This week's persecuted church: Sudan

In a northwestern region, a woman was arrested on May 9 and accused of possessing and distributing Bibles to others in a camp for displaced people, including children. She could also be tried for apostasy, which carries the death sentence in Sudan. She has been transferred to an unknown location as she could be tortured as she was detained and tortured for six days in 2009.

Thought of the Day: Samsung Party

Song of the Day: Jay-Z-Brooklyn's Finest

*Phew*

My cheap bag strap ripped last Saturday.

Coming home, things were emptied right away.

But two things that were completely missed

Hand sanitizer and digital camera were not on the mind's list.

So the bag was thrown out for the garbage man to take

While I had no idea what had been at stake

But my thoughtful dad had decided to take one last look

In case I had left a pencil, notebook, eraser, or book.

Behold! The two missing items were still there!

This entire time his ignorant son was not even aware

Until he came home late last night,

And his mother decided to stir in him a fright

By asking if she could borrow his camera for the morrow,

Awaiting his look of surprise change to sorrow.

The boy opened his drawer where the item was usually found

But then proceeded to his other bags to look around.

So his mother watched him search in vain

Until the frustration inside could no longer remain.

"You, my son, have lost your mind!

Your father found what you now cannot find."

With confusion and embarrassment he took in his hand

The lost items she placed as he began to understand

Her words of rebuke, nag, and scold.

The succinct lecture to him was told,

"Today, we've just earned a lot of money.

Be sure to say thanks to your father, sonny."

I felt too stupid and embarrassed to thank him though. I never lose things, but I don't know why I'm so prone with digital cameras!

Thanks, Dad.

Thanks, God.

Thought of the Day: Stinkin' Heat

Song of the Day: 푸른새벽 Discography

This week's persecuted church: Laos

Lao and Vietnamese troops killed four Christian women in front of their families during a crackdown on "dissidents" in Laos. The Lao People's Army, supported by soldiers and secret police from Vietnam, seized a group of Hmong and confiscated their Bibles. Soldiers then shot and killed four of the women, after repeatedly raping two of them. Their husbands and children were reportedly beaten, tied up and forced to witness the killings in mid-April. It is not not known where the survivors are now.

Many people have made various images of Jesus throughout cultures and history. Last week, Sam showed us "The Tortured Christ" made by a man named Guido Rocha who himself underwent severe torture. While I post up different news about Christians who undergo torture, abuse, or death to spread awareness, we should also remember that we have a priest who sympathizes with his people in every way. While Paul says that we may be "afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed," we can share in the same words only because the tortured Christ WAS crushed, WAS driven to despair, WAS forsaken, and WAS destroyed...so that we wouldn't be.

Thought of the Day: Umbrella

Song of the Day: Cracker OST

More to the Roster

A couple more nicknames that I forgot to add last time and a couple new ones:

Dancer

Homeless Guy

Spiderman

Canada

I finally learned that I cannot sleep well when my body is over fatigued from exercise, or basketball in my case. Last night, I got to the courts around 7:30 and left a little before 12:30. When I tried to tell my friend that if I continued playing, I wouldn't be able to sleep. He simply replied, "괜찮아." Haha. And that's really all it took for me.

I keep telling him that we have a disease!

Thought of the Day: Matthieu

Song of the Day: Justin Bieber feat. Sean Kingston-Eenie Meenie

This week's persecuted church: Bangladesh

Muslim villagers beat a 22-year-old Christian man last month for defending Christian girls against routine harassment and bullying, sources said. Sipon Mondol was beaten on April 20 while returning to his native village. On April 15, at a cultural event to celebrate the Bengali New Year, Poresh Mondol said his son had defended Christian girls against the slurs of a group of young Muslim men in an exchange that led to a gang fight.

“They were making some suggestive remarks to our girls at the program,” Mondol said. “Some Christian boys, including my son, protested against it. A brawl between Muslim boys and the Christian boys followed the protest. They tried to drag my son to their village by getting hold of his shirt collar.”

