Social Justice

The Advent Conspiracy Video

Carrie Nye — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 13:10:31 -0800

I saw this video awhile back and thought it was well done and encouraging. So check it out and let me know what you think.

(Note: if you are the kind of person who can't listen to Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving, then maybe wait to watch until Friday).

Paul Rusesabagina & Give A Damn?'s Big Fundraiser Next Saturday

Give A Damn — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:17:18 -0800

Today we interviewed Paul Rusesabagina, the man on whom the film Hotel Rwanda was based. It was an incredible interview that went off without any issues. We felt so blessed to get the chance to interview such a remarkable man that really demonstrates that one person can make a difference. Check out his organization www.hrrfoundation.org.

Hey, if you live in St. Louis, we need you out at Westminster Christian Academy this next Saturday, Nov. 15, from 7-9pm for our big Dessert Banquet Fundraiser. We really feel this will be a pivotal night for Give A Damn? and will determine the course of the rest of this film.

The address is:
10900 Ladue Rd.
St. Louis, MO 63141

The event is free and we will be serving desserts and snacks! 8 different companies have agreed to donate and support the event.

T-shirts are now for sale online too! Get you one!!!

Thanks everyone for your continued support,
the Give A Damn? Team

A VERY SAD DAY IN KENYA!

brianwurzell — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:22:00 -0700

I've posted a blog on some VERY HEARTBREAKING news from some people we love dearly in Kenya. if you get the chance PLEASE check out the write up I did on what's going on and please pay close attention to the 'WHAT YOU CAN DO' section on the blog.

These are AMAZING people and if you've seen the documentary called Invisible Children you'll know Mama Zipporah. Please read this blog - http://brianwurzell.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/a-sad-day-in-kenya/

Questions as We Approach Elections

Lisa Borden — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:01:06 -0700

Is it ok to kill babies if they aren't wanted?

I don't really think so.

But that's not the only question I have as I consider the up-coming elections.

I don’t know but... Do you that think that slashing forests and mutilating mountains and killing oceans is ok with the one who carefully created them?

I sometimes wonder if unilateral decisions to go to war might possibly feel to the Prince of Peace a little like rebellion?

And when we keep our neighbors in inner cities trapped in cycles of under privilege and lack of hope, does this feel to the Father of the Fatherless like an overt ignoring of Biblical mandates, not to mention a brazenly revealing flash of hearts of stone?

Personally, I’m against abortion. I’m particularly appalled by partial birth abortion, which is just a tidy term for “Kill the baby as she comes out but before we look into her face.”

Yet to say I will kill other people’s mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and other people’s babies with the bombs I drop, or to agree to knowingly ravage Creation to support my lifestyle, or to leave my neighbors in drastic want-- this doesn’t actually strike me as a more righteous stand.

To pillage the earth, ignore the poor and willingly go into war are issues that, along with the killing of unborn babies, I have to take very, very seriously. I just cannot pretend that this is a one issue election.

Maybe I’m mistaken. Maybe these issues don't all need equally careful consideration. I don’t pretend to have a brilliant mind.

I would, however, aspire to have a brilliant heart.

In Their Own Words: Chinzorig (Mongolian Videos)

Nick Bogardus — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:26:20 -0700

My wife Kim is working on a series of short videos featuring her Mongolian students and our ex-pat friends. She just posted two on her site.

Here is the newest one featuring her student Chinzorig.

Chinzorig Video from kim bogardus on Vimeo.

Side note: Kim has also posted some of her photography on Conversant, which you can see here.

You can subscribe to Kim's site, my blog here at Conversant, or my personal site via RSS on each site. If you don't use RSS, you should. :)

Ready to Become an Abolitionist?

Carrie Nye — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:00:36 -0700

I recently went to see a local showing of the documentary Call + Response. The film, created and produced by singer/song writer, Justin Dillon, cast a spot light on the worlds darkest 27 million secrets, exposing the world of the enslaved.

Call + Response reveals the raw truths behind the current slave trade situation in action today. There are more slaves today than any other time in human history. In 2007, those behind the world of slavery made more than powerhouse organizations Google, Nike and Starbucks combined.

I learned that not only are there 27 million enslaved today around the globe, a shocking 1 million of them are currently enslaved in the United States. Isn't this the land of the free? How could this have happened and what can I do about it? These are just a couple of the questions that come to mind after watching the film and after some of the research I have done post my viewing of it. Twenty-seven million slaves is a hard reality to face. Yet, what I've found is that there are several ways that I can take action to abolish slavery right now.

