The dream is vivid and demoralizing! How many nights in a row do I have to live through the same nightmare of the mistakes I made 30 years ago. What a mess I’ve made of my life! How can I continue living a life that makes my friends think that I have everything together in my life?

Before the time of telephones or telegrams, the British army under Wellington was fighting the French under Napoleon. It was a great battle and the future of England was uncertain. A ship would signal with coded flags a message to another ship – all the way to the signalman on the top of Winchester Cathedral. He would signal another man on a hill, and on and on until the message arrived in London and all over England. On the night of the battle, the signalman on the first ship signaled the first word – “Wellington”. The next word was “defeated” – then the fog rolled in. The message, “Wellington defeated” was passed from station to station all over England. Great sadness covered the entire country. After three hours, the fog lifted ad the signal came again, “Welling Defeated the Enemy!” All of England rejoiced!

Roy Borges is a prison inmate. All his life he had been taught to hate his enemies. Since he was a young boy, everyone seemed to be his enemy. He grew up hating everyone – including his family. When he was thrown into prison, his hatred grew to include everyone in prison with him. One day, he found a friend he could trust. He gave his life to Jesus Christ. But he had some difficult lessons to learn.

Where do you go when you want to think, when you need to be creative or when you need to just have some peace? As I write this article today, I can hear soft music coming from a radio downstairs, I can hear birds chirping in the yard and I can even hear the hum of my refrigerator. Nothing more! It’s quiet and my mind can race in all different directions, gathering thoughts that I try to coral in order to put something meaningful on paper. Where are you reading this article? Is it in a peaceful plaza in Cochabamba, the quiet of your home or a lobby waiting for your turn in the Doctor’s office?

In December 1914, an uncontrolled fire destroyed Thomas Edison’s laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. Two million dollars’ worth of equipment and the record of much of his life’s work were destroyed. Edison’s son Charles ran all over town trying to find his father. Finally he saw him – standing near the fire, his face red from the heat and his white hair blown by the winter winds.

Several years ago I needed to have knee surgery. I had run competitively for many years and had damaged the meniscus in my left knee. My surgery was done in a clinic in Cochabamba. Before the anesthesia was added to my IV, I asked the surgeon if he could also remove a fatty cyst on my arm. “Not a problem,” he said. “When you wake up, you’ll be a new man!” Ten years before I had another surgical procedure – this time on my back. I was born with a defective spinal bone. Because of the 150 kilometers a week I was running in order to remain highly competitive, I was pinching the sciatic nerve. I had pain in whatever position I was in. Again, I was mercifully put to sleep by anesthesia during the operation. What would I have done without anesthesia to give the Doctors freedom to use their skills in order to repair the damage I had done to my body? Have you experienced surgery? I am especially glad when the dentist injects anesthetics before drilling my tooth.

What is the very best gift you have ever given your child? I remember the happiness on my son’s face as he played a game on his very own X-Box. I remember my very first pair of glasses. For one of our daughters, it was probably her trip to Colombia with a swim team from Bolivia. Another daughter was in heaven when she got to have horseback riding lessons at the Hippodrome.

Many years ago, a Czar decided to take land from Jewish peasants. The Jews pleaded for their land. He agreed if one of them could defeat the royal debater. How could they win? He never spoke a word - only using gestures and pantomime.

I’m going to start with a statement that you may or may not believe: God exists, and His passion is that families are happy. At least two thoughts need our individual review from that statement.

I just finished reading a book by Alan David Justice called, The Final Bow. It’s a fascinating story of an actor who entertains Emperor Diocletian and Roman citizens in coliseums from Greece to Rome. In his journeys with the Emperor, Genesius uncovers the truth that he is the illegitimate son of the Emperor and a woman he loved but could never marry for political reasons. Genesius is a profane, immoral actor whose dramas help incense crowds to hate the Christians that Emperor Diocletian believes are the greatest threat to his 20 year reign as the god, Jupiter.Persecution of all Christians in the Roman Empire divides the people. Christians willingly step forward to be martyrs instead of denying their Lord. Blood crazed citizens crowd arenas to see Christians beheaded or fed to the lions. Genesius becomes the only person that Diocletian trusts. During the story, Genesius himself becomes a Christian. In the dramatic ending to a public drama designed to incite the crowds to increase their hatred of the Christians, Genesius announces to the Emperor Diocletian that he has become a Christian. He challenges his father to stop the persecution or to kill him as the decree commands. Diocletian runs to the edge of the stage, grabs a sword from a soldier and beheads his own son to the delight and cheers of the crowd. Diocletian, in tears, quickly puts on the head of the god Jupiter and flees the arena and Rome.

 In 1910, a terrible plague swept through Czechoslovakia during the Christmas season. It took the lives of half of the people living in the small village of Velky Slavhov. A large black “X” was painted on the doorposts of infected houses. In one of the houses marked with an “X” lived a young couple, Jano and Suzanna Boratkova and their 3 young children. Their 5 year old daughter was the first to die. As Jano was building a small wooden coffin in his barn, their 2 younger sons died.

This morning as I walked to work, men and women were cutting the grass in Parque Lincoln. The man on the riding tractor was walking the futbol cancha picking up rocks that would ruin the blades on his riding tractor. I had to laugh as I watched him throw the rocks over the fence onto the grass that men with brand new push mowers would then hit. 5 men were trimming around trees and women were already raking and picking up the cut grass. The pile of grass and tree branches was growing to a mountain by the garbage container. I counted more than 15 people – making a difference in Parque Abraham Lincoln that boasts 2 kilometers of spectacular city park land. On week day nights hundreds of parents and children play, barbeque or just relax by water fountains, playgrounds and beautiful flowerbeds. On weekends, it’s thousands of people enjoying Cochabamba – the City of Parks.

I am not a musician, but I love music. When I was a child, my parents wanted me to learn to play the piano. I did really well with either hand – as long as I didn’t have to play them together. I just couldn’t coordinate both hands to do different things at the same time. I was amazing with the scales – again, as long as I could play them one hand at a time. And the faster, the better for me. But what I really enjoy, when I’m in the mood for music, is the harmony of an orchestra. I love the changing of moods, the crescendos, the whispers and the way the music can move me in and out of the scenes playing in my mind.

During the early days of Christianity, Christmas was celebrated on different dates. If you traveled throughout the Roman empire, you could enjoy 6 different Christmases in a single year. Pope Julius I in the mid-fourth century appointed a monk named Dionysius to set a universal date for Christmas – December 25.

During these weeks leading to the day Christians all over the world celebrate as the day the Christ child was born, I want to share some fun Christmas history. The accuracy of the date of Jesus’ birth is not the important fact. The calendar most of the world uses separating the world as Before Christ (BC) and After Christ’s birth (AD) may even be 3 to 4 years off. What is important to Christians all over the world is that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty that our own sins demand. The inconceivable thought of the Creator becoming a dependant child sends us to our knees.