Here's a funny (and surprisingly non-sacreligious) re-telling of the Nativity using modern technology. It is called "The Nativity 2.0" ...
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Reaching out in South Africa and news from Texas
News from Texas
Nice warm Texas greetings to wherever in the world this might find you! What a beautiful time, winter is my favorite season of the year and I am having a blast knowing it is about to happen! Apologies if you are already snowed under and fed up of it all!
I am still waiting (not so patiently at times) to hear what the decision is on my green card application. Latest is that I might only find out in April if I could start on the second stage… God is teaching me patience again…
My truck decided to move on to its happy place and I had to urgently get a newer old car! So, now I drive a 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis, and boy, it is HUGE! I keep getting a feeling I should let animals on in pairs. But hey, I desperately needed a car and now I got one. I am still raising the money to pay it off, so if you feel stirred to help a poor African missionary in his hour of need, I am your man. All help is truly appreciated.
Work wise, it is our busiest season and in full swing. I am part of our PR team and we try to raise awareness of Mercy Ships in the media here in the US and it is quite a tough assignment. It is hard to sell stories of good in a media that likes their bloodshed and negative stories.
As the year is drawing to a close, please be assured of my eternal gratitude in your support of me, both in finances and in prayer. I appreciate the fact that it has not been an easy year and the recovery is slow and painful. I appreciate you very, very much.
Merry Christmas!
News from South Africa
A spur-of-the-moment suggestion developed into a two-day Extreme Dental Outreach in one of the most notorious areas of Durban, South Africa. Dr. Dag Tvedt, Mercy Ships Chief Dental Officer, met a fellow Norwegian named Ingrid Osthus. Ingrid is a graduate student studying to do social work with street children. The two were discussing the Mercy Ships off-ship dental program when Ingrid suggested that the team come to her church to do a clinic for the street kids who congregate there. Dr. Tvedt agreed, and the dates for the clinic were chosen.
The church is in a very disadvantaged area of Durban---an area that is the home to gangs of young people. Many of them have been on the streets since they were children, doing whatever they must do to survive.
Louise Lokriet, the mission administrator, explained, “When the Presbyterian Beach Mission was set up, it was thought that the surfers would be attracted, but the homeless showed up. We found them on our doorstep, so they had to become our children.”
Louise works with Pat Thaver, Trauma Counsellor to Abused Women, to build relationships with the many homeless young people in the area and to provide food and spiritual guidance. They encourage the youth to attend the Sunday church service and to get involved with the programs there that are geared to putting lives in order. “My love and my passion is to feed these young people and help them build a life,” she said. She began by leading worship at the church and then took over leadership of the Sunday School. “I arranged with a hospital for them all to get treated free, even for dental work,” she added.
Louise and Pat are aided in their work by Isaac Mkhize, who volunteers many hours to the program each week. “Every Friday we have a special service. I play keyboard and sing with them. After that, I teach them about God.”
A room was provided for the dental team to set up their chairs and equipment. Loaves of bread were sliced, spread with butter and placed on trays for the meal that preceded the clinic. Security was set in place to ensure order among the rowdy young people.
When the clinic began, a few of the patients were anxious to rush in for the free dental care. But some were more nervous about sitting in the dental chair. Dr. Tvedt was assisted by two other dentists – Dr. Kaare Nilsen, volunteer dentist from Norway, and Dr. Natasha Rampershad, who is volunteering with the Department of Health for a year. The three of them extracted many decayed teeth that were causing great pain.
“Although these patients were a bit of a challenge, they were also very appreciative,” said Dr. Tvedt.
Story by Elaine B. Winn
Photos by Debra Bell
Nice warm Texas greetings to wherever in the world this might find you! What a beautiful time, winter is my favorite season of the year and I am having a blast knowing it is about to happen! Apologies if you are already snowed under and fed up of it all!
I am still waiting (not so patiently at times) to hear what the decision is on my green card application. Latest is that I might only find out in April if I could start on the second stage… God is teaching me patience again…
Work wise, it is our busiest season and in full swing. I am part of our PR team and we try to raise awareness of Mercy Ships in the media here in the US and it is quite a tough assignment. It is hard to sell stories of good in a media that likes their bloodshed and negative stories.
As the year is drawing to a close, please be assured of my eternal gratitude in your support of me, both in finances and in prayer. I appreciate the fact that it has not been an easy year and the recovery is slow and painful. I appreciate you very, very much.
