Christa Returns From The Holy Land

...no, not Germany. The actual Holy Land.

Despite threats from Israel's neighbors to "wipe Israel off the map," Christa was determined to return to the Holy Land, and set out about ten days ago with a group from her church.

Jet-lagged, full of stories, and some snafus regarding her camera, back safe and sound. I'll work the trip into some kind of recorded conversation soon.

Citizen Christa

On January 21, Christa Batiansila will be sworn in and become a citizen of the United States. For us, this is a remarkable moment - and a surprising one. No one understands the tenets of freedom, hard work, rugged individualism, and love for this nation better than Christa.

We're preparing for an special time.

Mother's Day

I was ready for church and I wanted to see if my mom was ready. She wasn't in her room, so I wandered around our house looking for her. Breakfast was made and sitting out - Sundays were the only days mom was responsible for breakfast, and it was always something good like coffee cake.

I saw her sitting by her desk, sniffling. I fell quiet. She was writing out a check, wearing her standard Sunday jewelry - a charm bracelet with a charm for each one of us ten kids. It tinkled and sniffled more as I edged closer. She was crying.

She ripped the check off the book and set it down on the desk like it was too hot to hold. And then she felt my eyes watching her and she turned. The first check I write, she told me, is for God. For offering. The first check is the tithe.

I remember the amount - not worth mentioning unless you want my LCMS rant - and today, I can connect that moment at the desk with the times we kids were running around with candles and eating ice cream from the freezer. It was perhaps the most exciting and fun part of being a kid. Our power was shut off.

Or the times we'd go shopping and march up to the cashier with a couple of carts of food. I remember the same tortured look on mom's face when she saw the total.

This sick week at my house today reminds me of every time I'd go report to her I'd thrown up, and how she'd stumble out of bed and console me and spill baking soda on the spot, cleaning it.

When she left Germany at 19, she never guessed she wouldn't return for over 30 years because the man of her dreams and the children. Each tinkling charm on that bracelet, the music of Sunday morning. The husband, children and the tithe first, and then the bills.

My mom taught me that anything worth something costs everything.

Memory 2: The Letter

My favorite anniversary memory is from a few years ago. Mom had asked me to water the flowers at their house while they were gone. When I arrived I was reading the note left for me on the table. While I was reading I noticed the gift Dad had made for Mom. As I turned to look closer I realzed that our Dad had written her a letter. A letter! In this very intimate letter was an expression of love that I can't even explain. It immediately brought tears to my eyes. I called one of my sisters and read it to her and we both were crying. I am very blessed to have parents that no matter what they have been through there is a loving foundation built on CHRIST!
Thank you MOM and DAD! By the way this letter was framed and hung in their house. If you visit please read it!
LOVE,
m

Memory 1: For Mom

This anniversary week, I recall true love that I was blessed to see in my parents...

Grocery shopping with my dad is an unparalleled experience. He scours labels; he calculates cost per ounce (long before stores began actually publishing that information); he whistles riffs to the Muzak; he knows the cashier or their bosses (a visit to the bread store, for example, would always include the cashier leaning in and, in a hushed tone, intimate which twisties were on the freshest bread.)

Selecting fruit took minutes of study. What Dad always did with me was instruct me to find the biggest, best one, the unblemished, most spectacular piece. That one was for mom. We'd bag it and begin looking for the others.

Every time, just by rote, we were finding the best for her.

Batiansilas Visit With Zoe

Deirdre, Renee, Bat and Christa all visited this weekend while Andreas was around.

Andreas En Route

Andreas has been pressing to make it back to Wisconsin for a number of days, and he's actually in the air somewhere right now. He hopes to stay until Monday night.

We talked a bunch of times about visiting and when, and his hope is to spend some time with us and celebrate a few days of Zoe's life. We're all excited that he'll be around.

Kirin also mentioned she might be making it this way...and maybe Bat and Christa. We'll see and update you all as things happen.

BatPolitik: Interview With Christa

A lot of you might be wondering if the views expressed on this blog reflect the politics and views of the bosses: Bat and Christa. Give this a listen and find out how BNS is doing. When you've seen the effects of Stalin and Hitler firsthand, BNS figures you've got something to say. And something that should be heard.

Mobile post sent by gregwork using Utterz. Replies. mp3

The Mormon Cult

Bat and Christa's long, long, long-time friend, Bob Barnes, spent a significant amount of time speaking out against Mormonism while he was in Utah. Pastor Barnes could tell you a lot more than this page - but it's a start.

Suffice it to say that there are pundits who have heard Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney speak, and they're hoping to put Christians in the same pen with Mormons and pretend like we're just splitting hairs when we disagree. Like Wisconsin Synod Lutherans and...well, everyone.

But Mormonism is messed up. It's the kind of messed up that if I told you that Mormons believed Jesus would return someday, but it was to return to a temple in Missouri, you'd think that the Batiansila News Service had made that up.

Like made it up like any of Bat's classic killer spoofs.

Nope.

That's just part of the fun you get in to. Standing in a McDonalds doesn't make you a hamburger. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian. And putting Jesus' name in your cult's name doesn't make you a Christian, either.

Also, when asked, Mitt Romney said his favorite book was a novel written by the founder of Scientology. So, while the BNS cannot make an open endorsement without Bat and Christa's blessing, it can go this far - Bat and Christa would never, ever vote for Romney. Ever.

Christmas Tree Tales

BNS reports that Greg and his family had been wandering the aisles at the Christmas tree farm and had gathered around a tree. It was perfect. They call their trees "he." So, he was perfect - not those itchy, toxic needles, a nice straight top. Full on the bottom, well shaped. No bad side. "What do you think?" Jen asked. There was a lot of silence.

