (a key
speaker) in Strasbourg, France. Visited Zurich, Switzerland for
a few days too.
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December - Encourage some FGBMFI leaders in
Phoenix, Arizona
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December - Vacation in Honolulu, Hawaii, with
son Dimitri
Doug continued to enjoy participating in international
computer programming contests
(via TopCoder,
and a few with CodeForces and
CodeChef). Doug also served
as a TopCoder mentor for new international participants to the "Single Round Match
(SRM)" of algorithmic programming competitions, at the request of the TopCoder
company.
Regarding health, our family members have each received 2 shots of the
Pfizer vaacine, and 3 of the 5 members have received their booster
shot. Dimitri was reluctant to get the vaccine but was encouraged to
do so after being invited by Doug on two airplane trips if he were to
be vaccinated. Regarding exercise, over a year ago, in November of
2020, Doug encountered an injury in his right knee, causing him to
feel he would never be able to run again. Thus, after a few weeks of
rest, he
replaced his twice-a-week run with a twice-a-week brisk walk with the
dog. Further, after 3 months of brisk walking, Doug was able to run
again, albeit very slowly, averaging under 15-minutes per mile. Doug
has continued to run twice a week with the dog, averaging 12 to 14
minutes per mile for 2 to 5 miles. He feels fortunate to be able still
run at age 55. The dog, Napoleon, is getting much older than Doug (in
dog years) and seems to have trouble keeping up on Doug's longer runs.
Marsha maintained her wonderful job as the manager of the
Cosmetics Department in Dillard's (very close to home). The many
sales personnel continue to enjoy having her as a manager.
We celebrated our
21st
anniversary during our vacation on the Hawaiian
island of Oahu, where we enjoyed an early celebration with our
friends Paul and Pauline Lai at
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and then ate at
BLT Steakhouse in Honolulu on our anniversary date.
Dimitri turned 21 in February. Dimitri is still living in an
apartment in the USF campus area with his dog, Daisy, and 2 other
roommates. He worked a little as a car "detailer" for a friend's
business. After multiple months with his first car, Dimitri's 1998
Toyota Camry died. With Doug's big help, Dimitri bought a new white 2021
Toyota Corolla. Dimitri got to have "Father-Son time"
travelling with Doug, first class, to California and Las Vegas in
September and later first class (and "Delta One") to Honolulu, Hawaii in December. He loved the
experiences.
Isaac
turned 30 in April. Isaac primarily lived in Birmingham, Alabama
throughout the year and came back for holidays (e.g. Christmas &
New Years).
Margaret turned 99 in March. Her hearing and sight have
diminished a bit, and she missed a few Friday hair appointments that
she would never have missed in the past. Doug worked from home
during the first half of 2021 and most days during the week since
then, so he has
been around in case of emergencies. Further, our caretaker, Anita,
returned to our home in early May to help Margaret and thus the family,
after she was gone for 2 years helping
another elderly lady. Anita
enjoys our spare bedroom.
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Date: December 31, 2020
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Dear Friends,
The year
2020 will be remembered by this generation as a year of
challenges: a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic that affected
the lifestyle of all citizens in the world and that impacted the global
economy; social unrest; and a divisive U.S. presidential election.
Nevertheless...
Doug had a productive year accomplishing the many goals for which he
set out to accomplish. Doug worked productively for JPMorgan Chase &
Co. as a Software Engineer, serving many people in his role.
JPMorgan Chase is still the largest bank in the USA and one of the
Word's Most Admired Companies. Doug also served as a captain,
encouraging a crew on their journey to learning and attaining AWS
(Amazon Web Services) Developer Associate Certification. Individually,
after completing four curriculum courses and the entire 900-page AWS Official
Study Guide for the Developer Associate Exam, Doug then passed
the difficult and prestigious exam at the end of the year and received
recognition at his workplace.
In the beginning of the year, Doug travelled to Phoenix, Arizona for
the FGBMFI USA National Convention and participated in the USA
Directors meeting, still serving as Southeast USA Regional Director
for FGBMFI. Serving also as International Secretary for FGBMFI, Doug
chaired the International Directors meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, on
behalf of the International President. He also participated as one of three International Directors for the
USA on a board of 70 worldwide. Just prior to the recommended travel
bans, Doug brought a first-time guest to the North Carolina Men's
Advance for FGBMFI, which saw a tremendous unity in the Lord among the
predominantly black attendees and those that are white. Upon arriving
home and working the next day in March, the nation started to lock down due to
the Covid-19 outbreak, and Doug was working from home from that day
forward and no longer traveling. Doug is thankful that Delta Airlines has extended
his
"Diamond status" by another year and he hopes to make use of it when
flying later in 2021. Worldwide, big events and conventions were being
cancelled including our 2020 FGBMFI World Convention that we were
hosting in Florida (Miami). Instead, it was hosted online via Zoom,
Facebook Live and YouTube. Additionally, Doug was a main speaker in
the virtual 2021 World Business Summit, hosted by FGBMFI.
Additionally, the USA sponsored another edition of the 2020 Business
Summit and Doug served nicely as the host and Emcee, introducing key
business owners from USA and Canada to share practical business advice
and how God has made a
difference in their life and business.
On June 3rd, 2020, Doug not only celebrated his 20th wedding
Anniversary, but he also celebrated his 40-year anniversary of another
special event: The day he made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ
as a teenager. As a pre-teen intellectual, he learned a lot about God
and Christ, but when he was 13, he put his faith in Jesus' death on
the cross as payment for his "sin" (wrong thoughts, deeds, and
attitudes). His heart changed. His motives changed. He now "wanted" to
go to church rather than "having" to go. He was forgiven of his sin
and entered into a real relationship with Jesus that lasts to this
day. While it was a step of faith, as an intellectual in college, Doug
discovered that his Christianity is not a "blind-faith" but an
"intelligent faith" where the facts of history, the Bible, and life
support the truths of Christianity.
Doug continued to enjoy participating in international
computer programming contests
(via TopCoder,
CodeForces, and
CodeChef) and has been doing
well. Doug qualified for (and participated in) the 2020 Top Coder Open
for the region of North America. Given that there was less
travel consuming his time, Doug decided to take advantage of this and
complete the remaining two classes for his degree at DeVry University,
a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems (CIS) with a
concentration in Web Development and Administration. Doug graduated
with his fourth university degree and received his diploma, but there
was no opportunity to participate in an on-site graduation ceremony
(yet). Further, Doug worked hard to update his 2008 book, The
Value of Work in the Eyes of God, to have it sent to Xulon
Publishers to be republished in early 2021. He updated and expanded
upon the section describing organizations in the "Faith at Work"
movement, especially the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship
International (FGBMFI). Doug also added references to the new resources
by the "Theology of Work Project," which was a massive effort by
scholars and practioners over a 5-year period, culminating in 2015.
Doug's book also includes a few new endorsements including one from
the current FGBMFI International President, Mario Garcia.
Regarding health and exercise, Doug continued to remain healthy and
run twice a week with his dog Napolean up until the week before
Thanksgiving. At that time, Doug noticed that his right knee had pain,
to such an extent that he sensed it may be the last time he actually
runs, as it is hard on the knees. X-rays then showed that he has
arthritis in the right knee and thus advised not to run anymore.
Instead, Doug is now briskly walking a few miles with the dog about
twice a week at a 15-minute per mile pace, which definitely "qualifies
as exercise" by his doctor (who says that a person must walk faster
than 18-minute miles for it to be considered "exercise").
Marsha maintained her wonderful job as the manager of the Cosmetics Department in
Dillards (very close to home). The many sales personnel continue to
enjoy having her as a manager. Marsha was considered "Essential
personnel" so she did not stop working this year; Even though the
store was closed for a few weeks, the management team contined to
fill online orders. Further,
due to circumstances of this unusual year, Marsha did not preach
much except to Doug.
We celebrated our
20th
anniversary by going to
a safe, elegant place for our first dinner-out after COVID-19
restrictions started 3 months earlier:
Bern's Steakhouse,
in Tampa, Florida. We enjoyed a wonderful week-long vacation at
Hilton hotels on the Florida beaches (Clearwater for 2 nights, then
Marco Island for 5 nights). Other than that, not many outings.
Dimitri turned 20 in February. In August, with much help from
Doug, Dimitri transitioned with his dog, Daisy, to living in an
apartment in the USF campus area. With help, Dimitri bought grandma
Woolley's 1998 Toyota Camry, which she was no longer driving. Doug
originally bought and owned the car in 1998. Dimitri is thrilled to
be driving.
Isaac
turned 29 in April. Isaac transitioned from living in our home in
Tampa to living in Birmingham, Alabama as of August. With both Isaac
and Dimitri out of the house, it is much quieter on the 2nd floor of
our home.
Margaret turned 98 in March. Her hearing and sight have
diminished a bit, yet she still tries to be active and helpful in
the kitchen. With Doug working from home since March of 2020, he has
been around in case of emergencies and to drive her to her weekly
hair appointments that she refuses to miss.
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Date: December 31, 2019
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Dear Friends,
In 2019, Doug had another AMAZING year as he transitioned from
working for Verizon to working for JPMorgan Chase & Co. as a
Software Engineer. He attained Diamond status with Delta airlines,
having travelled to many countries to serve the FGBMFI organization
as a Director.
After a fulfilling
career of 28 years with Verizon,
Doug made a
wonderful transition to JP Morgan Chase & Co., working as a Software
Engineer, still in Tampa. In late 2018, Verizon
offered an amazing "VOLUNTARY Separation Package" for
management employees and approximately 10,400 employees, including
Doug, accepted it. The transition occurred in the first quarter of
2019. Doug did not realize that he had such a significant pension
amount, accumulated from his many years at Verizon, so this was a
wonderful surprise and blessing, in addition to the very generous
severance payout. JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the USA and
one of the
Word's Most Admired Companies.
Doug thanks God for the wonderful travel opportunities to fly to so many
places in 2019 for the non-profit Fellowship (FGBMFI), for which he
serves as a Director (as International Secretary, as Southeast USA
Regional Director, and as one of three International Directors for the
USA on a board of 70 worldwide). He is thankful to God for last year's job
transition (from Verizon) that provided him with extra finances to make
the trips possible. Places travelled by plane included France, England, Hong Kong, China,
Sweden, Guatemala, Mexico, Germany, Phoenix, North Carolina, Kansas,
Los Angeles, and Atlanta. This is his first time reaching Diamond
status with Delta Airlines, so its a bit of a thrill. He is looking forward to 2020.
Doug continued to enjoy participating in international
computer programming contests
(via TopCoder,
CodeForces, and
CodeChef) and has been doing
well. Further, in the prestigous TopCoder contest, held approximately
every 2 weeks, Doug attained the
third
longest consecutive SRM appearance in history (since it started
around 2001). He has not missed a TopCoder Programming contest since
he started on July 21, 2012. Additionally, he tied for 6th in the
All-Time Algorithm Room Wins for Division 2, with 15 room wins. Doug completed
one course at DeVry University, namely his Senior Project where he
served as a team lead for developing a web application in C#/ASP.NET
and Microsoft Access Database. Only two classes left towards another degree in CIS Web
Development. Having studyied the Java programming language and used it
practically, both at home and at work, Doug earned a Java
Programming Certification through Oracle, which was a good foundation
transitioning into a Java-based role at JPMC. Additionally, Doug
runs about twice a week with our dog
Napoleon.
Marsha maintained her wonderful job as the manager of the Cosmetics Department in
Dillards (very close to home). The many sales personnel seem to love
her and say she is so nice. Further,
Marsha
preached and shared wonderfully at two churches within an hour
of Tampa.
We celebrated our 19th
anniversary enjoying some fine dining at one of our favorite
celebration restaraunts: Bern's Steakhouse,
in Tampa, Florida. Marsha accompanied Doug on a nice trip to Paris,
France, where we spent the first few days with our friends Paul and
Pauline Lai, from Hawaii, who were also attending the International
Directors Meeting (for FGBMFI) afterwards in Paris. Marsha
accompanied Doug on a trip to Guatemala City, Guatemala for the
FGBMFI World Convention and we spent some time with Doug's local
Guatemalan friend, Ricardo, who attended college with Doug at USF
for his last year.
Dimitri turned 19 in February. Dimitri has gained valuable
experience being in and out of a few jobs this past year, all in the
field of fast-food restaraunts. He has worked consistently for this
current restaraunt for several months. In addition to consistency at
work, he has a consistent girl friend for the past 9 months. He has
also taken in a female puppy for the past few months, which he
loves, but is problematic for most of the household. Our other dog,
Napolean, like to play with her.
Isaac
turned 28 in April. Isaac has been enjoying ball games--baseball and
football--both for college and professional.
Margaret is doing fine for having turned 97 in March. She
suffered two strokes this year, and thus she is a bit slower than in
the past. A caretaker lived in our
home and helped Margaret nicely for the first half of the year only.
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Date: December 31, 2018
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Dear Friends,
In 2018, Doug had an AMAZING year with new responsibilities and
new opportunities (both with FGBMFI and at work)!
On February 10, 2018, the International Directors of the Full Gospel
Business Men's Fellowship International (FGBMFI)
elected a new president, Mario Garcia. To Doug's
surprise, Mr. Garcia called Doug four days later to ask if he would
accept the position of
International Secretary, one of the four officers of this
worldwide Fellowship. Having high regard for Mario as a Christian
businessman, Doug accepted this new responsibility and his life
changed with a vigor to serve in this new capacity in addition to
already serving as Southeast USA Regional Director and as one of 70
International Directors. As a team of 4 officers, each representing a
different continent on the globe, they held a Spirit-filled World
Convention in July in Las Vegas, USA. Doug attended with his wife, and
he was very active in the preparation and conduction of the
International Directors meeting, as International Secretary.
Furthermore, from these meetings, a new USA National President was
elected along with a new set of officers and directors, thus further
moving the USA Fellowship along a positive path in accordance with the
leading of the Holy Spirit. Lots of change and excitement among the
new officers and directors, and Doug is glad to be a part of it. Among
the many trips and speaking engagements that Doug had, he traveled
throughout south and central Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Nevada,
California, Virginia, Tobago (in Caribbean), Trinidad (in Caribbean),
and Paris, France.
Doug continued to
work for Verizon
as a Software Engineer, helping to onboard many of Verizon's
computer applications into the AWS public cloud and helping to
maintain and enhance an application that assists groups in the
onboarding process, using the Java programming language, MySQL, and
AWS. A big life-changing opportunity was announced in late September.
Approximately 44,000 management employees (in eligible departments) in
Verizon were given an opportunity to "Voluntarily Separate"
from Verizon and receive the best severance package ever offered by
Verizon. Doug has worked diligently for Verizon for over 27 years, and
he is very thankful and appreciatevie for those opportunities. A tough
decision needed to be made by November 10th. After much prayer,
contemplation, and interviewing, just prior to this deadline, Doug was
offered a nice opportunity with a very reputable firm in the Financial
Industry: JPMorgan and Chase. Thus, Doug gave his
official notice of accepting the "VSP offer." While the effective date
turned out to be later than anticipated, the transition will occur in
the first quarter of 2019 and Doug is looking forward to the next part
of his career. So much more could be said but suffice it to say that
we are very grateful for this transition and the opportunities it
brings!
Doug continued to enjoy participating in international
computer programming contests
(via TopCoder,
CodeForces, and
CodeChef) and has been doing
well. Doug completed
one course at DeVry University
in Accounting, contributing towards another degree in CIS Web
Development. In his spare time (and for work), he is studying and
using the Java programming language, in pursuit of earning a Java
Programming Certification. Additionally, Doug
runs about twice a week with our dog
Napoleon.
Marsha transitioned from her good job
as a Beauty Stylist for Nordstrom (on the other side of Tampa), to
having a great job as the manager of the Cosmetics Department in
Dillards (very close to home). Marsha accompanyied Doug
on a trip to Las Vegas for the World Convention of FGBMFI in July,
which was a major milestone for Doug and the new officers of FGBMFI.
Further,
Marsha
preached and shared wonderfully in North Carolina back in April.
We celebrated our 18th
anniversary on the Hawaiian island of Maui, and
we enjoyed dinner with our friends Paul and Pauline Lai and one of
their two daughters.
Dimitri turned 18 in February. Dimitri has gained valuable
experience being in and out of a few jobs this past year, all in the
field of fast-food restaraunts.
Isaac
turned 27 in April. Isaac descripted the year as "kind-a-crazy."
Margaret continues to do well for being 96 years old, though
she is no longer driving and sold her Jag. A caretaker lives in our
home and makes errands for her and with her.
|
|
Date: December 31, 2017
|
|
Dear Friends,
In 2017, Doug transitioned to new responsibilities on the Cloud
team at Verizon, as he immersed himself to learn about AWS (Awazon
Web Services) and go on to attain 3 highly-sought after (and highly
paid) certifications:
-
AWS Certificed Developer - Associated (March,
13, 2017)
-
AWS Certificed Solutions Architect - Assocaiate
(April 12, 2017)
-
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate
(July 31, 2017)
Currently, he is helping Verizon
application teams to onboard their applications into AWS public cloud
platform by maintaining and enhancing a tool to faciliate this
transition and determine if the application is ready and qualified to
go on to production in AWS. Thus, as a Web Developer, he is working
with the Java language and associated technologies like React/Redux,
Maven, Spring Boot, MySQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AWS, Linux, API Web
services, etc.
On the side, at home, Doug created a new improved web site to host
DouglasWoolley.com using AWS
with S3. This site duplicates all pages on the dougandmarsha.com site
that is specifically devoted to Doug as an individual, and it will
eventually replace or be linked from those pages on dougandmarsha.com.
Doug describes how he created this site and his
AWS journey.
Doug continued to enjoy participating in international
computer programming contests
(via TopCoder,
CodeForces, and
CodeChef) and has been doing
well.
In fact, in both TopCoder and CodeForces, he finished the year at the
"blue" level, which in CodeForces is considered an "Expert" level.
Furthermore, for his last Topcoder contest of the year, he placed
first in the virtual room of 20 (his 14th time doing that) and placed
first in the entire Division 2 contest of over 300 participants (for
the first time). Also, Doug had the honor and pleasture to share the
main speech at the Top Coder Open 2017 (Regional in Austin, TX). His
hour-long message was streamed live to Facebook by TopCoder staff.
Later on in the year, Doug travelled to Pittsburgh, PA where Google
hosted another TopCoder regional, for which Doug competed and placed
5th. Afterwards, Google was once again knocking on his door with
possible opportunities and "offered" to fly him out to Mountain View,
CA for a final round of technical nterviews.
Doug arrived home in Tampa from Pittsburgh, PA, just in time to be
with family to ride-out Hurricane Irma. The storm weakened from a
category 5 to a category 1 by the time it reached Tampa, and we
encountered no damage to the home or property. However, we were among
the 45% in Tampa that lost power. For us it lasted 3 days, which was
especially tough for family members who stayed home during the day, as
it was hot outside.
In spite of the many activities, Doug ran 2
times a week with our dog Napoleon, as time permitted. Doug completed
one course at DeVry University
in Career Development, contributng towards another degree in CIS Web
Development. He continues to be very active in FGBMFI,
serving as an
International Director for FGBMFI
(one of 70 in the world) and as the Southeast USA
Regional Director for FGBMFI.
Further, his responsibilities expanded to include the Spanish speaking
chapters (about 10) in the region. Subsequently, Doug has visited and
addressed the Spanish chapters and leaders in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale
area.
For the 4th year in a row, Doug attended
the NC Men's Advance and encouraged the leaders, members, and guests.
Doug and Marsha traveled to California to attend the funeral of
Richard Shakarian, the prior International FGBMFI president, and gave
condolences to the family. It was good to see mutual friends from all
over the word, connected with the FGBMFI.
Doug made full use of his Hunters Green Country Club membership during
the year, as he enjoyed taking co-workers there for lunch on
Thursdays, for half-off angus burgers and a gorgeous view of the 18th
green from the outside patio. He and the family got to enjoy some
other events there as well. Further, he got to play golf 5 times
during the month of October as HGCC offered a special for social
members during that month.
Doug and Marsha had had a great trip to Grenada in the Caribbean for
the FGBMFI Caribean Convention, where Doug was one of the key
speakers. The Radisson hotel is situated on one of the best beaches in
the world. They had a very pleasant stay, with a beachfront view on
the first floor and being steps away from the soft-sand beach with
clear water. Each day, they took advantage of the beach, in addition
to being involved in a wonderful convention.
Marsha, in addition to accompanying Doug on two trips (to
California and the Caribbean), continued to diligently work
as a Beauty Stylist for Nordstrom, one of the finest department
stores.
Marsha
preached a couple of times in Florida and
also in Kansas. Additionally, she helped out in serving as an
associate pastor for a small church for a few months. She mentioned
that one of her accomplishments this year was staying alive and
somewhat sane.
We celebrated our 17th
anniversary by enjoying dinner at Tampa's
Oystercatchers, one of Marsha's favorite places.
Dimitri turned 17 in February. Dimitri is "out of" high school
for now, and attained his first job working for Burger King on the
grill, which he passionately pursued for 2 months. After a lapse in
employment, he was hired by McDonalds at the end of the year. When he
first walked in to ask for a job, the manager said that if he got
hired, he would need to cut his long hair. When he got back in the
car, he wanted to go to a barber shop to start the "improvement
process." After the hair cut and shave, he looked like a new person,
and he immediately wanted to visit the McDonalds where he had met the
manager and a few supervisors. Upon seeing Dimitri, as he ordered an
iced tea, they could not believe the dramatic change in Dimitri's
appearance and that he had done it so soon after the manager mentioned
it would be a requirement (eventually) if he got hired. They mentioned
to him that this shows real initiative, and this was probably a big
factor in their initial consideration of him for the position and
possibly a factor in their eventual decision to hire him. The
transition to McDonalds is going well thus far for Dimitri.
Isaac
turned 26 in April. Isaac descripted the year as "fine."
Margaret continues to do well for being 95 years old, though
she has not driven her Jag since she has had a caretaker living at
the home this year and making errands for her and with her.
|
|
Date: December 31, 2016
|
|
Dear Friends,
In 2016, Doug embarked on a long, intensive, 50-day journey in
NYC as part of an Emergency Work Assignment (EWA), while union
workers went on strike. Additionally, he
continued to excel in
his work as a Web Developer at Verizon
and was selected by executives and management to transition into the
new technology group of Cloud Computing.
Doug has been passionately participating
in international
computer programming contests
(via TopCoder,
CodeForces, and
CodeChef) and has been doing
well.
One of his biggest thrills was traveling to Manhattan to
compete in the NYC (North America) regional Top Coder competition,
hosted by Google, and placing 2nd after giving a key-note speech on
his "Top Coder Journey."
Google especially noticed Doug's
performance and offered to fly him out to the headquarters in
MountainView for a final round of technical interviews, but he
respectfully declined this time--mostly due to the big transition
occurring within the family and at work... A
big and demanding transition for Doug and the family was moving
from a nice rental home (for the past 2 years) into a newly built
spacious home in New Tampa. In spite of the many activities, he ran 2
times a week with our dog Napoleon, as time permitted, and
occassionally ran a weekly 5K race at Wiregrass mall on Thursday
nights (especially in the early part of the year). Doug completed 2 more computer classes at DeVry University
but encountered his first "B" in over a decade (in an Economics
course), bringing his GPA down to a 3.9. He continues to be very active in FGBMFI,
serving as an
International Director for FGBMFI
(one of 70 in the world) and as the Southeast USA
Regional Director for FGBMFI.
