Overwhelming Generosity

Paula and I loved our first microwave. It had this awe­some dial that did every­thing. You did­n’t need to punch a number–you just turned the dial and mag­ic hap­pened.

One sad day our microwave died. Food stopped warm­ing yet the microwave kept churn­ing, lead­ing us to sur­mise that radi­a­tion was seep­ing into our chro­mo­somes.

So we got a replace­ment microwave from a friend. It was great, but the light did­n’t work and the food did­n’t rotate. And we often sus­pect­ed that radi­a­tion was still seep­ing into our chro­mo­somes (but only half of them owing to the lack of rota­tion).

And that’s just one rea­son we’re so grate­ful for last night: many of the Assem­blies of God church­es in the South Bay threw a Christ­mas par­ty to cel­e­brate AG US Mis­sion­ar­ies. We and the Har­lows were the recip­i­ents of out­ra­geous gen­eros­i­ty. Dana got books, stuffed ani­mals, a play tea set, a stroller, some garb, and an enor­mous lady­bug pil­low (with match­ing sheets and cov­er).

And we got a ful­ly func­tion­al microwave. No more radi­a­tion-steeped DNA, no more inex­plic­a­ble tans, just hot tasty food on demand.

And the icing on the cake? Not too long ago an alum­nus of our min­istry gave me a PSP (a com­plete­ly unex­pect­ed and much appre­ci­at­ed gift).

We are blessed beyond mea­sure. Say what you will about the hier­ar­chy of the Assem­blies of God, the tremen­dous gen­eros­i­ty of our laypeo­ple is unmatched.

Because I Like Quoting Myself

Here is the thought that has been my eschat­a­log­i­cal anchor for at least five years: we will be just as sur­prised by the details of the Sec­ond Com­ing as were the Phar­isees by the details of the First.

Grownup School

Ama­zon has a fea­ture called Grownup School that I was total­ly unaware of. It’s an awe­some idea–ask experts what books they think are best in their field and let the rest of us in on the secret. Found via Freako­nom­ics blog.

Crooked Mile Band

Walk­ing across White Plaza today I noticed that heavy-met­al cov­er band Crooked Mile was per­form­ing. They were quite tal­ent­ed. And they were extreme­ly loud. And they had no audi­ence. That’s why we don’t do big musi­cal out­reach­es on campus–Stanford stu­dents just don’t stop and lis­ten.

The Genius of McDonald’s

I am shocked at the stag­ger­ing suc­cess that is McDon­ald’s mar­ket­ing.

Dana does­n’t watch tele­vi­sion yet. To my knowl­edge, she’s nev­er seen a McDon­ald’s com­mer­cial on tele­vi­sion.

We’ve been pre­cise­ly three times.

Once at a dri­ve-through. Dana got some french fries. She loved them.

Last week after church we took her to a play land with the pas­tor’s kids. She kept yelling, “french fries!” all the way over.

Last week on a rainy day Paula men­tioned that per­haps we should take Dana to McDon­ald’s to play since the ground was moist. Dana bolt­ed from her seat and yelled, “McDon­ald’s!”

I think they put hero­in in the ketchup.

For Ministers Only

For all my dear min­is­te­r­i­al col­leagues with a sense of humor: you have each received hor­ri­ble voice­mails before. What you’ve nev­er been able to do is turn them into a dance mix. If you are like me, you won’t be able to laugh at the orig­i­nal. It just sounds too famil­iar. But if you are at all like me, you won’t be able to stop laugh­ing at the remix ver­sion. It just sounds too beau­ti­ful.

Are Missionaries Good Or Bad?

Col­lege stu­dents often hear mis­sion­ar­ies slan­dered in their class­es as evil cul­tur­al impe­ri­al­ists who take advan­tage of native peo­ples around the world. Trag­i­cal­ly, they rarely take the time to inves­ti­gate the evi­dence.

Always Check The Camera First

My wife thought this video of a con­fer­ence call gone awry was bet­ter than today’s pre­vi­ous posts. I think it reminds us all of the #1 rea­son we don’t actu­al­ly want video­phones no mat­ter how much we say we do. My pas­tor thinks I’m crazy for post­ing it.