Thursday, December 30, 2010

12.30.2010 WILLIAM CAREY'S JOURNAL 6.13.1793

william carey, a missionary from england to india, kept a journal for the first two years dating from his departure from england. excerpts as follows:

6.13 1793 ..i was returned (circumstances brought carey back to england soon after departure) to take all my family with me and to enjoy all the blessings which i had surrendered up to God..

6.28 ..i have of late found my mind more impressed than ordinary with the importance of the work upon which i am going - God grant that i may feel it more and more.

6.29 ..i find some delight in reading and in preparing for my work by writing the bengali - only however because it relates to my great work.

6.30..a congregation (on ship)..of ten..but no good done yet

7.6 nothing remarkable. (these are the only words of the day. carey is a man of few words, a trait i should seek..)

7.22 ..wretched day full of chagrin - discontent and pride no heart for God nor for divine things spent the day in reading - but to no purpose..

8.2..i am very desirous that my children may pursue the same work and now intend to bring up one in the study of sanskrit and anothe of persian..

8.20..i have of late felt some very lively desires after the success of our undertaking - if there is anything engages my heart in prayer to God it is that the heathen may be converted..

1.13.1794....the hurry of business took up all my time and preyed upon my soul, so that with the prospect of worldly poverty and the want of a sense of divine things filled me with constant discontent and restlessness of mind..oh may i again taste the sweets of social religion which i have given up, and see in this land of darkness, a people formed for God.

1.15-6..was very much dejected all day. have no relish for anything of the world, yet am swallowed up in its cares..

1.19..they alleged the divine original of the koran; we inquired, have you ever seen or read it - the universal answer was, no - but today a man came who pretended to have seen it - we asked him if he knew the beginning of every chapter, for they all begin with these words, 'in the name of God gracious and merciful' - but he said, no for it is written in arabic and no one could understand it -the ? now was then, how can you obey it? and wherefore are you muhammadans? to this they could not reply - they said, and so says the koran, that the koran was sent to confirm the words of scripture. we insisted that the bible said, whosoever shall add to - or diminish from the word of god shall be under the curse of God, but the koran was written after the bible and pretends to divine authority - therefore, if the gospel be true mohammed must be accursed and the koran of no authority and if the bible be not true the koran cannot for that you say was to confirm it - they answered, that the jews and christians had corrupted the bible, which was the reason why God made the revelation by mohammed - we answered then how could the koran come to confirm it, if it was corrupted it needed correction, not confirmation - being driven to their last shift, they said mohammed was the friend of god, but esau, by whom they mean Jesus, was the spirit of God - to which mushi (carey's native helper) shrewdly replied, then which would think highest your friend or your souljor spirit..many more things were said to recommend the gospel and the way of life by Christ and as night came on we left them.

1.20..it has been a day of mercy, tho to my shame of spiritual barrenness..

1.21..felt some pleasure in the morning in prayer to God, but all the rest of the day was at an awful distance from God..

1.22..my wife is within this day or two relapsed into her affliction (she became mentally deranged due to excessive fear of the ocean)..but in the mount of the Lord it is seen..

1.23..(in the midst of great trials occasioned by another missionary)..my heart bleeds for him..o for contentment, delight in God and much of His fear before my eyes - if i now only labour alone, but even if i should lose my life in the undertaking - i anxiously desire the time when i shall so far know the language as to preach in earnest to these poor people.

1.25..have reason to bless for a day of quietness and calmness, tho i must mourn over my barrenness and the strange stupidity of my heart..

1.26..went to visit our congregation of natives again..the person who acted as priest or keeper of the place was so ashamed, when we told him that all the offerings were made to his belly, that he went away - confounded with the laughter of the people..their inquisitiveness and numbers increase..

1.28..this morning at calcutta - again disappointed about $..o what a portion is God and what a shame that i am not always satisfied with Him..

1.31..a day of vexation barrenness and worse than nothing.

2.1..if once God would by his Spirit convince of sin, a saviour would be a blessing indeed to them; but human nature is the very same all the world over; and all conviction fails except it is produced by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit.

2.7..had but little pleasure, tho much leisure, it has been a day of lasitudes and dullness..

2.9-13..my soul is barren and absorbed in temporal things - Lord enlarge my heart.

3.2-4..oh that my soul was not so barren and unfruitful in the work and ways of God.

3.5 still i mourn my barrenness and the foolish wanderings of my mind, surely i shall never be of any use among the heathen. i feel so very little of the life of godliness in my own soul: it seems as if all the sweetness that i have formerly felt was gone, neither am i distressed, but a guilty calm is spread over my soul, and i seem to spend all my time and make no progress towards the desired port either in a public or private way - i am full of necessities yet am not distressed, i wan wisdom to know how to direct all my concerns, and fortitude, and affectionate concern for the glory of God and faith and holiness in all its branches, then my soul would be like a well managed garden, but now it is a mere jungle.

3.6..o when shall i serve God uninterruptedly and pursue every other thing in a subserviency to his divine will, and in such a manner as to commune with him in every thing that i do.

3.7 in the morning had a very miserable unhappy time for some hours; o what a body of death do i carry about, how little can i bear who little patience have i under the contradictions i meet with; and the afflictions i meet how little are they sanctified; instead of growing in grace i almost conclude myself to be destitute of the grace of God at all.

3.8 felt much remains of dullness and indisposition to the things of God. i see now of the value of christian society - - when i had that advantage i have often felt that visiting a friend was like throwing oil upon the fire or like as iron sharpeneth iron, so have the countenances of my friends stirred me up to an holy activity and diligence in the things of God..

3.12 i am very defective in all duties; both with respect to the manner and mater of them; in prayer i wander, and am formal; not having that (quiet) lively sense of my wants which is necessary to wrestling with God; i ask for blessings, yet seem almost contented to go without obtaining them, i soon tire, devotion languishes; and i don't walk with God, - considering myself always as in his light. o what a mercy it is to live near to him; and to realize his perfections, and relations to us constantly..

3.14 dullness and peevishness, with a sense of guilt on my mind.

3.15 in this wilderness o how my soul wanders, i thirst, but find nothing to drink 0 Lord i beseech thee deliver my soul..

