My Commonplace Book

I’m constantly depressed by the worldwide challenges to real Kingdom change. I’ve wondered at times whether we can see light grow in the dark places of the world– whether we can, as Job says, break the jaw of the oppressor. JK Rowling’s words below drive me to a realized eschatology, to imagining a better future [...]

I’ve been wrestling with my reading plan for 2008. Usually, I choose a biblical emphasis and an author or topics or persons to focus on for the upcoming year. I’ll stay with the gospels for another year, with a focus on the Jesus’ commitment to justice. I’d like to research the role of Isaiah’s servant [...]

If we were to rate ourselves on effective partnerships in Africa, the scorecard would measure:

Sustainable Impact over Short-Term Impact
Extended Relationships over Short-term Relationships (You can’t partner until you’re friends.)
Corporate Success over Individual Success
The Smaller Leading over The Bigger Leading
Measured Outcomes over Anecdotal Measures
Indigenous Ownership, Perspective, Leadership over Non-indigenous Ownership, Perspective, Leadership

Laurie and I are attending the Global HIV/AIDs Summit at Saddleback. I’ll be blogging some thots here over the next few days.
Opening Session Thoughts: Injustice and the HIV/AIDs Crisis
Beware of the reality that injustice, AIDs, poverty easily become tolerable disasters.
Alexander Solzenitzen warned of tolerable disasters of bearable proportions.
The first step to bringing the Kingdom to [...]

Preparing to leave for Africa, I should read happy, lighter books. Just finished Elie Wiesel’s book on the horrors of the Holocaust. I had been meaning to read it for years. Very profound and disturbing–but everyone ought to read it. Here’s a famous passage, describing the hanging of a young boy [...]

Laurie and I are at Willow Creek’s Ldrship Summit. Bill Hybels opened the session on creating ownership for a “Vision to Die For.” I couldn’t stop thinking of our family discussion about our adopted country– Sierra Leone. The BBC reported recently on the upcoming elections and included several photos of the conditions. [...]

I just got this picture from my daughter, Joanna. I love it. I’m crying looking at it. She and her husband Taylor are currently in Sierra Leone, our adopted country. They’ve been there three weeks exploring how our immediate family can help at least one country in Africa. They are [...]

Watch this and try to stay away. Laurie and I went to the 10:50 am showing this morning. Still overwhelmed by the power of this story.
My review of Eric Metaxas’ Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery is at jayslibrary.com.

“Africa! Africa! Your sufferings have been the theme that has arrested and engages my heart—your sufferings no tongue can express; no language impart.” William Wilberforce’s opening lines in his April 2, 1792 address to the British Parliament
To be a witness does not consist in engaging propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in [...]

Don’t click on this photo–not yet anyway. What do you see? The plans for a ship and its cargo.
Now, click on it. What do you see?
This is the infamous British slave ship, Brookes. It was regulated by British law to carry 454 African slaves across the Middle Passage [...]