more on wildlife in paramus

in my last blog i mentioned the rabbit problem in my town of paramus. later that night, one of my church members asked me if i noticed all the rabbits in our neighborhood. it was ironic because i just blogged about it earlier that day. he said that he wanted to buy a shotgun to kill all those rabbits that are eating his flowers & digging up his lawn.

just yesterday a black bear was roaming around paramus catholic high school. because it was a threat to the students, they took it down w/tranquilizer darts. the animals are taking over the suburbs.

weather & wildlife

after living in california, it's weird to have four seasons again. it's weird to actually have a spring. the 50-70 degree weather & the flowers budding everywhere is making everyone happier & nicer. it think it's also a factor in helping our sunday church attendance.

about the wildlife, we have so many rabbits running around our yard & our neighborhood. they ate up all the flowers that my dad planted. a few days ago we were driving in englewood & i had to slow down to let a wild turkey cross the road. i never saw wild turkeys roaming the suburbs.

God & guns

barack obama made a big mistake in a speech he made to rich liberals in san francisco. he said that the economic situation in small-town america has made people bitter. & this bitterness has caused people to cling to guns & religion. so now obama is accused of being an elistist-snob. it is true that middle america is full of gun-toting conservative-christians. i guess those are two things you don't mess with.

soccer practice

i borrowed someone's telephoto zoom lens & shot my niece's soccer practice. the man w/the gray hair (left-side of the pic) is the "trainer", not the coach. he is hired & paid to up their game. when i was growing up i never had a soccer "trainer" & i never got to play on nice astro turf.

outdoor shooting

w/the weather getting warmer, we took gideon for an "outdoor photo shoot" yesterday. i was trying to convince suhee that we don't need to go to a studio to get his pictures taken. i used my nikon 85mm, 1.8. it's pretty good at getting that "creamy bokeh" effect.

Good Friday

on Good Friday, we joined several other EMs (English Ministries) for a joint worship service. about 400 people showed up. i had the privilege of serving communion w/the other pastors. i held a large loaf of bread & tore pieces off for each person who came to receive the elements. tearing the bread was very messy. the crumbs fell all over the clean carpet & onto my clothes too. the imagery reminded me of how the cross of Christ was a messy & sloppy event. there was nothing neat & clean about it. as so many people came to receive the communion, i thought that it would be so awesome if it were that easy to hand out God's forgiveness & grace. the problem is that people have trouble receiving it. but it really was beautiful to see so many people taking communion together.

really good worship song: unashamed

i love the song "unashamed" by starfield. pretty deep & theologically sound. last month starfield did a concert just a few miles away from our church. i really wanted to go, but i had a meeting that i couldn't get out of. a bunch of our church members went. they said that it was pretty mellow when shane & shane opened. then when starfield went up, all the teenage girls went crazy & ran up to the stage. i guess it's because they are young & good looking, kind of pretty actually. but they write awesome songs. i think they are brothers, reminiscent of oasis. i can't imagine rocking out w/my brother. & i was very happy to learn that they use larrivee guitars (probably because they are from canada). i have had my larrivee for about 10 years now (c-10e). it's honestly hard to find a better sounding acoustic guitar.