Paul Asay

Biblical prophecies from Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49 both speak of a time when Damascus will be nothing but ruins.  We are living in that day.  A majority of the citizens of Syria have become refugees and now live in Turkey, Jordan, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Iraq or even Iran.  The chances this will be solved anytime in the near future are nil.  To make an attempt at understanding what is going on in Syria, the different groups with varying ideologies, I thought I might summarize the situation from the daily headlines to get a more easy to comprehend overview.      Syria is currently in the midst of a civil war that began in 2011.  The two largest cities in Syria are Aleppo and Damascus which are among the oldest cities in the world.  Aleppo had a former population of over 2 million with Damascus a close second at 1.7 million.  Aleppo is now a ghost town and Damascus will likely be so as well.  The fight, especially in Aleppo ...

Yesterday evening the ISU Women’s Basketball Team held a mile run on the track.  Coach Joey Wells sent out a note to campus that they were holding 3 consecutive mile runs on Thursday evenings for the team to improve their mile time.  He also invited everyone to come out and run with them to do the same.  Not being one to pass up an opportunity I sent a quick note to two of my running partners in crime, Joe and Don, and we showed up on the starting line.  Coach Wells was the first one I met walking out to the track.  Very personable and made everyone welcome for the event.  The team did a nice warm up, had some music going and made it fun.  We all lined up on the track for the start.  Besides the team they probably had another 20 join in.  Having one more triathlon this season coming up Saturday morning I thought I would give it a 90% effort and not pay the price come race morning.   So I lined up a couple back on the insi...

Saturday July 26 th was my 4 th in a series of Olympic distance triathlons this year.  While it was small in number, the race was no easier than any of the others.  After all, the swim, bike and run are basically the same with either 50 or 4000 other competitors on the course like I had in Chicago.  What’s more is most of the people I was racing with/against were my friends. Sherrie and I made the 30 minute drive to Mill Creek just outside Marshall, Illinois.  As soon as I got to the transition area and ran into Stan Strohm, Troy Charters, Tony Williams, Ron Gillen, Robert Montani , Daniel Alexander and several others I know well, it was going to be a family affair.  The swim started one at a time with a dive off the dock for a two loop 1500 meter swim.  The water was 77.3 degrees or just wetsuit legal so I figured the swim would be fairly easy.  I jumped in about 10 seconds after Troy, maybe 6 th or 7 th one to go.  I caught a couple...

Chicago is set to host the 2015 International Triathlon Union World Championship.  With that in mind this year everyone was invited to race the event and try out the course in advance.  ITU had the pro women race on Saturday afternoon which I got to watch.  Sunday morning the amateurs started at 6:00 A.M.  My wave, Men’s 55-59 started at 7:00 A.M.  I knew in advance the competition would be close to a national championship event so I didn't think too much about where I might finish. The swim, bike and run course are all pretty spectacular.  The swim started in Lake Michigan adjacent to the Buckingham Fountain along Grant Park.  Swim about ¼ mile north, then around a turn buoy and back south to the finish.  Water is very clear and a bit on the cold side at 65 degrees.  As scenery goes it was top notch.  Sail boats to the left, Chicago skyline to the right.  The last ½ mile I happened to notice someone walking along the park at t...

Traveling 1,000 miles with a group of 48 individuals from Indiana/Illinois to Camp of the Woods Canada doesn't happen quickly.  The weather when we arrived was rain, and lots of it.  Starting on Monday and continuing through Thursday the work was sometimes a bit oppressive.  Cutting and throwing logs onto a dump truck.  Rowing over to the other side of the lake and clearing trails.  Short-term missions are not particularly easy, not overly cheap, and take up some of my vacation time, but I love it.    Pouring yourself out like a drink offering to a valuable mission you will come back a better person, and that my friend is invaluable.  Would I do it again?  Yes, like tomorrow. A typical day at Camp of the Woods starts with a run at 6:30 A.M. with my good friends Nick and Tracy Sarris.  Oh yeah, and the camp dog Butterscotch.  Not like we don’t have a full day ahead, but this is a tradition we started on the first trip, and...

Woke up thinking this morning which is good.  Sometimes I have little such thoughts, and just try to make it through the day without falling down, or doing something stupid in public. Can you relate? My thought to share with you this day is what we are all really here for.  on this earth, at this time for one combination of two things.  To worship God and to help build a great society. Yes, simple as that sounds is your purpose today, and everyday. Think about it, the world, this earth, your home town needs you to do good things. Start with this basic logic.  If I believe in God, and I know it is a big step, then I will be called to account when this life is over.  If I don't then what I do on this earth, with my life means nothing. The logic behind this is at the core of what we think and become. Secondly everyone around me is depending on me to be good. How so you ask?  Do you want to send you kids to school with people who have not determined to ...

This was my 2nd race of the year, and a bit opposite weather of the 1st at St. Pete Florida.  Water temp was low 60’s, but the air temp was low 40’s.  Everyone asking me how I was going to swim in the cold water, but I knew that would be easy.  With a good wetsuit, and plenty of practice swimming in those conditions I was well prepared.  I knew the tough part would be cycling in the cold and dripping wet.  I started the swim next to Adam Martin with Greg, Tyler and Brandon Lucas right behind us.  Not the best form the first 200 yards in, but it got better after I settled down and got a bit more focus going.  I think my navigation of the course was very good, and didn't have any real issues until getting into a crowd the last few hundred yards.  I came out of the ½ mile swim in 14:17 which is about what I expected.  Running as fast as I could in bare feet that were quite numb from the cool water I made a good first transition to the bik...