Memphis Workcamp

Above is a picture from last year's Memphis Workcamp. This is what Nicole and I will be up to this week. We'll be driving a big white van pulling a trailer with ladders, paint, and other supplies. Tonight there'll be dinner, orientation, and a praise service. Then, Nicole and I will spend the night with her friend (and mine, too), Kari Neiman closer to the meeting place for the kids we'll be driving to the supply tent everyday. This is the 19th annual Memphis workcamp. Last year, the 500th house was scraped and painted. We don't know yet our house or our work crew, but we'll learn of both tonight. I'm a little nervous even though this is my third year. I'm not nervous about the neighborhood, just about leading/serving a crew. They are the best of the best, volunteering like $60 not to mention free and cheerful labor. Keep us in your prayers.

Also, please pray for your neighbor whom we just met Saturday evening. Her nickname is "Pooky". She's an older woman and has a lot of cancer. She's taking 9 pills a day. Some of them are anti-depressents. She doesn't seem to like being treated like she is mentally ill (they put her in a mental hospital at one point because she considered not taking the chemotherapy anymore). Personally, I would consider giving up on the chemotherapy as well if it made me feel that bad (which the anti-depressent doesn't change). I think if I am feeling excruciating pain, it's only right to count the cost of dying. Anyway, Pooky really encouraged us and appreciates our prayers. It's good to make new friends.

Anyway, have a good week. :-)

Lou

Do you know Lou Ferrigno? He played the Hulk in the tv show in the 70s-80s. I remember well seeing him on Mr. Roger's and learning about how the makeup/costume was applied. I also remember watching Pumping Iron my freshman year of college. My friends, Noel and Jason Green, got to meet Lou and eat with him in a restaurant. They got me an autographed photo of "the Hulk". Noel sent that to me while I lived in Japan. That was awesome. I used to watch the Hulk series from behind the kitchen bar in our house until I was four. I wouldn't let my parents change the channel even though I was scared somewhat.

Well, recently, we moved in to our new apartment. I set my framed Hulk photo on the top of my bookshelf. When two of our maintenance guys came in to fix stuff, they commented on the photo with great excitement. "Did you meet Lou?" We enjoyed talking about him for a few minutes.

Then, after the "assembly order" as my local church community calls it, Lou came up in my conversation with a recent newcomer, a semi-retired man who uses a device to help him hear prayers and sermons. I said, "Do you know who Lou Ferrigno is?" We had several minutes of enthusiastic conversation about this good man. I said, "Did you know he is practically deaf?"

There was another conversation, though I don't remember who with (Derrick?), in which the other person said in reference to Lou, "Man, isn't he good at reading lips!" This conversation may have been on Saturday since my friend of half my life, Derrick, has been bodybuilding for a couple of years now. (I'll post on he and Naomi later.)

I hope to hear more good things about Lou in the coming future. Some "facts" that I hear about Lou are probably inaccurate, but it seems most people like Lou better the Arnold. It is interesting, though unprovable phenomenon to me. Feel free to give your "Lou" reports or opinions anytime on my blog. I'm thinking of placing him on my mental board of trustees along with MLK jr and Song Sun, some of my other heroes.

P.S. Nicole, who will always be on my mental board of trustees, just said, "I will not sleep with Lou Ferrigno in my bedroom," referring to the framed picture . . . not having read this post. Sorry, Lou, I guess you're going to have to sleep in the closet or living room or something.

Is Ritalin Right for You?

The most powerful symptom: "Often figits with hands or feet or squirms in seat."

Should everyone take psychotropic drugs? Many M.D.s believe ADHD exists, but that doesn't mean everyone who "squirms" has it. You should seek critical doctors before you take any drugs--in my humble, but passionate opinion. Especially when you are giving the drugs to your child.

No tests document ADHD, only symptom clusters . . . but treatments cause long-term and, at times, permanent effects on the brain. ADHD is an unproven disease, but treatments are proven to produce brain atrophy. Other side effects according to a young man prescribed Paxill in the third grade: "hallucinations, a voice telling me to kill people". Can you imagine a Mormon kid becoming violent, walking into school with a gun?

If an "expert" gave you choices of "covering" your child's hyperactive squirming: fresh foods, watching the Little Mermaid 29 times, electric shock therapy, or a magic pill . . . which one(s) would you choose. Would you go to prison for not medicating your kid?

