well, with all the talk about the global financial crisis, everyone seems to be weighing with their opinions. i will refrain, because as soon as i start writing it will smack of critical self-righteousness and "i told you so" pedantry! not that that's usually stopped me before! of course the people who get hurt the most are usually not the ones at fault - which in turns makes me wonder about the justice and righteousness of God.
oh, the convenience of being poor by the standards of these big players and not to have to worry because i have no shares to lose money on!
my own views on money and wealth have already been encapsulated here
but i am HUGELY enjoying some great music by canadian rock legends RUSH this afternoon, and despite their lack of faith in God, they write a lot of wisdom.
so, from the majestic Power Windows album (1985), i give you Big Money:
Big money goes around the world
Big money underground
Big money got a mighty voice
Big money make no sound
Big money pull a million strings
Big money hold the prize
Big money weave a mighty web
Big money draw the flies
Big money goes around the world
Big money give and take
Big money done a power of good
Big money make mistakes
Big money got a heavy hand
Big money take control
Big money got a mean streak
Big money got no soul...
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
hawthorne had it right...
...it was one of those perfect afternoons that was simply too good to be wasted - especially in light of the miserable summer that the UK has endured. low 20s, hardly a cloud in the sky, and the faintest of breezes.
so i put aside the 200 e-mails i should have answered, the 100 countries i should be writing, the surveys, articles, trips, messages, analyses and the rest. i grabbed a blanket, a glass full of ice and a can of coke, my mp3 player and a good book (one that I wanted to read!) and headed outside.
i finally nestled myself not onto the ground, but onto what passes for a dock on the edge of the lily pond. it's a pretty big pond, about 30 metres in diameter, with a small island in the middle and a host of water lilies all around.
and there i lay, just soaking up the sun for a couple of hours, alternating between reading and dozing off. the stress slid off of me as if i were made of teflon.
just to add to the simple joy and comfort of actually relaxing (what a concept!), a huge, iridescent dragonfly who had been hovering around decided that it would pay me a visit and first alighted near my feet, then flew up to land on my hand, where it stayed for some time. i've always loved dragonflies and this was the closest and longest look i've ever had at one. they're a marvel of engineering, really, and quite beautiful, considering they're just massive bugs.
nathaniel hawthorne wrote: "Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
on saturday my happiness was not a butterly, but a dragonfly.
so i put aside the 200 e-mails i should have answered, the 100 countries i should be writing, the surveys, articles, trips, messages, analyses and the rest. i grabbed a blanket, a glass full of ice and a can of coke, my mp3 player and a good book (one that I wanted to read!) and headed outside.
i finally nestled myself not onto the ground, but onto what passes for a dock on the edge of the lily pond. it's a pretty big pond, about 30 metres in diameter, with a small island in the middle and a host of water lilies all around.
and there i lay, just soaking up the sun for a couple of hours, alternating between reading and dozing off. the stress slid off of me as if i were made of teflon.
just to add to the simple joy and comfort of actually relaxing (what a concept!), a huge, iridescent dragonfly who had been hovering around decided that it would pay me a visit and first alighted near my feet, then flew up to land on my hand, where it stayed for some time. i've always loved dragonflies and this was the closest and longest look i've ever had at one. they're a marvel of engineering, really, and quite beautiful, considering they're just massive bugs.
nathaniel hawthorne wrote: "Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
on saturday my happiness was not a butterly, but a dragonfly.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
time moves on...
it's been a very busy few months, hence my silence...
1) we have seen 2 team members come and go
2) another has joined part time for a month
3) another 2 have joined long term
4) another 1 has joined as an associate long term
5) i had a birthday
6) i was in canada, australia and singapore
7) we reorged my office, realigning the desks, filing cabinets, etc etc.
8) still trying to write Operation World in the midst of that!
so, i've decided i'm going to travel as little as possible, work as much as possible (goodbye, already negligible social life!), and be thankful as much as possible for this great team and all the people who support us through prayer and goodwill.
on another note, we are trying to use the tools that already exist to mobilize more prayer and get more people involved! find out by joining us at our newly redesigned team website
HERE
or at our cool and fast growing new facebook page
HERE
all for now,
jason
1) we have seen 2 team members come and go
2) another has joined part time for a month
3) another 2 have joined long term
4) another 1 has joined as an associate long term
5) i had a birthday
6) i was in canada, australia and singapore
7) we reorged my office, realigning the desks, filing cabinets, etc etc.
