Is there a preacher in here?

We watched this video in our Faculty Meeting on Friday. This video is rather long (about 8 minutes), but is worth watching. It is of a 5th grader, Dalton Sherman, who is addressing an assembly of 20,000 from the Dallas (Texas) Independent School District. Enjoy!

2 Bibles and 2 (or was it 3?) Presidential Inaugurations

I originally planned to write this short piece a couple days ago. When I saw the video done by CatholicVote.com that I posted yesterday, this post got 'poned (if you don't understand, insert another post at the point of the apostrophe).

This month we have seen two African presidents installed (though "African American" is the proper description of one of them): President Barack Obama of the United States of America, and President John Atta Mills of Ghana. Both of them took a presidential oath with a Bible. The fact that President Obama took a do-over oath (almost secretly--citing an abundance of caution) is really an afterthought to this post. I really wanted to talk about the Bibles used.

Obama took his oath, not on the Quran, but on the same Bible that was used in the first inaugural of Abraham Lincoln. John Atta Mills also used a Bible, but when I saw the photo (click on the link just to the left to see a larger image of the photo above), I was taken back. It is an English Standard Version, which is a relatively new entry (2001) into the world of English Bible Translations. The ESV site, linked above describes their translation philosophy in these terms: we have sought to be “as literal as possible” while maintaining clarity of expression and literary excellence. The more I use the ESV, the more I like it. In fact, I am reading through the Bible devotionally this year from the ESV. If you do not have an ESV, you also can read it online at the ESV site. It was earlier this year, when reading in Genesis from the ESV, that I noted a play on two Hebrew words in the same verse that I had never noted by reading any other English Bible. I checked the Hebrew text, a sure enough, two consecutive words, built off the same root. The ESV is the only English Bible I have ever read of that text that allowed me to make the mental connection between the words in the original. Try it, you just might like it!

Life--Imagine the Potential

President Obama has championed a woman's right to choose for years. Since taking office, he has been loading his agenda onto the office White House website, on which he reaffirms his commitment:

Under the heading of Reproductive Choice, the website says:

Supports a Woman's Right to Choose: President Obama understands that abortion is a divisive issue, and respects those who disagree with him. However, he has been a consistent champion of reproductive choice and will make preserving women's rights under Roe v. Wade a priority in his Adminstration. He opposes any constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in that case.

CatholicVote.com has produced a stunning video called Life--Imagine the Potential. What do you think of it?

Just for Play on Inauguration Day

Today, January 20, 2009, with incredible fanfare, the 44th President of the United States, Barack H. Obama, will assume office. After my second-year Greek class takes their weekly vocabulary quiz, they will translate this:

λέγει αὐτῷ ἡ γυνή· οἶδα ὅτι Μεσσίας ἔρχεται καὶ ἀναγγελεῖ ἡμῖν ἅπαντα. ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ τοῦ Μαθθαῖου εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτήν· Ἰδοὺ σήμερον Μεσσίας ἔρχεται μετὰ τῶν νεφελῶν, καὶ ὄψεται αὐτὸν πᾶς ὀφθαλμὸς, καὶ ἄρξονται κράζειν· χαῖρε, βασιλεῦ Ὠβάμα.

A Cardinal for whom I can Cheer

Kurt Warner is the man! His story was a Cinderella-story turned Phoenix-story, recounting his rise from obscurity to prominence, his fall back to obscurity, and finally, to the rebirth of his career with the Arizona Cardinals.

He played college football at the University of Northern Iowa (not really a powerhouse), was sent packing by the Green Bay Packers, and ended up throwing paper towels down the aisles of a Hy-Vee grocery store.

From there he had a shot at the Arena Football league, where he starred, which catapulted him to another shot at the NFL, making the St. Louis Rams team. When he got his shot, he made good on it, leading the Greatest Show on Turf to the Super Bowl championship. It was a feel-good story. The fact that he openly professed allegiance to Jesus Christ made it even better.

