Category: Imported from Xanga

So Lakota schools caved and are not going to be performing Ten Little Indians because its name was changed from Ten Little Niggers.  The NAACP threw a cow about this and said that it wasn’t appropriate for high school students.  This, to me, is ridiculous.  If we can discuss the war in Iraq in high schools, they should be allowed to perform this brilliant play by Agatha Christie.  If you don’t know the plot-line, the story goes that 10 wealthy individuals were all invited to an island resort for a weekend.  They get there and one by one the attendees are murdered off, “…until there was one.”  I went to see this with my mom and sisters at Playhouse in the Park.  It was really, really great, with alternate endings and everything.  I’m just annoyed that people are so touchy and offended at the slightest thing.  I wonder if the guy even read the book or not.  Agatha even changed the name so early on, everyone I spoke to has had no idea that there was even another title.  The play itself has nothing racist in it at all.  Having changed the title lost nothing of the thrust for the plot and has proven inconsequential.    Ok, I’m off my soapbox…but come talk to me in an hour…I might have a second wind.

…to connect with Christians from all over the world.  It makes the world seem not quite so huge…and gives me warm fuzzies all over inside.  I’ve been emailing some of the girls I met in China and it’s been wonderful!  They are so encouraging to me.  Just when I thought that my hands were no longer working in China…here comes some new information.  I don’t know if it’s God encouraging me not to give up my dream of being overseas, or what it is…but I’m very pleased.  And I’ve been meeting people from all over the world just in our little city here.  It’s really great, and I feel as connected with the world as I need to be.  I feel like I can really be incredibly ready for Christmas now…to share love and goodwill with everyone around me (except the man who fixed my windshield…another story).  But there you go.  Have a great day y’all.

Happy Thanksgiving y’all!   Yep, many blessings and joyful times for you all!

In Him,  Sarah ><>

This is an excerpt from the book “Sacred Romance” by Brent Curtis and John Eldridge…which is an excerpt from one of C.S. Lewis’ book (it doesn’t say which specifically, but it’s either The Great Divorce or The Weight of Glory), but I really felt like someone might need to read this…so here you go!

“Even in your hobbies, has there not always been some secret attraction which the others are curiously ignorant of – something, not to be identified with, but always on the verge of breaking through, the smell of cut wood in the workshop or the clap-clap of water against the boat’s side? Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling (but faint and uncertain in the best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for? You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it – tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest – if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled in the sound itself – you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say, “Here at last is the thing I was made for.” We cannot tell each other about it. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and which we chall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work. While we are, this is. If we lose this, we lose all.”

In honor of this joyous holiday…here are a few puns to get your funny bone jigglin’.

These are the top 20 funniest puns according to punoftheday.com  Enjoy!

11.   A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was a nurse said ‘No change yet’.

12.   There was once a cross-eyed teacher who couldn’t control his pupils.

13.   A bicycle can’t stand on its own because it is two-tired.

14.   Two peanuts were walking in a tough neighborhood and one of them was a-salted.

15.   When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

16.   What did the grape say when it got stepped on? Nothing – but it let out a little whine.

17.   A prisoner’s favorite punctuation mark is the period. It marks the end of his sentence.

18.   Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

19.   A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.

20.   We were so poor when I was growing up we couldn’t even afford to pay attention.

http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

My excitement for children’s fantastical movies made me really anxious to see the new movie, The Golden Compass, with Nicole Kidman.  My mom just forwarded this email to me, expressing concern about the content and intentions of the film, and I, proceeding to the Snopes site (link above), discovered that the warnings are true!  Apparently, the movie is based on the first book of a series by an atheistic British author, Philip Pullman.  Here’s a link to what Wikipedia has to say about it too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_dark_materials

The whole series is a retaliation against the Chronicles of Narnia and God Himself.  The books teach children to rebel against religious upbringing and the characters eventually kill “God” in the end of it.  Each person has a daemon linked to them which can take the shape of different animals.  Lyra, is a young girl, whose own mother is a part of the “Church” that kidnaps children from around the world for experimental purposes. 

I was really excited about this movie, but now, not so much.  I think this is very dangerous…some consider Pullman to be the most dangerous writer in England.  He is staunchly atheistic and despises Christianity and C.S. Lewis.  I am probably going to read the books, just so I can know better how to argue against them…but I urge you NOT to go see this movie.  We shouldn’t give any more money to this man than he’s already getting.  Nicole Kidman is in it, so, therefore, it is getting a lot of press.  I’m usually an advocate for fantastical children’s series’, but not in this case.  Do not allow your children to see this, and warn others about it as well. 

The much anticipated, Bullets of Awesomeness, from Lanna and my recent Pennsylvania roadtrip.  Let the games begin!

