Thoughts on the year ahead...

We are on the cusp of a new year; tonight will ring in the start of a new year!! The paper's are abuzz with forecasts for the financial markets, job markets, and opportunities in the new year (Will emerging markets keep gaining; Moving past Madoff; Futures pare gains on Jobless Claims). The buzz has me thinking about my life; what do I want out of 2010?

This summer I was having an existential crisis. Where was my life going, what was I doing, did I care about anything, etc. One day I jotted down a few thoughts about myself and things I am committed to...
I am called to the work place
I am called to non-Christians
I am called to be a light in darkness
I am called to serve

So in 2010, my career is on the list. I've been working hard to grow at work and to move up the corporate ladder, so to speak. I have a wonderful boss and we've spent the last year chatting about growth and development. I've applied for 3 jobs in the past few months and have an interview next week; BUT I've been talking to another Senior Director about an AMAZING position which will open up in the next few months. It would be a huge challenge, with amazing potential. So, I'm thinking, praying, working diligently asking for wisdom as I continue to grow at work.

An old college acquaintance of mine wrote on her blog yesterday, "I really want to be a more peaceful person. Enjoying life in the moment and not trying to rush things along. I’m going to spend the year meditating on Philippians 4:4-9. I want to have a gentle spirit. I want to be anxious for nothing. I want to think about things that are true, pure and lovely. And oh, to have the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. Peace, peace, beautiful peace. I crave it." I can totally relate to this!! It is also what I think of when I think of our non-Christian friends. So many of them want peace and don't have it. I hope that 2010 is a year of peace in my heart, trusting God more deeply and in that way being an arrow pointing people back to Him.

My husband is a semi-professional athlete. So we live a bit of a different life, one that revolves around training schedules, weekends away from home, and being contentious about what we eat. I'm not always good at that, I like to eat out and recently have gotten into baking cookies for the holidays. We've made it a goal to eat out less in 2010. We're cutting back to once a week and eating in the other 6. I think this could be fun!! If you have any favorite recipes send them our way!!

Along those same lines, I want to be more fit in 2010. I've always considered myself a fit person, but I got a "Wii Fit" for Christmas and it says I am 33 years old!! AND I should bring my BMI down to 22 instead of 23. That means, according to my new trainer, that I should loose 5 pounds. That sounds impossible to me! I haven't weighed that little since high school. BUT I'm going to try; be a bit more conscious about what I eat and stay diligent with my running and exercising. I also have 2 races I want to run this spring the Parkway Classic in April and the Annapolis 10 miler in August! Should be a great year!!

In closing I'd like to steal a quote from my friend Leah "Silly 2009 life plans, when will you realize you have little say over what really happens?" Only time will tell what actually happens in 2010!

2009: A Year in Review - BOOKS

If you don't know I am a book feign. It's a small problem; we have a huge book shelf in the living room (spans 1 wall), 1 small one in the bedroom, and at least 100 books in the closet. This summer we got iPhones and my FAVORITE app is the Kindle. It's amazing, books at my finger tip in seconds. It's actually a little bit dangerous for me! Here's a look at what I've been filling my mind with this year, some good...some bad...some childish...all were enriching in some way shape or form.

1. Twilight Saga: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn - What is there to say, they call the series the "Twilight Saga" for a reason! Drama, teenage romance, rebellion....yup it's all there and I LOVED it.

2. The Year of Rice & Salt - "...a thoughtful and powerful examination of cultures and the people who shape them. How might human history be different if 14th-century Europe was utterly wiped out by plague and Islamic and Buddhist societies emerged as the world's dominant religious and political forces?" So far, this is an excellent book. I love the inside look into eastern culture and how the course of history could be different.

