Today is Blog Action Day. I encourage you to check out the website.

For years I struggled with the idea of poverty. I fought with the big questions, the hows and the whys. I felt deep guilt. It seemed to me that Jesus was pretty passionate about helping the poor. Was I doing enough? Probably not.

In my 40s I finally learned to think small when it comes to poverty. I wrote an article about this for Blog Action Day. You can find it at the High Calling Blog Network if you would like to read it.

There are a lot of bloggers out there. We're telling our stories of poverty today.

rlp

 

For those keeping score, this story takes place in 1999 when Foy Davis was married and the rector of a small Episcopal church in San Antonio.

********

 

On Monday afternoon Foy stopped by the church. Monday was his day off, but sometimes he came in anyway. He nodded at Judy who was on the phone. She smiled and raised her chin in a greeting without stopping her conversation. He went down the hall to his office and found his battered copy of the Common Lectionary.

Let’s see. Proper 19, year A.

He flipped through the pages until he found the right Sunday. He scanned through the available texts. The Old Testament text was from Exodus chapter 14. He skimmed it quickly, reading parts of it aloud.

“The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud…Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The LORD drove the sea back…At the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire…”

Foy made a rumbling noise at the back of his throat.

Okay Paul, what have you got for me. Romans.

“Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions…Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables…Those who eat must not despise those who…”

Foy made the rumbling noise again. He reached over to a corner of his desk and picked up a Nerf football. He used two hands moving opposite directions to flip the ball into a spiral. He quickly caught it and did this a few times. Then he turned back to the book and skimmed further through the Romans passage.

“Who are you to pass judgment…we do not live to ourselves…for it is written, every knee shall bow…”

He let his head fall back until his hair touched his collar. His mouth popped open, and he rolled his head around a little, trying to make his neck click. He shot the Nerf football like a basketball toward his trash can. It hit the side of the can and bounced crazily around the floor. Foy groaned, long and slow and deep, letting his voice rumble slowly. He put his chin in his hand and let his gaze drift over to a stack of papers on his desk that had been growing for several months. He was avoiding the stack because he knew that if he started digging into it, going back in time with the layers like an archaeologist, he would find something he should have done and did not.

He took a deep breath and looked at the gospel text.

“Matthew, give me something good this week. You’re my only hope. Help me Matthew-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope. And I do not want to fight with the text this week. I need something smooth. Something I can see."

“Chapter 18…Then Peter came and said to him, Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times? Jesus said to him, Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy times seven.”

Hmm. Maybe. Yeah.

He read further.

Oh yeah, that parable about that one guy whose debt was forgiven but he didn’t forgive that other guy. Yeah, I can work with that.

Foy’s eyes dropped quickly to the end of the parable.

“And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

“Oh shit.”

Foy sighed. It had been so much easier when he was a Baptist, preaching revivals right out of seminary. Preaching whatever text he wanted.

“Well, Matthew it is. Okay Matthew, Sensei, I will let you thoroughly kick my ass all week…”

He put his hands in a mock Kung Fu position and made a silly, high-pitched martial arts whine, like something in a Bruce Lee movie.

“Hoo waaaaah”

He spoke in a deep voice, like a badly translated Kung Fu movie. “But in the end I shall master you and you shall deliver to me everything that you know.”

There was a tiny tap at the door and Judy said, “Foy, are you talking with someone in there?”

“Just having a little chat with Matt. C’mon in.”

Judy peered around the corner of the door. Her eyes traveled across the room. The Nerf ball was at her feet. There was an Etch a Sketch on the corner of his desk. On the floor by the bookshelves was a Hungry Hungry Hippos game. It looked like someone had been playing with it.

"Who's Matt?"

Foy held up the Bible.

“You know, Matthew, Mark, Luke…Olivia, Newt, and John.”

“Oh,” she said, as if she understood, but she left just enough lilt in the “oh” to express her concern.

“Jenny wants you to call her.”

She backed out of the room.

Foy smiled. Judy had been the secretary at the church since the Han Dynasty. She didn’t approve of the toys and some other things which he had to admit were a little odd.

That’s as far as I need to be on a Monday. Matthew it is.

He got up and turned off the light. He looked back at the Lectionary book on his desk. He held up the index and middle fingers of his right hand.

“And I forgive you, Matthew, for putting such a terrible ending on that passage. What WERE you thinking?”

He laughed.

“Another week of the Bible messing with my mind.”

********

 

In the early part of the week, Foy kept picturing Jesus standing with Peter. He ran the scene a number of ways in his mind.

“So how many times are we supposed to forgive? I mean, you have to admit there must be an ending point. So, I don’t know, some people say like four times maybe? Seems like you want a little more than that. Maybe seven times?”

“No no. Putting a number on it is not…that’s not the way of…okay, you want a number? All right. How about seventy times seven. There you go, there’s a number for you.”

“What? That’s like…” Peter’s lips moved and he touched the fingertips of

Video 1 of 3

I recently wrote about hell and asked for your input. I got a lot of emails. I've gone through all of them. This is the first of three videos in which I'll discuss what I've discovered and my final conclusions.

As is my tradition, I've limited this video to 6 minutes.

• rlp's blog
• 19 comments

For the last couple of years our church community has been burrowing a path through the dense brush of our land. We've not been in a hurry; we don't even know for certain where the path is going. We've tried to be as gentle as possible, avoiding more permanent plants and taking the direction that nature seems to be offering. So our path winds its way whimsically through the woods, three feet wide and bordered with limestone rocks that we found lying around. Most of the time its surface is nothing more than the packed earth beneath our feet. Occasionally the juniper trees lay down a soft mulch made of their shedding evergreen, and we walk on that.

