7 Quick Takes - End of July already!

-- 1 --

Last weekend my community group from church spent the weekend at the lake house of the older couple that mentored us through a year of marriage studies. It was a GORGEOUS house with a gorgeous community pool right down the road. It was SO much fun and so relaxing, and I came back sore from a victorious tube ride with Isaac. Photos to come next week.

-- 2 --

The talk of the weekend at Possom Kingdom lake was this:



That is an alligator gar, a fish with a mouth and teeth like a crocodile and the body of a fish. Rather terrifying, eh? Like the thought of swimming with that thing? They grow to be bigger than a man, and they inhabit north Texas' lakes and rivers.
I'd never heard of it and at first thought my friends were putting us on. But no. It's real. From that discussion on, there was genuine terror at the thought of jumping in the lake and potentially being anywhere NEAR an alligator gar.


It was pretty funny. ;)

-- 3 --

As I said last week, my questions of how discern what to do with my life and not miss or waste the calling that God has for me drove me to study the topic of vocation. My first post on vocation is up on my theology blog here. I also put up a video that a friend made that advertizes the "practical Christian ministry" program at Moody (where I got my BA). The thinking behind the PCM program is what drew me to Moody and despite its flaws, it did change me. PCM video.

-- 4 --

I finished reading and put up my review for a historical book I recently finished about the bombing of a Jewish temple in Atlanta during desegregation. The review for Temple bombing is here. I also also put up reviews for a couple of the big movies we watched recently. Defiance, Seven Pounds, Taken.

-- 5 --

One of my favorite bloggers is Erica Haub Carney, who actually doesn't post that often but when she does it is always insightful. She and her husband chose to live in the midst of a very tough neighborhood in inner city LA in order be a redemptive presence. She wrote about the Henry Gates fiasco from her personal experience with cops in the inner city, and it was really good. Read Erica's thoughts here.

-- 6 --

Yesterday I had lunch with an older Chinese woman that I met through my work. We had a fanscinating lunch over some fantastic Thai food. At the end of it she began to tell me how her faith has changed this year, how she's finally identified her gift for discerning between spirits. She told me how she'd been able to see demons and spirits in or around people since she was a young child, and told me several instances that that has happened just recently. Yow. I mostly sat back and listened because although I hear a lot about it in the media and in discussion about gifts of the Spirit, I have never actually met anyone who said that could see or sense actual demons or spirits. As usual, I am immediately sceptical mostly because it is so far outside of what I have ever experienced. However, who am I to say that someone else can't experience something totally different than I? I do believe in the supernatural world, don't I? It may all be true - I struggle to know how to think or respond to those things.

-- 7 --

Last week I forgot to mention that I guest-posted at Writer On The Way Home, which is a blog written by an Irish woman named Niamh who has recently returned to Ireland after teaching overseas for several years. I wrote about my experience adjusting to reentry to the US after growing up overseas.

Read other Quick Takes at Conversion Diary! By the way, I have been reading Conversion Diary for two years, and it is one of my all-time favorite blogs.