All I needed was some screws

Please read this post and then read the comments. A friend of a friend makes a good point about how ignorance can possibly be detrimental.
Today, I was helping putting some desks together for the LITA classroom and so I went to get some screws. While I was there in this little storage shed asking the guy in charge if he had what I was looking for a huge swarm of bees came into the building where we were and they were all over outside as well. We were in the little office and only a dozen or so bees came in there. I don't know what they were doing but it was apparent they weren't going to leave real soon and so I asked the guy " How do we get out of here?" One other guy that was with us took the only heavy Jacket and covered his whole self and walked through the massive swarm and the other one looked at me and said "just walk backwards as you're leaving" So, I looked down and walked through maybe thousands of African Killer bees and came out with out being stung at all. Although, I didn't find the screws I was looking for, I still came back with a story.

Dinner and a Football Match at the Ark

Last night was a great night of catching up with those that I knew last year from the Ark and building friendships with those who are new to the Ark. When I arrived at the ark this week, I was a bit sad to find that many of those I lived with last year had moved out of the ark for various reasons. So now, I have a whole new group to be friends with. Last night after Nshima and Kapenta for dinner, about 7 of us squeezed into a 6'X6' room with a bed, a chair, and a 12" color TV and watched Chelsea and Liverpool battle of the soccer field. About half the guys were rooting for Liverpool and the other half Chelsea. It was an action packed game that ended 4-4 but each goal would bring text messages to different cell phones and usually someone else coming to the door to cheer in another's face and then run through the halls cheering.

Philosophy or Confusion?

This is an ongoing conversation between an old friend and I. You may want to start from the beginning. If you have already been following then please, read on. If not, then check out these;

Uno

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To Chioke,

Well, I have read and re-read your blog post and I think I’m ready to respond.

Here we go…

All right, when I said that “Jesus isn’t white”, I wasn’t really talking about God not having a racial identity, although I do believe that God transcends racial context, He’s not even human. I was talking about Jesus, Son of God, born a man somewhere in Bethlehem. Basically, Jesus comes from a town that is right between Northern Africa and the Middle East. So, if I were to try to imagine how Jesus actually looked I would guess much less like me, and less like most of the pictures and statues that portray Jesus Christ. However, If someone came up to me and said, I’m going to say one word and you need to tell me the first image that comes to mind, then that person said “Jesus”, the first image that came to mind probably would be the hippie version of Jesus with a beard, robes, sandals, and maybe looking like a tan white guy. So, I will agree with you that the image of Jesus has obviously been changed and for that I believe the world has been done a disservice.

I must say that I value these conversations for certain reasons. Although, we have different worldviews, I learn a lot from you and take what you say into account. Anyone that wants to help, especially in another culture or country would be wise to seriously consider one’s motives and methods. In no way, do I consider myself above doing wrong, or damage because I’m a follower of Christ Jesus. Being aware of that, I also know that there is a nasty history to consider and lessons to be learned from our history.

How can one man, even a ruler of some kind, declare that everyone in his nation is Christian? Would that mean that everyone residing within those geopolitical borders, suddenly believes in Jesus? Believing in something has to happen on a personal level. Of course there are many cultures, which are less individualistic than most Americans, and they will decide together as a family or a village. Even then, I think that each person chooses to believe in one way or another.

What do I believe? I believe that when one accepts Jesus Christ, that person then comes into God’s kingdom, a citizen of heaven. This does not simply make one perfect, and usually it takes many years for that person to understand and act according to his true citizenship, if at all. Often, one who has come into covenant with God and stepped into the kingdom of God will still operate out of their old self and old culture. This includes even me; I am just as susceptible as the next human. So, I will seriously consider what I am doing, and how I am doing it so that I will not coerce anyone to accept my culture or my ways over their own. The choice is one’s own, and I believe that the Kingdom culture is compatible with all other cultures.

As one reads through the New Testament, one might find that Jesus never forced anyone to choose. He simply said I am the only way to the Father. He never said that one must go to the Father. Also, as far as I can recall, the only times Jesus spoke harshly was to those who were the religious leaders, and his disciples. Jesus said that he came to testify to the Truth. This leads us to believe that there is one truth. One truth, that makes sense. The whole “no absolute truth” is confusion, smoke and mirrors, like a bad magic trick. I thought the point of philosophy is to search for truth, yet many philosophers subscribe to such confusing things. Philosophers read books from a hundred different men, written over hundreds of years and just begin to form their opinion from that. So, I guess even you have your collection of books that you hold on to.