3. The Blessed Child - The story circulates around a small orphan from Ethiopia named Caleb. Caleb, in a tale of daring adventure is rescued from a sure death by a Red Cross nurse and Peace Corps worker. In America, Caleb is placed into the hands of a greedy Priest who upon discovery of his extrodinary powers (raising a man from the dead, restoring sight to a blind boy, and healing a paraplegic) exploits him for personal and financial reasons. His rescuers, the Red Cross nurse and Peace Corps worker, come to his aid once again protecting him from the plans of the Priest and a prominent politician. Bill Bright and Ted Dekker did a great job of writing a gripping story, but underlying it there is such a sweet message reminding us to turn back to the Father. His love for his people is so deep and so often we miss all he has for us because we're "asleep." I really enjoyed the concepts of "walking in the kingdom" and the "unseen" side of life that the authors attempted to put into writing.

4. God of the Possible - "...exceptionally engaging and biblically centered text defends a theological claim that is generating heated controversy among evangelicals: that from God's perspective, the future is partly open, a realm of possibilities as well as certainties."

5. Hot, Flat, and Crowded - "America’s surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11; and the global environmental crisis, which is affecting everything from food to fuel to forests. In this groundbreaking account of where we stand now, he shows us how the solutions to these two big problems are linked--how we can restore the world and revive America at the same time." I have to confess, I read on the WSJ that Obama was reading this book on his summer vacation and that he says, he's been greatly influenced by Thomas Friedman. So I bought the book, I haven't finished it. I'm maybe 1/4 through. I was disappointed. There were some good points, some interesting things to think about, but overall, I thought it was a man on a rant. Kind of lame.

6. The Road - "in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth. But here the love of a desperate father for his sickly son transcends all else." This book reminded me a lot of The Stand, by Stephen King. I really liked it! I will be seeing the movie when it comes out.

7. Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss what Matters Most - "...offers advice for handling these unpleasant exchanges in a manner that accomplishes their objective and diminishes the possibility that anyone will be needlessly hurt." I started reading this book shortly after someone had a conversation with me that...went horribly wrong. I was so hurt by the way this friend approached me/confronted me. This book helped me to understand what may have happened and how I could work to prevent a similar situation from befalling me. It's been a great tool in navigating family relationships, being newly married, and work conflict. HIGHLY recommend it!!

8. Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey Of A Desert Nomad - Written by a Waris Dirie about her journey from Desert Nomad to American Super model and U.N. Special Ambassador. Throughout the book she speaks loudly on the subject of female genital mutilation and champions environmental causes. Her exceptional story telling "is intriguing, powerful, and unique." If you're even a little interested in FMG I would recommend this book as a first step into learning more.

9. The Shack - It was a re-read for me; but this book always impacts me. I love the way the author portrays the Father's love for his children. Don't read it without a box of tissues and a tender heart.

10. The 13 1/2 lives of Captain Blue Bear - "...an intrepid "seagoing bear" offers his "demibiography." A foundling floating in a nutshell on the Zamonian Sea, the azure-furred Bluebear is rescued by Minipirates, impish nautical geniuses, who raise him and then, after he gets too big, abandon him to live out 13 lifetimes of adventure populated by a dizzying array of eccentric characters." I LOVED this book. The characters, the stories, the imagination, the vast array of new words; it was just about perfect! I will be reading more Walter Moers in 2010.

a sad way to learn marital truth

I get The Week, every week. Great little gem, if you're into the news. There is a section called "Gossip" its three little blurbs about various gossip items. One caught my attention today.

"Ashley Dupre, the call girl whose trysts with Eliot Spitzer lead to the New York governor's resignation, returned to the tabloids this week, this time as a sex columnist for the New York Post. In her debut column, Dupre, 24, dishes advice on how to spot signs that your husband is cheating. "Guys are easy to please and I don't mean just sexually," she tells a worried wife. "Ask your self, when was the last time you did something to make your husband feel loved, special, and appreciated...and if you can't remember, then that's your sign right there."

First off, what great advice! It seems that so often we get married or enter into long-term committed relationships and forget to be loving and respectful to each other. Several months ago, my husband and I read "Love and Respect" with some friends, and while overall the book didn't thrill me, it did generat some great conversations between us. I remember one night in particular where my husband said that it meant so much to him when I remember the little things, that he doesn't like certain foods, or when I keep his preferences in mind. Its so easy to be me focused and not remember to think of him and make sure he feels "loved, special, and appreciated."

