Monday, February 28, 2011

Grace vs Karma


 "Pontiff dons pop star's iconic eye-wear, keeps pointy hat"
 Read it before and it was worth the re-read. Caption courtesy of one Jessica Smith, words smith extraordinaire.

http://www.thepoachedegg.net/the-poached-egg/2010/09/bono-interview-grace-over-karma.html

Blessings,

KB

P.S.  Can't go wrong with Mumford & Sons "Sigh No More" on this dreary day.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Slinky Unclassified

Part I: Background

My older brother is a West Point graduate and during his walk on the long gray line, our family got to know his classmates very well. They'd come and visit us when they were stationed at Ft. Campbell or they'd go out to dinner with us when we'd come to New York-through varied interactions there was lots of bonding. It is pretty fantastic to have thirty older brother figures.


His shirt definitely reads: "it's all fun and games until someone loses a nut''-with a bunch of squirrels pictured.

One of my favorite West Point guys is Michael Campbell-known to my sister and I as Mikey. Such a cool dude. Strong heart for Jesus, laid back, crazy smart about things no one should be that smart about, adventurous, great sense of humour, etc. Uber blessed to have him as part of our West Point family thing. He just got engaged to a fellow nurse (whoop!) and we hope God pours blessing upon blessing onto their family.



My younger sister (Jenny) and I went to visit Mikey in Hawaii last year-that trip was a blast-including the part where we were all evacuated for a tsunami. Well, sort of a tsunami. The only thing that makes Hawaii better is watching lots of 'Arrested Development' and quoting the second 'Ace Ventura' every second of the day. Being in a natural paradise and laughing with good people are two of my favorite things.


"It's gonna be some kind of record!"
 One of our afternoons was spent hiking this old railroad track up the side of a mountain. For those of you who have seen the second Ace Ventura, I'm sure you understand the temptation to quote the slinky scene over and over again. Which we did. "How selfish of me, let's do all the things that yoouuu want to do.''

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltwxC19s5u8

Part II: Actual Point of Post

A few days ago I ran across an online comic about how the slinky is never really as much fun as advertised. I sent it to Mikey with the subject line of 'Slinky'. When he replied, it came back as Slinky UNCLASSIFIED. I guess since it came from a military email account it has to say that? I honestly have no idea. Either way, the term Slinky Unclassified gave me the mental picture of a special agent Slinky gone off the grid-a renegade Slinky with something to prove and nothing to lose. A Rambo Slinky.

Obviously a thirty second mental blip in my mind turned into an hour and a half on Microsoft Paint to bring us all this little work of magic:


Slinky Unclassified: This time he's no push over...

Happy early weekend, y'all. Go buy a Slinky.

Blessings,

KB

P.S. Mavis Staples' album "You Are Not Alone" is fantastic. Good job, Mavis Staples and Jeff Tweedy. And thanks to sister mentioned above for giving it to me for my birthday.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

In my defense...

The other night, I snapped at one of my best friends.  I snapped at her because I was getting defensive...of my knowledge of baseball of all things.  (For those who don't know me well, a generous summation of my knowledge of all sports is: "limited.")  And pretty much immediately, maybe even before I was done with my stupid tyraid, I regretted it deeply. I freakin' hate when I do that kind of thing.  So ugly.  Why couldn't I have just let it go?  Or responded with a nonchalant "oh, actually I do know that reference...amazing right?"  Why did I feel such fire in my belly to come to my own defense at the expense of someone else?  (someone I really love and respect)  What is it in me that is so desperate not to be humiliated?

In one study I did of the gospel of Matthew, I studied specifically Jesus' words and then wrote at the tops of the pages in my Bible words that seemed to sum up his attitudes and/or his commands.  Guess what word is written at the top of nearly every page of the book of Matthew in my Bible?  Humility.  And um, am I the only one who notices the uncomfortable similarity in the words  "humiliate" and "humility"?  Ugh.

Don't worry...I'm not actually about to delve into a blermon (that's blog + sermon, for you word mash-up novices) about humility and Jesus' commands and examples of it.  I'm just going to tell you this:  I'm wrestling with this today...noticing that whatever it is in me that arched its back and hissed at my friend when her words humiliated...uh, humbled me seems to be in direct opposition of something that will make me more like my true self.  

See, I'm not up for adding "humble thyself" to a religious to do list from which I will never scratch off a single item (so I sure as heck am not going to suggest anyone else do the same).  I have nothing to earn by being more humble.  But I do think I have a lot to gain from letting humility and even humiliation find a comfortable place in my world.  What I know is this: God designed me to be whole and perfect and sin messed all that up.  Jesus laid down his life once and for all to fix that colossal mess up.  And now, through relationship with him, I have the opportunity to become more and more like that true, whole self that He originally intended me to be...and that's what I want.  I want to learn how to humble myself because it was a clue that Jesus gave me to step closer to my true self.  And it's there that I expect to find a more full life.  Through that full life, I expect to honor God more consistently and more joyfully.

