(The Original) Mission To Malawi

You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t posted a lot here in recent months. What was once a booming cacophany of random thoughts and happenings in my life has become a virtual ghost town. I’m wrestling with the idea of putting it to sleep for good. In fact, that’s exactly what this post was going to be. I was going to title it “Putting ‘er down” or “Closing up shop” or something like that and then take the opportunity to point you to one of my other sites. But, then I started looking over all of the posts that I have made here in the past 10 months and I started to get a little sentimental. It’s hard to end an era like that…and maybe, I realized, it doesn’t really need to end. Though there may’ve been a lull in the action, all is not necessarilly lost. So, I’ll leave it here for now and we’ll just see what happens with it over the next few weeks and months.

It’s just ridiculous for me to have 4 different places on the internet where I post what is happening with me! For the record, those 4 places are:

- This blog
- My very own MySpace account
- My COTN Newsletter (a new issue should be out this week, BTW)
- My COTN Development Journal

So, maybe it’s just that I feel overwhelmed when I think about keeping up with all of that.

But, this blog will stay in the mix for now…I just don’t like the look of it. Maybe it’s in need of a makeover.

For whatever reason, I felt that this was worthy of my first post in a while:

mars.google.com

Browse the Martian landscape with a Google Maps interface…

Ok, I’m finally caving to the pressure I’ve been feeling to update my blog. Several people have told me lately that they’re waiting for a new update so, with the newfound knowledge that people actually read my random musings, I felt encouraged to make a post.

For the sake of consistency, I’m gonna keep this thing all about random occurrences in my life. There’s plenty of other places where you can read all about my experiences at COTN…just not here.

Anyway, I’m in San Diego for the week and it’s been great to be back. It’s also pretty timely that the Olympics happen to be going on so, if I get bored, I can always turn them on. Katie and I were watching figure skating on Valentine’s day after picking up some burritos from Trujillo’s at 9pm. That’s a story for another time. But don’t worry, Katie still got a giant helium-filled, heart-shaped balloon from me…that’s pretty much every girl’s dream, right? Riiight…

Anyway, we were both noticing that the commentators seem really harsh this time around. It’s like they’re taking cues from American Idol to spice up the dialog. Everytime a skater made a mistake, you wouldn’t hear the typical, “Oh, that’s a shame.” Instead, it would be, “That was a horrible landing!” or, “That footwork was atrocious!” These days, maybe that’s what viewers want to hear.

We also laughed at the fact that the local NBC news team was comparing themselves to the olympic athletes in one of their promo reels.

“We’re no different from olympic athletes. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to bring you the latest breaking news.” Sure. Like we’re supposed to believe that sitting behind a desk and reading newscopy for $200K a year is the same as training for (and making it to) the Olympics. Well, I guess some Olympic athletes go on to make millions, but I’d like to believe that most of those athletes do it for the love of the game. Like curlers. The guys that compete in curling don’t do it for the money or fame…they do it because they love to hurl large smooth rocks down a strip of ice.

I don’t think that was a very inspired post, but I’m just getting back into it…I need some time.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated this, but I figure that today is a pretty big day and it’s worthy of a new post. Today is my first official day of working at COTN!! I’m actually still at the office (my temporary desk in the basement) as I type this. It was a day full of meetings and getting things organized and set up for my 2-month stay. Given that all first days are crazy, I still managed to get quite a bit of stuff done. You won’t see any major changes to the COTN website yet…that’s at least several weeks away…probably more like several months. But, it’s been great so far!! I hope to post a few pictures in the coming days to give you more of an idea of what life is like up here. It’s rainy…that’s for sure.

The only pictures I have at my immediate disposal right now are of Katie and I with my friend Dave at the Pioneer Place Apple Store in Portland. We were checking out the new Macs last Thursday and decided to play around with one of the web cams.

That’s all for now…time to go home!

It took me weeks to write my support letter. Through revision after revision, it just wasn’t coming together and I still don’t know that it’s exactly what I wanted it to be. In my support letter, I directed people to my website for more information. As of 9am this morning, there were no details here. But an amazing thing happened.

Over the past 18 hours, I created what you now see here. The truly amazing thing is that it wasn’t me who created that page…it was God. I woke up this morning with a vision that came out of nowhere and it just started to come together. There was no writer’s block, no design headaches, no coding challenges, no major distractions. It just worked. And, where I struggled for weeks to find the right way to communicate my passion through a letter, it took only a few hours to communicate so much more through this site. It became obvious to me that God was feeding me the words and the ideas. Cause seriously, I can’t do that stuff.