Now he's been around a long time, and is 37 years old. When the Arizona Cardinals drafted hot prospect Matt Leinart in 2006, the talking heads thought Warner's career was ebbing. In the end, it was Warner, not Leinart, who kept the QB job. Now Warner and the Arizona Cardinals are going back to the Super Bowl. Go Cardinals!

Harry S Truman and the "Get a Dog" Quote

An interesting quote is frequently attributed to one of our former presidents, Missourian Harry S Truman (I understand that the initial S is not supposed to have a period after it): "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." I don't know if Truman said it or not. According Ralph Keyes' book Quote Verifier (2006), there is no hard evidence that Truman ever said it. Lots of famous quotation sites will have that quote attributed to him, for example, here, or here, or here.

Regardless, it seems that most recent presidents get a dog. I just recently received an e-mail with a link to the upcoming issue of World magazine. In it I found this Gary Varvel cartoon (Indianapolis Star) of President-elect Obama's dog:

44 Presidents Morphed to Music

Sports Potpourri

OCC College Football Pool. The faculty and staff at OCC participate in a college football pool each year, which is run by Terry Bowland. I usually try to make my picks, and come out a respectable distance from the leaders. Going into the bowl games (can you believe how many bowl games there are?), I was right smack-dab in the middle of the upper division. However, at this writing, I am under .500 on my bowl picks. I don't remember ever doing this poorly.

Chicago Cubs. The team that plays at the corner of Clark and Addison in Chicago (Wrigley Field) has a habit of breaking my heart. 2008 was worse than normal. I really believed the Cubs would make it to the World Series. When they were swept by the Dodgers in the playoffs, I even mentioned giving up on them. In my heart of hearts, I knew that come 2009, the Cub juices would be flowing. Right now I'm thinking (a la Ernie Banks) that The Cubbies will Shine in 2009!! Aaron Worshek, the student assistant in the OCC Learning Center(also a Cub fan), mentioned to me almost a year ago that his father travels frequently to Seoul, Korea, where Cub jerseys are sold considerably cheaper than in the U.S., and offered to try to get me some jerseys on a trip. I told Aaron that I would love to have a chance at getting some jerseys. His dad made a trip in November, and I got jerseys for the family (not for the married kids, sorry) for Christmas. You can see Rose, Kim and me with our Cubs jerseys on. Kim and I got 1984 Cooperstown Hall of Fame Collection Ryne Sandberg home jerseys (mine is larger than hers), and Rose got a current Alfonso Soriano home jersey. Thanks, Aaron.

Roger Powell Jr. In the past, I have written about Roger Powell Jr., called "The Rev" by his teammates at the University of Illinois. Roger played in the NCAA Championship game in 2004, losing to the University of North Carolina. The following year he played for a CBA team in Rockford, Illinois, winning the CBA Rookie of the Year award, which got him enough notoriety to make the Utah Jazz roster at the start of the next season. He was waived by the Jazz in January 2006, and landed in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he played for the Arkansas Rim-Rockers, leading the NBA Developmental League in scoring. The following year he played professional basketball in the Italian League, in Teramo, Italy. This season, he was on the pre-season roster of the Chicago Bulls, but was released shortly before the regular season started. He has been playing in Israel, with Hapoel Migdal Jerusalem, an Israeli pro team that competes both in an Israeli pro league, and in the European pro league. In the photo you can see the Hebrew letters spelling Migdal, which means tower. Go, Roger! Play well, and may Yeshua Ha Mashiach be seen in you, as you play in the land where he walked.

The Joy of a Laptop Hard Drive that can Breathe

Kim's laptop has been crawling along, rather than running, which is what one wants his/her computer to do. I fought with it today, and won! It is an old Dell Inspiron, and doesn't use a SATA drive, which limits the size. I was shocked to find out that the drive that came with the machine was only 25GB, and it was full to the gills (pardon the Fishy expression). I found a 60GB drive at a good price, and set out to clone her drive. Dell had two hidden partitions (one in FAT16 and one in FAT32). I had to outsmart the machine to clone those partitions, then expand the primary partition to its max size. It is done, though.