Marsha transitioned through some jobs to finally land a career
as a Beauty Stylist for Nordstrom.
Marsha
preached a couple of times on the side in Florida and
also in Kansas.
Doug and Marsha enjoyed two main vacation trips
together this year:
-
New York City (Where Doug
competed in the Top Coder NYC (North America) Regional contest,
hosted by Google in Manhattan. Doug and Marsha enjoyed staying
at the Hilton and the Waldorf Astoria and visiting Central Park,
Macy's, the Empire State Building, Rockafella center, Trump
Tower, Top of the Rock, Freedom Tower, and many other famous
places).
-
San Jose, Costa Rica
(Where Doug and Marsha attended the World Convention for
FGBMFI. Doug also attended the International Directors meeting
while Marsha translated speakers from english into french at the
female events and a main dinner session for leaders)
We celebrated our 16th
anniversary by enjoying two celebrations: In
Tampa at Bern's Steakhouse,
and in NYC at Bull & Bear restaurant inside the grand Waldorf
Astoria hotel.
Dimitri turned 16 in February. He finished 9th grade and
transitioned to a new high school after starting 10th grade, when we
moved to our new home in New Tampa. He has made some new friends as
well.
Isaac
turned 25 in April. Isaac had a part to play in electing a new
president. With the transition to a new home and other things
occurring in his life, Issac described the year as "stressfull",
Margaret continues to do well for being 94 years old.
|
|
Date: December 31, 2015
|
|
Dear Friends,
In 2015, Doug continued to maintain a healthy lifestyle running
2-3 times a week with our dog Napoleon and running
a weekly 5K race at Wiregrass mall on Thursday nights, to excel in
his work as a Web Developer at Verizon,
to complete 2 more computer classes at DeVry University (and
maintaining a 4.0 GPA), and to be very active in FGBMFI. Doug
continues to serve as an
International Director for FGBMFI
(one of 70 in the world) and as the Southeast USA
Regional Director for FGBMFI.
He has taken his position seriously and has traveled and served
people throughout the Southeast USA. Doug
has been passionately participating in international
computer programming contests
(via TopCoder,
CodeForces, and
CodeChef) and has been doing
well. The biggest excitement this year was celebrating our 15th
anniversary in Hawaii for 2 weeks and having several
opportunities to minister while there.
Marsha transitioned from working at Soma (affiliated with
Chico's women's clothing) to working as an Associate Manager for
Brighton Collectibles. Marsha
preached a couple of times on the side in Florida, Hawaii, and
Kansas.
Doug and Marsha enjoyed several main vacation trips
this year:
-
North
Carolina & California & Texas (Where Doug
and Marsha spent Valentine's Day at a special hotel in Cary, NC,
compliments of the FGBMFI Cary & Durham chapters. Doug shared
his testimony to the Cary chapter but the weather prevented the
meeting from taking place in Durham. While Marsha flew home,
Doug flew to California to visit Google again, on their dime.
From there he flew to Texas for the FGBMFI International
Directors meeting, serving as an Int'l Director for the
fellowship)
-
Vero
Beach, FL
(Where Marsha ministered at a nice church and then we
visited Ian and Nora in Fort Lauderdale)
-
Ohio
(Where Doug took his mom on a first class trip to visit his
brother who just moved to Dayton, Ohio, for a promotion to CIO
of Wright State University)
-
Hawaii (Where
we celebrated our 15 year anniversary for 2 weeks with ministry
opportunities)
-
Houston, TX
(Where Doug attended the World Convention for FGBMFI)
-
Disney World, FL (Where Doug,
Marsha, and Dimitri entertained Pauline Lai and her daughter
from Hawaii and a friend from Taiwan)
Dimitri turned 15 in February. In August, he finished a year
within a special group home on the weekdays, where he attended
school for 8th grade. He is now attending high school in our
neighborhood as a 9th grader. He still enjoys electronic devices.
Isaac
turned 24 in April.
Margaret continues to do well for being 93 years old.
|
|
Date: December 31, 2014
|
|
Dear Friends,
In 2014, Doug continued to maintain a healthy lifestyle and run
a weekly 5K race (some close to 31 minutes flat) at Wiregrass mall on Thursday nights, to excel in
his work as a Web Developer at Verizon,
to complete 2 more computer classes at DeVry University (and
maintaining a 4.0 GPA), and to be very active in FGBMFI. Doug
continues to serve as an
International Director for FGBMFI
(one of 70 in the world) and was appointed as the Southeast USA
Regional Director for FGBMFI.
He has taken his new position seriously and has traveled and served
people throughout the Southeast USA more than ever. Doug
has been passionately participating in international
computer programming contests
(via TopCoder,
CodeForces, and
CodeChef) and has been doing
well. The biggest excitement has been his receiving a rare and
unexpected significant promotion at Verizon! Another big transition
was our move within New Tampa, as we downsized our house.
Marsha, talking about transitions, started and completed a full
year as an Associate Manager at Soma (affiliated with Chico's
women's clothing). She underwent surgery, which helped her. Marsha
preached in a dozen places this year throughout Florida and
Georgia.
Doug and Marsha enjoyed several main vacation trips
this year:
-
North
Carolina & South Carolina (Where Doug
attended the North Carolina Men's Advance for FGBMFI and was
introduced as the new Southeast USA Regional Director by his
host and good friend DeCarol Williamson)
-
Colorado
(Where Doug had a trip for his work with Verizon to meet his
new boss and co-workers)
-
Georgia
(Where Marsha ministered and Doug attended and spoke at
various FGBMFI chapters throughout the state)
-
Georgia
2 (Where Marsha again ministered and Doug again
attended and spoke at various FGBMFI chapters throughout the
state)
-
North
Carolina and South Carolina
(Where Doug attended the South Carolina Men's Advance for FGBMFI
with his friend and fellow International Director, DeCarol
Williamson. While the guys were together, Marsha stayed with
DeCarol's mom and had a great time at her home on the beach)
-
Melbourne, FL & San
Francisco, CA (Where Doug attended the SE USA College
ACM computer contest and then the Top Coder Open and Developers
Conference in San Francisco)
We celebrated our 14th
anniversary by enjoying seafood and steak with a
beautiful sunset at
Oystercatchers in Tampa.
Dimitri turned 14 in February. He went to summer school as a
part of a program that the county offered to help students skip a
grade. Thus, he learned the 7th grade within two intense months,
being taught by the best teachers in the county. As of August, he is
part of a special group home on the weekdays, where he attends
school. He has struggled a bit in the 8th grade. He still enjoys his
smart phone and playing video games, maybe too much.
Isaac
turned 23 in April.
Margaret continues to do well for being 92 years old.
Sad to say, we lost our beloved small poodle Peanut soon
after we transitioned to our new home. Yet, we continue to derive
enjoyment from our big poodle Napoleon, nicknamed Polee. Napoleon is Marsha's close friend
and a source of encouragement.
|
|
Date: December 31, 2013
|
|
Dear Friends,
In 2013, Doug continued to maintain a healthy lifestyle and run
a weekly 5K race (some close to 30 minutes flat) at Wiregrass mall on Thursday nights, to excel in
his work as a Web Developer at Verizon,
to complete 3 more computer classes at DeVry University (and
maintaining a 4.0 GPA), and to be very active in FGBMFI. Doug
continues to serve as an
International Director for FGBMFI
(one of 70 in the world) as well as a USA
National Director for FGBMFI.
Furthermore, he led a weekly Bible Study (with prayer
and fellowship) for interested co-workers during lunch time. Doug
has been passionately participating in international
computer programming contests
(via TopCoder,
CodeForces, and
CodeChef) and
has been doing well. In April, Doug placed 365th out of 22,000+
programmers world-wide in the biggest computer programming
competition in the world, sponsored by Google. Also he was very
excited to have placed 30th among those in the USA. (See
Results of Google Code Jam).
Marsha finished her 6th year serving as the Women's Ministry Director for
the the Assemblies of God in the district of Peninsular Florida,
overseeing women's ministries for about 340 churches. She hosted
(and preached) at a very successful Fall Breakaway conference for
the ladies in Florida. She stepped down from this position at the
end of the year. Marsha
preached in two dozen places this year throughout Florida,
Texas, Mississippi, North
Carolina, and Canada.
Doug and Marsha enjoyed four main vacation trips
this year:
-
Texas
(Where Doug and Marsha went to Houston for the
International Director's meeting of FGBMFI. Afterwards, we drove
to Dallas to minister at Southlake Church for pastor Ricky
Franklin)
-
New
York
(Where Doug and Marsha visited Manhattan and traveled by
train up the Hudson River to visit Doug's relatives)
-
Washington DC
(Where Doug attended the World Championships for computer
programming (as a visitor) at the Top Coder Open)
-
California
(Where Doug was flown for a final round of interviews [for a Web
Software Development position] at Google's Headquarters in
Mountain View. We enjoyed spending time with Doug's friend Hong
Wing, and then visiting San Francisco)
We celebrated our 13th
anniversary at two fine restaurants in NYC:
Oceana
and La
Grenouille (Frog Legs).
Dimitri was in sixth grade all this year. He
turned 13 in February. He enjoys his smart phone and playing video
games.
Isaac completed his first full semester at Florida School
of Discipleship, in Fort Meyers, Florida. He
turned 22 in April.
Margaret continues to do well for being 91 years old,
however, she did have knee surgery and received an artificial knee.
In addition to having our small poodle Peanut, we continue to have a
big poodle Napoleon, nicknamed Polee. Napoleon is Marsha's close friend
and a source of encouragement.
|
|
Date: Christmas, 2012
|
|
Dear Friends,
Merry Christmas!
In 2012, Doug continued to maintain a healthy lifestyle and run
a weekly 5K race at Wiregrass mall on Thursday nights, to excel in
his work as a Web Developer at Verizon,
to complete 4 more computer classes at DeVry University (and
maintaining a 4.0 GPA), and to be very active in FGBMFI. Doug
continues to serve as an
International Director for FGBMFI
(one of 70 in the world) as well as a USA
National Director for FGBMFI.
Furthermore, he leads a weekly Bible Study (with prayer
and fellowship) for interested co-workers during lunch time. As a
new thing, Doug is participating in international
computer programming contests
(via TopCoder) and
has been rising in the ratings over the past 4 consecutive contests.
Doug also wrote a computer
program to solve the Rubik's Cube
(on a web page) in the newer technologies of ASP.NET 3.5 / C#. His
long-term goal is to create this same program as an app on Smartphones (iPhone, Android, Windows phone).
Marsha continues to serve as the Women's Ministry Director for
the the Assemblies of God in the district of Peninsular Florida,
overseeing women's ministries for about 340 churches. She hosted
(and preached) at a very successful Fall Breakaway conference for
the ladies in Florida. Marsha
preached in only 15 places this year throughout Florida, North
Carolina, Arizona, and Zambia (Africa).
Our family enjoyed several vacation trips
this year including:
-
California (Where
Doug hooked up with his best friend from High
School and attended the California FGBMFI leaders conference)
-
Disney World, FL
(Where Doug and Dimitri had a nice excursion)
-
Minneapolis & California
(Where Doug and Marsha went to California for the
International Director's meeting of FGBMFI (with wives) and took
Dimitri to Minneapolis for a 4-day visit with his best friend
from the orphanage in Kazakhstan)
-
LongBoat Key, FL (Where
Doug, Marsha, Dimitri, and Margaret enjoyed short beach trip at
the Hilton in LogBoat Key)
-
Arizona (Marsha ministered at
the statewide A/G Women's Conference in Arizona, and then Marsha
and Doug vacationed in Sedona and the Grand Canyon. Marvelous
trip!)
-
Zambia (Marsha was
invited by an A/G missionary to spend time with her in Zambia.
Some local churches hosted Marsha for a Women's conference
during the first few days of her month-long trip. Towards the
end of her missionary journeys, she had a fascinating vacation
trip to see the Falls and to go on a real African Safari!)
We celebrated our 12th
anniversary at Texas de Brazil, courtesy of
Margaret.
Dimitri completed fifth grade and did well in his classes. He
turned 12 in February. He spent several weeks during the summer at
golf camp. He enjoys using free time to play with kids outside or to
play on his computer. He is now attending Middle School and is in
the 6th grade.
Isaac completed the special STAGES program at the University of
South Florida, and is desiring to be involved in some kind of
ministry. He
turned 21 in April.
Margaret continues to do well for being 90 years old,
however, she recently fell and broke her right arm. She is out of
the sling and her arm is healing quite nicely.
In addition to having our small poodle Peanut, we now have a
new big poodle in the family: Napoleon (named by Dimitri
after Napoleon Dynamite). The dog has become Marsha's close friend
and a source of encouragement.
May we all remember the joyous occasion of Christ being born over
2,000 years ago and how he lived, died, and rose from the dead as
our Savior. Merry Christmas!
|
|
Date: Christmas, 2011
|
|
Dear Friends,
For Doug, 2011 has been very rewarding, having successfully
overcome Diabetes type 2 (diagnosed a year ago) by eating well and
losing 50 pounds, running 5K races in under 28 minutes (after not
running for 2 decades), ministering in five different countries,
excelling in his
work as a Web Developer at Verizon, completing 3 more computer
classes at DeVry University (and maintaining a 4.0 GPA), and being
very active in FGBMFI. Doug continues to serve as an
International Director for FGBMFI (one of 70 in the world) as
well as a USA
National Director for FGBMFI. Furthermore, he leads a weekly
Bible Study (with prayer and fellowship) for interested co-workers
during lunch time.
Marsha continues to serve as the Women's Ministry Director for
the the Assemblies of God in the district of Peninsular Florida,
overseeing women's ministries for about 340 churches.
Marsha preached in only
15 places this year throughout Florida, North Carolina, and Arizona.
Our family enjoyed several vacation trips
this year including:
-
Alaska (We
took a brief trip to Anchorage and the surrounding area and
visited Doug's former ministry student, Kelly, who drove us
around to see the beautiful sights)
-
Key
West,
FL
(First time we took a vacation with our dog, Peanut. This
included our son Dimitri and his grandma Margaret.)
-
Cuba
(On this A/G missions trip, Marsha ministered at the
National Women's Conference for the Assemblies of God,
and Doug ministered in some churches in the area. We had a quiet
11th anniversary sharing Delta Airlines biscuits)
-
Panama (Attended the
World Convention for Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship
International and toured the Panama Canal)
-
Mississippi (Marsha ministered at
the statewide A/G Women's Conference)
-
Titusville, FL (Marsha ministered at an A/G church
while Doug ministered at an FGBMFI chapter; Dimitri enjoyed
visiting Doug's friend, Charlie Crisafulli, at his home)
-
Togo
& Ghana (This was one of our best trips of all time!
Doug ministered as the key speaker at the Togo National FGBMFI
Convention. Marsha and Doug had further opportunities for
wonderful ministry in both Togo and Ghana and got to see the
birthplace, home, and church of Marsha when she was growing up
as an MK. God guided our steps and blessed our trip, ministry,
and relationships! Our hosts from these two countries were so
gracious and the people were wonderful!)
We celebrated our 11th
anniversary by traveling to Cuba for missionary
work and enjoyed a Delta Airlines cookie biscuit together.
Dimitri completed fourth grade and did outstanding on his FCAT tests, achieving the highest possible score
in Writing with a 6 and having a 4 in Math and a 4 in reading.
Further, he achieved all A's and B's in his classes for the final
quarter of 4th grade. This was the first time he accomplished this, which was a
goal of ours for the past two years. In February, he turned 11, and
he has been in the USA for 5 and 1/2 years (having come from
Kazakhstan).
Isaac attends the special STAGES program at the University of
South Florida, and he is given the opportunity to serve as a manager
for the USF Boy's basketball team. He
turned 20 in April.
Margaret continues to do well for being 89 years old. She
published a book,
To God Be the Glory, which describes her journeys as a
missionary in West Africa.
May we all remember the joyous occasion of Christ being born over
2,000 years ago and how he lived, died, and rose from the dead as
our Savior. Merry Christmas!
Further details of the entire year
can be seen below for a particular period of time....
|
|
Date: June 26, 2011
|
|
Dear Reader,
At the end of February, Marsha and I took a brief
get-away to Anchorage, Alaska. In
April, the family (Doug, Marsha, Dimitri, and grandma Margaret) took
the dog (Peanut) on a vacation trip to Key
West, Florida. It was the first time we took the dog on a trip
with us, and we stayed at a nice pet-friendly DoubleTree hotel. At
the beginning of June, Marsha and I
ventured to Cuba for missionary work. It was a wonderful
missions trip to Cuba, as Marsha ministered twice at the National
Women's Conference for the Assemblies of God in Cuba (to 1500+
crowds) and I had the privilege of preaching in three different
churches including the host church of the conference on Sunday
morning.
While I am busy serving as an International and National Director
for FGBMFI, Marsha is serving as the Women's Ministry Director for
A/G in Florida and preaching at various churches and events. I am
also progressing well in my computer studies at DeVry University,
maintaining a 4.0 GPA after taking 2 more classes at the beginning
of the year.
We celebrated our 11th
anniversary by traveling to Cuba for missionary
work and enjoyed a Delta cookie biscuit together.
Dimitri finished the 4th grade and did
outstanding on his FCAT tests, achieving the highest possible score
in Writing with a 6 and having a 4 in Math and a 4 in reading.
Further, he achieved all A's and B's in his classes for the final
quarter. This was the first time he accomplished this, which was a
goal of our for the past two years.
Isaac completed a year in the special
STAGES program at the University of South Florida, and was given the
opportunity to serve as a manager for the USF Girl's basketball
team. He turned 20 in April, and we celebrated at his favorite
restaurant -- Boizao Steakhouse.
|
|
Date: Christmas, 2010
|
|
Dear Friends,
For
Doug, 2010 has been especially rewarding, having graduated
from SAGU (a regionally accredited University) with a Master's degree in Theological Studies
and achieving a
4.0 GPA, after 3 years of diligent studies.
Doug's well researched theological papers can be viewed on his
Theology
Corner. Since opportunities to teach theology at a Christian
University are very minimal, Doug has focused his energies on
his work as a Web Developer at Verizon,
which has paid off for him with a long-awaited promotion in
December! He has passionately pursued learning some new
technologies, such as ASP.NET, AJAX, and SQL Server. Furthermore, he
has enrolled in a new Bachelor's program in Web Development at DeVry
University, where he maintains a 4.0 GPA. In addition to earning a Master's
degree, a promotion at work, and pursing another degree, Doug is now serving as an
International Director for FGBMFI
(one of 70 in the world) as well as a USA
National Director for FGBMFI.
Marsha continues to serve as the Women's Ministry Director for
the the Assemblies of God in the district of Peninsular Florida,
overseeing women's ministries for about 340 churches.
Marsha preached over 30
times this year throughout Florida, Canada, Cayman Islands, and
Bahamas.
Our family enjoyed several vacation trips
this year including:
-
Indiana (Marsha was
the key speaker at the Indiana A/G Women's Conference in
Indianapolis, and Doug provided some training to Verizon
employees in Fort Wayne)
-
Holyland,
FL
(First time visiting this wonderful biblical theme park)
-
Texas
(Attending Doug's graduation with a Master's Degree in
Theology at Southwestern Assemblies of God University)
-
Caribbean (Attended a
friend's 25th anniversary in the Bahamas followed by ministry on
Grand Cayman Island)
-
New
Brunswick, Canada (Marsha ministered at an A/G church in
Canada)
We celebrated our 10th
anniversary on Grand Cayman Island and had dinner
at the Westin hotel's 4-diamond Casa Havana restaurant
in June.
Dimitri completed third grade (and passed his FCAT in Math,
Reading, and Writing), enjoyed his summer swimming activities at
the YMCA, and is progressing in fourth grade. He continues to be full
of life and lots of mischief. He loves playing one of his many DS
games and playing on his computer that resides next to his father's. He
continues to hate bed time, and makes many excuses for staying up a little later.
In February, he turned 10, and in July, he celebrated his 4th year
in the USA.
Isaac completed the twelfth grade and graduated from High
School with a special diploma. While he was glad to have graduated,
he missed serving as a "manager" of the varsity football team.
However, attending the special STAGES program at the University of
South Florida, Isaac was given the opportunity to serve as a manager
for the USF Girl's basketball team. Isaac
participated in the Fine Arts Festival, where he
did very well on his "short sermon" and advanced to nationals. He
turned 19 in April.
Margaret continues to do well for being 88 years old. Nobody
can believe that she is that old. She still looks young and drives
her Jaguar fast. As you can imagine, she has lots of aches and
pains, but she perseveres and always smiles and proclaims that God
has been good to her. She continues to be an inspiration (and help)
to all of us. She and her publisher are almost done with her book,
To God Be the Glory.
May we all remember the joyous occasion of Christ being born over
2,000 years ago and how he lived, died, and rose from the dead as
our Savior. Merry Christmas!
Further details of the entire year
can be seen below for a particular period of time....
|
|
Date: June 24, 2010
|
|
Dear Reader,
We (Marsha, Dimitri, and I) recently returned home from a marvelous vacation in the
Bahamas
and in Grand Cayman Island. I just finished organizing our
multitude of pictures and placing them on this site. You may relive
our vacation and view our pictures on our our Vacations page.
We spent 5 days on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas, staying at
the luxurious Bahama Beach
Club condominiums, compliments of the part-owners Craig and
Beverly Roberts who invited us to celebrate their 25th anniversary
with them and their friends. Our spacious 3 bedroom condo had a
beautiful ocean view. Craig and Beverly also took us out for a ride
around Abaco
Island in their speed boat. Craig gave Dimitri the opportunity to be
the captain of the vessel and to steer the boat at times. The beach
water was so clear it looked like a pool. The 25th anniversary
celebration was tremendous, with Craig and Beverly walking along the
beach to the 150+ guests seated on the beach. After renewing their
vows, we had an amazing buffet. The following day, Dimitri had a
staff person cut some coconuts for us and we drank coconut milk and
ate fresh coconuts. Dimitri was sad to leave, but he then loved our
next destination as well.
We spent 6 days on the Grand Cayman Island, after flying across the
Caribbean. We stayed at the beautiful
Westin Casuarina. We
were very blessed to be upgraded by the hotel to a room with an
ocean view! While Dimitri and I went on a boat trip to Stingray City
(swimming with stingrays) and did some snorkeling around coral
reefs, Marsha went to the Westin's Spa and had smooth, hot, black
stones placed on her back to relax her. She was elated to see us and
share her experience with us and vice versa. We had wonderful
fellowship with Autry, Raphael, Esther, and Clarence, all of whom are
members of the organization COA (Cayman Outreach Association), which invited me to Grand Cayman
Island to speak to them and share my testimony at their dinner
meeting. On Saturday morning, Marsha ministered at a ladies
conference at First Assembly of God (Grand Cayman) and, in the
evening, she sang at the COA dinner meeting and I shared my 45
minute testimony. On Sunday morning, Marsha shared at the church
service for First Assembly of God: they had a tremendous Father's
Day service with so many people participating to honor the fathers. After a nice lunch at the pastor's home, I delivered
the evening message at the church, which consisted of sharing my
testimony and then delivering a PowerPoint presentation on "Work
Ethics and Attitudes." Marsha prophetically prayed at the end
for all who desired prayer. We made so many new friends. For the
last night, Carmelita and her son watched Dimitri, thus enabling Marsha and I to be alone and to finally celebrate our
10th anniversary at the Westin's
4-diamond Casa Havana restaurant. This was one of our best vacation
trips. We thank the Lord for the vacation and the ministry
opportunities.
