Concert!

Hi, all!

I thought I would invite you to a concert this Friday. The Orpheus Singers, one of the choirs at the School of Music, is performing two Bach cantatas, a handful of madrigals, and a set by an American composer, Ned Rorem. I'm conducting one of the Bach cantatas (number 12). It is absolutely beautiful music. I'll try to figure out how to post a link to my notes.

The concert begins at 8pm and is in the Blanch Anderson Moore Hall at the SoM. The BAM Hall is one of the coolest spaces in the SoM as it is in the very basement and seriously looks like one huge bathtub.

You can get to the SoM by taking either the Northwood or Bursley bus to the Pierpont stop and walking across the street, or you can drive there (Fuller to Bonisteel, left on Murfin, left on Duffield, left on Baits) and park your car in the lot. If you'd like better directions, let me know. Like all SoM events, there is no charge for admission.

Up North

Posted on behalf of Lindsay, who is locked out of her account.

About that dessert...

I was wholly unsatisfied with the results of the sherbet/sherbert discussion last night, probably because, as a linguist from the Midwest, English teachers and east-coast dictionary editors are my sworn enemies. (As fond as I am of Wikipedia, its claims that the word is "mistakenly" pronounced with the extra 'r' drive me up the wall.)

Anyway, I consulted the OED, which lists an occurance of 'sherbert' from 1675: "We.. were severall times treated with sherbert of lemmons." If this is a mistake, it's a very old one. I had honestly never heard the word pronounced without the second 'r', at least not before last night, so my suspicion was that it's a regional variant rather than a mistake. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English came to my rescue:

Now the name of a frozen dessert, the word sherbet appeared in English in the seventeenth century, meaning “a cold fruit drink,” and developed two spellings reflecting its two pronunciations, sherbet (SHUHR-bit) and sherbert (SHUHR-buhrt). Today both spellings and both pronunciations are regularly encountered in both British and American use, to the discomfort of some purists, who argue that only sherbet is acceptable. ...

(In case you didn't pick up on it, 'purists' is code for "stuffy old English teachers and east-coast dictionary editors". ;) )

A Real High

For people who say I never share my highs, here's a literal high: being two miles above sea level at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado over the weekend. A few pictures:

Mount

Elk

Aspen

Child

First Fall Faith-and-Film Fun

Brought to you by the letter F.

Lauren, Gaius, and Tricia

Gad, up close



The Moehrings, up past bedtime


the boys enjoying female attention

happiness is a knitted clog

Sunday night was a blast. I mean, if you don't mind a movie that has you scrambling for the tissues. A great group, a great flick, and lots of food. What more could we ask for? Thanks for being there y'all, hope to see the rest of you next time!

What language should you learn?

Yup, it's quiz time again!! Take the quiz and find out what language you should learn.

Seriously, this is what it told me:

You Should Learn Swedish

Fantastisk! You're laid back about learning a language - and about life in general.Peaceful, beautiful Sweden is ideal for you... And you won't even have to speak perfect Swedish to get around!

What Language Should You Learn?

Getting back in the swing

Allrighty. It's high time this blog started seeing some action again. Mad props to Lindsay for keeping it live all the way from Egypt, when the rest of us can't seem to do that even while not traveling the world and digging up the earth.

So a whole new year has started. Can you believe it? Fall feels really here - as does busyness. Still, we are carving out two hours every Wednesday night to be with each other, to break bread together, to talk about what it means to live a Christian life. (This year, we are talking directly about what it means, as our topic is Faith in Practice: Living the Christian Life.) Tonight's topic is "Preparing the Way."

Remember Nate Schoen, who graduated in 2003? Well, he has been doing mission work in Mozambique - isn't that cool? He even has a blog. Check it out.

In other alumni news, Adam and Lauren are going to be sticking around in A2 awhile longer. Woohoo! They are both working at Starbuck's and taking some classes.

Let's try to keep this blog thing going, all right? Don't leave me hanging out here alone. I do that plenty on my other blogs. C'mon, write some posts! It's not like you have anything else to be working on, right?

Hope to see you tonight!

F&F recap

What a great evening!