Was Television your babysitter? At what age must a person stop squirming? Why must the energy be stifled? Shouldn't it be channeled? Are pills ways of raising proper kids?

Well, hopefully my questions will make good teasers for the video. Click on the title link to watch the video and read a commentary.

Why do I put things like this on my blog? I trust in God to constantly provide renewable energy, healing, and joy. I'm not perfect. I get depressed, sick, and mean-spirited. But I don't expect the solution, ultimately, to come from people who will make a lot of money from it (i.e., many drugs on the Western market). I don't want to bow down to anyone. It doesn't mean I won't submit to medical care; I will as long as it is "care".

If you suffer from depression, I would recommend several choices. You may not find the side effects from drugs acceptable (especially for 80% of people diagnosed with depression). So try some or all of these proven solutions that have mostly positive side effects and no debilitating ones:

Exercise
Eat a fresh variety of food, especially plant food, without avoiding good fats like Omega-3s.

I think these have God's stamp of approval and the promise of his sustenance. Even if you are skeptical that God might work through natural living processes, at least be skeptical of specific technologically produced pharmeceuticals prescribed by an expert who may be indiscriminate, for example, psychotropic drugs. The person is not bad, but the prescription might be and, I would say, probably is.

Dirty Guts

Click on the Title link to read some interesting information and commentating about negative effects of using antibacterial soaps and positive effects of building up the trillions of bacteria living in our guts. (Link courtesy of www.mercola.com. Photo courtesy of www.hpylori.com.au/)

Bacteria may be the immediate cause of . . . (ahem) . . . throwing up and such, but the loss of intestinal bacteria diversity is the cause of chronic diseases that prevent many of us from living vigorously.

Death by Subsidies

"What’s at stake in our eating choices is not only our own and our children’s health, but the health of the environment that sustains life on earth." (excerpt from Michael Pollan's website)

Michael Pollan has researched and written on the modern history of the food industry for several years. Here's a review of his latest book: "Expanding on his articles for The New York Times Magazine, he lays out the many ways in which government policy since the Nixon era — to grow as much corn as possible, subsidized with federal money — is totally out of whack with the needs of nature and the American public."

I am convicted of the fact that people ought to pay attention to what they eat, pay for, and the ethics (or nonethics) of the systems they are supporting. In a NY Times article published on my birthday, Pollan writes:

"Twinkies are made from 39 ingredients, most of them requiring elaborate processing themselves, in addition to packaging and marketing.

But they, like many other processed foods, are cheaper than a similar quantity of carrots, which require no processing or marketing, and little or no packaging. How is this possible?

The answer is a piece of legislation called the farm bill, which is renewed every five years (including this year), and sets guidelines for the American food system -- including which crops will be subsidized and which will not.

Processed foods like Twinkies are made from carbohydrates and fats extracted from corn, soybeans and wheat, which, along with rice and cotton, are the products supported with $25-billion subsidies from the U.S. government.

But the farm bill does almost nothing to support farmers growing other forms of produce, such as more nutrient-rich vegetables. The result is a food system flooded with corn-derived added sugars, and soy-derived added fats. Meanwhile, the real price of fruits and vegetables increased by nearly 40 percent between 1985 and 2000, while the real price of soft drinks (made with high-fructose corn syrup) actually declined by 23 percent.

The farm bill has far-reaching effects on health, the economy, and the environment. A growing body of activists are becoming aware of the implications, and are pressing for changes to the bill, which has remained largely unchanged for decades."

New York Times April 22, 2007 (Registration Required)

Whole Summer

If you're interested in health, you should regularly explore http://mercola.com. Dr. Mercola is an D.O., or doctor of osteopathy, which means he is " . . . licensed to prescribe medication and perform surgery in all 50 states. But [osteopathic physicians] bring something extra to the practice of medicine. Osteopathic physicians practice a "whole person" approach to medicine, treating the entire person rather that just the symptoms. With a focus on preventive health care, DOs help patients develop attitudes and lifestyles that don't just fight illness, but help prevent it, too."