So Thanks Ashley, for the good advice! (Although I do find it sad that it takes a call girl to remind us all of the simple truth of loving our husbands.)

Snow in DC!!!

I can't believe it, the weather reports keep getting more and more ominous as the day goes on. The DCist is now reporting that the National Weather Service estimates that between 10 and 20 inches of snow could accumulate between midnight tonight and 6 a.m. on Sunday. Woah! This could be awesome!!

Christmas at the Cayless' - the decorations

Christmas at the Cayless' - the food

Is it ok we don't have a Christmas Tree?

I have been feeling a lot of social pressure recently. I guess it all centers around the holiday. This will be our first Christmas as "us." And my friends are busy making "its our first christmas" ornaments and decorating their homes, and well I'm not. I don't really care that its our first christmas, and we don't have a tree (although I would like one). Truth is, we're not home very much this month, gone 2 out of 4 weekends.

Overall, I just don't know what to do with the social pressure to be a certain kind of wife, who cooks and cleans and nests in her home. I just don't do that, and my husband doesn't exactly encourage me to do that, he would rather us do it together. Which, in all honesty, ROCKS but it does make us something of a social anomaly.

Life......

God's omnipresence - quote from Greg Boyd's book, God of the Possible

Doesn't Einstein's theory of relativity prove that time is ultimately unreal, thus disproving the idea that God experiences a past or a future?

"...Einstein's theory is concerned only with the transference of information at the speed of light between finite observers. But God is not one finite observer among others. He is an observer who is contemporaneous with every finite observer. This changes everything (though we shouldn't fault Einstein for not incorporating this into his theory).

"It means that God's experience of others is not dependent on (relative to) the speed of light. He doesn't need to "wait" for information to arrive to him via the speed of light. He is "there" when the information originates"

Thanksgiving Quote

"...and it was never but once a year that they were brought together anyway, and that was on the neutral, dereligionized ground of Thanksgiving, when everybody gets to eat the same thing, nobody sneaking off to eat funny stuff—no kugel, no gefilte fish, no bitter herbs, just one colossal turkey for two hundred and fifty million people—one colossal turkey feeds all. A moratorium on funny foods and funny ways and religious exclusivity, a moratorium on the three-thousand-year-old nostalgia of the Jews, a moratorium on Christ and the cross and the crucifixion for the Christians, when everyone in New Jersey and elsewhere can be more passive about their irrationalities than they are the rest of the year. A moratorium on all the grievances and resentments . . . for everyone in America who is suspicious of everyone else. It is the American pastoral par excellence and it lasts twenty-four hours.” —Philip Roth

anxiety...or excitement

They just posted 3 new jobs in my department. I REALLY REALLY REALLY want one of them..but there is going to be some majorly stiff competition. I feel so anxious. I knew this day was coming, but now its here...I want to run and hide. Ugh.

Decisions, decisions.....

Yesterday I made a decision! It was a HUGE weight off of my shoulders, I didn't even realize how much I had been burdened by the process. I am excited about my prospects, in fact, I am content exactly where I am...for the time being. :)

Feeling convicted....

I love my husband, but he seldom agrees with me. We have polarizing views when it comes to politics and sometimes the social implications of politics on our general lives. (It honestly is one of the things I love about him, keeps me thinking!) A few nights ago we had one of those, gut wrenching, strongly opinionated conversations; which I can't seem to get out of my head. It's gnawing at me and I'm feeling convicted. (Shocker!)