Attendees: 13 total, including the 4 hosts
Food: Chinese delivery and Ghiradhelli brownies
Film: Hotel Rwanda
Verdict: Great film, good food, and excellent conversation centering especially on the tension between idealism and pragmatism

I have continued to mull on this powerful film all day and have decided I want to read Paul Rusesabagina's autobiography. I've been learning some things about the Rwandan Genocide on Wikipedia . Check out "Rwandan Genocide," "Tsutsi" and "Hutu" if you're interested. Some of the things we had questions about - like who really shot the Rwandan president and what really is the difference between Tsutsis and Hutus - don't have easy answers. I did learn that the timeframe the film covered was actually 100 days.

Also, if you want to learn more about what's going on in Darfur right now, check out Save Darfur.

just a little shout out

Is anyone still out there?

I can't believe it's been more than a month since I last updated our blog. Things went a little nuts in the days and weeks following our end-of-the-year party. I left town for 10 days that weekend, and while I was gone Paul ended up in the hospital. He is slowly making his way back to "normal" but life has been off-kilter in the meantime.

Still, life is good and we hope to get The Gathering gathered some during the summer. I'll be floating a possible June F&F date soon, for those who are around.

News:

• Tricia left for the Phillipines on April 24th, to do a few weeks of volunteer mission work at an orphanage there. She will return soon. Tricia became an official member of FBCA2 in April.
• Lindsay returned from Egypt just in time for our party. Welcome home, Lindsay!
• Zoe left yesterday for Botswana. She will be there for 2 1/2 months doing AIDS policy work. Keep her in your prayers. Zoe became an official member of FBCA2 in April.
• Adam, Lauren, and Joe P. graduated. Congrats!!!
• Joe A. graduates with his M.D. this Friday. Congrats, Dr. Ahn!
• Becky became a sexton at FBCA2 and moved into the apartment upstairs. Yay!
• Lauren M. had a car accident on Thursday. She is okay but on painkillers, and her car was wrecked pretty bad. :(
• David was delighted to discover that he can park at the church on Wednesdays during the summer.
• Gad is in the Phillipines until sometime in June.
• Gaius became a member of the FBCA2 worship board and has quickly become very involved in the behind-the-scenes work of the logistical details of Sunday worship.
• Danielle, Chantalle, and Carrie are all home for the summer.
• Carole is in Italy for 10 days as a part of an elite vocal ensemble performing an original work by one of the U-M School of Music professors.

I hope I didn't miss anyone. If you have news you'd like to report, please check in! We'd love to hear from you.

Btw, I am *so* looking forward to my birthday visits from Johnny and Orlando. Y'all did get that arranged, right? ;)

Party!

Chan:Dan
Originally uploaded by earthchick.

Aren't they cute? Click on the pic to see more scenes from Thursday night. What fun we had!

At the end of the day

At the end of the day,

even mafioso need

to park their cars

and go to sleep.

The Gathering End-of-Year Party.

April 20, 2006

Holy Week

Hi all. I'm slow getting this posted, but did want to let all of you know of Holy Week opportunities here this week.

• Maundy Thursday. We will have a service here, at 7:30p.m., in conjunction with our sister American Baptist Churches. Service includes communion.
• Good Friday Community Services. We co-host this with the other State Street area churches. Services begin at 12:00 at First United Methodist (next door). There are three services lasting 30 minutes each. The First Baptist Church choir and organist will be offering music at the 1:00 service.
• Good Friday Tenebrae Service. 8:00p.m., here at First Baptist. If you can only come to one Holy Week service, we'd highly recommend this one. We begin with a little light and some candles, we end sitting in darkness together after having heard the reading of the Passion story, along with musical and spoken reflections.
• Easter! Service at 10:00a.m. Fellowship afterwards.

Come for as many as you are able!

Hope to see you all tonight, too.

Kudos to Lauren, who, according to Paul, did a simply fabulous job at her reading on Saturday night. Lauren and Adam will be cooking our meal tomorrow night - so y'all come!

Don't forget that Thursday night we (at FBC) are having a special Evensong service focused on the situation in Darfur. Becky will be at the piano, helping lead. Please come!

