tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68591992008-07-20T03:00:05.667-05:00Poor Mouthamyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comBlogger354125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-72831867941952918682008-07-20T02:57:00.002-05:002008-07-20T03:00:05.679-05:00From about a week ago, here's the last entry that Christina and I co-wrote. The internet has been down for the last few days. I do have lots of pictures that I'll hopefully be able to add over the next week.
As we leisurely savored our whole-grain toast slathered with nut-hut peanut butter and apricot jam (all made locally, by the way) (and whose delectable flavor cannot be expressed inhuman amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-34151405711788865192008-07-13T09:00:00.002-05:002008-07-13T09:30:06.797-05:00So, today was Sunday, and I attended Kellogg Church, the congregation I'll be a part of here in Mussoorie. Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, the entire service revolved around the subject of giving. In particular, the theme was how God gives to us. Two young girls sang a beautiful acapella Hindi song called, "Yahowah hai meraa Baadshah," or, "Jehovah is my King of Kings." After our amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-80264982983840083642008-07-11T09:40:00.002-05:002008-07-11T09:52:50.076-05:00We're having some internet access issues here, so no long post...yet. We have several in the works. I'll give you the title of one, just to whet your appetite: "The Compiled Sayings of Raj Massey, Driver and Sage Extraordinaire." I think we can all agree that we've learned a few lessons from our driver in Delhi. Like, for example, when he treated us to a lecture on marriage after learning amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-75508237936512180312008-07-07T21:43:00.011-05:002008-07-08T10:44:27.086-05:00
Top Ten Ways for Weary Travellers to Recover from the Stresses of the Modern World in a Medieval Fort-Palace called Neemrana:
10. Take a not-so-medieval audio tour, complete with mp3 player, of all eleven levels of the fort-palace. Discover that beneath the sandstone chess board lie the old king's torture chambers. Imagine what you could do to wicked ticket agents, and customer service amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-65117353682346843472008-07-03T01:57:00.001-05:002008-07-03T01:57:44.886-05:00Cheap Non-Tickets, Swollen Tonsils, and the Weight of the World
We have officially arrived and are enjoying fresh, sweet mangoes. Thank the Lord. Really. Here's a quick Top Ten List of obstacles we overcame in our great adventure, written with the help of an emotionally distraught, previously ticketless traveling companion:
10. Three girls plus zero porters successfully carted in excess of amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-91880048178076073032008-07-01T14:37:00.002-05:002008-07-01T14:53:31.285-05:00ET Phone Home.
I know it's early to send an update, but when you read this, please pray! The three of us ran into some trouble at the Atlanta airport. We arrived bleary-eyed at around 9 a.m. for our noon flight. Two of us checked in with no trouble, but Christina arrived to find that her reservation was in the system, but that she apparently had no valid ticket number. Alas, whatever amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-57908234595015377742008-06-14T20:39:00.002-05:002008-06-14T20:55:22.112-05:00So I'm in sunny Ft Collins, Colorado. The sky could not be bluer or the grass greener. I've spent a couple hours walking around each day, staring at the mountains and the grass--it really is SOOO green--and I love this town.
I have also spent the better part of the last three days inside a room with no windows. Grading essays. Bad essays. Very bad essays. Some good ones. Mostly bad ones.amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-54674000908681586062008-06-10T11:46:00.002-05:002008-06-10T11:58:45.080-05:00Eat Your Vibabins
I visited my older sister and her family for a week right after school got out. She has two precious little girls, Siona and Lily. Siona—the older one—is almost three and a real character. She became my shadow for the time I was there, wanting to participate in even the smallest task. Now, a friend of mine sells a nutritional supplement that consists of fruits and vegetables amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-72430500002410595862008-04-07T10:21:00.001-05:002008-04-07T10:23:30.270-05:00Umm, so this is my apartment complex. In fact, the building next to mine. I wondered why there were cop cars parked outside for a couple hours....
Shooting death leads to HAZMAT scare
By S.A. REID
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/06/08 Atlanta police are investigating the shooting death of a woman on Saturday amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-61604177068656547742008-03-04T16:07:00.004-05:002008-03-06T16:35:35.766-05:00My Delight is in Her
I do a weekly study with a group of eighteen year old girls who asked me to teach on what the Bible has to say about beauty and women. I came out of the preparation excited, maybe even exuberant--exuberant enough to want to share what we discussed this morning:
The closest I can come to defining beauty is to say that beauty includes a magnetism. Beauty possesses an amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-69006308964812390262008-02-05T16:05:00.000-05:002008-02-05T17:12:59.824-05:00I spent Saturday sitting on my sofa (futon, technically, but sofa sounds more sophisticated) contemplating this one simple question: If what was dead in me has come alive in Christ, why do I still sin? Yes, it's not a very original question. I know this. In fact, the apostle Paul seems to have been pretty familiar with the question himself (witness Romans 7). But it bothers me. Intensely.
amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-82578842141459376002008-01-15T17:48:00.000-05:002008-01-15T17:50:06.571-05:00Hm. Who knew that there was such a thing? And that the Prince of Orange would deliver the keynote address.
