Settlers of Catan

Have you ever played the board game Settlers of Catan? It's incredibly addicting. I got the game for Christmas because I learned how to play it at Stacy's house this past summer and had been dreaming about it ever since. When I opened the beautiful red-framed box with the dirt-road and sunset-on-the-horizon scene so enticingly backgrounding the title, I almost canceled the rest of Christmas gift-opening so we could all play it as a family for hours and hours. Then my sisters said, "no." So I kept it on my lap and read the instructions 3 times instead... I still don't think I know how to play it right... the rules seem different every time...

But that only means I need more practice! Yes, I have decided I need more practice at this settlement establishing, road building, opponent persuading, strategic purchasing extravaganza! It is so much more than a game... I'm convinced that if I was ever stranded on Catan and needed to excavate iron ore from the "6" appointed hex, I would know exactly in which direction to point my road and exactly how much wool I'd have to store before making the trade of all trades and exposing my ten victory points for the winning power they hold!! No need to worry though...
I would be a kind and benevolent ruler...
This game has taught me much about benevolence...

Ah...so much more than a game... a peek into the life of the Catanians of old... a reminder that not every resource is free and that, sometimes, you gotta sacrifice the one that may seem more beneficial at the moment for the one that is more rare and valuable to the finishing turn...


So...... Who wants to play???

(I'm actually not good at all. It'll be really funny.)


P.S. Erase the Dark is March 6th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mark your calendars!

"...homework's a-callin' my name...doo doo doo doo dah doo dah..."

...but I'm making up this silly song instead and trying to figure out why God is SO good to me. I'm pretty sure that's a futile effort on my part... it does make me doggone grateful though.

If you'd like to know, Paul is the homework I've been neglecting for the past 24 hours--very NOT honorable of me! ;) But I can make up for it and explain why this is taking me so long...
Because in this book, N.T. Wright is basically talking about how GOOD God is (which, if you note above, is what I keep thinking about and getting really overwhelmed by. It's no excuse. I know. But God IS, really, overwhelming good). Wright is using Paul's perspective on things like the Creation, the Covenant, the Messiah, the Apocalyptic, the Gospel and the Roman Empire... and he's showing us the Grand Narrative of a God who loves, elects, calls, forgives, calls again (and forgives again), bestows favor, extends mercy, POURS OUT grace as if it were the ocean trying to be contained in creeks... and when Paul writes about these things in his letters, he recognizes the timeless common thread of Christ. Christ who is both the thread and the knot, both the root and stem, both the Object and the Subject of Truth revealed to the world... the God-Person, the Son, Who was always there... In the Beginning...

...and Who was always there in the line of Israel
...in the answer to the problem of rebellious humanity
...in the anticipation of the Torah and its inviting covenant
...in the death of the chains of failure
...in the defeat of the laws of 'perfection'
...in the defiance of the grip of sin
...in the RAISING of redefinitions
...redefining the 'people of God'
...redefining the 'righteous'
...redefining what it IS to be the 'faithful'
...and what it is to be full of faith by the faithfulness of our Messiah.
He is always there
...in His Body of Believers--the church--on earth
...in His Spirit of Guidance and Comfort and Fire... and LIFE
...in His ascended body, in His returning reign
...in His Kingdom, His Lordship, and His embracing but jealous Love.


Oh how I love Christ, this Beginning and End. How I love Him, my beginning and end. He is the beginning of true life for me, and will someday be the end of a life in paradox.

On Christ's cross, I see the crucifying of being justified by works--and I can both see and be seen 'righteous' now by the light of His new Truth.
In His resurrection, I see the hope of living by this Truth, that has, truly, set me free. I rise this morning in the light of Christ, Who rises again every day that we might join His new life...

As Paul recognized: He was always the beginning of life for God's people...and His revelation marked the end of life determined by law. Of course, The Law of God's Love is embodied in Christ... but His redefinitions of what that means has changed everything!

Christ changes everything...


So....... I'm still not sure I want to do my homework... but it's not really homework that's calling my name anymore...
I am going to go read Paul now, because I can almost hear a voice calling out changes in my life from the pages...

Whoa.

Happy Friday

"I don't wanna churn butter, I just wanna roll down my window!"
Yeah, I'm watching it right now! Ellen DeGeneres stand-up comedy. I don't care who you are--this stuff is FUNNY. And what's making it even better is the fact that Megan and Danae and Hannah are all on my couch (my huge, tan, L-shaped couch). My dad got a fire going...we busted out the tin of three-flavors-in-one popcorn...we popped in Ellen... AND, we don't have school tomorrow...