Veni, Vidi, Vici!!!! Below are the images of her old and new c:\ drives, as evidence. Now her computer can breathe. The first image is of the new drive, and the second of the old.

9 Miles from Mexico--or "Four Nations, (Hopefully) Under God"

I do not share the pessimistic views of some of my brethren about the nation in which I live. My ultimate allegiance is to the kindgom of God, but I am patriotic. You could almost say that I'm proud to be an American (even though I bristle at the ethnocentricity of our use of that term--ask me what I mean sometime if you don't understand). I'm a strong advocate of leaving the words under God (and, to a lesser degree, of the words one nation) in our pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic, for which it stands,
One Nation, Under God, Indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.

While I recognize that there are many things that are "not right" about our nation, it is still a wonderful place to live. If it were not so, nobody would be talking about the issue of illegal immigration. What is the future of our nation? Nobody knows--not even Barack Obama. A Russian professor has been predicting the fall of the United States for years, and has now fixed the date: 2010 (that's only half way through Obama's term). Igor Panarin, a Russian university professor and former KGB analyst, has even created the map. The 48 continental states become four nations, and according to that map, I will live only 9 miles from Mexico (what is now Oklahoma, according to Panarin's projection, will be part of The Texas Republic, which "will be part of Mexico or under Mexican influence"), even without moving. You can read Andrew Osborn's report of this from the Wall Street Journal by clicking here. According to Panarin, I'll be Canadian, but where I currently live is only 9 miles from Mexico!

From One of Our Favorite Places

David & Rose; Jennie, Rose & Patty (3 sisters)--from a very special place overlooking Table Rock Lake.

For those tempted to put cookies out for Santa . . .

You never know what might happen when you sleep.

A Pleasant Kind of Quimioterapia

Maybe you don't recognize the last word of this blog's title. Quimioterapia is the Spanish equivalent of the word chemotherapy. This morning in our Spanish-speaking Sunday School class we were discussing prayer items. A pretty constant prayer request these days is for Rose, and her progression through chemotherapy. She has been skipping Sunday School, as she needs to be careful not to be around people who might be carrying germs. She has been arriving for the worship service (shortly after it begins), sneaking in to get the benefit of being there, and then sneaks out shortly before it is officially dismissed (not during the prayer time, Randy :-),).

For several weeks, we have been looking forward to the arrival of our daughter, Kimberly, who is a school teacher in Mexico. She arrived Wednesday, so it turned into a "praise item". Kim is our youngest, and so for a long time, she has been known as Kimmy, or, if we are speaking Spanish, we might refer to her as "la Kimmy." (I am aware that it is not correct to use the definite article before a person's name, but it very common in Chilean Spanish, and so we speak that way). If you pronounce her name in Spanish--Kimmy, it is pronounced in exactly the same way as the prefix to the word quimioterapia. So I was expressing thanksgiving to God for the safe arrival of "La Kimmy." My co-teacher, Phil Casey (Felipe) in Spanish, who enjoys words just about as much as I, stated, "That's a good kind of Kimmy-o-terapia, isn't it?"

I couldn't agree more. We have laughed a lot at her stories. It has been good to have her "at home." So Rose now has two types of quimioterapia:

1. the kind that pumps poison through her system, designed to kill any lingering cancer cells, and
   
2. The presence of our daughter Kimmy, which is the kind of therapy that is pleasant indeed.

Scripture says that children are a heritage and reward from the LORD (Psalms 127:3). Thanks be to God!