As we flew back to Tampa, Marsha and I drove to Lakeland to attend
the District's Presbytery Dinner. I always enjoy them (every 3
months), and the fellowship was especially good this time with the
6-person tables. Now that we are home, Dimitri is attending YMCA
each weekday, while I work at Verizon as a Web Administrator and
Developer. Marsha is doing her thing as the Women's Ministry
Director for PenFlorida District.
|
|
Date: June 9, 2010
|
|
Dear Reader,
I (Doug) am done with all my classes, as I passionately
pursued a Master's degree in Theological Studies. Each class
required a tremendous amount of work and I always put my heart into
it and went somewhat beyond the required work, and thus I am very
pleased with achieving a
4.0 GPA, after 3 years of studies.
For my most recent class in "Leadership in Ministry," you may view
my
"Philosophy of Leadership" paper (highly acclaimed by
the professor who is the Dean of the Graduate School), as well as my
other class papers at my Theology
Corner. I am thrilled to see my
initial vision (in 1992) of a Master’s degree in the Bible come to
pass (18 years later). Marsha, Dimitri, my mom, and I all traveled
to Waxahachie, Texas for the graduation ceremonies at Southwestern
Assemblies of God University on April 30, 2010. You may view pictures from the trip and graduation at
the bottom of our Vacations page. Additionally, I
taught a class on Eschatology:
A Study of Last Things to five interns of the
Generate School of Ministry. Besides these extra-curricula
activities, I worked a full-time day job with
Verizon doing Web development programming. Attaining a regionally
accredited Master's degree now qualifies me to teach at a
University in the area of my degree: Theology and the Bible.
However, opportunities to have a paid teaching position at a
Christian college or university are not easy to come by. For now, the
Lord is leading me to focus on my work (see my book
The Value of Work in the Eyes of
God), so I am passionately pursuing learning some new
technologies, such as ASP.NET, AJAX, and SQL Server, so that I can help my
department convert our many Web tools to a newer platform. I aim to
work unto the Lord and to serve the people in my department and all
who are benefited from these Web tools.
Marsha and I just passed our 10th anniversary, though she has
been very sick for the past two weeks, so we still have not officially
celebrated it. She recently completed her Berean class for
Introduction to Pentecostal Doctrine, and she got an "A" in the
class.
Dimitri finished the 3rd grade and passed his FCAT in Math and
Reading/Writing. He celebrated his 10th birthday with friends at
Extreme Adventures, where he bowled, played laser tag, played games,
and ate pizza and cake. Our social worker completed her 4-year
report on him being in the U.S. and in our home. We sent this good
report to the adoption agency to give to Kazakhstan.
Isaac is glad to have graduated High School this past week.
He will miss being a "manager" of the varsity football team.
Isaac celebrated his 19th birthday.
Margaret continues to do well, for 88.
Peanut the poodle is still doing well, though he moves a
little slow.
|
|
Date: Christmas, 2009
|
|
Dear Friends,
For
us, 2009 has been a year full of accomplishments and milestones. In
September, we visited the D.R. of Congo in
Africa, where we ministered every day, reaching thousands of
people. It was heartwarming for Marsha to visit many of the
places and people that she knew as a missionary child.
Marsha preached over 70
times this year throughout Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Africa.
She remains a vibrant leader as the Women's Ministry Director of
Peninsular Florida District of the Assemblies of God (overseeing 340
churches). For Doug, he completed 3
graduate-level Bible/Theology courses (at SAGU) with
high "A" averages,
taught 2 "Berean" courses
for ministry interns, served as a
National Director for FGBMFI
(and represented the USA fellowship as an International Director at
the 2009 World
Convention for FGBMFI, held in Florida), and in his spare time
works a full-time job at Verizon. As of April of 2009, Doug is
now working daytime hours instead of nighttime hours, and he now
utilizes his skillset more fully in his new position and
responsibilities as a Web development programmer and administrator.
As opportunities arise, we mention Doug's recently published book
entitled The Value of Work in
the Eyes of God, and purchases normally follow.
Our family enjoyed several vacation trips
this year including:
-
Nashville,
Tennesse (Marsha was a main speaker at Judy
Jacob's Conference)
-
Sarasota,
FL
(Stayed at Hyatt where Marsha would host Women's Fall
Breakaway)
-
Charleston,
SC (Visiting Doug's mom who broke her hip on vacation
in Charleston)
-
Florida
(Disney's Vero Beach Resort, Sebastian, Merritt Island,
Altamonte Springs & Orlando--for District Council)
-
Eastonton, GA (Marsha
ministered at a church)
-
Fort
Lauderdale, FL (Attended World Convention of
FGBMFI)
-
Orlando,
FL (Attended General Council of the Assemblies of God)
-
Kinshasa, D.R.
Congo (Missions trip to Africa where we spoke
every day, reaching thousands of people from all strata of
society)
-
Boynton Beach,
FL (Ministered at a church and enjoyed some golf and the
beach)
We celebrated our 9th
anniversary at Fleming's Prime Steakhouse in
Tampa in June.
Dimitri completed second grade, enjoyed his summer activities at
the YMCA, and is progressing in third grade, especially in the
social aspects. He never seems to meet a stranger, and all of our
neighbors say that he should run for mayor. He continues to be full
of life and lots of mischief. He is all boy. He loves playing his DS
game and has a very large collection of game cartridges. He has
recently developed a hatred for bed time, and he will come up with
101 excuses for staying up a little later, and a little later, and a
little later.
Isaac completed the eleventh grade, turned 18, and spent some
time in Birmingham, Alabama for the summer. He is enjoying being a senior in High School.
In the Fall, he served as a "manager" of the varsity football team, which had an excellent
record and made it to the playoffs. It was a nice reward for his
four years of devotion to the football team. We are in the process
of looking for the right program for him to go into after high
school ends. Lots of big decisions coming up. Additionally, Isaac
participated in the Fine Arts Festival at General Council, where he
received "superior" ratings on his solo human video and short
sermon. He plans to participate again next year.
Margaret continues to do well for being 87 years old. Nobody
can believe that she is that old. She still looks young and drives
her Jaguar fast. She gets up every morning and faithfully prays for
all those on her prayer list. As you can imagine, she has lots of
aches and pains, but she perseveres and always smiles and proclaims
that God has been good to her. She continues to be an inspiration to
all of us. She is still working on her book, with one more chapter
to complete.
May we all remember the joyous occasion of Christ being born over
2,000 years ago and how he lived, died, and rose from the dead as
our Savior. Merry Christmas!
Further details of the entire year
can be seen below for a particular period of time....
|
|
Date: December 24, 2009
|
|
Dear Reader,
I (Doug) have been so busy with my Systematic Theology 1
class for my Master's degree, that I am just now getting a chance to
provide an update on our lives over the past four months. I am glad
to report that I earned an "A" in the
class, after completing a 20-page
term paper on "Providence and Its
Implications for Prayer," reading over 1,000 pages, viewing 24
lectures by the professor, writing 150 pages describing theological
terms, writing 50 pages interacting with discussion questions and
fellow students, and taking 3 exams. Additionally, I
taught a class on
Introduction to Theology:
A Pentecostal Perspective for six interns of the
Generate School of Ministry. Besides these extra-curricula
activities, I worked a full-time day job with
Verizon doing Web development programming. I am very thankful to
the Lord for my job.
Although we are constantly on the road for Marsha's speaking
ministry, we made a significant trip to Africa in September. The day
we arrived, we celebrated Marsha's 48th birthday over looking the
Congo River at the Kinshasa Hotel. It was so rewarding for Marsha to
revisit the places that she knew as a missionary child and see the
fruit of her family's labor. We were invited to celebrate Pastor
Joseph's 40th anniversary in ministry. He is a great man of God who
served as the General Superintendent for the Assemblies of God in
D.R. of Congo. He was also a co-laborer with Marsha's father, so I
was honored to be asked to give the key-note address at this
significant milestone. For me, it was my first time in the D.R. of
Congo, but the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International (FGBMFI)
in Congo took full advantage of my presence, organizing a large
conference for professionals in which I was the featured speaker.
Both Marsha and I spoke every day, either at a one of three women's
conferences, a 3-day FGBMFI conference, or at the 40th Anniversary
celebration that gathered over 2,000 pastors, leaders, and church
members. It was extremely rewarding, ministering to all classes of
people, from the poorest groups to the riches and most educated
groups. Pictures for our Africa trip and for our trip to Boynton
Beach, Florida (where we ministered and had fun golfing and swimming
at the beach) can be seen on our "Vacation"
page, which has been revised.
Marsha is still going full steam ahead with the women's
ministry in Pen Florida. She hosted the annual Women's
Fall Breakaway,
where she also was the key speaker for the first night, followed by
Lisa Bevere for the other sessions. The event was a tremendous
success, gathering over 1,100 women and helping to raise their
budget for the upcoming year. Women of all ages were touched at the Sarasota Hyatt.
However, there is never a moment to rest on any success . . . plans
are already underway for 2010 at the Champions Gate Omni Hotel near
Orlando. She recently completed her Berean class for Foreign
Missions, and is now moving on to her next Berean class:
Introduction to Pentecostal Doctrine. She had a little break at
Christmas, but in January, she is hosting a Leading Ladies
Conference for the wives of senior pastors. Then, in March, she will
be off on the Hope tour with about half-dozen women in the
Pen Florida district, bringing pockets of hope to three different
regions.
Dimitri is now in 3rd grade and loves school, especially the
social aspects. He never seems to meet a stranger, and all of our
neighbors say that he should run for mayor. He continues to be full
of life and lots of mischief. He is all boy. He loves playing his DS
game and has a very large collection of game cartridges. He has
recently developed a hatred for bed time, and he will come up with
101 excuses for staying up a little later, and a little later, and a
little later.
Isaac is enjoying being a senior in High School, where he was
a "manager" of the varsity football team, which had an excellent
record and made it to the playoffs. It was a nice reward for his
four years of devotion to the football team. We are in the process
of looking for the right program for him to go into after high
school ends. Lots of big decisions coming up.
Margaret continues to do well. At 87, she is as beautiful as
ever. She gets up every morning and faithfully prays for all those
on her prayer list. As you can imagine, she has lots of aches and
pains, but she perseveres and always smiles and proclaims that God
has been good to her. She continues to be an inspiration to all of
us.
Peanut the poodle is doing well and loves his family and
company, but he barks when he hears Dimitri's hamsters playing on
their wheel.
|
|
Date: August 10, 2009
|
|
Dear Reader,
Marsha and I celebrated our 9th
anniversary on June 3rd, and we have been traveling a lot over the past four months.
After my (Doug's) mom broke her hip on a vacation in Charleston,
South Carolina, we made several road trips to visit her at the rehab
center. We traveled to Vero Beach, where Marsha and I ministered,
and from there we went straight to District Council of the A/G in
Orlando. We also flew to Eatonton, Georgia, where Marsha ministered
for the seventeenth time at this special church. We traveled to Fort Lauderdale for the
World Convention of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship
International (FGBMFI), where I served as an International Director,
representing the USA at the business sessions. Most recently, we
attended the General Council of the Assemblies of God in Orlando,
where I represented our church as a delegate in the business
sessions. Needless to say our suitcases are worn out! Although we
have "vacation" pictures for
these trips, in many ways it is a misnomer to say that they were
vacations, since the main purpose was for ministry. We are now preparing
for our missionary trip, in a few weeks, to Africa, where we will both be speakers at
different events, including FGBMFI seminars.
I (Doug) finished teaching a
class on Missions for six interns of the Generate School of
Ministry. Additionally, I finished my
Master's class in Systematic Theology II with an "A."
Furthermore,
I completed a summer course in "Pastoral
Care" and earned an "A+." I now have only two classes left for a
Master's Degree in Theology/Bible at Southwestern A/G University.
With a little free time over the past few weeks, I have been
enhancing my computer skills in Expression Web 2, JavaScript, and
Visual Basic. I really enjoy my new work at
Verizon in Web Development Programming, and I am especially
thrilled when I sense that it provides a real "service" to the end
users.
Marsha continues to be busy preaching and leading the women's
ministry in Florida. She is gearing up for
Fall Breakaway with Lisa Bevere. This year they are going to be at the Sarasota Hyatt, an
exciting new venue but a lot of details to work out. She continues
to take Berean classes. She has recently started working out with a
trainer for the first time in her life. You can hear groaning as she
goes up and down stairs at home, after working out. Her favorite
phrase is "how long does it take before your muscles stop hurting?"
We don't know the answer to that question, but it's more than two
months.
Dimitri finished 2nd grade, and he is enjoying his summer at
the YMCA. He especially likes swimming in the aquatics program, but
he also liked playing golf for two of those weeks and participating
in drama for one week. At the end of the public performance, he
wowed the crowd with his dance routine to Michael Jackson's
"Thriller." He was glad to join us on each of our vacation trips and
to participate at the kids' program of the FGBMFI World Convention
and the General Council of the A/G. He is looking forward to 3rd
grade, especially since he will have the same teacher and most of
the same students in his class. He makes friends easily. His
favorite activity is still playing his DS.
Isaac celebrated his 18th birthday. He participated in the
Fine Arts Festival at General Council, where he received "superior"
ratings on his solo human video and short sermon. It was a thrill
for his mom to "finally" see him preach. He refuses to practice in
front of the family. She was so proud and said he moved her to
tears. He is looking forward to being a senior in high school this
year and praying about what his future will hold.
Margaret continues to do well, though she just had cataract
surgery on both eyes. Her son David has been with us since the
beginning of October, and he has been helping out around the house.
She continues to be the best cook in town, especially when it comes
to brownies.
Peanut the poodle just completed hip surgery and is running
around like a little puppy. He even climbs the stairs from time to
time.
|
|
Date: April 6, 2009
|
|
Dear Reader,
Marsha and I started off the year with a trip to Nashville,
Tennessee, where Marsha was a guest speaker at Judy Jacob's
conference at the beautiful Gaylord Hotel. The place was absolutely
amazing and we have many excellent pictures on our
Vacations page to remember it! I even
had a chance to visit the Grand Ole Opry! Upon our
return from Nashville, our church,
Victorious Life in Wesley Chapel, FL, held a book signing for my
recently published book
entitled The Value of Work in
the Eyes of God. It's been an exciting few months as I have
had the opportunity to promote the book and the ideas that prompted
me to write the book in the first place.
We also took a short trip to Sarasota, where we stayed at the Hyatt
Hotel, where Marsha will be hosting Fall Breakaway (the Pen Florida
Women's Conference for the A/G in October). Its a beautiful location
and a few pictures of our trip can be seen on our
Vacations page too.
I (Doug) am currently teaching a
class on Missions for six interns of the Generate School of
Ministry. Marsha is also taking this Berean class, so she is sitting
in on the class as her schedule permits, as well as contributing her
extraordinary missionary experiences as a guest speaker. She is also
attempting to take a second Berean class on Pentecostal doctrines.
After three months of intense study, I am almost finished with my
Master's class in Systematic Theology II. In addition to reading and
studying 1,000 pages in my two textbooks, the homework has resulted
in over 140 pages of written research, and then there are class
discussion questions/responses, tests, and a final 15-page research
paper. However, I thoroughly enjoy learning the various key
doctrines of the Christian faith.
Just recently, I was given an awesome opportunity at Verizon to work
during the daytime in a position that would better utilize some of
my skill sets. Although I was happy in my prior job
responsibilities, my work environment, nightshift work, and my
co-workers and boss, I think the transition is a good move (which
was the consensus of others in management positions as well). After
working graveyard shifts for the past 7 years, it is certainly
different working during the day again, but I like it. I am
now working as a Web Developer, utilizing
Visual Basic, HTML, Javascript, and various tools, in a Windows XP
Professional environment.
Marsha remains tremendously busy as the Pen Florida Women's
Ministry Director. She hosted three regional conferences since the
beginning of February as well as fulfilling many speaking
engagements. The fruit from these meetings has been tremendous, but
it has not afforded a weekend off for Marsha since January. She is
looking forward to a month long rest and time with the family during
April. Her schedule can be found at
www.MarshaWoolley.com.
Dimitri is doing very well in second grade. He has picked up
his running again and is so much faster than last year at this time.
For example, the other day he ran one-mile in 7 minutes and 46
seconds then rested for 10 minutes, then ran another 8 minute mile,
rested for 10 minutes and ran another 8 minute mile. He is preparing
for a 5K race this coming Saturday, and I anticipate that he will do
very well for his age group (9 & under) [if he does not stop along
the way and pick up shells or rocks, like he did last year for this
particular race]. For his 9th birthday in February, he selected and
received two Chinese Dwarf hamsters, Inky and Pinky, who love to
ride on the wheel to nowhere! Peanut the poodle barks upon hearing
their activity and is not as fond of them as the rest of the family.
Isaac will be celebrating his 18th birthday in a few weeks,
and he is eagerly looking forward to his senior year. He is has been
preparing for the fine arts festival where he plans to perform a
solo human video as well as a short sermon.
Margaret continues to do well and is making us all way too
fat with her good cooking! She is a prayer warrior for all of us who
are on the front lines. No doubt, our successes are partially tied
to her fervent prayers. She continues to inspire all those who meet
her. You'd never guess she just turned 87.
|
|
Date: Christmas, 2008
|
|
Dear Friends,
For
us, 2008 has been good, busy, and fast. Marsha comments that
the year went by so quickly, but this could be because
Marsha ministered in over
52 churches/events throughout Florida this year, as a part of (and
in addition to) working as the Women's Ministry Director for
Peninsular Florida District of the Assemblies of God (overseeing 350
churches). For Doug, he completed 5
graduate-level Bible/Theology courses (at SAGU), taught Sunday
school, taught 2 "Berean" courses
for ministry interns, prepared and presented a workshop for the
yearly Florida Men's Conference of the A/G, and published a book
entitled The Value of Work in
the Eyes of God, in addition to
working 40 hours a week (at night) at Verizon as a systems
engineer (which included a business trip to Colorado to train
personnel).
Our family enjoyed several vacation trips
this year including:
-
Colorado (Colorado
Springs & Manitou Springs, Pike's Peak mountain)
-
Florida
(Naples, Fort Lauderdale, Boynton Beach, Merritt Island,
Champions Gate [FGBMFI World Convention], Lake Buena Vista,
Orlando [Sea World])
-
Suwannee
River, Florida (Branford, FL)
-
Arizona
(Phoenix, Grand Canyon, and Sedona)
We celebrated our 8th
anniversary at the Ritz Carlton in Naples in June.
Due to the recent turn of events in the economy,
Marsha's brother (David) lost his job at the bank and has moved down
to Tampa to look for a job. As a result, he has been living with us
since the beginning of October.
Dimitri completed first grade, enjoyed his summer activities at
the YMCA, and is progressing in second grade. He loves socializing
with his many friends in school and in the neighborhood. He loves to
play outside in the cul-de-sac with others. At the beginning of the
year, he played on a soccer team. He also spent several months
running in a few 5K road races (3.1 miles).
He achieved his best time on his 8th birthday in February at a race
at Lowry Park Zoo (30 minutes and 21 seconds). He won several medals
and plaques for his outstanding efforts as a young runner. He has
also learned to play golf.
Isaac completed the tenth grade, turned 17, spent some time
Birmingham, Alabama for the summer, and is now in the eleventh grade, but has missed a lot of
school due to various ailments. He has enjoyed participating in our
church's youth group and in "Fine Arts" with our church
denomination, and he has enjoyed serving as one of the "managers" of
his high school football team, which enabled him to travel with the
team and interact with all the players.
Margaret continues to do well for being 86 years old. She is glad to help
out the family in order to allow Marsha the opportunity to minister.
She cooks most of the dinners and helps out with Dimitri,
as needed. Slowly, she is working on a book about her adventures in
Africa with her editors.
Marsha did a tremendous job in hosting the
Fall Breakaway
Ladies Conference for the Florida A/G women, where Judy Jacobs
ministered.
Doug continues to serve both as
a national director and the
webmaster for FGBMFI. As a family we attended the 2008 World
Convention in Florida, and Dimitri loved the children's programs.
Maintaining an A+ average, Doug has
four more graduate classes to take before earning a Masters Degree
in Bible/Theology at Southwestern A/G University. He thoroughly
enjoys learning biblical materials and sharing this knowledge with
others in hopes that it will build others up spiritually, since the
information has transformed him as well.
May we all remember the joyous occasion of Christ being born over
2,000 years ago and how he lived, died, and rose from the dead as
our Savior. Merry Christmas!
Further details of the entire year
can be seen below for a particular period of time....
|
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Date: November 24, 2008
|
|
Dear Reader,
I have been extremely busy the past few months. Maintaining an
A+
average, I have completed another graduate-level class at
Southwestern A/G University--this one in New Testament Theology.
Additionally, I was asked to teach "Berean" Bible classes to
ministry interns through the Generate School of Ministry that meets
in our church facilities. Thus, I taught Hermeneutics in the first
part of the Fall semester, and I am now teaching Systematic Theology, meeting
each week for two hours with the students. Additionally, I was asked
to be a workshop speaker at the Florida Men's Conference for the A/G
on Nov. 14-15 on the topic "Empowered to Turn Your Job into
Ministry." Utilizing real life illustrations from my jobs and
incorporating principles from my book, I prepared a PowerPoint
presentation for my three 50-minute workshops. About two months ago,
an opportunity presented itself to me whereby I could have my
"Theology of Work" material turned into a book, which would have
nicely supplemented my workshop presentation. Much work went into
transforming the material into a book entitled The Value of Work
in the Eyes of God. I was privileged to have the foreword
written by Os Hillman, a prominent author and speaker in the Faith
at Work movement. I was pleased to have positive endorsements from
Jimmy Rogers (President of an insurance company), Dr. Royce Shelton
(Professor Emeritus of Southeastern University), Ed Russo (Senior
Pastor of Victorious Life Church), and later Alistair MacKenzie
(author and leader of Faith at Work movement in New Zealand). The
book is in the process of being printed!! I've created a new
page to provide more info on the
book and instructions for ordering the book.
Marsha and I took a nice vacation to the Suwannee River in Branford,
Florida. Additionally, Marsha, Dimitri, and I went on a great
vacation to Arizona, journeying from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon and
then to Sedona! Dimitri and I even hiked down the Canyon for 1.5
miles and then returned to the top of the South Rim (all within 2
hours). After cleaning up, we went to
Grand
Canyon Assembly of God church and fellowshipped afterwards with
the pastors and their family. To see the pictures of our exciting
adventures, please view Our
Vacations page.
