Prolific posting...
I have really got in the groove with my blog over the past several weeks, just not in this space. Check out my Xanga blog for "Ranting on Wednesdays" and other random musings...
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Happy New Year!
Apologies to the fervent readers of my blog who regret my inattention to blogging over the past few months. I have been posting some brief thoughts on my Xanga blog.
Apologies to the fervent readers of my blog who regret my inattention to blogging over the past few months. I have been posting some brief thoughts on my Xanga blog.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
FINALLY a new entry!
I just updated my Xanga blog with reference to a Thanksgiving sermon by John Piper, definitely worth a read. Check it out at: http://www.xanga.com/sojourner211
I just updated my Xanga blog with reference to a Thanksgiving sermon by John Piper, definitely worth a read. Check it out at: http://www.xanga.com/sojourner211
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Pray for Bangladesh
Many of you have been in touch with the news of the past week much more than me but as I was sifting through 10 days worth of email, I read about over 1000 Compassion sponsored children in peril from last week's floods. Please pray for Bangladesh, pray for the most vulnerable, pray for the children.
This excerpt from an email to me from Compassion International.
"Advisory: Flooding in Bangladesh.
International aid workers are struggling to help millions of people displaced by the recent flooding in parts of South Asia. The floods, caused by an abnormal monsoon season, have submerged vast areas of land in at least 38 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts. Compassion Bangladesh reports that children in at least seven Compassion-assisted projects have been affected.
Compassion Bangladesh staff workers say many of the affected Compassion-assisted children and their families are staying in disaster centers. However, staff workers are concerned that some children have already fallen sick from the water-borne diseases that have become epidemic in the area. To make matters worse, the severe flooding has also left many of these children’s parents or caregivers without work – magnifying their already impoverished situation.
Please pray for the entire Compassion family in Bangladesh that they may be comforted by God’s love and wisdom during this troubling time."
Many of you have been in touch with the news of the past week much more than me but as I was sifting through 10 days worth of email, I read about over 1000 Compassion sponsored children in peril from last week's floods. Please pray for Bangladesh, pray for the most vulnerable, pray for the children.
This excerpt from an email to me from Compassion International.
"Advisory: Flooding in Bangladesh.
International aid workers are struggling to help millions of people displaced by the recent flooding in parts of South Asia. The floods, caused by an abnormal monsoon season, have submerged vast areas of land in at least 38 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts. Compassion Bangladesh reports that children in at least seven Compassion-assisted projects have been affected.
Compassion Bangladesh staff workers say many of the affected Compassion-assisted children and their families are staying in disaster centers. However, staff workers are concerned that some children have already fallen sick from the water-borne diseases that have become epidemic in the area. To make matters worse, the severe flooding has also left many of these children’s parents or caregivers without work – magnifying their already impoverished situation.
Please pray for the entire Compassion family in Bangladesh that they may be comforted by God’s love and wisdom during this troubling time."
Monday, July 02, 2007
Australia's Sorry Indigenous Policy
You may have seen news last week about some new policy developments from my enlightened country of origin!
See below for a letter I sent to one of the leading Australian newspapers (apparently the Australian media doesn't like publishing my letters, so I have to publish them myself).
Also, see this article for Indigenous reaction.
Also, see this article for Indigenous reaction.
Indigenous policy: the source of political will matters
We do need strong political will to address problems in Indigenous Australia, particularly problems as evil as child abuse. If individual, family and community regeneration is the goal, then that political will (and control) needs to come from Aboriginal people themselves not decrees from Canberra.
We do need strong political will to address problems in Indigenous Australia, particularly problems as evil as child abuse. If individual, family and community regeneration is the goal, then that political will (and control) needs to come from Aboriginal people themselves not decrees from Canberra.
As an Australian working for the peak Indigenous policy organization in the US, I am flabbergasted by the Howard government’s ongoing pursuit of failed paternalism. Child abuse in Aboriginal Australia is the activity of people who have lost hope. How can Aboriginal people regain hope and future orientation if the Howard government repeatedly removes control from Aboriginal leaders and imposes draconian policy from on high?
The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development has briefed the Howard Government on a range of issues. I wish they would listen to them when they say “The identifiable cases of sustained progress in addressing the problems of families and children … are marked by being (Indigenous) -driven.”
When will we have an Australian government with the political will to give Aboriginal people meaningful control to address the problems faced by their communities?
Peter Morris, Washington, DC
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Transitions and faithfulness
For any of you who are addicted to my blog (is it possible? availability seems to be a condition of addiction!) I apologize for the last month or so of radio silence! In the span of the last month and a bit I have changed jobs, added the job of part-time children's ministry director, am still trying to transition from my old job, and Melanie's grandfather died.
I will be increasing my blogcount over the coming weeks but wanted to share this poem with you that I wrote on the way to Melanie's grandfather's funeral.
No, Maybe, Yes
We live in a world
Where "no" and "why"
Are more common than "yes".
"Yes" is "maybe,"
"If I don't get a better offer,"
"If I feel like it."
This pain, hurt, wrong thinking
Is in the hearts of those
Who say "God's promises are no"
"His Word is maybe."
Oh glorious truth!
Words that make tears
Roll down my cheeks:
All his promises are YES
He is utterly dependable,
Endlessly faithful.
