I support World Vision and believe in what they’re doing. Here’s an update about what happened in Pakistan:
World Vision today is mourning the brutal and senseless deaths of six members of our staff in the Mansehra district of Pakistan, following an unprovoked attack by gunmen.
We have confirmed that the gunmen entered our office compound, threw grenades, opened fire on staff inside the office, and left the compound after exploding a homemade bomb. The compound is located about 40 miles north of Mansehra town.
In addition to those killed, eight employees were hospitalized with injuries. Four of them were released from the hospital, while another four remain hospitalized in critical-but-stable condition.
No threatening letters were received prior to the attack. World Vision’s relief and development work in Pakistan is conducted by local citizens, and local leaders have strongly condemned the attack. World Vision sees the attack not only as an attack on its own local staff, but on the Pakistani people themselves.
They provide aid for poor kids and will still do it, although operations in Pakistan have been suspended.
It’s only partially from disuse – my wife and I re-arranged the bedroom today (MacBook providing the music) and set up some new storage-type things to streamline laundry a little bit. I tackled this after bringing the Scion back from the dealership.
Journaling on T9 for an hour is thoroughly satisfying even if the service manager thinks you’re in one really intense game of Breakout.
People should clip their nails in private. This has started an interesting string of Facebook comments and rationales. (Interesting if you’re into fingernails, to clarify.)
Perhaps I can appease them with something I found on Pandora. While cleaning the bedroom I left on Pandora (my Nobuo Uematsu (with Konami added for variety) is killer). Did you know that you can only listen to 40 hours for free on Pandora? Can you guess what supplied the soundtrack for Christmas this year?
Who maxed out Pandora? This guy.
We survived our trip to Hoth. It wasn’t as cold as last year and not one animal had to have its innards lightsabered, a success to say the least.
Now for the random photos:
I found this while dusting my dresser. Do you remember when 10KB was a lot for a PDA to store? Let’s just say today’s journal beat that. Yes, it has been some time since I’ve dusted the dresser.
Nothing says Christmas like hot chocolate, angels, and adamantium.
It was a tear-filled send-off, which I think is quite appropriate for Christmas. Today was bessiejo’s first day at work as a super-important numbers person. I’m pretty sure her nametag says that. She’s the big super-important numbers person for Schreiber Foods. This bloggh has always been cheesy, so it shouldn’t be too big of a stretch for my readers to support the dairy industry.
You know how you can make a guitar using a piece of wood, a box, and some rubber band/elastic strings? This is what happens when you hook up an amp pick-up to the homemade guitar.
How do you smuggle in a life-size alligator replica as a gift? This is how. You should have seen it perched high on a shelf. G walked into the other room, we heard a “What the??”, and we knew that our gift was a hit.
More pictures will come of the time with my side of the family. I just had to capture this wrapping paper on my phone. It’s safe to assume I knew what my gift was. Yep. Captain Kirk handkerchiefs. I was way off, though. I’ll have to settle with getting the best Star Trek movie instead.
May all the readers of the bloggh have a wonderful time today (I just got done cleaning from Christmas Eve so I wouldn’t have to tomorrow/today, so my personal space-time continuum is all wonky).
In great bloggh tradition, I shall attempt to prove how video games make everything better.
Thank you, J, for pointing me towards Rush Coil’s 8-Bit Christmas album. Scroll to the bottom of the linked page for the Flash player.
Some mornings I’ll start reading and keep going with inspired momentum. (Today it was Matthew 1-6.) This is not to say how awesome I am but how great the book is. I love how The Message words stuff that I’ve heard more than a couple times and challenges me to look at my assumptions. Here’s part of what jumped out at me today:
If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.
Thanks to Bob Kauflin, someone I consider to be a mentor about worship, for this video:
I would like to say that facial hair leads to a deeper spirituality, but we all know what goatees lead to.
I’m reading through George Muller’s journals right now (I know, I feel like a busy-body) and his attitude of prayer blows me away. It’s like when my wife and I helped out in Honduras. Friend Ships is an organization that smuggles (they probably wouldn’t appreciate my use of the term) food, Bibles, and other supplies to places where the need is greatest. Picture blockade runners sneaking into China and Russia, past the government to secret locations of people. That kind of awesome. But they started it all without really marketing/pushing for donations. They put up places where you can donate, but that’s not their focus.
