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It has been such a long time since we posted on our blog. We started and had every intention of being faithful bloggers. Well that didn't work out. ALOT has changed since our last post. Most importantly, we are married now! It has been amazing to start our life together, and I have such a beautiful, amazing wife! Jamaica was wonderful.

This is where we spent most of our time

View from our room

We went to an all inclusive resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. For the entire next week, Erin was pretty sick. It was not the way we imagined our first week home, but we made it. We have also been house sitting for various people ALOT. Sometimes we miss being home, but when we remind ourselves that we have not turned on our A/C or anything else electrical for weeks at a time, that is such a nice thought. As weird as is sounds I'm kind of looking forward to seeing the electric bill.

Just today we found out that our wedding pictures are ready. We will hopefully be posting a few of those on here soon. They turned out wonderfully thanks to our photographer Leah Vis.

Today was also our friend (my best man) Eric's birthday. To start it off we went on a little scooter ride. The family that we are currently house sitting for has some sweet little scoters that they let us use! We looked amazing dorky, but it was so much fun. I really could not stop laughing.

Then we came back and cooked him some salmon dinner which was delicious. Erin is an amazing cook! Eric is constantly helping us out, so we decided to try and do a little something special for him, so a few of us pitched in and surprised him with a gift.

Here are a few more pictures of Eric's Birthday:

So dorky, but so so fun!

Erin's Masterpiece

No candles, so we had to improvise

Nice.

Snow in Yucaipa

Gerrit here again. Well, today my family woke up to some snow in Yucaipa. I woke up at left the house at around 5 minutes to 7:00. It was not alot of snow, just enought to make it feel like a nice winter (at least for California). My 2 mile drive from the house to the freeway took quite a long time due to nervous Yucaipians trying to drive in the "harsh" conditions. There was a little bit of snow on the freeway, but soon turned to rain as I headed to Redlands. All of the winter weather has left me with the itch to get up to the mountains for some snowboarding. This urge has been intensified by the hourly text message updates from my good friend Eric Casner who works at Calvary Chapel Christian Camp up in Green Valley Lake (This is actually the location of our wedding). They got over 3 feet of snow! Hopefully Erin and I can scrounge up enough money for some lift tickets!

After classes today Erin received a package in the mail. The new Ice cube trays we had ordered were here! After months of trying to use the cheap plastic ones that cracked almost immediately, and after erin nearly amputating her finger with one of the sharp edges, I decided to order some fancy ones. Erin is now the proud owner of silicone ice cube trays. They are pretty sweet!

I would recommend them if you are in need of some ice cube trays.

A wider lens...

I am enrolled in a philosophy class this quarter at UCR. After a concentrated four year dose of Biology, Biochemistry, and Physics, it has been both extremely fun and challenging to take a step back and look at things through a much wider lens. The topic thus far has mainly been God. I have appreciated the professor’s way of handling the class. Though it is a public university (and Dr. Fischer has made it apparent that his views are basically not in favor of there being a God at all), he has taught the class in a way that has let us take our own point of view and will respect that. We have spent equal time looking at arguments on both sides of the spectrum.

Anyways, this week has mainly been on the problem of evil. The problem being: If there is an all perfect, omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent God how then could he allow create a world in which there is evil and suffering. We have discussed various arguments on both sides of this issue and it has been interesting just to think about this, not so much because I would doubt God’s existence but simply because I love to reflect on God’s character and think about who it is that we have given our lives to.

For some this type of thinking is of no interest. For example, I was so excited to tell Erin about some of the things we had been discussing and decided to read her a passage from the philosophy textbook that we are using. After about 20 minutes or so of reading it aloud her response was basically “Cool Ger but I lost you about 18 min ago”.

I digress. One of the ways of looking at it that I found very interesting was this: Maybe God allows suffering because of the virtues that it brings out in us. Virtues such as love, courage, compassion etc. Without suffering and trials there could be no courage, and without hardships and pain there could be no compassion. I had never thought of it that way before. As I was thinking about this I remembered a sermon that I heard a couple of weeks ago. (Erin and I attend Sandals Church in Riverside for their evening service at 7:00 pm). The message was from John 9. Here are verses 1-6:

“¹As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.2“Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”

3“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.4We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work.5But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”

6Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes.7He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!”

I appreciate so much the answer that Jesus gives! They ask Him why was the guy born blind, why do we suffer? We suffer so that the power of God can be seen! The suffering that we go through makes sense though a lens that is much wider than our own. I don’t pretend to understand how all the pieces fit together and I know that I never will. That is where faith comes in, and trust. God’s plan is so much larger than us and in many ways I find that to be very comforting.

These have been some of my thoughts.

-Gerrit

My first blog

I have never been a blogger, but Ger insisted that we start one to update people on our exciting lives! We are both going to be posting blogs, so you will be hearing from both of us. I hope you enjoy reading of thoughts about our new ( or soon to be new) life!