Thirsty

Below is what I've hammered out in very brief spurts, one before we went out to Dankunku, and one this morning on Greg's laptop in the apartment. It is extremely disjointed because I just wanted to get stuff down, and flesh it out later. Enjoy! We fly out of here tomorrow, Friday, at 11pm, and are back in Indy Saturday early evening. Hopefully I will find some time to post on Sunday. God bless you. 15 - Thursday Left at 7am to walk a couple kilometers to Rebecca's school, the Banjul-American Embassy School. Good discussion with the headmaster about the school being an oasis in many ways, about teaching children to care for others at a young age, and about the state children are in when they arrive... some incredibly intelligent, some no english at all, some with discipline problems, etc. After using their internet, Greg & I walked down the road to Bakau, looking for a small bean sandwhich shop but instead got a bit of a walkthru of Bakau by a local lifeguard who is...

I'm writing this from the computer lab at the Banjul American Embassy School where Rebecca is teaching Kindergarten, she has 9 kids at the moment... none appear to be of African descent, but that's the only commonality amongst them. Two of them are fast readers and very expressive facially. Another has a lazy eye, is from England, and goes "bonkers" when he sits in the wrong person's seat. Another couple speak very little English and much more Arabic. Another wears glasses and likes to throws his hands up and grasp his head or hit it whenever he makes a mistake. Another has a bouncy voice and is a little mischevious. Another is the "little prince" who is led by his own (short) attention span, though he can't seem to help it. One of the boys isn't here today. ( note : Sorry for the edit, names in this context are inappropriate. Also, 3 of them are in fact of African descent!) When more of the grade levels all lined up this morning, and then we a...

.. except we won't be going on a safari this time either. It's another journey to The Gambia to visit my sister Rebecca. This time I'm going with my brother Greg . When I went last year , it was with my parents. (see all our pictures !) Now Rebecca is out of the Peace Corps and in a two-year teaching contract with the Banjul American Embassy School. Very much looking forward to the time with Greg, the time with Rebecca, and the fresh taste of a hugely different life experience for people. Perhaps this time I will provide a better journaling of it than I did last year.. follow justinw at http://twitter.com

This past summer, I moved out of the big windy city and into the college town. One of the things I gave up was the running scene... I really miss it. I'm still in contact with various friends I ran with, and there is no shortage of temptations to return for races. My somewhat radical lifestyle change included squeezing my running kind've out of the picture to make room for new relationships and more work in other areas. I haven't done nearly as much as I was doing in Chicago.. I think I ran in about 20 races over the two and a half years I was there, with countless training and fun runs with friends and larger groups. It was a blast, and a fitness challenge. Chuck keeps goading me though. Reminding me. Taunting me. This weekend I snagged a new pair of shoes so that I don't have any more excuses. There has been sporadic talk amongst folks around here, about going out for the Sunburst Races , on Saturday, June 2. That's a mere 3 months away, but depending o...

This morning I sat down with the guys from 9of.us to make a list of all the people in the PoP that we know about who have blogs. A post that Jeremy wrote up about it can be found here: People of Praise blogs . I just met Rus this summer, and he's living in Indy now with a couple other guys, Nick & John, but after clicking through that list to his blog, I found a full circle connection. He posted a letter by Mary Gaffney , whom I haven't exactly met yet, but whose brother Pete I just lived with for 6 months. To know him is almost to know her, they sound similarly passionate. He recently moved in with his aunt, but at the time of Mary's accident, he was still living with us, and we were kept abreast of the news, and thus an opportunity for us to join in prayer. Which makes her story all the more relevant! But I had no idea of the details behind the situation until I read her letter. It's incredible, and it's an incredible witness.. The driver of the c...

Your actions do not elicit God's love. You do.

.. but I pretty much agree with them. Via Ego , I just read The 'Following Jesus' Manifesto . It may surprise you.

