We went out to dinner tonight for my oldest son’s birthday. When we asked him what he would like to eat he said:

I decided this morning that I would like steak!

Such expensive tastes for someone so young.

I’ve uploaded a few of my photos to Imagekind. Imagekind allows artists and photographers to sell their work online. I actually created an account because I’m interested in getting a few high quality, framed prints of some of my photos. Now that my account is set up anyone can get prints of the images I’ve uploaded. Check it out at http://ryanwentzel.imagekind.com. By the way, you can see all of my photos at my Flickr photostream.

So far this year I’ve read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (highly recommended), Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (not quite as good as Dracula), completed volume 1 of Iain Murray’s biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones (I first read the 2 volumes in 2001-2002 and started them again late last year), and am now working my way through The Odyssey by Homer. Anyone reading anything interesting? Feel free to share.

A mantle decorated for Fall.

A closeup of a cactus.

See more photos at my Flickr photostream or on my photo blog.

[tags]photos, photography, Flickr[/tags]

I took two or three photography courses in high school and enjoyed them quite a lot. After high school though I didn’t continue to take photos. Now almost ten years later I’ve taken up photography again. When I have photos worth sharing I’ll post them here on Fridays and at various other times. You can find more of my photos at my Flickr photostream and at my photoblog. The photoblog will feature my favorite photos.

I’m strongly considering beginning a new blogging project. It would involve a new domain name and a specific focus. All I’ll say right now is that focus would have to do with the gospel. ryan.thewentzels.org would still be around, but I think I would use it mainly for posting photos (since I’ve taken up photography again after having dabbled with it years ago in high school) and other odds and ends.

There a several reasons for a new blog. During my last year of school I didn’t post very consistently here and as a result there has been a significant decrease in readership. In addition there has never been a specific focus at this blog and so the content may be too diverse to hold anyone’s attention. I think a fresh start with a new blog would be the best path to take. I’ll be sure provide more details as I hammer them out.

This past Sunday one of the missionaries our church helps support was in town and spoke at our evening service. He and his family have been working as church planters in Israel for over 20 years. In the past I’ve had contact with Christian groups that are heavily involved in Israel, but the Gospel had little place in what they were attempting to accomplish. That is not the case with this family. Tom’s passion for spreading the Gospel throughout the land of Israel was very impressive.

He mentioned that a Messianic congregation in southern Israel has experienced much persecution at the hands of a group of Orthodox Jews. An 18 year old member of that congregation made the following video about the persecution.

[tags]Gospel, Israel, persecution[/tags]