Encouragement

I received a handful of very encouraging emails recently. Several of them were from co-workers who were excited to hear about what I'll be doing in India. On Tuesday I had sent out an email letting everyone at Toyon know what I am going to do, and asking if anyone wanted to receive email updates. Out of about 75 people in the company, 24 wanted to receive the updates. Several let me know that they would be praying for me. What a blessing!

Todd

I received a comforting phone call last night. It was from Todd, the other male on my Kolkata team. We talked for about an hour, and it was really good getting to know him a bit. For me, one of the scariest aspects about this trip is that I'm going into it essentially not knowing anyone. Sure I've had a little contact, but not much. Just that single phone conversation has helped me feel a bit more connected with my soon to be team.

Let me also tell a story from LAUP that will illustrate a bit more why this scares me. About an hour before Greg picked me up for LAUP, I was sitting alone at Nate Leung's place, where I had spent the night before (Everyone who lived there was at Church). I started feeling very anxious about LAUP, wondered what I had gotten myself into, and wondered how I was going to handle it. I prayed and journaled, which helped some, but I was still anxious and even a bit scared. It was very comforting when Greg arrived. Suddenly it was a reality that one of my closest friends was going to be with me through the experience.

My Last Sunday at Church in Santa Barbara

I wanted to write about this closer to the fact, but I just never got around to it. I suppose it's better late than never. (And really, three days isn't all that late is it?)

Last Sunday, (January 23rd) was my last Sunday in Santa Barbara. One of the pastors had me come up and tell the congregation both a little bit about how I got involved in the Church, and also about my upcoming trip to Kolkata. After that they prayed for me. There were many things that struck me, but I'll mention one in particular. I wasn't the only one they were sending out. Two missionaries (a husband and wife) supported by our Church were there too. They have spent the last 28 years of their lives investing in the Pume Indians in Venezuela. When they first went there, they had to start by learning the language from scratch. It was really amazing and encouraging to be standing side by side with the two of them as the Church was sending all of us off in prayer.

After the second service, I went out to dinner with a bunch of people. It was really great just enjoying a meal with some of the people I won't get to see again for five months. Even after dinner was over and we were all leaving, a handful of us stood in the parking lot talking for another half-hour or so.

This story wouldn't be complete without bringing Sierra and Diego into it. Sierra has something at school that she's supposed to bring her dad (or an alternative) to. Unfortunately it's on a night when he can't make it. Apparently Sierra thought of me as a replacement, and got really excited about the idea. Even though I'm not going to go either, I was really touched to know that she wanted me to go with her. Later, while I was at dinner, Heidi called me up. While their family was praying before dinner, Diego audibly* thanked God for me! I think that was one of the best phone calls I've ever gotten. Those two kids have blessed me so much.

* Usually when Diego prays, he prays so quietly that you can't hear what he's saying. He will still get upset if you cut him off though.

Your Landlord Probably isn't this Bad

This story is one of the funniest things I've read recently. Ian found it on a message board he reads. If you have problems with your landlord, they will seem like an angel after reading this story.

The Cry

Word Made Flesh puts out a quarterly publication called "The Cry." You can download pdfs of it here. I've only read part of what's in there, but I can already tell that there's some pretty deep stuff in there. If you've got the time, I highly recommend checking it out.

Page 17 of the most recent issue (Winter 2004) has a poem by Kristin Keen, the woman that will be leading my team in Kolkata. The poem is a response to her work with sexually exploited women.

IJM

Tuesday night I went to a meeting about IJM (International Justice Mission), run by people from Church. It consisted of hearing updates on IJM's work in Latin America and then praying for them and for their specific needs. It was a really great joining in community to pray about issues of world justice and pray for those that are working toward those ends. My understanding is that the sub-groups of IJM we were praying for were the ones specifically supported by our Church.

I also learned that Gary Haugen, founder and president of IJM, will be the guest speaker for our Church retreat in April. I am a bit disappointed to know that I won't be able to go. Fortunately that is offset by my excitement in knowing that my Church is focusing a Church retreat on issues of justice in the world.

Guilt

The past few weeks people at work have started asking how much longer before I leave. There are two answers to that question. My last day at Toyon is the 28th of January. I leave the country on the 16th of February. Whenever I tell people that, I feel like I need to justify those two and a half weeks in between. It seems silly, but for some reason I feel guilty for taking that time off. It isn't like I'm getting paid for that time or anything, I'm just taking time off because I value that extra time more than the money.

One Month

One month from today, on February 16th, I will be on a plane out of the country (I won't actually arrive in Kolkata until February 18th though). It seems so soon and I really don't know how to feel. The whole thing both excites and scares me.

I was reading this page on the Word Made Flesh website a few days ago. It is a memorial to some of the children who have died in the Word Made Flesh children's homes. Their stories of are well worth the read. Oh, and although these homes are located in Chennai, not Kolkata, our team will probably have the opportunity to visit these homes while in India. My heart weeps at the injustice many children live in, but rejoices that God has placed His workers there to bring mercy and justice for some of these kids.

