Jan to present (click here for 2020a or 2020b)

Thanks for visiting wp.krigline.com. If you are an old friend or former student, maybe we can get “caught up” during IFM’s weekly Friday night Zoom gathering. Everything is always free, everyone is welcome. See the sidebar graphic for info. If IFM is having an in-person meeting, I’m usually there, but if you tell me you plan to join some Friday, maybe I can join you online. From 7:30-8pm, guests talk casually with American volunteers who enjoy meeting our international friends. The meeting ID and passcode are always the same, or you can write to the address shown for more info.

In Sept 2021, I launched a YouTube channel called “Poiema K.” Click here to visit. There isn’t much there yet, but I hope it will grow as time and funds allow.

Dec 31, 2021

I thought I’d post a few more photos before starting my 2022 blog in January. See ya’ next year! (And also notice that I posted a well-written, timely article by Pastor Greg Laurie.)

Dec 27, 2021

Christmas has again come and gone. We’re always grateful for this special time of year.

Nov 30, 2021

We enjoyed a unique Thanksgiving at the beach this year. Here are some photos.

Nov 23, 2021

Seasonal colds hampered much of November, but we did manage to clean up enough to finally get some guests from church to come for a “house-warming party.”

Sep 24, 2021

I recently sent an email update to friends, and included this “summary” photo about our house. I thought my online friends would like to see it too. (click it for a larger image)

(A) Our lot faces a corner, with a big yard; here’s the front of the house after power- washing the house and sidewalk. (B) Before we even moved in, the sewer backed up. “Welcome to the neighborhood!” (C) Moving a work-shed that had belonged to Vivian’s parents. (D) Painting trim. (E) We’re very grateful to many for doing work on the house, including Dede, Danika and Randy from CLC; Charles; and especially my brother Kevin. (F-G) Randy let us use a company truck, and slaved away all day on July 5 to help us move. He also helped me assemble several pieces of furniture. (H) We hired a local company to go back for what Randy and I couldn’t handle ourselves. (I) Old windows out; new vinyl windows in. (J) Removing branches to keep squirrels off the roof. (K) Dozens of boxes. (L) Adding sound- proofing to my office door (the kids find it hard to be quiet!). That’s all the photos, but certainly not all of the work (indoors and out)!

Starting to look like home.

Here’s a montage about our grandkids, over the past few months.

Here’s Vivian’s summary report on the “grands”:

Christy (11) is growing into a young lady. She loves to read books about dogs and is very artistic. I am amazed at how well she sketches and the effort she is starting to put into her work.

CJ (9) is still very affectionate. He loves his little sister (most of the time) and is willing to play with her often. He is also trying to sort out his skills and how to use what he is learning. He loves knock-knock jokes.

Caroline (4) loves to be outside and play with her dolls. She nurtures, rocks, and sings to them as if they’re real babies. I pray that her speech and focus will continue to develop so she will want to continue her love of music/singing.  

Speaking of “music,” check out Michael’s new YouTube channel (search for “Poiema K”). Michael also has a hand in the Columbia International Festival YouTube videos. Watch for more videos as time and funds allow.

I closed the letter with the words to a favorite hymn….

Our lives are complicated, and certainly don’t look the way we expected at this point in our lifelines, but as the favorite hymn goes:

Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered,
Thanks for what Thou dost deny!
Thanks for storms that I have weathered,
Thanks for all Thou dost supply!
Thanks for pain, and thanks for pleasure,
Thanks for comfort in despair!
Thanks for grace that none can measure,
Thanks for love beyond compare!

(from Thanks to God; August Storm 1891)

There’s much we don’t understand about Life, but God is Good, all the time. We love all of the opportunities to share His love with others.

Aug 17, 2021

Today is the first day of school for our grandchildren, so yesterday was the “last day” when we had all three at our home for the day (until someone gets sick, a classmate gets COVID and they all go home, etc.) We’re not sure how this will affect our lives, but we hope that it will give us more time to finish “moving in,” as well as more time for ministry together.

Here’s a slide I just prepared regarding my local work. We are looking forward to hosting a banquet for international students at the end of the month. I also worked with a videographer this week to prepare things four a big anniversary in Hong Kong.

Aug 3, 2021

Here is a bunch of photos to show why I haven’t added much to this blog in recent months. Basically, we bought a house. I’m already so busy that I often lack adequate sleep, and the process of buying-fixing-packing-moving house just takes the work/stress levels higher and higher. We’re living in the new-to-us house in West Columbia now, but we’re a long way from being “settled.” But I thought I should include some photos anyway. Oh, and we also enjoyed a short, needed break in Ohio in July. 😊

Note the dates. We first saw this house in mid-April, put an offer on it in late April (when it returned to the market), closed in mid-May (but we were too busy with The Festival to do anything about the problems/move), waited until late June for contractors to fix the floors, and moved our stuff just before heading to Ohio July 9 (teaching dates had been set before). A few photos artificially compress a complicated, exhausting, expensive process! Remember that the next time you read in the Bible a summary phrase like “after two years” or “a week later” — a lot of complicated, faith-testing things probably filled that time!