It is astonishing, the unbelieving world that we live in, especially in the United States of America. I had an interesting conversation with a good friend earlier this year. He and I talked about many different things, politics, religion, and so on. After many hours of talking, he asked me if I really believed what the Bible says. I said “yes.” Then he said, “Do you really believe that a man named Noah built a boat and put two of each animal on it and survived a flood?” I had to think about it for a second, because when it is asked in such a way it sounded crazy, still I said, “Yes, I do. He then told me “If you believe that, then I can’t have a rational conversation with you.” This statement struck me a little funny, because we had been having many hours of discussion, over the past couple days. Then we continued for a bit, and later in that same sitting, he talked about the huge temples that the Mayans, had built long before the proper technology was invented to build such structures. He said that he couldn’t believe that they built these temples. I asked him “How then, were they built?” He said, “I think that had help from Aliens.” That night, I had a bit of trouble getting to sleep, as I was processing the long conversation that we had, and before I went to sleep I realized one thing. We live in an unbelieving world. Here was a guy, who thought I was crazy for believing in Noah and his ark, (which isn’t so hard to believe after believing that God spoke the universe into existence) yet couldn’t believe that an ancient tribe couldn’t build a temple that is still in standing for us to see with our eyes, so he thinks it must be aliens. If something doesn’t readily make sense to us the way we understand it, we throw it away and make something even crazier up. Maybe this is philosophy?


Scientists and Philosophers chose not to believe and have tried to explain away God, as though the idea or belief in God is far inferior to their own thinking. It’s funny to me that people say they don’t believe because it’s not true, yet those same people can’t really explain a better way. Scientists haven’t been able to figure out where the first living cell has come from, and will consider anything before God. Richard Dawkins, the author of “The God Delusion” abandoned his faith in God while studying Darwin’s theory, and believes completely in the theory of Evolution. Yet, in an interview on the documentary with Ben stein called “Expelled” is asked how he thinks the first living cell came into existence and he says it’s possible that a far more advanced life form come to earth and seeding this planet with the first living cell. What? This guy is anti-anything that could be considered intelligent design. This to me is incredible, and I ask why would a scientist consider that over the existence of a God, or even many Gods. The only thing that I’ve been able to come up with is that they are threatened. The aliens who supposedly seeded our planet, or helped Mayans build a temple haven’t spoken to us in any way, and therefore we can do, say, and think what ever we want without accountability. Same thing goes with the first living cell coming from a primordial soup, there is nothing threatening about it, but a God who is real and has spoken, well that would mean something altogether different. We might actually have to be accountable for what we do, say and think.

I hope to hear back from you on this.
Peace,
Nic

Learning the art of blogging?

This really is a boring video but I was having fun as Isa was showing me how she made her very nice looking, creative blog. Hope you don't waste your time on this video as it was also my first time using iMovie and I basically couldn't figure it out. So I give it an over all low score for editing, content and educational value.

What is truth?

I have in my hand a twelve lesson set of DVD's called "The Truth Project" This project comes from an organization called Focus on the Family and the founder and chairman is James C. Dobson, Ph.D.

"Focus on the Family's The Truth Project is a DVD-based small group study designed to equip believers witha comprehensive biblical worldview."

Essentially it's 12 lessons of Dr. James Dobson teaching on Christian worldview, but that is not all. The vision is to have a small group of people meet together regularly (i.e. 12 weekly meetings) watch the video, discuss the topic for that week, and then pray for one another. The focus, isn't to sell DVD's but to see Transformation, Fellowship, and Multiplication. It is very similar to the model we use for Life groups at New Life Providence Church. We live in a world where most people would not know how to answer the question "What is truth?" Understanding what a worldview is and even being able to understand your own world view is very important for each and everyone of us. Although, these are supposed to be watched in a small group setting, I am watching them on my own and I will probably run through all 12 in a weeks time, because the DVD's are not mine and I'm leaving for Zambia very soon. I do hear, however, that there is and will be more groups from New Life that will meet and feature this series. If this interests you at all, I suggest you look into it a bit more.

The wesite is http://www.thetruthproject.org/ Check it out, there is a short trailer and more information. Also, if you are connected to New Life at all, ask someone on staff about it and see if there is a group you can get connected to.

In Response

This is a response that I wrote to a dear friend of mine, Chioke. He and I graduated from the same High school in Jacksonville Fl, and although we have different world views, we enjoy having an open discussion about said views. I am just straight up copy and pasting what I wrote to him, in response to what he wrote (I believe he posted it on his blog), which was a response to my Okot p'Bitek blog entry. So, if you are reading this and have not read the first two, I strongly suggest that you not rad ahead and start from the beginning.

Here we go...