Huckabee on Ashlee Simpson (really on a more serious issue)

I'm reading Mike Huckabee's book, Do the Right Thing. I'm not really certain that I had ever heard of Huckabee before the Republican Presidential Primaries. He got my attention when I heard that he was a Baptist minister. He got my attention when I heard that he had lost 100 pounds. He further got my attention when I heard him speak in the debates.I liked him, and thought he made sense as a candidate. I'm intrigued by the concept of the Fair Tax.

At any rate, I'm reading his book, which chronicles his experience as a presidential candidate who was virtually written off as not having a chance. I have not watched his new show (called Huckabee) on Fox News Channel, but I will probably watch it when I get a chance.

We spent about four and a half hours in chemo yesterday. While they were pumping poison into my wife's body, I was reading Huckabee's book. Chapter 8 is titled Let Them Buy Stocks!, and illustrates how the high-dollar candidates, particularly Mitt Romney, are out of touch with the common person's plight. During those early debates, Romney's arrogance bothered me. I don't really think it was an anti-Mormon bias on my part. His stance on the immigration issue bothered me. It might be that I have too many friends who live in fear of what might happen to them. Anyway, when I read these two paragraphs in Huckabee's book (p. 123), it caused me to laugh out loud:

Not long after, during a debate in Iowa, Mitt Romney was asked what we could do to help the economy. I stood there in stunned silence when he went into his well-prepared, programmed answer about how we needed to invest in more high-yield stocks. High-yield stocks! I wanted to scream out, "Let them buy stocks!" but knew that my wife and team and the rest of the country would probably think it a bit over the top. To this day, I regret not shouting because that moment was perhaps the single most revealing of what was wrong with our party. We had people leading us who knew the country club but not Sam's Club. They knew their golf score from last week but not the price of eggs or milk. The only thing worse than not caring about people who were struggling and barely staying above water was not even knowing they were there!

Interestingly, while I was bashed for saying it in October, by January the other candidates were lip-synching virtually the same message. It was almost as if they had been to the Ashlee Simpson School of Voice.

The reference to Ashlee Simpson was what made me laugh out loud. At least one of my readers will not know who Ashlee Simpson is. She is the younger sister of Jessica Simpson (OK, if you want to know, use Google), who was caught lip-synching on Saturday Night Live back in 2004.

Thankful for Cheap Gas--And Inaccurate Information on the Web

First off, the gasoline prices have kept going down? Is that because Blagojevich was arrested? Over the weekend, Rose prompted me to fill the tank, because 153.9 seemed like such a good price. Knowing when to buy and when to wait is a bit of a funny game, but I decided to wait. This morning I filled up at 144.9. Yoohoo! It doesn't seem that long ago that we were paying close to $4.00 per gallon. My 401(k) has lost so much value I should rename it as my 201(k), but gasoline is cheaper. For that, and for so many other things, I am thankful.

I'm also thankful that not all of the information available on the internet is accurate. I'm thinking of some specific health information having to do with chemotherapy. Rose was zapped full of poison (taxotere and cytoxsan to be specific) on November 24. Since she had contracted a little bit of a cold the week before, we were wondering if they might postpone her chemo treatment, but all of the important levels were within range, so she got the treatment. We went back in for blood work on Dec. 2, and again on Dec. 8. Her white blood cell count was low on both of those dates, making her susceptible to any infection that might come her way. We have been pretty careful about trying to shelter her from anyone who is sick. The lab reports come back with 20 different reports, most of which are unintelligible to uninformed people. So . . . what does an inquisitive sort of a person like me do? I go online to try to figure out what all this stuff means.

Of all the stuff that comes back (20 categories), some are more important than others:
WBC (White Blood Cells)
Platelet Count
Absolute Grans
are among some of the more important categories.

The White Blood Cells are the cells that fight against infections, so a person with a low count of white cells is particularly vulnerable. On November 24, her WBC was within normal range: 5.5 out of a normal range of 4.4-11.3 K/uL. The value on Dec. 2 was 2.4 (below normal range); the value on Dec. 8 was 3.5 (still below normal range, but climbing).

