HAPPY 16th CHARIS

We're so far away but we are right with you...

YOU'VE left amazing memeories with us here on your visits.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Whose house do you live in?

I read Ravi Zacharias a lot, I have great respect for his apologetics in our modern world...I read this today and really valued the insight... Jill Carattini a senior associate in his ministry penned it.

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There is something about an inbox that subtlety (and not so subtlety) conveys the notion that we are important. With three missed calls on the cell phone, 18 unread e-mails, and two messages on the answering machine, we are pelted with the enticing idea: "Someone needs me!" The immediate ring, buzz, or pop-up note proclaiming the arrival of these new messages is somehow complimentary, even as it demands our attention--"Check your mailbox now! Someone is looking for you!"

The language of technology seems to further our sense of importance by bidding us to claim and personalize these worlds. I am only one click away from "my documents," "my calendar," "my favorites," "my music," "my pictures," and "my shopping cart." Thomas de Zengotita calls it "MeWorld." In a book that examines the ways in which the world of media shapes our lives, de Zengotita portrays the technologically advanced, media-saturated West as a place filled with millions of individual "flattered selves," each living in its own insulated, personalized world.(1) He believes the narcissism that comes from living in MeWorld has been fashioned and is constantly being fed by media representations in all areas of our lives, from those private representations that purport us the star (home videos, wedding photos) to the public advertisements, television, and magazines that address us personally.

Subtle as it may be, the most precarious part of flattered living is that we gradually lose sight of both life and self. Despite all of the overt declarations on my computer, this is not, in fact, my world. Though I am flattered by the attention of MeWorld, I am not the center of all existence. French philosopher Rene Descartes outlined one reason why: "Now, if I were independent of all other existence, and were myself the author of my being... I should have given myself all those perfections of which I have some idea, and I should thus be God." In other words, if I were truly independent, if the world truly revolved around me, why should I find in myself any imperfection at all? Is it not then irrational to live as if I am the center of the world?

Christians might take this inquiry one step further. How do I cultivate an awareness that this is God's world in a world that reminds me at every turn that it is mine?

The counter-cultural admission that we are not our own, nor walking alone is certainly a starting point. A poem called "The Avowal" by Denise Levertov speaks to such an awareness:

As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit's deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.


Living authentically involves an understanding of what truly undergirds us. Hence the fitting prayer of the hymnist: "This is my father's world. O let me ne'er forget."

When Jesus looked to the disciples on one of his last nights with them on earth, he covered their hearts with a similar notion. "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going... I am the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:1-4).

The earth is surely the Lord's and all that is in it. It is also our starting point, the place where we begin the journey toward home. We are not flattered on our way to this house, but transformed by the very one who prepares the way.

Cards anyone?

Sunday night we played cards, it was hard playing with so many of us using one pack and so many of the cards were folded..we lasted about 3 games, before we disrupted the games sufficiently enough that we all gave up....good laugh though, some funny family laughs came out of it

My first MAC

It feels a bit like Christmas, this new laptop is not totally new, but new to me, it's about 4 months old and is a MacBookPro with an Intel chip. I have been for the last 15 years a PC user. So it's like learning to walk again. All I have to do is figure out how to import my old .pst files from the Dell to this MacBook

Colleagues thought process...

Sitting across from 2 Engineers yesterday afternoon who work on one of the projects for me, this photo captures a brief technical discussion while we waited for the client to arrive.

Thinking Time...

I read my sisters blog this morning and found the "You Tube" Madonna video provoked a lot of thought....link here: Naomi

The statistics reveal that 40 children die every hour from HIV/Aids...living in Africa gives rise more often to the question "what can be done?

A global statistic reveals that 6619 people die every hour from all causes. From an eternal point of view another question challenges "what difference am I making in the lives around me?"

For the statistic averse just one more, 2 people die every second and 4 are born every second.

Also found this on www.data.org.

"Europeans spend $11 billion a year on icecream, while that same amount could fully fund the fight against global AIDS"

Kumasi and back in 24hours.....

Kotoka Airport - Accra. A Grand airport for a small plane. Probably could have fitted the plan into the check in queue!

Spent 45minute on a very small plane this week, it's the preferred mode to fly when travelling in the Hamatan season. (the Sahara sand which blows south over Ghana to the Altantic in the southerly winds causing dusty, dry agravating air and extremely low visibility) I was advised by the Citylink supervisor that when visibility gets too low, this plane can manouvre quickly if it comes down through the clouds on the wrong heading and if it needs to turn it can easily do so, thus avoiding any obstacles..... mmmm nice to know thanks.

Also made some new friend in Krofrom a suburb of Kumasi when I gave them my chewing gum pack to share, I managed to convince the older boy not to take them all but to share them and I think they realised afterwards that they had all benefited.

New Year in the Sun

Water Boys
The South Pole is that way ---

Laughing in the sun