[Gathnet] News form Pilgrim Rest

[altgrossvater]

Dear Gathnetters,

Anne and I are coming down from cloud 9.  The Lord has been very good to 
us  this last week.  First of all, we visited Anne's heart doctor and 
her heart no longer acting up!!!!  Praise the Lord.   She and Tony Blair 
had the same proceedure by the way.  The doctor was quite excited about 
the publicity given this new technique by Tony Blair's problems.  

Mother White's grandmothers clock had stopped chiming.... We had our 
local clock expert come out and proclaim that someone (not me) had used 
to much of the wrong type of oil on the works and that it needed to be 
cleaned completely.   It is being done at this moment.

One not so good thing that happened this week was that I had a terrific 
tooth ache last weekend...  On Wens.,  the dentist proclaimed I have 
another root canal coming up.    The medicine he gave me has reduced the 
swelling at the tooth's root than the Lord.

On Thursday,  Anita and I had a very good physics lab.   That is I think 
the kids learned a lot and they seemed to enjoy it.  

On Thursday night,  we had one of those rare experiences that are really 
enjoyable.   It turns out the the Kyiv Symphony Orcherstra and Chorus 
were performing at Shadow Mountain Community Church.   The director of 
the group, Roger McMurrin started his career at the Coral Ridge Pres. 
Church and has done quite a bit of good church music here  in the US as 
well as starting the Dallas Chamber Orchestra.  In 1993,  he felt the 
Lord leading him to the Ukraine as missionary.  One of the groups he 
started was the Kyiv Symphony....  now consisting of 160 musicians who 
travel throughout the world giving concerts (for free no less.)   They 
however do collect money from the plate being passed as well as from 
items being sold.  Back in the Ukraine,  this money is for many 
humanitarian and Christian uses.... like feeding widows etc.

The group is fantastic!!!!!!  They are all world class musicians who 
when they are not traveling with the Kyiv Symphony, play in the Kyiv 
National Symphony or the  National Opera of the Ukraine.   The program 
containedClassical, Eastern Orthodox,  American and Ukrainian folk 
music.   Anne and I got there early an had seats in the 6th row.  We had 
an excellent view of every thing and could watch the expressions on 
their faces as they performed.  During Beethoven's Ode to Joy,  the 
Basso's face just radiated joy!   The climax of course was the singing 
of Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah!!!!!    Standing 6 rows away 
from an 160 person orchestra and chorus during that performance was what 
I envision Heaven being like.  WOW!!!!!!

To make matters even better,  we had signed up to house two of the 
members over night.   That was interesting even though they couldn't 
speak German and there English was limited.   Our ability in Ukrainian 
is of course a big zero.   They were very tired after the performance 
but we did have a chance the next day to converse more.   They were both 
in their 30's I believe, married with children.  They have been away 
from home for a couple of months already and are missing their homes 
 but they were real professionals and it didn't show in their performance.

I was thinking over the evening and realized that 20 years ago such a 
thing would have been impossible!!!  They would never have been able to 
go anywhere with out big burrly watch dogs watching them every minute.   
I remember an international meeting in Australia a number of years ago 
where the main physicist speaking at the meeting from the Soviet Union 
had 4 thugs tagging him where ever he went.  They even went to the 
bathroom with him!!!!!!!    The philosophy of Ronald Reagan on defeating 
this most distasteful form of socialism and the freeing of people from 
oppressive governments was made real to me as I watched these newly 
freed people doing what they enjoyed doing.   By the way the Ukraine has 
sent troops to Iraq to work with our boys there.   It just made clear to 
me again the truth the George W Bush said about the power of freedom 
that a people need to exist.   When the Communist boot was lifted from 
the Ukranian neck,  they are blossoming. They have troubles also it 
seems however at their elections.  It seems that someone had tried to 
poison one of the candidates for president there!!!!!   At least we 
don't actually kill our candidates but the mud being thrown at them by 
their opponents it seems is almost as bad to me.  I can't wait until the 
election is over and this election stuff is canned for another four years.

The next great thing that happened this week is that on Friday,  Anne 
and I had our quarterly checkups.  We both did very well indeed.  I 
actually lost 8 1/2 pounds in the three months.  I found out that the 
CAT scan of my neck showed I have a bit of artheritis in my neck bones 
which caused the earlier bone scan to trigger a check for bone cancer.   
I can live with that.  It just shows to all of you that I really am a 
stiff necked old gieser!!!

After Church today,  Anne and I went to the German American Club in El 
Cajon for another Oktoberfest!!!!!   They had a band called 
Guggenbach-Baum from Germany playing wonderful OmmPaa Paa music.   They 
even had an Alpenhorn...  A 12 foot straight horn made famous in the 
Alps.    We had roast beef, sourkraut, and rotkohl as well as a famous 
beverage imported from Germany.   We even had some apfelstruddle and 
some Black forest cake.  A good time was had by all.

So you see the Lord has been very good to us this week.  We are bubbling 
over.

Love to you all,

der Altgrossvater