3.16 such another sabbath i hope i never shall pass - what a hell it would be to be always with those who fear not God; as is the case with the benevolent man with whom i reside..

3.18 barren in my soul, o that it was with me as in months past.

3.19 had a little pleasure in divine things and in the evening conversed with a carnal man about the things of God - and in vain endeavored to press the importance of seriousness.

3.23 Lord's day - enjoyed much happiness in reading to and instructing my family..

3.24 devoted in some measure to God: but o how little is my will swallowed up in God's..

3.29 through mistake spent this day as the sabbath, i have however abundant reason to be thankful for the mistake, it has been a time of refreshing indeed to me; o what is there in all this world worth living for but the presence and service of God - i feel a burning desire that all the world may know this God and serve him - o how long will it be till i shall know so much of the language of the country as to preach Christ crucified to them: but bless God i make some progress.

4.4 this day very much defected, my own barrenness and the providential delays which i meet with, are a weight which depresses my soul, i make so little progress in the bengali language, and am so unsettled and so barren that it seems as if i should never be of any use at all - yet i think i am too impatient, o that god would make me wholly resigned to his will in all things.

4.5 how wicked is the heart of man, and what a curse must it be to be wholly under its wicked dominion; then all mercies are repelled; all privileges neglected and all god's authority slighted; this awful spirit so prevails in me that i can scarcely tell whether i have the grace of god or not, if i have it how very low is the degree, and if not - then how shall i teach others; i can scarce determine - but be as it may, i am resolved to spend and be spent in the work of my Lord Jesus Christ.

4.7 bless God i have enjoyed some pleasure in God today and spent the evening in a long dispute with my friendly host, was enabled, through mercy to be faithful and speak of the necessity of faith in Christ in order to salvation - this was called illiberal and uncharitable; as it excluded unbelievers and eventually adjudged the heathens to eternal misery. i argued that i was no more uncharitable than the bible..

4.8 a day of business, hurry, sorrow and dejection; i seem cast out of the christian world and unable yet to speak to the heathens to any advantage - and daily disappointment discourages my heart - i not only have no friend to stir me up, or encourage me in the things of God but every discouragement arising from my distance from mr. thomas (the closest european contact to carey and supposed to be a co-worker); the infidelity of europeans - who all say that the conversion of the natives is impossible and the stupid superstition of the native themselves; in england i should not be discouraged by what infidels say, but here i have not the blessing of a christian friend to sympathize with me, nor the ability to make the trial of preaching the gospel. ALL MY HOPE IS IN AND ALL MY COMFORT ARISES FROM GOD; without his power no european could possibly be converted and his power can convert any indian, and when i reflect that he has stirred me up to the work, and wrought wonders to prepare the way i can hope in his promises, and am encouraged and strengthened..

4.11..who would grudge to spend his life, and his all, to deliver an (otherwise) amiable people, from the misery and darkness of their present wretched state (carey had just witnessed, for several days, these people in elaborate, public self-torture in the service of their religion), and how should we prize that gospel which has delivered us from hell, and our country from such dreadful marks of satan's cruel dominion as these.

4.12 nothing but care, worldliness, and anxiety to day - may it be buried in oblivion.

4.13 lord's day, this has been a day of real enjoyment to my soul and of true profit. i think that if it was not for some opportunities of this nature the wheel of religion would be entirely clogged; but these seasons of refreshing now oil them, and i move on again.

4.15 bless God that his presence is not departed, this evening during the approach of a violent storm of thunder, i walked alone and had sweet converse with God in prayer; o i longed to have all my fetters knocked off that i might glorify God without hindrance either natural or moral.

4.16 a day of wretchedness, in which my wickedness seemed to be let loose against me. o what a fountain of vileness is my heart - and how desperately wicked my nature - can such a wretch as i ever expect to be of any use? i think not-

4.17 begun with turbulence and wretchedness of mind, and so continued - neither could i draw near to God, great mountains of guilt, and shame blocked up the way of my access to god; o wretched man that i am - who shall deliver me from the body of this death.

4.18 tumultuous in the beginning but afterward more calm - yet a burden of guilt is not easily removed - nothing short of infinite power and infinite goodness can remove such a load as mine. o that i had but a smiling God, or an earthly friend to whom i could unbosom my soul - but my friend is at a great distance and God frowns upon my soul - o may His countenance be lifted upon me again..

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

12.29.2010 MOTHER TERESA'S CO-WORKERS

CONSTITUTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CO-WORKERS OF MOTHER TERESA AFFILIATED TO THE MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY

1...consists of men, women, young people and children of all religions and denominations throughout the world, who seek to love God in their fellow men, though whole hearted free service to the poorest of the poor of all castes and creeds and who wish to unite themselves in a spirit of prayer and sacrifice with the work of mother teresa and the missionaries of charity.

2. mother teresa's desire is that all co-workers, sisters and brothers, and the poor unite themselves to each other in prayer and sacrifice:
-by helping people recognize God in the person of the poor
-by helping people love God better through works of charity and service to the poor
-by uniting the missionaries of charity and co-workers throughout the world in prayer and sacrifice
-by keeping the family spirit
-by fostering aid between various countries and by eliminating dupliction of effort and aid for individual centers of the missionaries of charity MOC

3. by 'the poor' is meant those who do not have enough to eat, whose living conditions are incompatible with the dignity of the human person and who are seriously deprived, materially, spiritually or socially, in relation to their neighbors. while hearing the cries of the poor, the co-workers will have a special concern for those who are unwanted and unloved.

4. all co-workers express their love of God through service to the poor, as Jesus Christ himself has said: whatever you did to the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me. (matthew 25.40) for I was hungry and you gave Me to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink. I was homeless and you took Me in, naked and you clothed Me, sick and you visited Me, in prison and you came to see Me. (matthew 25.35)

5. while remaining sensitive and responsive to the needs of the poor who are near to them, the co-workers..give their support to m. teresa and to her MOC in their mission of love to the poorest of the poor wherever they are found and thus share in the 'whole hearted free service to the poor' which the sisters and brothers vow to God.

6. they recognize the dignity, the individuality and the infinite value of every human life.

7. the keynote of the giving is love and service.