So right now there is way too much for me to blog. At least it seems like too much in my head, maybe it will be more "whelming" once I get it out. Got a call from my Dad, regarding his brother Mike who has been undergoing chemotherapy for some stage 4 cancer in his liver and colon. Last week's CAT scan showed another decrease the nodes in his liver, and... they can't find any trace of it in his colon. Gone. woohoo! God is good, thank you big man! The task is not complete, so continued prayers are in order, but we do we see that statistics are only statistics. Spent the last ~2 days in Chicago, which I am very glad happened. On the train ride home, it occurred to me how odd my enjoyment of this visit may appear to many people I know. All I did was visit people, in the midst of pretty normal activities for them. I did some volunteer work with the HNC young adults, and got to see a few that I know and meet a few others. I showed up at the apartment Chris is st...

So last night I went caroling with a few friends. We know a bunch of families and some older folks in my neighborhood, so we made up a list of all of them, 12 or 13 total, and went hiking. It was lightly drizzling, but not enough to really get us wet. Additionally, there is always a lot of traffic during the Christmas season because the neighborhood is pretty popular for all the interesting lights and decorations displays.. they even go so far as to put little arrows up at intersections so that there is a common flow of traffic, with a donations booth at the end which gets divided up towards charities. So we even sang to some of the cars going by, though not all that much. Our friend who had all the songsheets couldn't make it so we were limited to our memory, but we got by... we sang a mean Silent Night! I'm not sure if I've ever done that before. As a younger child, I may have done it in more academic settings, but I don't think I've ever actually gone door...

Every few months or a year or so, I happen to share some of my thoughts on how to track information more efficiently. This time around, it has an individual-based slant to it. People we know directly or indirectly, vast numbers of them, have scattered bits of information about themselves and their realms of knowledge all over the internet. I know some of you already know the intimate details about what I'm referring to... all the tech lingo, all the best practices, all the hot sites. But many of you don't, and many of you just think you know. I know I'm usually in the latter category. So with all these bits of information, we usually encounter them as we make a crooked trail through cyberspace, clicking link to link, searching out friends as they pop into our heads, and sometimes managing a sloppy list of bookmarks in our web browser, which has only been around since you got your latest computer. Nowadays, most blogs that people have can be plugged in to a special websi...

Friday, October 6: First Dentist visit in over 3 years. Dr. Andrews cleans my teeth, X-rays reveal that I need my first root canal, a few cavities filled, and 4 wisdom teeth pulled. Thursday, November 2: Dr. Armstrong performs root canal and fills crown with temporary filling. Thursday, November 9: Dr. Andrews removes temporary filling, cleans remainder of decay in tooth crown, adds a steel post, and refills with temporary filling. Thursday, November 16: Dr. Andrews removes temporary filling, files down outside of crown, sets molds for an artificial crown (chose the alternative to gold), creates a temporary one, polishes it, cements it on with temporary cement, and sends order out for the permanent one. 10 business days. Thursday, November 30: Dr. Andrews will cement on permanent artificial crown. Note[1]: The temporary artificial crown I now have has already (1 day after) come loose, and today I've been taking it in and out so I don't choke on it. It looks like I will...

Please give a warm welcome to my lifelong buddy, Eric Bomkamp, who has decided to grace us with his presence in the blogosphere. His personal blog: It's a lot like having a job His blog about a new way to live : Household RULES! Both our dads were working for Ball Corporation, when they decided to go camping together. Pretty soon they were praying together. The Bomkamps lived in our neighborhood, and Eric and I got into way too much trouble together. We also camped and backpacked way too much together. They moved to Rockford when I started high school and our relationship has been a long distance love affair ever since. ;-) Every once and awhile I make it out there and he tries again to crack my skull open on the mountain bike trail.

.. we must open ourselves to the workings of reason. Maybe that can be our "common unchanging purpose" - the search for truth. If we maintain this as a great good in our dealings, we find ourselves able to more authentically communicate with people we thought we would never even understand or care to understand. Although POP does not enforce polygamy (that I know of), many of the rules were very similar. For instance, divorce is against the rules; women are supposed to submit to their husband and let him rule their life; and the women are required to wear a certain type of outfit. - a young mother who goes by Mrs. K, in a post titled Creepy . For a few months now I've been following her blog. It originally perked my interest because it showed up in search results for People Of Praise (POP), and it has been interesting for me to follow, she's at the dawn of life for a new family, and it's enjoyable to read about her encounter of motherhood as a brand new experi...

