i recently read this via some blog i subscribe to. it is worth the time to be sure. it is a commentary and simply story of a man’s journey away from and back to faith.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169145/Religion-hatred-Why-longer-cowed-secular-zealots.html

actually this is usually how it happens.

i finally get around to doing what i need to on my interwebsite and then while i’m at it i post a couple of times.

so what’s up in muncie world for the rohlfings? good question.

well school is wrapping up for me. finals are next week, then a week off, then back at it for 10 weeks of summer school. it’s going to be great, i can’t wait. can you sense the enthusiasm!

boys are getting big, growing up, and are just a whole lot of fun generally.

it had finally started to feel like spring, but now it’s raining some more and it is GRAY GRAY GRAY out there. rough times in the weather department.

jayne is taking bazillions of great pics. she really is awesome and amazing. go here to check out her latest stuff. SO GOOD!!!!

turns out i don’t have much to say or much time to say it in. there are some good things a brewing’ though, and it will be fun when spring or summer finally get here.

more to come sometime, maybe in 2 or 3 more months!

Hey there!

For all of you that follow this site closely, feel free to peruse on over to:

http://www.theslowdown.net/updates/april-2009-update/

to check out our latest ministry update!

Thanks!

well here’s what we’ve got:

> snowing in muncie now, finally have a decent amount, about 4″. gonna be 5 degrees tomorrow. awesome (read sarcasm)

> louie is potty trained, both modes. haven’t touched a diaper in a week or so. oh yes, thank you Lord.

> spring semester is in full swing, and it’s gonna be fun. let the balancing act begin.

> the break was good, got some great rest, some needed reflection, had fun with the kids, did a few things around the house, spent fun time with friends, had the best new years i’ve had in a long while.

> good nuff for now, check out jayne’s blogs for the good stuff, pics etc. jrophotos.com and rofam.blogspot.com

i no longer consider this website a blog.

blog implies that things are written at least somewhat frequently, unlike this what happens on this website.

that aside, here’s what’s been going on…

so i just finished my first semester of mursing school (that’s nursing school, but since i’m one of the few males in the program, my buddies like to call it the “m”ursing program. it went well, i enjoyed the experience and it went really fast. it’s funny being back in school at 34 years old, it’s amazing what a little life experience will do for you. My brain isn’t as fast, but fast enough I guess. We’ll see how this upcoming semester goes.

i’m still on staff with great commission ministries, going on 12 years now, wow, that’s pretty wild. it’s always an adventure and there are always new and unique challenges and opportunities to reaching college students with the person of Jesus. i’m intrigued with how we grow and mature and move from place to place and emphasis to emphasis over time and experience. the church surely is a living organism that exists in a dynamic relationship to Christ, the world, and those that are a part of it’s expression on a daily basis. we’re blessed here with a great staff team, guys that love Jesus and couldn’t be more genuine. i think often about how despite all of our shortcomings as a church how fortunate we are to be linked with humble, teachable, for the most part self aware brothers and sisters to labor alongside.

this year has seen the departure of friends who have moved on to new opportunities and the reunion of other friends who have been gone for a while and have returned to what i like to call the center of the universe (pause, pause, pause…..) Muncie, Indiana. it’s a really unlikely place, but interestingly enough, hard to escape. sort of like a weird black hole. whatever. anyways, it’s been wonderful to be able to renew a closer friendship with the Eads as they’re back around town. as always we enjoy rich relationships with so many around here, too many to name, but folks that love us and our family so well. if you like topography, then muncie is maybe the worst place in the world to live, but in terms of the riches we experience in relationship, well it’s hard to imagine a more blessed place. thank you to those of you who are our friends and enrich our lives by yours.

the kids. well what to say? first off, props to my wife who does a much better job than i of documenting the life of our family, go here and see the pics, it’s lots of fun. it’s probably because i’ve been able to be around them so much over the past few days, but they’re really such neat and unique kids. i feel like it’s been good for me to just play with them, be able to stop and just look at them, and reflect on what gifts they are in each of their own special ways. and they really are SO different. it’s hard to explain and convey unless you know them, but WOW!

