But that's just the way I am

"If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives."
-Richard Foster

Mediation in our lives

Yesterday was Sunday, and Sunday is a busy day around the globe, some people earn much of their paychecks on that single day of the week. I'm struck by something though, a question:
Why do we prefer to listen to a man of God over listening directly to God? We do we always want to have a mediator?


In Exodus (20:19), Moses had been up on the mountain, hanging out with God, and the people of Israel had a request (demand) to make of him. They said, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen, but let not God speak to us or we will die."

Why is it that every Sunday, millions of pulpits are filled with one person speaking to hundreds? What is it about personal testimonies that we enjoy, but about God's voice that we do not seek it out? How many people have stacks of tapes of sermons and books, but have never sought to hear straight from God?

Here's what I think: We can reject the voice of a man if we want. I can say, that was a nice talk, but I don't think it applied to me. Or I can ignore it altogether. Or I can think about it, church is a place for intellectuals right? We cannot say no to the voice of God. And we may fear what will come out of that voice, so in all honesty, we'd rather not hear it.

Maybe post-modernism was born out of the church... "that is simply your idea, your truth, fine for you."

Are we still in TZ?

While in the big city of Dar Es Salaam (only place in Africa to host the Olympic torch... odd, but we're honored) for a few days last week we explored and found ourselves asking those around us if we were indeed still in Africa. Here we are, Joe Joe enjoying a hot chocolate in the air-conditioned cafe in front of the new Apple Store.

Some of the resorts on the beach outside of the city seem out of place. But it's nice when they let us in to walk around and gawk.

And yeah, the camel (there's two). This is actually back in Morogoro, just down the street from where we're staying. Didn't expect to see that while here in Tanzania, but hey. Seems to be a pet at a house that's not yet finished being built. We're not to the bottom of it yet, but working on it.

Swahili word for the day: freshi means fresh.
That's the hip language of today's youth.

A Triumphant Journey

Today was a glorious day.

It began yesterday really, when we arrived in Dar Es Salaam. Dar Es Salaam is the biggest and most modern city in Tanzania. This makes it the most likely place to find the elusive Dr. Pepper. Yesterday we began our search by stopping in to every yuppie upscale supermarket (that carry things like chocolate and candy and cereal and other foreigner fixes) and searching the soda aisles. One after another we left disappointed, the journey was going as expected.

But today, no no, a different story unfolded.
One major upscale supermarket on the coast we did not visit yesterday, today we made the trip and were rewarded greatly. After passing the overpriced hershey bars and skittles and miniscule sugar that can dissolve in iced tea, we were greeted by the beautiful color of maroon. There at last on the shelf sat Dr. Pepper!! Paying about $1.25 per can, we bought every can on the shelf. We left the lone 2-liter sitting on the shelf at about $5.50 for someone else to discover.

Now to decide when to enjoy... any suggestions?

Swahili word for the day:
Dr. Pepper translated to Swahili is "Daktari Pilipili".

Final 4

Sadly for me and my friend Siimon, Siena, American, Mississippi State, and Belmont (oh Belmont, how close you did come to glory) did not in fact make the final 4. Good luck to those of you who did--#1's--how boring!

Swahili word for the day:
mashindano means "tournament"