This path is as gentle and nature-friendly a thing as can be imagined, and yet Mother Nature seems to hate it and is doing everything in her power to destroy it. Along with a vacuum, Mother Nature abhors trails, pathways, walls, slabs, roads, landscaping, parking lots and buildings. My friends and I have been trying to impose the order of our path on Mother Nature, but she is having none of it....

Click here to read the rest of this essay at The Christian Century online.

Archive of Christian Century Articles by Gordon Atkinson

I don’t think political debates are very helpful, at least not in the format we see these days. I can’t speak to how helpful debates were in the past. The problem with debates is that they are several steps removed from reality.

First, the candidates are asked fairly obvious questions, and they answer these questions with various versions of their stump speeches. Last night, for example, each vice presidential candidate made claims about the other presidential candidate’s voting history. But what does that mean? Sarah Palin says that Barack Obama voted against some bill, which on the surface makes it sound like he doesn’t care for soldiers as much as John McCain. But then we hear from Senator Biden that John McCain also voted against that bill.

So the debate becomes just another format for candidates to deliver campaign speeches. True, the speeches are more off-the-cuff, so you can see how they react under pressure. But that’s what we are hearing. Sound bites and campaign speeches. We hear what the campaigns want us to think about the issues. This is one step removed from reality.

Now if that was all that was happening with modern debates, it wouldn’t be so bad. After all, politicians have been giving campaign speeches for as long as anyone can remember.

Unfortunately, there is a second step that takes us even further away from reality. Right after the event itself, television pundits step in to analyze the debate. The debate itself was an event in time, but the minute it is over it no longer exists except in the fading memories and impressions of the few people who were actually listening closely.

“But the debate is recorded,” you say. “So doesn’t that mean it’s a permanent record?”

Yes, but almost no one will watch that debate again. Will you? Will you spend another hour and a half wading through all of their sound bites? Why would you? What would you hope to gain from it that? What actually happens is the reality of the debate gives way to the reality of what political pundits are saying about the debate. And if anyone does watch the debate again, they will probably just watch self-serving highlight reels put together by those same pundits.

Last night we saw Sarah Palin and Joe Biden debate. Afterward, many pundits said, “Sarah Palin did what she needed to do. She didn’t melt down. She didn’t embarrass herself. She “connected with her base,” whatever the hell that means. She did those things. She didn’t dazzle with facts or knowledge, but she did what she needed to do.”

“Joe Biden,” the pundits are saying, “was more factually grounded and seemed more in command of his words and with his presence. But he was expected to be more knowledgeable and experienced, so that doesn’t gain him much. Everyone knows that he has been a senator for a long time. So though he did a great job, there probably won’t be much change in the polls.”

There, you see? They’ve created the reality of that debate. Most Americans did not watch the debate, or sort of half-watched it while they did laundry. Many just watched the highlight reels that began minutes afterward. They will accept the reality of the debate as defined by the pundits, and that will in fact become the reality of the debate.

I watched carefully, listening and measuring their words. I have impressions about the debate that are a little more extreme than the pundits. There is no reason for me to give them here because it is not my purpose for this little piece of writing to be a campaign speech of its own.

But I would like to suggest another process that you and I can use to help decide how we will vote.

First, choose the issues that are most important to you. For me, the war is the most important issue. A war is a terrible thing. A destroyed nation and hundreds of thousands of dead people is more important than our local economy. I’m not trying to convince you of that. I’m saying that is MY biggest concern.

After that the state of health care in our nation is a priority for me. This is in part because my family has experienced how easy it is lose health insurance. And without insurance, you are simply gambling that you do not become extremely ill or get injured. My daughter’s very lives are on the line, so yes, that’s rather important to me.

After you select one or two or maybe three top issues, take the time to research and read what the candidates say they are going to do. Since you’re only dealing with a few issues, surely you can do that. And you won’t be listening to what the candidates say about their opponent. You’ll put forth your best effort to find out the truth about what they plan to do.

Then make your choice.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: Due diligence is all that is required of you. If you have a Ph.D. in economics, for example, you should bring all of your knowledge to play in your decision. If you never graduated from high school and have a hard time reading, bring the best you have to this as well.

In summary:

1. The television political experts are creating their own reality. Listen to them if you wish, but do not give them much authority.

2. Choose your top issues and concentrate on those.

3. Bring the best of your intellect and experience to the table. That’s all that is required of you.

Vote well, my friends. This stuff matters.

rlp

I've posted the audio from my half hour conversation with Marcus Borg over at CCblogs. CCblogs is a blogging network that I have helped to create and actively facilitate. It's a thing that I am extremely happy to be a part of. Currently we have 60 bloggers, all intelligent and progressive thinking Christians.

I've posted both a brief introduction to Borg and a short explanation of why he is a controversial figure along with the audio file. I'll be very active in the comments at the CCblogs entry. So if you want to leave a comment there, I'll look forward to talking with you. And we might pick up some nice conversation and thoughts from some of the CCbloggers as well.

Introduction and audio are here.

rlp

I got back from Chicago late last night. I heard Marcus Borg's lecture at the annual Christian Century lecture and workshop. Just before the lecture I got to go to his hotel suite and sit on a couch with him and talk. He was also cool with me recording that conversation, which I did.

