"Choosing Thomas"

If you keep up w/ the same blogs that we do, you may have already seen this video.  If not, I encourage you to watch it.  I think it was the saddest thing I have seen in a long time, if not ever.  But I also think it is worth passing along....

--da

Spiritual Depression Sermons

I just received an email from MLJ Trust announcing that they are going to begin broadcasting the late Dr. Martyn Llyod-Jones' sermon series entitled Spiritual Depression.

I am passing this information on to you because I read the book earlier this year that was birthed out of this sermon series and found it extremely helpful in seeing myself rightly in light of the Scriptures and the daily struggles we all as believers face. Daryl-Ann is reading the book right now and would echo my appreciation for this man's work.

Here is the website where you can download the 30 min. weekly broadcast, and I expect for the series to go on for a few months.

I highly commend this to you.

First real dinner....

So...on Thursday I went to the market w/ a friend and learned how to buy meat.  Believe me, it isn't like United, Wal-Mart, or any of your other favorite grocery stores.  The market itself is quite an experience, and I'll post some pictures of that at some point...I love buying super fresh, super cheap vegetables (like 2 cucumbers for 15 cents, but the meat section of the market can "gross one out."  The floor is often a bit slippery too due to butchering, etc, and so that just adds to the experience by making me terrified that I'm going to slip, knock over a table of meat, and have the big piles of fat fall on top of my head.  Oh well, I digress.......

Anyways, my friend and I "reserved" what we thought would be comparable to pork chops, and I went back the next day to pick them up.  (FYI:  you usually don't have to reserve meat, this was just a special case.)  Anyways, I went to pick them up and paid for them...and then came home w/ mainly a bag full of worthless (in my standard) meat.  However, I took this:

away from the "good" meat, and got this:
and then turned it into this, pork chops w/ apples and walnuts, with sides of mashed potatoes and a fresh salad w/ ranch:
YUM-O!!!!!!!  Logan clearly loved our dinner!  It was pretty tasty, and even though it was a little bit more work here than in the states, we really enjoyed having a meal at home.  Tomorrow, I'm trying my hand at a breakfast casserole and some pumpkin-apple muffins for breakfast w/ some friends.  And then, dinner has honey oven-baked chicken on the menu.  I will let you know how it goes.  

--da

Can You Help Me?...Obviously Not

Today I was coming up our stairs to change clothes so that I could go help paint a friend's house.  When I reached the 3rd floor, I saw a man standing there, just kind of looking down into the square of restaurants and shops.  I stopped at the stairway and tried (again) to read the notice posted on the gate....and then I got the great idea to ask the man to help me read the sign.  I asked politely, "Excuse me, can you help me read this?"  He just kind of looked at me.  So I repeated, "Can you help me read this.  I can't understand it."  (Which isn't entirely true, I can read enough to know it has to do w/ paying the water/electric fees, but I wanted to know if it was polite notice to pay by a certain day, or more of a demand, or whatever.)  He shook his head "no" at me in an emphatic way, and I asked, "Why?"  To which he just continued to shake his head.  I sighed and made my way home.  

I'm not for sure why he wouldn't help me.....Even now, I'm still more confused than exasperated.  

--da

Countryside Pics

老人车

Today I tried my hand at driving a 老人车 (Old Person Car... literal translation) and to my disdain proved myself not to be an adequate driver of this three-wheel scooter that belongs to my supervisor's wife.

Here is the story... I was sitting at my supervisor's house when my friend Nick called asking our supervisor's wife is some one can come pick him up at the apartment's front gate because he has recently hurt his ankle and is on crutches. I willfully volunteered to drive her 老人车 and pick up Nick having never received any instruction on how it drives. Eban and I (Supervisor's oldest) jumped into the scooter and went on our way. Keep in mind we are in an apartment complex where no one drives over 5 mph. Before we even got to the end of the aisle where their apartment is located a car began to turn in and stopped in the middle of the street to let me pass. The path between the car and the curb was indeed narrow, but after trying the hand brakes and not slowing down at all I decided to commit (or should I say the scooter committed for me). While squeezing into this small space the scooter indeed did come to a stop... right up against this poor person's car. They backed up exposing some substantial damage to their bumper. The man jumped out of his car and was completely baffled. I looked at the scooter and seeing that it was in good shape (despite a bent fender) told the guy I will be right back and need to go pick up a friend at the front gate. I then told Eban to go get his dad and I will be right back.

Upon returning to the scene of the accident the man suggested me giving him 500 kuai (around 70 dollars) to compensate and calling it even. Knowing that it was totally my fault and delighted at how little money he wanted to fix his significantly new car (I estimate it was 300-400 dollars damage to US standards), I gave him the money and we went on our way.

I eventually learned that the hand breaks didn't work at all and that there was a foot brake that I didn't notice which is what should be used to stop the scooter.

Just one more example where I have proven myself the stupid foreigner who cant even drive a Geriatric-mobile in a 5 mph residential zone.