Isaiah 55

1 “Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,
and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,
because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.

6 “Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

12 “For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the LORD,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

Everyone performed, I mean everyone!  Even the school’s staff did the opening act with some kind of swan dance or something.  And then the piano performances started.  Don’t get me wrong, these kids were amazing, some of them only 3 or 4 years old, playing really difficult songs.  The thing was, there were over 75 of them!  That is why the event took almost 4 hours!  (Sorry to our house helper who was babysitting Nate and had to stay late!)

The girls did have their part too.  We had to sit through 4 hours of other stuff to get this, you get to go right to the good stuff!  Enjoy!

This trip is a combination of vacation, medical, and logistics.

Logistics – Elizabeth’s and my passports expire soon, so we need to go to the consulate and get new ones!  Medical – a whole bunch of routine checkups are on the schedule as well as a dentist appt for me that I’m not thrilled about.  Vacation – there will be Western food, grandparents and Disneyland involved…

Maybe I’ll even post a blog post or two while I’m there!

Happy Mother’s Day Erica!  You are a GREAT mom and we all appreciate how hard you work every day to take care of us, your family!

We love you!  Elizabeth, Anna, Nate (and Dad)