Let me say this for now: Marcus Borg blew my mind a little, melted my heart a LOT, and inspired me to consider again how Christianity has slowly become an other-worldy, afterlife-oriented kind of religion. The most impressive and interesting part of his talk was not about the gospels, which is his specialty, but about the Biblical call for social and economic justice.

And he reminds me  of Obi Wan Kenobi. I'm sorry, but he does. Same gentle demeanor, same striking blue eyes. Just kind of like that, you know?

I like him. A lot.

I'm trying hard to organize my thoughts into a summary of what he had to say. I'll post a short attempt at doing that along with the 25 minute recording of our conversation. I tried to wrap your themes into my questions. And I selected one of your questions to ask him straight up.

rlp

Here is someone who had an unusual
experience with one of the books I sent. Jung would call it synchronicity. She
calls it God. I don't know what to say about things like this. The scientific
part of me says, "Coincidence. You're looking for 29 everywhere, so of course
you notice it."
But I have learned a thing or two over the
years. I'm not so fast to pass judgment these days. One way to look at a
situation like this is to think that it has to be proved or disproved. Another
way to look at it is to understand that all we have are our perceptions of
things. Some things seem more obvious and objective, but really, what do we have
but our perception of reality? And so her life sometimes is truly blessed by the
number 29 and candy corn.
Who knows?
It's fun to get a glimpse of what happened
to one of the books I mailed. I've now filled 200 orders. 200 items included
from around my house and really everywhere I can find things.
Latest surprises include:

• Purple origami paper
• Weird cigar shaped candy from Mexico
• One fuzzy green glove that looks like the Grinch's hand.
• New Orleans-ish party mask.
• bunch of .02 stamps
• assorted thank you cards (unused)
• Gummy tarantula
• Crystal Light packets
• Packet of Shout (Laundry stuff)
• Ramen noodle seasoning

rlp
 

Remember when I use to write for this blog? I'm
only kidding, but seriously, what with water purification trips, some other
things in my life, and trying to get copies of my book mailed, my writing has
suffered terribly. Just no time for it.
It hurts. I want to write so badly. I need to
write or I start getting kind of fidgety. So this morning I just said, "The hell
with all of it," and started a piece about some things that happened to me when
I was about five. It turned into something I'm liking, which always feels good.
I'll probably send this one in to Christian Century when I'm done and see if
they want it.
I really will be back with actual written
stuff. But you can't do everything.
Speaking of things I need to do, I feel that I
owe you some kind of update on the shipping of books. Some of you have been
waiting for your books. In October I have packaged, addressed, and sent 175
orders. 253 books. That means I've looked at 175 addresses online and written
175 notes and found 175 things around my house to stick in the pages (actually I
put two or three things in each book). With my trips out of town recently, it
was hard to keep up. Last night I stayed up till midnight and got down to only
39 orders pending. Incoming orders have slowed, so if I do 15 a night, I should
be close to caught up in maybe 3 days. Still getting a couple of orders a day.
Those of you from other countries: I know
you're waiting longer, but it is a real pain to ship overseas these days. I have
to go to the post office and fill out customs forms. I'll try to get yours boxed
up over the weekend and go to the post office on Monday.
Recently included goodies:

• Greeting card from India
• Elvis postcard
• Magnetic guitar for fridge
• 1994 Advent booklet from our church
• San Antonio city street map (to New Zealand)
• Do not disturb sign from a motel door
• Small town cafe menu
• Publicity piece from my first and probably only book signing
• Don't mess with Texas sticker
• Best Buy gift card (probably no money on it, but I don't know)
• Bible map torn out of a really old Bible
• Schnitzelbank Song Fest placemat
• Don Stone guitar pick  - one of three still in existence.
  What? You've never heard of Don Stone? Washington? The state? Obscure but
  talented musician?
• Sugar packets and hats from Krispy Kreme
  Doughnuts
• Small packets of candy corn
• An old SAMMS club card
• Brunswick Bowling card
• My old voter registration card
• SAMM homeless shelter volunteer ID badge
• Unused ticket to a high school musical.

rlp
 

I'm sorry for the delay in reporting back to
you about the final day of training. I got home Monday and was faced with a
number of things that had to be done by Tuesday at lunch. And then I had to fly
to Dallas for a 24 hour board meeting for the High Calling, a nonprofit
organization in San Antonio. I write for them and do some Internet consultation.
I'm now involved in setting up a network of blogs, as I mentioned
a few days ago.
So, what happened on the final day of water
purification training? First of all, the centerpieces were all clean, which I
thought was pretty cute. Seeing them filled with dirty water and then fresh,
clean water is an image that speaks at a gut-level.


We had a worship service on Sunday morning. A
pastor from Costa Rica preached with an interpreter. Edge Outreach is a
Christian organization, but what I like about them is that they are dedicated to
their humanitarian efforts, and not in any way involved in evangelism. As a
Christian, I think we have reached a time where the Church must prove her love
for people. We must help people with NO STRINGS ATTACHED. Then, if someone wants
to engage us with questions about our spiritual tradition, we would of course be
happy to talk. That's the kind of thing that Edge does. I am confident that an
atheist or agnostic person could have joined us this weekend and not been uncomfortable. That person could have attended the worship
service, out of respect, or not.
Afterwards, our final session involved seeing a
kind of "super purification unit" down by the lake. This system involves both
types of purification. Filtering and chlorination. There is some debate among
advocates of each system. Advocates of filtration systems point out that their
systems are extremely simple and easy to use. Chlorination advocates note that the very
specialized and high-tech filters can't be purchased by people in 3rd world
countries. The chlorination system, on the other hand, works as long as a person
can get their hands on a car battery and some salt.
The truth is, different systems work in
different settings. You have to be flexible and bring a system that best helps
the people you are serving. The system in the suitcase by the man in
blue filters the water down to a half a micron. That's a pretty serious
filtering job. The smallest bacteria are about a micron in size. A micron is
millionth of a meter. A human hair is about 100 microns in diameter. The man
in the black shirt is holding one of the ceramic filters.


