We welcomed Thomas Jeremiah Ressler at 6 lbs, 13 oz into the world at 8:13am on Tuesday, August 10. We then welcome Jacob Aaron Ressler at 6 lbs, 3 oz one minute later at 8:14am. Both mom and the boys are doing well and we hope to go home in the next few days.

God is good! Praise Him!

We are three weeks away from the scheduled C-section. Barbara is currently visiting the doctor twice a week to keep tabs on the babies. It is always possible the babies might come sooner rather than later. Maybe today. You never know. We appreciate all the prayers and the support.   

It’s official. They are boys. No doubt about if you know what I mean. The ultrasound yesterday made it clear. We had been thinking they would be boys for some time now. I had a theory and it would seem my theory proved true.

Way back before we even had children Barbara had said that if we ever had a boy she wanted to name him Thomas. Her dad had been named Thomas and had died when she was younger. This was a way that she wanted to honor the memory of her father and I thought that would be great.

When Abby came along, we simply set the name Thomas aside and held on to it to see what would happen. Then we found out she was having Twins. We didn’t know if they were boys or girls, but we knew that we might have the opportunity to use the name Thomas.

Well one day we were talking about names for the babies. And something struck me that I seemed to remember about “Doubting Thomas” in the Bible. I went to John 20:24 which is actually part of the text I will be using this Sunday in my message. In this verse Thomas is identified. The text also says he was called Didymus.

Doing a little research you will discover that the name Didymus from the Greek means twin and that the name Thomas is based on the Hebrew word for twin.

It was in that moment I was convinced these twins would be boys (they are identical). I knew that one of these babies was simply living up to the name he had already been given – Thomas the twin.

Yesterday, it was revealed to us that indeed it is true. We’ve got boys on the way!

I imagined Hawaii to be filled with sun everyday, but I have learned that it depends where you are on the islands. We have often seen sun and we have often seen clouds. The tropical plantation is one of those places where you will often see the clouds.

Taking the tour we first came to the sugar cane. This was a staple crop of Hawaii, but not so much anymore. Many other things are now being grown in Hawaii beyond the sugar cane. The most interesting thing I found out about the sugar cane was how it is harvested. The first step to harvesting is to burn the field to get rid of everything that is not needed. To burn the field, the plantation will simply turn the irrigation off for about three weeks, and it will be all set to strike the match.

Ti (not the tea we drink) came next. Ti leaves are used for Hula skirts. It is also used as aluminum foil to wrap fish and other food. The tea leaves are very strong and have many uses.

I had no idea how pineapples grew. I had always assumed they grew on a pineapple tree. Wrong! They grow from a plant. They will take up to two years to grow. Below is a picture of some pineapples growing.

I learned about Jackfruit. This is the fruit that is used to make Juicyfruit Gum. It supposedly smells awful when cut open. It is also the largest growing fruit in the world.

Didn’t know anything about Bananas either. I learned after the Banana tree produces its fruit it will die. The plantation workers will then cut it down and a new tree will grow up in it’s place.

We learned about Coffee, Papaya, Guava, Macadamia Nuts, and Hawaiian flowers. So much to see here. Hope you enjoyed just a small taste.

Things that have been interesting include:

• Much of the fish we have eaten doesn’t really taste like fish.  More like chicken.
• Hawaii doesn’t observe daylight savings.  So it is now 5 hours ahead in the central time zone.
• I don’t know how you are expected to concentrate on anything here.  When I was playing golf, there were so many distractions.  The whales jumping in the background, the beautiful sunsets and rainbows, and of course the weather.  It was sensory overload.
• The plane ride is really, really long.
• Everything is more expensive.  $6 for a gallon of milk.
• It’s nice to move at a slower pace.  We look to do about one thing a day.  Yesterday, that one thing was nothing more than go out for dinner.  The rest of the day we just hung out at the pool.
• There is an art to cutting a pineapple.

Here are a few of my favorite pics so far:

Barbara and I will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary on this trip, although it will not officially be 10 years until June 24.  I will also be celebrating 10 years as a pastor.  It is hard to believe it has been that long.  This May I will have been at Lord of Life for 6 years.  Wow!

We are so thankful for our church family and are so very grateful for this trip that was provided to us for pastor appreciation month back in October.  What an incredible gift.  We were blown away by this show of appreciation.

But there is no looking back.  We have so much to look forward to.  We will be anticipating the arrival of our twins this summer.  Only God knows what that will be like.  I am also anticipating with great excitement what God will do at Lord of Life.  These are exciting times and he is certainly up to something.  These are incredible times we are living in.  God is speaking.  We will listen and obey.

I am still in shock in many ways.  It is hard to believe that in a few months I will be the father of twins.  I am convinced now that God has a sense of humor and as always, he knows what he is doing.  I suppose he knew we would be able to do this.

I have a theory on why we are having twins and why we are also having boys (we have not had that confirmed yet).  We decided long time ago that if we would have a boy we would name him Thomas.  If you didn’t know this, the name Thomas means twin.  So my theory is that these babies must be boys so that the one can fulfill the meaning of his name.

I am excited to meet these two precious children.  They are blessings from God!