Christianity in Motion (Blogging Jordan)

I'd like to call attention to this blog, published by five United Youth Corps members who are volunteering in a variety of social and research functions in Jordan this year.

It brings tears to my eyes thinking of it even now. These small kids, ranging from 5 to 15 were staring, teasing, taunting, and ridiculing our students as they sat on the bus, or when they walked between the bus and the store. I would chase them off, and they would be replaced by more kids doing the same thing. Although our students are mentally handicapped, they understood what was going on. Seeing the hurt in their eyes made it all the worse. I wanted to take each and every one of those kids and introduce them to the human beings that they were treating so cruelly, to show them that my students, my friends are people; wonderful, kind, and loving people. People that, sadly, live in a culture that hasn't yet learned to treat them with the respect that they deserve. We long for the day that this reality will be no more. Honestly we long for the day when they will be healed of their infirmities, but until that day comes, we have schools like the Bunyat that are striving to make this world a better place. They give skills and dignity to the students that they teach and bring understanding to the culture around them. I'm proud, for the short time I will be here, to be a part of something so wonderful.

I met Lena when she lived here in Cincinnati for several years before marrying Lewis VanAusdle. Lewis (and Emily Troyer, now Smith) came here for ABC in 2007, and Zach Smith was at ABC in 2006. I've never met Tine Banda, who grew up in Zambia, and studied in South Africa and in New York.

I hope you find their personal reflections on their experiences and their mission as inspiring as I have!

Matthew and Mary Ann Bates served at the International Baccalaureate School of Amman over this past academic year. They blogged about their experiences as well, and they also spoke to Mr. Kilough and showed some pictures on the August 7 edition of About Our Father's Business (available here).

The Black Friday Stampede

We went to Toys R Us and bought some diapers today... it was pretty crazy!

The lady behind us said she went to Wal-Mart's 5:00 sale for the $199 X-Box + Guitar Hero III. She got there early, but was out of luck because at 4:00AM people had broken into the boxes and taken them all. She had a five-year-old girl with her, and she said the atmosphere was rather frightening. She went to a second Wal-Mart which was much more controlled thanks to the presence of the local police.

I thought this was a fantastic commentary on the American Black Friday hysteria...

Let Me Google That For You

I just discovered a terrific site on the web! This is going to come in sooo handy...

This is for all those people that find it more convenient to bother you with their question rather than google it for themselves.

www.letmegooglethatforyou.com

A 50-Year Fix for the Once-in-a-100-Year Problem

I've been excited about posting this video ever since I saw Mr. McNeely present this seminar at the Feast of Tabernacles a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I've been busy with other work, but I finally got it edited this week and Aaron posted it to YouTube.

Alan Greenspan said in September that this financial crisis "is a once-in-a-hundred-year problem."

This is interesting, because ... the jubilee system is based on a 50-year cycle.

I personally believe God has given us a blueprint for how he is going to restore all things.

He explains that the source of the credit freeze-up was the fact that banks could no longer determine the value of their assets, and he shows how God's jubilee system is designed to prevent this from happening.

He shows how God revealed proactive ways to prevent many of the issues we are wrestling with today, including racism, socioeconomic inequality and environmentally destructive practices.

He paints a picture of an economic system radically different from our American capitalism today, and in doing so he reveals an astonishing love, wisdom, and long-term vision in the law.

Interview with Jed Sy

I came across this documentary on Youtube, which includes segments of an interview with Jed Sy.

The documentary looks at the renovations to the Davao City Jail which have been sponsored by Gawad Kalinga, a religious outreach program in the Philippines.

Many in the United Church of God have been following the story of Jed, who is currently in prison in the Davao City Jail. Her story can be found in the October 30 video edition of About Our Father's Business.

Actually getting to see and listen to her speak definitely had an impact on me. I already knew her age, but I was still struck by how young she appears. We often pray for people we know and don't know, but I've always personally found it easier to pray for people I know, of whose situation I've had a first-hand glimpse. Most of us will not meet Jed in the near future, but this is probably the next best thing.

Jed has written two articles for United News Asia:

"Joy Behind Prison Bars" (May-June 2007)
"Reflections From Behind Bars" (July-August 2007)

She is reportedly writing another article which will probably also appear in the United News Asia.

First Snow and Climate Change

Yesterday our first significant snow flurries arrived! We had almost an inch on our patio table when I came home.

When I was a teenager in the '90s, most religious folks (as well as many in the Church of God, including myself) seemed to be riding an anti-anti-global warming bandwagon. I wish I could remember why. I have my own theories.

I've since taken a much more moderate view. I don't believe God would have given us instructions for caring for the earth if we couldn't make any impact on it. Nevertheless, an article like this gives me some pause.

A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.

So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.

So according to NASA, August was the hottest October on record. At least we can all agree that this crisis is man-made!

Welcome

So I finally have a blog! I hope that this becomes a venture that I can maintain. Those of you who try to correspond with me via email probably don't have high hopes, but I will try anyway.