The Fourth of July

Hey everyone! It's Independence Day!
Just thought I'd wish everyone a Happy 4th of July. I'll probably have some pictures later on of our celebration. We won't have any fireworks this year though. So remember us, suffering here without fireworks snif snif...... all right, I'm kidding...
Anyway, remember to thank God today for the freedom He has given us, and remember those who gave their all so that we might have freedom.
Happy Fourth of July!!!

     Well, I'm finally getting to my blog again. It seems like the days when I have nothing to do are the days when I don't want to do anything, so I haven't gotten around to the blog sooner (even though I'm on "vacation").
     I haven't been doing much lately, so there isn't much to write about. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I have been giving free guitar classes to some people of our church. Maybe I'll get some pictures of my students so you can see them. I've also been working on banners for our missions conferences in November and our VBS in January. Gotta get a head start. Really, I love designing banners and stuff like that, but I don't know why.

     My biggest piece of news is my dad's birthday, which was yesterday. We had a cake here and one at the church. That's a lot of cake for one day.

This is the cake that Hannah made. I don't have any pictures of the one at the church.

     That's about all that's happened lately besides the civil case that's going on. Be sure to pray for us about that. I'll be back again, probably later than sooner . Oh well...   

Another Update (Oh, Boy...)

Well, it's been a while since I've picked up the pen (metaphorically speaking) and sat down to give an update to the few patient people who are (amazingly) still with me ( I don't blame those who aren't. I mean, I don't even read my own blog. Oh well............

We are finishing up our school year. Actually, everyone has just finished. And of course, I got done with my school year first, and was promptly rewarded with the official title of Sir Leaf-Master, Raker of the Yard. Funny how things turn out. Well, when I'm not working (in the yard or elsewhere) I am either reading, planning things for the new movie about to be produced by PD Productions and Pointless Pictures, Inc., or creating planets and blowing them up with the trial version of Adobe After Effects CS6 I downloaded. That's a pretty cool program by the way, but hard to use. There really is no point in blowing up planets, but hey, people already say that I'm weird. Can't do much to change it now.

Really, it's amazing that, looking back on all that I've just written, all it is is a whole lot of nothing, and, since I'm in a philosophical mood, I ask myself, "Philip (that's me), how many times do you do that in your own life, wasting time on something that seems important but it turns out to be something of no value (like blowing up planets)?" And if I think about that for a while, I can remember many times when I've done that. Let's see...1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12..............................When I figure it out I'll tell you. I'm no Einstein so it might take a while. If it's that way though, I'm also no Plato, Columbus, Cortes, Edison, Ford, Fulton, or Lincoln either, so that narrows myself down to.......about one person.

Anyway, I've got to take out the trash right now, so I'll see you later. Good grief, I sound like I'm talking on the phone (by the length it looks more like I made a speech).

Well, I'll sign off now.
Philip Doolittle, over and out.

Down Came the Rain and Washed the People Out...

This year our river nearly reached a record height. It has hardly stopped raining this rainy season, and there were places which had never been flooded before but now were covered with water. Some cities in our state had a great number of people who lost their homes.

 Free Wi-Fi, anyone?

The Ship

A solitary ship,

Tossing, turning,

Sailing on the sea of sorrow,

Blown about, like a leaf,

For it has no anchor.

But suddenly the clouds depart,

Slowly dissolve,

Disappear;

And the sunlight shines through

To guide the vessel home.

A solitary soul,

Full of despair, distressed,

Tossed on the ocean of desolation,

Like the craft

Without an anchor.

But suddenly the despair

Slowly dissolves,

Disappears;

And the blessed Sonlight shines through

To guide the wayward vessel home.

Update

Well, here I am again. I'm finally writing again. It's been quite a while since my last post, so I'll kinda sum up what's happened since then.

In December we had practice for our cantata, which happened to be on Christmas Day. No one participating was any kind of music expert, so it was very interesting to work with everyone, making sure everyone knew what to sing and when to sing. It was especially interesting to work with Walber, who sang base. For those of you who don't know who Walber is, you can check the post "Fish Heads". The title just about says it all.

Anyway, the cantata went well and everybody did great. I tried to upload a video of it so you could watch it, but that didn't work.

Our Christmas and New Year's went well. As usual, we had the watchnight service on New Year's Eve. We had baptisms and singing and preaching and really good food.

Starting tomorrow we are having our VBS. As you know, the Brazilian school year starts in February and ends around October or November or somewhere between. Pray that we will have many kids show up.

Well, that about wraps everything up. I'll sign out now, I guess.

Mud and Soccer

After a hard rain we got here, we decided to play ball in our yard. You can see the results.

We just got a little messy....