A prayer for Ecuador

Karin’s birthday was on Monday. She & I were too tired to go out. But yesterday we did go out, to the laundromat; and, while the clothes were washing, we left to get some ice-cream. Karin put some of it into a styrofoam container and brought it back with her to the laundromat. But she didn’t eat it there, because dead bugs were falling from the ceiling.

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Tonight, again, we went out. We bought mountains of groceries. Then we stopped at a used-media store called Disc Replay. Karin bought an old Nintendo game, Crash Bandicoot, as a present to herself. I bought Seasons 1 and 2 of King of the Hill for very cheap.

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Mary now works with me at IUSB, tutoring students in the writing of papers. The baroque requirements of the First-Year Writing program are driving her nuts. (That was how it was for me, too, the first couple of years that I worked at IUSB.)

I’m finally making good on my promise to write an IUSB-style First-Year Writing paper. And I’m doing it the way that IUSB wants its students to do it: I’m writing the body paragraphs before I write the thesis statement. (This is one of the program’s features that drives Mary nuts.)

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Ecuador will play against Chile tomorrow (Thursday). The situation is dire: several players haven’t been playing regularly with their clubs; our captain, Walter Ayoví, is injured; Antonio Valencia is accused of having cheated on his wife; and Énner Valencia is compelled to sneak in and out of the stadium to avoid being arrested for failing to pay his child support. Under these circumstances, I’m reluctant to ask God for victory over the Chileans. But I believe that our God is a merciful God: that he is with those who call out to him in repentance. Repent, compatriots! Repent, and reclaim God’s favor!