For starters, I recommend checking out the film Call + Response. If it's not playing near you, hit up Netflix or Blockbuster for other films such as Trade, staring actor Kevin Kline or Black Gold, a documentary exposing the truth behond the coffee you drink and the farmer who grew it.

On the Call + Response website, you can also check out a list of 33 practical ways you can help abolish the slave trade.

Or, check out Relevant Magazine's latest edition with cover article, Choco Lies? What you're really buying this Christmas May Surprise You!

Another organization that is working tirelessly to end the slave trade is The Salvation Army. They do a great job at listing ways that you can become an abolishionist and advocate for the enslaved in your community.

It's basic things like ensuring that the coffee you buy, the chocolate you eat, the clothes you wear, the cell phone you text and call on, etc. are all made by the hands of the free. Black Friday is creeping up on us quickly and Americans will hit the malls in groves to purchase the perfect gift for their loved one. How great would it be to not only make that perfect purchase, but also do so in a way that ensured the freedom of a life in the country where that product was manufactured.

I urge you this holiday season as you store up gifts, to do the research needed to make certain that gift didn't cost someone their food that day, their limbs, their safety, their freedom, their life. Buy fair trade. If you're not certain a product is fair trade, ask. And if you still don't know, don't buy it. The cost of not knowing, is too great knowing there are 27 million enslaved globally.

The 18th Century had William Wilberforce to abolish slavery. The 21st Century has you!

If you have questions on the specifics of how you can help abolish slavery in your community, let me know. We can do the research together and put a stop to this injustice. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom! Jesus declared to us that he came to give us abundant life. Let's work together this holiday season and lets make 2009 a much less lucrative year for those behind this evil act of slavery in the world.

Hitchhiking to Africa

Give A Damn — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:24:29 -0700

Ok everyone, we are thinking about hitchhiking to Africa. Yes, I said it. HITCHHIKING TO AFRICA!

You may be thinking..."Do these idiots know there is an ocean in between them and Africa?" Well yes we do. We are planning to hitchhike across the US, take some kind of boat across the Atlantic, and then hitchhike across Europe, part of the Middle East and down into Sub-Saharan Africa.

What do you guys think? Is this possible? Do you know anyway we could cross the Atlantic on a ship/yacht, preferably while working on the ship scrubbing floors or being deck hands?

Churches built over dungeons

Lisa McKay — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:24:13 -0700

Dear fellow CL readers,

Yes, I have been a bit out of touch. I just got back from several weeks in Kenya and Tanzania (where I got to spend several delightful days with fellow ConversantLife blogger Lisa Borden and her family). Now I'm back in California and catching my breath before heading to the east coast in ten days to host a conference in Virginia. Life during the fall is never boring, that's for sure.

Months ago now I was asked to submit several devotions for a book being published by Moody, Daily Seeds From Women Who Walk in Faith (Melinda Schmidt, Anita Lustrea, & Lori Neff). That book came out this month, and here is one of the devotions I contributed. Enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by, Lisa

Philippians 1:9 – “And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best, and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ.”

A few months ago visited Elmina castle, in Ghana. A whitewashed fortress perched on the West African coast, Elmina was the Portuguese and Dutch trading post that brokered slaves until the late 1800’s. As I stood on what used to be the Governor’s balcony I looked down upon the barred stone cells that used to hold hundreds of female slaves awaiting the transport ships. At the Governor’s pleasure the women used to be driven from these holding pens into the courtyard below to mill around until he had made his daily choice.

When I looked up I saw a church in the middle of the castle, built directly over the dungeons that used to house the male slaves. Inside that church, words from Psalm 132:14 are inscribed above the door; “This is my resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.”

I stared, and imagined those times, and wanted to cry with rage and pain and shame. And fear. What modern blind spots or willful, apathetic, ignorance will goad future generations into similar paroxysms?

It is impossible to fully grasp, or care about, every single wrong that is happening in our world today. Yet this is my prayer, that we will not blithely be attending churches built over dungeons. And that each of us, in our own ways, will somehow be working to meet a need and right a wrong in a world that often feels too full of both.

Today, think about whether and how your love for God and others is abounding more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. What global or local wrongs – human trafficking, homelessness, a friend and neighbor enslaved by addiction or loneliness – is God bringing to your attention? Why?