There have been several very disturbing news stories over the past 2 months. The first involved an Honor Roll student who was jumped an beaten in Chicago and the second happened over the weekend, a young woman was gang-raped after her high school homecoming. Both stories seemed to involve a young man who had graduated from high school, but was still "hanging around." And I have to admit, I am utterly overwhelmed by the depth of poverty in some of the cities here in America and the negitive consequences on society. It reminds me of third world countries where people don't have food and will kill for it or tribes who go to war over water. We have people here who are killing over turf and aimlessly wandering around looking for trouble because they simply can not find a job. I have to ask myself, what are we (my family, my church, my government) doing about it? To steal a quote from a recent Business as Mission Network article "Can we admit that we have subsidized lethargy and promoted the idea that God is simply not capable of providing for or sustaining them without indefinite charity?"

I think we've created a monster. We've been in the business of hand-outs for so long that now there aren't jobs left for people to have, or we have forgotten how to be indistrial, or people think they don't need one. "We need to be about the business of helping families be sustainable and pointing the way to Godly purpose and fulfillment." And we seem to be failing so badly at this! I look at my church, we're so good at HUGE service projects where we hand out food, and clothes and tracts, but are we really helping? Are we actually hurting those we are trying to help?

"I know it is not as glamorous and as personally edifying as being the amazing Americans that have come to bestow our gifts and prayers on them. But to me, sustainable missions and providing opportunity to others is compassionate, benevolent, spirit empowering and the highest use of our money, time and efforts." We are failing our neighbors.

My friend Amanda works for microfinance company; so I asked her, "Can we do microfinance here in America?" Our final conclusion was, yes, but no. The loans most people need are so big and not everyone can start a big company; raising pigs or cattle isn't going to help someone change the course of their family here. However, she did mention, group savings plans. Where a community starts saving together. Each month, each family gets the "pot" or a larger savings throughout the course of the year. This could revolutionize things for families. To have $1000 instead of just $100.

It is high time we begin to wean ourselves off of the easy displays of spiritual philanthropy and set our efforts to assisting people out of despair. Sow opportunity. Sow life. Life that sustains people, establishes families, builds community and endures for generations.

I would LOVE to get involved in ideas like this. Anyone know of anything?!

Washington Monuments at Night

My husband and I decided to take the perfect fall evening to walk around our lovely historic town and enjoy the scenery. We walked past the Washington Monument, the WWII Monument, and the Jefferson Memorial. It was tremendous, got some nice photos too.

Washington Monuments at Night (Cont.)

Long run on a beautiful fall day

It was the PERFECT fall day yesterday. Temps in the 50s and 60s, the trees are about to peak at their full color, the sky was bright blue and the sun was shining. I drove up to Bethesda, Maryland and parked the car and ran all the way back to Virginia. It was about 8 1/2 miles of gorgeous trees, trickling streams, and bikers and runners galor! I saw a little fuzzy caterpillars (the black and brown kind) and a baby turtle!

My body hates me today, but it was TOTALLY worth all the pain.

MapMyRun.com - Long Run: Long run on 10/25/2009

Quote of the Day

"With our progress we have destroyed our only weapon against tedium: that rare weakness we call imagination."
– Oriana Fallaci

Quote

Can he have followed far, who has no wound or scar?
~Amy Carmichael

Weeping between the porch and the altar

By: Leonard Ravenhill

“Revival is a mysterious divine intervention. I think one of the most awesome tasks given to man was given to John Baptist, when God said, “Prepare YE the way of the Lord.”

You know, you talk about revival in this country and everybody has got tunnel vision. Iniquity has never swaggered like it swaggers now. You know what has happened in the last twenty three years in England? In the last twenty three years in England the Muslims have built 300 mosques and at the same time they were building their 300 mosques the Church of England has closed 660 churches. Does it drive us to despair? We go on as though we were on the edge of the millennium instead of on the edge of judgment.”

Stolen Quote

I try to hear from heaven, but I talk the whole time...

Help!

Lord, help me to bloom where I am planted.

Random stream of thought

My husband's mother died about three and a half years ago from pancreatic cancer. I've never had the privalege of meeting her. I'm often conflicted and sad that she missed our wedding and she doesn't get to be a part of our life and the milestones that will come.

