You have probably seen it on CNN by now. A group of around 30 marines stormed into the beautiful Manila Pen Hotel, one of our most frequent spots for quiet meetings, and called for a press conference to demand the resignation of President Arroyo for corruption. Her government responded with tear gas, 1,500 police and soldiers and by ramming an armored personnel carrier right through the front doors and into the grand lobby. Gunfire, smoke–craziness. This was a minor event that should have been talked out. Press and guests were everywhere. Tensions are just so high now. Many in the military want her out and she is determined to stay. (remember the Clinton years?) Jessica and Brooke had a rugby game nearby which was cancelled. We’ve been having a tropical storm for a week anyway.The city is under a curfew after the mutineers intimated that events like theirs will now start to occur all over the city in the following days. I guess it’s the frog in the kettle syndrome, but people here just roll with things like this. Nobody is rattled or nervous. It’s such a huge city with as many people as two states of Georgia combined and there are over a dozen little worlds with a million people in each pocket so most of us don’t go too far from our zones anyway. We live 12 miles from the event which was a mile from the radio station again. (We are very centrally located and when we get our Manila voice we will have so much influence from that positioning.) Just keep praying, ok?
OK, here in the Philippines we have to sometimes make our own fun. So, cut a tiny ditch for your butt, cover the slide area with a vinyl tarp that becomes a frying pan for your leg in the summers, then open a garden hose and make a bucket of laundry soap as lubricant and you have a home made superslide. The slide ends in mud and horse poop. Good, clean fun. Well, maybe not so clean but fun still.
This week I sat with someone who is a partner in an ad/marketing agency to get some counsel about the radio ministry, our youth mission, and my own upcoming radio program that I hope to begin producing soon. She challenged me to carefully evaluate my passions and listen to my heart telling me the one thing I want to speak to and put my energies into. I have pondered that question for quite some time, but it seemed like when she asked it of me it was a signal that a clear and final answer would now arise within me. My challenge in the ministry is how broadly we are operating after 25 years in Asia. We help fund and administrate an orphanage, a radio network, a youth organization and a fund-raising operation to attract money from U.S. donors to needy Asian projects. We travel all over Asia to teach on leadership and personal life management. We administrate, write and do a fair amount of pastoral care and pre-marital counseling. All of it is needed and must continue somehow, but it is clear that I do need some other administrators and workers for 2008.I do have an answer for the question, however. If I could only speak about one subject for the rest of my life I know what it is. I want to talk about Jesus. I think that everything that is wrong with the church in every nation of the world stems from one constant failure–the failure to truly embrace and live according to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Abuses of power, gossip, theft of funds, lethargy, pride, division–you name it. It simply flows from refusing to become the servant of Christ and his servant to others.I believe that Jesus is our savior, but I also believe that he is the smartest, most integrated man who ever lived. I believe that his teachings–if followed carefully–will purify every life and fix all that is wrong with it. I want to know Christ. I want to love him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and I want to prove this daily in the way I obey him and act as his servant to minister to others. That is the organizing center for my work. The rest is just details.
Here is a 30 minute interview with one of the most fascinating risk-taking leaders the modern world has produced. Ted.com has some amazing stuff like this. Wait about a minute for the thing to buffer then it should play without a hitch IF you aren’t on dial up.
OK, here’s my first link to another site. After a week of observing the living conditions in Thailand’s tribes and urbanites, I thought of this link. This one is clever and meaningful so I will post it. It shows you how you rank in the world according to your annual income. We all have more than we think.
Discover how rich you are! >>