...this is going to be a great weekend.

My favorite line so far:
"'Does he have it?'...that's what they're singin right there--'Does he have it?' ..Why have I been singing 'Monkey Hatchet'???"

Thank you, Ellen, for some good laughs.
Thank you, Dr. Crosby...for my cavity filling today.
And thank you, Jo, for turning 16 on Sunday...

I'm glad to be home, and I'm glad these great friends are here with me...

Happy Friday, everybody!

...the lost virtue ("Honor..." continued)

I love that the title of our series right now is "Honor: the lost virtue." The word lost implies that it is something which may again be found. And that honor is a virtue must illuminate for us the transcultural weight that it actually has. Derrick Fleck and Kris Vallotton both spoke on honor yesterday--Derrick for the morning service, Kris for the night ones--and though these two speakers differed in content and style, what they both sought after was God's heart for the healing and bringing-back-together of generations. You don't even know how badly I long for this very thing.

I think about my Grandpa Mann (Richard Samuel Mann), and the mantle that he has passed onto his firstborn son, my uncle Mike. When I am with these men of God, I don't even think about the incredible things they have done for two kingdoms--the kingdom of Thailand, and ultimately the Kingdom of Heaven--instead, we go fishing at 5 in the morning, play ukuleles and rummy after lunch, and try to figure out why my uncle's Mac "isn't working the way it should" (cause it never is...) until Grandma calls us to dinner. Sometimes my grandpa teases me for growing into a "young women" and not being as excited to gut our prized catches as I used to be...and my uncle asks me five times in one day why I don't have a boyfriend... These endearing jests both communicate my place in their hearts as a forever-granddaughter and niece, while affirming my transformation into a lady whom "only REAL men are going to date." It's ok, they don't have to say it much more directly than that... I have always seen past my grandpa's gruff, tough fisherman exterior. And my uncle's stern but forgiving "no"s to our cousin-schemed-requests of visit-extensions never kept me from always feeling welcome into his hugs and approval.

When I'm with these two men of God--I hardly ever think about what they "do." But they, indeed, do treasure-bound things for the kingdom of Thailand, and they have won more victories for the Kingdom of Heaven than anyone sees. If we ever talk about theology, politics, or the state of our world and church today... it's inevitable that we disagree on a few things... but I have never felt dishonored by them nor do I believe I have ever dishonored them myself. This conviction in me that they have seen what I have not seen grows with every visit, every fishing trip, every awkward but humbling "church" talk I have with them. And when Derrick and Kris were speaking yesterday--both about the "healings" and "passings" from generation to generation--I could feel that conviction stirring my spirit... stirring this longing to receive whatever blessing my grandpa has for me!

During the morning service, I wanted to be like Joseph and bring my whole family into this blessing... At the night services, I wanted to be like Joseph's second oldest... and get something I could never have a right to on my own...something so invaluably undeserved.

Would God ever call me selfish for begging the mantle from my fore-fathers?
Or would He call me "Israel" despite what I am rightly named...

Because my spirit stirs for this generational inheritance.

And the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is a God who loves to pass blessings along.

______________________________________

*Below is an article about (only a part of) what my grandpa has done. If you're either bored or really interested, you're welcome know some of his story...
______________________________________

Rural Thai coffee goes global
Tapping int’l markets with fair trade coffee

BY BURMESE JOURNALIST MYANMAR

Hilly, beautiful Som Poy village was once famous for its high quality opium. Now the village is known on the world market again – this time for its coffee.

“After growing coffee, our standard of living is better than before, because people go to work and we do not care about people who use drugs,” said Ta Jabranaprivan, who has never used opium.

Sitting in a small cottage, Ta said villagers now have better infrastructure, a new water supply, a smooth road and more income. During the past, he said, many people were addicted to opium and didn’t want to work. Even housewives and teenagers took the drug.

Som Poy is a village more than three hours south of Chiang Mai, up a sometimes slippery road through thick forest and moving clouds. All the villagers are Karen, and 57 households grow coffee on about 400 to 500 rai.