8. the co-workers..recognize that all the goods of this world - including gifts of mind and body, advantages of birth and education - are the free gifts of God and that no one has a right to a superfluity of wealth while others are dying of starvation and suffering from every kind of want. they seek to right this grave injustice by the exercise of voluntary poverty and the sacrifices of luxuries in their way of life.

9. at the same time and in the same spirit, co-workers..make available to the MOC whaterver time and material help are withing their power to provide.

10. co workers..unite in prayer with the MOC by saying the following prayer daily:
make us worthy, Lord, to serve our fellow men throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. give them, through our hands, this day their daily bread and byour understanding love give peace and joy.
Lord, make me a channel of Thy peace, that

where there is hatred i may bring love
where there there is wrong, i may bring the spirit of forgiveness
where there is error, i may bring truth
where there is doubt, i may bring faith
where there is despair, i may bring hope
where there are shadows, i may bring light
where there is sadness, i may bring joy

Lord, grant that i may seek rather

to comfort than to be comforted
to understand than to be understood
to love than to be loved
for it is by forgetting self that one finds; it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life. amen

11. co-workers should emulate the spirit of poverty and humility of the MOC and should avoid unnecessary expenses at their meetings and should conduct all their business affairs with economy and austerity.

12. as the MOC give whole hearted free service to the poor, so the co-workers also and all those in office will give their whole hearted free service.

13. in accordance with m. teresa's wish co-workers throughout the world should maintain contact with one another and exchange ideas and information through the international committee.

21.29.2010 MOTHER TERESA'S NOBEL SPEECH

..so this is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt. it hurt Jesus to love us, it hurt Him...we have been created to love and be loved and then He has become man to make it possible for us to love as He loved us. He makes Himself the hungry one - the naked one - the homeless one - the sick one - the one in prison - the lonely one - the unwanted one - and He says ' you did to me. hungry for our love and this is the hunger of our poor people. this is the hunger that you and i must find, it may be in our own home.

i never forget an opportunity i had in visiting a home where they had all these old parents of sons and daughters who had just put them in an institution and forgotten maybe. and i went there and i saw in that home they had everything, beautiful things, but everybody was looking towards the door. and i did not see a single one with their smile on their face. and i turned to the sister and i asked: how is that? how is it that the people they have everything here, why are they all looking towards the door, why are they not smiling? i am so used to see the smile on our people, even the dying ones smile, and she said: this is nearly every day, they are expecting, they are hoping that a son or daughter will come to visit them. they are hurt because they are forgotten and see - this is where love comes. that poverty comes right there in our own home, even neglect to love. maybe in our own family we have somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who is feeling worried and these are difficult days for everybody. are we there, are we there to receive them, is the mother there to receive the child?

i was surprised in the waste to see so many young boys and girls given into drugs, and i tried to find out why - why is it like that? and the answer was: because there is no one in the family to receive them. father and mother are so busy they have no time..

..these are the things that break peace, but i feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing - direct murder by the mother herself...in the scripture God says very clearly: even if a mother could forget her child - I will not forget you - i have curved you in the palm of My hand. we are curved in the palm of His hand, so close to Him that unborn child has been curved in the hand of God...the greatest destroyer of peace is abortion. and we who are standing here - our parents wanted us we would not be here if our parents would do that to us..

..we are fighting abortion by adoption, we have saved thousands of lives, we have sent words to all the clinics, to the hospitals, police stations - please don't destroy the child, we will take the child. so every hour of the day and night it is always somebody, we have quite a number of unwedded mothers - tell them come, we will take care of you, we will take the child from you and we will get a home for the child. and WE HAVE A TREMENDOUS DEMAND FOR FAMILIES WHO HAVE NO CHILDREN (note: why then is adoption, around the world, about red tape and exorbitant $...using human flesh to make $, for other agendas?), that is the blessing of God for us.

and also, we are doing another thing..we are teaching our beggars, our leprosy patients, our slum dwellers, our people of the street, natural family planning. and in calcutta alone in six years..we have had 61,273 babies less from the families who would have had, but because they practise this natural way of abstaining, of self-control, out of love for each other..and you know what they have told me? our family is healthy, our family is united and we can have a baby whenever we want...these are people who maybe have nothing to eat, maybe they have not a home wher to live, but they are great people.

the poor are very wonderful people. one evening we went out and we picked up 4 people from the street. and one of them was in a most terrible condition - and i told the sisters: you take care of the other 3, i take this one that looked worse. so i did for her all that my love can do. i put her in bed and there was such a beautiful smile on her face. she took hold of my hand, said one word: Thank you - and died. i could not help but examine my conscience before her and i asked what would i say if i was in her place. and my answer was very simple. i would have tried to draw a little attention to myself, i would have said i am hungry, that i am dying, i am cold, i am in pain or something, but she gave me much more - she gave me her grateful love. and she died with a smile on her face.

as that man said whom we picked up from the drain, half eaten with worms and we brought him to the home: i have lived like an animal in the street, but i am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for. and it was so wonderful to see the greatness of that man who could speak like that, who could die like that without comparing anything. like an angel - this is the greatness of our people...

..we are not real social workers. we may be doing social work in the eyes of the people, but we are really contemplatives in the heart of the world...you too try to bring that presence of God in your family..

..sometime ago in calcutta we had great difficulty in getting sugar and i don't know how the word got around to the children..and a little boy or 4 years old, hindu boy, went home and told his parents: i will not eat sugar for 3 days, i will give my sugar to mother teresa for her children...

..and so here i am talking with you - i want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. and begin love there. be that good news to your own people. and find out about your next door neighbor - do you know who they are?

..i had the most extraordinary experience with a hindu family who had 8 children. a gentleman came to our house and said: mother teresa, there is a family with 8 children, they had not eaten for so long - do something. so i took some rice and i went there immediately. and i saw the children - their eyes shining with hunger - i don't know if you have ever seen hunger...and she took therice, she dividedthe rice and she went out. when she came back i asked her - where did you go, what did you do? and she gave me a very simple answer: they are hungry also. what struck me most was that she knew - and who are they, a muslim family - and she knew. i didn't bring more rice that evening because i wanted them to enjoy the joy of sharing. but there were those children, radiating joy, sharing the joy with their mother because she had the love to give. and you see this is were love begins - at home..