8) still trying to write Operation World in the midst of that!
so, i've decided i'm going to travel as little as possible, work as much as possible (goodbye, already negligible social life!), and be thankful as much as possible for this great team and all the people who support us through prayer and goodwill.
on another note, we are trying to use the tools that already exist to mobilize more prayer and get more people involved! find out by joining us at our newly redesigned team website
HERE
or at our cool and fast growing new facebook page
HERE
all for now,
jason
Monday, July 21, 2008
slovenia - where nothing seems to happen
well, not NOTHING, but it was a real trial to find newsworthy stories and especially accounts of spiritual life in this allegedly lovely little country on the fault line between the balkans and western europe. a couple of tidbits...
it's the only ex-communist country to have held the presidency of the EU (in 2007).
shortly after being accepted INTO the EU (in 2004) the government decided to vote out of existence an anti-corruption initiative that had been set up in order to speed up accession into the EU. clever pragmatists, those Slovenes :)
on the church/religion level here is a sneak preview of what i wrote for OW:
South Slavs – pray for unity and the formation of an Evangelical Alliance. Almost none of the few dozen fellowships are self-funding; the vast majority rely on external financial support. Pray for Slovene Christians to rise to the challenge of supporting their own pastors and even sending missionaries.
it's the only ex-communist country to have held the presidency of the EU (in 2007).
shortly after being accepted INTO the EU (in 2004) the government decided to vote out of existence an anti-corruption initiative that had been set up in order to speed up accession into the EU. clever pragmatists, those Slovenes :)
on the church/religion level here is a sneak preview of what i wrote for OW:
A long history of Catholic tradition is under threat. The three main Christian groups (Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran) are lacking in spiritual vitality and in rapid decline into irrelevance. Atheism and New Age beliefs are increasingly prevalent as is general spiritual apathy. Pray for an awakening in the mainline churches that will draw the many nominal Christians into personal faith in Christ.
Evangelicals are few, underfunded and divided. There is an evangelical presence in only 28 out of 210 municipalities, so church planting teams are clearly needed. The tiny evangelical population often reflects the divisive culture of theWednesday, July 16, 2008
weddings
everywhere i turn, there seems to be friends getting married. old friends from canada, old friends from england, recent friends from doulos and more recent friends from england (errr, scotland too) once again. i'm very happy for them...and continue wonder if my own matrimonial ambivalence is healthy or unambitious, a sign of contentment or of laziness or selfishness. i normally don't ruminate so much on the issue, but this recent spate of weddings and engagements has prompted me to consider many things.
i also seem to be a rather difficult case. due to Operation World, i am rather slavishly (albeit willingly and only for the time being) pinned to the location of London, the time demands of my work/ministry and the financial constraints (if you can rightly label them in a theological sense constraints) of being a "faith Kingdom worker". not to mention what some have decided on my behalf are impossibly high standards. not only does this rather dramatically narrow down the number of eligible females, but it also quite comprehensively disqualifies me from eligibility according to many otherwise quite desireable single women!
i'm also quite conflicted about the right approach to the issue of male-female relationships. is it best to sit back and let God do the work, asking for His provision as we would for our daily bread or our financial support or the faith to continue in our walk? or should we be proactive, planning our campaign and counting the cost, not just asking, but seeking and knocking as well?
i dunno. i'm not sure anyone else really does, either.
i also seem to be a rather difficult case. due to Operation World, i am rather slavishly (albeit willingly and only for the time being) pinned to the location of London, the time demands of my work/ministry and the financial constraints (if you can rightly label them in a theological sense constraints) of being a "faith Kingdom worker". not to mention what some have decided on my behalf are impossibly high standards. not only does this rather dramatically narrow down the number of eligible females, but it also quite comprehensively disqualifies me from eligibility according to many otherwise quite desireable single women!