Marsha did a tremendous job in hosting the Fall Breakaway
Ladies Conference for the Florida A/G women. Almost 1,000 ladies packed
the ballroom to hear Judy Jacobs and the Women's Ministry Director
(Marsha Woolley). She continues to be busy with her position which
has opened many doors for her to speak in a different church almost
every week. Her schedule can be found at
www.MarshaWoolley.com.
Dimitri is doing well in second grade, staying on par with the
others and excelling a bit in mathematics.
Isaac is in the eleventh grade, but has missed a lot of
school due to various ailments.
Margaret continues to do well and says she is glad to help
out the family in order to allow Marsha the opportunity to minister.
She cooks most of the dinners and helps out with Dimitri,
as needed.
|
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Date: July 31, 2008
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Dear Reader,
The summer has been great so far. Marsha and I went on a wonderful
vacation throughout Florida, with a special stop at the Ritz Carlton
in Naples, where we celebrated our 8th
anniversary. Half way through the trip, we picked up Dimitri to
have him join us at the Omni Hotel in Champions Gate, FL, where we
attended the World Convention for FGBMFI, for which
I (Doug) serve as a national director. Dimitri had a great
time at the kids camp, provided by the convention, and Marsha
provided a special song in the evening session at the request of the
International President. Pictures of our vacation can be seen on our
Our Vacations page. Now that I
accumulated some extra space on our web site, I was able to post the
many slideshow pictures from our other vacations in 2007 and 2008,
which had not previous appeared on Our
Vacations page.
I just finished a graduate-level class in Old Testament Theology and received a
high "A" in the course. I have posted one of the essays for the
course on my
Theology Corner
page. I plan to take New Testament Theology in the Fall semester, so
I am getting a head start by reading the course textbook, as well as
purchasing and reading other related books.
I was delighted to find out that a major paper that I had written
last year,
Theology of Work and Its Practical Implications, was posted
onto a high-profile web site (with my permission) dealing with
Work in the Marketplace
(under the Theology of Work section). The site is sponsored
by Os Hillman,
founder and Executive Director of Marketplace
Leaders Ministries
and also of the
International
Coalition of Workplace Ministries
(ICWM). I also just found out that there is a team of
theologians who are working together on a project to produce a
Theology of Work, under the co-chairmanship of Dr. Haddon Robinson,
one of the foremost preachers in America. Marsha and I sat under Dr.
Robinson's teaching in Indianapolis last year. A friend of mine from
New Zealand, Alistair Mackenzie, is also on this committee. I am
very interested in their results of the project, which may take
several years. Their site can be found at
www.TheologyofWork.org.
Marsha continues to be busy with her position as Women's
Ministry Director for the Assemblies of God in the Peninsular
Florida district. She has been speaking somewhere in
Florida every week, as well as reporting to work in Lakeland during
most of the week. She is excited about the upcoming Fall Breakaway
conference for women that she will be hosting in Orlando in October,
with special guest preacher Judy Jacobs.
I have renamed Marsha's
Ministry web site to be
www.MarshaWoolley.com, thus phasing out the previous site known
as GodandMarsha.com. The new site has been redesigned (a little) to
have a different background theme, different pictures for publicity,
and simpler home page in accordance with Marsha's desires.
Dimitri finished the first grade and is enjoying his summer at
YMCA. He loves to swim!
Isaac finished the tenth grade and spent some time in
Birmingham, Alabama for the summer.
Margaret continues to do well, and is a blessing to the
family as she cooks most of the dinners and helps out with Dimitri,
as needed.
|
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Date: April 30, 2008
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|
Dear Reader,
I (Doug) apologize for the delay in posting an update concerning "What's
New?" Besides working 40 hours a week, almost every spare moment for the past few months, I was diligently
working on my three graduate classes, which included many reading
assignments, research papers, and essay exams. I needed to maintain
full-time graduate student status for the first two semesters in
order to receive my earned Presidential scholarship, for having
completed my undergraduate degree with at least a 3.9 GPA. I am glad
to say that I have completed both semesters of three graduate
classes, achieving an "A" average in all classes. One of my
professors, who serves as the dean of the graduate school at
Southwestern A/G University, responded to my research paper saying
that it should be published, and he also gave me a 100%
on my final essay exam, consisting of about 50 pages. Furthermore,
he said that he could not remember the last time he gave someone a
100 on an essay exam. Another professor gave me a 100 on my research
project saying:
"Thank you for your fantastic and interesting
paper. As you already know, this will serve your ministry in
years to come as you communicate it to others. I was especially
impressed with the clear and simple organization of your paper
as well as the perfect formatting and quality of your
bibliography. This is a well-deserved grade."
My overall grades for each of the
three classes were 99, 99, and 98, resulting in three A+ grades. (You have to understand that I am
thrilled and amazed, though I certainly worked extremely hard and
often went above and beyond what was required.) All this helps
solidify the desire in my heart to teach undergraduate students in
my field of study. My
research
papers for Southwestern can be seen on my Theology Corner
page. I plan to lighten my load to one graduate class per semester,
and I have 6 more classes to take for my Masters Degree in
Theological Studies.
I also had the privilege of traveling to Colorado Springs, Colorado
for Verizon business to train the
technicians on ESP, a new system that will help them to monitor the
status and progress of all batch mainframe system jobs. I especially
enjoy the teaching aspect and the opportunity to meet other people.
Also, Colorado Springs exceeded my expectations of a place to visit.
It was extremely interesting to journey up Pike's Peak (the 2nd most
visited mountain in the world) and to visit the Garden of the Gods,
which consists of several miles of beautiful huge rocks.
At Easter time, we hosted a neighborhood Easter Egg hunt and hid
several hundred plastic eggs containing candy in our yard and our
neighbor's yard. A dozen kids between the ages of two and nine
quickly gathered as many eggs as they could find into their baskets
or bags. Dimitri had a great time with his friends, and we were
pleased with the response of the kids and their parents who watched
on the sidelines.
Marsha has been extremely busy with her new position as Women's
Ministry Director for the Assemblies of God in the Peninsular
Florida district. She has always kept an active schedule, but this
is truly a very active schedule. She has been speaking somewhere in
Florida every week, as well as reporting to work in Lakeland during
most of the week. She is regaining her strength and her hair, which
is short and very curly, due to chemotherapy that she had in August
- October, 2007. She is flourishing, as Women's Ministries is right
up her alley.
Dimitri turned 8 years old in February. He continues to do very
well in school and loves to socialize. He is very well liked by his
teachers and peers (though he often loses his "star" in class for
talking . . . He must get that from his mother). He played on a soccer team and
received his first trophy for his participation. After the soccer
season, Dimitri began running in 5K road races. He normally places
very well as an 8-year old, especially since not too many young
people can run 3.1 miles (for that matter, not too many PEOPLE can
run that far). His best race was on his
birthday, when he ran the 5K race at Lowry Park Zoo in 30 minutes
and 21 seconds.
Isaac just celebrated his 17th birthday. He recently
participated in Fine Arts, a teen talent contest within our church
denomination in Florida, where he performed a "human video," where
he acts out a song. He achieved a respectable score, and we are
proud of his effort and accomplishment. He is a leader in our
church's youth group and he is planning to spend two weeks in the
summer in Nicaragua. This will be his real first missions. We guess
it is in his blood.
Margaret continues to do well, and she has recently
celebrated her 86th birthday. She is working on her book about her
adventures in Africa with her editors, David and Michelle Moore.
They have spent many hours on this project, but we believe it will
be a great blessing to many people.
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Date: Christmas, 2007
|
|
Dear Friends,
For
our family, 2007 has been a year of challenges and triumphs. In
February, we attended an FGBMFI convention in Washington D.C. and
also toured the White House and
visited our congressman in the Capitol with Isaac. We were
privileged to celebrate
Dimitri's first birthday
with us with a pirate party with his friends. He turned seven on
February 23rd. He was so excited to have a party that he hugged people as
they came in the door. Doug worked for months on his Senior Project entitled
Theology of
Work and Its Practical Implications, to finish his last
class for his 2nd B.S. degree. The professor replied
that the essay-paper should be published in a journal or a book! In May,
Doug graduated Summa Cum Laude
with a B.S. degree (this one in Interdisciplinary Studies
with a concentration in Bible/Theology) from North Central
University, a regionally accredited university in Minneapolis,
Minnesota. While in Minneapolis we enjoyed staying with some friends
who had adopted Dimitri's best friend from his Kazakhstan orphanage.
It was wonderful to watch the boys together, to see how their lives
had changed, and to compare notes with the Sutterfields on their
adoption experience. The day after school was out for the summer, we
embarked on a whirlwind Hawaiian vacation. It was Dimitri's first
time to be in Hawaii and he loved the swimming especially. Margaret,
like the rest of us, enjoyed the many wonderful views. We celebrated
our 7th anniversary golfing on the Island of Molokai, followed by a
romantic dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel on Maui.
In July, Marsha was diagnosed with breast cancer and had major surgery
within 10 days after that. We had lots of support from our church
friends and family. We thank the Lord for the remarkable healing
that occurred with the help of two skilled surgeons. In the
beginning of August, Marsha and Doug attended the General Council of
the Assemblies of God in Indianapolis, Indiana for several days. We
were delighted to meet new people and get reacquainted with others
we have not seen in a while, including Terry & Athena Raburn. Upon
our return, Marsha began chemotherapy once every three weeks, and
she had her last treatment at the end of October, with one final
small surgery in early December. God has been so faithful. She is
doing very well.
Dimitri spent the rest of the summer enjoying activities at the
YMCA. He is now in the 1st grade and loves school and his teacher.
He enjoys playing outside in the cul-de-sac with friends and
neighbors. He is now playing on a soccer team and loves it.
Isaac is now a 16-year old sophomore in high school. He once
again served as one of the
"managers" of his high school football team, which enabled him to
travel with the team and interact with all the players--a great
thrill and confidence builder for him. He is very active in our
church's youth group and still loves his Christian break dancing
group.
Margaret is doing remarkably well, especially considering
that she had surgery in the beginning of the year. She is a great
help to the family in preparing meals and looking after the kids.
She also was very helpful and encouraging to Marsha as she recovered
from her major surgery. She is in the process of writing a book
about her adventures in Africa.
Marsha had been working for Ann Taylor Loft until her
surgery. During her time off, God opened a wonderful door for her to
be interviewed for the position of Women's Ministry Director for the
Peninsular Florida District of the Assemblies of God. After three
interviews with the District Superintendent, then the executive
staff, then the executive presbytery, she was unanimously voted in
for the position. Our pastor Ed Russo was a great encouragement and
support to us during the interview process. We couldn't ask to be in
a better church. Having recovered, she is now working at the
District office in Lakeland. With all the speaking opportunities
that will be coming on the weekends, she has had to lay aside her
responsibilities as the Singles Leader at Victorious Life Church.
Doug is still working 40 hours a week at Verizon as a Systems Engineer,
primarily at night from 7pm to 7am on particular nights. He is also
pursuing a Masters degree through Southwestern A/G University, a
regionally accredited university in Waxahachie, Texas. As a
full-time student during the Fall semester, he received straight A's
in his three classes. He is really enjoying his studies. He has also
enjoyed teaching the Singles Sunday School class at Victorious Life
Church. He continues to serve both as
a national director and the
webmaster for FGBMFI. Unexpectedly, Doug lost his uncle and
cousin this year, but he has good memories of both of
them and was glad he got to visit them in their respective
states over the past few years.
May we all remember the joyous occasion of Christ being born over
2,000 years ago and how he lived, died, and rose from the dead as
our Savior. Merry Christmas!
Further details of the entire year
can be seen below for a particular period of time....
|
|
Date: November 1, 2007
|
|
Dear Reader,
Marsha had surgery on July 24th, and the two doctors declared
it a success. All traces of cancer were removed from her breast and
no cancer appeared in the lymph nodes. This past Tuesday, she had
her last round of chemo therapy and the prognosis looks very good
for her future. Furthermore, God did another amazing thing for her
in opening a wonderful door of opportunity to be the Women's
Director for the Peninsular Florida District of the Assemblies of
God. This is a full time position in Lakeland, FL, and would provide
her further opportunities for what she loves to do on
weekends--minister to women all across the state.
Marsha and I had attended the General Council of the Assemblies of
God in Indianapolis, Indiana for several days. During that time, I
took a full-day class on Biblical Preaching which Marsha attended
also. It was awesome to sit in the front row and learn from Dr. Jeff
Magruder, Dr. Haddon Robinson, and Dr. Richard Dresselhaus. I also
served as the voting delegate from our church (Victorious
Life Church in Wesley Chapel, FL). It was a privilege to vote
for our new General Superintendent, Dr. George Wood, as I have
admired his knowledge of the Bible and his friendly personality. It
was amazing to have a part in voting for bylaw changes, especially
the one that allows divorced and remarried individuals an
opportunity for ministerial credentials when the divorce occurred
for Biblical reasons. We had a great time at the convention and met
some wonderful people. I especially enjoyed attending the nightly
college reunions that served delicious appetizers and drinks, as I
got to attend a different one for each of the three nights. I
attended Southeastern University from 1992-96, North Central
University from 1996-2007, and Southwestern AG University from
2007-present.
Margaret has been a great support for our family. She usually
gets the groceries, cooks the dinners, drives the kids to school and
home from school, and reads a children's Bible story to Dimitri at
bed time.
Dimitri just finished the first quarter of the 1st grade. He
loves school and is doing very well. His report card came today and
he is "On Grade Level" for every subject and making good progress
academically in each subject. Marsha and I met with his teacher a
few weeks ago and had many good things to say about him. She said we
could quote her as saying:
He is always eager to learn, and is
fascinated by everything that is being taught. For example: When
our tadpoles finally grew back and front legs, and became "frogletts"
he was SO excited! Playing the game "Mystery Number" is one of
his favorite things to do (The children are given a ziplock bag
full of counting cubes. They must make as many groups of ten as
they can.....then count how many ones are left over, and tell me
how many cubes are in their bag.) For Dimitri, school is just
plain fun! (He also already knows how to win a woman's
heart.....hardly a day goes by that he does not tell me:" Mrs.
Huseman, you look pretty today!" :0) )
Dimitri loves playing soccer in his under 8
league. He had his first practice last Friday and has his first game
this Saturday. He was so excited about his soccer uniform and cleats
that he just had to try them on and kick the ball outside. He also
loves to swim in our pool and in the community pool. He is like a
fish, and no longer needs assistance. He has also learned how to
ride his bike without training wheels. He speaks English very well,
which is amazing since he only spoke Russian when he came to
American in July of 2006. Oh yeah, Marsha and I readopted Dimitri in
the U.S. on August 22, 2007, and the Judge ruled in our favor after
seeing the wonderful personality of our little boy. The judge also
let him pick a stuffed bear, which he did, and they Dimitri asked to
pick a second bear for his brother Isaac. (Actually, both bears
wound up in Dimitri's bed :) )
Isaac enjoys helping to manage the high
school football team once again this year, now that he is in 10th
grade. Doug, I, have been diligently working on three
graduate level classes towards my Master's degree at SAGU. Thus far,
I maintain an "A" average in each class: Biblical Preaching for
the 21st Century, Research Literature
and Technology, and Hermeneutics.Unexpectedly, I had
lost two relatives over the past few months. My Uncle Cliff passed
away while at a nursing home in New Hampshire; and my cousin Rick
fell off a horse in Montana and punctured a lung and passed away as
he was being flown to a hospital. I have good memories of both of
them and I am glad that I got to visit them in their respective
states over the past few years. |
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Date: July 23, 2007
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Dear Reader,
Just after school had finished for the year, and Dimitri had completed
Kindergarten and Isaac had completed the 9th grade, we went on a
wonderful first-class family vacation to
Hawaii, with a stop-over in Hollywood, California. [We had
earned quite a few Skymiles on Delta especially going to Kazakhstan!] This
was Dimitri's first major family vacation and he had an awesome
time. We started by flying from Tampa, Florida to Hollywood,
California where we spent the night and did some sightseeing of
Hollywood and their famous wax museums. The next day we continued on
to Honolulu and stayed at the beautiful Hilton Hawaiian Village
where Dimitri got to swim in the ocean on Waikiki beach and the nice
pool. Later we ate at the famous Alan Wong's Restaurant (which lived
up to its reputation of having the finest food in Hawaii). Dimitri
had his first limousine ride into the center of Diamond Head (the
inactive volcano next to Waikiki Beach). Next we were off to the Big
Island, which never ceases to amaze us with its extensive scenery of
lava that makes us think we are landing on another planet. We stayed
at the Disney-like Waikoloa Hilton with a picturesque room
overlooking the dolphin lagoon. Later Dimitri had a thrill of
swimming with the dolphins. He was so excited and brave. He also
enjoyed the many pools and awesome water slides. The only thing
missing was Isaac (who spent two months with his dad over the
summer). Dimitri, admiring his big brother, tried to experience all
the places Isaac had visited from the family pictures of previous
vacations to Hawaii. We also took the time to drive to the other
side of the island and visit Volcanoes National Park, which was
absolutely awesome--seeing a volcano crater as well as steam vents
from the ground. It was breathtaking to see the glowing lava under
the full moon after sunset. Margaret also had a lovely time on the
Big Island. She always loves the view of the ocean. Margaret and
Marsha indulged in a hour-long massage at the spa, which they still
talk about. We also attended an awesome traditional luau at the
hotel, complete with smoothies and fire dancers. Then we were off to
Maui for our final four days at The Westin. It turned out to be a
beautiful experience from the minute we walked in the door and were
given a lei and a Hawaiian punch drink. The beach, pools, and staff
were all awesome and very kid friendly. Marsha and I snuck away for
a day to the Island of Molokai via a ferry boat, where I played 18
holes of golf (the 11th hole had some beautiful beach/ocean scenery
where the last scene of Pirates of the Caribbean III was
shot). We also were privileged to have a glimpse of the famous Leper
Colony where
Father Damien ministered in the late 1800's. After returning to
Maui before sunset, we returned to our hotel, changed clothes, and
ventured out for a romantic dinner by the ocean at the Four Season's
Hotel for our 7th wedding anniversary.
The Ferraro's Ristorante
served fine Italian food, most of which we could not read on the
menu, but the close ocean view and sounds of the waves coupled with
lighted torches made the evening extra special. Margaret was so
gracious in helping us with Dimitri so that we could have some
private time. It was a great trip!
Dimitri has been enjoying
the rest of the summer with the many activities provided at the
YMCA, and he is now able to swim very well without any assistance.
Isaac just returned from a two month visit to his dad's. Isaac
missed Dimitri almost as much as Dimitri had missed Isaac. They
embraced with fondness as they reunited. (It will be interesting to
see who will win the war over the T.V. that is in Isaac's room since
Dimitri has enjoyed it to himself for the past two months).
I have gotten a jump start on my three classes that I will be taking
for my Master's Degree (in Biblical Studies/Theology) at Southwestern AG University.
Investing in my future (and Marsha's ministry), I purchased
approximately $7,000 worth of good-quality commentaries and other
Biblical books to add to my ever-growing library. I am looking
forward to my first class that starts at the Leadership seminar at
the General Council of the Assemblies of God in Indianapolis,
Indiana next month. This class is called Biblical Preaching for
the 21st Century, and the two others are Research Literature
and Technology and Hermeneutics. With the jump start, I
hope to have time to successfully complete the three classes during
the Fall semester, and thus qualify as a full-time student and
receive a Presidential scholarship from SAGU for having earned
at least a 3.9 GPA from my undergraduate
school, North Central University. Since both of these
universities are Regionally accredited and reputable, completion of
my Master's Degree will qualify me to teach undergraduate theology
classes at any university, if the Lord should open such doors at
some time in the future.
Marsha has been teaching the Singles Sunday school class
(along with Doug). As of a week ago, she was diagnosed with breast
cancer and her surgery is tomorrow. It's been a tough struggle for
her, but she is trusting God. Please remember her in your prayers.
|
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Date: May 19, 2007
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Dear Reader, While
Marsha, Dimitri, and I were in Minneapolis for my graduation
ceremony, we stayed with a wonderful family who
also adopted a son from the country of Kazakhstan. In fact, their
son Christopher was best friends with Dimitri when they were
together in the orphanage. They had not seen each other in two
years, since it was 2 years ago that Christopher was adopted out of
the orphanage. Almost a year ago, Marsha and I adopted Dimitri and I
found out about his best friend and the family that adopted him and
they also were excited about a possible reunion. I figured that the
days surrounding my graduation in Minneapolis would provide a great
opportunity to get together and share common experiences. We all had
a great time.
My Senior Project entitled "Theology of Work and Its
Practical Implications" has been posted on my
Theology Corner. On May 4th, my
family (Marsha & Dimitri) watched me graduate from North Central
University in Minneapolis, Summa Cum Laude. The Director of
the Carlson Institute (Distance Education school) hand-delivered my
paper back to me reiterating what the professor (dean of the
theology department) had written: "This is one of the most thorough
pieces of work I have ever corrected. Very well done. Subject
covered well. Good sources. A well written paper. Should be put into
a book or journal." I was thrilled to hear this (as I had put a
lot of work into that paper!) and that I received
an "A" in the class, thus finishing with a GPA of 3.957 as shown on
my transcript. Additionally, I was
honored to be one of three students to address the graduates and
their families (the other two were the valedictorian and the class
president).
The week after, I flew to Southwestern AG University in Texas for
the new student orientation for grad-school (majoring in
Bible/Theology). I am looking forward to furthering my education and
growing from the course materials as well as preparing for the
possibility of being a teacher in a university in the subject that I
am learning.
Pictures of Dimitri's 7th birthday and first in the U.S. can be
seen on his web page.
Some pictures from our vacation to
Washington D.C. in February and to Minneapolis in May can now been
seen.
|
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Date: May 2, 2007
|
|
Dear Reader,
I apologize for the delay in posting an update concerning "What's
New?" Every spare moment for the past few months, I was diligently
researching and writing my Senior Project entitled "Theology of Work and Its
Practical Implications" (to be posted on
Theology Corner soon). Having
completed the project as scheduled, I am taking Marsha and Dimitri
to my graduation ceremony in Minneapolis (we leave in an hour). I'll
give some updated pictures of our recent trips and of Dimitri when
we return, but for now, here is a quick update...
Dimitri is growing by leaps and bounds. He's grown about 4
inches and gained 10 pounds since he arrived from Kazakhstan. His
English vocabulary improves everyday and even the trace of Russian
accent is now disappearing. We celebrated
Dimitri's 7th birthday with a
pirate party, complete with a live pirate and treasure hunt. He had
a great time with about 20 of his friends. He is now into story
writing and story telling; he's showing off all that beautiful
English he's learned.
Isaac is now 16 years old and staying busy with Spring
Training for Football at his high school. He is once again the
equipment manager for the football team. He comes home everyday sun
burnt and exhausted. Most recently Isaac and the dance team that he
is a part of at church (the "B" boys) received the honor of placing
#1 in the district of Florida at the Fine Arts competition in
Orlando. To God be the Glory! The 2 pound preemie who was never
supposed to walk or talk wins a dance contest (with others). What a
blessing this team and it's leaders (Josh and Ryan) have been to
Isaac's life. This experience has definitely broadened his horizons
and enlarged his vision.