..when i pick up a person from the street, hungry, i give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, i have satisfied. i have removed that hunger. but a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society - that poverty is so hurtable and so much, and i find that very difficult. our sisters are working amongst that kind of people in the west...

..you must come to know the poor, maybe our people here have material things, everything, but i think that if we all look into our own homes, how difficult we find it sometimes to smile at each other, and that the smile is the beginning of love. and so let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love and once we begin to love each other naturally we want to do something...smile at each other, make time for eachother in your family. smile at each other...

..if we could only remember that God loves me and i have an opportunity to love others as He loves me, not in big things, but in small things with great love, then norway becomes a nest of love. and how beautiful it will be that from here a center for peace has been given. that form here the joy of life of the unborn child comes out. if you become a burning light in the world of peace, then really the nobel peace prize is a gift of the norwegian people. God bless you!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

12.28.2010 READINGS

worldmag, 1.1.2011, p8, finders keepers - joel belz..talking about economics..'the children who will be tomorrow's voters need to know more than simply how to balance their own family checkbooks. they need to be learning the principles, even at this stage of their lives, of what it takes to keep a nation economically afloat. the elementary classroom is not too early a setting for teaching boys and girls the sober meaning of terms like 'trillion dollar deficits' (if indeed we adults understand which wording); of the benefits and the costs of 'compound interest'; of the 'welfare state; of 'collectivism'; of the free market'; of 'wealth creation'; of the 'nanny state'; and maybe a hundred other key terms and concepts..
so here's a proposal: sometime in the next 10 days, you share with me no more than three such truths or principles that you think are critical for the next generation to comprehend and implement in the national and world economy. state each concept in no more than 30 words - and make you statement simple enough that a fourth grader ( typically a 10 year old) can understand what you're saying.

dear mr. belz,
several comments before sharing three concepts. 1. i am thinking this teaching should be done at home by parents.. (fathers, train up your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord..) rather than in school by teachers, 2. that it focus on the individual living a certain way in regard to economics rather than the nation. (a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough) 3. that it be real life training rather than conceptualized (be ye doers of the word and not hearers only) and 4. that it is essential for adults to start seeking out and then practicing, immediately, what they would teach their children (for ezra had prepared his heart to SEEK the law of the Lord and to DO it and to TEACH in israel statutes and judgments. 7.10)

principles:

1. DO EVERYTHING GOD IS TELLING YOU (trust in the Lord and do good. so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. psalm 37.3
2. MAKE DO, DO WITHOUT; USE IT UP, WEAR IT OUT (self-restraint is a key essence in all morality. (.. and having food and raiment let us be therewith content. iI timothy 6.8)
3. BE A HARD WORKER AND HILARIOUS GIVER (let him who steals steal no longer but rather let him labor, working with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with him who has need. ephesians 4.28)

p24...so disasters would dog 2010, whether they engolfed whole countries or whole tows - chile, indonesia, new zealand, the villages of the indus river basin and montcoal, w.va. nearly 260,000 people died in such events compared with 15,000 in 2009 - the highest number of disaster related deaths since 1976.

p68...the 2010 federal budget deficit hit a near record 1.294 trillion, only slightly less than 2009's overspending. the congressional budget office projected the national debt would reacha level equal to 90% of the u.s. gross domestic product by 2020 - up from just 40% 2 years ago. in a december report, the bipartian national commission on fiscal responsibility and reform warned that 'if the u.s. does not put its house in order, the reckoning will be sure and the devastation severe'. (note: unfortunately God is furthering the process of His judgment on us by sending a lot of would-be republican 'saviors' to save us. jeremiah17.5 says, 'cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord'.)

the smell of death and the aroma of Christ - emily belz, p86

..speaking of recently taliban murdered tom little, a christian optometrist who had worked over 4 decades to help the people of afghanistan... his wife, libby was given a small notebook he had..and 'in between the pages listing medical equipment and supplies for the team he led..were what looked like penciled sermon notes...there were several notations from ephesians and a reference from II corinthians 2.15..for we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing, to the one we are the smell of death and to the other the fragrance of life.. to the side tom had jotted, 'use the nuristani goat cheese story'. as libby explained, some aromas take some getting used to and nuristani goat cheese is packed on donkeys in animal skins and carried for weeks, permeating even the saddlebags with its strong sour scent. herdsmen who carry it are smelled from far off, but once you have acquired a taste for it, you're hooked. folks travel miles for a taste of nuristani goat cheese...

the year 2010 has brought multiple encounters with people like the littles, "ones who stayed", men and women of whom the world is not worthy..one is joel, pastor of an evangelical church in baghdad. asked how to pray for a congregation that has faced death all year long, he didn't ask for safety or prosperity but for his church to experience deliverance from a "spirit of religion, where we worship creation instead of the creator: and from "our spirit of pride, rooted as we are so close to ancient babylon".

another, baptist pastor john bell in zimbabwe, told me that living through dire crises has taught his church better to appreciate the reality of Jesus' life. feeding 5,000 or walking on water are sought after traits when grocery shelves are empty. "there are certain things about Christ you only learn in a storm. that has been our privilege here to have Christ manifest Himself in ways that you do not see in the calm".

and there is my friend labib, an arab christian living in a jewish settlement facing the security wall that separates israel from the west bank. "how do you survive this place? i asked him one day waiting in jerusalem traffic. "the importance of the Christian community does not come from its numbers but from our presence and our service and our witness for Jesus Christ", he said calmly.

mailbag, p91..while in kabul some time ago, i asked a female humanitarian volunteer if afghanistan was betting better. would democracy and freedom eventually somehow ooze out of this mess, as western embassies fantasized? and whatof her safety? "it's going to come to the shedding of blood", she told me quietly. "and i'm willing for that blood to be mine"..