i'm also quite conflicted about the right approach to the issue of male-female relationships. is it best to sit back and let God do the work, asking for His provision as we would for our daily bread or our financial support or the faith to continue in our walk? or should we be proactive, planning our campaign and counting the cost, not just asking, but seeking and knocking as well?
i dunno. i'm not sure anyone else really does, either.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
italian restaurants and easter services
i am a part time reviewer of restaurants (nice gig when you can get it). one thing that i have noticed is that there are a number of chains of Italian restaurants prominent on high streets in the UK - three to be precise - which are owned by the same restaurant group. really the philosophy behind these three chains is the same. the food is styled the same. the decor is different, but the layout is the same; the staff wear slightly different uniforms, the types of pizzas or pastas or salads is a little different from one place to the next. i assume that most people don't really notice these things, thinking that the different names and colours and slightly varied menu means different ownership.
this is a malaise that many have mentioned in connection with UK high streets. in the name of "consumer choice" and "variety", we are actually LOSING diversity. all the unique, one-off, mom and pop places out there are disappearing and being replaced by cookie cutter replicas which you find in every high street everywhere. increasing commercialization actually is decreasing our choice.
i went to church twice last weekend. that's slightly more than 1 visit more than my average weekly church attendance. it was for a Good Friday service and an Easter Sunday service. the two most important dates in the Christian calendar. i was certainly expecting to sing some great hymns or choruses of the past which resonate with this special time of year. Wesley's "Christ the Lord is Risen Today", etc.
all we got were the same choruses we sing every other week. if i didn't know any better i would think that there were actually only about 25 Christian songs in existence and we are forced to sing these same ones over and over, at Christmas, Easter, for Lent, for Pentecost, etc, ad nauseum.
the songs we sang were all good songs. they were done well by the band. but they were THE SAME as every other week.
i wonder if increased commercialization of the highly profitable and well-marketed WORSHIP INDUSTRY has yielded the same results. we are now compelled to only sing songs by about 4 or 5 different writers/artists because they are the most popular. no more local artists. no more rediscovered gems of hymns from days gone by. no more worship materials developed in house by our own musicians (unless you are a megachurch with a band signed to a label of course).
the more churches i go to, the more i feel like the songs we sing are just like pizzas in those Italian eateries. good enough in their own right, but in the end, a bit tired and a bit "samey".
(don't even get me started on the number of times we have to sing a song over and over in one go before it gets a bit annoying. if those songwriters can't be bothered to write more than 2 verses, why should we feel compelled to sing the song for 7 minutes! even the horrible 3 minute pop songs on the radio realize this truth!)
when we lose touch with our traditions, we are poorer for it. when we lose diversity, whether in ecosystems/wildlife, cuisine, or the musical canon of evangelicalism, we are much poorer for that as well.
this is a malaise that many have mentioned in connection with UK high streets. in the name of "consumer choice" and "variety", we are actually LOSING diversity. all the unique, one-off, mom and pop places out there are disappearing and being replaced by cookie cutter replicas which you find in every high street everywhere. increasing commercialization actually is decreasing our choice.
i went to church twice last weekend. that's slightly more than 1 visit more than my average weekly church attendance. it was for a Good Friday service and an Easter Sunday service. the two most important dates in the Christian calendar. i was certainly expecting to sing some great hymns or choruses of the past which resonate with this special time of year. Wesley's "Christ the Lord is Risen Today", etc.
all we got were the same choruses we sing every other week. if i didn't know any better i would think that there were actually only about 25 Christian songs in existence and we are forced to sing these same ones over and over, at Christmas, Easter, for Lent, for Pentecost, etc, ad nauseum.
the songs we sang were all good songs. they were done well by the band. but they were THE SAME as every other week.
i wonder if increased commercialization of the highly profitable and well-marketed WORSHIP INDUSTRY has yielded the same results. we are now compelled to only sing songs by about 4 or 5 different writers/artists because they are the most popular. no more local artists. no more rediscovered gems of hymns from days gone by. no more worship materials developed in house by our own musicians (unless you are a megachurch with a band signed to a label of course).
the more churches i go to, the more i feel like the songs we sing are just like pizzas in those Italian eateries. good enough in their own right, but in the end, a bit tired and a bit "samey".