Dr. Mercola responds to scientific studies from various journals. You can find a lot of encouragement to live well and affordably. Here is an excerpt from a particularly basic article: " . . . the study very elegantly demonstrates that whole food sources are clearly superior to the supplement form of vitamin C. In whole foods, there are a variety of accessory micronutrients that work synergistically with the primary one. It is very rare where the isolated nutrient will perform better than the whole food version."

You should also search mercola.com for information about disappearance of honeybees. I think we should minister not only to the "whole person", but also to the "whole creation". The gift of the "breath of life" is not only a gift of metabolism, but a gift of interdependence with all other creatures who also have a gracious relationship with the Creator. In the beginning . . . God created creatures. There certainly are differences between humans and the other creatures, but we will have to deal with that somewhere else.

By the way, I graduated from Harding Graduate School of Religion last Saturday. I found I can't stop reading. I wondered into the library while babysitting Joshua on Tuesday and he led me to Mr. Turtle's guided research paper. I finished reading it last night. I also read the first chapter of Moby Dick last night. I don't know that I've been trained to read fiction, but I'll keep trying. I've definitely developed a thirst for knowledge, though.

I will be babysitting Joshua and doing grounds/maintenance work with the graduate school through May. Then, the first full week in June, Nicole and I will be doing Memphis Workcamp where we scrape, paint, and do minimal maintenance for low income folks in Memphis. The second full week in June I will probably begin working for Wagner construction. We need to find a cheap second car by then.

Provisions Plus

Just thought I would post something since I haven't in a long while. These were photos taken on my third fastest birthday yet, my 30-second birthday. We had a team meeting and had a small party at India Palace.

I wanted to type some words from Isaiah 55 in the Message version:

"I don't think the way you think.
The way you work isn't the way I work."
God's Decree.

"For as the sky roars high above earth,
so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
and don't go back until they've watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
not come back empty-handed.
They'll do the work I sent them to do,
they'll complete the assignment I gave them."

So, let me ask you something. Do you trust God to provide? Do rich countries need to become richer before they will be capable of producing extra food? Or is God already providing enough food? Does it have to become cheaper for us before we can make it available to them? Do we trust God to provide?

Penguin Humour

It's a liberal myth, Mildred. You're making a fool of both of us.
(Ann Onimus)

Passover Experience

I have intellectually studied the Passover and the subject of Communion, . . . but that was different by far from actually experiencing Passover as a memorial and fellowship meal.

Tonight (Thursday) I participated in a Passover meal in which we remembered our misery, yet God’s saving actions. Mike White (I’m sure with the help of his wife and son) prepared the food, dinnerware, and script. Dwight, because he was the oldest male, served as “the father of the family”. There were about 30 of us there.

We listened to “the father” as he read from the script and at designated points we all read lines from the script. For example, we all blessed God together while we held up the bitter cup (actually it was sweet grape juice; we had to stretch our imagination here). One of the blessings was: “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.” Then we all drank together.

After washing each other’s hands (it took several minutes to pass the only water bowl and towel around for that), “the father” held up a parsley sprig. Then he said, “The Passover holiday comes in the spring, when the earth turns green with new life. Only God can create life and keep it alive. This green parsley is the sign of life.”

Then he held up a small bowl of salt water and said, “But while the Israelites were still slaves in Egypt, their life was miserable. The salt water stands for their tears. We know our life can be miserable and full of tears when we live in Satan’s world. We dip our parsley in the salt water and eat it to remind us of our ancestor’s tears and of how miserable our own sin makes us. We also remember how God parted the salty [Reed] Sea to lead His people to new life.”

We ate bitter herbs and remembered captivity and slavery to sin while we tasted fresh salted parsley and took a bite of bitter/astringent fresh horseradish on a matzah cracker. We remembered how terrible it was while “the father” said, “ . . . let the bitter taste bring tears to your eyes. Remember with compassion the tears our ancestors cried in their slavery long ago, and remember the bitterness of our own slavery to sin when we do not allow Jesus to set us free.” Let me tell you, the horseradish brought tears to my eyes! . . . but Nicole had compassion on me. :-)

Then we dipped the matzah cracker with horseradish into some sweet dip that had raisins and nuts and honey and wine. That made the bitterness bearable. Right before we put it in our mouths we said, “We dip the bitter into the sweet to remember that even the most bitter things in life can be sweetened by our hope in God.” This was powerful for me. I recall when my grandmother had a massive stroke several months before she eventually died in 1996. It was kind of a terrible time for my family, a bitter time. But friends of my parents came into the hospital room with us around Zula, my grandmother, and prayed for her and for us. Their presence with us was a reminder of God’s presence and sincerely encouraged us. It is a sweet memory. This part of the meal will probably touch more things like this in my memory in the coming days.