Sunday, December 19, 2010

12.19.2010 ME OR JESUS?

worldmag, 12.18.2010, p84, to which i am am i faithful? marvin olasky

every workday morning for 3 years i've passed by the front of the empire state building and encountered 3 groups of ticket-sellers who wear their company colors: red, blue or yellow a block away..they start asking anyone who looks like a tourist, 'going up?' they discourse on the heavenly views that come with a trip to the 86th and 102nd floor observatories.

most religions are a lot like that. priests and imams tout ways to go up to heaven in exchange for the performance of various rituals or the pronouncing of certain words. christianity is different, since we have nothing with which to buy grace. Jesus offers us His living water for free, but the cost to Him is enormous. in gratitude believers learn to think of serving God and serving others: we cannot put aside our self-interest, but we can lose our selfishness.

moses before the burning bush told god that the people of israel would demand to know god's name. God told moses to day, 'I AM has sent me to you'. I AM, of course, means God who is neither past nor future but everlasting, making every moment throughout eternity the present one, always focused. what a contrast with his human creations: we think woulda/shoulda/coulda about past opportunities and then chase future fantasies.

so here's a ? each of us should ask, especially as christmas approaches: do i care most about God's I AM or my own i am? the human i am stands for the unholy trinity of me, myself and i. the a is for ambition: magnify my name. the m stands for money; maximize it. but neither ambition nor $ buys us a ticket to God's observation deck.

we go up only thru the grace of Jesus Christ, whom the apostle paul called the second adam - but we live by working, following what god set forth for the first adam. God's pronouncement to adam that he would sweat to earn his daily bread was a punishment, yes, but also a severe mercy: when we don't need to serve others by working, we typically start obsessing about our own i am. with our sinful natures, it's harmful for poor human beings to live on welfare, rich human beings to live on trust funds, or 60 year old french men to live on pensions.

chapter 3 of lamentations displays the contrast between i am thinking and I AM. the first part of the chapter describes the individual reflecting on his own afflictions; he is in darkness without any light, he is walled about so he cannot escape, he wears heavy chains, he is on crooked paths, a bear and a lion are ready to attack him, he is torn into pieces, his kidney has become a pincushion for arrows, he is drinking wormwood, his teeth grind on gravel, he is cowering in ashes. it's the march of a million groaning metaphors.

in the next part of the chapter, nothing in the author's troubled situation has changed, but he has moved from i am to I AM: 'the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness'.

i imagine red, blue and yellow salesmen, each accepting different currency for their tickets. the rich man's $, the scribe's knowledge and the pharisee's reputation for morality are all legal tender. there's nothing wrong with having $, knowledge or a reputation for morality, but those who have it often know they have it and pride themselves on it. those who have no $ for tickets are far readier to accept the offer of free grace that provides ascension to a far greater observatory.
the goal of life is to move from the baby's first cry of i am to the wise maturity of allegiance to I AM. our human i am is born of fear: my position and my bank account give me a haven in a harsh world. God's I AM requires trust, which is very hard for those of us who grew up amid suspicion and worry - but if it were easy we wouldn't need the Redeemer born on christmas

12.19.2010 SNIPPETS

worldmag, 12.18.2010, p6 LACK OF DAYLIGHT..the shortest day of the year..the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere arrives on dec. 21.....(this is my favorite day of the year because, to me it represents the beginning of LIGHT CONQUERING DARKNESS and would be, symbolically, the best day to begin non-violent, non-cooperation with the u.s. government over the issue of abortion..the day i begin the process of entering jail and, if things go well, of giving my life up so as to be one person who joins with the millions here and the more than billion worldwide - helpless, voiceless, innocent human beings that have already been murdered in cold blood with no end in sight. my hope is in Jesus who says in psalm 103, i think, that He executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed.)....... and brings with it a lunar eclipse viewable in most of north america...it will last 72 minutes..and if you miss the sunlight, consider the 4500 residents of barrow, alaska, where, because of its far north position on the arctic ocean, the sun set around thanksgiving and isn't scheduled to rise again until mid-january.

p.11...SAYED MOSSA..a hearing in his case, a jailed afghan convert to christianity, had already been postponed twice when he entered the courtroom in downtown kabul on nov. 27. 'i became very, very happy' when a man and woman entered the room also and one introduced himself to me as 'your defense lawyer'.'
..the prosecutor , din mohammad quraishi: 'they are accused of conversion to another religion, which is considered a crime under islamic law. if proved, they face the death penalty or life imprisonment..'
a goup of mossa's supporters was able to secure legal counsel thru ADVOCATES INTERNATIONAL - a faith based association with 25k attorneys in 130 countries. but the judge denied the attorney access to the evidence against mossa and informed him that mossa must be represented by an afghan..
the attorney told me he is torn about the prospect of a deal to secure mossa's release: 'we believe the charges should be withdrawn altogether..the right to choose who and what to believe is the most basic of rights, after the right to life'.
the attorney said he remained eager to assist in the case; 'how can i sit still when (nearby) a brother sits in prison despairing that he will receive a fair trial for doing something that in any society with God values would not even be considered a crime?'

p.32...U.S. MILITARY STRATEGY..mindy belz..3 years ago i attended a meeting outside washington with a NATO adviser recently returned from briefings with commanders of the war in iraq. the ? had been posed..if there should be a targeted massacre of christians in iraq (the word actually used was genocide), would the u.s. military respond? the answer from the commanders: no.
it was december 2007. ..petraeus had arrived in baghdad 10 months earlier bearing orders to carry out his new counterinsurgency strategy with a thrust of 20k additional troops throughout the city...
so it's always been curious to me that the successful strategy to stamp out sectarian gviolence somehow did not extend to protecting iraq's minorities, particularly a christian population that stretched back nearly a millennia and numbered up to 1.3 million under saddam hussein. by dec. 2007..under 700k.
curious, too, because the counterinsurgency doctrine of petraeus is decidedly everyman, and in some aspects biblical: live your values. clear-hold-build. small is beautiful. those were the bywords circulating the forward operating bases in baghdad, and they came straight from the COUNTERINSURGENCY FIELD MANUAL, PETRAEUS' magnum opus, at the time the first u.s. military manual to come out in 20 years - and to hit the new york times bestseller list.

leaving christians out of the counterinsurgency equation has itself proved decisive. and the result of u.s. military and civilian leaders' unwillingness to take a vocal and visible stand against targeted violence toward religious minorities continues to unfold...

consider recent attacks..
10.31.2010 assault on a church in baghdad that killed 58
11.9 bombing of christian homes in western baghdad
11.10 islamic hits to more than a dozen homes with mortar fire and bombs: 4 christians dead and dozens wounded
11.15 in mosul militants stormed 2 adjacent homes belonging to christians, killing 2 men, then bombed others
11.16 a christian father and his 6 year old daughter were killed by a car bomb.

we see a similar terror unfolding with the arrests of christians in afghanistan and pakistan.