Marsha is still working for Ann Taylor Loft less and less as
her Spring speaking schedule was very busy this year. She recently
took even more time off to care for Margaret, who has faced
more challenges than all of us lately. In the month of March, she
celebrated her 85th birthday and was also diagnosed with breast
cancer. After extensive tests, it was determined that surgery was
needed. With great strength and faith in God, she faced the surgery
and smiled all the way through. Three days after her surgery, she
was laid hands on her 92 year old roommate praying for her healing
as she left the hospital. She is doing great. The doctors were able
to get all the cancer and no further therapy is needed at this time.
Her courage and faith are an inspiration to all of us.
|
|
Date: Christmas, 2006
|
|
Dear Friends,
As
with many of you, the year 2006 has been a whirlwind of activity for
our family. However, without a doubt, the highlight was our
trip(s)
to Kazakhstan for the adoption
of 6-year old Dimitri in May, June, and July. It's hard to believe that
5
months have passed since we brought him to America.
Communication was difficult for the first two months as he always
spoke Russian even when we acknowledged that we did not understand.
We became very good at charades though. During the 3rd month,
Dimitri began understanding English greatly and speaking a little
English. During the
past 2 months, he speaks only English, and Russian is becoming a
distant memory for him. He is doing very well in his Kindergarten
class. His behavior has been improving as we consistently love and
correct him. He has been accomplishing so much, day by day. He
impressed us by memorizing and speaking clearly his Sunday School
Bible verse of John 8:12, "Jesus said, I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness."
Dimitri loves the
family and his relatives and enjoys going to Busch Gardens and
Disney World, watching cartoons on TV and on DVD, and just playing games in general.
Isaac is now a 15-year old freshman in high school and he
adores his new brother. This year, Isaac was able to be one of the
"managers" of his high school football team, which enabled him to
travel with the team and interact with all the players--a great
thrill and confidence builder for him. He is very active in our
church's youth group and still loves his Christian break dancing
group.
Margaret is also doing well. She had a knee replacement in
the beginning of the year, which was quite a procedure with a very
extended recovery. She is now up and around, though still using her
cane from time to time. She has been a great help to Marsha and
still cooks for the family, and we certainly appreciate that! Every
time we are tempted to think of her as 84, she jumps in her Jag and
speeds around the corner out of our neighborhood, making us all
think she is 20.
Marsha is currently working for Ann Taylor Loft and has gone
from 40 hours per week to 32 hours per week and soon to 20 hours per
week. She enjoys her work but finds that having an extra family
member requires more time than she anticipated. She
ministered
(spoke) approximately once a month at various churches and women's
conventions. Coupled with Doug, we have been teaching the Single's
Sunday School class for Victorious Life Church since the Spring, and
prior to that, we were teaching the New Believer's class.
Doug reached a milestone of 15 years--working for Verizon
as a Systems Engineer, monitoring and trouble-shooting mainframe
computer application systems used throughout the country. He has
been working the night shift for the past 5 years. In his spare
time, he learned a new computer language, "Visual Basic .NET," and
wrote a professional computer program (and game) to solve (and play) the
popular Sudoku puzzle. Furthering his education,
Doug completed two of his last three courses (which included
literary/theological essays) for another B.S. degree,
maintaining just under a 4.0 GPA. All year, he has been working
diligently on his
extensive Senior Project entitled "Theology of Work and Its
Practical Implications" which he plans to complete in the next few months and graduate
from North Central University in May. Doug also put forth much
effort serving as a
professor for two classes at One Accord School of Ministry, teaching both the
Book of Acts and Apologetics. Doug has also taught
faithfully the Sunday School classes at
church. He continued to serve both as
a national director and the
webmaster for FGBMFI. In addition to these worthwhile activities, his favorite is
to spend quality time with his newly adopted son Dimitri. We all
looked forward to our first Christmas with Dimitri, and he made it
extra special as he was continuously filled with joyous excitement!
May we all remember the joyous occasion of Christ being born over
2,000 years ago and how he lived, died, and rose from the dead as
our Savior. Merry Christmas!
Further details of the entire year
can be seen below for a particular period of time....
|
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Date: October 5, 2006
|
|
Dear Reader,
Dimitri has been in America for two and a half months. He is
thoroughly enjoying his new life! A webpage
for Dimitri is now available for viewing. It contains many
pictures from his first days in America along with our recent trip
to Disney World with
our family and a trip to Busch Gardens.
Dimitri started Elementary School in August and is enjoying his new
Kindergarten class. Originally he was placed in the first grade for
a month, according to his age group (6), but since he is just
learning the English alphabet (instead of reading on his own) and
since his behaviors are more in line with younger kids, we requested
to have him placed in Kindergarten. Although his teacher enjoyed
having him, she whole-heartedly agreed with our decision as did his
English teacher, followed by the administrators.
For me, Doug, I've been working my normal 40 hours per week
during the night shifts at Verizon and spending about the same
amount of time (40 hours per week) with Dimitri when he is not in
school (and I am not having to sleep in preparation for my
night-shift work). On the
very first day that Dimitri met Marsha and I, the director of the
orphanage told us that "Dimitri dreams of having a close father."
Some of our favorite activities include swimming in the community
pool that has a big slide (or swimming in our own pool), going to
Busch Gardens and going on the rides, and playing bowling on the
computer. We have shared many other experiences together. It has
been a joy teaching him, training him, and seeing him grow and
improve in different areas. The rest of the family also enjoys his
active personality, and yet there are times of correction and
discipline.
For the past 5 weeks, I've been teaching the
college-level course, Book of Acts, to six interns from One
Accord School of Ministry. They have also asked me to teach
Apologetics for the next semester, so I will continue to be busy
studying, teaching, and pouring my life into these worthwhile
students. At the same time, I have been, and will be, working on my
final class for my B.S. degree at North Central University. My
Senior Project will consist of a 30-60 page essay on The Theology
of Work and Its Practical Applications. I have already bought
about 150 books related to this topic. (Perhaps I need to limit my
reading if I hope to finish the essay by the beginning of 2007 and
graduate in May of 2007) Having receive an "A" in the previous
class,
Value and Meaning in Literature, I am still
maintaining a 3.95 GPA as I go into
the final stretch. Marsha
is now working part-time for Ann Taylor Loft in Citrus Town Center.
She enjoys selling ladies clothes (and buying them). She has been
speaking a couple times a month at different events, and
Marsha will
be ministering at the District Assemblies of God Women's Meeting
this weekend. Being the mother of two boys has kept her busier than
she would have ever thought.
Marsha and I have been teaching the Single Adults Sunday School
class at Victorious Life Church ever since we have been back from
Kazakhstan.
Isaac has been attending High School as a
ninth grader. He has been helping the HS football team, and he
enjoys being a part of the team.
Margaret
has been editing her book (with Doug's help) that describes her
adventures in Africa as a missionary. As always, she is helpful in
preparing the evening meals. |
|
Date: July 21, 2006
|
|
Dear Reader, Dimitri and I are
back from Kazakhstan!
I've updated
the figures and events on our
Adoption in Kazakhstan page.
All the e-mails that we sent to friends updating them on our
adoption journey can be found on our
Adoption in Kazakhstan E-mails
page (along with a few pictures). Everything
went as planned (from the schedule given in our previous e-mail),
and our adoption of 6-year old Dimitri Joseph Woolley is complete.
He arrived home on Wednesday evening, July 19th. The household
members greeted Dimitri and I at the Tampa Airport along with my
mother, Sigrid. Everyone in our family and extended family is very
pleased with Dimitri. He is excited about life and about being in
our family. He charms almost everyone with his friendly personality
and his enthusiastic exploration of his new world.
Marsha did a great job arranging Dimitri's room while I was gone for
one week. We missed each other very much but kept in touch via
phone. What an experience it was for me to be with a new child (who
only speaks Russian), 24-hours a day, for 6 days! While it was good,
it is very good to be at home now with the support of others! |
|
Date: July 12, 2006
|
|
Dear Reader,
Today, right now, I am leaving for the airport to travel
back to Kazakhstan to pick up Dimitri. Please pray that all goes well.
If so, then,
I arrive in Almaty on July 14th, Friday, at 5:15 AM, then travel to
Kostanai and then to Rudny to pick up Dimitri and stay for 2 nights
in Kostanai. On Sunday morning, we fly to Almaty.
Monday, July 17th - medical exam
Tuesday, July 18th - Visa interview
Wednesday, July 19th - fly out of Almaty with Dimitri back to
Tampa, FL, USA! Marsha has been getting his room ready for his
arrival. Since only 1 of us is required to return to Kazakhstan
to finalize the adoption and bring Dimitri back, Marsha will be
staying home. (It also saves us $2400 and it is a tough trip).
|
|
Date: June 29, 2006
|
|
Dear Reader,
On June 26, we officially became parents to
6-year old Dimitri Joseph Woolley. The two week appeal process ended
on the 26th. Our "power of attorney" was able to fill out paperwork in
Kazakhstan to obtain his new birth certificate with our
names on it. This was obtained today, June 29th, along with an adoption
certificate. He will also obtain a Kazakhstan passport. Once the paperwork is
complete in about 2 weeks, we will return to Almaty, Kazakhstan and meet
Dimitri. There we will have an American doctor give Dimitri a physical
exam which is then needed for an IR-3 immigrant Visa to the U.S., which
would be obtained the following day. Hopefully, we can leave for America
the day after getting the visa!
My Sudoku computer program version 2.2 is now available on my
Sudoku page. |
|
Date: June 22, 2006
|
|
Dear Reader, We have posted
all the e-mails we sent to our
friends during our adoption journey. These E-mails were sent to our friends to
inform them of our adoption journey and to provide a focus for which to
pray for us. We appreciated that support! Although the change of the law
in Kazakhstan took us by surprise, it did not take God by surprise. We
believe that God used it to direct us on the path He wanted us to take.
I've updated
the figures on our
Adoption in Kazakhstan.
During our trip (and afterwards), both Marsha and I read through the
long novel by Russian Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov. I've completed
my final essay for my NCU course, Value
& Meaning in Literature, entitled
Father
Zossima's World View in The Brothers Karamazov. The essay can
also be referenced on my theology corner
(both in html and pdf formats). Having taken the final exam the day
before, I am now complete with this class. I only have one class
remaining for an Interdisciplinary Studies B.S. degree at North
Central University. I anticipate that it will take me a whole year
to complete my Senior Project and thus I plan to graduate in May of
2007. Our family is planning to be at the graduation ceremony in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. It will be extra fun since Dimitri's close
friend from the orphanage (who was adopted by a family in South
Saint Paul, MN a year ago) is in the area where we are going, so
they will be able to meet once again and Marsha and I will enjoy
socializing with the family. |
|
Date: June 13, 2006
|
|
Dear Reader, Pictures from our
trip to Holland and Kazakhstan are now viewable on
our
Vacations page! We have chosen to adopt 6-year old Dimitri. The
judge in Kazakhstan ruled favorably on our behalf. We will return to
Kazakhstan to pick him up in the early part of July. I've updated
the "latest news" on our
Adoption in Kazakhstan from the latest e-mail that was sent
prior to leaving Kazakhstan. Much more details will follow shortly. |
|
Date: May 6, 2006
|
|
Dear Reader,
We are on our way to Kazakhstan for our adoption!
We sent an e-mail to our friends on our list yesterday updating
everyone of our adoption plans. If for some reason you did not
receive that e-mail and would like to receive the latest news and
picture(s) of the children we select (perhaps after May 11th),
please contact me of your interest, and I will include you on the e-mail
distribution for this purpose. You
may see the details of our adoption on our web page entitled
Adoption in Kazakhstan.
The latest version of my Sudoku Puzzle program
(v2.1 on 5/3/06) can be
downloaded from my Sudoku v2 page. I
will spend the next month (overseas) not updating it; Instead both
of us will read two books related to adopting toddlers &
attachment/bonding and then I will focus on my studies for Value
& Meaning in Literature by reading The Brothers Karamazov,
written by Russian Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and writing an essay on
"Father Zossima's world view." Maybe I will solve a few Sudoku
puzzles from the one puzzle book that I will bring.
Marsha and I met with Isaac's teachers and
administrators for a yearly performance review. Isaac is
doing very well in this school. They had many nice things to say
about Isaac. While he is still struggling with math (and is far
below his 8th grade level for it), he is reading at a 9th grade
level, which impressed everyone there who knows him! We are pleased
with his performance and the help and attention he is receiving at
his new school.
Margaret has been driving again. She is
recovering nicely from her knee surgery from several months ago.
|
|
Date: April 27, 2006
|
|
Dear Reader,
Our Letter of Invitation to travel to Kazakhstan
for our adoption has arrived!!!!!! We are being requested to
arrive in the city/region of Kostanay on May 10th. This means that
we need to fly into Almaty, Kazakhstan on May 8th or 9th. Things are
moving quickly! Once in the region, we will probably select
two young children (boy & girl), trusting the Lord to guide us. We
are required by their law to bond with the children for two
weeks prior to the court hearing. (This should be enjoyable). All this,
with our travel, may take 3 - 4
weeks. Since there is a two week appeal process after the court
hearing, Marsha and I plan to return home during those two weeks and get
prepared for our new addition(s) to the family. (I, Doug, will go
back to work at Verizon for those two weeks). When the time is
ready, we will go back to Kostanay, Kazakhstan to finalize the
adoption and return with our child(ren). This 2nd trip may only take
a week or two. You
may see the details on our new web page entitled
Adoption in Kazakhstan.
I have been spending a lot of time
in the off-hours enhancing my Visual Basic .NET program to solve the
Sudoku puzzle. I have
made many enhancements to the program, and now it is able to solve
any puzzle in the world (given that it is solvable). The program
will solve most puzzles within a second, while solving the very hardest ones
may take a few minutes. It has turned out to be a very enjoyable
game as well, for the user. It also shows the user step-by-step how
to solve the puzzle, using particular strategies. Feel free to surf
onto my
Sudoku v2 page, check out it's features, and download a copy of my newly released Sudoku
v2.1 program.
It uses the new .NET 2.0 framework that comes
with Visual Studio 2005. The framework can be simply downloaded from
Microsoft's web site, enabling you to run the Sudoku program.
Instructions are on my Sudoku v2 page.
|
|
Date: April 11, 2006
|
|
Dear Reader,
Concerning our adoption process, yesterday we were
e-mailed by Adoption Ark saying that "the region informed our
representative that they will invite you in May. There is no more
info provided--they just told that they will see you in the region
in May and they will provide the LOI [Letter of Invitation] for you
to be able to travel." Marsha was excited since our travel plans
seem to be definite for the month of May. You
may see the details on our new web page entitled
Adoption in Kazakhstan.
Marsha and I have been teaching the Single
Adults' Sunday School class for the past month, and things are going
very well. For the past two weeks, we have been teaching about
crisis (especially as the relate to relationships) and the "slippery
slope" timeline of a crisis. A person can become bitter or
better through the crisis, the difference between the two words
is the letter "i"-- I make the difference (in my attitude) whether I
will be come bitter or better from a crisis. Each class member
received a copy of my essay that I did for my Crisis Counseling
class in 1999, entitled
Crisis Counseling Theory and Intervention,
which can also be found on my theological corner.
I was ecstatic to receive a 100 on
my mid-term essay for Value and
Meaning of Literature. The professor wrote, "Very well done--You
have an excellent writing style. Nice sentence variety. Your ideas
are thoroughly developed. Wonderful!" This is a big
improvement from my English & Literature days in High School! The
essay is entitled
Comparison of the Novels by C. S.
Lewis and Albert Camus, and can be found on my theological corner.
I have started reading the novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The
Brothers Karamazov.
Marsha was suppose to have
surgery on March 22nd, but something wonderful happened instead. She
shares, "On March 20th, I had an appointment with my doctor for a
pre-op consultation. My surgery was scheduled for Wednesday the 22nd
at 2:45p. As most people know, a pre-op is a formality prior to
surgery where consent forms are signed and blood work is drawn. Dr.
Wilkerson also ordered a last ultrasound to see the size of the
ovarian cyst. It had been around 8.5 cm and had been growing at a
rate of 1.5 cm per week. The ultrasound was performed and the tech
did say it was smaller but I presumed not small enough because all
the forms were then presented to me. When I had asked my doctor if a
cyst this size could dissipate he had said 'no, not usually when
they get to this size.' I signed so many forms: 1) explanatory
surgery consent 2) consent for removal of cyst and ovary
3) consent for removal of both ovaries and uterus and on and on. I
then waited and waited. The nurse said he would explain all the
procedures to me when he came in. When Dr. Wilkerson came in he had
a big smile and jokingly hit me with my chart and said 'What did you
do? -- Pray for a miracle all weekend? The cyst has shrunk
significantly. It's barely 5 cm at its widest point and the center
is completely clear. The rest will dissipate into your body. I don't
see any reason to perform the surgery.' Praise God!!!
Addendum: On April 17th, Marsha had a follow-up appointment and
the doctor said that the cyst is all gone!
For the past two weeks, Marsha
has been working/training at Bealls in New Tampa, as an area
manager--overseeing multiple departments within a store. Once the
training is complete, she will work at the store on Dale Mabry.
The extended family is back from
their cruise. They enjoyed themselves. My nephew Ryan got me hooked
on Sudoku when he showed me his book that he was bringing on the
cruise. It seems to be the "Rubik's Cube of the 21st century." The
Suduko puzzle consists of a 9x9 grid of squares with some of the
digits 1 through 9 placed in the grid. The object is to place the
digits 1 through 9 in all the other empty squares so that each row,
column, and 3x3 sub-grid has the digits used exactly once. Since
people use logic to systematically solve this puzzle, I figured that
this puzzle would be a good project to program into the computer. I
have been learning Visual Basic .NET 2003 for the past two months
and needed a good project to put into practice the principles I have
been learning. After 24 hours, I was able to put together a
functional version of the Sudoku game. For the past two weeks, I
have been enhancing it to be a fully functional game with a
graphical user interface. It also serves as a tool to solve the puzzle. It is able to solve
all but the hardest puzzles and deliver a step-by-step solution with strategies for the
user.
Addendum: On April 20th, I have created a
Sudoku v2 page.
Margaret's had her knee surgery
on February 28th at Tampa
General Hospital. She has made good progress in recovering and her
physical therapist said today that she would not need to return to
help her since she is doing so well. It will still be a few weeks
before Margaret can drive.
Isaac
has been riding the bus for the past two weeks, ever since Marsha
started working. I assisted him onto the bus the first day (to give
the bus driver the permission slip from his school that he can take
the bus). Marsha had also written a little note asking the driver
for Isaac to sit closer to the front due to his instability in
walking. The bus driver assigned him the first seat. All is well.
|
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Date: March 17, 2006
|
|
Dear Reader,
Concerning our adoption process, we were just notified that
our dossier was approved by Ministry of Foreign Affairs in
Kazakhstan! The paperwork is currently being reviewed by the
Ministry of Education and Science, and Alla at Adoption Ark
says "it can be released [approved] very soon, maybe in a few days
or next week and forwarded to the region." Thus, we may obtain our
Letter of Invitation to travel to Kazakhstan to adopt our children
within the next three weeks or so. You
may see the details on our new web page entitled
Adoption in Kazakhstan.
I am still working at Verizon as a
Systems Engineer, overseeing and monitoring half of all the
mainframe applications that run for Verizon. As of this past week,
we have a new manager (Tom Crane) whom I had the privilege of
meeting when I traveled to NY, MA, and NJ to give ESP training. This
will be the first time that I (and my co-workers) are reporting to a
manager that resides outside the state.
I was delighted to receive a score
of 100 on my 2nd exam in the course Value and
Meaning of Literature. I just completed my midterm essay for the
class entitled
Comparison of the Novels by C. S.
Lewis and Albert Camus, which
shows similarities and differences in the way they refer to
the Genesis account of the fall of humanity. To read my class
essays, visit my theological corner.
Now I will need to tackle the novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The
Brothers Karamazov.
Marsha and I have been asked by
the pastoral staff at Victorious Life Church to teach the Single
Adults Sunday School class (at the recommendation of the previous
Single's Pastor) since the Single's Pastor just moved out of state.
Marsha was excited about this opportunity to meet the needs of these
wonderful people. As a result, we will be relinquishing our
responsibilities for the New Believers class (that we've taught for
2 years) as of this Sunday.
Marsha has been offered an area manager
position with Bealls, overseeing multiple departments. Originally
she was scheduled to start working there in the middle of March, after taking
care of Margaret for a few weeks after her knee surgery. However,
now Marsha will need to have surgery due to a large cyst on her
ovary that is causing her pain in her stomach. The doctor has
scheduled the surgery for Wednesday, March 22nd. We are hoping that
she will recover quickly so that she can travel comfortably to
Kazakhstan once we receive our final approval and Letter of
Invitation.
Marsha was the featured speaker at a large Women's
Conference, hosted by VLC for the AG sectional area. The meetings
went well. She also spoke at New Beginnings Fellowship in Tampa as
Pastor Paul & Claire Hollis were on a cruise.
Speaking about cruises, my mom
(Sigrid), my brother (Brad), and my other brother (Craig) and his
family (wife, kids, mother-in-law) are all going on a week-long
cruise, departing from Cape Canaveral. All excited, the gang will
hook up the night before at the Radisson Resort at the Port. I will drive my mom there
tomorrow, and on the way I will visit a long-time friend,
Charlie
Crisafulli, on Merritt Island. He served as the a national
director and state chairman for Full Gospel Business Men's
Fellowship International a decade ago. He was instrumental in
mentoring me in the fellowship. Coming close to 90 years of age, he
is still healthy and active, living on 40 beautiful acres. It will
be nice to have lunch and fellowship with Charlie and Beverly
tomorrow at their place. They were very much hoping that Marsha
would join us but she will need to stay at home to assist her mother
Margaret who is recovering from surgery.
Margaret's had her knee surgery
on February 28th at Tampa
General Hospital. She has been home for the past 2 weeks and is
recovering, but she says she is in a lot of pain. A nurse checks on
her each day and helps her perform special exercises.
Isaac
is still doing well in the public school in the New Tampa that he
has been attending for the past two months. The next challenge will
be having him ride the bus for the first time instead of being
driven by mom to and from school. Marsha says that she enjoys
driving him and spending time with him and it is not a long drive,
like it was before when he attended the other school.
|
|
Date: February 25, 2006
|
|
Dear Reader, On January
24th, I received sad news from Alla (at Adoption Ark) that our
children in Kazakhstan (Vita
& Russ) are no longer adoptable since their mother has been
recently visiting them in the orphanage. Several hours later, after
having some time to mourn, I delicately broke the news to Marsha who
was totally heart-broken. Eventually we looked on the bright-side in
that we can now choose a child or two that is much younger--perhaps
a toddler or a baby. While the option of "unofficially
pre-selecting" a child is no longer available with Adoption Ark (due
to changes in the adoption process), once we are approved by
Kazakhstan (perhaps in March), Adoption Ark will send our paperwork
(and us) to a region that has the most children that meet our
criteria--young boys and girls that are healthy.
We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust our sails!
(We trust God to guide us!)
You
may see the details on our new web page entitled
Adoption in Kazakhstan.
I completed a course on
Apologetics via North Central University, receiving an "A" in the
class and a 100 on the essay. In fact, the professor wrote,
"Excellent paper! One of the most complete, and most well written
papers I've seen on this topic. Good bibliography of references.