After filtration, the lake water goes through
the McGuire system and comes out cleaner than any municipal water system.
CLEANER. You really don't need both of them, but this was kind of a super
system.
After that the conference was over and everyone
went home. I spent another night with Darrell and Alice Adams and went out for
fancy beers with a couple of friends of theirs. To my surprise, both of them had
read Real Live Preacher before. One man - Brent - had even sent me an email some
years ago. I was glad that I had answered it. In the last couple of years I
haven't been able to answer them all.
Then I flew home. That's it. I'll brush up on
my knowledge over Christmas and begin getting ready to go to the Dominican
Republic in January. We'll be installing a massive, 8-tank system in a hospital.
I will take photos and blog my way through that trip. I hope you'll tune in
then.
rlp
 

The setting for our training is certainly
lovely. We're here in Louisville as Fall sets in. There are 84 of us at a
retreat center learning how to setup water purifiers.


The centerpieces on the tables at dinner last
night were interesting. Unappetizing, but interesting and appropriate, I guess.


Dirty water in a glass bowl
I've finished the second day of training.
Yesterday we focused on education and preparation. We began this morning with a
visit to a mock village where we had to interview the "local people" in
preparation for a purification installation. In this particular village there
was a chieftain who did not like the suggestion that the water from their lake was
unclean. We had to offer a bribe to get him to agree to let us test the water.
Apparently you run into that sort of thing in some places in the world.


The rest of the day was spent in training on
the portable purification units. Edge Outreach uses the McGuire
Purification system. It's portable, cheap, and it runs on table
salt and a 12-volt battery. These items are easily obtained in almost every part
of the world. Duvon McGuire, the inventor, was at the conference. He's a
fascinating guy. His parents were missionaries, and as a child he caught a
terrible disease from polluted water. He never forgot the experience, and as an
adult he invented this very simple and affordable way of treating water. He
hooked up with the Edge folks fairly soon after he came up with this idea, and
they've put his purification units into action all over the world.


Duvon McGuire at the tent where I was being
trained.
The system is pretty simple. The water is
chlorinated to kill bacteria. The chlorine gas comes from table salt through the
process of electrolysis. The idea is simple, but there is a fair amount of
knowledge needed to set it all up. You have to be able to put together a system
of PVC pipes and valves. The purification unit itself is pretty small; it fits
into a plastic tub. Generally you bring this unit with you and buy the barrels,
pipes, salt, and battery on location. Training a local person to run and maintain the equipment
is the most important part of this whole thing.
Okay so tonight I saw Duvon sitting on a couch,
and I asked him something I'd been wondering about? "Why go to all this trouble
to create chlorine gas and infuse it into the water? Why not just drop in a few
chlorine tablets, like you do in swimming pools?" Thirty minutes later I
retreated from the conversation, my head reeling from the chemistry and physics
in his answer. I'm so tired that I can hardly remember any of it. It comes down
to this: his method is cheaper, better, cleaner, and it doesn't require anything
that people can't get anywhere in the world. It's not easy to supply chlorine
tablets to 3rd world countries. With the McGuire system, they just need table
salt and a battery. As an interesting side note, one of the byproducts of the
process is bleach, which can be used for further disinfecting needs. Very handy
and nothing goes to waste.
Here's an astonishing thing: This
same system that we setup today can handle a tank the size of a small house. It
purifies water at a speed of about 55 gallons a minute. This simple thing can
provide water for up to 10,000 people a day! The Edge Outreach people fly in and
install this thing in a few days at no cost to the people. And all this is done
with no tax money of any kind. Just people helping people.


Putting the pipe system together.


Installing the McGuire Purifier.


Checking chlorine levels.


And here is the machine my group assembled. It
sets at an angle, but that's intentional. The angle helps the gas move through a
permeable membrane of some kind. I've decided not to ask Duvon for a more
detailed explanation.
They don't give out certification certificates,
but I actually know how to install a McGuire Purifier in a 3rd world country,
using local supplies. I'm pretty pumped about that. Tomorrow we finish up with
some presentations on pumps and filtration.
Putting all the equipment and technology aside,
I must say that it's pretty energizing to be around so many people who are
passionate about the idea of going out into the world and helping others. And I
mean helping them in a way that makes a huge impact in their lives almost
immediately. Clean water is such a basic, human need. And if you don't have it,
you suffer immediate and terrible consequences. As always, children in poor
nations suffer the most and the worst.
These are good people. They give me hope, and
just being around them is tonic for my own soul.
rlp
 

Due to weather problems, I arrived in
Louisville KY at about 2:30am this morning instead of 8:45pm last night. I got
about 3 hours sleep after spending 8 hours in the Chicago airport. The good
news is I got to spend some serious time with my email inbox, reducing it from
180 emails down to 4.
Darrell had to be here early, so we left about
6:30 am this morning, arriving at the Edge Water Purification Training in time
for him to help set up some things. It took me a good hour to finally come
awake.



