This week's persecuted church: Nigeria

The Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram has killed at least 935 people since it launched an uprising in 2009, including more than 250 in the first weeks of this year.

The report said 550 people were killed in 115 separate attacks by Boko Haram last year, mostly in the far northeastern state of Borno, where the sect was founded in 2002.

Boko Haram has moved from drive-by shootings and petrol bombs to suicide attacks using large and increasingly sophisticated explosives. A suicide car bomb last year killed 25 people at the United Nations headquarters in the capital Abuja.

Thought of the Day:  Antarctica
Song of the Day:  Just As I Am, Without One Plea

This week's persecuted church: Uganda

A Pentecostal preacher who has converted thousands of Muslims to Christianity was disfigured when men shouting “God is great” in Arabic threw acid in his face in a Christmas Eve attack that has stoked religious tensions here.

Mr. Mulinde, a 38-year-old father of six, described the attacker who threw acid onto his face as a man pretending to be a Christian. The attacker approached Mr. Mulinde after the Christmas Eve service at his Gospel Life Church International, about 10 miles outside of Kampala.

“I heard him say in a loud voice, ‘Pastor, pastor,’ and as I made a turn and looked at him, he poured the liquid onto my face,” Mr. Mulinde said.

Mr. Mulinde said the man fled, shouting, “Allah akbar,” or “God is great.”

The attack disfigured the right side of his face and left him blind in his right eye.

Thought of the Day:  Luke Sermon Series
Song of the Day:  Etta James-At Last

This week's persecuted church: China

The brothers and sisters of Shouwang had no choice but to continue meeting outdoors on Jan 1st, 2012. The worship time was 8:30 a.m., so we rushed to the plaza [that had been Shouwang’s designated outdoor worship site], but unfortunately, at 8 a.m., the police had already taken into custody all the brothers and sisters who were making their way to the plaza. The plaza [was now] totally empty, with only one person in a red coat with a camera standing alertly in an inconspicuous corner looking as though he was ready to pounce. He photographed everyone in the plaza who passed by him. Police had used green tarp to enclose the entire plaza and block off all access to it, and several police vehicles were parked next to the plaza, their drivers waiting for arrests. We took a few cell phone photos, then walked the long way around to the Xin Dong Fang building next to the plaza, hoping to find a way through the building to the plaza.

Many brothers and sisters were in tears, not only because they could not worship indoors, but because they saw the government’s unbending attitude, unwilling to give any ground at all and unwilling simply to sit down and talk, an attitude of not giving up until the death [of Shouwang]...Because of the Sunday restrictions, if Shouwang brothers and sisters want to go worship in the plaza, they have to stay away from their homes starting on Friday and spend the night elsewhere.

Thought of the Day:  Crazy Arcade
Song of the Day:  The Killers-Mr. Brightside

Millenium Falcon

Me:  Would you ever eat human meat?
Student:  No.
Me:  What if it was just a tiny piece?
Student:  How small?
Me:  Like a little 삼겹살 piece.
Student:  No.
Me:  What if it tasted really really good?
Student:  Only if you ate it first.
Me:  Then you would eat it?
Student:  No.  I would call the police.

Me:  What if I said I would give you a Millenium Falcon?
Student:  OK maybe.

Thought of the Day:  현백
Song of the Day:  T-ara-Lovey Dovey

This week's persecuted church: Eritrea

Thirteen Eritrean hostages who are being held in northern Sinai, close to the Israeli border, have issued a desperate appeal for international intervention after being informed that they would be sold to organ traffickers if an exorbitant ransom is not paid for them.

The hostages said, "We have been beaten, tortured, humiliated in the most atrocious fashion. We have now received an ultimatum from our persecutors: if our families do not pay US$33,000 per head within 24 hours, we will be sold to clandestine clinics that traffic in human organs. We are calling on the civilised countries, religious people who abhor these atrocities, the United Nations and the European Union not to abandon us. If we had been Europeans or Americans, would you have left us in this terrible condition? We are young men and women who have fled from a country that persecuted us.”

Thought of the Day:  1000만원
Song of the Day:  Celine Dion-To Love You More

Smiley Face

"I have a friend who's just because of the way his face is made, he looks as though he's never smiling, and I remember him saying..his grandmother said to him one day, 'You keep that look on your face and one day God will freeze it.'  I actually think that happens.  I mean some of us are facially put together in such a way that we seem to be constantly smiling.  That's so irritating, isn't it?  But you know, nobody with ordinary health is incapable of smiling.  And some people almost seem to make a point of not smiling...Sometimes when I look into this face that used to be a young boy, I think, 'Have I made this face by the way I've lived?"  You do, don't you? You make your face.  It kind of settles in. Whether it's physiological or whether it's just disposition it settles in. You never smile.  You never laugh.  You're a frowner."
-Sinclair Ferguson

Sometimes when I have conversation classes with some of my students, I like to ask them what they would change if there was one thing they could change about themselves.  Whenever I used to aim this question at myself, the first thing I usually thought of was physical appearance.  I had wished I would look more like this or less like that.  But I know that if I were to ask my parents what they could change about me, they would say something along the same lines of my answer.  They would wish that I smiled more.

Next year is 2013.  That's the year when my California driver's license expires.  Three months later, that's when my passport expires.  Three months after that, that's when my visa expires.  That's the year I turn 30 (Korean age).  I remember telling someone that I thought it was going to be a very special year with all of the mentioned coincidences lined up one after another.  I remember thinking so many of my questions would be answered by then.

2012 is here.  Most of my questions remain unanswered.  When questions remain unanswered, it's hard to smile.  It's hard to laugh.  It's easy to be a frowner.  But I am hopeful.  I am hopeful because God gives me reasons to smile even when my questions become even bigger, more difficult questions.  I am hopeful because our mistakes and accidents are not coincidences, and our successes and joys are planned to the very last detail.  I am hopeful because even when you don't see me smile, God is turning me into someone who will never frown ever again.  But till then, I'll try to smile more.  =D

Thought of the Day:  Do you know the Muffinman?
Song of the Day:  Park Bom-You And I