Sunday, November 26, 2006 

Why It's Nice To Be The Single Guy On The Team

Leftovers

11:40 AM | |

Wednesday, November 22, 2006 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

What am I thankful for?

I just read some emails from old friends, and feel very thankful for Godly friends and the love they show me by their words and actions.

God is good.

11:44 AM | |

Saturday, November 18, 2006 

My New Favorite Song

Declared, Bannered by Anathallo

I could not look Him in the face, so I stood revarnishing the floor with my eyes.
He stared into them with this love so offended and profound.
He tore the center of my shirt and red was bleeding through from underneath the white clothes that I wore.
The fire of devotion was only an ember.
Alarmed at this sign of decay, my legs gave out because there was no self left to stand on.
Thus, my heart was grieved, vexed in my mind, still Your banner over me was love.
My walls are ever before You, still Your banner over me is love.
But it was Your kind arms cradling me, a criminal.
But it was Your kind arms cradling me, a criminal.
Oh wretched worm of a man that I am, on Thy kind arms I fall.**
I'm just a man. I'm just a criminal.

**From the gravestone of William Carey, reading only, "A wretched, poor, and helpless worm, On Thy kind arms I fall"

1:39 PM | |

 

Well...

I met a friend this afternoon to walk around the city some. (Walking around seems to be the main pastime of people here. I guess it could be worse.) It was a beautiful day, it felt like April. As we walked through the big market here, we passed beggars on the street and shops selling pants for 80 bucks. Go figure. This city has the poorest and richest people both, but that's for another post.

Anyway, we walked around for a long time and finally sat on a bench as the sun set. He asked me why I chose to come here, and I showed him Matthew 28:18-20 and explained as best I could. That started a two hour conversation about Jesus, Muhammad, Christianity, Islam, and truth.

To make a long story short, he asked a lot of questions about Jesus and the Bible, and I showed him several Scripture verses (in the local language). I don't have the language level to really answer him well, but I think I like showing Scripture anyway. Let him read it for himself straight from the source, rather than me trying to relay it correctly.

After a while of talking about all this it got cold and dark, so we left, him to his house and me to mine. As we left, he told me that he wanted me to read the Qur'an, to which I said (loosely translated) "uh...no."

I felt pretty down as I left. I guess I expected the heavens to open up and a chorus of angels to serenade us. I guess I expected generations of lies and darkness to be broken by a 2 hour conversation, a man convinced that what he and his parents and their parents and their parents have grown up believing is false.

It will be nothing short of a miracle if I see anybody come to Jesus Christ. It was a miracle that I did.

12:36 PM | |

 

My Big Break!

Our teacher walked in the classroom Monday and said something about tv and how we have to answer questions well to make both her and us look good. (I understand maybe 50% of what she says these days, which is an improvement from a few months ago.)

Sure enough, half an hour later three people came in with a tv camera and a microphone. They were from an international tv station based here and came to interview the classes to talk about how great it is that we're learning the local language, and how great our class program is.

Anyway, everyone sat up straight in their chairs and the teacher asked us really easy questions while the camera rolled. After a few questions, the visitors did some interviews. Our class is made up of people from all over, and one person from each country (or thereabouts) was interviewed. Each interview was maybe a minute, but it was fun nonetheless.




The interviewer asked me the usual: where did I come from, why am I here (that was fun to answer), how long have I been studying, etc.

To show how popular this channel isn't, I tried to watch the program but couldn't. It came on last Wednesday night, so I went over to a friend's house who has the popular cable tv package here, but even he didn't have the channel. I found out later that they stream on the internet, but too late for me to watch.

Thus begins my rise to international television stardom...

11:20 AM | |

Friday, November 10, 2006 

Independence Day & My First Concert

It was Independence Day one day last week around these parts. I didn't know it until a friend and I went walking around the city some, and giant (and I mean giant) flags covered all the buildings. If I had brought my camera with me, I would have taken some pictures of the flags covering sides of the 30-story buildings.

As we walked around, we saw people working on a stage, getting it ready for a concert. Since I hadn't been to a concert in a while (I went to John Fogerty/Willie Nelson this past summer before I came over. Fogerty rocked the house, while Willie kind of let me down, but that's for another post). Anyway, I decided to go to the big independence day bash.

