Today we arrived at Mykonos. Its a really small island. We walked all around the city in the course of a few hours. I liked the architecture of the island. The houses were all white plaster with blue trim. Very nice. Inside some of the houses had courtyards with trees and plants. The more I see these different buildings the more I want to make my house like these. We walked around some more looking at the different stores and eateries looking for gyros. There were all these fancy places to eat but none of them looked that good. However we eventually found a “hole” in the wall place that had gyros for 2.20 euros and it was GOOD. The pita was fresh and crispy and the pork (no lamb) was good. Much better than Niros.

After dinner we had time before the show so we went into the casino to kill some time. My dad gave me $1 to spend on the 2c slot machine. The spins went my way and I left with about $12. I gave my dad $1.25 for his investment. I gave some money to my sis and mom to spend on other slots and I tried out some other ones too. In the end we walked away with $6 earnings. Not a bad return on $1. If only I could do that with $100.

6:30 I woke up early and thought the sunrise was at 6:36 so I grabbed my bible and went outside to watch it unfortunately sunrise was earlier so I missed it. However it was nice being like one of ten people pn the deck. After my qt I grabbed breakfast and enjoyed a peaceful time on the boat. What better thing to do after breakfast than take a nap

10:30. Went back outside to cook myself. Ate some food along the way.

14:30. I finished cooking myself at a nice lobster red. Note to self: hair does not substitute for sun tan lotion. At least its only my left leg that’s hurting. Well see tomorrow.

18:30. Dinner was at the fine dining. Yesterday diagonal form us was a table of 4 college aged girls. Today seated at the table was this older couple and this sleazy looking greased back hair single guy. Then the 4 girls came in dressed up since it was fine dining night. Through put the course of the night the guy seemed to be making all friendly with the girls. He bought them a few rounds of wine. Enough to redden their faces. He also took pictures with them and his face was rather close to the girls next to him. Towards the end of the meal, he tried to order another round of wine but the ma?tre d’ wouldn’t let him. I think she mouthed “no more alchohol” but he found someone to serve it them anyways. Then we left. I’m interested to see what happens over the course of the week.

21:20. While i was walking to the onboard show, I saw sleazy guy walking into the casino with the four girls and one of them in arm. They were speaking the se language. Mmm. The plot thickens.

9:00 walked around San marco looking for batteries and a mask for Carolyn. Yesterday we saw a V for Vendetta mask and some straight white smooth plaster ones. I like those better than the fancy frilly ones. Maybe bc I’m more into the simple negative space designs.

14:00 were on the cruise ship. Its pretty big – first cruise ship I’ve been on. I think I’m just paranoid or something bc I think I feel the ship rocking back and forth. Hopefully its all in my mind.

Our cruise boat. I don’t think I took any pictures on the boat.

Before we left the hotel we changed money and got a rate of $1.72 for 1 euro. Ouch. Its not cheap to come to Europe.

Pictures from the boat as we sail out of Venice.

Family on board the ship.

San Marco square.

21:10 Cruise boats pretty cool. I can see how it would be fun with friends. Crh serving body cruise? … haha … it could be fun. Saw argentian dancers with bolletoes which is like glowstick on strings.

This rings a chord with me because CFC is all about training. We are all about helping people get deeper. Increase not just the quantity of Kingdom workers but also the quality. Sometimes I feel that we’re too focused on training and not enough on the ‘getting’. I argue that the ‘outreach’ that P.Min talks in the evaluations is integrating new members, many of whom are already Christians, and less of evangelizing to pre-Christians. This change of focus in Willow Creek gives me hope and helps correct my vision. It’s not the events that draw people in or do the evangelism, it’s the people. The programs are just one means but the core force behind it are the Christians who drive those programs. Good evangelistic programs need solid Christ-centered, people loving Christians to run them. Perhaps Willow Creek has focused too much on their programs so now they’re giving more attention to the people who are running them.

I look at my current and past small group members. One started up a Taiwanese outreach group this year and they brought a friend to church this past week. One of my small group members invited his classmate to dinner and Bible Study with us last week. I’m beginning to see that if we get people truly excited about God, evangelism will flow from that heart. While I do wish we had more avenues for people to exercise their evangelistic desires, I feel like we have a good focus that can perpetuate sound ministry into the future. People deeply in love with God will love others and draw them into the body – “the research shows that it?s the mature believers that drive everything in the church?including evangelism.”