Of course I'm new to this whole "Let's bring
fresh water to the world" movement. And like many people new to anything, I want
to get right down to business. Show me these water purifiers, then send me out
into the world to install them. I'll bring my own socket set.
Well, it turns out there is a little more to
it. Showing up in technologically inexperienced cultures and dropping off
machinery is not a good idea. We learned a lot about the cultures we will work
with. We received a lot of basic nutrition information that we can pass on to
the people who will have the water purifiers. The Edge folks have experience,
and they have found that preparation and education are even more important than
the technology. An advance team goes out (if possible) and does a lot of
education about water issues and health. Sometimes the people don't even know
that the water is the problem. Individuals from the area are recruited to receive special
training to run the machinery. It's easy to run, but then again we are used to
running all sorts of machines.
Sometimes a powerful person in a village might
be tempted to take over the machine and try to sell water. In order to head-off
this possibility, the leaders are told that the water must be free, but they can
make ice, snowcones, and similar things which can be sold.
Only when they are ready will we actually
install the water purifiers.
The first step is an evaluation of the existing
water supply. Edge uses inexpensive bacterial water testers.


Fill the bag half full with water. Mix in one of
the silver bags and seal it. If the water turns dark immediately, that's bad
JuJu. If it turns dark overnight, that's still not good. Clean water will stay
clear.
So all had to go out and test water that we
found around the facility. Most people went straight to the pond.



I know what it looks like, but I got it out of the
pond!

All the bags waiting overnight. We'll know how
dangerous the water is tomorrow. Interestingly, the color is not that important.
Some colored water might just have a little dirt in it. Dangerous water can be
as clear as the water coming out of your sink. The bad little bugs are too small
to be seen.
At lunch we heard from a man who
is from Sierra Leon. He has been in the United States for about a decade. He
went back recently, and he ran out of bottled water. He was forced to drink from
a local hand-dug well that made him very sick. He will be leading a team going
back to give the local people a water purification unit.


I found that
almost 2 million people (95% children) will die this year from simple diarrhea.
Nothing more than our children get, but they have no means to keep them
hydrated, so they just die. So I'm wondering if when we install one of these, we
can look at the children playing and say to ourselves, "Those children have a
chance now."
To close the day we had a
demonstration of the purifying units. We looked at the parts, the operation, and the
assembly. The unit itself fits into a small box. You buy plastic tanks and pvc
pipes in country. It's easier than shipping, and you support the local economy.
The system works by creating Chlorine out of salt. More about that tomorrow.


The purifying unit simply hangs on a plastic drum
with a spigot at the bottom.
 
Tomorrow: We go outside and have
to put some of these bad boys together ourselves. Then they break them and we
have to identify the problem and be able to fix them. Should be interesting!
rlp
 

First, a word about sales of my book. The
response has been far greater than I could have imagined. I've personally
packaged and shipped over 200 books in October. It's quite a chore. I had almost
90 orders pending when I got back from Chicago. Working a couple of hours every
night I've gotten that down to somewhere in the 40s. I'm happy about the sales,
but it's just about more than I can do. If I could package 15 a night (including
looking up people online and writing to them and all that), I'd be done in no
time. But orders are still coming in. It's kind of a two steps forward one back
situation.
So thank you.
However, I'm heading to Louisville right now to
spend the next four days
being trained to install water purification
systems through
Edge Outreach. E.O. is, in their own words,
"a faith-based nonprofit; training and sending people and organizations to take
integrated water solutions where they are most needed in the world." I'm going
through their training course in preparation for a trip to the Dominican
Republic in January. We'll be setting up water purification in a hospital that
doesn't have clean water. Hard to imagine such a thing, but it exists.
I first became aware of Edge through my friend
DE Adams. Long-time readers of rlp might remember that name. He is the musician
whose CD took George
out of this world in peace. I've rather caught the vision with these people.
Look, there are many things that need to be done in the world. Many ways to do
good. This is just one of them. Bringing clean water to places where it it
lacking is a very tangible way to make the world a better place. So I'm in.
My plan is to take pictures of the training and
blog about it every night while I'm in Louisville. I'll be
learning about the technology they use, and about water issues in general. I'll
be in training all day tomorrow and will post pics and information that night.
Same Saturday and Sunday.
So now that you know I'm on a mission of mercy,
you can't really complain about the book shipping delay right? Pretty sneaky of
me.
Okay I just left this page and checked. Orders
are back up to 53 pending. Dang! I mean, thanks. But dang. So for all of you who
have ordered since about the 8th. I need to ask for your patience. I'll be
unable to ship anything until I get back home on Monday. I really don't want to
start automating this and just shoving books in envelopes. When I get back I
should have enough time to get every ordered handled. And I have a whole load of
new goodies to pass out. Should bring a bunch back from Louisville too.
Recent goodies I've put in the books
include: Mexican money, gum, Wash Away Your Sins toweletes, guitar
fridge-magnet, San Antonio city map (sent to New Zealand), a 1994 Advent booklet
from Covenant, the manuscript to my Christmas story (I know, that was a little
impulsive to give that away. Every once in awhile I put something kind of
precious in a book), sugar packets from Krispy Kreme, a Don Stone guitar pick
(what, you don't know Don Stone??), and most recently, packets of candy corn. (I
was eating it while I was working, so...)
thanks,
rlp


 

