Thoughts from my sick Dad...

Here is a post from a blog my Mom is keeping during their trip to Vanuatu to do some Bible translation help...
"I began to get sick on Sunday evening. The next morning I woke up with a mild headache and stomach cramps. As the day progressed, my headache grew. By evening I wasn’t very hungry, but still ate a normal supper. Big mistake. In the small hours of the morning, gut wrenching cramps, a frantic search for my flashlight, and a race to the outhouse, all repeated several times. And so on throughout most of my week on Tanna.

I thought that I had come prepared. I had the ridiculously expensive malaria preventative, the mosquito repellant, and a sleeping net. I had medicine for headaches. I had not anticipated this however, at least not emotionally. How can you? Malaise, a common symptom of giardia, was fueling my depressive thoughts. I had come so far, spent so much money and time in preparation for this. Why this?

Why not this? After all, was it not my intention in coming to participate in this translation program? You don’t have to hang around a group of missionaries very long before the conversation turns to stories of illness on the field, often related to the bowels. My ‘light and momentary affliction’ has been a common experience amongst those involved in this work. I was getting the full experience in just one short week. I don’t mean to paint an overly-rosy picture. I wish I would have been well. Just the culture shock of living in a new, very different place would have been enough, thanks. But, apparently not, and by His grace I am not as prone to second-guessing what’s best for me as I used to be. These islands are dotted with monuments to missionaries, both white and black-skinned, who died bringing Hope to these islands. Pastor Peter, Greg and Beth Ann have been doing this most of their adult lives. This week was nothing compared to what these and others have experienced."
Go Dad. Love you.

What is Christiany's big idea?

I'm going to a church right now called Coram Deo. For the longest time I had no idea what Coram Deo even ment. So I did a little research and came up with this. (Click the link above)

The Gospel Assumed, or Explicit?

Check out this post by Josh Patterson for The Village church

Why "The Explicit Gospel" and why am I blogging?

Today I was writing a message to my friend using facebook. Most of the time the amount of effort I put into writing a facebook message is akin to lifting my finger to change the channel on the remote. But this was a one of those "catch up on life" messages and I actually had to take the time to think through my life and sumarizes some of the major themes of late. I know it is nothing profound but I found it refreshing to recount life's happenings to a once great friend. What really got me going was trying to make plain to him was how the Gospel was working it's way in (and out) of my life. That's when I got to thinking about how good a thing it is to take the time to fully explain the Gospel and the million ways it is demonstrated to be good and true in my life.
Dictionary.com's definition of explicit is "fully and clearly expressed or demonstrated; leaving nothing merely implied; unequivocal." Thats what I hope this blog does with the Gospel and my life. To often I let life cruise by without expressing gospel musings along the way. So I've created this blog, mostly for myself, in order to collect and express how the great news of Jesus Christ crucified is changing and renewing this great sinner.