Here is the latest video I've been able to put together. They really loved their Olympic results over here, so much so that children flipped us off to our faces for being foreigners and I got yelled at by drunk guys for being a foreigner. "Gadaat!!" (Not that those things are abnormal, they were just more compounded.)

 

Nationalism is so very uniting.

Even so, coming from a country that cares more about it's collegiate sports more than the Olympics, it was cool to see a country get excited about their performance on a global stage.  The guy who won the gold in judo, their first ever gold medal, got an apartment, 7 pounds of gold, and something like $100,000, and free Mongolian food for life at the national fast food chain.  Yes, seven pounds of gold.

continue reading

 “I need to get going. I have a lot of people to serve.” –God, played by Morgan Freeman in Evan Almighty.

 

I love that movie! So its not a real account of the flood story in Gen 6-9 and the Ark of scripture doesn’t exactly end up on Capitol Hill, but, the movie is a great reminder of the faith that is required of us, no matter how insane we might feel about it.

 

While the Evan Almighty version focuses on an affluent, suburb of Washington D.C., we know that in the story of the flood in scripture, the setting is the entire world.

 

I think it’s important that no matter where we live, we are aware of just how big our world really is. I believe that Christianity has always been global. The Israelites were the minority called to serve the majority and I don’t things have changed for us today. God always had the whole world in mind throughout all of scripture and history. I believe we are to be global Christians always.

 

continue reading

In my last post, I shared some thoughts on the biblical mandate for faith ecological stewardship. But for someone who has simply not thought much about environmental responsibility, where do we begin?

Here are five small steps toward a more ecologically sound lifestyle:

1. REDUCE. "Paper or Plastic?" Neither! Start carrying cloth bags to the grocery store instead of having the cashier bag your items in paper or plastic. This is one way to reduce your post-consumer waste (and how many of those flimsy plastic bags are actually reusable, anyway? They usually come home with holes in the bottom!) Plus, some stores offer a small discount for bringing your own bags.

2. REUSE. OK, so say you forget the cloth bags every now and then, and you end up with a "bag of bags" in your kitchen pantry. Find other ways to use them! For example, I use them to pick up after my dog (a must when you are a dog-owner in an urban setting!), line my kitchen and bathroom trash cans, and carry lunch to work. I know a woman who uses them as shower caps, and another friend makes bags from those plastic shopping bags. Get creative!

continue reading

I've heard from several people recently mortifying accounts of Christians not only neglecting environmental concerns, but actually attacking other Christians for speaking out in favor of making environmentalism a priority.

A truly God-centered worldview demands responsible stewardship of the earth's resources. Consider the following reasons:

Reason #1 - God created the earth and everything else, (Genesis 1-2). That's reason enough to respect creation and treat it with care.

Reason #2 - God entrusted responsibility for its care to humanity (Genesis 1-2)

continue reading

Kim and I have spent the last week battling, first, a round of sun/food poisoning followed by an exchange of the flu. It hasn't been the easiest of weeks here.

In the midst of that we helped our friends, Seke and Eggie, out by doing the photography for their wedding. (Pam, you would've been proud) I put a few of the photos below.

We should have a video of two more uniquely Mongolian activities coming soon.

Oh, and if you weren't aware, in the judo competition last night a Mongolian just won the country's first ever Olympic gold medal. To celebrate, the whole country partied last night, declared today a national holiday, and took it off work.

An odd part of late summer here is the infestation of moths. These white, large-antennaed, fuzzy moths about the size of my palm invade Erdenet. First they cover windows and walls, sneaking in through cracks in doors and screens. The sound they make as they hopelessly beat their wings against the glass is like when you rode a bike with a baseball card in the spokes as a kid. They crawl, circle, and sputter everywhere. Then, almost all at once, they die and move from being wall and window coverings to being even more disgusting interior and exterior carpets, and their moth fur blows visibly through the air. It's kind of like that scene in Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom when Indy is covered in bugs and he's looking through the hole as the ceiling is caving in and yells, "WE...ARE GOING...TO DIE!"

Only it's not that bad...but you get the idea.

Kim's teaching has been going well. She's starting to teach computer to her kids this week and she should be back to full-time work craziness (AIDS, Human Trafficking, life skills, & health seminars) when school resumes on September 1st. She'll also start teaching the photography class again next month so she's really looking forward to that.