With Patrick Swayze passing last week, some of these feelings and my own grief/loss resurfaced. I'm still contemplating reading his memoir or finding a pancreatic cancer research center to support. I heard that pancreatic cancer can be genetic and can show up through generations of families, which TERRIFIES me.

A news article I read about him had a quote from his memoir. It really touched me. I don't put a lot of stock in celebrity relationships, or expect any sort of genuine expressions of affection from them. However, Patrick and his wife met in their late teens and remained together until his death. It moved me. He wrote of his wife: “How grateful I am that you chose to love me,” he writes of wife Lisa Niemi. “I know that because of you, I've found my spirit. I saw the man I wanted to be. You are my woman, my lover, my mate and my lady. I loved you forever, I love you now and I will love you forever more.”

Beautiful isn't it?

Female Genital Mutilation

There was a great article in the Global Post on Saturday about female genital mutilation. Several of the Scandinavian countries are taking some drastic steps to protect girls from some of these dangerous, traditional practices. I think this is a great first step.

Click here to read the whole article: Scandinavia fights female circumcision

Hot, Flat, and Crowded

"Avoid the unmanageable and manage the unavoidable."
- Sigma Xi

Stats

"Every 30 seconds a child is trafficked into abuse and violence..."

Discontentment

Recently, I've really been wrestling with my life. Don't get me wrong I love my life, but it can at times be a very self-centered, selfish life; its bugging me. I have been really challenged by some amazing people around me. One family has adopted 2 special needs children, in addition to their 4 boys. Other friends of mine are working in drought stricken african villages and I can't help but think...what lasting, eternal contributions am I making?

As I contemplate, maybe it has less to do with what I do and more to do with the posture of my heart and my attitude. But my heart seems impossble to bring into alignment.

"...I have no magic wand to wave over you and make it all better. Life takes a bit of time and a lot of relationship..."
- The Shack

Christian converst shot in Somalia

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 20 (Compass Direct News) – Muslim extremists early this morning killed a Christian convert in Mahadday Weyne, Somalia, 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Mogadishu. Al Shabaab Islamist militia shot Mohammed Sheikh Abdiraman to death at 7 a.m., eyewitnesses told Compass. They said the Islamic extremists appeared to have been hunting the convert from Islam, and when they found him they did not hesitate to shoot him. The sources told Compass that Abdiraman was the leader of an underground “cell group” of Christians in Somalia. Another eyewitness who requested anonymity said Abdiraman had been a Christian for 15 years. He is survived by two children, ages 15 and 10. His wife died three years ago due to illness. “We are very sad about this incident, and we also are not safe,” one eyewitness said by telephone. “Pray for us.”

Iran: American Foreign Policy

"Washington can no longer play checkers as Tehran plays chess. Credibility matters. Adversaries test red lines wherever they are drawn. Obama should not, like his predecessors, draw his in pencil."

"...the chief problem in the Islamic Republic is that the government believes itself accountable more to God than to its constituents. While workers go without wages for months on end, the Iranian leadership invests billions in nuclear and ballistic missile programs or exporting the revolution. If the Islamic Republic had to answer to its overwhelmingly moderate citizenry, Tehran's behavior would temper considerably. Bush missed a Gdansk moment when Iranian bus drivers, under the leadership of Mansour Osanlou, formed the Islamic Republic's first independent trade union. Sugar cane workers in Khuzistan followed suit. Both forced the government to make concessions and be accountable to Iranians. The development of independent trade unions in Iran is a trend Obama should encourage."

~Quote from Michael Rubin

Violence in China - courtesy of Intercessors Network

Scores killed in China protests

Violence in China’s restive western region of Xinjiang has left at least 140 people dead and more than 800 people injured, state media say. Several hundred people have also been arrested after the violence erupted in the city of Urumqi on Sunday. Xinhua news agency said police restored order after demonstrators attacked passers-by and set fire to vehicles.

The protest was reportedly prompted by a deadly fight between Uighurs and Han Chinese in southern China last month. The BBC’s Chris Hogg in Shanghai says that if the numbers of dead are to be believed - and state media say they may rise - this looks like the bloodiest suppression of protest in China since Tiananmen Square 20 years ago.