For the record, I have a pathetic knowledge of basically every sport known to man.  I did know who Mark McGwire was and that he'd had a big tie with someone else for home runs or something and that later it turned out he used steroids.  But in the spirit of full disclosure, when I got all huffy about it, I actually wasn't 100% sure if I was thinking of the right person.  I also just googled the name to make sure I was spelling it right.  It was totally fair to say, "She probably doesn't know what that means."

Lord, have mercy.  I want to see You.  


~KtH


p.s. Gungor - Beautiful Things...can't stop listening to this song.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentine's Day

Courtesy of 'The Writer's Almanac', here's a little bit of historical insight to Valentine's Day. Super thankful we don't celebrate Lupercalia anymore.

Blessings,

KB

P.S. Dean Martin's 'Greatest Hits' is the perfect fun lovey-dovey music for today.

"Today is Valentine's Day.
Everyone agrees that Valentine's Day is named for a Christian martyr named St. Valentine. The problem is, there are at least three St. Valentines, all of them martyrs, and not much is known about any of them. One St. Valentine — Valentine of Terni, from the second century A.D. — was a bishop, and he was martyred in Rome, but that's all we know. According to legend, another St. Valentine — Valentine of Rome — bravely disobeyed the Roman Emperor Claudius II, who had forbidden young men from getting married because he thought unmarried men made better soldiers. Valentine married people anyway, and he was executed on this day in the year 270 A.D. At some point, it was claimed that both of these saints were martyred on February 14th, but there is no reason to think that it is true in either case.
In 1382, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote "Parlement of Foules," and he wrote: "For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate." From this couplet, some people infer that there was an old tradition that birds choose their mates in mid-February, and therefore, it made sense that people would do the same. The problem is that there was another St. Valentine, St. Valentine of Genoa, who died on May 3rd and whose feast day was celebrated on May 2nd, which seems like a more reasonable time for birds to be mating. Also, Chaucer wrote the poem to celebrate the first anniversary of the engagement between King Richard II and Anne of Bohemia, and their marriage treaty had been signed May 2nd, 1381. So Chaucer was probably referring to the May 2nd Valentine's Day, but it was misunderstood as February 14th.
Either way, February 14th was a convenient time for the Christian Church to have a holiday because it coincided with an ancient fertility festival that was celebrated every year between February 13th and February 15th. The festival was called Lupercalia, and it was partially to honor Lupa, the legendary wolf who suckled the orphaned twin brothers Romulus and Remus, who went on to found the city of Rome. Lupercalia itself was building on an even older festival, called Februa, associated with cleansing and fertility — it is from Februa that we get the name February. For Lupercalia, goats and a dog were sacrificed, and then two high-ranking young men representing Romulus and Remus went up to the altar and had their faces smeared with the sacrificial blood. After the blood was wiped off with wool dipped in milk, the men stripped naked, cut strips of skin from the sacrificed goats, and ran around the city, joined by other enthusiastic young men. Women who wanted to get pregnant would position themselves so that they could be flogged on the backside with these strips, which was supposed to cleanse them and make them fertile. Lupercalia was a very popular festival, and it was still widely practiced even during the fifth century, more than 150 years after the Roman Empire was officially Christian. It is easy to see why the Church would have been happy to have a different sort of holiday take its place.
Perhaps because of misinterpreting Chaucer, by the turn of the 15th century, St. Valentine's Day was known as a day to celebrate romantic love. The Duke of Orleans is credited with writing the first valentine, from captivity in the Tower of London, when he wrote St. Valentine's Day love poems to his wife. In Hamlet, Ophelia sings about Saint Valentine's day; she says, "I a maid at your window, / To be your Valentine." In 1797, a British publisher came out with The Young Man's Valentine Writer, which suggested sentimental poems for young men who were not good poets themselves. Soon after, young men no longer had to write down verses — postage got so cheap that it was realistic to send valentines in the mail, and mass-produced valentines were available for purchase. In 1913, Hallmark started making valentine cards.
These days, Valentine's Day is a big event in the consumer world. Last year, the average person spent $103 on Valentine's gifts, food, and entertainment — and that was lower than average because of the recession. The numbers differ by gender too — last year, men spent an average of $135 and women $72.
On this day in 1842, the most desirable place to be in New York was at the Valentine's Day "Boz Ball," held in honor of the novelist Charles Dickens, (books by this author) who published his early stories under the pseudonym "Boz." He had not yet published most of his most great books: A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1849), A Tale of Two Cities (1849), and Great Expectations (1860) were all still to come. But already he was a huge celebrity. Dickens and his wife, Catherine, had arrived in Boston on January 22nd, and the city welcomed them with all sorts of events, until "Boston" was being called "Boz-town." New Yorkers were determined to outdo Boston, so they organized a planning committee. Boston's major Dickens event had been a dinner for men only, so New York decided to give a ball and include women. The ball was at the Park Theater, New York's largest venue, which could hold 3,000 people. Three thousand tickets sold out immediately at $5 apiece, which was quite a bit in those days. Only the most elite society members were welcome — each guest was thoroughly vetted before being allowed to attend. New Yorkers who didn't make it in were trying to spend up to $40 to get a ticket.
The Boz Ball was unprecedented. Thousands of dollars were spent on decorations. There was a bust of Dickens with a bald eagle hanging above it, holding a laurel wreath. There were huge banners, decorated with scenes from his books. There were elaborate displays to represent each state. The New Yorkers were dressed in their finest. People had trouble dancing because there was simply not enough room, but they did it anyway, and the dances alternated with performances from Dickens' books. In a letter to a friend, Dickens called it "the most splendid, gorgeous, brilliant affair you ... can possibly conceive."

