A Day in the Field

Today, I am in Lake Charles for a project trip. Four other project team members and I flow down today for a two day trip to gather information for a tank project. We arrived mid-day (just in time for lunch) then we headed to the terminal for a one hour safety training course. After that, we headed to the field. There had been a lot of discussion about where to locate the tank because we are putting it in the same dike area as another tank and according to NFPA there are certain spacing requires. The surveyors had been out earlier and had marked the final location of the tank and the civil contractor had probed for buried lines. Mark, the mechanical designer, and I went and measured where everything is so we can develop the plot plans. The current plot plans are fairly out of date. Then, Larry, the project manager, gave us a tour of the terminal. I have worked on several projects for this terminal, but this is the first time I had visited the terminal, so it was pretty cool the see some of the things I had worked.


Once we were finished for the day, we headed back to the same restaurant for dinner: Steamboat Bill’s – a Cajun crawfish, seafood restaurant. My project manager loves seafood! I am not a huge fan of seafood, but I don’t hate it either and I always say don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it. So, I had shrimp etoufee for lunch (which I had never heard of before) and boiled shrimp. Etoufee was like Cajun gravy served over rice with shrimp. It was pretty good, as with most seafood; I think it’s gross when it’s cold.

For dinner, Larry ordered a few pounds of crawfish for an appetizer (pictured on the left). The picture to the right is the portion I eat. Crawfish aren't that bad, but it sure is alot of work.

Answer to Prayer

For the past few weeks, I have been praying that God would help me witness at work. Every time an opportunity comes along, I never think of the correct response until later. Usually the opportunities aren't specifically related to salvation, but other topics. I always think of all the Bible verses and examples to use after the conversation is over.

Yesterday, while working with IT on a computer problem, the IT guy mentioned that he had been doing some interesting research that he was really excited about. He said that he was researching angels and that his research revealed that there were several levels of angels He also mentioned a few specific angels and told me about one "special angel" that was a man who had walked with God and he was so close to God that God made him an angel. When this angel was a man his name was Enoch. Knowing that I was a Christian, he also mentioned that Enoch was in the Bible as well as 11 other Hebrew manuscripts.

Though I know the true story from the Bible about Enoch, I told him, I thought it was interesting that God would make such a "close man" an angel. If "close to God" meant he was a Christian then making him an angel would be a demotion because the Bible says that Christians are the sons and daughters of God making us co-heirs with Christ. Since Christ is higher than the angels, this would have been a demotion.

This seemed to cause him to question some of the things he had researched and I asked him were he had gotten his information. He said the internet.

Praise the Lord for giving a quick response! Hopefully, this will lead to more discussions and an opportunity to explain that we shouldn't worship angels; only the Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of our praise.

Costume Contest

Though it can be scary, our office Halloween costume contest is always fun. Several years ago, Shannon (a co-worker) and I challenged the office to dress up for Halloween and we would have a costume contest in which a cash prize would be given. Though participation varies each year, it is neat to see the different levels of effort and the different ideas that people come up with for a costume. Here are some pictures of Chris and me dressed up for Halloween.

Little Red Riding hood and the Woodsman who saved her and her grandmother

Popeye and Olive
The year Chris and I did Popeye and Olive, we won 1st prize.

Cow Girl