I've spent the past 48 hours praying a lot and sleeping poorly, over one of my Seattle inter::mission team members. She called on Saturday with the news her teenage brother had died in an auto accident. Horrible. It makes Resurrection hope seem both tantalizing and desperately far away at the same time.

Labels: friends, prayer

I actually don't have any news to report regarding my immediate family or friends right now - fires are still raging, but things seem to be settling a bit. The weather is improving - less wind, more humidity.

The main thing I wanted to note here is on a little different level. Despite my consistent venting and whining about my denomination, it is times like these that make me more satisfied. I was watching the San Diego news online this morning, and they were talking about the Qualcomm Stadium evacuation center, where thousands are being housed. They specifically noted the fact that my denom was there with its mobile kitchens, feeding lots and lots of people. I know from seeing them in action firsthand in New Orleans that they wear some butt-ugly yellow t-shirts, but when I see those things on TV, I'm glad that I get to be a part of that. Good work folks - keep rocking.

Other churches and friends are, of course, also doing good work. But if I'm gonna whine about the denom, I need to also give equal time to the good stuff.

Labels: denomination, family, friends, prayer, San Diego

Being so far away from family and friends in the fire affected areas in San Diego is hard - not as hard as being there, mind you, but hard. This situation is astonishing. The fire moved so fast. Michelle's folks are doing o.k. - they decided to wait it out in their house, and seem to be in a sliver of land that the fire burned around . . . probably due to the fact that it all burned just a few years ago, and there wasn't as much fuel.

We've been watching a San Diego TV station that's been streaming their coverage online. That helps.

Keep praying.

UPDATE 8:50am: A large mountain about half a mile to the north of Michelle's folks may be catching fire. This mountain didn't burn in 2003, so lots of old brush there. They're watching it closely, and may evacuate.

UPDATE 5:15pm: Michelle's parents got a reverse 911 call at around 2pm telling them to evacuate. As of around 3:45pm, they hadn't left yet. My sister, brother-in-law, and their kids had to evacuate yesterday, but were allowed to go back home this afternoon.

Labels: family, friends, prayer, San Diego

Four years ago (almost to the day, actually), Southern California was on fire. Michelle and I came very close to losing our home - we had charred land to within 20 feet of our front porch. Unfortunately, Michelle's folks had a different outcome. Their home of 30 years was burned. They spent the next two years rebuilding. And now, the fire's back. They haven't evacuated just yet, but the fire is getting closer. Heavy winds are expected to drive this fire for at least the next two days. By the time this is over, many people will have lost their homes. Pray for the safety of people who are leaving, and for the safety of the firefighters and police.

Labels: family, prayer, San Diego

Others around the blogosphere have mentioned this already, but here I add my prayers for peace to Dan Kimball and his family. Dan is one of my classmates, and well known all around the emerging church. Dan's father had a fall last week and hit his head. He died today. Married over 50 years. Devastating to all. Pray for Dan and his family.

Labels: friends, prayer

For the past several days, Eugene Cho has been keeping us up to date on the hostage situation involving a Korean relief worker team. He has asked many times over why this story hasn't been covered more widely by the major U.S. media outlets.

Just to confirm this, in the past five minutes I've scanned a few news sites (their front pages only) for mentions of the situation. Fox News? Nope. CNN? Nope. US News & World Report? Yes, if you're willing to scroll to the bottom of the page. Time? Yes, a link at the top of the page. Of the pages I've scanned so far, you know who has the most prominent and eye catching emphasis of the story? Try Al Jazeera. The UK edition of BBC also gets honorable mention. Actually, when I look for news headlines, I do so via my RSS reader, and I have three news feeds - Al Jazeera, BBC, and US News & World Report. I hardly ever visit the other pages I've mentioned . . . seems that I get my fill of stories about Spears, Lohan, Vick, Beckham, etc. elsewhere.

By the way, these are Christians being held hostage . . . which leaves me wondering why my denomination's "news" page's latest coverage of the story is four days old.

By way of update, Korean officials are now in talks with the Taliban. Pray for this as you are able.

Labels: culture, friends, media, prayer

I've been super busy with work and school stuff lately that I am behind on my blog reading, and I haven't been tracking with most of the news, other than a quick scan of headlines on the web. Whether it's my problem or the U.S. media's problem, the story of a group of Korean aid workers being kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan has escaped me. One was murdered.

In the mean time, I did hear that there was some kind of CNN YouTube debate, Michael Vick is going on trial for his dog fighting operation, and Lindsay Lohan is an addict (still).

If these were white, American hostages, would this story have gotten by without notice? Unlikely.

Read Eugene Cho's summaries of the story here, and please pray for the hostages, their families, and their captors. Eugene is a pastor in Seattle, with a diverse, growing church.

Labels: media, prayer, Seattle