Courtesy of Mark Shea , some good thoughts on the recent elections. I didn't vote, I wasn't registered to vote, but I'd imagine I'll be registered by next time. "Happy now?" Several readers, who have somehow apparently convinced themselves that I am a liberal devoted to the sacrament of abortion and filled with hatred of Bush, America, conservatives, mother and apple pie, have been asking me this question. Perhaps it's to be expected in the Land Where There Are Only Two Sides to Every Question. Nonetheless, I'm not pleased to see the GOP take a drubbing, except in the very negative sense that I am pleased to see a drunk finish vomiting in the drunk tank and start to sober up a bit. If I had my druthers, the alleged conservatives in the GOP would not have become drunks in the first place and such interventions would not have been felt necessary by such a preponderance of voters. As for me: I did what I said I'd do and voted for an utterly quixotic ...

Testing a few different things all at once. Starting a communal running routes directory, showing off my account on JotSpot Wiki because they're temporarily closed to new users due to being purchased by Google, and also showing off a great Google maps mashup, the pedometer! Running Routes Please join in and throw down your favorite running/walking/biking/hiking routes. Wikis have version control - edit away to your heart's content, make it look completely different for all I care! Username : user Password : user01 I'll send you an individual login to use if I see you go in and start contributing.

I guess we could go back a couple weeks. Two weeks ago tomorrow, I left the house at around 6:45, having overslept and missed an early departure time to try to make it to Chicago before the marathon started. I discovered my dash kinda broken up and my cd player was gone (reminiscent of this happening 2 years ago and me not replacing it until 2 months ago). I stopped by Tom's house and picked up Bo and then headed to the train station. There were more people on there than usual (from the times when I used to commute), lots of excitement about the marathon. At some point we discovered that Sheila was on the same train so we went back and sat by her, and when we got into the city we tried to make it over to see the lead pack as they passed the 12 mile mark, but the timing was too close and they were too fast. We ended up seeing my roommate Pete, once in Chinatown, and I saw him close to the finish but the others couldn't pick him out. He dropped nearly an hour off his time...

When I say, "I am a Christian," I'm not shouting, "I've been saved!" I'm whispering, "I get lost!" That's why I chose this way. When I say, "I am a Christian," I don't speak with human pride I'm confessing that I stumble and need someone to be my guide. When I say, "I am a Christian," I'm not trying to be strong I'm professing that I'm weak and pray for strength to carry on. When I say, "I am a Christian," I'm not bragging of success I'm admitting that I've failed and cannot ever pay the debt. When I say, "I am a Christian," I don't think I know it all I submit to my confusion asking humbly to be taught. When I say, "I am a Christian," I'm not claiming to be perfect My flaws are far too visible but God believes I'm worth it. When I say, "I am a Christian," I still feel the sting of pain I have my share of heartaches which is why I se...

(from Padre Stephanos ) (PS - speaking of Fr. Stephanos, I just came across a podcast of him and another guy talking about the original meaning behind having the priest with his back to the congregation during the Liturgy of the Eucharist in Mass. Might find it informative.)

Last night at men's prayer, Matt exhorted us to be cautious about having a "grass is greener" mentality. Sometimes we don't even realize we're doing it. And then Bill shared along the same lines, reflecting on the scripture about "where your treasure is, there will your heart be". It hit me pretty solidly, a little wakeup call about some of the things I've both consciously and internally been holding as treasure, and desires, that are not founded upon the action of God in my life. Even something as simple as reminding myself to first bring all my concerns to God, and not simply let them stew inside me. No matter how minor or major they may be, no matter what I think about whether I "should" be able to deal with these myself. That's pride. Anyway, today Calvin confirmed those prayers from last night. :)

"In our world today, religious, political, academic and economic leaders are being seriously challenged to improve the level of dialogue between peoples and between cultures. To do this effectively requires a deepening of our mutual understanding and a shared dedication to building a society of ever greater justice and peace. We need to know each other better and, on the strength of that mutual discovery, to build relationships not just of tolerance but of authentic respect. Indeed, Jews, Christians and Muslims share many common convictions, and there are numerous areas of humanitarian and social engagement in which we can and must cooperate." - Pope Benedict XVI