Well, we heard and read more script and tasted other things that made us remember and bless God. Then we feasted! Mike and Dwight and a couple of others served up several other foods like matzah ball soup, lamb, chicken, asparagus with lime, carrots with raisins, this awesome fresh and dried fruit mix, and some other stuff. The food was so good! I joined in serving by passing food around and helping fill people’s glasses. Some of us moved around the table to visit with people on the far side.

Eventually, we moved back to our places, read more script, drank the fourth cup—hallel, the cup of praise, and blessed God some more. It was an unforgettable experience for me, having actually felt the tearful consequences related to bondage and sin, having actually tasted the sweetness that God provides in the midst of sorrow, and having joined in with my brothers and sisters to remember God’s actions and to bless his name.

Climate Porn

I'm proud to say that I'm leary of outrageous and supposedly scientific hype about global warming. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe global warming is occuring as a direct consequence of producing carbon dioxide. However, I doubt hype and shock.

Listen to this: Bjorn Lomborg via Jared's blog

I don't watch tv anymore (Heroes doesn't come back on until April 23), but I do occasionally (almost daily) read Wikipedia. Here are just a small portion of quotes from there:

Sallie Baliunas, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics: "[T]he recent warming trend in the surface temperature record cannot be caused by the increase of human-made greenhouse gases in the air." [15] In 2003 Baliunas and Soon wrote that "there is no reliable evidence for increased severity or frequency of storms, droughts, or floods that can be related to the air’s increased greenhouse gas content." [16]

Robert M. Carter, researcher at the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University in Australia: "The essence of the issue is this. Climate changes naturally all the time, partly in predictable cycles, and partly in unpredictable shorter rhythms and rapid episodic shifts, some of the causes of which remain unknown." (Telegraph, April 9, 2006 [17])

George V. Chilingar, professor of civil and petroleum engineering at the University of Southern California, and Leonid F. Khilyuk: "The authors identify and describe the following global forces of nature driving the Earth’s climate: (1) solar radiation ..., (2) outgassing as a major supplier of gases to the World Ocean and the atmosphere, and, possibly, (3) microbial activities ... . The writers provide quantitative estimates of the scope and extent of their corresponding effects on the Earth’s climate [and] show that the human-induced climatic changes are negligible." (Environmental Geology, vol. 50 no. 6, August 2006 [18])

William M. Gray, professor of atmospheric science and meteorologist, Colorado State University: "This small warming is likely a result of the natural alterations in global ocean currents which are driven by ocean salinity variations. Ocean circulation variations are as yet little understood. Human kind has little or nothing to do with the recent temperature changes. We are not that influential." (BBC News, 16 Nov 2000 [24]) "I am of the opinion that [global warming] is one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American people." (Washington Post, May 28, 2006 [25]) "So many people have a vested interest in this global-warming thing—all these big labs and research and stuff. The idea is to frighten the public, to get money to study it more." (Discover, vol. 26 no. 9, September 2005 [26])

Zbigniew Jaworowski, chair of the Scientific Council at the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw: "The atmospheric temperature variations do not follow the changes in the concentrations of CO2 ... climate change fluctuations comes ... from cosmic radiation." (21st Century Science & Technology, Winter 2003-2004, p. 52-65 [27])

Mystery and Wonder

I started adding this tagline to my emails: " . . . they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." Ecclesiastes 3:11

Click on the title to read an interesting blog post the inscrutability of God and the inadequacy of science (and religion) to explain everything.

Fred Craddock once said something along these lines: I try not to preach with a tone the sounds like I've gone into heaven and taken polaroids of God.

I'm interested in how my family and friends approach God with his inscrutability in mind. Specifically, how do you consider scientific theories of both evolution and creation as explanations for how the cosmos exists?

Guests

We've been hosting wonderful family and friends lately. Unfortunately, we only took a few pictures. However, someday (soon we hope) Hayli will email us photos she took w/ her camera while she and Kim were here.