Very interesting to read! Good work!" For those interested, my
essay
explaining Apologetics may be read on my
Theology Corner page (in either
HTML or PDF format). My transcript page
has been updated to include the latest "A", maintaining a 3.95 GPA. Currently, I am finishing a course on the Value and
Meaning of Literature.
Marsha closed the stores of
Casual Corner and Petite Sophisticate at Citrus Park Mall
at the end of January. She is now receiving about two months of
severance pay. She has just been offered an area manager
position with Bealls, overseeing multiple departments. She said that
she would start working there in the middle of March, after taking
care of Margaret for a few weeks after her anticipated February 28th
knee surgery. Marsha is the featured speaker at a large Women's
Conference, hosted by VLC for the AG sectional area. She is excited about it
and is studying and preparing prayerfully.
Isaac
has transitioned to a new public school in the New Tampa area where
we live. Marsha resisted the idea of taking him out of the private
school and into the "L--" school. As I persistently argued the
benefits of him going to this new school, she would often interrupt
and say, "Don't say that 'L' word!" After obtaining much assistance
from the staff at the new school, Marsha was persuaded to have Isaac
try the new school. Marsha picked up Isaac from his first day and
Isaac was crying and said he hated it because the school is so big
(1600+ students) and he had trouble getting from class to class.
Marsha was frustrated and upset, but Isaac went back to school the
next day and enjoyed the school tremendously. He loves his teachers,
who think the world of him. He has been enjoying the school every
day for the past month! His mom is elated! The classes have been tailored for his
special needs, and he has been placed in a regular reading class,
since they have noticed that this is a strong area of his!
Margaret's surgery on her knee
is scheduled for Tuesday, February 28th. She will be in Tampa
General Hospital for about 3 days. Marsha has planned it to be off
from work for the first 2 weeks after this to care for her mom,
though there will be some hospital staff members who will also check
up on Margaret.
|
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Date: January 9, 2006
|
|
Dear Reader, We
are thrilled! We just found out that on January 5th (the day before
the Russian observance of Christmas), the Kazakhstan Embassy in D.C.
approved our adoption dossier and has sent it on its way to
Kazakhstan to be reviewed and approved by 2 other ministries:
the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education.
Afterwards, the documents will land into the region where our two
children (Russ and Vita) are located and then a letter of invitation
to travel will be prepared for us.
According to Adoption Ark,
Inc., we are the first ones to be approved since the new
adoption requirements were recently put in place. They estimate that
the rest of the approval process may take another 2 months, then we
will travel to Kazakhstan for two trips, the first will last about 3
weeks and the second will be a month later and last about 1 week. You
may see the details on our new web page entitled
Adoption in Kazakhstan.
I completed a course on
Apologetics via North Central University, scoring 96 on the final
exam. For those interested, my
essay
explaining Apologetics may be read on my
Theology Corner page (in either
HTML or PDF format). Soon afterwards and at times simultaneously, I
taught an 8-week course on Apologetics for One Accord School of
Ministry. Marsha and I hosted the interns in
the Apologetics class at our home for a nice dinner followed by a
study session to review for their final exam. Pictures of this event and the class can be
seen on my Teaching One Accord
page. Currently, I am taking a course on the Value and
Meaning of Literature and I have been reading one of C. S.
Lewis' novels, Perelandra. Our family recently enjoyed the
movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, based on C. S.
Lewis' book. We also enjoyed seeing the newly made movie King
Kong. I have just enrolled for my last class prior to
graduation: the Senior Project. I hope to complete both courses
within the next 6 months and graduate Summa Cum Laude with an
Interdisciplinary Studies degree (in essence, a Theology degree),
after which I plan to matriculate in graduate school at Southwestern
Assemblies of God University (SAGU) in the Fall to eventually attain
a Masters degree in Theology via distance education. In my spare
time, I plan to continue to work 40 hours a week for Verizon as a
Systems Engineer.
We enjoyed our Christmas
celebration. After our family attended a 1-hour Christmas Eve
service at Victorious Life Church in Wesley Chapel (with my mom and
brother Brad), we went to my brother Craig's home to exchange gifts.
We also brought Peanut (the poodle) to meet Rocky, their dog. It was
fun having the dogs with us. Craig and Barbara were fantastic hosts
and had great food for all of us!
Marsha is working at Citrus Park Mall
until the end of the month, after which Casual Corner and Petite Sophisticate
will be closing its doors nationwide. Marsha will receive about 2
months of salary as a severance package. On the ministry side, some
doors seem to be opening up for Marsha within the AG in the
district.
Isaac
is still in his new private school. He spends half the day in his
original class and half the day in a different class that is a bit
more advanced.
Margaret's surgery on her knee
has been postponed until the end of February.
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Date: November 15, 2005
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Dear Reader,
For the past two months, the Kazakhstan Embassy has been in the
process of changing its requirements for internationals to adopt
from their country. The new forms were disbursed to the adoption agencies
last week and our adoption agency (Adoption Ark,
Inc.) has put together the new forms that are required for
us. We got a head start on two of the new requirements: (1)
clearance from the FBI using our fingerprints, (2) medical clearance
using a different list. We just completed the remaining 13 new
documents and have had them notarized and apostilled (Marsha and my
mom took them to Tallahassee on Nov. 15th). Via FedEx, I have just
sent the entire dossier and 3 copies of it to Adoption Ark for translation and delivery to the
Kazakhstan Embassy in D.C., after which it will take about 3 to 4
months before we are approved by the ministries in Kazakhstan to adopt. However, once
approved, we can immediately travel to the country to pick up our
precious children: Vita and Russ.
Please
see our new web page entitled
Adoption in Kazakhstan!
Marsha and I just returned from a
one week vacation in Maui, Hawaii. We stayed at the beautiful Four
Seasons Resort on the Wailea coast. You may view a slide show of our
200+ pictures in Maui and our mini-trip to the island of Lanai. Just
click the link for our Maui trip on our
Vacations page! This is probably our last vacation together
without new additions to our family!
Traveling to Freehold, New Jersey on business for Verizon in
September, I (Doug) provided technical training on ESP
(Enterprise Systems Platform) to 20+ technicians, using training documentation that I had developed in Tampa
prior to my trip. A picture and description of my work at Freehold Data Center
can be seen on Doug's Work Life page.
Marsha and I hosted the interns in
the Book of Acts class at our home for a nice dinner followed by a
study session to review for their final exam. At the same time, we
celebrated my birthday. Pictures of this event and the class can be
seen on my Teaching One Accord
page. Currently I am finishing a course on
Apologetics, and I just started teaching a course on Apologetics to
the One Accord group. I am also taking a course on the Value and
Meaning of Literature and I have been reading one of C. S.
Lewis' novels, Perelandra.
Marsha is still working at Citrus Park Mall, though
it is becoming clearer that Casual Corner and Petite Sophisticate
will be closing its doors at the end of January. Marsha was just
quoted her severance package amount, if she stays till the end. The
last days can be tough, so we are hoping she can endure to the end.
Isaac
enjoys his new private school. The teacher thinks that Isaac is
doing so well in his class that he should be placed in a different
class within his school. This may happen soon. Driving Isaac to and
from school each day has been a difficult journey, but Marsha and
Margaret are both motivated to help Isaac to get the special
attention he is getting at this school. Maybe he will return to a
school in New Tampa next year?
Margaret's surgery on her knee
has been postponed until January.
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Date: September 19, 2005
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Dear Reader, Although we were led to pursue an
adoption in Ukraine from October 2004 through August 2005, it seemed
that the adoption process became much less efficient and there have been
far fewer healthy children from which to select (based on the group
newsletters that are distributed daily from
Ukrainian Angels, Inc.). Many more couples were coming home from
Ukraine without having selected a child they could live with.
Additionally, we received a letter from the National Adoption Center (NAC)
in July 2005 stating that an invitation letter will be sent to us in
December or January for an appointment in 2006 since all appointments in
2005 are taken. Disappointing. You may view our Adoption in Ukraine page for
details.
Additionally, it seems that the NAC is
experiencing many organizational changes. Also, just recently, the
president of Ukraine announced that there would be organizational
changes in his government to combat existing corruption, with several
top-level persons being fired or resigning. Due to the delay of our
appointment, our dossier documents will be expiring and need to be
redone prior to traveling to Ukraine. Thus, since the documents need to
be redone anyway, it seems that now would be a good time to simply
switch to a different country that would require us to update our
documents as well. Previously, independent adoption in Ukraine was ideal
as it saved much money. However, since finding out that our companies
and the IRS will cover $44,000 in expenses for 2 children, money is not
as big an issue. Thus we are willing to work with a reputable
adoption agency that works in another Eastern European area. At
this point, we feel that by going through our adoption agency and
changing to Kazakhstan, we have a much better chance of adopting healthy
children and having a pleasant experience.
In the latter part of August 2005,
Marsha was directed by a coworker to checkout an adoption web site
called www.precious.org. From
there she and I found two adorable children that can be unofficially pre-selected
from Kazakhstan via Adoption Ark,
Inc. These two children are siblings. As of August 2005, Russ is 6
and his sister Vita is 7 1/2. They are described as healthy and
intelligent. After thought and prayer, we believe that God is now
guiding us in this direction and that these two children should be part
of our family.
Please
see our new web page entitled
Adoption in Kazakhstan!
I, Doug, am currently
teaching the Book of Acts in the One Accord School of Ministries,
while at the same time, taking and finishing a course on
Apologetics. Putting together all the forms for the adoption is very
detail oriented and time-consuming, but this second time around is
much easier. Marsha is working at Citrus Park Mall, though
rumor has it that Casual Corner may be bought or sold off. Isaac
enjoys his new private school, but he has been ill during the past
two weeks so he has been at home and visiting multiple doctor
specialists. He is doing fine and should be going back to school
very soon. Margaret is planning to have surgery on her knee
in the beginning of November.
Isaac will be starting
a new school in August. It is a school that has a wonderful
reputation in helping special needs children. Margaret is doing well, though now that our adoption is
postponed to 2006, she is planning to have surgery on her knee. She
is also writing a book on the computer that documents her life
story. Our dog Peanut has become addicted to the doggie
treats called "greenies" that Marsha loves to give him. These green
chewable toothbrushes also clean his teeth and supposedly give him
fresher breath, though only Marsha tests that out.
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Date: July 23, 2005
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Dear Reader,
Our letter requesting an adoption appointment (between July and
October, 2005 or ASAP) was given to Ukraine's NAC on May 28th.
Having waited patiently (and at moments anxiously) for our
appointment date from the NAC, we did receive a letter from the NAC
yesterday. However, they state that they will provide us with an
invitation letter in December or January for a date in 2006. Marsha
and I were disappointed, especially since we were opening the letter
with anticipation of finding out our date of travel. The English
contents of the letter from the Director states the following:
The Adoption Center has
received your proposals concerning possible time of your
visit to the Center. As the final schedule of visits with
the purpose of studying the orphan children databank in 2005
for foreign citizens being the prospective adoptive parents
have already been approved, your proposals may be considered
only in 2006. The invitation letter concerning the approval
of the date of your visit to the Center will be sent to you
in December 2005 - January 2006.
We pray that the Lord will guide
us according to His will. To see the details and the latest on our adoption journey,
please see our
Adoption in Ukraine page.
On the bright side, Marsha and
I celebrated our 5-year anniversary on June 3rd at an extra special place
(Victoria & Albert's) with some special friends (Pastor Tracy & Denise Larson)!
You may view the pictures and the update on
our anniversaries page.
Having completed a course in
Church History II, I have posted two of the required essays on
my Theology Corner page. I just
received the grade back from the main
essay
entitled Origins and Early Growth of the Pentecostal Movement and
the Assemblies of God. Encouraging to me, the professor gave the six-page essay
a "100" with the following comments:
Excellent paper! One of
the most complete, and most well written, papers I've seen
on this topic. Good bibliography of references. Very
interest to read! Good work!
On my Audio
Sermons page, I've added a short sermon that I
preached in November of 2001 entitled Dealing with Crisis. I've also added
a recording of
Isaac's first time preaching (sort of) when he was about 5 years
old. I have added a page that shows
Marsha's College transcripts
from her freshman year at Southeastern Bible College in Lakeland,
FL. My university transcripts have
been updated also to include an "A" in Church History II. I
am currently enrolled in Value and Meaning in Literature. I have
about 2 classes left for another Bachelor of Science degree--this
one in Theology (actually called Interdisciplinary Studies). Having
searched for an accredited Graduate School to attend afterwards, I
found Southwestern Assemblies of God University to be very
accommodating. They will grant a
36-hour Masters of Theology in NT for work done via correspondence!
Not many accredited schools have a non-residency requirement for
grad work. Besides growing and learning from the courses, the degree
would enable me to teach Bible classes adjunct in
a University.
Since my brother Brad has
discontinued using AOL, he has relinquished his web page to me, and
thus I've added a page to describe the world of
Brad.
Isaac will be starting
a new school in August. It is a school that has a wonderful
reputation in helping special needs children. Margaret is doing well, though now that our adoption is
postponed to 2006, she is planning to have surgery on her knee. She
is also writing a book on the computer that documents her life
story. Our dog Peanut has become addicted to the doggie
treats called "greenies" that Marsha loves to give him. These green
chewable toothbrushes also clean his teeth and supposedly give him
fresher breath, though only Marsha tests that out.
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Date: May 20, 2005
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|
Dear Reader, We
received news from the National Adoption Center (NAC)
in Kiev, Ukraine on May 18th via letter (and by e-mail from our
liaison) that we have been approved to proceed with the Adoption and
to request a date for an appointment with the NAC!!! We have
completed our "request for appointment" letter and have sent it to
our facilitator in Ukraine via FedEx. She will translate it and
deliver it to the NAC.
We are requesting an appointment date somewhere between July and
October of 2005, yet it could be later than that. We hope to adopt a boy and a girl under the age of 7, preferably even
younger. To see the details and the latest on our adoption journey,
please see our
Adoption in Ukraine page.
Traveling to Andover, Massachusetts on business for Verizon in
May, I provided technical training on ESP
(Enterprise Systems Platform) to 10 technicians, using training documentation that I had developed in Tampa
prior to my trip. A picture and description of my work at Andover Data Center
can be seen on Doug's Work Life page. In
addition to working 3 days and nights, I also managed to travel to
Boston, to New Hampshire and to Maine with Marsha, who came for the first two
days of the trip. We visited Uncle Cliff in New Hampshire
and we ate at the fabulous Cliff's House Resort & Spa in Ogunquit, Maine. You may view
the pictures on our vacations page
under New England 2005.
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Date: May 7, 2005
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Dear Reader, We are still praying
that we will hear positive news from the National Adoption Center (NAC)
in Kiev, Ukraine within the next few weeks. If approved, we will
then set an appointment with the NAC to travel to Ukraine to adopt a boy and a girl under the age of 7, preferably even
younger. To see the details and the latest on our adoption journey,
please see our
Adoption in Ukraine page.
Traveling to New York on business for Verizon in April, I provided technical training on ESP
(Enterprise Systems Platform) to technicians, a project lead, and a technical
manager at Blue Hill, using training documentation that I had developed in Tampa
prior to my trip. A picture and description of my work at Blue Hill Data Center
can be seen on Doug's Work Life page. In
addition to working 3 days and nights, I also managed to visit a
friend of the family in NYC (Alice Herber) and some relatives in
Croton-on-Hudson (Rich and Sharon Woolley). I also passed by Phelps
Memorial Hospital Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY, where I was born (the
town was named North Tarrytown in 1966) and I have included a
picture of it on the page About Doug.
Our family just returned from a
brief vacation to Disney World in Kissimmee, Florida. You may view
the pictures on our vacations page
under Disney World in April 2005.
Realizing that the interns will be
having a summer break soon, I have put together a page that
describes my three semesters of
teaching in One Accord School of Ministry and have posted
a few of the pictures taken of the interns as they came over to our
home and fellowshipped with us over dinner.
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Date: April 12, 2005
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Dear Reader,
Our dossier (of translated documents for the adoption
in Ukraine) was received and registered by the
National Adoption Center (NAC) in Kiev, Ukraine on April 12, 2005! We
were notified of this via e-mail from our translator Julia (residing
in Orlando, FL) who was contacted by Valentina, our facilitator in
Ukraine, who submitted the documents to the NAC. Considering that
some applicants have been waiting for months to be registered, we
are fortunate to have been registered within one month of trying to
submit the documents to the NAC, and we thank the Lord for the
answer to this prayer.
We are still praying
to adopt a boy and a girl under the age of 7, preferably even
younger. To see the details and the latest on our adoption journey,
please see our
Adoption in Ukraine page.
A page has been created for
Marsha's dad, the late William Earl Lovick
(nicknamed Bill). After a full year of work, I have
finished converting over 160 hours of
sermons of Dr. Bill Lovick (from 1978-81) from audio cassettes to
MP3 files, and have placed them on 5 CDs. I am excited about this new technology and the ability to
preserve a rich heritage of Biblical preaching from a pastor &
missionary who positively impacted the lives of thousands of people,
including Marsha.
There is link from his page to a list of the
contents of 5 CDs of Dr. Bill
Lovick's sermons, each packed with 33 hours of sermons in MP3
file format. Also, I have placed an excellent sermon/testimony of Dr. Lovick
on his page that describes the
Lovick's missionary journeys and another audio clip that gives a
short introduction (by the music minister) describing Dr. Lovick as
"probably the most sought after missionary speaker in the world!"
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Date: March 17, 2005
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Dear Reader,
Marsha and I (Doug)
took a vacation trip to Kiev, Ukraine and to Germany (Darmstadt &
Frankfurt). You may view the 200 pictures from our journey via a slide
show on
our vacations page under Ukraine 2005
Feb. We spent a lovely 24 hours in Germany with my distant relative,
Irma Stammberger (her web page
has been updated with our recent visit). Irma cooked delicious
bratwurst for us for lunch, took us site seeing, helped us buy some
nice boots for the snow in Ukraine (and in Germany), treated us to a
superb restaurant (Altes
Schalthaus), and then provided a room in her home in which to
sleep. Next, we spent 3 days in Kiev, Ukraine, where Roman Korniyko
and Ruslan Malyuta picked us up, took us site seeing, and
provided a place for us to stay at Father's House, in which
they serve as the president and vice-president, respectively. On the
next day, we attended their Sunday morning church service and saw a
baptism ceremony for about 20 adults. Afterwards, we met Lyuda
Litvin, an excellent translator with Father's House, and we
attended a church service at the
Embassy of God
(the largest Evangelical Charismatic church in Europe with 20,000
members) and Marsha and I had the privilege of meeting with Pastor
Sunday Adelaja, at his request after the service. After a
wonderful time of fellowship in his office, he invited Marsha and I to
share/minister to the leadership of the 2,000 home groups that
would meet the following night for their monthly leaders meeting at
the church. Next, we treated Roman & Natasha, Ruslan & Anya, and Lyuda
Litvin to a nice Steak restaurant. On the next day, Lyuda, took around
town and we experienced the Metro. We also met two professional ladies
(with lots of international adoption experience) who will serve as our
facilitator and translator for our adoption in Ukraine, when we return
in the summer (hopefully). In the evening, Lyuda took us to the
Embassy of God where Marsha and I ministered to the leadership.
What an experience! The next morning, we said goodbye to our friends
and the children at the orphanage of Father's House and went to the
Borispol Airport in Kiev to fly home. Unfortunately, our passports
were stolen out of my handbag attached to my luggage carry-on. Perhaps
it happened as we were shuttled like cattle onto the crowded bus that
took us to our plane. I noticed that my entire black folder containing
our passports was missing after we had landed in Frankfurt and we were
about transfer to our plane to the U.S. What an ordeal! We had to
sleep in the terminal since we could not leave the airport (reminds us
of The Terminal movie with Tom Hanks, which we bought and
watched when we arrived home). In the morning, the U.S. Consulate in
Frankfurt worked with us to leave the airport and obtain new passports
at the consulate. It cost us a bit of money for the visa to leave the
airport, the taxi rides, the new passports, pictures, storage for
luggage, but we were relieved to have passports that allowed us to
return home! United Airlines was so nice and understanding about our
situation that they waived the ticket change-fee (that their partner
Lufthansa had charged us for changing the itinerary). We were glad to
arrive home, precisely 24 hours later than originally anticipated.
Pictures of our adventure can be seen on
our vacations page under Ukraine 2005
Feb.
Concerning the adoption process,
we received approval from the
State of Florida and from the U.S. Government (Homeland Security) to
proceed with the adoption. All our dossier documents were apostilled
by the Secretary of State (Florida) and we received our documents
just hours prior to flying to Ukraine on vacation on Feb. 24th.
While in Kiev, we chose a facilitator and translator who will help
us with the adoption process in Ukraine. We hand-delivered to
Valentina and Alla our documents along with some money to
have them translated and notarized and submitted to the National
Adoption Center (NAC). Because of the vast number of people wanting
to adopt, the NAC regulates the number of adoptions each week and
randomly selects applications once a week on Tuesdays. We are just
waiting for the day that our dossier will be selected for
registration and to be reviewed, with the hopes that they will
approve us for adoption. We still would like to adopt a boy and a
girl under the age of 7, preferably even younger. To see the details
and the latest on our adoption journey, please see our
Adoption in Ukraine page.
Marsha, Isaac, and
Margaret drove to Alabama where Marsha was the main speaker
at a Missions Banquet in Eufaula during the weekend of March 5th.
This left Doug and Peanut to fend for themselves at
home.
For the past 6 weeks, we hosted a
home group session at our home for the 40 Days of Purpose.
During the two weeks that Marsha and I were away (in D.C. or in
Ukraine), Margaret facilitated and led the session, which she
was happy to do. I know that I grew spiritually as a result of the
40 days of devotional reading from Rick Warren's book, and we
developed some closer relationships with those who participated in
the weekly sessions.
I, Doug, have just finished
teaching (for the 3rd semester in a row) a college Bible class to
the interns of One Accord Ministries. This semester the course was
Biblical Interpretation or basically, Hermeneutics. We
wrapped things up for the interns with a pizza party and study
session for the final exam at our home.
I am now able to focus on my own
personal studies once again and to finish my Church History II
course.
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Date: February 13, 2005
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Dear Reader,
Marsha,
Isaac and I (Doug)
took a vacation trip to Washington D.C. We stayed for 3 nights at the
Crystal City Hilton hotel, where the FGBMFI regional D.C.
convention
was being held. In addition to attending and participating in the
convention, we did have a chance to go site seeing and visit some
historical places. Isaac enjoyed seeing some places and buildings that
he had only seen on TV. Many pictures from our journey can be seen on
our vacations page under Washington
D.C. 2005. Serving as a
National Director for FGBMFI, I wanted to attend this special
convention that honored our military. During the board meeting, I
shared about the internet and web sites to 40 other directors (and
special guests) in attendance. Marsha was given the opportunity to
sing two songs at the convention that blessed many people. Isaac was
having quite a few pains in his head and had to skip the last evenings
sessions. Bob Bassler from Indiana felt led of the Lord to ask
permission to visit Isaac in his room and share with him and then pray
for him. Isaac felt better and was encouraged spiritually.
