January 3

Posted Sat January 02 at 11:09 am

Hi all Pennsylvania friends. Naomi and I will be in the atrium at Calvary between 8:45 and 12:00 Sunday morning, January 3. We hope to see many of you. We have had a great visit so far in Pennsylvania. Naomi and I had a quiet New Year's eve at Walt and Denise Coyle's home. New Year's Day was Christmas celebration with Naomi's parents, Bob and Hertha Blake and Naomi's brother, David and his wife Michon. We are doing lot's of medical followup and dental appointments. I am prepping for a weekend course I am teaching at Temple University's Fox School of business (executive and professional MBA program). Naomi leaves for New Zealand on Wednesday. I leave for Dallas the same day for ALARM (African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministry) board meetings.

Post new comment

About Me

I am first a person whose journey with God and others is the orienting center of my life. I seek to share openly of this halting, faltering discovery of the story of God in everyday living.

I can be contacted personally at earthlytents@comml.imap.cc

After 22 1/2 years as a pastor of a Philadelphia area church, and almost two years in New Zealand at Laidlaw College in Auckland, New Zealand, I am located in Dallas, Texas, as the International Director of ALARM (African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries). ALARM is an organization that seeks to restore communities that have been devastated by tribalism and warfare.

My wife, Naomi, is an amazing person with whom I share my journey. I am blessed with two special children whom I love and admire--Ben, a web designer living in San Francisco Rebekah, our daughter, a singer/actress in Texas.

My passions: reading, popcorn, writing, photography, walking, time with friends and family, thinking about the problem of evil and suffering, peace building and reconciliation, living out the gospel in a postmodern world.

Reading

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963
by
Branch, Taylor

Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch, winner of Pulitzer Pride, is brilliantly written. It is about America in the King Years 1955-1963. This is the first of three substantial books, the other books covering the years following through King's assassination. The book begins with post-Civil War Georgia and the changes in worship--the formation of distinctly black churches. Branch writes descriptively and pulls the reader into the story. 1060 pages, it is worth the effort and forces one to look racism in the eyes and celebrate God's use of a flawed though gifted leader.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solder
by
Ishael Beah

If you've watched the movie "Blood Diamond" you have a small picture of the horrors of child soldiers in Africa. It is estimated that in Africa alone there are 200,000 children that have been pressed into combat, forced to face horrors and to do atrocities that overwhelm the spirit. This book is one of the most important stories in bringing to light the dehumanizing plight of children in war.

The Faces of Forgiveness
by
F. Leron Shults and Steven J. Sandage

Forgiveness long has been the domain of theology but in recent years many disciplines are considering dimensions of forgiveness. This particular book is an integration of theology and psychology through the metaphor of faces.

January 3

Post new comment

About Me

Reading

Archive

Listening

Friends

Favorites