(don't even get me started on the number of times we have to sing a song over and over in one go before it gets a bit annoying. if those songwriters can't be bothered to write more than 2 verses, why should we feel compelled to sing the song for 7 minutes! even the horrible 3 minute pop songs on the radio realize this truth!)
when we lose touch with our traditions, we are poorer for it. when we lose diversity, whether in ecosystems/wildlife, cuisine, or the musical canon of evangelicalism, we are much poorer for that as well.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
hawaii
i had to spend a few days in hawaii (due to some speaking commitments), but after i agreed, i have some doubts about whether it had been a good idea to agree on such a long trip and over a week out of the office (and away from the book).
in the end i was glad that i did. the speaking went quite well, and i rediscovered that i do love these opportunities. in that sense i am looking forward to finishing OW so that i can spend more time speaking, teaching, communicating.
i also learned a lot about hawaii's history. it an arguable case that hawaii is actually an illegally occupied sovereign territory (see here), annexed by the USA in violation of the will of the elected sovereign of Hawaii (yes at this point their kings and queens were elected). funny that the USA should clamour for independence for Kosovo and Kuwait, when they themselves are far from innocent on such issues.
anyway, i found that people in Hawaii (and the USA in general) were very friendly, generous,
open and hospitable as well as world-aware and desirous of having a redemptive and positive presence in the wider world. maybe it was just the people i was with, but the stereotypes that pervade much of the rest of the world (sadly reinforced by such clips as Miss Teen South Carolina) are often very far from the truth.
hawaii is also beautiful in many ways...i could go on about this, but instead, why don't you just look at my photos, one example of which i have included here. not the best shots of some of these sights, but they do the job adequately! see them here.
in the end i was glad that i did. the speaking went quite well, and i rediscovered that i do love these opportunities. in that sense i am looking forward to finishing OW so that i can spend more time speaking, teaching, communicating.
i also learned a lot about hawaii's history. it an arguable case that hawaii is actually an illegally occupied sovereign territory (see here), annexed by the USA in violation of the will of the elected sovereign of Hawaii (yes at this point their kings and queens were elected). funny that the USA should clamour for independence for Kosovo and Kuwait, when they themselves are far from innocent on such issues.
anyway, i found that people in Hawaii (and the USA in general) were very friendly, generous,
open and hospitable as well as world-aware and desirous of having a redemptive and positive presence in the wider world. maybe it was just the people i was with, but the stereotypes that pervade much of the rest of the world (sadly reinforced by such clips as Miss Teen South Carolina) are often very far from the truth.
hawaii is also beautiful in many ways...i could go on about this, but instead, why don't you just look at my photos, one example of which i have included here. not the best shots of some of these sights, but they do the job adequately! see them here.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
retinal scans
despite all the scifi elements and cloak and dagger mystery associated, i myself am not a strong advocate of retinal scanning technology. having wasted many hours of my life standing in a queue at immigration at Heathrow Airport, i longed for a quicker way to get through the endless lines of tourists, students, businessmen and all sorts of shady characters looking for ways into the cash-rich bonanza of the UK.
finally, one immigration official - as i was LEAVING the country for Hong Kong - suggested that i sign up for the retinal scan tech which fast tracks me through immigration. so i went in and got my eyes scanned and data registered in about 5 minutes.
coming home, on a flight that arrived around 7 am (peak arrival time for overseas flights), i sidestepped the hour-long queue and went to the scanning machine. one woman was in front of me and she took 5 seconds to get through. you walk onto the spot, place your face near the camera which scans you and matches the scan to the data in their computers. since i'm a permanent resident here, i can come and go as i please. within a few seconds, i was through. i was literally the SECOND person at the baggage carousel. ahead of all the fat cats from first class and all!
of course, if your suitcase is the last one off the plane, it's all in vain!
i'm just assuming that i'm not getting some Manchurian Candidate style implant as a result of those brief encounters with the scanning technology :)
finally, one immigration official - as i was LEAVING the country for Hong Kong - suggested that i sign up for the retinal scan tech which fast tracks me through immigration. so i went in and got my eyes scanned and data registered in about 5 minutes.