We also had an opportunity to visit
Word of Life Assembly
of God
for their Sunday morning service and Pastor Wendel Cover invited
Marsha to sing a song for the congregation. Afterwards, Pastor Cover
and his wife Lois took us out to Mike's American Grill for a delicious
meal and wonderful fellowship. Marsha, Isaac and I all had a great
time in D.C. and in Virginia.
Our church,
Victorious Life Church, is participating in 40 Days of
Purpose, and Margaret, Marsha and I are
hosts for one of a hundred home groups that are meeting together to
study Rick Warren's book,
The Purpose
Driven Life. Each day for 40 days, every participant commits
to reading one chapter of devotional material in the book, enabling
spiritual growth as we discover why God created us and discover our
true reason and purpose for life! Since Marsha and I were in D.C. last
week, Margaret hosted the group and led the discussion with those in
attendance at our home. Each week we also view a 20 minute video
teaching by Rick Warren. This week, I led the study and discussion. We
have four more meetings (total of 6 weeks or 40 days). Margaret will
again host the group when Marsha and I are in Ukraine at the end of
the month.
Marsha and I have made great progress on our
Adoption paperwork! All documents were submitted for the Home
Study and we have been approved by the State of Florida to
adopt! Next, we have also submitted all our paperwork to Homeland
Security (BCIS) and have gotten our fingerprints taken (along with
Margaret's). Any day now, we expect to have an I-171H form sent to
us stating that we are approved by the U.S. government to
proceed with the adoption from Ukraine. After that, we will have our
dossier (documents) apostilled and sent to our translators in
Ukraine to translate the documents and submit them to the National
Adoption Center in Kiev. Marsha and I will be taking a tourist trip
to Kiev at the end of February to get acquainted with the country,
culture, and people prior to our lengthy trip in the summer for the
actual adoption. Once we are back from our short tourist trip, we
will post the pictures on our site! Please see our
Adoption in Ukraine page for our step-by-step international
adoption journey.
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Date: Christmas, 2004
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Dear Friends,
Looking
over the past year, we were very blessed and had many positive
experiences, in spite of starting the very first day of 2004
with an emergency brain surgery for Isaac. God has been faithful every
step of the way, and even Isaac has had a good year! We've enjoyed
seeing old friends on some of our trips and making new friends as we've reached out in new ways at church.
Marsha and I (Doug)
were blessed to be able to take six major vacation trips, with five
of the trips involving some ministry:
-
Eatonton, Georgia (also Rockeagle, GA)
-
Washington D.C., Virginia, Luray Caverns
-
Montreal, Canada (also Vermont
and New Hampshire, for 4-year anniversary)
-
Vancouver, Canada (also
New Westminster, BC)
-
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
(also New Hope Church in Southwest Ranches)
-
Niagara Falls, Canada (also
Pennsylvania)
Marsha is still a supervisor
for Casual Corner, having worked half the year at West Shore mall and
half the year at Brandon mall. She enjoys her opportunities to
minister approximately once a month, when the Lord opens the doors. We
have been teaching the New Believer's Foundational class at Victorious
Life Church for the past eight months.
I (Doug) still work for Verizon as a Systems
Engineer and normally work 3 or 4 days a week from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m.
(night shift). On the side, I am pursuing a Bible Degree through North
Central University, for which I only have a couple of classes left for
another Bachelors degree. I completed a course in Music Appreciation,
and I am currently enrolled in Church History
II. It's been an honor to be asked to teach Sunday School at our
church and to teach college-level Bible classes in One Accord
Ministries. During the first semester, I taught the Sophomore interns
the Book of Acts, and during the second semester I taught the
Freshman interns New Testament Survey.
Back in March, I was asked (and volunteered) to be the
webmaster for the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International
web site, making good use of Macromedia's Dreamweaver that I
had learned during the earlier part of the year. I also maintain
several other personal and ministry web sites with Microsoft's
Front Page, as I enjoy using computer skills that I have learned
in order to benefit others.
Isaac is back in school after
being out for a year due to his multiple surgeries and recovery. He
seems to be adjusting well and making new friends at school. He
continues to love watching baseball and the New York Yankees. During
two months in the Spring, Isaac played golf once a week at a nearby
Executive golf course.
Margaret is in good health, and looks younger and younger every
day. She continues to be a wonderful cook and help with Isaac.
Peanut, our poodle, is
approaching three years of age. He brings joy to the family and loves
to play with Doug. Health wise, he is doing fine but his hind legs are
not as strong and coordinated, and thus he has some trouble jumping
onto taller sofas and beds. He is still the most enthusiastic member
of the family and you'll find that out if you ever ring the doorbell.
Marsha and I hope to have a new addition to our
family by this time next year, via adoption from Ukraine. We are
looking forward to being parents to one or two young children, after
we make a four week trip to Kiev, Ukraine and select a child or a
sibling pair from the children we will meet. For the past two
months, we have been filling out numerous forms required by the
State of Florida, Homeland Security, and Ukraine. We pray that God
will add to our joy by adding a child or two to
our family.
May we all remember the joyous occasion of Christ being born over
2,000 years ago and how he lived, died, and rose from the dead as
our Savior, enabling us to have a "right" relationship with the
living God through faith in Jesus. Merry Christmas!
Further details of the entire year
can be seen below for a particular period of time....
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Date: December 14, 2004
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Dear Reader,
Our family, consisting of Doug, Marsha,
Isaac, Margaret, Brad, and Miss Sigrid all went to Disney World
on December 6th. We stayed at the Disney Hilton Hotel and at the
Embassy Suites. On that evening, we journeyed into Epcot and went on
Spaceship Earth, a fascinating ride that shows the history of the
world and how different cultures and inventions came to be. Next, we
walked quickly to the back of the park where we stood in line for 40
minutes to see the Candle Light Procession where Jim Caviezel was the
narrator of the Christmas story. We were all in awe by the songs and
especially the emotional delivery and intense conviction of Jim
Caviezel, who had starred as Jesus in the
Passion of the Christ
movie. My mom, who has seen the show every year for the past 10 years
or so, said that this was the best one she has seen--primarily because
of the passion with which Jim shared the Christmas story. It is
awesome to be in Epcot (and the rest of Disney World) during the
Christmas season because they primarily play actual Christmas songs
celebrating Jesus' birth and not just "holiday songs." On the next
day, some family members failed to wake up on time to go to the park
early, so we all went into MGM around noon. Our greatest thrill was
being with Isaac as he rode on Tower of Terror for the
first time, after being chicken of it for may years. Isaac
liked it so much that he went on it a second time right after we took
a picture of his first victory. Two pictures and a description of this
adventure can be seen at the bottom of Isaac's
page.
Margaret is so
thankful for our friend Sarita Lange (realtor for
Bible
Based Real Estate in Orlando) for referring her to a realtor
in Virginia Beach (Wendy) who helped to sell Margaret's lot there. To
Margaret, this was a miracle because the land could not be built upon
because it was "land locked property." However, the man who lives in
front of the lot bought it to increase his property line. The deal
will go through in January, Lord willing.
For the past 2 months, I (Doug) have been
teaching a New Testament Survey course to eight
student-interns from the freshman class of One Accord Ministries. We
plan to have them over to our house for dinner and a study session
to review the material just prior to their final exam.
Marsha and I are proceeding with our plans to adopt one or two young toddlers from Ukraine. We
have begun the Home Study and the massive "paper chase." Further
details of our progress can be seen on our
adoption page. We plan to visit Kiev, Ukraine at the end of
February for a few days, just to get a feel for the country and meet
some of our contacts. This should prepare us for our 3+ week trip
when we actually go to Ukraine to officially adopt. It is also very
interesting to see Ukraine at the center of world news almost every
other day as a result of the fraudulent elections this past November
and the upcoming new elections for President on December 26th. We
hope Yushenko will win, as he is pro-Western and pro-European,
increasing our chances for good relations with the adoption process
in Ukraine.
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Date: November 2, 2004
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Dear Reader,
Marsha and I (Doug) have just
returned from a wonderful trip to Niagara Falls and Pennsylvania.
The first part of the trip became a romantic get-away, where we
stayed in a suite on the 32nd floor of the Hilton Hotel in Niagara
Falls, Canada, overlooking both falls. After eating dinner at the
restaurant on the 33rd floor and walking along the river shore in
the morning, we drove to Pennsylvania for the second part of our
trip where we both shared our testimonies at the Meadville chapter
of FGBMFI, hosted by Gary Sample, a National Director of FGBMFI.
After visiting Gary and Dorothy at their home, we traveled to
Cooksburg, Pennsylvania for the FGBMFI Fall Mountaintop Rally where
Marsha and I were two of the main speakers for the 3 day event. We
met many wonderful people including Dr. Steve Davis (an FBI chaplain
who also spoke) and his wife Linda.
Pictures of our trip to Niagara Falls and Pennsylvania can be
seen on our vacations page. Two
pictures from the FGBMFI Pennsylvania Rally have been added to the
bottom of my
FGBMFI Involvement page.
Marsha, Margaret, and I all
voted for Bush in today's elections. As a
family, we hosted my 4 sophomore student-interns from my Book of Acts class.
We provided them with a wonderful steak dinner at our home, cooked
on Marsha's new grill. Fellowshipping with them was a pleasure, and
it happened to coincide with my birthday dinner. These interns took
their finals two weeks ago, and now I have been asked to teach
another class for the freshman class of One Accord Ministries. I
selected New Testament Survey, and I am enjoying it immensely! This
class has 9 student-interns. Marsha and I are
considering adopting one or two young toddlers from Ukraine. We
have several contacts, but we have not started the paperwork or the
home study as of yet. I have started an
adoption page for
our journey and activities in the near future.
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Date: September 28, 2004
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Dear Reader,
Marsha and I (Doug) and Isaac and
Margaret and Peanut are still all fine. Hurricanes Frances and
Jeanne came to our home with some tropical storm winds and rain, but
we were spared of any real damage. We did have one tree that was
knocked over and one of the screened panels on the pool cage was
slightly ripped. We are thankful to the Lord and pray for those that
may have suffered much more loss.
Recently, I have completed two major goals that I have had for a
decade. First, as the author of a 778 page computer book, I have
desired to make this available on the internet after converting the
documents to the latest word processing format. All the Florida High
School Computing Competition problems, judging criteria, and
solutions (1985-1994) have now been converted into the latest
version of Word and placed on the internet site as PDF files and as
HTML files. The entire book (and additional chapters from different
years' contests) are available for viewing at my
FHSCC book page.
Second, all my seminary essays from Southeastern University (1992-1996)
and North Central University (1996-2004) are available for viewing
in both HMTL format and PDF format. The twenty-five seminary essays
may be seen on my
Theology Corner page. From a webmaster perspective, I
incorporated Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to neatly format the HTML
documents for these essays. The format of all of these essays can be
modified by simply changing a few parameters in the CSS.
I have completed
the Dreamweaver MX 2004 training
book by Macromedia, and now I am occasionally learning about Flash MX 2004
through Marcomedia's training book. The Dreamweaver book was
excellent, and the Flash book is just O.K. For
the past 5 weeks, I have been teaching a college-level course on the Book of
Acts for One Accord ministries, held at Victorious Life Church.
The four young students in the class are a joy to teach. We have
another 4 weeks to go and are now focusing on the Apostle Paul's
missionary journeys. The directors of the One Accord ministry have
asked if I would teach another class during next semester that
starts at the end of October. I am praying about this opportunity.
Isaac visited the hospital for a one-day
planned surgery on his stomach in hopes of alleviating some of the
minor pain he has been experiencing in the past few months due to
his inner-tubing. The first two days after his surgery, he was at
home and in pain, but he is recovering nicely and he is feeling
good. It's likely that he will be returning to public school after
his stitches are taken out in the next week or so.
Marsha is still working at Casual Corner
and still has not been transferred back to her home-office in
Brandon. Another opportunity has opened up for her to work for J.
Jill clothing store. She really loves their products and a new store
is opening up at the International Mall in Tampa.
Margaret recently had a blood vessel pop
in her eye due to excessive sneezing and blowing of her nose. The
doctors have helped her and God is healing her. Occasionally she
types on the computer and adds more to her book documenting her life
and experiences as a missionary in Africa. Peanut
has been put on a diet since his doctor feels that he is "fat."
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Date: August 28, 2004
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Dear Reader,
Marsha and I (Doug) and Isaac and
Margaret and Peanut are all fine. Hurricane Charley did not hit
Tampa as it was previously predicted.
Tomorrow, Marsha and I and family will be hosting a Sunday School
get-together at our home. As the teachers of the New Believer's
class, we are looking forward to providing an opportunity for each
person to develop closer relationships and to have a good meal!
Marsha goes "all out" for these kinds of things.
Most of you already know that Marsha and I took a trip to Montreal Canada
in honor of our 4-year anniversary
and that we also took a trip to Vancouver Canada where Marsha
ministered this past June. Although pictures could be seen of
our trip on our vacations page, depending upon your computer
screen's resolution, the pictures may have been too large to see.
Thus, I have reduced the viewing size of the pictures for the
average viewer. If you have not seen these pictures, feel free to
look at the slide shows for these two vacations on
our vacations page.
In July, Marsha and I took a trip to Fort
Lauderdale, Florida. The main purpose of the trip was to attend my
20-year high school reunion, but we managed to visit family and
friends and to minister at a church as well. Pictures of this
wonderful trip can be seen on our vacations page
under Ft. Lauderdale. Coverage of
Marsha's ministry opportunity at New Hope church in Southwest
Ranches can be seen too. Having taken
pictures of every room in our decorated home, I have posted the
pictures in a slideshow that can be seen from our
new house page. We thank the Lord for
such a beautiful home and we are glad when we have the opportunity
to open our home to others.
I have only two chapters left to complete within
the Dreamweaver MX 2004 training
book by Macromedia. I continue to practically apply these skills by maintaining
and updating the International FGBMFI web site
www.fgbmfi.org. After I complete
the book, I plan to study Flash MX 2004. For
the past six months, I have been recording sermons from the
late Dr. William Lovick (Marsha's dad). So far, I have
digitized 90 of his sermons into MP3 format and we have another 200
sermons available to us on audio cassette. Recording at a
condensed mode, I am able to place approximately 33 hours of his
sermons onto one CD that can be played on the newer CD-players or on
a DVD. I am excited about this new technology and the ability to
preserve a rich heritage of Biblical preaching from a pastor &
missionary who positively impacted the lives of thousands of people,
including Marsha. I have placed an excellent sermon/testimony of Dr.
Lovick on my audio sermons page and
on Margaret's page that describes the
Lovick's missionary journeys and another audio clip that gives a
short introduction (by the music minister) describing Dr. Lovick as
"probably the most sought after missionary speaker in the world!"
I have made good progress in my Church History II
course. Of the 14 lessons, I have completed 9 of them thus far. For
the next 9 weeks, I will be spending a little less time on this
course as I am now teaching a college-level course on the Book of
Acts for One Accord ministries, held at Victorious Life Church.
I am excited about this opportunity as I have enjoyed studying Acts
and teaching it to a weekly Bible Study group at my workplace in the
past.
Isaac spent two months in Alabama over the
summer. He was extensively tested by a neurologist with
psychological tests and intelligence tests. I'm sure Marsha can
share more with you on a personal basis if you are interested in
further details from our meeting with the neurologist.
With doctor's approval, Isaac is still not going
to school, but a teacher does come to the house once a week for a
few hours to teach him and to check up on his homework during the
week.
Marsha is still working at Casual Corner as
a supervisor (about 30 hours a week). She is hoping to transition
from working at the
West Shore Mall to the Brandon Mall within the next two weeks, as
she has been told. This works out better for her as the drive is a
little shorter.
Margaret is doing fine. She has added a
picture of her extended Dew family (from 80 years ago) and her as a
baby on her web page under Margaret's
historical family photos.
Peanut is still cute and lovable and is
doing fine.
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Date: June 18, 2004
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Dear Reader,
Marsha and I (Doug) have been teaching
the New Believer's Foundations Class at our church (Victorious Life
Church) for almost 4 months. For the past 6 weeks, since Doug has been
working Saturday night from 7 pm to Sunday morning at 7am and sometimes
working later that day, we traded responsibilities during this time.
During class, Doug has been asking for prayer requests and praying for
the needs while Marsha taught foundational truths to the attentive class.
On June 6th we swapped roles once again and Doug taught on the Authority
of God's Word and quoted many relevant Scriptures to build up the
new believers and stress the importance of studying, meditating, and
obeying God's Word as given especially in the Bible.
Marsha and I, took a trip to Montreal Canada
in honor of our 4-year anniversary.
Using frequent flier miles and Hilton HHonor points, we were able to
reduce the cost of our 5-day 4-night trip. We stayed at the beautiful
Montreal Bonaventure Hilton Hotel and scoped out the land from there.
There are many marvelous pictures of our trip on
our vacations page.
Marsha and I, took a trip to Vancouver Canada
where Marsha ministered at a
Women's Conference and then at two church services at Royal City
Community Church. Using frequent flier miles, we upgraded to
first class on American Airlines. The church put us up at the beautiful
Inn at Westminster Quay with a view of the river. The 4 pastors and
their wives' treated us to lunch and dinner every day along with wonderful
fellowship. Marsha was a blessing to the many people and Doug briefly
shared his testimony at the Sunday evening service. There are many marvelous
pictures of our trip on our vacations page.
I have added introductory material to my Christian
Worker Status essays. These 40 essays, written from 1986 - 1989,
have been placed on my Theology Corner
page to be read in either HTML or PDF format. I hope that you enjoy
reading them almost as much as I have enjoyed writing them!
Learning Dreamweaver MX 2004 via an excellent training
book by Macromedia, I am also practically applying these skills by maintaining
and updating the International FGBMFI web site
www.fgbmfi.org. The 2004 World Convention
for FGBMFI will be held outside the this country in Abuja, Nigeria.
Over 50,000 participants are expected.
I recently completed a course in Music Appreciation
at North Central University via correspondence. My 6-page essay entitled
Development of Twentieth-Century
Musical Composition can be found on my
Theology Corner page. Although
I learned a great deal and came to appreciate classical music of various
eras, I wound up with my first "B" (finishing with an 89.3 average where
90.0 is an "A"). My GPA has now dropped from 4.0 to 3.94. What a trial!
My transcript from NCU is available for
viewing. I only have another 3 or 4 courses to complete in order to
earn an accredited Bachelors Degree in Christian Studies. I have just
enrolled in my next course, Church History II.
Isaac has been doing very well physically,
though he gets a bit tired now-and-then. He has been tutored at home
by an authorized home-school teacher (once a week) since his surgeries
ended on January 1st. He recently visited his 6th grade class at school,
just to say hello to the class-mates, teacher, and some former teachers
from the elementary school.
Isaac turned 13 on April 22nd. With his new golf
clubs, we have played 7 rounds of golf at an Executive Golf course in
Lutz. Isaac's home page has been updated with
this information and contains a link to his new
golf page that details our first outing
and another link to another golf page
that details the 2nd through 7th outings.
Isaac is spending the next 2 months in Alabama to
be with his dad and step-mom.
Marsha is still working at Casual Corner as
a supervisor (about 30 hours a week), but she has been working at the
West Shore Mall instead of at the Brandon Mall. She has the option to
go back to Brandon if she likes. It is a tough choice since she really
likes it in West Shore, but it is such a long drive to there. Marsha
had the opportunity to
minister at a Women's Aglow in Titusville, Florida. We met up with
some wonderful friends of mine who invited us to their home afterwards.
We also had a chance to visit my (Doug's) half-sister Linda in Boynton
Beach, Florida. Pictures of Linda and our visit can be seen on
Linda's page.
Margaret is doing fine and helps out the family
in numerous ways. She recently took us out for our anniversary to Red
Lobster. The lobster and steak were great!
Peanut is still cute and lovable and is doing
fine. A new and improved picture of him can be seen on
Peanut's web page.
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Date: April 16, 2004
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Dear Reader,
Marsha and I (Doug) have been teaching
the New Believer's Foundations Class at our church (Victorious Life
Church) for almost 2 months. During class, Marsha has been asking for
prayer requests and fervently praying for the needs. With a passion,
I have spent countless hours studying the Scriptures and reading about
the Passion of the Christ (his suffering from the night in which He
was betrayed until His moment of death) to enhance my teaching of the
class. As a basis, we have been using
The Cross essay that I wrote after much study about a decade ago.
I also like to follow-up with phone calls and pray for class members,
often with my wife.
Marsha and I, along
with our mothers, saw the fabulous movie The Passion of the Christ
soon after it first opened. My first words, after the movie, echoed
some other famous words, "It is as it was." Having read a vast majority
of internet commentaries and criticisms on the movie (mostly from a
liberal and Jewish perspective) and whether it is an accurate portrayal
of what actually happened, I conclude that
almost all of the movie accurately portrays the Gospel accounts
as given in the New Testament, which I hold as inerrant and fully inspired
by God. For this, I applaud Mel Gibson. The charge that the movie
(and the Gospels) are anti-Semitic would be true under two conditions:
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If the Gospel writers "made up" the accounts
about the Jewish religious leaders' involvement.
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If the accounts of the Jewish leaders'
involvement in Jesus' death provoke feelings of hatred toward Jews,
regardless of whether the accounts are true or false.
If the accounts are false, then the story is anti-Semitic
at its core in that the writers purposely twisted the facts to put some
Jewish leaders in a worse light and place more blame on them for Jesus'
death than they deserve. Without directly stating that the accounts
are false, liberal scholars and Jewish leaders today argue exclusively
from the vantage point of secular history--that Pilate was cruel and
ruthless to the Jews and not easy to sway, and thus the Biblical account
of the Jews manipulating Pilate must be a distortion of the actual events.
Without denying secular historical observations, conservative Christians
hold that the Bible accounts of history are true (and plausible) and
that the disciples of Jesus were good ethical men who wrote under the
inspiration and leading of the Holy Spirit.
If the accounts are literally true, as most Christians
believe, then the question is "how should we feel toward those who had
a part in Jesus' death?" Regardless of whether the accounts are true,
this question is important, especially for the Jew. It is true that
Pilate and the Roman Government were excessively cruel to all their
victims and that the Jewish leadership feared stricter reprisals from
the authorities or losing their positions and their Jewish nation if
Rome decided to massively squelch the potential uprising that they might
perceive from "King" Jesus and his growing followers. In spite of Rome's
active participation in Christ's death, probably no one holds
hatred toward Italians or people from a Roman background just because
someone from their ancestry was involved in crucifying Jesus. Similarly,
no one should hold the Jewish people responsible for the part that some
Jews had in Jesus' death. To do so is a willful misreading of the New
Testament.
To get beyond a natural-mind's view of seeing the
Passion events as a murder story that still needs judgment, one must
see with an open mind and heart the supernatural plan and gift of salvation
that God gave to sinful humanity, as shown in the Bible.
God was ultimately responsible for sending His Son
to earth to die. There is a reason that Jesus suffered and died. It
was not a "mistake." It was a gift from God. It was predetermined that
He would lay down His life and die "for the sins of the world," and
thus it was everyone's sin that caused him (and motivated him) to
go to the cross, regardless of who physically or politically had
a part in his death. The Jews,
as a people group,
are not responsible for the death of Jesus (back then or now); however,
according to the Bible, there were a number of Jewish religious leaders
and scribes that did have a major role to play in plotting Jesus' death
and turning him over to Pilate for that purpose. For a Christian, the
movie (and the Gospels) do not (and should not) evoke anti-Semitic feelings.