It is unbelievable that coffee from a remote, small, undeveloped Thai village is gaining a foothold in world markets in such a short time. The truth is that a non-profit organization called Integrated Tribal Development Program (ITDP) is helping the farmers tap international markets by fair trade standards. With the help of ITDP, Som Poy coffee is now sold by Starbucks, a major US corporation, and a Japanese company called ION.

According to Boonchoo Klerdoo, agricultural extension officer for ITDP, each Karen family can produce a maximum of five coffee bags per year, with each bag equaling 1.5 kilograms. Besides coffee, the local farmers grow rice, cabbage, kidney beans and some vegetables.

“Now we’ve got a secure market in the US and Japan. Soon we will expand the market,” explained Boonrat Kijaroonchai, manager of the Thai Tribal Arabica Coffee and Marketing Project for ITDP. “ASEAN countries and New Zealand are included on our list of potential markets. Eight countries in Asia, including Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan and Korea, comprise ITDP’s targeted market area.”

Som Poy has its own brand name, Muan Jai, which means “happy heart” in Thai. European countries like Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Australia have become new clients.

“Before Starbucks, we sold coffee berries for 6 baht per kilo,” said villager Nam Malakir Khao, 45, who grew opium for 20 years before switching to coffee. “And then Starbucks came in 2003 with the help of ITDP. We got a skyrocketing price and sold at 12 baht per kilo and now 15 baht per kilo. Starbucks is good for us. I got a total income of 10,000 baht last year.”

Tachou Boranath Prayvan, 59, has had similar success.

“In the opium age, I earned a total income of 10,000 per year,” he said. “Now, in the coffee age, I get a yearly total income of 13,000. But neither coffee nor opium is my main source of income. Actually, we grow rice to eat.”

ITDP was launched over 16 years ago by an American agricultural expert named Richard Mann. He worked with the Thai government to create alternative crops to opium for ethnic Karen minorities residing there.

ITDP was also lending a hand to other villages in this region to grow opium-substitute coffee. The region has nine villages – eight Karen and one Hmong – constituting a total population of 675, according to the data provided by Starbucks and ITDP. Ethnic groups from elsewhere across northern Thailand are also working together to grow coffee with the help of ITDP.

In developing countries, farmers’ livelihoods hinge on the rise and fall of crop prices. Fair trade promise farmers fixed prices for their products, whatever the fluctuating prices in world markets. Fair trade guarantees a minimum price.

Starbucks started to buy Som Poy coffee in 2003. Three thousand kilograms of coffee berries were exported by plane to Seattle, where the publicly listed US company is based. Starbucks bought 33 tons the following year. Small coffee shops in Bangkok and Chiang Mai also buy another four to five tons of Som Poy coffee.
_______________________________

*And this is the beginning of my uncle Mike's story. I put a link at the bottom if you want to read the rest...
_______________________________

Arriving by boat from America in the late 1950s with his parents, Michael Mann followed in his father’s footsteps 25 years later. From playing with ethnic tribal children in his preschool days to studying business and agronomy in America, today he is an international consultant for rural community development programs- even in Italy!

The first Arabica coffee trees were planted in Thailand’s northern provinces in the late 1960s / early 70’s under His Majesty the King of Thailand’s & the United Nations’ original opium eradication/crop substitution program for Thailand’s northern Hill Tribe communities. Michael Mann’s father was one of the advising figures behind the initiative. The inspiration to continue his work lives on in Michael, helping resource-deprived villagers through various projects under the Integrated Tribal Development Program (ITDP). Michael started the program in 1990.

“My parents came over here in 1959 supported by the American Baptist churches to work with ethnic hill tribes in the areas of development. My father’s background was agriculture, agronomy, working with plants and integrating this with community structures.” Arriving in Thailand at that time, the 1960s and 1970s saw Thailand at the height of its opium production, farmed solely by hill tribes as an income to live.


(Continuation at) http://www.tropical-living.com/06-12dec/12.htm

It's official...

...When they say "Attention, WalMart shoppers--" over the loud speaker, they are talking to me. Yup--it's official.

If you live in a dorm, and you go to a prestigious school such as Simpson University, then you might not have the 21-meal/week plan, because you might have realized that you don't really eat 21 meals per week in the cafeteria. You might be on the 14-meal/week plan, because you might not have any food allergies or a no dairy/no meat/no animal whatsoever/no flour/no cauliflower/no chocolate kind of religious restriction or medical condition--and unless you fall into one of those categories, if you live in the dorm, you have to be on the meal plan...