I subscribe to this axiom “Tithe is at least 10% of gross income”, that’s 10% before taxes. I found this statement intriguing “His analysis of more than 56,000 survey respondents from 1995-2005 found that 90 percent of donors give 2 percent or less of their pre-tax income to charities, including their churches.” From his surveys, Christian’s weren’t tithing 10%. Assuming an even distribution between non-Christians and Christians, 90% of Christians give 2% or less though God calls us to give more. In stark contrast to the wealth and prosperity gospel which says God wants you to be rich, it should be our goal to make God “rich” – to give him all the glory he deserves – including our financial ‘glory’. We say we love God with all of our heart, but do we love God with all of our wallet?

I think this quote highlights the issue. “As new parents who were paying off their large student loans, giving $10,000 to charity was as generous as they could be at the time”. Their emphasis is on their needs and wants first, then charities with whatever is left. Our focus should be God first, then our needs, lastly our wants. Our decisions on how we treat money and how we tithe need to be grounded from the start, when we have no money. If we cannot tithe when we have little money, we won’t be able to tithe when we have more money. Tithing is a heart issue. We do not tithe out of our excess, we tithe out of our heart. The numbers of how much we actually give mean nothing to God, it’s about the heart and our desire to give him our maximum. (Mark 12:41-44)

The last issue I wanted to bring up was on saving vs spending. If what analysts say are true, that Obama’s fiscal actions are indicative of the American population and how he’ll act in office, then the economic situation may not get much better. “The Obamas’ tax returns also show they had little in savings during the same period. They reported no dividends or capital gains over the five years and reported $33 in taxable interest, all of which was received in 2002.” They didn’t save anything. The current economic problems are caused by people spending more than their income. The credit bubble is popping and people’s debts are catching up to them. Obama has little fiscal responsibility of his own, not saving anything of his 1.3 millions yearly pay. This gives me little confidence of him correcting our current credit problem by increasing the average American’s saving. Why can’t we have a president who’s fiscally responsible and isn’t in bed with big companies or the wealthy?

1. They use a missionary group as a reason to send Rambo back into Burma. The question the writers faced was, “Who would go into a dangerous and war torn place so we can send Rambo in to save them?” The answer is Christian missionaries. Society sees Christians as people willing to go into a place where no one else dares enter.
2. This film gives the perspective that Christians are willing to go anywhere at any cost to the point of foolishness. The Christians are so head strong and rooted in their foolish ideas that they get everyone into trouble. They are causing more death than they are helping by going on their “crusades”. It belittles and mocks the altruistic philos love of Christians who are trying to bring relief to the war torn villagers. The writers create an interesting contrast between the motives of the missionaries and mercenaries when entering Burma. One group foolishly entering for God while the other for their own gain and highlighting for foolishness of the missionaries.
3. This movies also speaks out on current events. It’s incredibly similar to the events of this summer when a group of Korean Missionaries is captured by the Taleban. I don’t know if these events were an influence to the movie but regardless the movie reflects a societies view on the events. Christians should stay home and stop causing trouble. It’s also interesting that in the movie the church hires mercenaries to save their missionaries. Several times the head mercenary says “God did not send us to save you” or something to that affect. I feel this is a secular solution to the problem and I feel this shows the limit of the world’s understanding of God.

I feel this movie gives good insight into today’s culture and views on missions and is worth watching for that very reason.

Apparently, I’m so old that my small group members haven’t heard this commercial jingle about Toy R Us. In alot of ways, this jingle reflects my attitude. I’m a college kid, trapped in a young adult body. This or I’m a young adult clinging on to his college years, not ready to take a step into the future.

I still try to do the college things, I try to have the college schedule (sleeping late, waking up as late as my job allows), and even hang out with college students all day every day. This is perpetuated by my fellowship that almost encourages such behavior. We run on a college schedule. Our events are structured around the academic calendar and our meetings accommodate the student’s life style. What church would have a meeting at midnight, right?

As much as I’ve enjoyed my college days and now cling to them, living them out through my friends, I feel it’s time for me to be letting go and embracing the Young Adult life. I don’t want to and I realize it’s not because I loved my college life and want to keep living it but because I’m afraid of the future. I’m afraid of failing.

The young adult life is completely different from student life. I realized this two weeks ago when Pastor Min preached on how to spend your time redemptively. He specified three categories, school/work, family, church and said to pick the non-negotiables from those and schedule them in first then start filling in your schedule. When I thought about this, I realized there was something missing. There was something important missing from my schedule that I could only call “Life”. Yes, “Life” was missing from my schedule. Where was the time that I had to set aside to pay my bills or right now, do my taxes. Where does taking my car to get an oil change fit in? Where do dentist and doctor appointments go? What about grocery shopping? Life is simplistic when you’re a student. You eat, sleep, study, and go to church. You don’t have to worry about calling the repairman to fix your broken water heater; the dorm maintenance people take care of all that. I need to start thinking and concerning myself with this thing called “life”. I can’t hang around the dorm and try to bum meals because my fridge is empty from not setting aside time to buy groceries.

