hymns that we enjoy today. When you listen to the words of a hymn like Amazing Grace, When I survey the wonderous cross, or And can it be that I should gain, you know that God was working through the penmen of these marvelous works of art. In my opinion there is not even the illusion of a comparison between their beauty and the generally oversimple, repitious conglormerates that we call contemporary worship.
We, here in the middle east, lack the rich history of hymnology which exists in nearly every hymnal in western churches. What a blessing it is to have godly music.
So for all those whom God has richly blessed with musical talents I encourage you to stir up the gift which is in you, and provide the forthcoming generations with a legacy such you have inherited.
This a hymn which I don't think I've ever heard sung in person, but have loved it from the first time I heard it. So rich in meaning and truth.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward to Thy glorious rest above!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches o’er His loved ones, died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth, watcheth o’er them from the throne!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of every love the best!
’Tis an ocean full of blessing, ’tis a haven giving rest!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, ’tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee!
I've realized something about myself while living in the Middle East: I love sports. Actually I love anything that involved physical activity, and the more strenuous it is the better. But the be honest, I already knew that about myself, I just realized how much I miss it, because I don't have the opportunity to play many sports over here. However, since I came back from Alaska I decided that I was going to start exercising more and stop eating sugar. I've always exercised alot, but because of my back injury I had to stop. So for the last 3 or 4 months I've been going to the gym 2 or 3 times a week (usually two due to time constrains). But the times I don't go to the gym I do some sort of exercise in my apartment, or where ever I happen to be. All of the exercise, even in the gym, is based on a Cross-Fit philosophy, i.e. it's not about how long you exercise or how much you lift, its about how much your work the body as a whole and who dead tired you can make yourself. Anyway, with the combination of the exercise and eating right (I've not had any soda now for 3 months) I've almost got up to long-saught-after 200 lbs (197), with no noticable fat, I feel stronger, and my back pain almost never surfaces. So, this is my tribute to Cross-Fit style exercise and health-conscience eating.
I knew I hadn't posted for a long time, but I didn't think that it had been a month...oh well, time flies when you don't have any of it.
Things here have been super busy. I've made a lot of new friends and aquaintances recently from one of the refugee camps here. Things are going well with them and they are happy to have me visit them in the camps, which is not always the case with foreigners. Some of their neighbors don't like me so much, so I quit driving my car into the camp, so as to avoid bringing un-needed attention to my self...you never know in this part of the world. The Christmas holidays brought alot of activity at the orphanage. It seems for about 3 weeks a year the people here are willing to recgonize that there are lots of dis-infortuned children. We had universities come and make parties for the kids. We had politicians come, and we even had some famous actors and singers come. It was pretty funny, one of the singers, Mariam Faaris, came and there were cameras crews and reporters, and when she arrived every one started shouting "Mariam Faaris is here!". I've never heard of her, so I asked "who is Mariam Faaris? some news reporter?" You should have seen the looks I got, as to say, "do you live on Mars??". I could care less about some silly pop singer... I just came back from a week-long trip to Jordan. I can't write much about the details of the trip, for one reason or another. It was nice to visit old friends again, as well as meeting new ones. I also had some meetings with the University people I used to work with. I even got to see some old friends from Alaska. Esam and Lena were in Amman visiting family. Esam is the first arab person I ever met. He works in the hospital in Fairbanks. It was really cool to see them in Jordan...the world can be very small at times.
Here are some pictures of Wadi Manshala, in the dead sea valley (it was a short, one-day trip with a couple friends). I can't go to Jordan without doing at least a little hiking, because as you can see, there are some amazing places.
The mouth of the Wadi (wadi = valley/ravine), which drains into the Dead Sea
One of the six waterfalls inside the wadi
The view from the top of the wadi: the Dead Sea and Israel. They say on a clear day you can see the mount of olives silhoutted on the horizon
Things have been moving pretty non-stop since my last post in a couple weeks ago. Thanksgiving went really well, and I had a nice time remembering what it was like to have an American holiday. After that we spent a couple days in the villages in the south doing visits and distribution projects. When I came back to Beirut I spent a couple days up at the orphanage I stayed at, because there was a human resource crisis, and I was the only person who could come and watch the kids. I have been spending some time with a few families in one of the refugee camps here in Beirut, and things have begun to take off with them, so I spent a few days in the camp meeting family members, drinking tea and coffee, and talking about various issues. I remember when it was weird and uncomfortable for me to go through the custom of meeting new people here (it is more complicated that in the states). But now I am quite comfortable and even enjoy it quite a bit...I think I enjoy it more inside the refugee camp than inside a nice house...maybe I feel more at my own level.
Things are starting to look Christmassy here...Lebanon is definitely not Jordan. The other day I saw a big mosque all decorated and covered with christmas lights. It just made me chuckle, though on a serious side it is nice to see that there is higher level of tolerance and acceptance here than in other middle eastern countries...at least on some levels.
Before signing off I will leave you all with this video link. It is a response made to a leftist, environmental video called "the story of stuff". I was actually shown the video during a UN traning course a couple years ago. The video has some decent points, but is obviously biased and stretches the truth out of proportion. The response video is quite funny (or was to me). He also some good points, and calls her out on her truth-stretching "facts", but he is also biased. Aaron, I think you'll get a kick out of these videos, haha. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5uJgG05xUY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZzHU3ZfTtY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgLrZc7cws8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XeW5ilk-9Y
So here is the 'final product'. In typical Lebanese fashion, as soon as I started cooking the power went out, so these pies were made under LED headlamp lighting. Thank God for LED's. Anyway, all is well that ends well. I haven't tasted the pies, but I think they turned out...they smell good.
A few years ago I heard a reading of Abraham's Lincolns Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, when he officially made it a holiday. Just imagine if a our current president got up and said something like this! Have a blessed Thanksgiving everyone.
Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation
The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke the aggression of foreign states, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict, while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. The needful diversion of wealth and strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense has not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship. The axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect a continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be reverently, solemnly, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and voice, by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and prayer to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
