I have not watched any of the primary debates, but I always catch the highlights. So this morning I heard a Democrat crowd booing interruptions of Democrat candidates. The Republican debates were the same four years ago. This is partly due to a format designed not to debate ideas, but to attack persons (is this […]
Read more "Whittled Away"The title is appropriate. The blog will have spoilers on Toy Story 4… Our family just watched Toy Story 4. A bit behind most families. The reviews were excellent (98% on Rotten Tomatoes) and there were many good parts — laugh out loud moments and wonderful new characters (loved Duke Caboom: Canada’s Greatest Stuntman). There […]
Read more "Spoiled"We are preparing for another trip to Haiti. This time we will leave missionary Jenny’s compound behind and head into the mountains to build a medical clinic. Haiti is a beautiful island country, filled with wonderful people. But it is also broken by corruption and dysfunctional infrastructure (it remains by far the poorest country in […]
Read more "Haitian Mountains and the Deacon"“An area the size of the United States could be restored as forests with the potential of erasing nearly 100 years of carbon emissions.” — National Geographic I planted a tree at Chandler. In the other direction is ten acres of grasslands. What if we kept planting? I can get excited about changing the world, […]
Read more "Planting Change"During VBS I took my 5th grade class outside to weed the flower beds. It was 10 minutes of servitude to illustrate the Jews in Egypt… and everyone suddenly needed a bathroom break. Caring for the flower beds is a new routine at Chandler. I brought my family up on Monday to finish the job […]
Read more "Put In to Reach Out"“He couldn’t have been more surprised if the Little Lord Baby Jesus had walked through the door in his swaddling clothes. And lucky me, the only empty folding chair in the circle of fifth graders sat right next to him. He tried to put his Bible there, but the Sunday School teacher pried it from his […]
Read more "Is This Seat Taken?"I taught Romans 9 this week in Sunday School. A last-minute sub situation, so Saturday night I was reading through Romans. Just the text. All of my commentary aids were at the church. But I am well versed in the passage. It is the stalwart passage for Calvinism – a theology that believes God has […]
Read more "Letting go of Yesterday’s Vision"