Up close, the old floor looked terrible. It hadn’t been put together well, so there were spaces (and a gooey substance) between boards. In the kitchen, two layers of linoleum were under the old vinyl. The photo with the blue lines shows where we could walk, after intensive goo removal after I removed the vinyl layer. Fearing old chemicals that might be in the older floors, and to deal with the goo, Floor Source added a new subfloor, and then the chosen luxury vinyl. Now it looks great.

We did far more during the trip (see friends & partners, teach, sleep, watch “The Chosen”…), but one highlight was a trip to the only Roundhouse built in the US since 1950. They have an incredible collection of trains, and our guide told fascinating stories about many of them.

June 12, 2021

Since mid-May, I’ve invested many hours daily to help my friend Dr Aluri prepare for the 2021 Columbia International Festival. Due to COVID-19, we faced many uncertainties and challenges. But on June 5&6, the Festival was open to the public, and an estimated 8000 enjoyed the chance to see, taste and experience the world. Here are a few representative photos from this year’s popular annual event.

May 7, 2021

Space seems to be closely connected to sanity, and after a year of COVID conditions we have been feeling the need for both. In April, while the kids were on a vacation with other relatives, we headed for the hills of North Carolina to enjoy a spacious change of scenery. Since our return, we’ve been busier than ever preparing for the Columbia International Festival (and looking for a more spacious home).

If you can’t read the caption under Billy praying, here it is: “The secret is not me. So many people think that somehow I carry a revival around in a suitcase, and they just announce me and something happens – but that’s not true. This is the work of God, and the Bible warns that God will not share His glory with another. All the publicity that we receive sometimes frightens me because I feel that therein lies a great danger. If God should take His hand off me, I would have no more spiritual power. The whole secret of the success of our meetings is spiritual – it’s God answering prayer. I cannot take credit for any of it.” ~Billy Graham

If my comment about Ruth Graham’s gravestone make you wonder what the Gospel is, see my article on being born again.

Mar 16, 2021

After lunch with friends, I got my first COVID-19 vaccine today (Vivian has already had both shots). Here are some recent photos.

Feb 26, 2021

Although we don’t have many photos to show for all our work, you can enjoy some of the “fruit” of our labor on our “English as a Foreign Language” website: EFLsuccess.com. I’ve added study guides for some good films, like Family Man, Far and Away, and It’s a Wonderful Life. I’ve also added lessons about Valentine’s Day. Look at the “Recent Posts or Updates” box toward the top.

Today is the Lantern Festival in China, marking the end of the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) holidays. I’ve long enjoyed this holiday, being fond of the beautiful lanterns on display at this time. This year, being in the US, we helped our grandchildren make paper lanterns to decorate their home.

Feb 10, 2021

Vivian uses her collection of toy bears to add color to our apartment month to month. “Grandma and Grandpa bear” always stay under the TV (yes, Grandpa has control of the remote), but Valentine’s Day bears now keep them company. Across the room, a Groundhog Day bear enjoys the blossoms of our “Christmas cacti” (which normally don’t bloom until around Chinese New Year–which is this Friday). Today is the birthday of one of my nieces, so I created a graphic for her, and I was so happy with the result that I’m posting it here too! For our foreign friends (who might not understand the white text), if there’s a shadow on Groundhog Day (Feb 2), then winter will be shorter; the cacti in the photo bloom only once a year (often in Feb); and Valentine’s Day (for lovers) is in the middle of this month. Oh, and “love bears all things” is a quote from “the Love chapter” in the Bible: 1 Corinthians 13, which I’ll paste below.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

“The Love Chapter” ~ 1 Corinthians 13 (by St Paul, the Bible, ESV)

Jan 29, 2021

I can’t believe that January is almost over!

Most of our Christmas decorations have been put away, but this Christmas Tree candle remains, surrounded by two Christmas cactuses. The cactus is so-named because it blooms once a year, normally around Christmas or in January. Vivian loves to see these annual flowers, which prove that even dry, prickly, leafless things can produce something beautiful! That’s a life-lesson for us all!

Christmas cactuses blooming in January.

We haven’t done much (except work) in January, but here are a few photos. One of the special things we did was to scan old photos from our pre-digital photography days. I’ll post a few here, but you can see “early digital” photos of the era (and three gorges) on our old website.

(click here for 2020b) 

©2021 Michael Krigline. For contact info, visit About Us. To make a contribution, see our Website Standards and Use Policy page (under “About Us”). Pre-2015 blogs can still be found on our old archive pages.