The Platelet Count has not been a problem. On her first day of chemo treatment, we were told that they want the platelet count to be above 100 to receive the treatment. The normal range is 160-400 K/uL. On Nov. 24 her platelet count was 321. The platelet counts on Dec. 2 and Dec. 8 were 392 and 538, respectively.

The takes us to the strange category of Absolute Grans. The real term for this category is Absolute Granulocytes. Sometimes this is reported as ANC or AGC. Granulocytes are a special category of white blood cells. The Absolute Grans is a very important report. Though the normal range is 2.00-6.90 K/uL, we were told on the day of her first chemo treatment that a person has to be above 1.5 to be infused. On Nov. 24, her level was 2.15 (within normal range). This category has been one of the lowest values on her lab reports. On Dec. 2 it was 0.284, and on Dec. 8 it had actually descended to 0.271! There are other categories where her levels had risen considerably, so when they looked at the report, their explanation was that her body is working very hard to get better.

Rose has actually felt much better than her lab reports might indicate. She has been working just about every day (there are only two other people in her office, and they are pretty well spread out--plus they try to disinfect everything for her). In fact, she has felt incredibly better than what she should feel, based on something I found when I tried to figure out what this Absolute Grans category was all about.

Remember, to be infused, she needs to get to 1.5. She's got a ways to go between now and the next infustion date (next Monday). But what happens to a person with a low Absolute Grans level? Read this, and understand why I am thankful:

In some patients percentages might be misleading so absolute values of the types of WBC , i.e., the number of white blood cells multiplied by the percentage seen are valuable in diagnosing illness or following therapy. Persons receiving chemotherapy often have decreased WBC. If a patient’s absolute granulocyte count (ANC or AGC) goes below 2,000 cells, then physicians become concerned about the possibility of infection. A number below 1,000 is cause for greater concern and less than 500 usually lands the patient in the hospital.
Source: Hematology Tests from the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science.

Rose has been considerably below that level of 500 (0.500 on the scale used in our reports), which usually lands the patient in the hospital--for the past two weeks, during which the only day she did not go to work was on Thanksgiving Day itself!

That makes me very thankful! We don't really know what the near future holds. We are in uncharted (for us) waters. I'm reminded of the words from an old gospel song, written by Ira Stanphill:

Many things about tomorrow,
I don't seem to understand,
But I know Who holds the future,
And I know Who holds my hand.

Thanks be to God!

Hair Today--Gone Today--Make that "Almost Gone"

Right now, I have conflicted emotions flowing through me. I've always had a full head of hair, and have never been tempted to shave my head, as some of my colleagues more prone to baldness have done. I do try to keep my hair short, as it is so much easier to take care of that way. My choice to keep my hair short is both gender-and-culturally (and sub-culturally, if you please) informed. The Apostle Paul spoke of lots of hair on a man being disgraceful, and a full head of hair on a woman being glorious (1 Cor. 11:14-15).

The most serious of Rose's surgeries took place on October 1. One week later (October 9), when she was still in recovery-from-surgery mode, ABC Television had a special Nightline episode, which featured Good Morning America host, Robin Roberts, who was chronicling her journey as a breast cancer survivor. I set the DVR to record the program. Rose was already in bed, but I was still up, so I started watching the program live. About 10 minutes into the program, they showed Robin's decision to shave her head. I started sobbing! Rose woke up about then (I wasn't sobbing loudly), and walked out of the bedroom. She knew that Nightline was featuring a breast cancer story that night, so I went back to the start of the program, and we started watching it together. Together we watched; together we sobbed.

Yesterday, Rose started noticing hair easily coming off her head. This morning, it was more pronounced. In fact, she stopped blow drying her hair because of it. She had previously set a date to meet a friend who was a former hair dresser this morning at 10:00 at a local wig shop. We had been in there before, and knew that they gave a 50% discount to breast cancer patients who had lost their hair because of chemotherapy. Rose just called me. The hair loss was sufficient to get the 50% discount, so they picked out a nice wig. The decision was made, however, to go straight to Crystal's house, to buzz off the rest of her remaining hair. As a man, I don't know that it is possible for me to understand what that means to her. I only hope that I can adequately ease her passage through chemo-induced baldness.

