Share Your World With Cee Cee Pt. 31

Happy week after Thanksgiving everyone! 🙂 I trust that you are all still enjoying the turkey and turnip soup, the chicken pot pies and the cold chicken and stuffing sandwiches. I am eating chicken and rice casserole as I answer Cee’s great questions!

• What feeds your enthusiasm for life?  Jesus Christ is all my hope and stay. He is my life source and the fire deep in my bones. The thought that I shall dwell with Him forever in eternity causes me to wake everyday with a fresh hope!
• If someone made a movie of your life would it be a drama, a comedy, a romantic-comedy, action film, or science fiction?  My life would definitely not be an action movie (Indiana Jones I am not) and no one is going to mistake me for the romantic lead. But  a drama driven by sarcastic humor? I think most people could buy that one.
• If you were to perform in the circus, what would you do?  I’d be the guy with the little white dogs in the shiny blue tails and top hat. 🙂
• You are given $500 and the chance to exchange it for one of two envelopes. One envelope contains $5,000 and one contains $50. Do you make the trade? Why or why not? I’m not much of a gambler. I’d probably keep the $500.00

 

Quotes Pt. 21

Hot Rods by JE Lillie

” I tend to live life like I’m driving in the Indy 500 when all along God meant it to be like a ride in an antique car. Christianity is about learning how to ride again.” JE Lillie

A Sunday Song

🙂

Share Your World With Cee Cee Pt. 19

Catching Up is fun. I get to answer eight questions this week instead of four. Here we go! Next round:

1. What calms you down?
   Prayer. I love to sit under the sound of soft worship music and commune with God!
2. Whats your favorite fantasy sandwich?  Spaghetti sauce and peanut butter. It’s really good you have to try it!
3. What was your nickname growing up either as a kid or now?
   J is my nickname probably because my real name (Joseph Elon Lillie V) sounds really pretentious. My youth group has dubbed me simply Pastor Wrinkles.
4. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Burnt Sienna. I just like the way it sounds. 🙂

Here are a few more Holland pics:

The old gatehouses at the locks have been converted to apartments

Ancient cathedral sanctuaries were built in the shape of crosses. This is the ceiling at the center of the cross.

Share Your World With Cee Cee Pt. 18

I am so glad Cee is back with her questions. I have been away for a bit myself on ministry assignment. So I am just getting caught up on all my blog reading (man my friends have been prolific in my absence!). I am very excited to be back answering these questions! So here we go:

 

1. What is your favorite comfort snack food?
   Most anything involving chocolate cake and cream frosting. SuzQ’s with a tall glass of ice-cold milk are my all time favorite!
2. At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive? Probably on my flight to Holland to visit my sister. The prospect of discovering a new culture was soooo exciting!
3. What is your favorite outdoor activity?
   Gardening. Although this year schedules has left me little time for it.
4. If you could have your own TV channel, what would it be about? That’s simple; It would be a God/mystery/SciFi Channel. 🙂

Here are a few pics I took in Holland:

Dutch church along the Zaan

Warning In the Wind by JE LIllie

 

The Netherlands Pt 8: St. Bavo’s Haarlem

After touring the Ten Boom museum (which if you did not see go back to Netherlands Pt. 7 for a look-see) Brenda and I had lunch with Mona at one of the street-side cafes. Christian camaraderie is such a sweet gift from the Holy Spirit!

When at last we had to say good-bye or as they say it in Dutch “Dooey!” Brenda and I decided our time in Haarlem was not over. We wanted to tour Corrie’s home church, St.Bavo’s (pronounced Boffo’s).

St. Bavo’s sits in the center of Haarlem Square.

Admission to the church was 2 Euro as there was no service going on.

The sanctuary of St. Bavo’s

the facade of the pipe organ, Mozart played a service here…but not while we were visiting 🙂

The ceilings of St. Bavo’s

Ancient cathedral sanctuaries were built in the shape of crosses. This is the ceiling at the center of the cross.

A view along the North side of the sanctuary, St. Bavo’s. The floor is made of gravestones from the 1500’s. The inside of the church is also a cemetery.