Check out the logo in the top left corner of the page. Pretty crafty, if you ask me.amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-76714702312502242022007-12-26T15:48:00.000-05:002007-12-26T15:50:01.592-05:00I received this email from a store in India where I bought some jewelry for my family. Happy reading:
My dear Friend Merry Christmas and happy New Year I will join with you to your festival. I am sure we are speaking different name of the God but the God is only one in all over the world. All people of the world are preying to the God in different name. I wish to you and your family a amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-47804151268148093002007-12-13T16:03:00.000-05:002007-12-13T16:10:23.822-05:00This is Sewa-Ashram, an organization that our church is beginning to support. And reading this description of a day there, among the poor and the dying, makes my life seem suddenly overwhelmingly selfish and trivial.
We sang Bach's, "Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light and usher in the morning..." last Sunday. Sometimes, the darkness of this world, with all its suffering, becomes too muchamyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-43613812622206524632007-11-13T16:35:00.000-05:002007-11-13T16:45:55.716-05:00Found this in preparing to teach my Psychology classes this week:
"Religious ideas are...illusions, fulfillments of the oldest, strongest, and most urgent wishes of mankind. The secret of their strength lies in the strength of those wishes. As we already know, the terrifying impression of helplessness in childhood aroused the need for protection--for protection through love--which was provided amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-43242229539166076112007-11-09T13:43:00.001-05:002007-11-09T13:44:43.302-05:00Signs of life. Every time I see the little shoot in our tower, I smile in expectation. There's life in this old building.amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-71691220328116663922007-11-03T14:30:00.000-05:002007-11-03T15:00:03.105-05:00I've made a new fall friend, I think.
In the middle of this hurrying city, with its screaming sirens and home-hungry drivers, between the skyscrapers and the million dollar cardboard homes, lies a secret: Tanyard Creek Park. My favorite hour of each day comes at dusk. When the light grows golden, I pull up by the curb, tug Miles out of the back seat and we approach the stone staircase. Urbanamyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-15444912899020968622007-09-25T14:50:00.000-05:002007-09-25T15:40:05.499-05:00Yesterday and today, the news has been full of references to Ahmedinejad's visit at Columbia University. I have trouble understanding why people felt the need to protest the fact that he had been invited to speak. Before reading accounts of his visit, I privately cheered on Columbia for being willing to host him. I heard a lot about Columbia as a champion of free speech.
This morning, then, Iamyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-42379796979429768542007-09-24T14:47:00.000-05:002007-09-24T15:01:18.681-05:00Last night I had easily one of the top five most disturbing dreams of my life. I share it because it reveals something about the deceptive power of evil:
I was in our church building with a group of friends. In a circle, we sat practicing a tricky rhythm for a song. We were clapping it out, when a tiny lamb darted across the back of the church, between two rows of wooden rails and through a amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-17371633845167527082007-09-21T07:37:00.000-05:002007-09-21T07:39:06.292-05:00I'm curious and nervous about watching this: Into the Wildamyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-23698813176896962002007-09-19T14:14:00.000-05:002007-09-19T14:16:07.760-05:00Just about the most hilarious depiction of the Fall I've ever seen.amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-47858995942772700012007-08-20T17:02:00.000-05:002007-08-20T17:28:00.025-05:00For summer reading this year, I assigned the rising Juniors Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. A few weeks later, I was mildly disgusted to walk into Starbuck's and see the book for sale. Trivializes it, somehow. I stand by my choice, though. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend the book as an entry into the experiences of a child transformed into a killing machineamyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-79734362147768954982007-07-31T13:40:00.001-05:002007-07-31T13:57:09.917-05:00For some reason, I still don't have much I want to write about here, but I watched a lot of birds this summer. This one's a laughing thrush. In India they're also known as Seven Sisters, because they travel in groups and are always babbling noisily.
Then, of course, there were the sparrows. After watching a lot of them, I decided they're much more beautiful in their humble browns than most amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-2835684184429461172007-07-02T03:47:00.000-05:002007-07-02T04:22:01.226-05:00
Sorry, I know I've been terribly delinquent in updating. I had grand visions of writing deep essays every other day while I was here in India, but obviously that hasn't happened. I've been a little distracted by all the sights, sounds, and yes, the smells of India--many sweetly familiar, others new and exciting. First, the mountains....
The faces:
I may not have been writing much, but I've amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6859199.post-40407974419851836522007-05-17T15:09:00.000-05:002007-05-17T15:14:28.571-05:00I'm going to write a long one soon, I promise. In the meantime, here's a blessing from the German movie Sophie Scholl that I think ought to be sung in church. That is, if someone happened to write some music to go with it and perhaps played around with the words. The concepts could form a gorgeous four-verse hymn:
May God the Father bless you, who created you in His image.
May God the Son amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400157538751614868noreply@blogger.com