Oh God, my God,
Your steadfast love,
Endures forever.
Written June 2, 2007
Inspired by 2 Corinthians 1:15-22 and Psalm 119:88-90
For any of you who are addicted to my blog (is it possible? availability seems to be a condition of addiction!) I apologize for the last month or so of radio silence! In the span of the last month and a bit I have changed jobs, added the job of part-time children's ministry director, am still trying to transition from my old job, and Melanie's grandfather died.
I will be increasing my blogcount over the coming weeks but wanted to share this poem with you that I wrote on the way to Melanie's grandfather's funeral.
No, Maybe, Yes
We live in a world
Where "no" and "why"
Are more common than "yes".
"Yes" is "maybe,"
"If I don't get a better offer,"
"If I feel like it."
This pain, hurt, wrong thinking
Is in the hearts of those
Who say "God's promises are no"
"His Word is maybe."
Oh glorious truth!
Words that make tears
Roll down my cheeks:
All his promises are YES
He is utterly dependable,
Endlessly faithful.
Oh God, my God,
Your steadfast love,
Endures forever.
Written June 2, 2007
Inspired by 2 Corinthians 1:15-22 and Psalm 119:88-90
Saturday, May 05, 2007
A few weeks on...
Reflections on the tragedy at Virginia Tech
Almost three weeks ago now, a terrible event occured on the campus of Virginia Tech, only a few hours south of where I live. As I wrote at the time, it reminded me of the emotions that were aroused five years ago, by a shooting on the campus of the University of Arizona...just a few minutes north of where Melanie and I lived.
There were so many thoughts and emotions the week of the tragedy, but two reflections that have persisted are as follows:
1. The leadership of Governor Tim Kaine
Governor Kaine is somewhat of an anomaly. He is a Democrat who was much more outspoken about the importance of his faith during the campaign than the Republican candidate. But it wasn't his political stances that struck me in the aftermath of the shootings. I was struck by how this political leader was speaking - even to the media - as a loving Dad, grieving with other parents. Listening to this interview with Kaine I almost cried to hear him recount his interactions with grieving parents, at least one of whom had lost their only child. How this country (and world) needs more leaders like that.
2. Representations of the shooter's identity
A piece by Robert Seagal of NPR was what I had been waiting all week to hear! Attending a church with a large proportion of Korean Americans that meets in Centreville, VA, only minutes from the killer's childhood home, the shooter's identity was particularly relevant to our thoughts and prayers.
Seagal's piece referred to international headlines that identified the shooter as "Korean" as being "evidence of yet another way that people who don’t know this country don’t get this country." He applauded a Washington Post headline that identified Cho as a local. He spoke about how Cho moved here when he was eight, went to public schools in Northern Virginia, and attended a university where there are many other Asian students. Cho's disturbing ideas, expressed in plays and other writings, were "the stuff of [American] newspapers and culture." His ability to buy a gun reflected "an American interprettation of liberty. An idea which, if not unique to us, is no Asian import." The conclusion of the story was most poignant (and, I think, accurate) "like the kids who murdered at Columbine [Cho] lived and died as one of us."
I've got more reflecting to do on all of this...I still feel passionately it's important for us not to forget the brokenness of our world that is brought into stark relief by events like this.
Reflections on the tragedy at Virginia Tech
Almost three weeks ago now, a terrible event occured on the campus of Virginia Tech, only a few hours south of where I live. As I wrote at the time, it reminded me of the emotions that were aroused five years ago, by a shooting on the campus of the University of Arizona...just a few minutes north of where Melanie and I lived.
There were so many thoughts and emotions the week of the tragedy, but two reflections that have persisted are as follows:
1. The leadership of Governor Tim Kaine
Governor Kaine is somewhat of an anomaly. He is a Democrat who was much more outspoken about the importance of his faith during the campaign than the Republican candidate. But it wasn't his political stances that struck me in the aftermath of the shootings. I was struck by how this political leader was speaking - even to the media - as a loving Dad, grieving with other parents. Listening to this interview with Kaine I almost cried to hear him recount his interactions with grieving parents, at least one of whom had lost their only child. How this country (and world) needs more leaders like that.
2. Representations of the shooter's identity
A piece by Robert Seagal of NPR was what I had been waiting all week to hear! Attending a church with a large proportion of Korean Americans that meets in Centreville, VA, only minutes from the killer's childhood home, the shooter's identity was particularly relevant to our thoughts and prayers.
Seagal's piece referred to international headlines that identified the shooter as "Korean" as being "evidence of yet another way that people who don’t know this country don’t get this country." He applauded a Washington Post headline that identified Cho as a local. He spoke about how Cho moved here when he was eight, went to public schools in Northern Virginia, and attended a university where there are many other Asian students. Cho's disturbing ideas, expressed in plays and other writings, were "the stuff of [American] newspapers and culture." His ability to buy a gun reflected "an American interprettation of liberty. An idea which, if not unique to us, is no Asian import." The conclusion of the story was most poignant (and, I think, accurate) "like the kids who murdered at Columbine [Cho] lived and died as one of us."
I've got more reflecting to do on all of this...I still feel passionately it's important for us not to forget the brokenness of our world that is brought into stark relief by events like this.
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