I have been with my parents for two days. My sister and her family are also with us. She lives in Europe, so we only get to see her for a few days each summer. There are 8 of us in the house and 7 of us want computer time. I will have to blog fast.

We had a very international lunch yesterday. My parents' church has both a contemporary and a traditional worship service. In addition they sponsor an Eritrean congregation that meets in their building on another day. Yesterday all three groups met together in one worship service. The choir from the traditional service sang with the band from the contemporary service. A soloist from the Eritrean church sang in both English and Tigrinia. It is amazing to me that I am blessed even when someone is praising God in a language I don't understand. I have experienced that before in Spanish, French, and German. It was equally true yesterday in Tigrinia. The sermon was in English. Either the Eritreans spoke enough English to understand what was said, or they had the same experience with the sermon that I had with the music.

After the service there was a pot luck lunch. "This," I thought to myself, "will be interesting." And indeed it was. There was an abundance of food, both familiar and new. I had some American brisket, green beans, and some cooked greens. The greens were delicious and well seasoned. I wish I knew what was in them. I'll have to look up Eritrean cooking on the internet!

My sister's birthday is in late July and my birthday is early August. So we celebrated both birthdays together. She gave me the most wonderful present. It is a wooden angel from Willow Tree. She gave me one called "good health". The angel is holding an armful of apples. It is not only beautiful, but it represents two of my passions: my faith and my interest in health and nutrition.