Back to Muller – he was the guy who started up five orphanages without asking for any donations and never went into debt. It was always at the last minute when the food/supplies would be provided. The journal entry that I read this morning dealt with a husband and wife who woke up one morning thinking, “You know what? I think this guy needs a table” and donating most of their furniture to Muller’s orphanage – and Muller hadn’t mentioned the need. Whether it seems simple or not, I’m still always encouraged when I see people give out of love instead of being guilted into things. Think about the complaints people have against televangelists – the focus on money is one of the biggest complaints. Now imagine if we all had Muller’s attitude. Easier said than done, right?
Other thoughts shifting around in my brain this morning…
I put my sarcastic book on hold. I want to do it justice in its mockery of cliches without becoming cliche itself. It’s like Luke and the Dark Side of the Force, really.
I did start a different endeavor, though. A narrative in haikus is all I will say in this non-secure communication.
It’s a little surreal to think that a few years ago (living in an apartment, just starting out as a teacher) I read through the Chronicles of Narnia as one giant book, cover to cover.
Okay, so the reading thing is not surreal. But here’s what is: I looked at the epic adventure that the characters were involved in, especially in Prince Caspian and Dawn Treader, and wondered what it would be like if Sunday School were like this. What if kids truly realized their role in the kingdom of God?
Now, having grown in my distinguished sideburns, I can sit back and marvel at what God has done with Holy Order of the Lion. Like I said – surreal. I had almost forgotten filming this trailer.
My oldest took sermon notes today in her little notebook. They read, “Fools NO!”. I think that’s a valid response to Proverbs.
Normally I try to not put huge chunks of text up on the bloggh (like the district e-mails that should come with AR tests), but for you to truly appreciate the intentional understatement, you’ve got to get the whole chunk from Searching for God Knows What:
…including but not limited to His genealogy, His persecution, and His death. The Messiah had been spelled out as coming from the seed of woman (Gen. 3:15), a descendant of Abraham (Gen. 12:3), a descendant of Isaac (Gen. 17:19), a descendant of Jacob (Num. 24:17), from the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10), heir to the throne of David (Isa. 9:7), to be born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2), to be born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14), to flee to Egypt (Hos. 11:1), to be preceded by a forerunner (Mal. 3:1), to minister in Galilee (Isa. 9:1), to speak in parables (Ps. 78:2-4), to bind up the brokenhearted (Isa. 61:1), to be rejected by the Jews (Isa. 53:3), to enter Jerusalem triumphantly (Zech. 9:9), adored by infants (Ps. 8:2), betrayed by a dear friend (Ps. 41:9), betrayed for thirty pieces of silver (Zech. 11:12), silent to accusations (Isa. 53:7), spat on and struck (Isa. 50:6), to serve as a vicarious sacrifice (Isa. 53:5), to be crucified with criminals (Isa. 53:12), to be pierced through the hands and feet (Zech. 12:10), to be sneered at and mocked (Ps. 22:7), to have His clothes distributed by gamblers (Ps. 22:18), to be forsaken by God (Ps. 22:1), to be killed bones intact (Ps. 34:20), to be pierced in the side (Zech. 12:10), and buried with the rich (Isa. 53:9), to be resurrected (Pss. 16:10, 49:15), and to be ascended to God’s right hand (Ps. 68:18).
And to consider all these prophecies, it is a pretty tough list to fulfill. It would take a lot of work to get it all done, much of it, such as being preceded by John the Baptist, fleeing to Egypt, being killed by crucifixion and yet not having a bone broken, being recognized as a baby and rising from the dead is stuff you can’t control unless you are, in fact, God.
“…it is a pretty tough list to fulfill.” That’s awesome.
My friend is a chaplain in the military and needs some resources as he counsels soldiers.
Here's what the soldiers are asking for.
You'll need to enter his address:
Chaplain (CPT) Vincent Garcia
Battalion Chaplain
40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion
APO AE 09342