‘Foreign plot’
Uighur exiles said police had fired indiscriminately on a peaceful protest in Urumqi.
The Xinjiang government blamed separatist Uighurs based abroad for orchestrating attacks on ethnic Han Chinese.Eyewitnesses said the violence started on Sunday with a few hundred people, and grew to more than 1,000.

Xinhua says the protesters carried knives, bricks and batons, smashed cars and stores, and fought with security forces.Wu Nong, news director for the Xinjiang government, said more than 260 vehicles were attacked and more than 200 shops and houses damaged. An overnight curfew was imposed.Uighur groups insisted a peaceful protest had become victim to state violence.

‘Dark day’
The Uighurs were reportedly angry over an ethnic clash last month in the city of Shaoguan in southern Guangdong province.A man there was said to have posted a message on a local website claiming six boys from Xinjiang had “raped two innocent girls”.
Police said the false claim sparked a vicious brawl between Han and Uighur ethnic groups at a factory. Two Uighurs were killed and 118 people were injured.

However, the Xinjiang government has blamed the latest unrest on businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer, the Uighurs’ leader who is living in exile in the United States. “An initial investigation showed the violence was masterminded by the separatist World Uighur Congress led by Rebiya Kadeer,” the government said in a statement, according to Xinhua. It said the violence had been “instigated and directed from abroad”.

The vice-president of the US-based Uighur American Association, Alim Seytoff, condemned the “heavy-handed” actions of the security forces. “We ask the international community to condemn China’s killing of innocent Uighurs. This is a very dark day in the history of the Uighur people,” he said.

The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville in China says Xinjiang, a mainly Muslim area, has been a source of tension for many years. Some of its Uighur population of about eight million, want to break away from China, and its majority Han Chinese population.
The authorities say police are securing order across the region and anyone creating a disturbance will be detained and punished.



Q&A: China and the Uighurs

The latest unrest in China’s western Xinjiang region follows a long history of discord between China’s authorities and the Uighur minority.

Who are the Uighurs?
The Uighurs are Muslims. Their language is related to Turkish and they regard themselves as culturally and ethnically close to other Central Asian nations.
The region’s economy has for centuries revolved around agriculture and trade, with towns such as Kashgar thriving as hubs along the Silk Road. In the early part of the 20th Century, the Uighurs briefly declared independence. The region was brought under the complete control of communist China in 1949. Officially, Xinjiang is now described by China as an autonomous region, like Tibet to its south.

What are China’s concerns about the Uighurs?
Beijing says Uighur militants have been waging a violent campaign for an independent state by plotting bombings, sabotage and civic unrest. Since the 9/11 attacks in the US, China has increasingly portrayed its Uighur separatists as auxiliaries of al-Qaeda.
It has accused them of receiving training and indoctrination from Islamist militants in neighbouring Afghanistan. However, little public evidence has been produced in support of these claims.

More than 20 Uighurs were captured by the US military after its invasion of Afghanistan. Though imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for six years, they were not charged with any offence. Albania accepted five in 2006, four were allowed to resettle in Bermuda in June, 2009, while the Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed to take the others.

What complaints have been made against the Chinese in Xinjiang?
Activists say the Uighurs’ religious, commercial and cultural activities have been gradually curtailed by the Chinese state. China is accused of intensifying its crackdown on the Uighurs after street protests in the 1990s - and again, in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

Over the past decade, many prominent Uighurs have been imprisoned or have sought asylum abroad after being accused of terrorism. China is said to have exaggerated the threat from Uighur separatists in order to justify repression in the region.
Beijing has also been accused of seeking to dilute Uighur influence by arranging the mass immigration of Han Chinese, the country’s majority ethnic group, to Xinjiang.
Han Chinese currently account for roughly 40% of Xinjiang’s population.

What is the current situation in Xinjiang?
Over the last decade, major development projects have brought prosperity to Xinjiang’s big cities. The activities of local and foreign journalists in the region are closely monitored by the Chinese state and there are few independent sources of news from the region.