Merry Christmas!
News from South Africa
A spur-of-the-moment suggestion developed into a two-day Extreme Dental Outreach in one of the most notorious areas of Durban, South Africa. Dr. Dag Tvedt, Mercy Ships Chief Dental Officer, met a fellow Norwegian named Ingrid Osthus. Ingrid is a graduate student studying to do social work with street children. The two were discussing the Mercy Ships off-ship dental program when Ingrid suggested that the team come to her church to do a clinic for the street kids who congregate there. Dr. Tvedt agreed, and the dates for the clinic were chosen.
Louise Lokriet, the mission administrator, explained, “When the Presbyterian Beach Mission was set up, it was thought that the surfers would be attracted, but the homeless showed up. We found them on our doorstep, so they had to become our children.”
Louise works with Pat Thaver, Trauma Counsellor to Abused Women, to build relationships with the many homeless young people in the area and to provide food and spiritual guidance. They encourage the youth to attend the Sunday church service and to get involved with the programs there that are geared to putting lives in order. “My love and my passion is to feed these young people and help them build a life,” she said. She began by leading worship at the church and then took over leadership of the Sunday School. “I arranged with a hospital for them all to get treated free, even for dental work,” she added.
Louise and Pat are aided in their work by Isaac Mkhize, who volunteers many hours to the program each week. “Every Friday we have a special service. I play keyboard and sing with them. After that, I teach them about God.”
When the clinic began, a few of the patients were anxious to rush in for the free dental care. But some were more nervous about sitting in the dental chair. Dr. Tvedt was assisted by two other dentists – Dr. Kaare Nilsen, volunteer dentist from Norway, and Dr. Natasha Rampershad, who is volunteering with the Department of Health for a year. The three of them extracted many decayed teeth that were causing great pain.
“Although these patients were a bit of a challenge, they were also very appreciative,” said Dr. Tvedt.
Story by Elaine B. Winn
Photos by Debra Bell
Friday, December 10, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
Chasing Cattle!
The Fort Worth Stockyards is a National Historic District located in Fort Worth, Texas north of the central business district. The stockyards are a former livestock market which operated under various owners from 1866. The arrival of railroads in 1876 made the area a very important livestock center. Fort Worth remained an important part of the cattle industry until the 1960s.
The Fort Worth Stockyards now celebrates Fort Worth's long tradition as a part of the cattle industry and was designated as a historical district in 1976. Many bars and nightclubs (including Billy Bob's Texas) are located in the vicinity, and the area has a Western motif. There is also an opry and a rodeo.
The Fort Worth Stockyards are the last standing stockyards in the United States. Some volunteers still run the cattle drives through the stockyards, a practice developed in the late 19th century by the frontiersman Charles "Buffalo" Jones, who herded buffalo calves through the streets of Garden City, Kansas.
The Fort Worth Stockyards now celebrates Fort Worth's long tradition as a part of the cattle industry and was designated as a historical district in 1976. Many bars and nightclubs (including Billy Bob's Texas) are located in the vicinity, and the area has a Western motif. There is also an opry and a rodeo.
The Fort Worth Stockyards are the last standing stockyards in the United States. Some volunteers still run the cattle drives through the stockyards, a practice developed in the late 19th century by the frontiersman Charles "Buffalo" Jones, who herded buffalo calves through the streets of Garden City, Kansas.
Monday, November 29, 2010
The End Of The Road.... Trip!
One bad move though... in Alabama, Vangie and Shannon convinced me to try boiled peanuts... Oh dear...
Boiling peanuts has been a folk cultural practice in the south of the US since the 19th century, where they were originally called goober peas. In late August, when the peanut crops would come in, unsold and surplus peanuts would be prepared in a boiling, and extended families and neighbors would gather to share conversation and food. Like a fish fry, peanut boils have been organizing principles for social gatherings. Like okra, black-eyed peas, collard greens and pork barbecue, boiled peanuts are symbols of southern culture and cuisine. I am sure it is quite the festive occasion when done at home at home...
It was a brown murky floating mess. When the lady behind the counter overheard us, she got in on the conversation and promptly offered me one... then a customer cooed, "Oh his first boiled peanut, how cute...." Ugh, I gently scooped one out and tried to dry it as much as possible in my paper serviette. Thankfully the lady behind the counter warned me it will be hot and that I should wait for it to cool a bit.