My friend had to leave, but I went and waited for the concert. I ended up having to wait for like 2.5 hours, but I really wanted to see a local concert. As the time drew near for the concert to start, the grassy area in front of the stage began to be filled with people, and I mean FILLED. There were people everywhere as far as I could see.

Before the concert started, the mayor of the city came up on stage and said some stuff about independence and all. (I assume it was the mayor, and I assume he talked about independence, since it was independence day. All I know is some guy in a suit with guards and paparazzi got up and said some stuff I didn't understand, and everybody clapped and cheered.)

To be honest, the concert was not as good as I hoped it would be. It's hard to get into a song when you don't know what the singer is singing about. The music was okay, it was a poppy rock kind of thing, but not something I would normally listen to. The fun part for me was looking around at all the people and how they sang along and pumped their fists and all.

After an hour or so, I headed home. It was getting late, cold, and all the songs sounded the same to my non-native ears...all in all, a good night.

12:56 PM | |

 

Momma Would Be Proud

I got my water bill for the month the other day. It was $6.65. That's right, 6 bucks. It was like $30 a few months ago with me and the two roommates living together, so I knew I had a lot of room for improvement.

I'm actually quite proud of this, and I hope to do even better next month. I might do real well if my faucet keeps up (see Living Lesson #3).

12:55 PM | |

 

Living Lesson #3

Living alone for the first time, I figure to learn quite a few handy tips in cleaning, food preparation, and general housework. Here's something I learned this morning:

Living Lesson #3: When the faucet on your bathroom sink spews out putrid brown water, don't play with it. Turn the faucet off and walk away.

I got up this morning as usual and headed to the bathroom. Upon turning the "cold water" knob of the sink, I discovered that today "cold water" meant nasty, nasty brown water in random bursts.

Since I knew this opportunity would not come often (at least I hope not), I proceeded to investigate this occurence. The water wasn't flowing, it was splurting out in big, brown bursts. Having nothing else to do for a while, I turned the knob up full blast to see what would happen. Maybe crystal clear sparkling water would find its way back to the bottom of my sink. Nope. A big burst of brown liquid splashed up from the sink onto me and the bathroom floor...

12:39 PM | |

 

I Love My City...(Part 2)

FREE DONUTS!!! THE CITY GIVES AWAY FREE DONUTS!!!

12:34 PM | |

 

I Love My City...

A friend and I were walking around the city some today when we passed a little stand on a corner. My friend told me that these stands are all over the city, and they give away free donuts to anybody that wants them. Thinking he was just having a joke at my expense, I got in line to call his bluff.

Little did I know, I waited in line for a while and then took some free donuts from the guy in the stand! Free Donuts!!

Apparently, a new business or the city itself will hire these guys to make and give away donuts.

I can get free donuts whenever I want!! Wherever I see a stand, I can chow down on FREE DONUTS!! I'm not paying for food for the next 2 or 3 years, I'm going on the all free donut diet...

12:17 PM | |

Saturday, November 04, 2006 

Happy Halloween

As you probably guessed, they don't celebrate Halloween here. You can imagine the looks I got when I dressed up as Uncle Sam and asked people for candy...

1:40 PM | |

 

Week in Review

This week has been pretty routine, filled with language school and homework. Not to say that it wasn't good, just routine.

On Monday, one of the teachers told our class how we have a big test in December we have to pass to make us and her both look good. Whoever doesn't pass it can't go on to the next language course, and will have to repeat the one we're in now. I began to get a little anxious until she said you only have to make a 60 to pass...=) I assume that's 60 out of 100, I should probably ask somebody.

I was talking with some guys in a cafe at the university, when they asked me if I knew what my name meant. It was a pretty random question, but it was a good opportunity because my names has a very great, gracious meaning. I explained it to them as best I could, then we talked some more. Then one guy said that his name meant "peace". I hope that's not just a really cool coincidence...

My old roommates (during my first two weeks here) left for home this week, and we had a big dinner for them. They hope to be back next summer sometime, we'll see. I hope they come back, they are good at what they do.

12:47 PM | |

 

Walking the Walk

I found out the other day that the Harlem Globetrotters actually came to my city a while back. Now there's a team that lives up to its name...

I guess they really do trot the globe, I always just figured it was a nice name for a basketball team.

11:21 AM | |