I will probably meet her for a bite to eat before she goes to work at noon. She'll have the new wig on her head--her new look. This was something that we knew would happen, but kind of hoped would not. As we face each day, God's grace to us is present, and we are thankful. We appreciate your prayers on our behalf. May God bless you all!

Our church has just finished an excellent 3-week study on the book of Job. You can listen to some excellent messages (especially the last two) on the church website by clicking here. From the front page, click on the link to "listen to sermons."

Addendum:

I met Rose for lunch, expecting to see her new wig on her head. She didn't cut off all her hair, but it is very short. It should dry naturally, within using a blow dryer. We'll see how long it lasts. I brought the wig home.
(Note added at 1:28 PM, Central Standard Time)

A Distinction between Modernism and Postmodernism

Douglas Wilson made and interesting observation over at Blog and Mablog about the difference between modernism and postmodernism:

Modernism pretends to have the truth, but without humility. Postmodernism pretends to have the humility, but without the truth. Modernism was a bad dream. Postmodernism is the cold sweats right before you wake up. Wake up O sleeper, and Christ will shine upon you.

The reference is taken from Ephesians 5:14.

A John Piper Commentary

I just finished reading a column for World Magazine (dated tomorrow) by John Piper. You can read it here. Some of my missions students will certainly recognize his name. He is reflecting on the current political scene, beginning from a text that seems almost bizarrely contradictory: 1 Cor. 7:29-31.

He uses the terms: marry, cry, rejoice, and buy. You will find them all in the text. The rest of the essay reflects on each one of those concepts, followed by a reflection: "So it is with politics."

The last several sentences are worth quoting directly, though you should read the entire article:

So it is with politics. We deal with the system, the news, the candidates, the issues, the outcomes. But they are not the great thing in our lives. Christ is. And Christ will be ruling over His people with perfect supremacy after every election and after the vanishing of every nation.

So we do not revel or retreat. Our reward is in heaven. Our comforts are great. Our task is clear. Make much of Christ, not Caesar.

Amen!

Thunder and Lightning

I was awakened early this morning to some pretty noisy storms--thunder and lightning with strong winds. The weather report I heard this morning on the radio made reference to tornadic weather, in November!!!

Sorry, Kim, but this is neither a post about the weather, nor about grammar (no sentence diagrams coming). Unfortunately it is about Biblical Hebrew . . . and about politics.

President-elect Barak Obama was strongly criticized for the radical associations of his earlier life. Was he born in Hawaii? Or was he born in Kenya? What connections does he really have with Raila Odinga, who shares power in Kenya, but allegedly has designs to benefits Muslims (at the expense of Christians). All of this caused some to question how President Obama will deal with the Israel-Arab tensions.

To help him along those lines, Obama has named an Illinois Congressman, Rahm Emanuel, to be his Chief-of-Staff. Emanuel is Jewish, and his father was born in Israel. That should help ease the fears of some who fear that Obama might sell Israel into the hands of Iran.

It is fairly well known that the name Barak in languages having some relation to Arabic means "blessing." Notwithstanding what Obama himself said in his comedy routine at the Alfred E. Smith Foundation Dinner, that Barak in Swahili means "that one", the name Barak in Hebrew means lightning.

The Hebrew word ra'am, similar to Rahm, means thunder.

So, what we will have in the White House next January will be . . . thunder and lightning! To see those two Hebrew words together in one verse, one must look to Psalm 77:18. Below, you can see the text, with annotations from the ESV Reverse Interlinear, and lexical entries from the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament.

For Kim, who is Working in Mexico

Rarely will my daughter, Kim, comment on this blog site. She did today, so I decided to honor her: Now the election is over.