I saw him hitchhiking on the shoulder of I-35
the other day. He was walking with his back to the traffic and with his left
thumb stuck out. This was just north of San Antonio, right near the town of
Selma where the old city hall is now a Hooters restaurant, and the only
remaining residential street was cut in half rudely by the interstate in the
late 60s, leaving a string of tattered houses on either side.
He was wearing black, of course. So
melodramatic. I had to laugh.
I pulled onto the shoulder, driving slowly
alongside him. He refused to acknowledge me. I stretched over as far as I could,
with my left hand still on the wheel, and rolled down the passenger-side window.
“I know you see me. Why don’t you go ahead and
get in. I’ll give you a ride to wherever the hell it is you think you’re going.”
He kept walking. I kept the car moving right
alongside him. Finally he stopped, exhaled dramatically, and looked at me over
the top of his glasses.
“You haven’t been returning my calls.”
I wasn’t much in the mood to take his shit.
“Yeah, well I’m the one who has three kids and
a couple of REAL jobs. It’s not like I can just jump out of bed whenever you
call and sit up all night writing everything down. I mean, we have to sleep. You
people don’t seem to understand that.”
He stuck out his lower lip in an exaggerated
pout and mimed playing a violin while making a whiny noise. “Mi mi mi mi mi mi
mi.”
I tried not to laugh, but I couldn’t help
myself.
“So are you gonna get in or what?”
He looked far up the road, as if he was
weighing his options. I groaned and laid my head back on the headrest, looking
up at the headliner. He has no options. He has to get in the car. I know that.
He knows that. Always with the drama, this guy.
“Okay, but I want French toast.”
He climbed into the car before I could reply.
“French toast? It’s like 1:30. I just ate
lunch.”
“I have two words for you. French. Toast.”
I paused for a few moments, looking at him. He
looked back, very confident. He knows I’m going to take him wherever he wants to
go.
“Yeah, all right.”
“Go to Jim’s,” he said. “They have the good
diet cokes in those classic coke-shaped glasses. And they have limes.”
I took the next exit and made a U-turn, heading
back to town. We drove in silence for a bit. I sure as hell wasn’t going to be
the first to speak. That’s his job. Finally he said something.
“Do you even remember any of them?”
“Sure, of course. Listen, I totally respect
your work, man. It’s just I’m so tired. Seriously, sometimes I just can’t bring
myself to get out of bed and get my notebook. But lately, you’ve done some
amazing stuff.”
He smiled and fiddled with the radio knobs.
“Did you like Wednesday night’s?”
“Um, was that the one with the llama from
Napoleon Dynamite, and I was like a sheriff or something?”
“No, that was last week. I’ll give you a hint.
Waterrrrrr….”
“Oh yeah, the island dream!”
“Bingo. What did you think?”
“Oh, I loved it. That was nice. Very cool
images. The island, that was from Perelandra, right? That’s how I pictured it
while I was reading.”
“Yes.”
“I knew it. And that little city with the
winding, medieval streets. That was from Matt’s book, Midwinter, right? The
floating city.”
He nodded.
“Okay, so who is that woman anyway?”
“You know her. She’s your muse, your other
voice, your anima, your inspiration, your…”
“Yeah, fine, right. I read Jung.”
“You really should listen to her, you know.”
“Well, she’s pretty pushy and…” I paused.
“Between you and me, she can be pretty racy. It’s kind of embarrassing.”
“Hey, you don’t have to tell me. I wrote,
produced, and directed all of them. Listen, we’re not held back by your prudish,
Judeo-Christian so-called ethics. Paganism still rules on the dark side, my
friend. Old school.”
“Whatever.”
I pulled into the Jim’s parking lot and we got
out. My door slammed just a second before his. I held open the door for him and
we sat across from each other in a booth. He picked up a menu and didn’t look up
when the waitress arrived. She looked at him, then at me.
“He’ll have an order of French toast. No
powdered sugar, but bring extra syrup. Link sausages and a diet coke with a lime
in it.”
The waitress scribbled on her pad. “And for
you?”
“I already ate. Just give me a diet coke. Also
with a lime.”
She returned with our diet cokes a minute or
two later. He peeled off the end of the paper wrapper on his straw, put the open
end in his mouth, and shot the wrapper at me across the table. He always does
that, and I never acknowledge it. I just close my eyes when it hits me in the
face, then open them and go right on with the conversation.
He took a long pull from his straw and got
right to it.
“Listen, who do you think you are?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean exactly what I said. Just who do you
think you are?”
“I don’t know how to answer that question.”
“Exactly! And that’s why I’m here today. Listen
to me. I’m serious now. Listen.”
He leaned forward and motioned with his hand
for me to lean forward as well. When he spoke, it was in a whisper.
“Your whole life has become like a house of
cards. All masks. All roles, do you get me? Husband, father, preacher, pastor,
writer, good Christian boy, friend to the needy, everything that everyone who
meets you needs you to be. You can’t keep it up. Do you understand me? You’re
going to get yourself into some serious trouble.”
“I don’t know what to do. I can’t stop being
any of those things.”
“I know, that’s why I’m here. Just listen to
me.”
“Okay, I’m listening.”
“Look, I’m all for your doctor and the little
white pills. That’s fine, but that’s not the only thing that’s going on, okay?
Don’t buy into that chemical, pharmacological, bullshit worldview. That stuff
helps, but it’s not the only thing. Do you get what I’m saying?”
I nodded.
“Listen to her. Don’t disrespect her.”
“Ugh, I hate that.”
“What?”
“When people use disrespect as a verb. It’s
like fingernails on a chalkboard.”
He sighed and looked up at the ceiling, then
back at me.
“Fine, don’t be disrespectful to her. I don’t
care how you want to say it, but she’s speaking to you right now like never
before. Every night. When you drive around and think about all that stuff and
talk to yourself, that’s her speaking. You listen. And I don’t care about your
sleep or any of that. Just listen to her.”
“Okay, but then what do I do?”
“You don’t need to know any of that. You just
listen.”
The waitress returned with two fresh cokes and
his French toast. She laid the plate in front of him and he dug right in. I
caught her eye and said, “Thank you very much.”
He flooded his French toast with syrup. I
winced. He picked up one of the link sausages with his left hand and took a bite
out of it. While he chewed he swabbed a piece of toast around in the syrup with
his fork, then popped it neatly into his mouth between chews. He spoke with his
mouth full of food.
Zuh Thying is, Sees got you, gyot a hode of
you.”
He swallowed, pointed his fork at me, and
continued.
“You gotta remember that all of us down below,
we never lie. We tell the truth. It’s all we know how to do. You people up
here...”  He waved his fork around, sending drops of syrup flying.
“You people are all liars. You can’t help it, poor saps, but you lie to
yourselves all the time.”
“So once again I’m to believe that you came all
the way out here for my own good. Just because you care about me or love me or
whatever.”
We stared at each other for a moment while he
chewed and swallowed a massive bite. His head tilted a little to one side, then
he reached out his hand and gently pressed his palm to my cheek.
“Of course I love you. Of all the loves you
will experience in this life, mine is the most true. Because I know you inside
and out, all the way to the bottom and back up. In and out, up and down, light
and dark. You’re a little too preoccupied with yourself sometimes, but you’re
precious. I adore you.”
I stared into the top of my diet coke, stirring
the soggy lime wedge with my straw. I nodded.
“Okay, tell her I’m trying to listen. I am. I
mean, I will."
"Good!" he said, snapping his head down quickly
in one sharp nod before turning his full attention back to the French toast.
"That's all we ask of you."