So, I am on the meal plan. Fourteen meals per week. Which means, I save that tiny bit of extra money (21 to 14 meals isn't exactly a huge difference in cost), but I put it towards cereal, milk, and energy bars from WalMart. The extra mullah is good for some other necessities, and WalMart also carries those--deoderant, dish soap, toothpaste, and things only girls need--for cheap. In all my secret jests and ignorant eye-rolls, I picked up that shopping technique from my mom and Becky Weber. And I see it's importance now...

When you're trying to put money towards other things and trying to figure out how to live a little more simply... "Attention WalMart shoppers--" is not a bad thing to hear at all...


So this morning, I was like, "Yes?????"

"Receive it!"

*Kate Agudo and Heather Smith--"WHAT WHAT!!!" [shout out. right off the bat.]*

I don't play games when someone fills my heart with joy. I let it move me. And sometimes I blush.

Kate and Heather made me blush today... in yaks... luckily, it was a little darker in that back corner. And luckily, I had my scarf in hand, ready for covering-up action upon too-much-nice-stuff-being-said-to-me face-reddening reaction... Like I said, I don't play games--I blush.

Or...in moments like the one during Theology of World Mission class this morning...I'll let a tear or two trail down my right cheek...if the words are right, and my heart is hearing them. If I'm receiving them...

In those moments, the ones like in class this morning, I don't play games either--I let it move me. I let the professor begin to teach about something that seems strangely familiar but sounds so revelationally new--something I feel like I've always known but have never heard. I let him explain it, write it, diagram it, believe it, exude it... and communicate it with a mysterious rush of anointing that I can only think to call "thoughtful passion." And then I let it sink in...this "idea" or "lesson" (or... entity all it's own. Which, is highly mystical... and then again, so is this sort of event)

...but it doesn't just "sink" in--it dives really. It dives, and it moves into the recesses of my mind so powerfully that by the time it reaches my heart there has been emotion splashed onto my paper in ink and an overflow seeping through my eyes as liquid sodium. By that time, you could probably say I have received it. This morning, you could probably have said that I looked "moved". I probably would have agreed with you--"yes, I am moved." If you were Dr. Strong, you would have asked me if I had anything to add or say about his "butchering" of Karl Barth's general Missio Dei thesis regarding the intratrinitarian divine sending within the Nature of God Himself and our invitation to be participants in that Nature via the overflow of God's love (which, God IS Love afterall)... and I would have hoarsely replied (mid throat-clear), "no...no, you didn't butcher it...and, no, I don't have anything to add..."

What could any of us add really? What can you add to the Trinity??

Overflowing Love had moved me in another one of my theology classes...

...so instead, I just received it...

Honor...

Honoring fathers and mothers, honoring daughters and sons... this is what we want to be doing as a church body. I never thought about it much. I never thought I had much of an issue with "dishonoring" my parents...
...one of them wasn't in the picture anymore...
...one of them I obeyed, I honored, and I knew it too.

And then there's my step-dad... who deserves all the honor I can muster, who I wish I could truly show enough honor to. He's one of the most faithful men I've ever met. And he's not stubborn, or mean, or closed-minded. I hope it will be my honor to honor him in a huge, public way someday... with thousands of people around... and maybe he'll be given a plaque... or a bridge will be named after him. Whatever the case, it is easy for me to honor my step-dad. I tell him all the time that I'm so thankful God brought him into my family's life.

But we talked about something more difficult tonight--something more humiliating (if we're gonna take seriously what honoring someone means). Because how do we honor the parents that aren't faithful, that aren't understanding, that don't listen or care or stick around long enough to do either of those things...?

Nate said we honor our parents not because of their honorability, but because of who they are to us... and because of who we are as followers of Christ...

I won't write much more tonight--it's been a long day. (But Nate also told everyone I blog, so I'm gonna remain honorable to that...)

I will say one more thing for now.

Christ calls us to be humble, and I think (even when it comes to parents who might not deserve honor), humility does not discriminate on the basis of warrant or entitlement...

So:
I think even Christ would wash my father's feet...
I think my mom would sit and listen to Jesus, pour out perfume for Him (and be praised by Him after the harsh rebuke of others)...
I think God is asking me to pray for my step-dad and ask how I can display my gratitude to him and not take it all for granted.



And I think I'm going to bed... right now.