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Eddie Izzard and Hindi

There is a British comedian named Eddie Izzard that does a routine about learning French and the impractical phrases he was taught, including 'the monkey is in the tree'. It's always been a favorite of mine, but I really identify with it now that I'm tackling Hindi.

In lesson one of my elementary Hindi workbook, these were some of the words they thought were necessary for communication: vomiting, barber, gardener, garland, maternal aunt. Barber: very difficult to work into conversation.

The following is the script for the excerpt on learning French. The video is hilarious with his facial expressions, but the language is not child appropriate, so I only posted the scripted version. Enjoy.

"At school, the first page I learnt in French was full of things that are difficult to get into conversation. 
"The mouse is under the table." La souris est en dessous de la table. 

Hard to see, but this is my microsoft paint interpretation of his routine...

Just slip that in when you're buying a ticket to Paris.      

"Le train à Paris, oui?
                
"C'est ici? C'est maintenant? Cinq minutes.

"La souris est en dessous de la table?" 
                  
The other line was, "The cat is on the chair." Le chat est sur la chaise, slightly more easy to fit in.
                  
And then, "The monkey is on the branch", le singe est sur la branche. Very difficult to get into a conversation. Not a lot of jungle in France. Monkeys thin on the ground. Thin in the air. Just generally pretty trim...The only way I could get that into a conversation was to go to France with a cat, a mouse, a  monkey, a table and a chair and wander around heavily wooded areas."
                
Eddie Izzard, Dress To Kill
Blessings,

KB

P.S. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals "Jacksonville City Lights" is making my work day fly by. 


                
                

Friday, February 11, 2011

Uganda and Northern Ireland

Interesting comparison between the child soldiers in Uganda and the children in Northern Ireland: two countries that affected my desire for missions at an early age.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12429781

For those with a heart for the people of Northern Ireland, look into the ministry of Murlough House. Had the privilege of spending my gap year there before university and find myself grateful for the lessons learned there on a daily basis. Lessons learned from John Moxen's classroom teachings, Alasdair Ewing's daily example of God's joy, Cynthia Swavey's diligence in the details, and from having amazing housemates such as B-jet, JoJo, Kerri, Krista and Natalie...many of whom are now married and furthering God's kingdom all over the United States and France.

There was no way that I could have known in 2003-2004 that working with the youth of Newcastle was laying the ground work for working with the children in India. John used to talk about his desire to do missions work in India, how he had the opportunity to visit the great subcontinent once and it lit a fire in his heart for life long ministry. Well, John, being a part of the ministry of Murlough House lit a fire in my heart for ministry as well. It's a fire that led me to a versatile college major of nursing. That fire continued to burn  as I assisted in medical missions in Ghana and Guatemala. And there's a sustained burn that energizes me as I face the monotonous challenges that come with starting a ministry: paperwork, working overtime at the hospital to pay for it, learning Hindi, more paperwork...and the not so monotonous challenges such as preparing to spend this fall in India-right at the front lines of poverty and oppression.

Where we start is almost inevitably not where we're supposed to finish. This life is not a track-thank God-it's a trail. I'm glad mine has included an extended amount of time at Murlough House with the 'no Bible, no breakfast, no Bible, no bed' mantra. And I'm thankful it's included Uganda, Ghana, Guatemala, Cambodia, India and everything in between.

Blessings,

KB

P.S. Emily DeLoach: Find her. Listen to her.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The Good Cup

About a month ago, some of our favorite local musician friends shared the spotlight at their acoustic show at the Good Cup. They let us share our vision for Ashraya and a little bit about where we were in the mission. We really appreciate their public vote of confidence. Be sure to check out their music at http://www.jasonwain.net/ and http://www.myspace.com/scheibshane. Thanks, guys!
Blessings,


KB
P.S. Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors' new album "Chasing Someday" is a keeper.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Road Trip

If you are recipient of our monthly newsletter-and you should be--then you probably know that we are looking to take a "vision sharing'' road trip this summer. We want to share this passion with as many people as we can. So we're looking for people that want to share our cause, that want to help. We'll come to your home, your church, your youth group, your school, your co-ed dodgeball team, your Bible study, your Jane Austen book club, your Twilight book club...whatever. We know there are other people in the great United States that want to see these children receive the aid they deserve, we just need to find them. If you would like Ashraya Mission to come share its vision with your community and how you can get involved, fire us an email at ashrayamission@gmail.com

Blessings,

KB

P.S. Florence + The Machine's "Lungs" is awesome. Good running music.
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