God loves people so much that he offers forgiveness to any and all who
will accept it by repenting and recognizing Jesus as Lord and that Jesus
died on the cross and rose from the dead to pay the penalty for sins
that each of us deserved. Thank you Jesus!
Having spent countless hours studying about the last
hours of Jesus' suffering, there is so much more to say. I just wanted
to give the tip of the iceberg of some of my thoughts surrounding the
controversy that has actually generated further interest in the
movie. By the way, anti-Semitism means "discrimination against
or prejudice or hostility toward Jews". In essence, it encompasses all
forms of hostility and hatred manifested toward Jews throughout history.
That some Christian churches have historically been guilty of the sin
of anti-Semitism is undeniable, but in committing it they contradicted
their own beliefs and values. God does not hate Jews, but loves them,
and so should we. Jesus was a Jew and so were his first followers, including
thousands that repented and placed their faith in Jesus on the Day of
Pentecost. Through my studies, I have gained a greater understanding
of Jewish history and a greater sensitivity to the Jewish way of thinking.
I pray that God's love would shine forth from Christians toward Jews
and thus help motivate them to want to know our Savior too!
I have completed a decade long project of converting
all my Christian Worker Status essays to Microsoft Word format
from the 1980's Peach Text format. These 40 essays, written from 1986
- 1989, have been placed on my Theology
Corner page to be read in either HTML or PDF format. I hope that
you enjoy reading them almost as much as I have enjoyed writing them!
Having bought the hardware and software for Instant
DVD, I am now able to play a VHS tape that is connected to the hardware
device and send digitized information to my PC and store it in an MPEG-1
or MPEG-2 format. Due to space constraints, only small portions of video
clips can be captured in a file that is used on a web site. I hare recorded
a 2 minute segment of how Marsha and I met, which was aired on The
Morning Show with Ed and Janis Russo back in 2002. This video clip
can be seen on our multimedia page. To
see several video segment of Marsha preaching, you may visit
Marsha's Ministry
multimedia page.
I have spent some time learning Macromedia's Dreamweaver
and Flash. Marsha gave me the entire Macromedia MX 2004 suite for Christmas
and I have been reading some books (that the mothers' gave me for Christmas)
and taking some classes on these topics. To practically use Dreamweaver
to develop and maintain a web site, I have volunteered (and have been
requested) to maintain the International FGBMFI web site
www.fgbmfi.org. This has been a
big task since it has not been updated in over a year. It is personally
rewarding to know that I am significantly helping this organization,
for which I am a National Director.
Isaac has been doing very well since his last
surgery on January 1st. No serious complications have arisen, praise
God. He has recently been visiting a church with a childhood friend
of his, Ryan. We are pleased that he enjoys this church and has a friend
with whom he can relate. He even listens to the pastor's preaching
on tape in his room.
Isaac will turn 13 on April 22nd. As an early birthday
gift, his dad in Alabama bought him a nice new set of golf clubs and
irons. Isaac and I have hit some balls at a golf range and recently
we played at an Executive Golf course where he played his first complete
round of golf. Isaac's home page has been updated
with this information and contains a link to his new
golf page that details our outing
on April 14th. Also on his home page is a picture of his previous dog,
Phoenix.
Marsha is still working at Casual Corner as
a supervisor (about 30 hours a week), but she has been helping out the
store in the Westshore Mall for the past few weeks instead of in the
Brandon Mall. She cooked a wonderful dinner for the family (after Isaac
and I got home from playing golf) and my guest from work that came to
visit us. We don't have guests over as often as we would like, so this
was extra special. Marsha had a busy Spring as she has ministered at
numerous places including her home church.
Margaret celebrated her 82nd birthday by dining
at the Columbia Restaurant with her family. Instead of cable, she now
has DirectTV which enables her to watch Trinity Broadcasting Network
(TBN). She watches the program often and enjoys praising and worshipping
and learning with those on the program. Although she has been going
to the doctor quite a bit, she is doing remarkably well. She often cooks
the dinner for the family, which is greatly appreciated by those who
eat.
My youngest brother Brad recently came up
to Tampa from Fort Lauderdale so that we could get together with the
family. We took the opportunity to celebrate his birthday (35th) at
Barnacles, his restaurant of choice. Craig, Barbara, Ryan, and Alexis
came as well as mom (Sigrid), Marsha, Margaret, and I.
Barbara Woolley (my sister-in-law) has just
been named as Teacher of the Month at Wharton High School in Tampa,
Florida. A picture of this sign can be seen on
Craig's page.
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Date: February 12, 2004
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Dear Reader,
Marsha and I (Doug) took a trip to
Washington D.C. from February 4th - 9th. Pictures of this trip can be
seen in a slide show presentation from our
vacations page. On the first day, we rented a car and traveled to
Luray Caverns. It was a two hour drive from our Hilton hotel in Alexandria,
Virginia. Luray Caverns is the largest and most popular cavern in the
Eastern USA. It is the 4th largest cavern in the nation. I last visited
it when I was about 5 years old and just had to see it again and show
my wife. We both thoroughly enjoyed it.
Next, we traveled to the
Inn
at Little Washington. It's restaurant is rated 2nd in the nation
according to Zagat's Guide to Restaurants. It is also the most expensive
restaurant in the nation at $118 per person (excluding beverages, tax,
and tip). The place was not easy to find, but once we were there, it
was well worth it. The place was immaculate; the service was excellent,
and the 7-course meal was delicious. It was a very romantic time for
Marsha and I.
The next three days were spent at the Full Gospel
Business Men's Fellowship International Regional Convention at our hotel.
Doug is a National Director with FGBMFI and was encouraged to be there
for the Directors meeting and the convention. About 200 attended, 35
of whom were directors (about half of them with their wives'). We had
guest speakers from Congress. We especially enjoyed the humble, heart-felt
testimony by U.S. Representative Jo Ann Davis of Virginia. During the
afternoon of the first day, we met with Scott Pearson from Christian
Embassy. He arranged a tour of the Capitol with Jessica Rager,
the staff assistant for Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado.
It was great.
We bumped into some FGBMFI members who were going
back to the hotel in their car, so we caught a ride with them, though
we must have walked over a mile in the freezing weather looking for
the gentleman's car. We did get to see some buildings (and take pictures).
As a friendly gesture, they also took us to the Lincoln memorial. Although
Marsha appreciated the kindness, she was freezing, so we cut the tour
short. Additionally, our new friends wanted to get to know us more so
we all went out to a restaurant.
The rest of the week went well, but none of the Senators
on the program actually showed up to speak at the Convention. However,
it was good to hear the hearts of some of the House Representatives
and other members of Congress that did speak at the convention (and
some that were added at the last minute to the program). The chaplain
for the FBI was very good. Marsha was invited by the International President
of FGBMFI to sing 2 songs at the closing session on Saturday night.
We attended church at
Word of Life Assembly of God in Springfield,
VA. Marsha was also given the opportunity to sing there as she knew
Senior Pastor D. Wendel Cover from many years ago. The pastor and his
wife took us to a Chinese restaurant that Marsha had her heart on ever
since we got into the D.C. area.
The last day was spent just resting and relaxing.
We were glad to get home.
Isaac has been doing very well since his last
surgery on January 1st. However, he has visited the hospital on a few
occasions when something has not been feeling right. On Feb. 10th, Marsha
brought Isaac to the hospital since his stomach was in some pain. The
doctors are still performing tests on him (two days later), but hopefully
this is not a serious issue requiring surgery.
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Date: Christmas, 2003
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Dear Friends,
Looking
over the past year, we saw challenges and triumphs.
After returning from a Hawaiian vacation,
days prior to Christmas of 2002, we found out that Marsha was pregnant.
It was a joyous time for Marsha and I (Doug), yet it ended
with a miscarriage in February. This was exceptionally challenging to
Marsha.
In May, we moved into our beautiful
new home that is a tremendous blessing from the Lord. It is custom built
with two master suites, one for Marsha and I (upstairs) and one for my
mother-in-law Margaret (downstairs). Isaac has his own room
in which he enjoys playing and watching sports activities. Both Isaac
and our dog Peanut like to sleep in Margaret's room. Margaret traded
in her Volvo and purchased a new Jaguar for a really good deal.
In my free time, I completed a course
in American History and a lengthy essay on the Declaration of Independence.
I am now taking a course in Music Appreciation and have been enjoying
classical music! I am only a few courses away from another degree--a
B.A. in Christian Studies from North Central University.
21,600 management employees at Verizon
took the opportunity to leave the company in November with a generous
bonus and incentive package that was offered to all management employees.
I decided to remain with Verizon, since I am happy in my current job responsibilities
and the new opportunities that are opening up (and I make pretty good
money).
Marsha and I took a very memorable trip
to New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania to visit some of my relatives
and friends. It was the first time for them to meet Marsha. Seeing my
Uncle Cliff at a nursing home and taking him out on a journey to
McDonald's for ice cream was especially rewarding to us.
Marsha has ministered to wonderful
groups of people approximately every other month. She has also worked
as a supervisor at the women's clothing store, Casual Corner.
This past month she has not worked that many hours since she has needed
to be by Isaac's side during his multiple surgeries and recoveries.
Isaac has faced 6 brain surgeries
this year and came through each one. He had two brain surgeries at the
beginning of the year, and was fine until the middle of November when
he experienced dizziness and headaches. It was determined that his shunt
was not functioning properly. Many of you know that, as a result of his
very traumatic birth (weighing only 2 pounds), he has had a shunt for
all of his life. The shunt is a tube that drains fluid from his brain
and enables him to function normally. In November he had two more surgeries
involving the shunt. After three weeks at home, he once again became dizzy
and very ill. Marsha rushed him back to All Children's Hospital
in St. Petersburg, Florida for specialized care. On the afternoon of December
11th, he underwent his 30th surgery. A second shunt was installed.
After two days at home, Isaac started having stomach pains (due to an
infection that settled in his shunt) and had to go back to the hospital
once again to have two more surgeries
to take out tubes and let them drain. Isaac is still being "worked on"
at the hospital with just days before Christmas. It has been a stressful
time, but we know that God is with us and helping us in this complex situation!
We pray for Isaac's quick recovery.
"In all these things we overwhelmingly
conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 8:39)
We plan to spend Christmas with family
members in the Tampa, Florida area.
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year!
Further details of the entire year
can be seen below for a particular period of time....
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Date: December 12, 2003
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Dear Reader, In
the middle of November, Isaac was experiencing dizziness and headaches,
and it was determined that his shunt was not functioning properly. Many
of you know that as a result of his very traumatic birth (weighing only
2 pounds) he has had a shunt for all of his life. The shunt is a tube
that drains fluid from his brain and enables him to function normally.
He was admitted into the hospital and had two surgeries involving the
shunt, the latter one being a complete craniotomy to visually lay the
catheter in the correct spot in the brain. He was in intensive care for
two days and he had a lot of discomfort. He came home two days before
Thanksgiving and seemed to be doing well. Then on the morning of December
10th, he once again became dizzy and very ill. Marsha rushed him back
to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida for specialized
care. He was admitted and on the afternoon of December 11th, he underwent
his 30th surgery. The doctors determined that his fourth ventricle
in his brain was enlarged and fluid needed to be released from it. With
the help of a skilled surgeon, this was accomplished and the shunt was
modified to prevent this condition from reoccurring. The surgery went
well and Isaac seemed to be recovering nicely as he laid in the hospital
bed. We know that the prayers of many people on Isaac's behalf has helped
to bring about the positive results, so we thank the Lord! A detailed
step-by-step status and some pictures can be seen on the
Isaac's surgery page. An introduction
into this recent surgery can be found on
Isaac's home page.
In between surgeries, so it seems, we
had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with Greg & Theresa Ross
at their neighbor's lovely home. On December 2nd, we also had a chance
to get together with Brad (Doug's brother) and Sigrid (Doug's
mother) and go to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas
where the park was opened from 7 pm to midnight. There was imitation snow
on main street. What a sight! We had a lovely dinner at Artists' Point
restaurant at the Wilderness Lodge. It was excellent! Isaac had a steak
and enjoyed himself to the max. The stitches and staples in his head prevented
him from going on his favorite ride, Space Mountain.
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Date: November 2, 2003
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Dear Reader, Marsha
and I traveled to New York for 4 days in September to visit some relatives
and close friends. We flew into New York City and stayed with Alice
Herber (a long-time friend of my parents). She treated us to a delicious
home cooked dinner. It was a beautiful time to be in a location with changing
seasons. We rented a car and traveled through Connecticut and Vermont
where the changing leaves were even more spectacular. We live in
a flat world with very little change between seasons (in Tampa).
We arrived at our destination in North Haverhill, New Hampshire to visit
my uncle Cliff who now resides in a nursing home.
It was a great thrill for me because I had not seen my uncle for many
years. We took him out to McDonalds for an ice-cream sundae. Some
pictures of our visit along with pictures of Cliff many years ago appear
on Cliff's page. On the way back to New
York we stopped and visited other relatives such as
Rich Woolley and his family,
Donna Braccioforte & her family in New Jersey.
It was a wonderful time to remember the past and make new memories together
as Marsha met them for the first time. We also quickly passed through
my hometown of Croton on Hudson, NY,
where I grew up as a child. It was great to show my wife my old
stomping grounds. We spent a half a day in NYC and saw a clear view
of the magnificent city from the top of the empire state building.
We also had to go to the largest Macy's in the world (for Marsha).
I have seen Marsha speechless, but I had never seen Marsha shopless (but
there were so many choices that she couldn't decide and thus didn't spend
a dime!). From Alice's home, her daughter Carol was gracious enough
to drive us to the airport for our return to Tampa. What a trip!
On October 16th, Marsha and I celebrated
my 37th birthday by spending the night at Chalet Suzanne Restaurant
and Country Inn in Lake Wales, Florida. My mom had highly recommended
the restaurant and hotel to me for years. We were not disappointed
with the unique atmosphere and the European ambience that attracts couples
looking for a romantic hideaway. The six course dinner was incredible--not
just delicious food, but very unusual combinations and selections.
Their soup is very famous with good reason. Their first-course of
a boiled grapefruit garnished with chicken liver was most unusual; The
grapefruit was awesome but the chicken liver unfortunately was still a
chicken liver (not our favorite). The following morning we visited
the beautiful Boch Tower & Gardens. It was so exquisite and fun
for the two of us to have some time alone.
During my free time, I have been studying
my course work for Appreciation of Music. It is one of the
required courses that I need to earn a Theology
Degree through North Central University's accredited distance education
program. It is one of the hardest courses that I have taken because
I had virtually no music knowledge going into the class. I have
gained a whole new appreciation for classical music, and it has been interesting
as I have learned the basics of pitch, notes, melody, styles, and music
history. I got an 'A' on my first of three tests. I am currently
learning about Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven at this time.
With a greater desire for classical
music, I have added some more MIDI instrumental music to some of the web
pages. Each page has controls to pause and stop the music, just
in case the user desires that. I have added baseball music to
Isaac's baseball page and his
championship page, and I have added Phantom
of the Opera music to Isaac's home page.
Although the dog Chauncey is not with us, there is a Scooby Doo music
on Chauncey's page. Some other pages
still have nice music complementing the reading of the content, and I
plan to add more music to other pages in the near future. Also,
I have improved the navigation between the multiple
honeymoon pages.
Marsha and I visited some friends of
mine who adopted a Chinese baby after journeying to China. It was
a thrill for us to see someone who has gone through the process and is
enjoying their new addition, though they also mentioned their actual struggles
and day-to-day issues. Marsha's dream is still to have a child with
me in some way and to become a full-time mom. For now, she'll continue
working part-time as a supervisor for the women's clothing store,
Casual Corner.
We are settling into our new house very
well. Almost everything has a place, even our wonderful
poodle Peanut. He has finally learned how to
go in and out of the doggy-door (though it took him 1 month before he
could do it on his own).
Isaac is now
in the 6th grade and no longer in a "handicapped class." He is attending
middle school and is in an SLD class. It is a big adjustment for
him, but he is doing well. He had been rooting for the New York
Yankees all season and believed that they would win every step of the
way, but I think he was disappointed on that last fateful night when the
Marlins captured the World Series championship.
Margaret
is doing fine, but she did have a fall in the living room while we were
out at a hockey game with some friends. She fractured her arm and
skinned up her face, but she is doing better and looks great as always.
She bounces back quick. She continues to make fantastic dinners
and enjoys driving her new Jag.
Verizon employees in the Northeast never
went on strike, and a settlement was reached a month after the initially
proposed strike date of August 1st. Although it was a win-win situation
for both the union and the executives, there now needs to be some cut-backs
with the management employees. Like many corporations looking to
reduce expenses, much of Verizon's Data Processing technical work is being
(or will be) off-shored to India. Verizon has given all management
employees an opportunity to leave the company with a generous bonus and
incentive package. Thousands are expected to take the package at
the end of November. I am happy in my current job responsibilities
(and make pretty good money). Finding another computer job (and
one that pays even close to one's current salary) is not easy in today's
economy. The group in which I work is not expected to be impacted
by the cut-backs, though reorganizations are always possible. I am open
for new and other responsibilities, and I believe that God still wants
me where I am. I'm still happy with my life at
Verizon.
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Date: August 13, 2003
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Dear Reader, We
are still enjoying our new home. We have built a 36 foot
long aluminum picket fence along the side of the house so that
our dog, Peanut, can have a place to go. We have installed a doggy-door
that goes from the patio to the fenced-in area, but he is still not comfortable
in going through the swinging door on his own. Pictures of the picket
fence can be seen toward the end of the "slide show of the house construction"
on our New House page.
I have been spending lots of time in my new office, which has been
designed just the way I wanted it--Lot's of bookcases to hold all my books,
plenty of new desk-tables for the computer and related equipment, and
a nice central desk (which happens to be hand carved) for reading.
The walls have been decorated with certificates, awards, trophies, pictures,
newspaper articles, and a special mechanical world-map that shows the
light and time anywhere in the world. You may see pictures of the
office at the bottom of our New House
page.
I am in the process of expanding
the family presence. I have a new page for
Rich Woolley (my half-brother) and
Donna (my cousin), and I have updated my
cousin Rick's page. I have updated
our family page to include pictures of more
family members. As I obtain more pictures and descriptions of other,
I will include them on this site as well.
Working for Verizon, I had the opportunity
to travel to Utica, NY just in case the Union workers went on strike
on August 3rd. I would have helped out in the Central Office.
Since they did not go on strike (but also had not settled on a new contract),
I had 2 days where I had some free time and got a chance to see some of
New York and Niagara Falls with co-worker Tom Bee. The pictures
can be seen on my Vacations page under New
York 2003. After 5 days, I was back in Tampa at my regular job assignment.
Depending on how negotiations go, I could be back in Utica, NY.
I have updated the page
About Doug to include
my trip to my hometown of Croton-on-Hudson,
NY and some pictures of my friends while in college.
Having recently celebrated our 3rd anniversary, Marsha and I decided to
have a page dedicated to showing and describing our special
anniversary celebrations.
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Date: June 18, 2003
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Dear Reader, We
closed on our new home on May 6th. Marsha and I moved in on May
7th after spending a week with our close friends Jim & Carol Riccio.
Margaret and Isaac moved in after the we brought their bedroom furniture
from storage on May 8th after spending their week with my mom, Sigrid
Woolley. Our Move to our New House
page journals the 4 steps we took to move and build our new home.
The latest pictures of the home can be viewed at our
New House page. One month later, we
still have boxes to unpack, but little by little we are getting there.
The pool was just finished last week along with the upgraded landscaping
in the backyard. The five palm trees along the perimeter of the
pool screen make the area look tropical. As a family we got a chance
to enjoy the new pool and even teach the dog how to swim and find his
way out of the pool. The pictures are cute!
Having been involved with the Full Gospel
Business Men's Fellowship International (FGBMFI) since 1991, I thought
that I should dedicate a page describing
my involvement with FGBMFI. Currently
I serve as the youngest National Director for FGBMFI.
I have updated my brother
Craig's page to include pictures of his new house
in Meadow Creek Estates in New Tampa. I have updated
Doug's page to include more detail and pictures
of my background.
Marsha is a bit disappointed
about not yet having a baby that she has been longing for. Prayers
for her comfort and strength would be wonderful. God can still do
wonders! As things settle down in the new house, Marsha is enjoying
the new home and pool more each day.
Isaac has completed school for
the 5th grade. Recently, he went to a Devil Rays baseball game with
a friend. He is looking forward to his next baseball outing later
this week and spending the summer in Alabama.
Margaret has been working hard
to unpack many of her boxes and to organize her room. She hopes
to buy a new car as soon as things settle down. Two pictures of
the new home and pool are on her Margaret's page.
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Date: April 19, 2003
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Dear Reader, I
(Doug) have finally completed my American History course
via external studies at North Central University. Having experienced
life a little bit more since my high school years, I appreciated this
class much more than I did when I took it in 11th grade. The culminating
essay was only suppose to be 6 pages quoting from 5 resources, but it
turned into a 21 page paper quoting from 29 resources. Everyone
who has read the essay has given it a raving review, including the professor
who gave it a 100%. You may read this essay entitled,
Adoption of the Declaration
of Independence, which gives a historical and Christian perspective
of this highly important event in American History.
My Rubik's Cube project that
I had completed in high school had received numerous awards. I further
developed this project and converted the BASIC program solution into the
Pascal programming language for my senior project at the University of
South Florida. The User's
Guide for the Computer Graphic Solution to the Rubik's Cube and the
complete Pascal program listing
of the program are now available on this site.
As a family, we are looking forward
to the completion of our new home that is under construction. There
is a page that describes the events leading to
the acquiring of our new home and shows numerous
pictures of the new home under construction
from October, 2002 to April, 2003.
As a family, we had a marvelous time
during our vacation to San Francisco and to Hawaii
in December, 2002. While in San Francisco, I had a chance to
spend some quality time with my best friend from high school days.
Hong Wing Pun recently got married and I have created a page that shows
pictures of Hong Wing's wedding.
Soon after spending a whole summer working with me in 1985, Hong Wing
made Jesus Christ the Lord of his life.
Marsha experienced a miscarriage
after having received delightful news of that she had come home from Hawaii
with a "little souvenir." She has recovered in many ways, but still
needs prayers for further healing in her emotions and her spirit as a
result of this great loss. In spite of feeling weak at times, the
Lord has made her strong to carry His word to others. She has spoken
to congregations in different churches in Eatonton (Georgia), Tampa, and
Wesley Chapel (Florida). Pictures, audio sermons, and write-ups
of these recent events can be experienced at the
God and Marsha's Marvelous Ministries
site. Marsha continues to work as a supervisor at Casual Corner,
a women's clothing store.
Isaac has had two brain surgeries
because of his shunt malfunctioning. He has recovered nicely, though
a scar can still be seen at the back of his head. To celebrate his
12th birthday, we went to see the Tampa Bay Lighting hockey team beat
the Washington Capitals in a playoff game in Tampa.
Margaret has gotten improvements
in her teeth, thanks to her dentist. She continues to help out in
the family and prepares most of our dinner meals. She enjoys praying
for her family and friends and counseling others that need help.
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