China has been keen to highlight improvements made to the region’s economy while Uighurs interviewed by the press have avoided criticising Beijing. However, occasional attacks on Chinese targets suggest Uighur separatism remains a potent - and potentially violent - force.

A protest in July in Urumqi, the region’s capital, turned violent, with about 140 people killed and hundreds injured. Authorities blamed Xinjiang separatists based outside China for the unrest; while Uighur exiles said police had fired indiscriminately on a peaceful protest calling for an investigation into the deaths of two Uighurs in clashes with Han Chinese at a factory in southern China.

Sri Lanka

The conflict in Sri Lanka really troubles me. They claim that the fighting is over, that the "rebels" have been defeated and peace will soon follow. I am wary.

SRI LANKA CRISIS DEEPENS AS RED CROSS SUSPENDS AID
Robert Bosleigh in Colombo

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been forced to suspend the distribution of emergency supplies to as many as 300,000 people displaced by the Sri Lankan Army’s victory over the Tamil Tigers after the Government blocked access to aid camps.

Fears have been growing over the welfare of those forced to flee the conflict zone – many of whom are sick or suffering from battlefield injuries – after tight restrictions were placed on the UN and other agencies trying to administer aid.

Urgently needed supplies of food and clothing had been suspended after access to the camps was restricted by the Government, an ICRC spokesperson told The Times this morning.

The ICRC had been the only neutral aid organisation allowed inside the conflict zone. It had between 20 and 25 staff on the ground in the northeastern region where the Tigers made their last stand over the weekend but has not heard from them since last week.

Those who escaped had to wade through a mine-strewn lagoon, journeying several days to reach camps that are struggling to cope.

Accounts of conditions inside the camps — gained from testimony recorded covertly by aid workers — and the journey to them are horrifying. (continue reading...)

LIFE: What it means to be a Christian

Recently, I've found myself contemplating the question, "what does it mean to be a Christian?" and not in the cliche' WWJD way, but in the "what does the Bible say, what does God himself say" way.

James says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." As an American, its easy for me to think just about myself (and maybe my husband) but...I can be such an individual that I forget about the world around me and those suffering and those alone. In our Bible study last night, someone brought up a great point, (we're reading Daniel) and he noted that Daniel came before God and confessed the sins of the nation, he confessed and begged for forgiveness on a national level. What a different way of thinking! He cared DEEPLY about those around him who would suffer if God didn't intercede.

My husband and I have talked about what kind of family we want to be, what type of Christians we want to be. We've both feel strongly that we want to be "bridge builders." We want to open our home to anyone who needs a place that is safe and warm and loving. We want to care for the orphan and the widow. Often times, this is just inviting friends out for a beer on Friday night, or listening to a co-worker whose having trouble at work, etc. It' not glamorous, some days its hard. I don't want to care...but I feel...like God is calling us to be different.

A friend told me this fabulous story: 3 men arrived in heaven. The first man was from China, Jesus embraced him and said "well done my good and faithful servant for you have faced immense persecution even at the sake of your own life and remained faithful to me." The second man was from Zambia. Jesus embraced him and said "well done my good and faithful servant for you have faced poverty and destitution and remained faithful to me." The third man was from America. Jesus embraced him and said, "well done my good and faithful servant for you have faced greed and selfishness and remained faithful to me." This story always makes me stop in my tracks. It encapsulates one aspect of what it means to be a Christian. To be a Christian means (in part) looking beyond ourselves, to go beyond our natural selfishness and greed to reach out to those around us who need a touch; who need peace, comfort, a friend.

The Last Battle

What News the Eagle Brought...
"Nay, sister," answered Jewel, "all worlds draw to an end; except Aslan's own country."

How the dwarfs refused to be taken in...
"You see," said Aslan. "They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they can not be taken out."