P.S. We have a new series coming up... it's called, "We love. We make babies." Be sure to come check it out. Nate will want you to invite your mom.

Ricola is my new best friend.

Besides Jesus, I now take Ricola herbal throat drops with me everywhere I go. Our relationship started on Tuesday when Libbie gave me "Honey Lemon with Echinacea" and continues on through the "Lemon Mint" bag Sarah handed me last night.

Sooooooo good...

...Ricola and I are headed to the caf now for soup and hot tea... my other two new best friends...


Don't be jealous. All kinds of things happen when you have a week-long sore throat.

"Riiiiiiicolaaaaaaaaa..."

Sometimes I wonder what He'll say.

Sometimes I wonder what God will say when He speaks to me. I search for Him in the business of my day, and I wonder if He'll tell me to slow down. He doesn't seem to. I seek Him in the quiet places that are so hard for me to escape to, and I wonder if He'll ask me why I'm not doing something else with my time. He doesn't seem to say that either. It's when I'm busy that I hear the "Persevere through this" as gentle as always. It's when I'm still and quiet that I hear, "This is good." I question God on this..."Why don't you tell me to take a break when I feel like I'm running myself to death?! Why don't you tell me to move when I feel like I'm neglecting my responsibilities?!" Is He that gracious that He speaks to me where I am in accordance to what I'm going through? Maybe He is. Maybe He's not the type to rub in my face that I've overbooked myself...again. And I guess He never really argues when I calm my soul and come looking for Him. He encourages me through my busy days. He calls me to his purposes. He doesn't tell me to go back and change my messy actions--they are done--and I am still His. He doesn't mock my commitments made in overzealous moments--I have made them--and I am still His. I move through my mistakes and He is there to see me make it despite them. I do His bidding. And He loves my rest. He sees my anxiety and calls it to peace, knows my thirst and comes with the water, says my name while I misplace my focus. And He loves what I finally shove to his feet. It takes me a while...but sometimes I do get there...and I wonder what He'll say tomorrow.

I'm sitting on our bear.

Sitting here...James and Bryan on John's laptops, Matt on our Casio with light-up keys, John picking up Ian from town, Janelle and Jo in town picking up Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for our Narnia marathon (yes, this means two marathons in a row for me--two nights of staying up past ten!). I'm on our big stuffed bear that my dad bought for Haillie to get swallowed up in when she comes over (when she sits on the floor and watches Sesame Street). The fire's going, and we're almost ready to start the reading/watching of these magical C.S. Lewis stories...

We had an amazing night at E.C.C.O. Christian Campgrounds--setting up sound equipment, getting out instruments, leading worship, eating pizza, leading more worship, eating more pizza, packing up instruments, making plans for our Narnia marathon--now, we're discussing the literary topics of personifications, onomatopoeias, and the books that will be compiled from all our blogs once we're dead... and Bryan is plugging his laptop into the Christmas tree... long story...

...and, there are facebook wars going on. Which means... it is definitely time to start the movie. Right after we read The Magicians Nephew out loud to each other. Don't ask.


Prince Caspian, here we come...

First Day, Last Day

It was January 1st today... well, yesterday (but I'm still awake from the "today" January 1st...get it?). It was the first day of the new year...but it was the last day of my "break"...

Tomorrow (today...uh...January 2nd) is Zion 24, which is gonna be awesome, because it's a 24-hour worship event from 6pm Fri(to-)day to 6pm Saturday. I've got the guys from my Simpson worship team coming down--Matt Lopez, James Spencer, Bryan Henderson, John Ewing--and we're kicking off the event with a sweet set. I'm excited.
So this is good... but it definitely marks the end of my break, per say. Only because this was the last day I really had to do......nothing.

The Zion "something" is a great something though--and it is a great "something" to begin my new year with.


A bitter-sweet moment for me. A first and last day. Which constitutes an all-night Gilmore Girls marathon...I'm milking this in-between night for all it's worth. Before the in-bed-by-10pm routine begins again...before the classes start and the homework takes over my life once more. Before the ever-present cloud of miscellaneous stresses that can only be labeled, "I know there's somewhere I have to be/something I need to be doing" returns to hover above my last undergrad semester...


But, to be honest...

...I miss Redding. And it might sound crazy, but I miss school too. Mostly, I miss the Stirring... EVERYONE. You guys... I miss you.

See you in two days!!



Ah...yeah....the last day... but also the first... (or second.... whichever...)