Becky, I hope you're feeling better. Paul has had four days of fever as well. I think the boys are finally feeling better. How on earth did I escape this one? Hope the rest of you are staying well, getting some rest, and keeping hydrated. See you tomorrow night.

Oh, and lest I forget: here's another theology quiz for your enjoyment. What's your theological worldview?
Here's mine:

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 71% Roman Catholic 64% Neo orthodox 64% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 57% Reformed Evangelical 46% Modern Liberal 43% Classical Liberal 43% Charismatic/Pentecostal 29% Fundamentalist 0% created with QuizFarm.com

Pics - finally

Lauren & Adam
Originally uploaded by earthchick.

It's been a nutso week, but I finally got the pics from Sunday night uploaded (click on the one of Adam and Lauren to see the rest).

It was a fun night, just as Becky (alter-ego = Lauren?) described. Let's do it again sometime!

Crash! (bang! splatter! ouch!)

Stacey will probably be along soon to give the official update on tonight's Faith and Film, but I thought I'd give the sneak preview.

Attendees: Gad, Gaius, Lauren, Adam, Stacey, da Boyz, and the Cat. And me.

Crash: a good movie that nevertheless didn't really deserve Best Picture. Rather depressing (a F&F first! ... or not ;) ), but also kind of thought-provoking. Less thought-provoking if Gad has been doing the thinking out loud for you all through the movie, but still thought-provoking. :P Still, probably not for the faint of heart, small children, or three-toed sloths.

Brownies: definitely better gooey than cakey, even though our parents seem to prefer the cakey kind. Stacey's are excellent, and the ones with nuts had the perfect gooeyness.

Lessons learned: Don't wear socks in the house. Always ask for the red box when you're looking for ammunition. When buying a white van, check for illegal immigrants in the back. If you're picking up a hitchhiker, turn off your radio first. Racism is complex, and mixed up with class-ism and misplaced trust. And no matter how many f-bombs get dropped, grammatical errors are the things that Lauren gets offended at.

G'night, kids. And get that door fixed.

Genocide in Darfur

This is excerpted from my church newsletter column this week. Please come to the April 6th Evensong if you're able:

One would think that in 2006 genocide would be an atrocity no longer committed. Our world has been through this too many times before, including in recent history – Rwanda, Bosnia, and, of course, the Holocaust (which actually gave rise to the term "genocide," though the reality of genocide seems to have always been with us). We don’t seem to learn from even our most tragic mistakes.

The current situation in Darfur has been referred to as "a humanitarian and human rights tragedy of the first order," and a "calculated campaign of slaughter, rape, starvation, and displacement" (as reported here). These atrocities are happening to Sudanese civilians at the hands of their own government and the Janjaweed militias it sponsors. In the last three years, 400,000 people have died. 3.5 million currently live in hunger and 2.5 million people have been displaced from their homes and communities. Every day, over 500 innocent civilians die from violence, malnutrition, and disease. This is a horror of incomprehensible proportions.

Most of us would like to think we could prevent another Holocaust were it to be threatened. The fact is, a holocaust is taking place right now, and the world community hasn’t yet stopped it. It is true that the African Union, the United Nations, and our own government are all giving increasing attention to this crisis; just last week, the House International Relations Committee passed the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, which, if passed by the House and the Senate and signed by the President, will authorize additional U.S. aid to the African Union (AU) and will call for a special U.S. envoy to help speed up the Darfur peace process. Already Congress is poised to provide increased funding to the 7,000 AU peacekeepers already in Darfur (currently the only line of defense between millions of civilians and the militia forces who seek to brutalize them).

Why am I writing about this in a church newsletter? I don’t usually talk politics in such a forum; I don’t believe I’m actually talking politics now. I am talking about human life, brutality of unfathomable proportions, and the possibility of even more atrocities if something doesn’t happen to change the reality of the situation. Albert Einstein once said, "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." As Christians, we are called both to look on and to do something. We may feel helpless, confused, horror-stricken, or even apathetic, but our faith calls us beyond that. We must love, we must do justice, we must pursue peace, we must pray, and we must keep hope alive.

