Toward the End

I've been crazy busy as it is winding down to the end of the semester. Last week I wrote over 4000 words, and I have about 8000 left to write. I have the bulk of Ephesians and Colossians to translate, some worksheets, two small papers, two books to read, and an exam to take.

Woof.

I'm slowly getting it all done and think I'll need the whole semester-- probably should have downshifted earlier.

One of the books I'm reading is George Marsden's Fundamentalism and American Culture. In his conclusion, speaking of a Christian view of history, he writes,

We live in the midst of contests between great and mysterious spiritual forces, which we understand only imperfectly and whose true dimensions we only occasionally glimpse. Yet, frail as we are, we do play a role in this history, on the other side either of the powers of light or of the powers of darkness. It is crucially importan then, that, by God's grace, we keep our wits about us and discern the vast difference between the real forces for good and the powers of darkness disguised as angels of light.

Friday Photo v2.0

Hancock, originally uploaded by notashamed.

Monday's Thought.

If my internet ran any slower it would be 1983.

Land of The Free (part 1)

My parents lived in Chicago during the early part of their marriage. One of their friends was a guy named Mo, who always told the same joke. Whenever he wore a tie he would ask my mom if she knew where he got the tie. His response was always the same, "Thailand! Get it? 'Tie'-land!" I always thought it was an easy play on words, but now I know they really sell a lot of ties over there.

The past ten days of my life were spent in Thailand, seeing much of the work that God is doing over there. It was incredible and I miss it already. All of my mission experience had been in Latin America, where I knew the language and had a grasp of the culture. This was the first time I entered into a culture where I had know understanding of what was going on, nor did I speak the language. This was less of a challenge for me than what I thought it would be and although Spanish came out even when I didn't want it too, I was minimally frustrated by not being able to communicate with the Thais.

The team's and my primary task was to see what God is doing there and how North Park can build a lasting relationship with some of the ministries there until Jesus comes back. We saw two fish farms (one fresh- and one salt-water), a 3rd-culture church, and a foundation that has its hands in everything.

Much of my processing is still going on and I haven't even begun to work on my photos yet (all 600 of them), but as I further debrief and process, I'll be posting here.

This Is Going To Get Much Worse

I'd really only done it a couple of times before tonight-- always started in the middle. Really only with friends and at the peer pressure of others. I'd bought some over break, but hadn't used any yet. But what I think I'm now addicted to, many others already are. I could only be talking about: