Links to make you think

Stopping an Affair before It Begins by Tim Challies
Good article on Tim Challies today, especially the quote by John Owen at the bottom and a commentator's quote: "A pastor I love once said 'Every sin caries with it the seed of total apostasy.'" [sic]

The Aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan by Preston Richardson at VSCO
This guy's family goes to my church, and I think he did, too, till he moved away.  (I'm really not sure, since I don't know the Richardsons that well.)

The Robertsons from I Am Second
Stories from the Duck Dynasty folks; I really liked Reed's comments at the end.

How This Breast Cancer Survivor Stopped Hating Pink from Christianity Today
Apparently this girl is a Master's alumna.

Bogged Down by Alicia
An post by my friend Alicia, written a while ago.

Absolutely Fabulous Greek/House Dressing from allrecipes
Really good dressing I found.

Jellied Cranberry Sauce with Fuji Apple from The Bitten Word
Lester and I made a big batch of this for Amos' work party; Lester had a goooood time eating the leftovers.

More thankfulness

All ten of my nieces and nephews: Ellie, Chloe, Kaylee; Ethan, Andrew, Abigail; Jasmine, Kiera; Oliver, Oakley
All of my brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, and sisters-in-law: Ross, Audra, Scott, Garret, Kaydee, Brenda, Luke, Alexis, Gio, Reuben, Alisha, Herschel, Julia, Katie, Seth, Sara, Grace, Theodore, Nathaniel
Books, again :)
Pumpkin pie
White out
Mr. Potato Head (he showed up in a few math lessons this week)
Old movies
Best friends
Music by Owl City and by John Williams
Bright leaves
Calla lilies that are finally growing again (I was afraid I'd killed them :P )
Indian food
Spiritual white out, i.e., forgiveness; blotting out of sins by the blood of my Savior

Busyness

It's the most buu--uu-sy time, of the year!

In the next month or so, here are some of the things we have going on:

Three more To the Ends of the Earth missions class meetings
Small group Thanksgiving dinner
Christmas for Missionaries gift collection
Missions pie sale
Missions Leadership Team meeting
Lester!  She is coming out for a week! :)
Thanksgiving with Sara and her family
Church Christmas party
Church staff party
Small group Christmas dinner and white elephant event (we have our presents picked out already!)
Cookie baking night with small group girls
Thanksgiving lunch and Christmas Eve lunch at Amos' work
Present purchasing
Packing up and shipping all the presents to our mission partners
Trip to NorCal

Our schedule sounded a lot more hectic/crazy/packed when Amos and I were talking about all of these things just now...hmmm...have I left something out?!

Thankfulness

Well, it's November, so I guess it's time to say what I'm thankful for!

1. Amos
2. Books!  Picture books! Audiobooks!
3. Days off of school
4. My job working with Pinkie
5. $1.00 candles (I lit the lavender vanilla one today)
6. Photoshop and sites explaining Photoshop
7. My job as missions coordinator
8. Cranberries made into cranberry sauce
9. Black tea
10. God's Word

To be continued...

Sick sheep

"...men, when they are in love, invariably manage to look like a somewhat sick sheep.  If a girl is attracted to such a man she feels flattered by this appearance, and does not hold it against him; if she has no interest she dismisses him from her mind."

"I was puzzled...wondering what was the matter with him...I should have known by now that when a man looks like a sick sheep, completely bemused, stupid and unable to listen to what you say to him, he has, vulgarly, got it badly."

::Agatha Christie, An Autobiography

I just finished Agatha Christie's autobiography, and I thought it was great!  She was a very interesting person and a good storyteller, even in her autobiography.  There is a lot of controversy surrounding her, I'm discovering, but this is an engaging account of her life from her own perspective.

A good apple crisp recipe, finally

I've tried lots of apple crisps, but I've rarely tasted a good one.  Enter the Smitten Kitchen cookbook!  This apple crisp is the best, mainly because of the topping.  The topping is made by melting butter on the stove and stirring in the other ingredients (sugar, flour, oats, etc.) one at a time; you end up with a cooked, rather buttery topping.  So good!  I changed the recipe by making the filling with apples instead of apricots and adding some cinnamon.

The author suggests that you make this and eat it cold with yogurt, which Amos and I did this week.  I thought it was great, but Amos wasn't a fan of them together; he said he would eat them separately, though. :)

Now a second crisp is in the oven, in anticipation of seeing some NE friends tomorrow.  I hope they like it!

Louis

Meet Louis. Louis is a very small tiny cricket!  We've seen him in our bathtub three times now (okay, maybe it was three different tiny crickets, but let's pretend).  He is very cute!  We didn't want to wash him down the drain, so we captured him and tossed him out the back door. I saw an even tinier cousin of his, but that one did get washed down the drain. :(

Anyway, I thought you'd like to see Louis.  Who knew crickets started out that small! :)

My finger and LOUIS!  Click to enlarge the picture

Some links...

I'm on Fall Break (two days off!), and one of the things I've been doing is reading articles.  (I've also straightened the house, worked on missions stuff, made dinner, and read a book.)

Evangelism in the Workplace from 9Marks
How to be a witness in your workplace.  I like the fact that the author said to work with excellence and to be friends with your coworkers (don't treat them like projects).

Not All Praise (or Criticism) Is Created Equal by J.D. Greear
I don't like criticism, constructive or otherwise, but this article was really good: how to get your positive or negative point across in an effective, meaningful way

Gift Envy & Gift Projection by Tim Challies
Two bad things can come from spiritual gifts: envying someone else's gift, and assuming that everyone else should have your gift

Christianity and Homosexuality: A Review of Books by Tim Keller
Two Christians who deal with same-sex attraction have written books, and this is what Tim Keller has to say about them

Humans of New York by Brandon
This guy goes around New York, taking people's pictures and asking a little bit of their stories.  He recently went to Iran and did the same thing!  This link takes you to his Iran section.

A Marriage Built for This from Start Marriage Right
A very sad but insightful article about a couple that went through several miscarraiges

Lessons from a Wildfire, Part 2 by Mike Gaston
Mike is the outreach pastor at the local church where we are taking our missions class.  He writes about going on a hike and not finding what he had expected.

To the Ends of the Earth, weeks 1 and 2

As I said before, Amos and I are taking a missions class at a local church this semester.  It's being taught by Cecil, a former seminary professor.  Cecil and his wife Kathy were overseas in the Netherlands for a long time, but they are retired now and back in the States, though Cecil continues to teach at Master's and elsewhere.

In order to keep up this blog, to provide good information, and to remind myself what I've learned each week, I'm going to attempt to write a short summary of what we learn in our missions class, To the Ends of the Earth.  We'll see how it goes!


Week 1: Mission, Missions, Missio Dei
These terms are not synonymous, and different people define them in different ways.  It is important to define these terms accurately so that those who are involved in missionary service have a clear understanding of the priority of various aspects of ministry.  We don't want to overlook the Gospel even if we are doing good things like feeding the homeless or starting a non-profit.

Cecil's definitions:
Missio Dei: all that God does to build the kingdom of God
Mission/missions: evangelism, discipleship, church planting, social work, teaching, building churches, etc.

We must remember that the Gospel is the primary thing.  It is good for social work to lead to open doors for the Gospel and to work hand-in-hand with the Gospel, but the Gospel must be first and foremost in our minds and actions.


Week 2: The Mission of Israel
What was the purpose of Israel?

1. Israel is not told to go tell people about God but rather was to draw people to God by their distinct lifestyle and righteous behavior (light to the Gentiles; Zechariah 8:22-23).

2. Israel was blessed by God not just to be blessed (end) but also to be a blessing (means) to all nations (Genesis 12:1-3).  The ultimate Blessing was realized in the Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ, Who is a blessing to the nations in that He provides the means for wicked people to be reconciled to a holy God.

3. We can attract people to God by being a blessing to others!  We can't be Jesus, but we can bless others in many different ways that may in turn lead people to being open to the Ultimate Blessing, Jesus Christ.  Some ways to bless others include attending neighbor kids' sports events; talking to neighbors; not joining in gossip; helping new immigrants (Heather and Austin are good examples of this); encouraging parents who have young children; praying for others; giving flowers; inviting to special events; practicing hospitality; etc.

Recently

What I've read recently:
The Real Thief by William Steig
This article by Garrett Kell at Gospel Coalition

What I've listened to recently:
More About Paddington by Michael Bond
One Day More, Les Mis soundtrack
I'm Coming After You, Owl City

What I've eaten recently:
Homemade tapioca pudding
Animal-style fries

Whom I've talked to recently:
Danielle
A lady at CTEN, our friends' missions agency

Where I've been recently:
School
Ikea
Brand Bookshop

Where I've walked recently:
Back and forth across campus
Back and forth across the church parking lot

What I've bought recently:
Groceries
Pens and white-out

What I wish I'd bought recently:
New sandals/flip flops (not the season I guess)

Whom I've sent letters to recently:
Magenta
Cindy in Nebraska

Whom I've prayed for recently:
Family
Friends
Amos and I

What I've dreaded recently:
Talking to the very nice and friendly but very unpredictable math teacher; I never know what crazy thing she is going to do next!

Regular fall semester

Things are ramping up around here!  We left SoCal around 5:15 on Thursday, headed for Paul and Katharyn's little home near San Jose.  After inspecting their goats and eating farm fresh eggs, we got dressed up and headed out to my Uncle Dale's memorial service in the Bay Area; he and his twinkly blue eyes will be missed very much.  We then spent the weekend hanging out with lots of family at my grandparents' house.

We returned to SoCal on Sunday night, I took a nap on Monday after work, and yesterday we went to our first missions class being held a local church.  Today Amos and I went shopping and got dinner at Panera, and tomorrow we start our small group meetings!  Friday I'll go grocery shopping and Amos will stuff church bulletins, Saturday we'll do laundry, work on websites and send e-mails, and hopefully get CPR certified.  Somewhere in there we'll pick out insurance benefits, go to church, water our plants, do dishes, and hopefully sweep the house, clean the bathroom, and take books to the used bookstore.

Wow.  Welcome to week one of our regular fall semester schedule.  I'm off to make turkey sandwiches for our lunches tomorrow.

A random picture from the college campus in Bangalore last summer

In Class

Student: Try not to smell. I'm sorry mumblemumblemumble.
Me: What?
Student: Try not to smell.  Someone puked, and a little bit got on my backpack.  I'm really sorry.  Try not to smell.

Science teacher: You guys get to go home at 1:00.  I have to stay for two more hours.  It's not fun.  I have to go to meetings.
Student: That doesn't sound that bad.
Science teacher: The meetings are boring.  How would you feel if you had to sit somewhere for two hours and you didn't want to?
Other student: I do it all the time.  It's called SCHOOL.

After math class...
Teacher: Lexi, will you switch seats so John can see?
Lexi: Maybe.  Where does David sit?
-I show her David's seat, right next to her future seat-
Lexi: I don't know.  David always stares at me in class and keeps saying, "'sup?!"