rlp
 

Any questions as to whether or
not I'm a computer nerd will be answered after this post.
How to synchronize your PDA with Google
Calendar.
The whole Google "let us help you organize
your life" thing is cool, as far as I'm concerned. I'm pretty much all in
with Google. I have a number of calendars going there. The church calendar is at
Google now, as is my own and one for my family. I can see them all (and modify
any of them) when logged into my primary Google account. I use Gmail for all my
email needs. I don't use my @gmail.com account, but I use Gmail as my mail
client, letting it check various pop accounts for me. This way I get the Gmail
grouping by conversation feature (which I love) for all my email accounts - and
I have several. Tim Heavin and I share a number of church documents through
Google. That's pretty handy too. We also use Google groups for emails to
everyone in the church.
Sounds perfect huh? It's close, but the one
thing that was lacking was the ability to synch all this with my Treo phone/PDA.
I'm often not in a central location with my computer. I jot down a lot of
appointments using my Treo. And when I'm out, I check my Treo to see what I have
to do on any given day. The advantage of the Treo over other phones with
calendars is that I can synch it with Outlook on my desktop. That was great in
the past when I used Outlook for the church calendar, but as I said, it's all
Google now. And at this point, Google has not provided a way to synch its
calendars with your desktop or PDA.
But I've discovered a way to get that done. I'm
assuming there may be some others would like to synch Google with a desktop or
PDA but haven't figured out how. It's a little work setting this up, but once
you do, it's easy to maintain. Here's one way to do this. I'm sure there are
others:
First, I'm assuming you have a Google
calendar. That's why you're reading. But if not, setting one up is ridiculously
easy. Notice that your Google calendar has an ICAL feed button found under
"calendar settings." That's an important part of this.
Next, go to Airset.com.
This is a public calendar program on the Internet. It has two shining features
that make this work. First, it synchs with Outlook or other desktop calendars
(including the Palm calendar) using a little application that you download for
free. Second, you can create calendar groups and "subscribe" to the ICAL feed
from your Google calendar. Once you do that, anything you enter into Google's
calendar will be pulled into your Airset calendar without you having to do
anything.

This system is particularly advantageous
if you have several people editing and using a Google calendar. In my case,
Jeanene can edit our Google family calendar and Tim edits the church Google
calendar.

Most of you probably see where this is going.
Simply run the Airset desktop synch to synch Outlook or the Palm calendar with
your Airset calendar (which now includes all of your Google calendar
information). Then synch with your PDA as usual. I know this sounds complicated,
but here's how it works in real life:
A couple of times I week I synch Outlook with
Airset. And I synch my PDA with the desktop as I have been doing for years as a
backup. That probably means once a week or so.
The bottom line: everything new added to
any of my Google Calendars by me or Jeanene or Tim ends up on my Treo. New items
that I enter in the Treo make it to my desktop and then to Airset via Outlook.
But they won't end up on the Google calendars. Google does not import like that.
But that's okay. That's got an advantage for me. There is no way some personal
calendar item will end up on our Google church calendar. The main thing is, I
get the latest calendar from the church and our family on my treo so I don't
overbook myself.
rlp
 

I feel like I'm losing my main focus of
writing, but perhaps that is okay for a season. I actually have an essay ready
to put online. I think I'll do that on Monday. But right now, the only thing I
can think about is shipping books. It's the only thing I have time for.
Seriously, this is really cool because not only will I have enough money to pay
for the remaindered books from Eerdmans, I'm going to get a badly needed new
computer and then have a little money left to set aside in savings.
The only price to pay I have to pay is 2 hours
of packaging and shipping every night. I've packaged and shipped 99 orders so
far. Every single one of them includes a note from me and some kind of surprise.
I have 57 pending orders. I'm taking them in the order they are received.
Tonight I'll work on orders placed on October 7th. (International orders: I must
apologize. I have to go to the post office to fill out custom forms for you, so
I have about 15 to do on Saturday all at once.)
You would think that looking up every address
at
Microsoft Virtual Earth, writing notes, and looking for
interesting things to put between the pages would get old. It doesn't. If
anything, I spend more time looking at people's homes and imagining their lives
now than in the beginning.
Yesterday I ended up writing a two-page letter to this person who ordered 4
books. Why? Just needed to.
My latest surprises left between the pages:

• Mexican money
• Wash Away Your Sins Towelettes (seriously)
• A Route 66 pen I found
• Chili Piquin peppers picked at our church
  (in baggies). See our
  church news blog for details
• Last Supper gum
• A little metal knight from my office. One
  of my many toys.
• A Starbucks card that might or might not
  have any money left on it.