Glimpses from the Mind of a Volunteer in Africa

Heal the World — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:37:27 -0700

BURKINA FASO

22 June 2008

So, This is Sunday. I was not prepared for what my heart would behold among the people of God in Burkina Faso. My time on the field was surrounded always by those who didn’t know Him, and daily, I would cry out to God for the salvation of the people. I would cry out to Him who grants joy to those around me who suffer. I would cry out to God to be the justice for those who are wronged. I’d cried out to God not to forget a people who are tired, weary, unseen to the world… whose wounds have crippled love
… but this morning, this morning… I was witness to a great and many believers who cried out to God in PRAISE for His goodness (Bark Wennaam) and faithfulness, and power. They cried in repentance of their sins and for the salvation of their country.

The country that Darrel has prayed for 20 years, after hearing a pastor…
He became the pastor preaching here today.

It overwhelmed me as I considered it… and what it must mean to him.

WENNAM BARAKA
(La Grâce du Ciel)
Amazing Grace

Zem-Zem ne panga
G (Re-D)

1) Wennnam baraka pouka douniyan ka,
A yiisi mam yelle-wena zanga;
Mam da menemame, n dena a wa zwanga,
La monsari mam paama faangere.

2) Wennam barka pouka douniyan ka,
Mam sounri debem faan loogame;
Soun-noongo kansenga wa mam sounri poga,
Daar kongo mam sen nya veenem

3) Ton san pa arazana youum tousiri,
N penge Baa Wennamm youure songo;
Ton keten tara panga ti wogemd Bam taore,
Youum tousiri yaw a singere bala.

Today has been incredible. After worship today, we ate lunch. Then we took a nap- very useful. Our hosts, Fredrick & Clarice, urged us to nap, it was a strong, strong urging – and so we gave up our walk around the area for a nap – and slept for almost 3 hours.

After, we went to an internet café. Then came back for dinner and discussion. It so happened that Darrel asked for Lazare’s testimony, which led to Pastor Fredrick to share his, then Jennifer.

Fredrick:

The son of an animist, and was born with an infection of the umbilicus. His father, who had buried 7 sons at childbirth, couldn’t bury him when he thought Fredrick was dead. So, he gave Fredrick to his grandparents. The grandparents pinched him and he moved his leg… just a little. His grandparents, from what I understand, raised him. He entered the military, then the ministry. He had been in the military for 15 years. And has now been in the ministry for 15 years. A Swiss couple has sent him to Switzerland for seminary training, built him a house and bought him a car. When he speaks about the people, he is passionate and sincere. His thoughts are well laid out and easy to follow. He spoke of a people coming to Burkina Faso… it was a dream from the prophetic Swissman… these people who would come would e white and speak neither More or French, but God would open the doors of heaven and blessing through them. So when Lazare came to him, after having spent time in Mali with YWHAM, then subsequently meting with HEAL THE WORLD and John Roberts… Lazare begins to tell Fredrick about these Americans who wanted to come and build a school. Lazare was so excited and amazed at what God was doing.

Then Jennifer shared her testimony of being an orphan – or fatherless and how that impacted her life and childhood – then about losing the Father figure she had – her uncle, a non-believer, to death. Then went to college, Seminary, then Zambia, where God placed an urgency on her heart regarding not just education but TRUTH.

Today has overwhelmed me.

I know I will be asked to share and I suppose that I will talk about the great romance of my life. How my father raised me through some moms – how I felt unloved because my mom didn’t love me. First how He pursued me and I remember Him speaking clearly and softly to my tender heart. Then Nancy, and how the Lord used her to show me love with boundaries. As hard as I may have tried.

Then I went to a conference for little girls to learn what God is doing all around the world. He told me that I will do His work overseas. Then I told Him to remind me. I got older and became a nurse so that I could go anywhere. And He began peaking my interest in the world.

I asked God for this love. To let me love the people like he loves them. He did. I went to Central Asia out of obedience. I stayed in Central Asia out of love.
Nancy taught me love without boundaries, Central Asia, unrequited love.

Then the Lord drew a line in the sand for me a couple of months ago… he said, Catrina, I am a GOD of love, and you don’t love people – you fear people. What? You do not love to the degree I have called you to. I want to love through you, but your capacity for love is too small. You MUST obey me on this or you will not be as useful for the kingdom. I will use others.

My entire life is about God’s Glory among the nations – for the sake of the Gospel. I do not want to be passed by, I want to be in the middle of what God has planned for me.

He has LOVE planned for me – a great love between Him and his people.

He is the Romance of my life.

23 June 2008 1455

Today we went to see the minister of education. What ended up happening was us scheduling a meeting with the minister of education.