..today the christian population in iraq is about half what it was in 2007. it may have been spared actual genocide, but to go in one decade from 1.5 million to under 400k is extermination by any other name.

p.58...JESUS CONTINUES TO SOW HIS GOOD SEED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD!

since china eased travel restrictions in 1978, the number of chinese immigrants has soared from 200k in 1980 to 1.4 million in 2006...chinese churches in the u.s. from 366 to +800. article features the church of grace to the fujianese in nyc. where many are coming to christ! (in the picture all the faces in the congregation strike one as so open and hungry..it makes one weep for joy!)
from one testimony: yu refused to deny his faith, so government officials called him in for questioning in 1958 and asked him why he did not join the 3 self church: 'i was in a bold mood, so i said, 'the bible tells me-and as a christian, i believe in the bible- that God places authorities over us, so i will obey the communist government. but the bible also says to obey the communist government. but the bible also says to obey god over man. if the government and god contradict, then i will follow god. 3 self church doesn't follow God.'
yu also has a message for american christians: 'before communism took over, there were a lot of enthusiastic pastors..when they came under fire, a lot of them joined the 3 self church and others just decided to give up on christianity..i see america's situation and it is like china's before communism. AMERICAN CHRISTIANS NEED TO EXAMINE THEMSELVES.'

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

12.14. 2010 STRING THEORY, specifically m theory

ct, 12.2010, p47. Christ of the klingons by trevor persaud..collins is a philosophy professor at messiah college and gerald cleaver is a physics professor at baylor who works in a branch of theoretical physics called string theory, specifically m-theory - the same theory that gives ..stephen hawking the confidence in..the grand design, to declare philosophy dead and God unnecessary.
at first, string theory at its simplest had a lyrical - or at least musical explanation. every particle in the universe was a tiny, one-dimensional string and different particles existed because of the different ways a string could vibrate. physicists say that just as different vibrations produce different notes on a violin or cello, the vibrations of a string could produce an electron, a quark, a neutrino, and so on. that, the theory said, was how the universe worked.

those were the days. by the mid 1990s, debates over the exact properties of strings had created 5 competing string theories. princeton university's edward witten came up with a way to stitch them together, but the result was not really a 'string' theory anymore. a new, single theory arose, called m-theory, which remains so sketchy that theorists don't agree on what the m stands for. it might be membrane.
in the old string-theory days, many theorists had come to believe that space had 10 dimensions - the 3 directions that we see, with time as a 4th dimension, then 6 curled-up spatial directions that are too small to see unless you happen to be a string. m-theory added an 11th dimension revealed multi-dimensional objects dubbed membranes (branes for short). hidden from us with our 3-dimensional perception, branes could be as small as a string or as large as a universe. in fact, some have suggested that our universe is a massive brane inside a much larger reality.

the violin metaphor doesn't really seem to encapsulate all this. but if experiments prove it accurate, m-theory might solve several technical problems that have previously kept scientists from creating a unified 'theory of everything'. at the moment, m-theory is the best chance scientists have for arriving at a complete picture of the universe. some m-theorists, cleaver included, think ultimately it will take us even further; that our entire universe - planets, stars, great walls, and all - is just a bubble on an ocean of existence covered with many more like it.

these aren't star trek style mirror universes, in which duplicated of each one of us live on parallel earths where hitler won the war or the twin towers never fell. the multiverse made possible in m-theory predicts an incredibly diverse array of possible universes with different sets of physical laws - maybe as many as 10 to the 500th power possible realities. we likely cannot ever reach them and only a few would be hospitable to human life. some suggest that universes are continually created and maybe destroyed, as branes collide with one another.

according to hawking, the multiverse eliminated the need for God. 'm-theory predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing..their creation did not require the intervention of some supernatural being or god. rather, these multiple universes arise naturally from physical law'. (Jesus asks, 'do you know the laws of the heavens? job 38.33, i'm guessing all of us come up a bit short..)
but collins says hawking can't escape God that easily: if the universe arose from the laws of physics, then who designed the laws of physics? why does the multiverse work the way it does? trying to apply science to the question of god, collins said, 'is where scientists are way overstepping their area of competence.'
one of the problems with those arguments is it really puts God..in a very small box..it portrays God as someone who can only fill in the gaps that science can't explain. as theists, we need to perceive god as the primary source, the fundamental laws of physics as the secondary'.

to cleaver, m-theory's multiverse, with its dizzying variety, unending moments of new creation and perhaps infinite scope, makes perfect sense as the work of 'a God of the infinities, who creates eternally'. if God is truly eternal, infinite and self-consistent...'we should expect God to create eternally and infinitely or not at all'.

paul says in romans 1 that creation manifests the eternal attributes of god - God's eternal and infinite power..you may expect an infinitely creative being to create more than one universe, in fact, many and maybe more kinds of reality'..if God did create multiple universes, He likely populated more than one.

theoretical physicists like cleaver spend time in the land of possibly and potentially. experiments are in the works at places like europe's large hadron collider that might possibly determine the truth of m-theory. a large # of scientists doubt that m-theory is anything more than a collection of fascinating but fictional equations. and even if it is correct, that doesn't guarantee a multiverse.
collins and cleaver remind us that we serve a god who is easily capable of holding 10 to the 500th power universes in the palm of His hand.
the beauty of it suggests that this is the true picture of reality..the beauty of a theory is extremely important'.
the universe is structured for beauty and elegance, says collins, noting paul dirac, a famously nonreligious physicist, who said in 1963 'it is more important to have beauty in one's equations than to have them fit an experiment..if one is working from the point of view of getting beauty in one's equations, and if one has really a sound insight, one is on a sure line of progress'..

