From Mulhouse Sending Base, WEC France

It's been a while! We're safely arrived here in Mulhouse (Moo-lose). No...this isn't where we're staying...you'll hear about it later. Here's a cliff notes version of our time in France so far:

1. Lisieux (midway between Caen and LaHavre): All 9 of us sharing three rooms and one bathroom (!), a barn dance with the people from the projects, a church service, and opening for a gospel choir, who presented an excellent message. Also got to see the Basilica there. That's the picture above. :)

2. Bethune (in the Pas-de-Calais): A concert with the locals, including the mayor's wife, packed out a church that hasn't been full in 100+ years and God's spirit filled those people with joy, and played in a "collegial" - a slightly small cathedral. Had an amazing host family, who took us swimming and visited her family who includes a professional photographer, so we got a photoshoot.

And now it's time for lunch! TTFN!

From Bulstrode Sending Base - WEC UK

Welcome to my new temporary home at Gerrard's Cross (pronounced more like "Jared's Cross"), about 20 minutes from Heathrow. The flight over was good - had a great time with Chris discussing just...lots of stuff. Jet lag is kinda rough; one clock says 9:13 and the other says 2:13 - my brain is somewhere between. Going to church tonight at St. James I believe, and tomorrow starting ethnodoxology training with Ian Collinge and WecTrek training.

So now to fill that out. Yesterday we "slept in" til 8 (or got up at 6:30 to talk to the most amazing girl in the world and get ready to travel). Worked on a new song, "As for Me and My House" by John Waller. IMHO, we sound pretty amazing! Anyway, here's Waller's original music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjRiNL1HKns. (video may make short people ask questions). Got cheesesteaks for lunch and hit the road. We left Philly around 6 PM, fell asleep around 10:30 EST, woke up at 5:30 GMT as we were flying over Ireland (that's 2 hours of sleep). Got through customs (not something I particularly enjoy) and to Bulstrode around 8:30 GMT (3:30 EST).

Got a quick tour and then crashed for another two hours. The food is English - Stroganoff (maybe there's a brit name for it), parsnips, steamed veggies, and custard for lunch. But there's plenty of it and it's pretty tasty. :)

I started to read Madame Guyon's book "Experiencing God Through Prayer." It's quite good, so you'll probably see some quotes from it over the next few weeks depending on how tired I am after classes. She discusses techniques for prayer. I'm used to things like praying to request or to worship, but she discusses praying as meditation and using scripture in prayer. I've not really done that except the passages which are specifically prayers. More about that as I learn more, hopefully.

The next two weeks are crazy. The schedule divides each day into nine sessions with a 15-minute break and two meals. We go from 8:30 (3:30 EST) to 20:30 or later (3:30 PM EST) starting tomorrow, so if you want to chat, probably 4-5 PM your time would be best.

The sessions include 18 ethnomusicology classes, 13 Trek (mid-term missions prep) courses, a few instrumental classes, daily worship/testimony/devos and practice sessions, research sessions, a song workshop prep, sessions on French and Islam, and more. It should be AMAZING! But prayers for stamina and quick minds would be especially appreciated.

Anyway, that's an quick update. Gonna spend some time in Job now - have a nice morning and a great parade all my F&D friends! Miss you guys!

From WEC USA - Camp Hill Sending Base

Tomorrow we are crossing the pond. Now how I got here:

So this whole trip started with my random roving of the back hall of Demoss talking to missionaries during MEW. Mary Somerville told me about a trip to England and France to work with immigrants helping them write worship songs in their heart language and music.

So I prayed about it and decided this was a trip for me. So now, we are here with WEC, an absolutely amazing organization heading to England for two weeks of intense ethnodoxology training before the next four weeks in France working in many capacities.

And that's it for tonight. Cause curfew's at 11. Talk to you tomorrow!

http://www.springfieldhistory.org/CampHillHall.jpg

One Hour Later

This morning I am excited. I went to bed early so as not to repeat the previous night (when I worked on SGA stuff until 12:30). I woke up at 4:58 (2 minutes early) and got to the music hall by 5:30. I was planning to play for a bit on my pad before doing my real practice.

Dr. Super asked me the other day how long I could roll for. I approximated about 15 minutes (32nds at 110-120). This morning I decided to try. Here's how endurance drumming works:

Minutes -3->0 Warm Up. Just do a nice open->closed Long Roll. Take a break.

Minutes 1-3: You know you can do this, but it's been a while since you did so you start to feel some shoulder pain.

Minute 5: Beginning to tire

Minute 10: Hit a wall

Minute 11: Get through the wall

Minute 20: Break a sweat (at 65 F)

Minute 30: Pain begins to subside

Minute 57: Go all out for 3 minutes - 32nds at 140 bpm at 8-12"

Minute 61: Stop, get a drink.

Minute 63: Blog about it.

Yup. A 1 hour roll. Pretty sweet. No way I can do anything else, so I'm going to have breakfast.

The One Where I Take Over...

Har har har! Will anyone notice? Siah left himself logged in on my computer... so I could blog about ANYTHING... Muhh ha ha ha .

Ok. I'll be nice...

Logging off now so I can write on my own blog!