coming home, on a flight that arrived around 7 am (peak arrival time for overseas flights), i sidestepped the hour-long queue and went to the scanning machine. one woman was in front of me and she took 5 seconds to get through. you walk onto the spot, place your face near the camera which scans you and matches the scan to the data in their computers. since i'm a permanent resident here, i can come and go as i please. within a few seconds, i was through. i was literally the SECOND person at the baggage carousel. ahead of all the fat cats from first class and all!
of course, if your suitcase is the last one off the plane, it's all in vain!
i'm just assuming that i'm not getting some Manchurian Candidate style implant as a result of those brief encounters with the scanning technology :)
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Kenya - some sensible changes and happy news
Quoting from The Week:
"A mass giveaway of free mosquito nets has almost halved child deaths from malaria in high-risk areas of Kenya. Since 2003, then Kenyan ministry of health has handed out 12.5 million insecticide-treated nets, increasing the proportion of children sleeping under protection from 5% to 52%. The scale of the progamme is unprecedented in Africa, and early results suggest it has been an astonishing success. Childhood mortality in some areas has fallen by 44%, with hospital admissions down by up to 57%."
No Western-controlled pharmaceuticals, no highly controversial and banned (but truly effective) DDT, just a simple solution. And not even that costly! If each net costs around $5US to make, that's around 65 million bucks. A lot. But that huge total is nothing compared to the $1.5 billion in INTEREST paid to service debts owed by Kenya to the IMF etc. And even less compared to the $650 billion the USA spent on its military this year.
Sometimes things really need to be put in perspective. The USA could pay for mosquito nets for every child in high-risk malarial areas in the whole freaking world a thousand times over and still have enough money left over to blow up the whole world.
"A mass giveaway of free mosquito nets has almost halved child deaths from malaria in high-risk areas of Kenya. Since 2003, then Kenyan ministry of health has handed out 12.5 million insecticide-treated nets, increasing the proportion of children sleeping under protection from 5% to 52%. The scale of the progamme is unprecedented in Africa, and early results suggest it has been an astonishing success. Childhood mortality in some areas has fallen by 44%, with hospital admissions down by up to 57%."
No Western-controlled pharmaceuticals, no highly controversial and banned (but truly effective) DDT, just a simple solution. And not even that costly! If each net costs around $5US to make, that's around 65 million bucks. A lot. But that huge total is nothing compared to the $1.5 billion in INTEREST paid to service debts owed by Kenya to the IMF etc. And even less compared to the $650 billion the USA spent on its military this year.
Sometimes things really need to be put in perspective. The USA could pay for mosquito nets for every child in high-risk malarial areas in the whole freaking world a thousand times over and still have enough money left over to blow up the whole world.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
shameless self-promotion and plugging myself
Well, it's been almost 11 months, but the DVD of The State of the Gospel is out there and ready for people to use.
We've produced a DVD which includes the transcript of the address, the powerpoint file, the audio file, the pdf of the whole presentation and the movie/video as well.
If you want to see what it looks like, just go to here.
And if you think that your ministry, church, small group or whatever would benefit from a copy of the DVD, then let me know! We're not trying to make a profit on this one, just get the material in the hands of people who will use it and try to recoup some of the cost in the process.
Jason
We've produced a DVD which includes the transcript of the address, the powerpoint file, the audio file, the pdf of the whole presentation and the movie/video as well.
If you want to see what it looks like, just go to here.
And if you think that your ministry, church, small group or whatever would benefit from a copy of the DVD, then let me know! We're not trying to make a profit on this one, just get the material in the hands of people who will use it and try to recoup some of the cost in the process.
