Spring Break long overdue

I'll post picture soon

Around the world and back again

Like Kmomo's post about recalling all the memories that come from balancing your check book over the course of a few months, so it is with laying to rest my trusted Nalgeine that I've had since High School.  For fear of cancer it was tossed out and replaced with Nalgeine 2.0.  But before it's last breath, let's review all the places its gone...

First time out of the country it ventured to Uganda.  This was in fact the purpose of the Nalgeine, which it fulfilled excellently.  It even suvived rapids on the Nile River.  

Next was several trips to Mexico, namely Ensinada and Nogalas.  It met the onion-field working nomads outside of Ensinada, which was pretty exciting to say the least. 

Stateside, it visited the coasts of CA ( a handful spanning from San Diego to LA, to Irvine and back again).  Experiencing chocolate covered frozen bananas on Balboa Island, and the luxurious Hotel de Cornado, though not in the fashion one might have preferred.  It visited the beaches of Japan and 14K mountains, ski slopes and sand dunes, the atlantic, pacific, gulf of mexico and sea of Japan, Rocky Mountains and the Appalatian, historic castles and hot springs, blizzards and dust storms, Big Ben and Buckingham, weddings and funerals; refueling at Coffee shops on four continents and over a dozen states.  Stickers were used to record its journies, but the harsh environments stripped the bottle of these mementos. 

I wonder what the future holds for my next water bottle... 

Paul Washer

is really intense.  Sometimes I close my eyes and think I'm listening to John Piper fuesed with Steven Crawford with a side of steroids.

However, he treats the Word with a lot of respect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cncEhCvrVgQ&playnext_from=PL&feature=PlayList&p=F09DE12C53FFEEA7&playnext=1&index=99

Crossing

There was a showing of a movie called Crossing by an organization called www.linkglobal.org at our school yesterday about a North Korean who escaped into Chine in hopes of bringing back medicine and food for his child and wife with TB.  They organization showing the movie said it was created from hearing the testimonies of over 100 N. Korean refugees.   

I'd highly recommend anyone to see it.  And if you do, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.

http://insidework.net/resources/articles/meditation-for-christian-dummies4

Crockpot goodness

Hopefully this will be dinner.  Usually I follow at least some sort of recepie, but not today!  Chicked with Mango Curry Maranade, pinapples, mangos, green onions and some seasonings.  I'll know whether it's edible in about 5 hours...

Paul, the fundraiser...?

I've recently been spending my quiet times going through passages in the Bible on giving and receiving.  Paul has some interesting things to say about the subject that are difficult for me to understand...

Paul is master of being anyone to everyone.  He believes the two basic principles that "you should not mussel an ox while its treading grain," and "A worker is worth his wages."  Yet for the Corinthians he makes it crystal clear that he has not come for their money, but rather for  them.  He instructs the church it is good to be generous, and though Paul has every right to demand wages from them ("For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings." Rom 15:27), but instead Paul took no more than what he absolutely needed.  

Thessalonians are a different story though.  I don't know what historically was going on with that church, but Paul urges them to keep to themselves, mind their own business, and work with there hands.  Later he tells how he ate nothing while with them without paying for it himself.  He worked night and day.  He gave them the rule "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."  And he urged them not to be busybodies, but rather efficient and devoted laborers.

Finally he reminds Timothy about the Ox and of what Jesus said about the worker being worth his wages.

As I continue fundraising to work full time with Navs, I have been thinking through these things more.  I know I believe all this, but being so long in the fuunding process it is really seperating my simple beliefs from my solid convictions.  

God's economy is so different from this world.