Africa takes an afternoon break from the heat as well.

Darrel said something to me today… we were talking about last night. Before Lazare’s testimony, we had been talking about his vision for the school – orphanage. He talked about everything being open and clear, nothing hidden… he was speaking about the transparency of his dealings. My heart spoke warning with these words – to me, of course, words mean nothing – so my spirit says, okay, but I will wait, and see if his words have meaning or if this is to manipulate some hidden agenda. What reverberates in my spirit is – to trust words is foolishness because words mean nothing. Then Darrel, at the bank today (we went to exchange money before going to see the minister of Education)… was talking about Lazare and how transparent he was being and how incredibly encouraged he was by that. In true form, not letting a moment go by without stating my often inconsequential – yet full of pride, opinion said – wait, oh Darrel, wait – words mean nothing… time will tell us if what is being said is truth. Then we began talking about Central Asia and Burkina Faso and skepticism. Then he mentioned how they must be somewhat skeptical of us – Americans who come and visit, who say to nationals – we want to come and make a difference… will we go home and never return? Will we come through with the money we say we want to give? We say we love them… will there be any follow through with the words that come from our mouths? When the Lord declares to me in a moment of truth that I do not love to the degree that He has called me… what will be my response to this calling? I say I love…

Psalm 27:8
My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.:”
And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”

Psalm 27

The lord is my light and salvation – so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble? When evil people come to devours me, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Though a mighty army surrounds me, my heart will not be afraid. Even if I am attacked, I will remain confident.

The one thing I ask of the Lord – the one thing I seek most – is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple.

For he will conceal me there when troubles come; he will hide me in his sanctuary. He will place me out of reach on a high rock. Then I will hold my head high above my enemies who surround me. At his sanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy, singing and praising the Lord with music.

Hear me as I pray, O Lord. Be merciful and answer me! My heart has heard you say, “come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.” Do not turn your back on me. Do not reject your servant in anger. You have always been my helper. Don’t leave me now: don’t abandon me, O God of my salvation! Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close.

Teach me how to live O Lord. Lead me along the right path, for my enemies are waiting for me. Do not let me fall into their hands. Fort they accuse me of things I’ve never done’ with every breath they threaten me with their violence. Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

How this passage spoke to me in Central Asia, and how it, again, is speaking heavily into my heart after hearing about the black line that is moving downward in descent…

June 23, 2008 2100

Random Thoughts after dinner while singing with the pastor’s family:

- Nothing touches my heart the way other cultures, tongues and languages do while singing praise unto God.

- The youngest son of Pastor Fredrick, Kaleb, has taken to John Roberts. He sits next to him, under the covering wrap of John’s arm.

- Darrel shines as he plays old precious hymns.

- Worshipers sing praises unto God – and the Spirit speaks to us all – no matter our language or culture. Eyes close and the Spirit over takes the eager waiting heart… what a blessing to see in the Mossi.

- Such a passion behind the word Jesus. Spoken and sung. So much more than in our home churches… where provisions are so great and need is so little.

- Singing hallelujah and Praise God in about 10 different languages… oh, what a blessing

Praise God Song written by in my journal by Clarice, Pastor’s Wife:

Barka oh wennaam x2

Yamb nonglem ya Kasenga

Barka oh wennaam

24 June 2008 1641

So, we’re sitting in the mayor’s secretary’s office, in the process of trying to register HEAL THE WORLD with the gov’t. The man we’re meeting with, Rasmane Ganemtore, is the Chief of Staff for the mayor, and is being very helpful by writing needed letters for the registration process to run more smoothly. This guy is the “front door” to the mayor… God’s favor so heavily has descended in this office…

By writing this letter, the okay is given by the mayor’s office, as John explains, telling the Ministry of Education to pick up any road blocks placed by them – NOW! The mayor has much invested in this city. And he wants this project in his city. What a blessing, what a man of peace this man is.

24 June 2008 1341

My heart aches over Ruth today. Well, over Ruth yet so much more. Really the Lord has been asking me about the cost of serving him. What price is too high? My life means nothing – I hold no value in my life except that which God has given me to serve. But my friends, my loved ones… what about that cost? Is that price too high? ... to high to serve the Lord? The Lord is moving my heart towards a life where nothing competes with my love for Him, and desire to see His name glorified among all nations.