Night Falls on Narnia...
"...as they came right up to Aslan one or the other of two things happened to them. They all looked straight in his face; I don't think they had any choice about that. And when some looked, the expression of their faces changed terribly-it was fear and hatred; except that on the faces of Talking Beasts, the fear and hatred lasted only for a fraction of a second. You could see that they suddenly ceased to be Talking Beasts. They were just ordinary animals. And all the creatures who looked at Aslan in that way swerved to their right, his left, and disappeared into his huge black shadow...but the others looked in the face of Aslan and loved him though some of them were very frightened at the same time. And all these came in at the Door, in on Aslan's right."

Further up, Further in...
"...that was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia which had always been here and always will be here: just as their own world, England and all, is only a shadow or copy of something in Aslan's real world."

"I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it until now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this!"

Ponderings

...First, know yourself....

Sri Lanka's War

James Traub, a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and director of policy for the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, wrote an excellent article about the conflict in Sri Lanka (see below). Its a complicated conflict and he articulates the nuances well. One point he didn't raise, which I see as being essential to any discussion about Sri Lanka, is the growing religious persecution which is part of the bigger conflict taking place and will remain even after the current skirmishes are over.

Religious persecution has been a constant undercurrent in Sri Lanka, this combined with the current ethnic conflict has greatly curtailed the full functioning of civil society and has the potential to further destabilize the country. Thus far, the Sri Lankan government has, to their credit, taken care to protect the constitutional right to freedom of religious choice by not enacting proposed laws subjecting religious conversion to criminal scrutiny. However, various parties within the government and religious extremists outside the government are continueing to pressure lawmakers to pass several pieces of draconian legislation. For example, several months ago an anti-conversion bill was pushed by the Buddhist Commission on Unethical Conversions. The bill would declare Buddhism the State religion and require government approval for a Sri Lankan citizen to change his or her religion from Buddhism. The bill also contained draconian punishments for the concept of "alluring" one away from his or her religion, but the definition of "alluring" and "religion" are vague and unclear, leaving room for abuse. The bill didn't pass, but how long will the Parliment have the political will to stand against such ideas?

Religious diversity is a lynch-pin of a free "full functioning" civil society, as shown throughout the world. A great example in Sri Lanka is despite persecution (churches being burnt, threats are made to the personal well-being of pastors and their families, etc) the Christian Church in Sri Lanka, representing all ethnic communities, is making every effort to care for and meet the humanitarian needs of all religious and ethnic groups. The Sri Lankan government needs to guard itself against fanatical groups which are looking to undermine society and limit its citizen's fundamental freedoms.

At Risk in Sri Lanka's War
James Traub
April 22, 2009

At this moment, at least 60,000 civilians trapped in a tiny strip of land along the northern coast of Sri Lanka are being deployed as human shields by the insurgent force known as the Tamil Tigers -- while artillery shells fired by the Sri Lankan army land indiscriminately among rebels and noncombatants alike. The United Nations asserts that at least 4,500 civilians have been killed since January as the government has sought to decisively end a bloody rebellion that has lasted for a quarter-century. The army is said to be preparing a final assault that, according to U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes, could produce a "bloodbath." Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has spoken of "tens of thousands" of lives at risk. Yet the conflict has barely been reported, and the international community has barely stirred.

The fighting threatens to produce exactly the kind of cataclysm that states vowed to prevent when they adopted "the responsibility to protect" at the 2005 U.N. World Summit. This doctrine stipulates that states have a responsibility to protect peoples within their borders from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. When states are found to be "manifestly failing" to protect citizens from such mass violence, that responsibility shifts to the international community, acting through the United Nations. At the core of this norm is the obligation to act preventively rather than waiting until atrocities have occurred, as has happened too often...(read more)

S. African military to deploy to Sudan

Please pray for the South African military, who leave for Sudan this month.
Several groups worked together to distribute about 1700 bibles to both Christians and Muslims soldiers who have been deployed to Sudan. The Senior staffs of the Military Camp have requested Complete Bibles

Please Pray as we believe these bibles will be of use to the soldiers but also an opportunity to reach out to the Sudanese.