Dinosaur Mania

Around 2008, I started following creation apologetics. It opened my understanding of the Bible and God's design in the world. Since then, I have studied through online classes, multiple books, videos, and conferences. With this knowledge, I have taught a Sunday school class, preached sermons on creation, and helped teach others about God's world.

Last week, a friend notified me about a four-day conference going on at a local church. Looking at the schedule she sent and a recap of Sunday's message, it was a creation conference. Unfortunately, much of the church in America, and the Western world, have abandoned the truth of Genesis and embraced atheistic evolution. I was thankful to hear the conference was going on and local schools and churches were attending, but I wasn't planning to go. I figured I heard most of the material already and it was a ministry I hadn't heard about. However, Dad and I went to the final session on Wednesday evening that talked about dinosaurs and the Bible.

Arriving a few minutes before the session started, we looked at the church platform filled with replica dinosaur fossils. I haven't seen such a portable display before and was impressed with the number of artifacts. Dad and I found a place to sit in the third row from the front as the worship center quickly filled.

The speaker went on for about 90 minutes and, as I expected, much of what he said was very familiar. However, it's good to hear from multiple sources and some points were new to me. I knew about soft tissue, and red blood cells, being discovered in a T-Rex bone. However, I wasn't aware that a creation scientist wanted to do carbon dating on it and pay for the expenses. This would show the age of the bone and, most likely, that it's much younger than 66 million years. However, the offer did not go well with the bone's owner and very little of the originally live radio conversation could be played with children present.

Overall, it was fun to attend and let Dad hear some of the teaching he hadn't before. Unfortunately, a family with young children sat in front of us and their kids were allowed to run all over the building, including around the speaker. It was rather distracting, but hopefully they will learn from some of the children's resources.

This week, I plan to enjoy mainly at home. With the arrival of March, calm days are coming to an end very soon.

Starting Another Year

In two days, I will start a new year of living the quad life. Looking back, this 38th year has had its highs and lows as well as times of learning.

One of the largest accomplishments was completing my autobiography and getting it published. I despise praising myself our saying I'm an example to follow. I am a fallen man and don't live as I should. However, I will gladly say what God has done in my life and how He uses every ability to serve Him.

With the accident anniversary this month, I have done two radio interviews and one television interview about my book. In all of them, I tried to make sure to point to God's glory and not my own. I wasn't fully successful, but it is was my goal. This year has also been a reason to remember God's Word.

In John 5, Jesus healed a man who had been "sick" for 38 years. The word sick is translated as infirmity, paralyzed, or sick depending on which translation you read. Whatever the exact term is, the man had a major physical ailment for 38 years. Jesus chose to heal him out of several others laying at the pool of Bethesda. He didn't know who Jesus was, let alone have faith in Him. After a confrontation with the Jewish leaders, the healed man had a second meeting with Jesus where He said to stop sinning to avoid a worse fate.

Living a large part of life with a physical ailment is hard, and I have learned this very well. As I recounted in my autobiography, looking only at problems resulted with me thinking life wasn't worth living. However, looking solely to God, we can see how He uses each person and that life is precious in His sight. As I now enter another year, I look forward to seeing what God brings me to do and how I can serve Him.

What Am I Reading?

When I read, I usually have physical books that require setting up on my book board and page turning with my stick. It takes a bit of work, but it's what I prefer and I know what I'm reading. With digital books, that may not always be the case.

A couple years ago, I installed a program called Accordance. It's a Bible software program that allows you to study the Bible, compare English with Hebrew/Greek, and several other features. I mainly just use it for Scripture reference and some basic reading, so I have hardly looked at how to access all the available features. However, I have added a few electronic books to the program, other than Bibles.

One book is by Dr. James White, Qur'an: What Every Christian Needs to Know. I started reading it around November in order to help keep up my knowledge of world religions and how to bring toward

Christianity. The first chapter was interesting, but the next time I opened it, I had a list of word definitions. It had been a few weeks since I last read, so I figured I forgot something and Dr. White was defining key words or something.

Through December and January, I would return to it on occasion and reluctantly drudge through more definitions. I kept telling myself this section had to end soon and I would be back to the point. Just to be sure, I also checked the title and saw it was still on top.

Early this week, I saw an advertisement for more books available on Accordance (a weekly occurrence), but one screen shot showed the book's table of contents listed. I started my software, looked around, and saw the same button. Clicking it, the book I was reading only listed chapters with alphabet letters, A, B, C, etc. Therefore, I had been reading a dictionary for two months and not the book I thought I was in.

I closed the dictionary, clicked the same book title I had been seeing all along, but it now was a regular book. This week, I have returned a few times with much more enthusiasm and progressed through a few chapters.

If I was reading a "real" book, nothing like this would have happened. I'm not sure why it switched, but it may be a good idea to actually take some time and further learn about the software I'm using. Finding how to navigate between chapters in one click would have saved much scrolling in earlier books I've studied. I guess I will mark it as a quad life learning experience and go from there. Hopefully this coming week won't include any more surprises, but still learning opportunities.

Which Way to Go?

In life, we have to make decisions on a regular basis. Most are pretty mundane, such as what to have for a meal or what to wear around the house. For these, the course taken doesn't have major consequences and can be adjusted easily. Major decisions often have good and bad circumstances for either choice and can alter a person's life. However, still other situations seem to not have any easy solution no matter what a person does. Right now, I am dealing with the last scenario, and it's a regular part of the quad life.

I have been working with pressure sores for many years. Thankfully, two of the three I had are completely healed. The third sore is doing well and measurements taken in late January showed it had shrunk since November. This is indeed good news, but I still need to be careful to stay off of it as much as possible, eat plenty of protein, and keep biking for circulation. That seems easy and is a very familiar way of life, until complications come.

For over a month, I have had more drainage from my trach button that continues to increase. For the last few weeks, it has also been red and even started growing a hole in my skin under the button. When I lay flat, with three pillows under my head, the skin gets scrunched, sore, and hurts more. Therefore, it's better for my neck to sit rather than lay flat. That is how a good predicament forms, one area of my body is better when flat and the other is better while sitting. Which way is the best to go?

Sometimes, I am able to get positioned on my side and let my skin be open to the air. This is good for both areas, but it limits what I can do. One of my caregivers and I experimented with getting the keyboard and mouse where I could reach it. I was able to use them, but very limited. Depending on what side I'm on, I have to either view the computer through a mirror or turn my head at odd angles that eventually start hurting my neck and button. I will do it for 45-60 minutes, but that's about all I can take.

Later this week, I plan to break my winter hibernation rule and see my ENT. Hopefully he will be able to help without making any major changes. The day after my appointment, I'm scheduled to open and give testimony at a virtual event for Iowa legislators. I will be home, but need to be able to speak clearly without distraction.

For now, I'm sitting in bed a little longer than I have been and it hasn't been causing an issue. I do like the extra time upright, but need to be careful not to do too much. I will see what another week will bring.