'to me, that is showing the beauty and the order in the creative nature of God, says cleaver..it allows us to expect science to reveal physical truth to us, that the universe - or the multiverse - is not just some random existence that happens to be

12.14,2010 SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD

from spiritual writings by soren kierkegaard

seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.

but what does this mean? what am i to do? what kind of striving is it of which it can be said that it seeks or desires the kingdom of God? ought i to get a position corresponding to my abilities and powers in order to bring this about? no, you are first to seek the kingdom of God. but does this, then, mean that, in a sense, there is nothing for me to do? quite right - there is, in a sense, nothing. in the very deepest sense, you are to make yourself nothing, to become nothing before god, and learn to keep silent - and it is in this silence that you begin to seek what must come first: the kingdom of god.

thus, in a godly way, one goes in a certain sense backward, toward the beginning....the beginning is this art of becoming silent, for there is no art in being silent in the way that nature is silent. and to be thus, in the deepest sense, silent, silent before God, is how one begins to learn the fear of God. for just as the fear of god is the beginning of wisdom, silence is the beginning of the fear of God - it is 'the fear of God'. in this silence, in the fear of God, wishing, desire, and their many thots fall silent. in this silence, in the fear of god, the verbosity of thanksgiving falls silent.

human beings' superiority over animals consists in being able to talk, but in relation to God this can bring about their ruin if, being able to talk, they want to talk. god is in heaven, and we are on earth and therefore we cannot easily talk together. god is love, and human beings - as one says to a child and maybe even for it's benefit - are little rascals and therefore they cannot easily talk together. it is only with much fear and trembling the human beings can talk with God, in much fear and trembling. but to talk in much fear and trembling is also difficult for other reasons, for just as anxiety causes one to be physically unable to speak, so, too, does mus fear and trembling make speech become dumb and fall silent.

the person who knows how to pray knows this and those who don't know how to pray might perhaps learn this by prying..praying is not listening to oneself speak but is about becoming silent and, in becoming silent, waiting, until the one who prays hears God.

the last sentence has been happening a bit and i find that i am 'being moved' (?) into periods of silence before God. i don't understand alot of what is said above but it is in line with what i am beginning to experience...and i have a growing desire and felt need to fear God.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

12.11.2010 YWAM AT 50

youth with a mission (WYAM), launched 50 years ago by loren cunningham in his parents' garage, is active in 180 nations..YWAMwers..undertake an enormous range of ministries: caring for chechen refugees living in poland; rebuilding burmese villages after cyclone nargis; sharing the gospel thru sports at the FIFA world cup in cape town; sheltering the children of prostitutes in pune, india; and distributing bibles in patagonia..
since its inception, YWAM has deployed more the 4 million people on outreach projects in 240 countries (some of which no longer exist as sovereign states).

..overseas missions in the 1960s were top-down and slow to innovate enterprises and outreach across denominational boundaries was infrequent and problematic..the pentecostal church, of which cunningham was a part wanted him to stay within their lines..

instead, cunningham resigned, unwilling to compromise on the vision he believed God had give in him 8 years earlier: millions of evangelistic young people from all denominations crashing like waves onto the shores of every continent.

he and his new wife, darlene started out and had a terrible accident...when cunninghame came to, he caught sight of his wife's limp body and rushed to cradle her. he found no pulse. blood and tears streamed down his face into darlene's open, glassy eyes. he suddenly felt there never would be a greater time of testing. he says he clearly heard God ask, 'loren, do you still want to serve me?'
he wondered what he would have left to live for if his wife died, but he said, 'ok, God. whatever it takes. i give You my life'. he then prayed for darlene and she started gasping for breath. she recovered fully.
ever since, he has not lost a deep trust in God, which has sustained him thru everything from flying in an airplane with no gas in a togo jungle to simultaneous battles with hepatitis and malaria in chad.
with a volunteer force topping 20k - and more than 50% non-western - one of YWAMs greatest ongoing challenges is discipleship training. each volunteer regardless of nationalityh, race, denomination or age must attend a 6 month discipleship training school (DTS)...students study the bible, learn about cross-cultural missions and pray. cunningham, sho still spends most of his time teaching..teaches students to seek God's voice and then obey, even if resources aren't visibly present. for decades he has taught that if a leader and student ;pray about a situation and hear from the Holy Spirity, a consensus will be evident.

university of the nations offers more than the 6 month course and its academic ministry reaches beyond hawaii...it has 500 campuses in 138 locations. those earning bachelor's or master's degrees in everything from counseling to linguistics must study on at least 2 continents...it uses the modular approach, offering intensive focus on a topic followed by hands on experience in the field. instructors are volunteers and experts in thier fields..the u does not have u.s. accreditation (note: yea!)
by 1978 YWAM inaugurated mercy ministries, which developed a fleet of ships serving as floating hospitals to provide food, medical supplies and dental care. mercy ships split off in 2002 when YWAM directors sensed it had grown too large.

that lack of possessiveness has earned cunningham respect among mission agencies, most of which have YWAM alumni in their ranks. 'we train up some and they go elsewhere..YWAM is like a bridge: easy to get on and easy to get off. it's not to be a cul-de-sac to trap people'.

in the early years, cunningham endured criticism that 'thrill-seeking' western youth and unqualified nationals interfered with the work of career missionaries trained in the west. 'in 1960, the whole missions movement was based on a white man going to non-white people'..he recalls being privately rebuked by a veteran american missionary serving in nigeria in 1961 because cunningham had told a group of nigerian nationals that they too could be missionaries.

at the time, short-term missions seemed outside the box, but he believed that Jesus implemented the technique by sending out disciples on brief excursions. mission leaders in the early 60s also told him that young missionaries should be paid by their sending organization so they could be held accountable, something they felt young people especially needed. cunningham insisted that youth needed to raise their own support, noting that 'joseph, daniel, david, and john mark were all teenagers'. critics see him as just a dreamer - but so was joseph..

no one in YWAM is paid - including cunningham. each on raises his own funds and some have left lucrative careers to serve..cunningham, who draws social security, is backed by 15 donor couples and says he lives on less than 6 figures...

miriam adeney, professor of world christian studies and author of KINGDOM WITHOUT BORDERS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY, says YWAM is 'doing the wole gamut of witness, discipling and serving the poor and oppressed, expecially in doing integrated holistic community development'. for example, in colombia, enith dIaz started YWAM medellin 15 years ago to provide shelter and basic health care to displaced families. since then, the outreach has grown to provide grief counseling, agricultural training and public health programs. during a recent clinic in a village, the medical team treated 1000 people in 4 days.