The Million Voices for Darfur Campaign is an unprecedented effort to end this genocide (their website asks: "What if instead of mourning a genocide, we could stop one?"). As a part of that effort, the group has declared April 2nd through 9th to be a Week of Prayer and Action for Darfur, and our congregation will be participating. On Thursday, April 6th, as a part of our Lenten Perspectives series on justice and peace, our Evensong Prayer Service will focus on the crisis in Darfur. Together we will reflect on the tragedy there, and on our Christian calling to respond. We will consider concrete actions we can take, and we will take at least one together – because prayer is something concrete. It is something we can do for the people of Darfur. It is something we must do for them. But it is not the only thing. At our Evensong service, we will have opportunity to write postcards to our government asking for action on behalf of the oppressed in Darfur. We will also consider other ways to make a difference together.

As Paul reminded us in his sermon on Sunday, when tragedy happens, God’s heart is the first to break. I believe God is mourning the loss of so many innocent lives, including so many babies and children, in Darfur. As people of faith, we must mourn too. And then we must get up and do something. Please join me in prayer, reflection, action, and hope on Thursday, April 6th.

Casseroles, James, Crash, and other musings

So tonight we have some kind of yummy noodle meat casserole with garlic bread, salad, and cookies. Comfort food at its finest. Please come!

Paul left for England in the wee hours of this morning, so I'm doing the solo thing for the next several days, including, of course, tonight. We'll take a look at one of my very favorite books - James! We'll talk about faith in action, the importance of words, and how to handle wealth.

Then this Sunday is Faith-and-Film at the Duke home. We'll watch Crash, have discussions, and of course eat till we can't eat any more.

Random discovery: If you go to MSN Search and type in "earth work calculations," my knitting blog will be the 10th site listed. How crazy is that?!?

Hope to see you tonight!

Which theologian are you?

More quiz fun.....

You scored as John Calvin. Much of what is now called Calvinism had more to do with his followers than Calvin himself, and so you may or may not be committed to TULIP, though God's sovereignty is all important. John Calvin 73% Karl Barth 60% Paul Tillich 60% J??n Moltmann 47% Friedrich Schleiermacher 47% Martin Luther 40% Jonathan Edwards 40% Anselm 40% Charles Finney 33% Augustine 33% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Psst.... Look over there

(at the sidebar)

I've posted links to member blogs. I love all your sites! (check out Lauren's delightful musings, Becky's recipe for thriftiness, and Gad's awesome pics from Brazil) If you are listed over there and don't want to be, drop me a note and I'll delete pronto. If you have a blog and want to be listed, let me know and I'll include it.

REMINDER: If you want to help out with the rotating shelter next week, there are still slots left. Please let me know.

And lest you think I'm not spending time searching for fun quizzes for Becky and Lauren G. and me to take, check out the Political Compass . It goes beyond the tired left-right continuum and will plot your spot on a quadrant that takes into account your economic and social values. It located me in almost the dead center of the lower left quadrant, which puts me firmly in the category of the libertarian left. I'm pretty much precisely where they locate the Dalai Lama. I don't mind if you address me as Her Holiness. How 'bout the rest of you? Where do you score? Becky? Lauren? (Maybe this one will even draw out the likes of Dave Moehring....)

Googled your own name recently?

So this was a topic of conversation at dinner last night. Which is how the "Unfortunately Gad" post came to be. It's a silly little game you can play - googling the phrase "unfortunately (your name here)" and seeing what comes up. For instance, when I google "Unfortunately Stacey" I get interesting little bits of sentences like:
- Unfortunately Stacey thought nothing of hanging her wedding dress from one of the ceiling sprinklers in her bridal suite and this caused large amounts of ...
- Went to Scorpion King tonight, unfortunately Stacey got Violently ill during the movie and we had to leave after about 45 minutes. ...
- Unfortunately, Stacey seems to have it less so together when guys are concerned. The last guy she met and fell in love with was 6 years her junior. ...

