Cardinal, Silver, Bronze

42 current or former Cardinals are competing in this year’s Olympics.

True story: last night Andrew was over at our house and mentioned that one of his advisees (Dana Kirk) is competing in the 200m women’s butterfly tomorrow. “I tell her what classes to take.”

That’s kind of wild.

It reminds me of one of my all-time favorite Stanford stories.

Some athletes are in a study group discussing their plans over break. One says he’s heading to Cancun. Another mentions that he’s going hiking in the mountains. The last guy says he’s going to the Masters.

One of the other atheletes knows how hard it is to get tickets, so he asks, “Man, how did you score tickets to the Masters? That’s hard to do.”

The last guy: “Dude, I’m playing.”

“Oh. I knew you were good, Tiger. I didn’t know you were that good.”

note: that’s a true story, but I can’t find the exact reference and so I made up some details.

Stone Jars to Beer Kegs Convertor

I was reflecting on the story of Jesus turning water into wine and began to think about the amount of wine involved. I was trying to figure out how to describe it to college students in a way they could visualize easily.

So what represents lots of alcohol to a student?

All in unison–“a keg!”

So what is the equivalent number of kegs to the six stone jars Christ transformed (or as a tongue-twister, how many kegs could Christ convert)?

A simple internet search helped me discover that Jesus created about 10 kegs of alcohol.

Just in case you ever need to know that.

Best quote about the story:

Nympha pudica Deum vidit, et erubuitRichard Crashaw
The modest water, seeing its God, blushed.

Best joke I know about turning water into wine:

Did you hear about the Baptist deacon who was driving along when he was stopped by the local police. Seeing an empty bottle on the floor, the officer said, “Sir, have you been drinking?”

“No officer, just water,” replied the smiling deacon.

“Then why do I smell alcohol on your breath?” asked the policeman.

“Praise the Lord!” shouted the deacon. “He’s done it again!”

Nate Flake

One of our alumni (Nethaneel Flake) posted this to a group discussion list and I thought some of you might find it interesting. To give you context, Nate was a linguistics major who set off for the Orient upon graduating. He had no definite plans except to practice his language skills.

For those of you who know me and might be wondering, I’d just like to let you all know what I’ve been up to in the last month.

So, it turns out that after spending a week in China (Xiamen) making friends and finding a university to spend a semester, I had to return to my Aunt’s house in Hong Kong to apply for a Chinese student visa. But, while in Hong Kong, I found out my classmate from my YWAM discipleship training school in France was in Taiwan with his Los Angeles church. They were in desperate need of a translator and helper in their summer English camp, and I was in desperate need of a place to spend a month, so I came on down. I’ve had such a great experience among these Taiwanese Christians that I have decided to study here instead of China…also, I need make a bit of dough on the side to pay my bills, and frankly, teaching English in China is like working for peanuts.

I feel a lot more at home here at this church than I do at Stanford. People seem much more cooperative than competitive, and working with the kids here has been much more rewarding than Bayshore (that may be because while at Bayshore I learned a few things about dealing with kids from the first day you meet them). I’m really hoping I can find ways to have an impact on the kids here of all ages, both in English classes and hopefully also on public basketball courts. We’ll see what actually happens.

I’m very very aware of God’s work in my life right now. All I was hoping for during this six month window was a few friends and if possible, contact with a church. Now I find myself completely immersed in both. Being surrounded by pure-hearted Christians with healthy life goals (as opposed to the self-concerning overachieving one I’ve developed over the years) has already begun to have its effect on me. I’m excited to know that I will be spending the next 6 months living in a room at the church/pastor’s house and earning money by tutoring mostly young adults that I already know and like.

All I have to do is get all the visa paperwork for the university finished by tuesday, fly to Hong Kong, get the new visa, hang out with my friends in Xiamen and then come back here in early september (if I come back earlier, my visa will expire before the six months is up).

So, when you think of me, pray that with such a complicated plan everything will fall into place. My biggest fear/lack of faith–going broke–appears to be taken care of. Instead of having to beg people to help me find a job or let me be their tutor, everyone has come to me and asked. A couple high school students gathered enough of their friends together and organized their schedules so that I can reach my minimum monetary requirements teaching one English class, twice a week.

Well, that’s it. I just wanted to stay in touch. Write me back when you get a chance, but if you don’t I understand. We’re all too busy for our own good, aren’t we?

Your Brother in Christ,

–Nate

Getting this email was cool for two reasons.

1) It was good to hear from Nate.

2) It reminded me of our vision all over again. When we touch the campus, we touch the world.