• Sarah makes an illegal left turn…before we’re even out of Ohio…or Cincinnati, for that matter.
• Lanna’s universal symbol for dancing
• Rapping the “Fresh Prince” theme song together when we saw the sign for Bellarie
• Sarah falls off sidewalk while walking through neighborhood…Lanna laughs at her.
• Pap offers to scrub Lanna’s back
• Lanna trying desperately to get the pillow out of the pillowcase, only to find that she’s holding the wrong end!
• Super Panda (’cause when I think Pittsburgh, I think Super Panda – Lans)
• Driving through the tunnells of forbidden joy (Lanna’s spelling)
• Random guy doing pushups at the rest stop on turnpike.  FUNNY!
• “It’s just more cushion for the…oh, grandparents” – Lans
• “Lanna!  Look at his sock!” – Sarah
• Scampers!
• There’s some sort of lifeform in that foliage.
• Climbing and sitting on top of a mountain. (Sarah in her flip-flops) Hardcore.
• Finding the local St James…and St James Street – In Schuylkill Haven, and Philadelphia
• Schuylkill Haven – “The little town that could”
• Happenings in Scranton
• Mumbling Italian waitor at Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe
• Had lunch at Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe…not Pizza by Alfredo
• Every sentence ending with, “…in Scranton”
• “What’s there to see in Scranton?” “Uh…what?  Nothing”
• Had dinner at Farley’s
• Lanna is hit on…by the 25-guy…in Scranton
• walking 3 1/2 miles around Lake Scranton, one of us wearing 3 1/2 inch heels…no names mentioned…Lanna
• Seeing Sarah’s cousin Caleb after…how many years again?
• Squirrels
• “Get thee behind me Satan!”
• Blimpie!
• Togash
• per Lanna – “Bald things happen here” – (Photo Journalism…photo to come later)
• Sarah: “Do you hear that?”  Lanna: “The airplane?”  Sarah: “No.”  Lanna: “The footsteps?”  Sarah: “No…the squacking”  Lanna: “The geese?”  Sarah: “Yeah…great observational skills!”

I am better than you ever have or ever will be.

So, here’s the latest jewel that’s been tossed my way.  I felt like I should share it with you as well:

“Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has.  It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods.  it is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck ou the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

“Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

“Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.  It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.  it is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.  Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.  Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us.  Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

“Costly grace is the sanctuary of God; it has to be protected from the world, and not thrown to the dogs.  itis therefore the living word, the Word of God, which he speaks as it pleases him.  Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart.  Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow Him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

“The grace [Luther] had received was costly grace.  It was grace, for it was like water on parched ground, comfort in tribulation, freedom from the bondage of a self-chosen way, and forgiveness of all his sins.  And it was costly, for, so far from dispensing him from good works, it meant that he must take the call to discipleship more seriously than ever before.  It was grace because it cost so much, and it cost so much because it was grace.“

Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  “The Cost of Discipleship.”  pp. 45, 49

Heck YES!!!!   In one week, Lans and I will be embarking on our second annual road trip!  And we’re going on a Pennsylvania tour!

Here’s some highlights of our trip for you to salivate over:

We’re first going to stop off at my grandparent’s home in Latrobe, PA, just southeast of Pittsburgh (ahh…Steelers…how I miss thee).  Black and Gold!  All the way!  Ok…just some information…Mr. Rogers was lived in Latrobe, and donated a bunch of money for a children’s park in the city.  The Steelers also have their training camp near there.  🙂

During this time, we will be attending a tiny Evangelical Methodist church, Super Panda (Chinese buffet), and visit with my grandparents, uncle, and hopefully my cousin Rachel.  It will be fun and relaxing…before our few days of bliss…which will include:

We’ll travel out to Schuylkill Haven, PA (The Little Town that Could), to lodge at a friend of the family’s home.  We’ll be visiting Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, then shooting up to Scranton, PA.  Here we will check out Steamtown National Historical Site, and have dinner at Farley’s Eatery and Pub.  Yes, Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute) has visited there, and they have a “Michael Scott” Burger.  A couple weeks after we’re there, they are having a “The Office” convention…so, I’m sure we’ll see lots of cool things about the show in preparation for the event.

From there, we will go to visit Philadelphia!!!!   We are planning to visit the Philly Museum of Art and run up the stairs (of course).  Then, we’re going to the Italian Market in South Philly (ah…familia!)  After that, we’re going to see Old City…etc.  We’re also going to go on a haunted tour through the mile called the “Spirits of ’76.” 

I know, I know!  You’re so jealous!  Go ahead, shake our hands the next time you see us.  🙂

As a parting grace, let me sing to you the state song:

Pennsylvania, my native state
To you we pledge our devotion.
Pennsylvania, our loyalty
Is steady as the ocean.

Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania
Strong and true (2-3-4)
Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania
Here’s our song to you

There is beauty in your mountains
There is peace upon your hills
And where e’er I roam
My only home is
Pennsylvania! (trumpets)