My family drove up from Abilene, TX, weekend before last. They joined our team meeting and shared some good insights with us which reminded me that we need to be accountable to God and to one another. My brother and Nicole and I practiced running for the race coming up next month (not pictured).









Damien and Miranda drove from Abilene, TX, via the Gatewoods in Tulsa, OK. Nicole and Miranda cooked ANZACs. The ANZAC (Australia-New Zealand Army Corps.) biscuits, or "cookies" in Americanese, were delicious. As I type this I'm reminded that I spilled some of my ginger beer on my keyboard while the Damien and Miranda were with us.

Thursday night, before Damien and Miranda spent their last night with us, Josh came down so we could share our friends, Miranda and Damien, with him, too. (Kendra came down, too, as well as Emily and Corey.) Damien was my roomate for 9 months back in 1999 while I lived in Australia. Now he and Miranda are "older" students at ACU. We really enjoyed spending time talking with this young, vibrant couple.

After Hayli whipped all of us at her favorite card game--Nerts--we played a few hands of Texas Hold 'Em. Kim won. Just for the record, though, I beat Nicole in both games, albeit by one point. This was Kim's first time away from Australia. Hayli grew up there but lives in Oklahoma now. Hayli has been to inner city Memphis a few times before and loves to return, so she joined Nicole and I in sharing this blessed city's people and stories with Kim. Kim and Hayli began driving back to Oklahoma this morning.

Not Insulin, but Exercise

If you or someone you love has Type 2 Diabetes, do not expect insulin to help them. In fact, expect it to ruin them. Song kept telling me that insulin was making things worse. I realize he was right. Yet his doctor(s) kept adjusting his insulin dosage even though he was Type 2. I wish things could have been different for him. I believe that they could've. Click on the title and watch the video.

On the other hand, if you have Type 1 Diabetes, realize that it is a completely different "animal". Don't stop taking insulin. Make sure to be monitored by a trustworthy endocrinologist.

God has the power to heal us, yet we often have the custom of blocking God's healing power.

Porcupine Pins Bull Terrier

Click on the title to see the poor Terrier.

Ecclesiastes observations

We read most of chapter seven today at the Curtis' house. Probably the most impacting to me came when I realized that our congregation is mostly full of people who are "too righteous" (7:16). We are missing the folks who are "too wicked" (7:17) although some of us certainly are. Basically, the main perception change for me was that "It's okay to make mistakes because #1. if we fear God we'll have success whether we're too righteous or too wicked (7:18) and, #2. no one is righteous anyway (7:20). I also thought of 9:7, that God has already approved of what we do. If he were already going to strike me down for not being rigteous enough, he would have done so a long time ago.

Others in our group said this:

Humility now or later.

There's really only one way: God's way.

Even though I/we make a mess of most everything, God can make something good out of it.

Moderation is important.

No matter how hard we try, we're still going to sin.

We're influenced by the company we keep.

Realigning with God should be the goal instead of just trying to be "righteous" or "wicked". If we're trying to be "conservative" or "liberal" we'll just end up going in circles, but if we realign with God he will make our paths straight.

- - -

I have to admit, Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books of all time.

Shark! Danger

One of the main reasons I don't want to move to Australia. I got this picture from the Skyline Church of Christ's website. The congregation has begun to form friendly relationships with Christians in the Gosford and Sydney area.

Jaznic Pics

Which one do you like best? It's for our Aussie Mission packet. Thanks in advance for friendly input. :-)

Blue-Collar Christianity

Dissatisfied with white-collar Churchianity? Try the blue-collar Christ: "Blue Collar Christianity", a recent article written by a University student.

Aussie Church

"European expressions of worship have dictated the structure of the Australian church service throughout its history. Much like the European landscape, these forms have a sense of composed restraint and elegance, an ordered formality through practice and experience, as well as a balanced beauty in architecture--forms that are completely alien to the Australian bush."

I thought this was an interesting quote from Robert L. Gallagher. I'm not completely sure what "forms" this implies, but I do think it's going to be a relational and somewhat informal structure with the flexibility to adjust rather than a static and impersonal one. What do you think?

Heroes

I read this blog post this morning by Mike Cope"--"and started trying to catch up on the Heroes episodes. I'm excited about watching these. Our television is in the closet, but these days you can watch online. See www.nbc.com. I really like Mike's post. What do you think about it?