david hamilton, vice president for strategic innovation at kona, says YWAM works in 3 main areas: evangelism, training and mercy ministries. these are built around mark 16.15, and matt. 28.18-20, with the goals of personal redemption and social transformation. the more groundbreaking the ministry, the better..leaders focus on what they cal the 7 spheres of society: the family, economics, government, religion, education, media and 'celebration', which includes the arts, entertainment and sports.
from its earliest years, YWAM has been linked to controversy. gregory robertson, who served on YWAMs staff from 1973 to 1979 in germany and california, says he experienced abusive and manipulative shepherding tactics. some students and staff who disagreed with overseers were viewed as rebellious against God or demon-possessed..an anonymous source was quoted who likened YWAM training to 'cult mind-controlling techniques'.
at an international gathering in the late 70s YWAM leaders repented of a 'spirit of religious controversy' for trying to win arguments. he has refused to debate critics ever since..another inside says, 'of course we are not a cult. talk to our ..friends - campus crusade, wycliffe, operation mobilization - about our credibility'.

other detractors point to YWAMs decentralized structure which they claim leads to lack of accountability in finances and theology. finances and legal structures are handled at the local level at 1400 bases. local boards usually include pastors. 'we don't dictate how to finance something in mozambique or mali. they have to make their own decisions'. (this avoids a layer of bureaucracy it may be noted.
YWAM cultivates team leadership even at the highest levels. dawson, a new zealander... is considered a presiding elder o the 7 member global leadership team which (includes loren and darlene) rather than a primary director of a legal entity. the ad hoc network is held together by relational, not legal, dynamics. he says, 'accountability comes from intimacy not organizational structure. the international board holds the line on vision and values, but has no decision-making power on spending or allocation of resources. local pastors and business leaders create accountability pressure in rare cases of sexual or financial misdeeds. 'if something goes wrong with us locally local people will step in and correct - and even rebuke - the people bearing the YWAM name'.
currently 'our goal is to focus on where we are not. we're intentionally trying to go to the least-reached areas, where medical needs, poverty and illiteracy are the greatest'. YWAM likewise is involved in another great commission-fulfilling movement, call2all. the networking movement was spearheaded by campus crusade founder bill bright but now is led by YWAMs mark anderson. only 3 years ago, cunningham says, 639 unengaged, unreached people groups (each with a population of 100k or more) existed. that # has been reduced to 152, thanks to 4k call2all missionaries planting 14k churches in the past 3 years.

YWAM is able to enter countries closed to evangelists and pastors because students simultaneously work as preschool teachers and physicians, among other professions. one said, 'what i like about YWAM is the spirit of being willing to charge hell with a squirt gun, that go-for-it mentality. it is commonplace now for career missionaries to have short-term missions experience first. YWAM is giving opportunities for ministry to people who would not have been given the same opportunity in many other organizations.

note: this seems a good fit for me. maybe they could start a branch OWAM (oldies with a mission). i'm all for bottom-up over top-down any day.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

12.5.2010 WORK AS CALLING

worldmag, 12.4.2010, p42 serving a higher purpose - marvin olasky...greg forster, referring to the dominant economic theory of the past four score years..wrote, 'the fundamental premise of keynesianism is that the purpose of economic activity is to facilitate consumption...materialistic anthropology suggests that affluent people have no reason to live, so they might as well entertain themselves with extensive consumption and travel..poor people also have no reason to live, so they might as well be on welfare.
God gave adam a reason to live..'put him in the garden of eden to work and keep it'. after the fall..'you shall eat the plants..by the sweat of your face you shall eat..'

God gave israel a reason to live: 'you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation'. Jesus gave His disciples a reason to live: 'go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that i have commanded you'.

p. 44 working for good - tony woodlief..is God indifferent to what our work itself yields?..today many people feel their jobs are pointless. is this really..how God wants me to spend 40 hours a week..william perkins..argued that vocation depends not only on one's talents, but on whether the work itself truly serves others..a man should resign out of private necessity (it doesn't pay what he needs or doesn't suit his talents and passions) or for the sake of the common good..he argued that the consequences of one's labor are integral to one's christian responsibility...don't be satisfied with any position. instead, the proper action of the christian mired in a bureaucratic job without clear connection to a creative or redemptive purpose may well be to seek other employment and accept financial loss.
..can we believe that God smiles on a worker dutifully canning beans? absolutely. but what about makers of food additives that serve no end other than to further an addiction to sweetness? or sellers of clearly inferior products?..fundamental: does my work create enduring value?

two essential elements - faithful service (is one using a cell phone during work?) and a work product that is genuinely valuable are synonymous.

..many in the..west are stricken by ennui, a particular blend of physical satiation and purposeless drift. our bellies are full and our hearts are empty...

p. 46, called to a community - timothy dalrymple..as an undergraduate, i belonged to a fellowship of faithful overachievers..we thot of vocation in the same way we thot of finding a spouse. just as we south 'the one' partner..so we sought to one path God had prepared for us..students feared that if they diverged from God's intended path..then they would mis out on the blessing of becoming who they were created and called to be.

when our 4 years.. were up, we scattered across the globe in pursuit of our vocations. the costs became clear over time...none of my 5 closest friends live in the same city as i do and none of their closest friends live in the same cities they do. we have equated vocation with profession at the expense of family and fellowship. and many who believed they were called to particular professions find themselves, when their fobs are lost or unfulfiling, frustrated and disillusioned..many regret the sacrifices they have ;made to the idol of their careers. one..wrote, 'i share my life with virtually no one, and if i don't do something about it they i will die just having been someone's employee'.
the conditions of modern living only exacerbate such problems. we are connected superficially to vastly more people than before, yet connected deeply to far fewer. when my father grew up on an iowa farm in the 1950s, he saw 10-30 people on a typical day. he knew them all. he knew their stories. they knew his. today we see thousands of faces every day, yet know hardly any of the souls behind them. surrounded by a sea of company, we die of thirst for companionship.

the most mobile and networked society in..history..has its drawbacks..today people have 2 others with which they shared important matters...nearly 30% of households are single person..technology! we know the news from wherever but not the neighbor on the other side of the fence.