Jason
Monday, August 20, 2007
the Muslim Jesus
i watched a very interesting documentary (on ITV of all places!) called The Muslim Jesus. it was all about the views of Muslims, both in the Quran and the Hadith and folk traditions, about Jesus. i know some of the stuff, but certainly not everything. there is a load of material about Jesus in the Muslim tradition. some of it is lifted straight from the Bible, other parts are created or borrowed but not contradictory to the Christian tradition and still other parts contradict outright the Christian tradition. such as the fact that when Jesus, at his second coming, declares himself a Muslim and tells all Christians to follow Mohammed and not himself. or the belief that Jesus after he returns, will marry, have kids, and die to be buried beside Mohammed.
on the flip side, Muslims do believe he was sinless, born of a virgin, was a prophet, performed miracles and was taken up to heaven without dying.
it made me think about Christians in general and how ignorant they are of Muslim belief. probably about as much as Muslims are about what Christians actually believe - i mean, just ask your average Muslim about the Trinity...
on the flip side, Muslims do believe he was sinless, born of a virgin, was a prophet, performed miracles and was taken up to heaven without dying.
it made me think about Christians in general and how ignorant they are of Muslim belief. probably about as much as Muslims are about what Christians actually believe - i mean, just ask your average Muslim about the Trinity...
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Bahamas - typical Caribbean
A lot of the same themes keep appearing everytime i write up a Caribbean country and Bahamas is not much different.
The country is overwhelmingly Christian in name (and even in practice), but nominalism is widespread reflected in a high rate of illegitimate births and widespread crime and drug use.
Its proximity to the USA means that a lot of money has been poured into the country. Firstly, to fight the establish of Bahamas as a drug transshipment point to the USA. It's ideally located for such a role being composed of many tiny islands all close to Florida. Second and more recently, tourism. The Bahamian economy hinges on tourism - 80% of tourists are from the USA. Especially actively courted are the rich. Any investment of more than 500,000 USD into property development or infrastructre gets u permanent resident status. Which in turns gets you a tax haven, for which Bahamas is becoming famous.
Johnny Depp has a private island here. As does John Travolta, Faith Hill, Tiger Woods, Sean Combs, Nicolas Cage, etc etc.
But what about the islanders themselves? I suppose they have it better than a lot of other Caribbean natives. However, although 95% of the country are affiliated to Christianity, and most households have a Bible, there's not a lot of active faith in the nation. Or so it seems. The younger generation is increasingly alienated from the church, gaining their values more from TV and MTV culture and tourists than from the Christian traditional sources.
Will we see a slow ebb of the Christian faith? Or a renewal that will break the pattern?
The country is overwhelmingly Christian in name (and even in practice), but nominalism is widespread reflected in a high rate of illegitimate births and widespread crime and drug use.
Its proximity to the USA means that a lot of money has been poured into the country. Firstly, to fight the establish of Bahamas as a drug transshipment point to the USA. It's ideally located for such a role being composed of many tiny islands all close to Florida. Second and more recently, tourism. The Bahamian economy hinges on tourism - 80% of tourists are from the USA. Especially actively courted are the rich. Any investment of more than 500,000 USD into property development or infrastructre gets u permanent resident status. Which in turns gets you a tax haven, for which Bahamas is becoming famous.
Johnny Depp has a private island here. As does John Travolta, Faith Hill, Tiger Woods, Sean Combs, Nicolas Cage, etc etc.
But what about the islanders themselves? I suppose they have it better than a lot of other Caribbean natives. However, although 95% of the country are affiliated to Christianity, and most households have a Bible, there's not a lot of active faith in the nation. Or so it seems. The younger generation is increasingly alienated from the church, gaining their values more from TV and MTV culture and tourists than from the Christian traditional sources.
Will we see a slow ebb of the Christian faith? Or a renewal that will break the pattern?
Thursday, August 02, 2007
North Korea - spiralling into madness
well, i don't have the time or space to go on enough about the horror of what has happened to the people of North Korea. i usually support policies of non-violence, but in this case and in the case of Zimbabwe, i sometimes wonder if just one bullet from a sniper rifle might solve a lot of problems. oops, did i just write that?
anyway, here we have a situation where the centralized religion is formed around an unholy trinity of worship of father (Kim Il Sung, the original dictator), son (current leader Kim Jong Il) and holy spirit (the spirit of "juche", literally independence).
despite this juche concept, north korea hasn't been able to feed itself since before 1995. as many as 3 million have starved to death since then, and it would be more if aid from South Korea, China and the West hasn't been sent - millions of tonnes of food.