Things like that. Anyway, Gad claimed his name doesn't come up when Googled, so I did the little "unfortunately Gad" post to prove him wrong. Thing is, this morning, I did Google "Gad Lim" - and got several hits, including a letter to a newspaper editor from October 2003, answers to an interview with young Filipino fiction writers, and a sermon listing at First Baptist Church from October 2005. So there!

You may think I don't have enough to do, if I'm googling your names. The truth is I have so much to do I can hardly bear it. So I take refuge in hanging out online, writing to you guys, and taking quizzes with Becky. ;)

p.s. if you haven't taken the denomination quiz yet, try it - it's fun. Becky is supposedly a Seventh Day Adventist and I'm an Episcopalian. What about the rest of you?

Unfortunately Gad....

... just walked in and discovered the little trick I was trying to play.

[Sorry for the inside joke. Those of you who are at The Gathering right now get it. Those of you who aren't - we miss you!]

What denomination are you?

My random musings only generated one comment besides my own (thanks, Becky!). So here's a quiz:
Christian Denomination Selector. How do you rank?

According to the quiz, I should be Episcopalian. But you already knew that, didn't you? My #2 best fit was Methodist, # 3 was Seventh Day Adventist (wha?) and #4 was Liberal Quakerism. American Baptist wasn't an option. I am least like a Jehovah's Witness or Mormon. No big surprises here, but it was kind of fun....

Greetings and random musings

Dear all, welcome back from spring break. I hope you all had a happy, restful, safe holiday. It was nice to see some of you at the Ash Wednesday service last week!

I'm sorry to have failed to update this place in almost two weeks. I have these dreams of writing these really thought-provoking posts that people come out of the woodwork to comment on. But I can't usually muster that, so I end up posting Muppets quizzes instead. I'd still love for some of the rest of you to make blog posts here as well. [Gad, Becky, Adam, Dave - this means you! - and anyone else who wishes to respond to the evite....]

At any rate, today I don't have any major topic or quote to bring before you (or even a silly quiz). So I'm just going to write random things.

Random Thing #1 - It is astonishing to me how much of a difference the immiment arrival of spring has made on my psyche. I love that the sun comes up earlier, stays up later, and seems to shine brighter during the day, and the effect of all this light seems to make my heart a little lighter. I find myself almost surprised that the weather is making its usual journey back towards springtime. Surprised, and delighted.

Random Thing #2 - I finally finished Paul's sweater. Wheeeee! You can read about it on my personal blog .

Random Thing #3 - If you lug a heavy bag of books that you paid approximately $200 for when they were new and which are still in excellent condition to Dawn Treader (used bookstore), they may buy one of them from you for a dollar. Or you can get store credit of $1.50. Then you can lug the rest of the heavy bag of books back home. It's really great fun. And not embarrassing at all.

Random Thing #4 - Evensong prayer service. Again. But you're not responsible for it this time (though Becky, if you're willing and available, I'd love for you to play the piano). Twice during Lent, as a part of FBCA2's Perspectives series, I am going to be coordinating Evensong services. They'll be at 6:30 on Thursday, March 16th and 30th. Come if you can.

Random Thing #5 - Did you see that Crash won Best Picture? It's still on our F&F list, and now I'm thinking maybe this month....

Random Thing #6 - Have you been looking for a way to volunteer your time to a worthy cause? If so, then there's a great opportunity right here at FBCA2 later this month. The week of March 20th, we will be hosting the "Extended Shelter." This is the overflow from the local shelters that there isn't room for. We need 2 or 3 people each night from 8:00 till 7:00 the next morning. Volunteers sleep in shifts and otherwise are just available (you can read, knit, or just hang out) to sign people in and out and to be of any other assistance. The following slots are still available:
Monday, March 20 - 3 slots
Tuesday, March 21 - 2
Wed, Mar 22 - 3
Th, Mar 23 - 1
Fri, Mar 24 - 1
Sat, Mar 25 - 1
Sun, Mar 26 - 3
Let me know if you're interested and I'll get you signed up!

Random Thing #7 - We've been linked! Is it one of you? Someone out there in blogland has included us in their list of sidebar links. We are in such illustrious company as the Boar's Head Tavern, Homestarrunner, What's for Dinner?, NoNoWriMo, and - my personal favorite (which I visit nearly every day) - You Knit What? How cool is that?!? [Becky, is it you? Emily?!?]