so tommy, he is mr. sensative. so very thoughtful, quite in touch with his feelings (which he knows how to manipulate to work it if you know what i mean parents), very caring. he is so conversant and interested in everything. he loves science and wants to understand how things work. he wants to know what words mean. he has a great imagination, he loves to build legos and then have “setups” where, oftentimes all by himself, he can dream up whatever adventures he likes and spin them out in some epic story. tommy loves art, he’s a great drawer and painter, and again has just an amazing imagination.

lou. well lou is a little different from his big brother. it can come out negative sometimes when you describe lou and that’s not what i mean at all, but we are at a stage where we’re working through some things. lou is determined, lou is focused, lou has lots of persaverence. get what i’m saying here. so there are usually a couple of times a day where jayne or i, usually jayne, are locked in a battle of wills with our lovely 3 year old. we usually win, maybe 80% of the time (read 60%). so that’s fun, but he really is so sweet. he’s our cuddler. he loves his blankie and sippie. he loves to line things up, sort, help put away laundry and dishes from the dishwasher, get groceries into the pantry, etc. he likes colors and the alphabet, he loves puzzles and especially this puzzle of the U.S. which he’s amazing with.

i could go on and on with the kids. bottom line, peruse the rofam blog, that’s where you’ll get the good stuff.

as far as jayne and I, we celebrated our 10 year anniversary earlier this year. we went on an awesome ski vacation which we’d been saving for forever to British Columbia for a week. My parents came and watched the boys and had a really great time so that was awesome. jayne continues to excel with her photo business. she really does have a great eye and takes wonderful photos, which you’ll want to check out here, at jrophotos.com, if you haven’t already. i think 2009 could be the year where things really take off for her.

we’re into our 4th year here in this home, which we really enjoy for the most part. not too much to report along those lines other than the fact that i finally finished, with the help of lots of great friends, our master bathroom, which turned out really well. jayne and i love it, we modeled it after the place we stayed in British Columbia, and though it’s not quite as high end, it’s still really great, so it’s nice to have a house with 2 toilets again! got a shed up sometime in the last year i feel like, well maybe that was last fall??? yeah think so, anyways, that’s great, the shed is great. other than that, we really like our house, has it’s issues, what house doesn’t, but for the most part, it’s a great place for us to raise our family.

well wow, i’m lookin at like 988 words so far, so i’m thinking i’m good for a while. by now i’m probably the only one reading this thing, but it’s been a good exercise for me. i’m a blessed man living a charmed life when i take a good look at it.

the Lord is good. may His Kingdom come.

That attempt did not work so well. I am posting from my cellular telephone to my blog and we’re going to see how it works. This is a test post. I look forward to its conclusion and to its accuracy.

tomorrow it hits. back to school fun, as we embark on a 2 year journey towards nursedom. i know i post so frequently it will be hard to keep up the pace, so i hope you’ll understand if things slow down a bit here.

we’d appreciate your prayers and thoughts as we wade through this very new stage of life. thanks to all of you who are such a great support to us. we’re grateful for you.

i really will try to let you know how it goes…..

click here to find it:

i think i’ve pretty well decided that i like to blog about once every 2 months or so, that’s a good pace for me. what can i say, i’m a “blogger”

hard to keep up with the likes of my wife and all these other soccer/photo moms.

anyways, so tommy had his first day of school today, nutty nutty stuff. he was so tired that he had a major meltdown this afternoon, but we managed to recover. he’ll do great though and jayne got some fun pics from day 1, again see her blog.

i’m tired, goin to bed, but look for more soon…. maybe…

- Need to take my shop vac up on my roof to try and extricate a dead bird from our vent so our toilet drains and doesn’t bubble.

- The Narnia Lamp is done for, met a sad demise in an unfortunate accident.