Before dinner tonight, we went for a walk and ended up at the Assoc. Pastor’s house. The ladies of his house were mashing maize… probably to cook for dinner. Lazare, again with us as our faithful companion and friend, eagerly asks me to participate in the mashing. As the dusk settles in and the sun is at the skyline, the cool of the evening speaks of God’s mercy in the cool breeze. I grip the heavy wooden rod in the middle and raise it vertically high above my head and slam it against the maize as I had seen the skilled, artful hands of the women standing before me do. The rhythm of the rods into the maize is key to control, ease and efficiency. Unable to continue to rapid pace, the hands that now gripped the familiar grooves in the rod and with light effort beats the maize heavily and rapidly, returning to the rhythmic sound of ladies at work. As we leave and start down the road, returning to our host’s home, looking back to the wall where women are working… in the ever-darkening night the barely visible rods peak over the wall, rise and fall with the rhythmic pounding of three rods racing the fall of light.

WHEN THE TEARS FALL

I’ve had questions without answers
I’ve known sorrow, I have known pain
But there’s one thing that I cling to
You are faithful. Jesus you’re true

When hope is lost, I’ll call you Savior
When pain surrounds, I’ll call you Healer
When silence falls, you’ll be the Sun within my heart

In the lone hour of my sorrow
Through the darkest night of my soul
You surround me and sustain me
My defender forever more

And I will praise you, I will praise You
When the tears, fall, still I will sing to You
I will praise you, Jesus praise You
Through the suffering, still I will sing
When hope is lost, I’ll call You Savior
When pain surrounds, I’ll call You healer
When silence falls, You’ll be the song within my heart …

When the laughter fails to comfort
When my heart aches, lord You are there
When confusion is all around me
And the darkness is my closest friend

… still I will praise You, Jesus praise You!!!

25 June 2008

I am overwhelmed with my aching for Ruth. My heart hurts, I’ve pretty much said what it feels today… but I am prompted to express again with all that I see… all that reminds me of Central Asia… I see the bikes along the dirt roads, floating by with covered men, women walking in the heat with experienced, weathered eyes, the chaos of shops lining the road, the buzz of busy city streets with honking horns, the smell of the diesel gasoline exhaust blowing into the air, the smell of bodies packed tightly together…

The sound and hurt of a nation that is in need… in need of the only
true living God who can satisfy all needs.

… I hear the Lord whisper to me…

Amidst all I hear and see, all that is familiar, and all that is
beckoning me to discover, … The Lord whispers…

What is the price that is too high for you to follow me? Is it the insulations of being less than? Would it be disunity? Would it be violence against you or your body? Would it be for you to not marry? Would it be for you not to bare children? Would it be death? Would it be the suffering and death of those you love? The death of loved ones at the hands of a people you love?

What is it? Catrina, my beloved, what is too high a price for you to
follow me?

26 June 2008 0120

We met after dinner to talk, an “intimate conversation,” as pastor puts it, … from the heart about our expectations of Africa before we arrived, since we arrived, and how that influenced our perceptions. I went last, because I was afraid to be honest, but, in the end, I shared about Ruth, and in response to that… God’s question… What will be too high a price?... to follow me? Then something happened that bonded my heart to another… Clarice held me in her arms for about an hour,… she wouldn’t let me go.

26 June 2008

Today we visited the Ministry of Education again, and when we were unsuccessful with that we went to the Ministry of Higher Education only to find that unsuccessful because there was a protest at the university… it was in the newspaper yesterday, John mentioned having seen it… and today there was a big meeting to address it and the ministries we needed to visit were at that meeting. John said the protest was over the conditions of the university, but he wasn’t sure what conditions.

Then we ended up at the internet café to write a letter from HEAL THE WORLD to the Minister of Education as suggested by the secretary this AM. She had been visited that day by 20+ requests to have an audience with the MoE. So, when I had finished online, I went to sit outside on a bench facing the street and breathed in the culture before me. I was at home. It is amazing I can feel so at home here, so much more easily and so much more quickly that I ever can in America, my eyes swell with tears from all that is within me… Darrel and Jennifer were also on the bench and Darrel started telling us stories of his dad, the stories we couldn’t hear so easily last night. Then we were off to the house for sweet potato lunch with tomato sauce to top… quenching our recent discussion (@ the internet café) of fast food. Siesta was short, but powerful, then off to the Ministry of Education to drop off the letter requested, then off to the bank where we couldn’t open an account, d/t not being registered as an NGO… so this led to the trip to the Ministry of Registration to request paperwork validating the process off our registration. They said to come back at 8 AM . Then to take passport photos…