I felt the bile rise from that wet peanut shell smell and I kept wondering how long has that been cooking in that pot! Outside I gingerly cracked the shell open and popped one of the peanuts in my mouth. It did not even touch the palate of my mouth before I spat it out. NASTY. Like a soggy piece of nasty cardboard. Shannon and Vangie both cracked up laughing and so did the occupants in the car next to us which turned out to be the customer from the shop!
Nope, lesson learned and the good folks in the south can keep their boiled peanuts to themselves!
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Exploring Atlanta - CNN Center and the World of Coca Cola
Cable News Network (CNN) is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States. While the news channel has numerous affiliates, CNN primarily broadcasts from its headquarters at the CNN Center in Atlanta, the Time Warner Center in New York City, and studios in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. CNN is owned by parent company Time Warner, and the U.S. news channel is a division of the Turner Broadcasting System. CNN is sometimes referred to as CNN/U.S. to distinguish the American channel from its international counterpart, CNN International. As of August 2010, CNN is available in over 100 million U.S. households. Broadcast coverage extends to over 890,000 American hotel rooms, and the U.S broadcast is also shown in Canada. Globally, CNN programming airs through CNN International, which can be seen by viewers in over 212 countries and territories. It was quite a fascinating look behind the scenes and the inner workings of gathering and producing the news.
What a cool experience. I think I like Atlanta very much!
Friday, November 26, 2010
Exploring Atlanta - Georgia Aquarium and the HIGH Museum of Art
After an exceptionally good lay in, it was off to the Georgia Aquarium, the world's largest aquarium with more than 8.5 million US gallons (31,000 m³) of marine and fresh water housing more than 100,000 animals of 500 different species. The aquarium's notable specimens include four young whale sharks, including Alice and Trixie, two beluga whales named Beethoven and Maris and four manta rays Nandi, Tallulah, Billi and the fourth was recently added.
Funded mostly by a $250 million donation from Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, the aquarium was built on a 20 acre (81,000 m²) site north of Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta. Marcus credited his 60th birthday dinner at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 1990 as among the inspirations behind his desire to build an aquarium in Atlanta. Who knew all those Home Depot sales would benefit tourists like me!
Being Black Friday, and like an idiot forgetting what it was like last year in New York, I had to line up for everything. Just when I was about to hurl a mother, kid and stroller into the nearest shark tank I took my bruised shins over to The High Museum of Art and it's Dali exhibition. The High holds more than 11,000 works of art in its permanent collection. Included in this collection are 19th and 20th century American art; European art; decorative arts; African American art; modern and contemporary art; photography and African art. Highlights of the permanent collection include works by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Martin Johnson Heade, Dorothea Lange, Clarence John Laughlin, and Chuck Close.
The High places special emphasis on supporting and collecting works by Southern self-taught artists, such as Howard Finster, and includes a contextual installation of sculpture and paintings from his Paradise Gardens. The museum includes a curatorial department specifically devoted to the field of self-taught art, a distinction unique among North American museums. The High’s Media Arts department produces an annual film series and festivals of foreign, independent and classic film. Special exhibitions at the High feature strong global partnerships with other museums such as the Louvre and with the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore and the Opificio delle pietre dure in Florence.
My focus though were on the Dali: The Late Work exhibition. Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquis of Dalí de Púbol (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989), commonly known as Salvador Dalí was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres. Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in 1931. Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire includes film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. Dalí attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes" to a self-styled "Arab lineage," claiming that his ancestors were descended from the Moors.
Dalí was highly imaginative, and also had an affinity for partaking in unusual and grandiose behavior, in order to draw attention to himself. This sometimes irked those who loved his art as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork. My new favourite work is definatedly Dali Atomicus.
In 1941 Philippe Halsman met Dalí and they began to collaborate in the late 1940s. The 1948 work Dali Atomicus explores the idea of suspension, depicting three cats flying, a bucket of thrown water, and Salvador Dalí in mid air. The title of the photograph is a reference to Dalí's work Leda Atomica which can be seen in the right of the photograph behind the two cats. Halsman reported that it took 28 attempts to be satisfied with the result. Oh Shannon, I would love to do this with your three cats! All in all, a very good day exploring!