Obviously I’m looking for supporters, but I feel like I finally got it. I finally understand that it’s not about raising money for myself. It’s about raising money for the vision…my vision, COTN’s vision, and possibly even your vision. It’s about taking what God has given you and giving it back. Whether that’s 40 hours a week, some used clothing, half of your paycheck…it’s just clear to me now. God somehow reignited the spark within me today and I’m quite sure that I didn’t do anything to cause it or deserve it. But, the passion has returned…as if I just stepped off the plane in Malawi and am ready to get to work.

The famine and suffering in Malawi has reached the front page of CNN.com. The article, entitled “Hospital scene is like ‘hell on earth’” does not paint a pretty picture of the current crisis:

http://www.cnn.com

If the article is no longer on the front page, you can see it here:

Full Article

There have also been recent stores in the NY Times:

More Malawi News

People are starting to take notice…

Ok, so I promise I’ll tie all this together by the end.

First of all, I had a great Thanksgiving weekend. It was the first Thanksgiving that I spent at Disneyland! That’s right! This year, I decided to forego the usual turkey dinner tradition and opt instead for a day of fun at Mickey’s Magic Kingdom. The reason of course, was that I was spending the day with Katie and her family who also decided to take a year off from the usual traditions.

The idea reminds me of a movie…a horrible, horrible movie…Christmas with the Kranks. Don’t ever watch this movie…it just plain sucks! If you don’t believe me, check out the 4% Rotten Tomatoes rating that it got!!

Our day at Disneyland, however, was far from horrible…in fact, it was great! The crowds weren’t very bad at all and Katie and I stayed till midnight going on all the rides we could manage…including the cheesy little Fantasyland rides that only seem awesomely cool when you’re a kid. The only mildly disappointing thing was the food but, when you’re expecting turkey, stuffing, and homemade mashed potatos, it’s no wonder that the typical Disneyland fare just doesn’t cut it. I guess when you decide to skip Thanksgiving, you have to make some sacrifices!

Unfortunately, there aren’t any pictures of our glorious day at Disneyland…I didn’t bring my camera. But, I did have my camera on hand Friday night when I was over at my friend’s house playing with lightsabers. It really was as nerdy as it sounds (see below). My friend Dave had 3 of these toy lightsabers that are really high quality…complete with realistic sounds, metal handles, and blades sturdy enough to actually fight with.

Dave deals a punishing deathblow

Dave nearly breaks his finger

Dave and Ernie do battle

On the cover of this month’s GQ…

Right now, every guy is going, “Man, that’s awesome!!”. Every girl is saying to herself, “These guys are such nerds…” I’m sooo getting dumped tomorrow… =)

Ok, but if you think we’re Star Wars nerds, you have to check out these guys!

How does this tie in with Drew Barrymore? Well, Katie and I rented the movie My Date with Drew tonight about a real-life guy trying to get a real-life date with Drew Barrymore. The movie was ok…sorta in the style of Super Size Me, but not quite as good. Still worth renting if the idea intrigues you and/or you’re a huge Drew Barrymore fan. Anyway, they had a scene where one of the guys was using a lightsaber like the ones that Dave has.

That’s it. That’s the connection and the purpose for writing this post. It seemed a lot cooler in my head before I wrote it all down.

I was checking out some things tonight and realized that some of your comments have been blocked recently because my blogging software thinks that you’re trying to post spam. I’ve made some changes and now it should be fine. Not that there’s been much to comment on lately, but hopefully that will change before long!! I do have some crazy lightsaber pictures to post… =)

If you’re into Napoleon Dynamite and Halo: Napoleon Halo Remix

If you’re an Apple or iPod nut: Steve Jobs on SNL

If you’re a crazed Harry Potter fan: Harry Potter Makes $101.4 Million

Having just returned from Flood’s leadership conference (SOMA), I thought I would post my recently modified results. Among other things, SOMA focuses on two different instruments that help you to identify your strengths and personality. Much of the weekend is spent talking about how to use those individual characteristics in your life and in specific areas of ministry within the church.

For strengths, we use the StrengthsFinder test that was developed by the Gallup Organization. Out of 34 different “themes”, the test will give you your top 5 strengths. Mine are:

1. Responsibility
2. Harmony
3. Belief
4. Intellection (liking to think a lot)
5. Adaptability

The other test is the much loved MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) which groups you into 16 different personality types. The MBTI results sort of give you a guideline of where you fit, but it’s up to you to officially place yourself in one of the 16 boxes. A year and a half ago, I tested as an INTJ, but having looked a little closer at things and how I deal with things in my life, I’ve determined that I’m a bit different. I’m really an:

Introvert
Sensing
Thinking
Perceiving

That won’t mean much to you if you’re not familiar with the MBTI, but I guess that means you just ought to become familiar with it!! It’s very freeing to learn more about yourself and how you deal with the world and other people!