Pro-Life Week

This is a rather longish post, and it isn't original to me, but since many of you are interested in this, I thought I'd take to opportunity to tell you all at once.

As most of you know, LU is hosting ROSE - Reclaiming Other's Sacred Existence this week, the first pro-life event on campus. You can see some pictures here. I'm not sure how long this link will be active, but drop me a note if it breaks.

Anyway, I've attended three of the seminars so far. One of them was a more in-depth version of what we had at convo, which you can watch through LU's podcast site. Probably the most interesting so far, though not as stirring as the Center for Bioethical Reform presentation I just got back from (abortionno.com - very graphic), was Dr. Caner's presentation on "Formation in the Womb: the Issue of Abortion and a Biblical Apologetic." It was pretty formal for Dr. Caner (at least how I generally see him), but amazing, and very good for "beating them with their [abortionist's] own stick." Thought you might like to see it. These are his lecture notes, as well as those I took.

I. The issues at hand for a Christian

A. Socially, the issue of abortion is a tension between the rights of a woman's personal freedom to do what she chooses with her body, and the questions of the rights and freedoms of the baby.

B. Theologically, the issue is filtered by two fundamental questions.

1. Definition of Life: Does Life begin at conception or birth?

2. Definition of Ethic: Is it a sin to abort a fetus? (A term Dr. Caner Strongly dislikes.)

C. Historically, some Christians such as Augustine defined life at the moment of the first breath. Using Genesis 2:7, they note that God breathed life into Adam. Yet so many Scriptures predate life at conception that the issue of viability and life go back farther to the formation of the child. W. A. Criswell [one of Dr. Caner's teachers once he became a Christian] repented of this view. Also, Dr. Caner brought up the fact that we aren't created the same way Adam was - Adam was created as an adult, never in the womb. Dr. Caner also interjected that in Islam, life does not begin until the father says a particular thing in the child's ear, thus, while they don't "abort" children the way we do here, since it is a dishonor to have your first born be a daughter, in some nations parents will bury the baby girl face down in the sand before she has heard the father say those words. If she isn't really alive, why do we have an issue with that?

II. The Biblical Definition of Life in the Womb by God

A. The term "son" is used both before and after the birth process

1. Luke 1:24: "Elizabeth conceived a son." Huios = son

2. Luke 1:41: "Elizabeth has a baby in her womb." Brephos = the term for baby, both born and pre-born.

3. Luke 1:57: "Elizabeth brought forth a son." Huios = son, this time post-natal.

B. The Bible speaks of children in the womb in terms of life.

1. Genesis 25:21-22 [truncated by me].

"The babies jostled each other within her . . ."

2. 2 Kings 19:3 [truncated by me].

". . . as the day when children come to the point of birth . . ." - pre-born are still children.

3. Job 3:23 [truncated]

". . . was a man-child [Geber] conceived . . ." Geber is Hebrew for man. See also Psalms 127:5, 128:4, etc.

III. Biblical protection of Life in the Womb by God.

A. In the Bible, God refers to His formation of the human in the womb.

1. (The common verse): Jeremiah 1:5: "Before I formed you . . ."

2. (Less common): Ecclesiastes 11:5: ". . . how a body is formed in the womb . . ." The use of the word "formed" implies an intention design - there are no "accidental" babies with God.

B. The Bible describes life in terms of blood: Deuteronomy 12:23: ". . . do not eat the blood, because in the blood is life . . ." The fetus has a blood stream by four weeks, and a heartbeat before that.

C. The Old Testament maintains a "life-for-a-life" clause in case of the murder of an unborn child. (The strongest argument, in my opinion): Exodus 21:22-25: "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman so she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." There is no distinction in this verse between the mother and the child. This applies EITHER to both or to neither, not one or the other. The argument cannot be made that this law was specifically for judicial purposes. The murder of an unborn was considered an act of idolatry, attempting to be God. (Dr. Caner then cites Isaiah 44:2.)

D. As seen in Job 3:16, babies that die before birth are called infants who "never saw the light of day." The Hebrew for infant here is Olel, living being, which is universally translated "humans." see Hosea 13:16, Psalm 8:2, Joel 2:16.

That's side one of his notes. I'll try to post side two later! Now I have a drum lesson.

Manges-toi porc.

On Sea Songs and Old Books

Those of you who have listened to my copies of the Ancient Mariners and Sailing Ships and Sailing Men probably remember some of the songs. There's one song on Sailing Ships that goes

Was you ever in

Then fills in a city and one major unusual thing about each city. Well, one thing they mentioned was "Screwing Cotton" (in Mobile Bay.) I wanted to know exactly how that worked. Imagine my surprise when I found this. If you scroll down a bit, you'll see the full words to the song. I assumed that since the group on the CD is from the Maritimes, they added a bunch of local reference, but this author was in the USN, and still wrote the song with all of the Maritime verses.

The verse I wondered about the most was the one about the Marrimashee - turns out that's an area of the Atlantic Provinces, and the verse is:

Was you ever in the Marrimashee

Bonnie laddie, highland laddie,

Where you make fast to a tree

Bonny highland laddie.

Anyway, I've got to go get ready for class.

Eat Pork