Our English conversation hour on Fridays has been awesome. They're probably our favorite students out here. They have great English (and Russian and sometimes Turkish) and are so eager to learn. In fact, one of our students is in Los Angeles right now for her first trip to America. We're excited to hear stories and see pictures.

I'm getting back into the swing of things after a few weeks off at the hospital and will be starting to teach at the (YWAM) missionary base two nights a week again in a couple weeks. Most importantly, the Bible studies at the church have been going really well. This past week I did a lesson on the Covenants (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, & the New Covenant) and I really do simply feel blessed to be able to teach.

Randomly...

-I've been enjoying reading books by and about dead guys.

-For you music fans, NPR made an entire Tom Waits live set available for download. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92916923

-I made my first ever soup the other night when Kim was sick. You can call me Emeril now. "WHAM!" Sorry, that was lame.

-Did I read correctly that USC is ranked #3 going into this season and that they're facing #1 Ohio State in their second game? Can someone tape that (or every SC game) for me?

continue reading

This is Karen. (With the red bandana on). Karen is a 24-year-old woman who volunteers her time to work for an organization called Ministry of Hope. I walked with Karen through a buzzing market place in Chipoka, Malawi only 2 weeks ago. As we walked through the market place, piercing stares from the day’s merchants and consumers made their way towards our path. An entourage of young children yelling out, "Mazungu" (white person) quickly made their presence known close behind as we walked. 

It was a loud, busy market place and amidst the noise, I asked Karen a question that seemed to quiet our surroundings in an instant. "Karen, what is your story?" She immediately launched into her story as if she'd been waiting for me to ask the question from the moment we began our walk. 

continue reading

Due to slavery, Burkina Faso is one of the poorest places on the planet. The majority of the population is stripped and undergoes the stress of inflation, the continuous increase in costs for basic necessities. I will discuss and explain in a sincere manner, the effects of the high cost of living felt by the Burkinabe in their everyday lives.

Our family, like a great number of others in the region, are underdeveloped. This is visible on many levels. Since we are directly affected by inflation, living conditions are unstable. There is no guarantee that we will have something to eat each day. Even two meals a day are not assured. The food shortage is so evident that you can read it on the faces of the Burkinabe and in their skeletal bodies. They are very skinny. In addition, we cannot eat well because of the insufficient quality and quantity of our poor monotonous meals.

continue reading

 Listen to the voices of 3 sweet teenage girls, singing their national anthem...

 

I just returned from The Warm Heart of Africa, Malawi. Refer to my previous post Destination Malawi for a mini description of why I went with a team from my church. There are a lot of stories and a lot of statistics I could throw at you as a follow up. However, some of that will fade from my memory as I return to my daily routine in the states. 

The one aspect I hope never dims in my heart is the sound of the voices of the 180 Malawian teenagers I spent 4 days at camp with. These kids love to sing and they have amazing voices. They taught us a few worship songs and we attempted to keep up with their sweet dance moves. Check out this video below where Keren, a local worship leader, taught the teens I Love You Lord. Notice the teens writing. Without any prompting and as a complete surprise to us, they began to write down the lyrics and they all shared pens and paper with friends so that all of them who wanted, had the song. Later that day and into the next, we continued to hear the teens practise this song.

continue reading

I have a quick story for you: I was at the Sundance Film Festival this past year, and my favorite film was titled: Triage, Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma. During the Rwandan Genocide, all the NGO's fled Rwanda, Dr. Orbinski's organization (Doctors without Borders) was the only one to enter the country. Orbinski's job was to number off victims. 1 meant a person needed immediate attention or they would die, 2 meant that they needed to be treated within that day, and 3 meant that they did not have a chance to make it. He decided whether victims would live or die. He also did surgery after surgery on people and the film chronicles him returning to all the countries he worked in as he prepares to write a book about his experiences. In these countries, so many people are still in tough situations, maybe not in war or genocide, but living in huge slums and struggling in extreme poverty. As he walks around the slums remembering what had happened there, people missing limbs hobble up to him and tell him thanks for saving their life. You realize this one man literally healed and saved the lives of thousands of people.

continue reading