Enjoy the beauty of the day, folks. And don't leave me hangin' out here in cyberspace all by my lonesome.

News from alum

We have received significant pieces of news from two recent alumni:

Jeff Chen ('03) has returned to the States from Iraq. We are so relieved that he is home safely! He will be marrying his fiancee Jess on May 7th at FBCA2.

Kendrick Wells IV ('03) will be marrying his fiancee, Michelle, on March 25th, in Humble, Texas. He practices law in Louisville, Kentucky.

Nowhere in Africa

Gad, Tricia, Adam, Lauren, and Danielle are absorbed in the movie.

Gaius, Danielle, Lauren, Gad, and Adam prepare to head home. Adam does a little subtle marketing for Diet Coke.

Charlie shows his pleasure at playing with Gad.

A cuddly moment.

What a great film! Thanks to Gad for suggesting it and bringing it. The story of a German Jewish family who emigrate to Kenya to escape Nazism in the late 30s had us reflecting on issues of love, identity, and acceptance. A great, gorgeous, meaningful flick.

Note to self: 4 pizzas is way too much for 8 people to enjoy, if Dave Moehring isn't present. But two pans of brownies are the perfect amount!

Film suggestions?

Okay, so Faith-and-Film is definitely on for this Sunday, 6:30 at our house. Still to be decided: the movie. Here are a few I have thought of:
Crash
Malcolm X
Life is Beautiful

All intense, all thought-provoking, all Oscar-nominated (Life is Beautiful won; Crash may yet) one quite long (Malcolm X). Some of you may have seen one or all. I'm leaning towards Crash myself but haven't yet screened it and am thoroughly open to comments and suggestions.

Faith-and-Film?

So. Would anybody be up for a F&F this Sunday? And, if so, does anyone have any suggestions for a movie?

Please do check in with ayes, nays, and suggestions.

And see you tonight!

And now for something completely different....

Which muppet are you?

Here's me:

You Are Miss Piggy

A total princess and diva, you're totally in charge - even if people don't know it. You want to be loved, adored, and worshiped. And you won't settle for anything less. You're going to be a total star, and you won't let any of the "little people" get in your way. Just remember, piggy, never eat more than you can lift!

The Muppet Personality Test

The Golden Mean

Are you familiar with the ancient philosophical teaching of the "golden mean"? (I'm sure Adam is!) It is the term for the happy middle ground between two extremes in any situation - one of excess and the other of deficiency.

Socrates taught that a person "must know how to choose the mean and avoid the extremes on either side, as far as possible."

Plato said, "If we disregard due proportion by giving anything what is too much for it; too much canvas to a boat, too much nutriment to a body, too much authority to a soul, the consequence is always shipwreck."

The teaching of the golden mean is most associated with Aristotle, who, in his writings on the virtues, constantly used the phrase, "... is the Middle state between ..." His teaching on the moral virtues and the pyschology of the soul is based on the golden mean between two extremes.

Now take a look at Ecclesiastes 7:15-18. Kind of sounds like the golden mean! (a concept that would not have been foreign to the author of Ecclesiastes, who came along a couple of centuries after Aristotle). So what do you think? Is there a golden mean, a happy middle ground, between righteousness and wickedness? Is it possible to be too righteous? I have some thoughts but I'd love to know yours first....

[thanks to Wikipedia for helpful explanation and quotes on the golden mean]

Questions for runners and other athletes

I was a distance runner for one year in high school and I know a little about the discipline (especially mental) involved. But that was literally half my life ago. So I'd love some thoughts from those of you who currently run or participate in any other kind of sport, or have in recent history. How does your physical discipline inform your faith? (or does it?) Are there parallels? Things you have learned from sports that have shed light on your spiritual journey?

This week I am preaching from this text:
Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified. (1 Cor. 9:24-27)

What is your response to the text? What does it mean to you to "run in such a way that you may win (an imperishable prize)"? What does "self-control" look like in the spiritual life? What would it mean to punish and enslave the body?