The Mondol family informed the young Muslim men’s parents, and village elders assured the Christians that they would resolve the long-standing problem, telling them that such harassment would not happen again, he said.

“After the complaint, though, those Muslim boys became more predatory,” he said. “They beat my son on his way home from Gangni town on the evening of April 20. He was severely beaten. He was treated in the hospital for one day and released on April 21...to tease our girls, they use such filthy words in their speech that it leaves us feeling absolutely shattered. We suffer shame in front of our family members,” the elder Mondol said.

A case was filed against seven young Muslim men at nearby Titla village, asserting that they constantly harass Christian girls at Christian programs. Lok Mondol, general secretary of the Church of Bangladesh in Meherpur district, told Compass that harassment of Christian girls at social and religious gatherings was a perennial problem. Mikha Mollick, a Christian belonging to a local Church of Bangladesh congregation, told Compass that continuous bullying of the Christian girls was an effort to gradually weaken Christians’ social standing.

Thought of the Day: Original Sin

Song of the Day: MercyMe-God With Us

Q&A

Question: Why do we have creeds?

Answer: Heresy was rampant in early church history. The creeds were ways to remind and affirm the church of its biblical truths.

Question: Why do many churches practically never have communion?

Answer: Early Christians reacted to the improper use of the Lord's Supper by having it less frequently, which eventually turned into tradition and common practice down the centuries.

Question: Why do some pastors wear special robes on Sunday (like Pastor Sam)? =D

Answer: These robes are intended to cover the pastor's outward appearance that may suggest poverty or wealth to protect people from distraction and judgment on the pastor.

These are just a few of the questions that I often wondered about. Why does the church do what it does? As I've been going through Leviticus for my devotional time, more questions just seem to muliply with every chapter that I read about why God was so particular about offerings, regulations, unclean animals and conditions, and even punishments.

I think there were many reasons and purposes for the various statutes, but one of them was to distinguish and protect God's people from the ways of the Egyptians/Caananites and false gods. Even with the questions above, many common practices and changes we see today are a response to the various forms of sin that can (and have) entered the church. I think Leviticus similarly gives us strong warnings but also clear exhortations to be set apart.

But like all of scripture, all of the questions and answers that we have point us to a Savior who practiced everything completely and perfectly. Tim Keller points out that God didn't give the Law to His people before He delivered them from Egypt; rather, God delivered them and saved them and then asked them to obey.

Here's one last Q&A from my other favorite thinker:

"Have you ever read the book of Exodus at one sitting? You know, it's alright, it's alright until you get to about chapter 27. And then from chapter 27 to 40...I think it is palatable. I think it can be taken until Moses comes down and says to the people, 'We are going to build a tabernacle.' So long and no longer, so wide and no wider, so high and the whole thing...and I said, 'Lord, there's something going on here that's eluding me for Moses could have solved this whole problem with one sentence: 'Dear reader, what you have just read, so we did. Ditto.' That's all. But Moses didn't seem to do that, did he?'...For God says to Moses, 'There I shall meet with you. There I shall commune with you.' It is vitally important to God how the house is built and how it is maintained where God himself is going to, in some limitation, dwell. Brethren, if God took 14 long chapters to express to these people how He wanted that house built, do you think He is not concerned about how you and I maintain this body now?"

-Ravi Zacharias

Thought of the Day: Loud Kina

Song of the Day: 2NE1-Lonely

0-4

Thought of the Day: Memphis!

This week's persecuted church: Vietnam

In an interview with Human Rights Watch, one Montagnard described his treatment at T-20, the provincial prison in Gia Lai, after he was arrested for participating in a protest calling for religious freedom and land rights:

He said, “They questioned me at any time, even midnight. The police would get drunk, wake me up, and question me and beat me. They put me in handcuffs when they took me out for questioning. The handcuffs were like wire – very tight. They used electric shock on me every time they interrogated me. They would shock me on my knees, saying, ‘You used these legs to walk to the demonstration.’”