the economy is in a death spiral - the only way North Korea has survived until now is through a chain of illicit money-spinning ventures bringing in cash from abroad. these include counterfeiting US money, gambling rings and parlours, drug dealing and fake cigarettes sold on the black market. as Japan and the West squeeze out these sources of income, Mr. Kim is alleged to have told his the Chinese Premier (his sugar-daddy) "the regime can't survive if this continues".
in the meantime the North Koreans themselves are forced to forage for edible grass and plants (often causing serious gastro-intestinal harm to themselves), to steal food (and end up in concentration camps if caught) or even cannibalism (human meat is available on the black market, although it is the death penalty for selling or buying).
somehow, beyond understanding, the number of Christians is growing. there are no real churches. how can a "church" grow when:
possessing a Bible or NT
gathering together for Christian meetings
saying the name "Jesus" or "God"
sharing the Gospel with another
can all bring summary execution?
the truth is that we don't know most of what is going on in North Korea, but i think that when the walls finally crumble, we will be amazed at what has been occurring. the question is, will the world be ready to rebuild this broken nation?
will Chinese and South Korean Christians be ready to SERVE a free North Korea by holistic ministry? South Koreans keep praying for unification, but judging by the state of their own church scene, how could God allow for unification when there is hardly any unity within South Korean Christianity. will they just compete for glory and honour in a new playing field of North Korea or put down their own agendas, plans and divisions and truly be servants?
anyway, here we have a situation where the centralized religion is formed around an unholy trinity of worship of father (Kim Il Sung, the original dictator), son (current leader Kim Jong Il) and holy spirit (the spirit of "juche", literally independence).
despite this juche concept, north korea hasn't been able to feed itself since before 1995. as many as 3 million have starved to death since then, and it would be more if aid from South Korea, China and the West hasn't been sent - millions of tonnes of food.
the economy is in a death spiral - the only way North Korea has survived until now is through a chain of illicit money-spinning ventures bringing in cash from abroad. these include counterfeiting US money, gambling rings and parlours, drug dealing and fake cigarettes sold on the black market. as Japan and the West squeeze out these sources of income, Mr. Kim is alleged to have told his the Chinese Premier (his sugar-daddy) "the regime can't survive if this continues".
in the meantime the North Koreans themselves are forced to forage for edible grass and plants (often causing serious gastro-intestinal harm to themselves), to steal food (and end up in concentration camps if caught) or even cannibalism (human meat is available on the black market, although it is the death penalty for selling or buying).
somehow, beyond understanding, the number of Christians is growing. there are no real churches. how can a "church" grow when:
possessing a Bible or NT
gathering together for Christian meetings
saying the name "Jesus" or "God"
sharing the Gospel with another
can all bring summary execution?
the truth is that we don't know most of what is going on in North Korea, but i think that when the walls finally crumble, we will be amazed at what has been occurring. the question is, will the world be ready to rebuild this broken nation?
will Chinese and South Korean Christians be ready to SERVE a free North Korea by holistic ministry? South Koreans keep praying for unification, but judging by the state of their own church scene, how could God allow for unification when there is hardly any unity within South Korean Christianity. will they just compete for glory and honour in a new playing field of North Korea or put down their own agendas, plans and divisions and truly be servants?
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
sweating again...
well, i finally joined the gym after almost 8 months away. after the last two operations, i was required to take it easy. which is a shame because i lost everything i had gained from the previous time. anyway, i am grateful that the local gym let me have a student rate. there are free classes there as well, with everything from yoga to pilates to boxercise to actual karate lessons! but i think i'll just concentrate on the rowing machine, the stationary bike, elliptical cross trainer and the weights for now. still taking it easy on the knee.
it is such a nice feeling to be really physically tired and drained from a good workout at the end of the day. and my body definitely needs some tuning up after 8 months in the shed. even so, i constantly remember Paul's words to Timothy about physical exercise being a little good, but spiritual exercise being better.
and just so you don't get bored with my own egocentric posts about me...i'll include some other stuff in another post...
it is such a nice feeling to be really physically tired and drained from a good workout at the end of the day. and my body definitely needs some tuning up after 8 months in the shed. even so, i constantly remember Paul's words to Timothy about physical exercise being a little good, but spiritual exercise being better.
and just so you don't get bored with my own egocentric posts about me...i'll include some other stuff in another post...
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