In one person's book I put a Far Side cartoon,
a Mariner's ticket, and a packet of Sesame Chicken mix from my pantry. I wrote
"I don't know why. I just grab stuff!"
Clearly I am having way too much fun with this.
A few homes that I enjoyed seeing:
Click any for a larger view

This person lives about the same distance from
I-35 as I do, but in Minnesota.

Yes, this is how I picture life in Seattle. Huge
evergreens covering your house with shade.

New Orleans. I was a little worried about this
person, but...

Apparently his or her house is on the opposite
side of the city from the Pontchartrain. I don't think they were flooded.
Haven't heard back.
rlp
 

I want to tell you about something new that I'm
involved with. I'm currently helping two organizations setup their own network
of blogs. In each case I'm acting as a kind of shepherd, mentor, and advisor.
Both organizations hope to form something like the Salon.com blog community
where Real Live Preacher was launched back in 2002. I loved that community. I
was saddened when Salon ran out of energy for promoting it. But it gave a lot of
good bloggers a great start. One of the organizations I'm working with is the

Christian Century. That network will be primarily for serious
theological writers, though we'll be looking for laypersons as well. I'll give
you more information about that one in a week or two.
For today, I want to talk to you about the
High
Calling blog network. The High Calling is a non-profit
organization in San Antonio. They have one basic message, and it is a good one.
It is perhaps the most important message that modern, first-world Christians
need to hear.

You should live like Christ in the
workplace. If you are a Christian, your faith should be more than words.
Your faith ought to change the way you live and act in your professional
life.

That message is why I'm proud to write for
these folks from time to time.
I've developed some friendships within the
organization, and we had a conversation that ended with the High Calling
deciding to offer blogs to Christians who are living and working in the real
world. These blogs are not primarily for clergypersons, though we will have some
clergy involved too. What we want most are blogs written by Christian men and
women trying to live authentic lives at work. Let me be clear about a three
things. First, we're not telling you what to write about. You can
write about anything you want. But if you are a person who is attempting to live
an authentic Christian life in the workplace, we feel that issue is going to
come out naturally in your writing. Second, we're not looking for
"churchy" writers. We want people who write about real life and real living.
Third, you don't have to be a great writer to be in this network. Not
at all. This is a network of blogs. Some of the people might be talented
writers, but that's not the focus of this network. We want to hear from regular
people about their lives and jobs.


What will being in this network do for
you? Two things: Your site will be promoted at the High Calling Website.
People will find you. And, I'll be reading the High Calling Bloggers, leaving
comments, and writing reviews of their work. If you produce something good, it
might get featured at the High Calling site, which would be cool, right?
Look, I know what it is like to be a blogger.
You pour your heart out into your writing. It's nice when someone reads it. This
is a chance to be in a network that can get your blog noticed. No risk. No cost.
Why not give it a try?
You can join the network in two ways. If you
don't have a blog but have been thinking about starting one, we'll host it for
you and set you up with WordPress. No charge. If you already have a blog, you
can put the High Calling Blog Network logo on your site, linked back to the High
Calling.
Check it out - HighCallingBlogs.com
Notice the various professional categories
on the right. If you know of a blogger who might like being in this network, let
them know about us.
rlp
 

So here I am, sitting in my bedroom mailing
books everywhere in the world. I don't know how many orders there have been.
Well over a hundred. I'm taking them in the order they were received, and I'm
down to 61 orders. There's a stack of books and envelopes on the desk. On the
corner is my pile of goodies to put in the books. Some of the stuff I put in the
books today includes:

• Ginko Tree leaves from the tree Frank
  Lloyd Wright planted when he built his home in 1898
• Coasters from Timothy O'Toole's in
  Chicago
• Counterfeit money that children make
  and try to pass off to my daughter who works at a small coffee shop and
  store.
• Various music CDs, mostly from
  
  Talking Taco Music.
• The Cohiba cigar bands from the cigars
  I smoked this summer.
• Chewing gum
• A Bit O' Honey candy bar
• Various suckers and a weird coconut
  candy thing from Mexico.

Tonight I raided the kitchen, so someone's
getting packets of Chai Tea and a honey sesame oriental seasoning mix packet.
I'm enjoying looking at all of your homes. I've
discovered that Microsoft's Virtual Earth and Google Maps are not always exactly
accurate, but I get close. Here's a couple that interested me tonight.

This guy lives right on Pismo beach. I'd heard of
Pismo beach but had no idea where it was.

And here is someone who lives in a building just a
couple of blocks away from the Capital in D.C.
61 orders to go. A few keep
trickling in, but I'm making progress. I'm going to do this every night until I
get them all done. It's fun in a weird sort of way. A new experience. I will
tell you that shipping things is lot of work. If I wasn't stuffing the pages
with stuff, I'd die from boredom.
rlp