A grave marker in the floor of St. Bavo’s

Brenda in the choir loft. St. Bavo’s

While Brenda was busy pretending to pray, I found this little cross- shaped hole in the wall.

Since the adjoining doors were bolted, I stuck my arm through the cross-shaped hole and snapped this picture. So glad my arm didn’t get stuck!

This window was given to St. Bavo’s by Queen Beatrix.

There is so much to see in this little city. After we left St. Bavo’s we walked through the square just enjoying the sights and sounds.

the statue outside of St. Bavo’s. Mona could only tell us it wasn’t St. Bavo.

Street cafe, Haarlem Square

Street performers, Haarlem Square

Haarlem truly is one of the most beautiful little cities I have been too. Don’t pass this little gem by if you are in the area!

Share Your World With Cee Cee Pt. 16

These are some fun questions this week Cee! A little break in the difficulty factor…I like it!

1.  What type of pets do you have or want?
   I have two Maltese dogs: a boy Jacopo (yacahpoh) and a girl Mercedes.  
2. Would you rather take pictures or be in pictures? Oh definitely take pictures.
3. What household chore do you absolutely hate doing?
   I try not to say I hate anything because that makes it harder to do when I’ve gotta do it. I find it harder to do the ironing.  🙂
4. What’s your least favorite mode of transportation? Hmm. I’m not a big fan of anything I have to pedal or push. Things that tip over easy or think for themselves as modes of transportation are also low on my choice list.

Share Your World With Cee Cee Pt. 15

…or 32 depending on how you look at it! Since I came into this game half way through I shall call it 15. The questions are getting harder! I love it!

 Which would you prefer:  a wild, turbulent life filled with joy, sorrow, passion, and adventure–intoxicating successes and stunning setbacks; or a contented bordering on happy, secure, predictable life surrounded by friends and family without such wide swings of fortune and mood? I would choose the quiet life. I do choose the quiet life. But in this world adventure finds us all. I have learned that what determines a quiet life is not the events but our reactions to them. We really do carry our own weather!

Would you like to be famous?  In what way? This depends on the day and how rejected I feel. There’s nothing like a little rejection to make you wish you were the  toast of the town.

I guess I view this as one of the weaknesses I am still working on. I think other people have turned the desire for fame into a healthy ambition. I’m not sure I’ve quite made it there yet!

If you could cure one disease, what would that be?Definitely cancer! So many in our church are struggling with it.

If you were invisible, where would you go? I would sit at home and enjoy the peace of no one being able to find me for a while.

The Netherlands Pt. 6: More Museums

Museum Street!

You might get the idea I like museums.

The Nemo. Didn’t make it here but it looks llike a cool museum to visit!

You would be right.

A still life at the Rijks

I love to wonder at the talent it takes to make something like this look like a photograph with nothing but paints made from plants and bugs.

Rembrandt

Brenda at The Hermitage, Amsterdam

The Cheese Museum Alkmaar

A Stained glass window at The Hermitage, Amsterdam

It is interesting to look at what others have collected. It speaks of what they valued of what they thought was important.

A rich lady’s doll house. To expensive to ever be played with. The Rijks museum

Sometimes what I see speaks of how easily we are distracted from the important things in life.

The Ten Boom Museum a home and family dedicated to rescuing Jews during the Holocaust

Then sometimes what I see restores my faith that not everyone has lost touch with the truly important things in life.

Share Your World With Cee Cee Pt. 11

Here are another great bunch of questions from Cee Cee!

1. Are you left or right-handed?
   I am totally right-handed! Even after thirty plus years of piano playing I can still only do rudimentary movements with my left hand.
2. What is one thing you love about being an adult? I didn’t start feeling like an adult until I was thirty-five. I sort of like the respect that comes with a little bit of age and experience.
3. What do I need to unlearn? My fear of people and the idea that I am only as capable or adequate as other people see me. I am learning that what I can do has nothing to do with what other people expect from me.
4. What is success for me? Fulfilling God’s purpose for my life and experiencing His joy over that obedience.

Here are a few pictures of the lighter side of our church!

This is me at youth convention a few years ago. I was cast in a skit in the dual role of Granny and Baby Boy!

                                     And this is my boss!

                     We really enjoy helping people find the humor in life!