Growing up also involves new decisions. I’m in the process of deciding whether or not I should purchase a house. There are so many things involved with it that it paralyzes me. So many factors to take into account that I freeze and just want to throw my hands in the air and not deal with it. I realized that I can’t make a decision (as well as some other issues) because I’m afraid of failure. This new phase of life brings about so many changes and challenges my life style that I just want to stay with what’s comfortable.

Alas, I cannot. I realize that I need to be faithful with a few things to be faithful with many. I need to learn how to wisely decide in these decisions so I can wisely decide in larger decisions. I need to mature and embrace the new callings God has for me. I need to leave Never Never Land and grow into the man God’s planned for me to be.

1 Chronicles 12:32 men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do

Ester 1:13 Since it was customary for the king to consult experts in matters of law and justice, he spoke with the wise men who understood the times

The past summer and semester, I’ve been trying to understand this topic of redeemed living and the unintended separation of the scared and secular. There is this idea that stems from this topic that Wisdom is synonymous with Righteousness. Wise living is the same as righteous living (as found in Proverbs) since there is no separation between the sacred and secular, it’s all the same. (The correct way or the wise way to live is the right way to live or living in righteousness. Sorry, it’s hard for me to put these thoughts into words since I’m still pondering it. Reference: Not The Way It’s Supposed To Be: A Breviary of Sin which is the only book I’ve read related to this topic so far. I have another one on my list.)

This phrase “understood the times” coupled with “know what Israel should do” seems to be applied to wise men. They knew the current social, economical, and political situations and what to do. They understood the times they were living in and knew how to live in a proper (wise) way. They also know how the Kingdom of God (Israel) fit into their current socioeconomic (using this as an umbrella term for pretty much everything) times. This concept, coupled with the idea that wisdom is righteousness, makes it seem that the righteous man is informed and well-versed in current events and how God is moving and using his kingdom, the church, through the times. I’m totally ignorant regarding society and many things going on. As been said multiple times – we need to pray with the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in another.

How does the current economic situation of the US impact it’s missions sending capabilities? How the do current political campaigns affect the direction of our country and our ability to be used by God? How does the “green” ecological movement relate to the command to “Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Gen 1:28b)?

I think at the very least, this highlights to requirement that Christians be informed citizens and influential agents in society ushering in the “already but not yet” Kingdom of God.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. Ps. 84:5-6. We are to be agents of transformation, bringing life to the society we live in.

• Altec Lansing IM716 IEMs. This are supposedly really good IEM’s. They are a high quality brand repackaged by Altec Lansing for 1/2 – 1/3 of the cost. Though I don’t have an MP3 player, I could use these at work instead of my big Sennheiser HD497′s.
• Car Seat covers. Black leather may look awesome but it’s freezing in the winter and burning in the summer. It’s not very kind on my tush.
• Gladiator Widescreen. The missing movie from “my collection”. I couldn’t find it on sale during Black Friday. I guess since it’s such a good movie.
• Preorder of Super Smash Bros Brawl (Zip Code 61820). What self-respecting Wii owner ISN’T waiting from Smash.
• Since my sister listed this on her’s, I will put this on mine: iPod Touch. Now, I’ve heard some negative reviews about the touch. Problems with the display being much worse than the iPhone and other usability issues w/ the lack of a hardware volume control. If you buy me one, I’m not going to complain but I personally am waiting for the 2G (2nd generation) to come out to 1) address these issues but 2) the Touch and iPhone sdk comes out in February and I’d like to ensure mine can run custom software. What I really want is a small portable web client which the touch seems to address.
• A pair of jeans. I’m a 28/30. preferably boot-cut w/ fades. I’m in need of a “medium” blue as I lost a pair.
• Casual button down shirts. I’m trying to wear button-down’s w/ jeans to work. I’m a 15/15.5 31/32.

That’s all I’ll list now. Of course you can get me other things if you so wish. I love gadgets including kitchen gadgets/knives. Hardware tools – I only own a hammer and just bought a flexhead rachet wrench b/c our current one wasn’t suitable to work on my car. I could use a magnetic head screwdriver set.

But honestly, I’d rather you support a missionary or give a gift to a child in need instead of give something to me.