Chioke,

I hope it isn't too late to respond to this letter. If I remember correctly, I told you that I would respond within a week of writing this, and I apologize for not coming through in the time that I said I would. When I first read it, I needed time to really soak it all in, to try to understand what you are saying without letting my thoughts cloud the point that you were so elegantly making. When you sent that email, it was my last few days in Zambia and when I got home i think I kind of forgot about it, till now. So, I have re-read it and am responding many months later.

May I first start out saying that I am not as skilled as you are at putting my thoughts into words to articulate exactly what I want. My writing skills are weak at best and I attribute that to my being unread and that I don't write very much at all. So, after re-reading my own blog entry on Okot p'Bitek's Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, I realize that what I wrote didn't express exactly what I was trying to say, which explained why your response was in part the way it was. Let me clarify, I did not and do not believe that Okot's work was an attack on my identity, I believe that the thoughts in my head were an attack on my identity. I no way did I just throw out what I read as though it was not important, I just had to get those thoughts out of my head that I'm worthless because I'm white, that all I can do is harm because I'm white. I still think about what I read in that book. By the way, Drew gave me a copy of "The Wretched of the Earth" by Frantz Fanon. I haven't began reading it, but do plan to get to it.

Next, I would like to ask you, what is the deal with this "white Jesus" thing? Come on, I know that you are more aware than that, and I'm sure Okot p'Bitek was as well, yet both you and he refer to Jesus as white. I just think that makes it easier for you to wrap Christianity up with colonialism. I know that you think that they are the same thing, but I do not agree with you on that point. It's strange to me that people are so mad at Christians, because hundreds of years ago there were people who claimed to be followers of Christ started wars and did a lot of killing. In my mind, as soon as they did that they were no longer following Christ, they were doing something else. Maybe they used God to gather people together on their side to excel their campaign? That would be using God's name in vain. Besides, I don't really see people getting mad at atheists because Hitler believing in Darwin's theory to begin what he thought would be better for the human race, by exterminating the "weaker" humans? No, they get mad at Nazi's. I'm just tired of Christians being the scape goat.

About me helping; I do want to help people. I'm not sure that I understand when you say "... pattern of interaction between the empowered and the powerless" fully, but I do not like the idea of setting up the powerless to only be able to rely of the empowered. I think that it's kind of like that in this country with welfare. I don't think that there shouldn't be welfare, I've seen what happens in countries that don't have it, but I think there should be a very strong encouragement and empowering for people to help themselves. A big part of what I want to do in Zambia ( I am going back at the end of this month for another 8 months) is live among these people, learn their tribal language and basically become as Zambian as I can possibly be in order to understand where they really need help and how to help in a way that doesn't disrupt the culture that I have become a part of. I'm talking of committing and not just being ready to go as soon as things don't go my way. I do realize that it is still an "option" for me to be there, but I don't know how else to help. You did mention that those you were with in Uganda found a good way to help, maybe you can help me understand their ways, or how they differ from mine?

Well, I hope to hear from you soon.
peace,
Nicholas

What is Intelligent Design?

This morning when I woke up, the first thing I did was stumble over to my laptop and check my email. This isn't necessarily my routine, but what is? Upon opening my Gmail account, I found an email from a friend Bob, among other emails. I have a bad habit of receiving emails from friends that are forwarded or have links to other sites and information, and not really looking into it. This morning for whatever reason I felt compelled to actually read and take a look at the links within this particular electronic message. One of the links took me to a web page promoting a documentary titled "Expelled" subtitled "No Intelligence Allowed." I looked into it, and found that Ben stein was not only featured in this documentary, but also had a hand in writing it. The site is filled with more than just a "buy our DVD" but also has very good questions and definitions regarding the Intelligent design and Evolution. Now here is the kicker, I did not only read that email and visit the site, but I also stopped at Block Buster on my way home and picked up the DVD and watched it.

I have to say that I was very surprised that not only is this documentary done well, but seems to be genuinely non-biased. If you're thinking that the documentary is supporting religious or political views, I would say that it is not. I would find it hard to convince someone that I am not biased, because I do believe in the bible, in Jesus Christ, and that men were created in the image of God, but this DVD supports freedom. Freedom to ask if Darwinism can explain everything, or if there is more. Freedom to research the possibility that there could be an intelligent designer.

Here is the link to the website http://www.expelledthemovie.com/ I suggest you look at it no matter what you believe. This documentary is compelling. If you know me personally and you're reading this, I have the DVD till March 13th and would be more than willing to lend it to you for an evening. Check it out, the movie has a 95 min run time and will not put you to sleep.