Abandon All Hope of Productivity...

I stumbled upon this site a few weeks ago. It holds a whole bunch of old computer games that have been abandon by their companies. This means they are freely available for anyone to download and enjoy. For an old gamer like myself, there's a lot of games in there I remember, and a lot that are before my time. They even have a DOS emulator for Windows to make all of the drivers work out. Oh, and I haven't actually tried any of it out yet. I'm too worried about losing what little productivity I have.

Enjoy!

I Reached My Goal!

Earlier this week I received a fund raising update. Praise God, I reached my budget (and even surpassed it by a bit)! If you are still thinking about giving, you are welcome to send a contribution. Any additional money will go towards other team members, or toward other ministries Word Made Flesh is involved in.

Thank you again to everyone who has been supporting me in any way through this process.

Mud Slide

This mud slide occurred in the Ventura area, less than 30 miles south of Santa Barbara.

Here are some pictures:
Freeway Pictures
View From Above

I was driving on that section of the 101 less than 48 hours before those pictures were taken. It was raining hard enough that many people were driving below the speed limit, but I never really considered that this could happen. This morning during a prayer meeting at Church, a man shared about a close friend of his that was killed by the mud slide.

It puts it into perspective when my only complaint is that the rain makes me wet and cold.

I Can't Believe I Finished the Whole Thing

This morning Rose and I ran in a half-marathon. She had invited me to do it about three months ago. At the time that seemed like plenty of time to prepare. I'm sure it would have been if I had actually gone running on a semi-regular basis leading up to the event. Thanks to Rose's encouragement I did finish, although our time was quite a bit out of the impressive range. I am left with a bit of motivation to someday run one again after actually training for it. We'll see if that ever happens...

For Once I'm Glad I Don't Have a Window Office

Toyon's Building is a somewhat old building. As such, it has its fair share of quirks. The heavy rain we're getting right now is causing a little bit of leakage through at least a couple of windows. Thanks to the fully enclosed cave I work in, I don't have to fear for my dryness.

Melissa

I just found out that Melissa, a member of my Kolkata team, has a blog. You can find it here, or on the bar at the side.

Now, while I'm on the other side of the world, you can get another point of view on what our team is doing. I expect it to look something like this:

My Blog: Kolkata is quite an experience, but I think I'm adapting pretty well. God has really been using me to hold the rest of the team together.

Melissa's Blog: Our team is learning just how hard life is in Kolkata. It has been a pretty tough on all of us. Please be praying for us. In particular, Philip is falling apart. I think he has lost touch with reality.

Ok, hopefully our two blogs won't be completely contradictory. Still, some of you may find it interesting to take a look at her blog too.

How Much Would You Pay for Your Own Island?

Would you pay $26,500 for an island? What if it was an island in a video game? It sounds crazy to me, but someone actually did. What's even crazier is that he's likely to make money on his investment by selling plots of virtual land to other online gamers.

Like most important pieces of news, I originally found out about this in an online comic.

Useful Police Officer

Generally people aren't too happy when they get pulled over by a cop. Last weekend I was riding in a car with Ron when a cop pulled him over. All he wanted to do was let Ron know that he only had one working headlight. He was genuinely trying to be helpful.

Decision Made!

I finally decided about Toyon. I accepted their offer of employment. I will return to work there as a full time employee in mid-July after I return from Kolkata.

Blackout

As I often do on Sundays, I went to Church yesterday. During communion there are pairs of people available to pray for you. I went up to receive some prayer. While they were praying for me, I started feeling a bit nauseous, then dizzy. After they finished praying for me, I started walking back to go sit down. After just a few steps, everything went black. I turned around to try to find the people that had been praying for me.

My memory is a bit hazy on what happened next. Someone helped me sit down in the nearest pew. I kept my head down for a bit and soon felt somewhat better. Some people around me asked how I was feeling. A man came over who seemed to be some sort of doctor. He told me his specific title, but I don't remember what it was. Someone else brought me a bottle of water and some crackers. They asked me all sorts of questions.

I was sitting next to one of the pastors, I think he was the person that helped me sit down. He mentioned that he was surprised I hadn't fainted. Apparently my face had gone very white.

A little later in the service, after I was feeling fairly normal again, it was time for more worship. They asked us all to stand up. I suddenly wondered if I would be able to, or if I would black out again. I was able to stand and didn't have any more problems. Worship really hit me in a new way. For the first time, I realized that it was only by God's will that I was able to stand and worship Him.

For the record, there were a few factors that may have contributed to my blackout. I had been fasting the previous day (no food, only water), so my body chemistry was a little out of whack. As I was going up for prayer, I rolled my ankle so blood may have been flowing more to my foot and less to my head. Hopefully this won't happen again. If it does, I will definitely go see a doctor.