29 June 2008 1500

I was in tears all day. We had gone back to the internet café and Paula (another teammate’s mom) had written me to tell me that Jonah, her son and my old boss and friend was at a survival training for those who live and work in countries where capture is likely. Ruth is on the breath of every thought, as she had such a beautiful picture of the love God intended us to have for each other. She so beautifully displayed his love in her simple interactions, everyday. She had such a grip on this. With what is before me now, she would know what to do and how to handle things with grace – to edify and what I can do to bring peace and resolution to relationships with friction. This only furthered my tears, …

29 June 2008 1530

There are some interesting stories I want to write before I forget…

Before the rain in the afternoon, there was a storm cloud approaching… it was layered with magnificent colors, textures, densities and shapes… the night was closing in around us, it was a pre-dinner walk and lightening was making one particular storm cloud glow as white and slate colored clouds covered portions of the blue, grey, and purple colored sky… we were all walking together with the pastor’s kids… in Africa.

Darrel mentioned seeing a bunch of chickens tied by the feet to a bicycle as a man maneuvered his way around the city streets.

We saw 2-3 baby goats, black, tied to the back of a bicycle tray as a man made his way around the northern part of the city… when we drove by and the goats were crying, John said… it always reminds him of a baby, and he doesn’t like it, too human sounding (he used to be a vegetarian).

There have just been countless women carrying babies on their backs… while riding bicycles, motorcycles, carrying trays on their heads… babies of all ages… newborn (they almost always have knitted caps on their heads) to toddlers. They all do it, and all the babies hang out there. The heat is so much – they must be little ovens all of themselves… goodness.

Jennifer has seen kids playing a rope game 5-6 times. Thought I haven’t seen it yet, here expert preschool eye identified it many times. There is no standard reality, we all view the world as WE view it, life is so much more beautiful because of the “we”, alone would be so bo

Mongolia Update: New Pictures & Lots of Info

Nick Bogardus — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:13:55 -0700

Here is a quick update on how we're doing out here in Mongolia.

I posted some new pictures, including some of the wedding, on my Picassa page. Kim took the better of the pictures so she'll post more once she going through all of them. She has the difficult task of uploading all 700 photos and trimming it down to 200 or so.

Speaking of Kim's picture's, she's posted some new pictures as well on her Picassa page as well.

Kim's photography class is going really well. Her students are even out-performing her last class so she's really happy about that. There is a possibility that their work will be exhibited in California in April and in Philadelphia after we get back so we're hoping those plans come through. Kim has also started helping at the school for handicapped kids in our city a few days a week and has really been loving that.

I'm still teaching at the hospital and that is going good. The doctors seem to be improving pretty well. I've started teaching English at the YWAM missionary base one night a week now too. I really enjoy that because the people are all incredibly nice and the Christian community there is unlike anything I've seen back in the States. The Tuesday night Bible studies for the church are going really well too. I taught Romans 4 and 5 the last two weeks and I get a break this week as Johnny teaches chapter 6. It's a pretty difficult task to not only do all the studying and preparation, but to then word the lesson and explain it in a way that will work easily with a translater. Even so, I'm thankful every week and feel like I'm learning even more from the experience than through the teaching itself.

Kim and I are continuing to do our conversation hour every Friday night and swap off every week between who gets to teach the intermediate students and who gets to teach the advanced students. We've also started doing a monthly dinner and movie night where we have some students over and teach them how to cook and watch an English movie with subtitles. Last time we did The Princess Bride. I didn't realize how much I missed in the dialogue until I had to read it all. It was like a whole new movie to me.

Every Saturday night is our "date night" where we go on a date together. Our options out here are extremely limited but we try to do the best with what we can. This week we went to the Korean restaurant in town and played Mad Libs and cards for a few hours.

That's pretty much how are days are going right now. Kim has been reading The Spiritual Discipline of Discernment by Tim Challies and Help Meet by Debi Pearl in her free time. I got sidetracked by David Wells' The Courage to Be Protestant (which I loved by the way) but I'm back into Martin Luther's The Bondage of the Will now and am really liking it. Maybe I can try to finish it by Reformation Day! And then I can celebrate by watching Luther (the movie) that night! Absolutely.

That's about it for us. Kim is going to start doing a new series of short videos so keep an eye out for those.

Thankfully,

Nick

PS. Oh yeah, it's nice to see (read) USC playing like the team they shouldbe this year. After that horrific loss to Oregon St. when some otherteam showed up, they have won their last three games by a total of141-10 and they have scored 117 unanswered points.