Sentenced to five years in prison for “violating national solidarity,” he remains partially deaf from repeatedly being boxed on both ears:

“They would stand facing me and shout: ‘One, two, three!’ and then use both hands to box both of my ears at the same time. They would do this three times, the last time putting strong pressure on the ears,” he went on to say. “Blood came out of my ears and my nose. I went crazy from this. It was so painful, and also the build-up made me very afraid and tense.”

Thought of the Day: Memphis

Song of the Day: Humming Urban Stereo-넌 그날 (Gros Câlin Mix)

Readiculous

I gave the first three Percy Jackson books to my student last week. Today, I finished the fourth book on the subway and was planning on giving it to my student to add to his 1000+ pages of reading he would have to do for the next month or two. But it turned out that he had finished all three books in less than a week.

Daniel: I finished the first book in two days, the second one in one day, and the third in one day.

Me: Uh...I brought you the fourth book today.

Daniel: Where's the fifth book?

Me: I'll...bring it next week.

This kid's a freak. I swear he's already done with the fourth book by now. I'm scared I'll lose my right arm when I hand him the last book. I'd better get reading.

He's only in fifth grade!

Thought of the Day: 가로수길

Song of the Day: Clover-La Vida Loca

Problem Child

In the summer of my freshmen year of college, there was one Sunday where I had a particularly good meal at VIP. I remember the 짜장면 making me so sleepy on the road that I fell asleep as soon as I had gotten home. That turned into a five hour nap, which is the longest nap I've ever taken in my life, if you can even call it a nap.

Fast forward eight years to my super senior in Korea. Yesterday, I finished a 고빼기 짜장면 with 탕수욕 at my favorite 짜장면 place in 영등포. The crazy thing is that I had taken a nap before eating this. The even crazier thing is that I fell asleep again but didn't wake up til 5 this morning. And it was only because a mosquito was eating on my face. Anyway, that's my superfluous introduction for yesterday's annual Children's Day.

It never occurred to me why this country even has a day dedicated to children. There really isn't anything special that a child does that merits their parents' (or teachers') gratitude or care. I'm definitely all for Parents' Day and Teachers' Day (yes!), but Children's Day where millions of kids expect another undeserved gift from an adult? I don't see the reasoning.

I feel even stronger about this conviction after my newest student of two months acted up during our last class. He'd been whining and sighing loudly for the past couple of weeks throughout our lessons, but he finally "blew up" after he refused to answer any of my questions and just sat there in pout. That's when I had to bust out my broken Korean and analyze the situation for him until his tears finally started to come out.

After our class was over, I asked his mom if we could push back our class to 30 minutes earlier due to a scheduling conflict. But because this would take away some of my student's playing time after school, he shouted and slammed the bedroom door. I guess expecting a proper goodbye from little Jeff would make me a fool. Can't we just replace Children's Day with a Teachers' Day #2?

Thought of the Day: Ron Artest

Song of the Day: Big Bang-Love Song

"농구해야지!"

That's the text that I get from my basketball buddy about four times a week. He and I have nicknames for various people that we know at the courts. The Rat. Korea 형. Iverson. Ginobili. Garnet. 잔존 (John Zone). 뚱뚱이. The guy who talks too much. Haha. But we have a special name for a group of guys that always play together that we really dislike. The Bulls. They all wear Chicago Bulls jerseys and have beaten us countless times with their overpowering heights and abilities (the sheki who cracked my rib last summer is on this team).

So my buddy and I always joke about how we need to redeem ourselves and particularly wish that the Bulls had come to play on the days when we were playing well. Well, we hadn't seen them all winter and spring...until last night. Although they still played pretty well, our team dominated by killing them with a 10 point difference. My friend was so satisfied that he said he could now retire from basketball. Of course, that's a lie cause he's a basketball freak.

In other news, Iverson seriously injured his already injured knee that the doctor had warned him about.

Growing up in the states, I really feel like I bring shame to the game though. I wish I was so much better. Curse these weak calves and flat feet!

Thought of the Day: Bin Laden

Song of the Day: miss A-Love Alone