Funded mostly by a $250 million donation from Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, the aquarium was built on a 20 acre (81,000 m²) site north of Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta. Marcus credited his 60th birthday dinner at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 1990 as among the inspirations behind his desire to build an aquarium in Atlanta. Who knew all those Home Depot sales would benefit tourists like me!
Being Black Friday, and like an idiot forgetting what it was like last year in New York, I had to line up for everything. Just when I was about to hurl a mother, kid and stroller into the nearest shark tank I took my bruised shins over to The High Museum of Art and it's Dali exhibition. The High holds more than 11,000 works of art in its permanent collection. Included in this collection are 19th and 20th century American art; European art; decorative arts; African American art; modern and contemporary art; photography and African art. Highlights of the permanent collection include works by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Martin Johnson Heade, Dorothea Lange, Clarence John Laughlin, and Chuck Close.
The High places special emphasis on supporting and collecting works by Southern self-taught artists, such as Howard Finster, and includes a contextual installation of sculpture and paintings from his Paradise Gardens. The museum includes a curatorial department specifically devoted to the field of self-taught art, a distinction unique among North American museums. The High’s Media Arts department produces an annual film series and festivals of foreign, independent and classic film. Special exhibitions at the High feature strong global partnerships with other museums such as the Louvre and with the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore and the Opificio delle pietre dure in Florence.
My focus though were on the Dali: The Late Work exhibition. Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquis of Dalí de Púbol (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989), commonly known as Salvador Dalí was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres. Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in 1931. Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire includes film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. Dalí attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes" to a self-styled "Arab lineage," claiming that his ancestors were descended from the Moors.
Dalí was highly imaginative, and also had an affinity for partaking in unusual and grandiose behavior, in order to draw attention to himself. This sometimes irked those who loved his art as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork. My new favourite work is definatedly Dali Atomicus.
In 1941 Philippe Halsman met Dalí and they began to collaborate in the late 1940s. The 1948 work Dali Atomicus explores the idea of suspension, depicting three cats flying, a bucket of thrown water, and Salvador Dalí in mid air. The title of the photograph is a reference to Dalí's work Leda Atomica which can be seen in the right of the photograph behind the two cats. Halsman reported that it took 28 attempts to be satisfied with the result. Oh Shannon, I would love to do this with your three cats! All in all, a very good day exploring!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Thanksgiving in Atlanta - Turkey Trot
Oh boy... am I tired... from watching the Turkey Trot! Over 10,000 happy bouncy Atlantians came trotting past me and I cheered them on... Was so tiring I had to go have a sit down! A Turkey Trot is a fun run or footrace that is held on or around Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Americans anticipate indulgent Thanksgiving feasts and run in turkey trots to burn off calories before the big meal. In many parts of the United States, Turkey Trots are as associated with Thanksgiving tradition as the meal itself. Many courses used for these Thanksgiving events are run at major certified USA Track and Field road race distances between 5,000 and 42,195 meters. Turkey Trots range in size from just a few dozen runners to tens of thousands. Most Turkey Trots benefit local charities.
Tommorrow is Black Friday, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day many U.S. retailers open very early, often at 3 - 5 a.m., and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season. The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the period during which retailers are turning a profit, or "in the black." This was all of the 43 inserts in today's edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution promting tomorrow's sales. It should be called Black Tree Day!
Tommorrow is Black Friday, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day many U.S. retailers open very early, often at 3 - 5 a.m., and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season. The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the period during which retailers are turning a profit, or "in the black." This was all of the 43 inserts in today's edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution promting tomorrow's sales. It should be called Black Tree Day!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The Roadtrip So Far...
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| 5am departure from East Texas... Atlanta bound. Shannon looks anxious... Vangie looks comfortable and I am optimistic... |
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| First potty break... |
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| Just crossed the mighty Missisippi River into the state of Missisippi. No Potty break as it is under renovation... |
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| Picking fights in Alabama. |
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| 700 miles later we made it to Georgia... you can tell we are tired and not so good with the view finder anymore... |
The high number of crashes over the years, along with other factors, have led to rumors of Talladega Superspeedway being cursed. Stories of the origin of the curse vary. Some claim that a local Native American tribe held horse races in the valley where the track currently resides and a chief was killed when he was thrown from his horse. Others say that the site of the superspeedway was once an Indian burial ground. Still another version says that after the local tribe was driven out by the Creek nation for their collaborating with the forces of Andrew Jackson, a shaman put a curse on the valley.
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