They walked back to the other one, the one that they had just walked from. It had, as one of the kids described, a "Dr. Seuss" top, as if when you weren't watching, a town of needle-high Whos might start singing and dancing on it. Parts of it - er, him - looked like he had just woken up and didn't have time to quick run some water through his branches, which were growing kinda sideways. And there is definitely a bad side. Of him. It's the side they spun towards the corner when they put him up.

He made them laugh when they found him, and he makes them laugh when they look at him today. He fits right in with everyone else in the house.

BNS also reports that Christa came home with a beautiful tree that Phil helped put in the stand. It was the right kind of tree, with the needles that don't hurt when you touch them. Unfortunately, the needles also all fell off. All of them. BNS thinks that when you return those trees to the farm, they must be lit on fire and left on the front lawn.

Happy Birthday, Martin Luther!

It's Martin Luther's birthday! I'm not sure what year Martin was born, but he was Christa's classmate through the first few years she attended Gymnasium. Don't get Christa started, because she's got all kinds of witty anecdotes to share about "Marty Lute," as he was known in their little circle.

One anecdotal Marty Lute story is that he went to a restaurant with Christa and the gang, most of them hangers-on, all of whom were dominated by him, even awed. They arrayed themselves around the table, jockeyed for his attention. A young waiter came and asked if they'd like to hear the specials. Marty said, "I will have beef."

Yes, said the waiter. "And the vegetables?"

"They will have beef too."

The Speras and the Bats...go way, way back

The Speras have woven their lives into ours in a lot of different ways. Keith had a unrequited crush on Erin in grade school, played on basketball and football teams with me, and his dad coached me. Keith's limp is the result of me running my head into the corner of a huge something or the other that fell on Keith's foot. Keith's brother, Craig, was one of Tari's closest friends in New Orleans and passed away tragically some years ago.

But that's just one generation. Keith's dad and Christa and Bat double dated. If I have the story right...Dad dated my aunt, and Keith's dad dated mom on that date.

So, Keith just had a baby. He wrote about it in his column at the New Orleans Times Picayune.

Batiansila Blog: A Global Presence

Mom forwarded an email from Steffen, son of Elfi. That kind of makes him sound like a character in The Lord of the Rings.

Anyway, Steffen does not live in the United States, wrote her the following:

Eure Seite mit den blogs haben wir uns schon angeguckt. Sehr interessant. Viele Grüße auch an Du.

>Bis bald Steffen

So, HELLO WORLD! For all of you non-Americans, I'd like to show you something. Here's an interesting truth: we're winning the war. You can thank us later. Here's another: we're losing fewer troops than when Clinton was president.

Also, take a gander at this. Not all Americans have fallen for the hucksters.

And if you know Bat and Christa, then you know they'd be happy with this post.

Secret Unfurled

Mom and Dad have now landed and officially surprised Andreas with a visit! This to celebrate Andreas' 29th' birthday, which is this Saturday. To quote "Deep Thoughts", I hope someday people will look back at my life and say, "Man, that guy sure owed me a lot of money." I'm sure Andreas can relate.

I was delighted to hear that the temperature in Sacramento was 70, just 4 degrees above the temp here. TAKE THAT, CALIFORNIA!

Andreas was delighted to see some flesh and blood out on the coast. He has asked that we all call it "the coast" now, and says that the double ear piercing is just so he can fit in with the other teachers.

Mom's Birthday Is Coming Up....

And I'll be deeply, deeply saddened if she doesn't get some of these.

By the way, they're back from Marquette, and well. But they did get lost on the way up.

They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love

I've had the great fortune of talking to Bat and Christa more in the past weeks than really ever in my adult life. What an idiot I am. It takes a blog for me to start talking to them. One thing Mom said to me last week resonates in this article.

We're a proud bunch, the Batiansilas. Proud of our name and heritage, proud of our gifts and our faith. But are we too proud to forgive?

I remember when a newcomer would visit a family event and be struck by the incredible love, faith, and bond shared. What incredible joy and energy resounded from the walls of our home! It was impossible to replicate or forget.

What would a newcomer think today? Would they know we are Christians?

Bat & Christa in Marquette

The North Wisconsin District of the LCMS decided that they should meet even further north than Green Bay. Further north than Wisconsin. So Bat and Christa are in Marquette, MI for the next few days. My hope is that they don't fall victims to the rampant criminal element in Marquette. Recently, some young toughs spray painted "I'm rubber/You're glue/ Whatever you say bounces off me and st" on their archrival's school before they ran out of spray paint. Sad to hear things like that happening in towns like Marquette.

More Origins

Here's a link to where Christa is from - Hameln, where she attended high school and where her little brother, Uwe, was born. Hameln is famous for the Pied Piper story, which apparently is only partly true. I have it on good authority that the piper was later fined for animal cruelty.

If you had any doubts about where this site was written, note the "Dear Visitor!" A greeting that reminds me of every single card and letter from my Oma. And when I'd walk into a room, for that matter. "Now, Greg!" she'd call.

50 Years Ago Today She Couldn't Say No

In Baton Rouge, Bat got down on his knee and asked Christa to marry him. She said yes. It was raining torrents outside, and Christa's home was nearby, so they walked home in the rain. Christa remembers - but can't explain why - going home, going upstairs and changing into a formal white dress she had worn to a formal at LSU, and danced around for joy with her engagement ring.

Remembering Mrs. Hasz

Longtime friend of the Batiansilas Carl Hasz has a deeper link to the Bats and Luxemburg than many realize. Mom and Dad share about Carl's mother, who just passed away and is resting in Jesus' arms.

Addendum...Dad follows up with a great story about tomatoes.