Would love to read/hear your reflections. Write a blog, write a comment, or, if you don't want to share publicly, drop me an email. I think that beyond giving me fodder for my own sermon reflections, this would just be an interesting discussion for us to have.

Team members.

Hey, look over there --->. See that list of names? (so far Dave, Becky, and Gad) Those are our blog "team members" - which means they can post on this blog. You can, too, if you follow the directions of the email I sent out yesterday. Whether or not you choose to be one of the bloggers, you can still and always comment on posts.

Happy Friday, all!

Our new home.

So here we are. Our new (free!) digs. Now I'll work on getting our old posts moved on over here....

So what's your deadliest sin?

Take the quiz and find out. (Just for fun, of course). In the spirit of full disclosure, here are my results for all to see. Looks like sloth is doing me in. What? Surfing the 'net for cool knitting blogs means I'm lazy? ;)

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Very Low
Sloth:	High
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	Very Low
Pride:	Medium

The Seven Deadly Sins Quiz on 4degreez.com

Truthfully, the quiz missed the mark a bit, as I know what my true root sin is, and it didn't rank as high as it should've, but I'm not telling. Let's just say that I'm envious of those you who have different temptations than I do....

Take the quiz and let us know how you fare.

I'm sick. But it's not fatal.

So Paul told me that he told everyone last night that anytime I feel bad I worry that it's terminal. It's true that I'm a worst case scenario type gal. But I'm pretty sure this is just the stomach flu.

I'm sorry not to have kept the blog a little more up-to-date. I've been meaning to add an entry all week. And now I'm just too yucky-feeling to write much more than this. This. See?

Hope to see you all soon....

What do Alabama, Argentina, and Egypt have in common?

Three of our folks are gone to these far-flung places, that's what.

Laurel is in Argentina for the whole semester; we won't see her till next fall. Maybe she can show us some great tango moves then.

Paul is in Alabama this week. He went to Birmingham to help his mother look at assisted living facilities, and he was going to come back tonight. But our sister-in-law's mother died yesterday and the funeral is Thursday in Auburn (2 hours from B'ham). So he is staying and will return on Friday. Which means I'm leading his study tomorrow night. Please, no hecklers. ;)

And Lindsay has made it safe and sound to Cairo. Today she was scheduled to take the train to her dig site. Imagine her in her hijab, riding the rails, speaking in Arabic, and headed towards who knows what adventure.

Let's keep her in our prayers.

I look forward to your comments on this very exciting, very insightful blog entry.

[and could someone explain to me what the heck a trackback is?] edited to add: Thanks, Becky!

Millions.

First of all, it must be said: props to Nate! Millions was a fine movie, and we all enjoyed it.

Tonight we gathered for our first Faith-and-Film of 2006. Attending this premiere were Gad, Gaius, Becky, Adam and Lauren, Dave and Lauren, Rob and Charlie, and me. As usual, I ordered way too much pizza. But it was all good (thanks, Pizza House). After a minor disagreement over subtitles versus no subtitles, we settled in for the movie (yes, Millions is in English. But it's not in good ol' Midwestern American English, and some of us took awhile to comprehend it [the no-subtitles faction won]).

The movie is about a young boy in England who finds a pile of money and wants to give it away to help poor people, while his older brother dreams of spending the money on jetskis and iPods. Mix in a grieving father, a house full of Mormons, a talking trashcan, and a series of dead saints, and you've got yourself a mighty good flick. We had a great discussion about the complex issues surrounding money, especially for people of faith. Does money have a place in the spiritual realm? How does God work through how we use our money? How can we have a commitment to simplicity and to generosity and still live in the so-called real world?

And is it possible to fly to Ethiopia in a cardboard box or not? [hint: the Director's Commentary does not shed light on this conundrum]

Intrigued? Come to the next Faith-and-Film. Time, place, and film TBD, of course.

So. Here's our new blog.

Well. Here we are. Blogland. It took some doing to find a blogsite that didn't already host someone with the name The Gathering. But I finagled my way in.

Not much time to write right now, because I've got to get ready for Faith-and-Film, hosted in the Duke home - which right now is a complete mess.

So. That's my first blog post. There.