Addison Airport north of Dallas has a neat series of shows on July 3.  During late afternoon daylight, they put on antique-aircraft acrobatics.  More fun than I'd like to actually experience in the air, but I can take pictures without fear of death. 

Here's one little plane with "Yippee" painted on the underside of its wings, left.  

I kid you not -- these pilots were flying the planes straight up until they stalled, and then fell out of the sky straight down.

Watching from miles away, you'd swear they were going to crash. 

Here's one, below right, I was sure was going to fly right into the airport building below. 

But of course, it didn't.

Here's one, below left, who flew a loop with billowing smoke and while up-side-down.

How can someone stay up-side-down that long? 

I don't know how these guys keep their lunch down, when down is up. 

I get airsick reading in the back seat of a car. 

At dusk, they started flying sparklers like this one, right. 

And then after dark, they had a marvelous fireworks display, shown in the video below:

 

A lot happened this past week.  First, we drove to Dallas and spent the night with our son Justin and daughter-in-law Kati, who was celebrating her birthday. 

Here are Justin and me, right, cooking the hamburgers last Sunday afternoon.  Most of the friends invited were from their home group from Bent Tree Bible Fellowship. 

That night I flew down to Orlando for the 37th PCA General Assembly. 

One of the high points of that is the outgoing moderator's sermon, preached this year by Dr. Paul Kooistra, left, who in addition to having been moderator serves as director of the PCA's Mission to the World. 

Another high point was working with Dr. Bryan Chapell, president of Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, who sat next to me on the Overtures Committee, and gave several seminars, one of which, right, was on loving Christ more than our sin - which I found very helpful in dealing with besetting sin in myself and others. 

An interesting issue before this year's GA was the role of women within the PCA's existing governing constitution which several presbyteries asked us to set up a study committee to discuss.  The Overtures Committee, by a vote of 40 to 34, recommended we not set one up.  I was one of the 34 voting to set it up, and we had a minority report on the floor asking to set it up. 

Dr. Dave Coffin, left, overseen by the acting moderator in the upper right of this picture, argued the majority report.  Dr. Coffin pastors a church in the Washington, D.C., area. 

The new moderator, Brad Bradley, an elder at Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas, was another co-signer with the minority of 34, and so he yielded the chair during this portion of the report. 

Mr. E.J. Nusbaum, below right, a ruling elder in a church in Colorado Springs, gave the minority report.  E.J. is a former moderator of the PCA, and has been an elder since 1988. 

The GA was held on the grounds of Disney World this year, and despite lower attendance than expected, there were at least 2 overflow hotels.  Mine was the Downtown Disney Hilton, shown below left, which was 5 miles, but a 30-minute bus ride away, from the HQ hotel. 

Another controversy on the floor this year had to do with gay marriage.  At least one presbytery and a lot of pastors from states where gay marriage has become legal were asking for legal "protection" in the form of amendments to our Book of Church Order provisions on marriage that said the civil government has an interest in marriage, and all its laws on the subject must be obeyed. 

These pastors sought amendments expressly saying that such laws would have to be subject to conscience bound by the laws of God.  At first our Overtures Committee recommended not making those amendments, but there was a floor vote to recommit the issue to the Committee, because floor amendments are no longer allowed in the PCA -- since the floor is so unwieldy, with a thousand delegates or more at GA.  So the Overtures Committee met over lunch the last day of GA, and voted out a proposal to approve the requested changes as amended.  That proposal passed on the floor, and the moderator ruled they were effective immediately, despite a provision that says all such amendments must be approved by 2/3rds of the presbyteries.  There was an appeal of the moderator's ruling, but the floor sustained the moderator.  There is some question now as to whether one simple-majority vote of one GA can override the requirement for 2/3rds of the presbyteries to approve such amendments. 

I was reminded of the old Abbott & Costello comedy routine, "Who's on First," the other day, listing to two old guys miscommunicate. 

One got through first grade and then graduated to special ed.  The other had an advanced doctorate.

Other asked One where he went to school.  One said, first, and they kept passing me til the 9th, when I quit at 16.

Other said -- oh, you quit school and started working at 9?

One said -- no, I was 16 in the 9th grade.

Other asked -- oh, so you passed the 9th then?

One said -- no, I didn't pass; I could barely read.

Other asked -- what grade level do you read on?

One said -- I dunno, I try to read, but I cannot pronounce the word.

Other asked -- you say you announce the world; who did you work for, announcing?

One said -- no, I never said that.

Other asked -- what did you say then?

One said -- I don't remember.  What did you ask me?

Other said -- heck, if I can remember. 

Any resemblance between this conversation and anything I may or may not have heard in any confidential hearing is truly coincidental.  Besides, since I didn't get a picture, it never really happened.