Playing with my camera

(By Erik)

After owning my Canon Digital Rebel for more than two years, I'm finally taking some time to learn how to use it.

I've been playing with some of the manual settings and taking pictures of the various blooming objects in our front yard (you'll notice lots of dandelions — Weeds "R Us!) On a lot of these photos I used a wide aperture to give the background a soft, blurred effect.





Here's a photo of our redbud tree taken with a small aperture (the round hole that lets light into the camera). To compensate for the small aperture, I had to set the shutter speed at a slower rate to allow more light to give a correct exposure.


Here's the same shot, but using a "wide open" aperture (big hole). To compesate, the shutter speed is quicker and lets less light into the camera. Note the difference in the background.

Odds and ends

(By Erik)

• We’ve finally posted the Bolivia podcast on christianchronicle.org. (It took me a long time to finish — and our Web guy had to basically redo it to fit our site’s format. Mad props to T & S Web design! And mad props to me for keeping the phrase "mad props" alive!)

It includes audio I took with a little iPod attachment during my recent trip south of the equator. You’ll hear a Bolivian congregation singing praises to God — and the sounds of riot police firing tear gas canisters into an angry mob (not at the same time, though). I hope I’ve whet your audiological appetite enough for you to give it a listen. Here’s a direct link — http://www.christianchronicle.org/downloads/videos/bolivia.mov

• Our friend Ann (in photo, with the birthday cake the McBrides gave her during a recent Connection Group meeting) has posted a virtual tour of her new apartment. She’s gone from suburban to urban. Check it out. We love Ann!

• If you want to get hooked, check out Line Rider. (Not to be confused with Knight Rider — also addictive. It basically lets you design a bobsled course and then watch as a little man on a toboggan tries it out — jumps, loops, crashes and all.

• I got mentioned in the Dallas Morning News! Well, sort of. A story I wrote for the Chronicle on multi-site churches was excerpted on DallasNews Religion, a blog for the newspaper’s religion staff. Still, I thought it was pretty cool.

I don't mean to drone on and on ...

(By Erik)

Here’s a prime example of how some people can get really upset for no particular reason about stuff that really doesn’t matter.

It all started with a news story in the San Francisco Chronicle that included the phrase “pilotless drone.” (I’m guessing it was an article about the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, where our military has been using such craft for reconnaissance and whatnot.)

The Chronicle (theirs, not ours) has a call-in line for readers. One of them pointed out the redundancy of the phrase “pilotless drones” … and then proceeded to get downright irate about it.

The message has been floating around the Internet. Here it is set to music. (Notice cameo appearances by the Transformers) Enjoy.

Flip out like a ninja!

(By Erik)

OK, some of you didn't exactly enjoy (or fathom) the Zoology Dragon song I posted a few weeks ago. Here's another one by the same guy that I think you'll like better. It's an addictive little tune

This cracked me up

(By Erik)

Check out kendallball.com and you’ll find a discussion called “Christian Chronicle tackles identity crisis.” It’s a discussion of Bobby’s latest story in our series “Are we growing?”

Scroll through the comments after the post and you’ll find one by someone named David. Here’s the comment:

“I’m not intending to hijack the thread/discussion here, but I just followed GKB’s link to the Chronicle website (haven’t looked at the paper in several years, and then in print). Why are there only three writers, apparently, for the whole deal? Ten articles on the front page — all but one (which was a congratulatory in-house piece) were written by one guy, his wife, and another guy. Should they be calling this a blog rather than a newspaper? Anybody got info/explanations? Maybe the print version has opinions from more than two households …”

I could go into a long discussion of the difference between news stories and “opinions” and how a lot of folks don’t acknowledge that there’s even a difference anymore (because people like Rush Limbaugh, Al Franken and Bill O’Reilly have rotted their brains), but I find this comment way too funny to be upset.

(Incidentally, the congratulatory, in-house piece was written by the one guy’s wife.)

-- Erik (a.k.a. “Another Guy”)

Meeting Malcolm

(By Erik)

The Christian Chronicle won four awards in the annual contest sponsored by the Oklahoma Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Jeanie and I drove to Tulsa for the awards banquet Saturday night. We met Bobby and Tamie there.

The big thrill for me was winning first place in the category “Minority Issues” for the story “Churches use edgy, 'street-savvy' evangelism to reach communities” that ran in our April 2006 issue.

The story focused on Malcolm McIntosh, a former gang leader who said he “got tired of trying to be God” before he started visiting churches. He was baptized at the Northeast Church of Christ here in Oklahoma City.

Malcolm defied my expectations. Quick-witted and sincere, he laughed through most of the interview. He was honest about his former life — and the fact that some elements of it still appealed to him. Many don’t understand that, for a lot of kids, gangs take the place of broken families. Malcolm used to give lunch money to children as young as 8 years old as a means of introducing them to gang life.

Now he warns kids about the dangers of that life — and he tells them about eternal life.

“I was a Blood,” he said. “I tell them we still use that blood, but now we live for the blood of Christ.”

I visited the Northeast church just a few days ago and asked about Malcolm. He’s still coming to church and doing well. I’m hoping he’ll be available to tell his story at this year’s World Mission Workshop. Oklahoma Christian is hosting it here in October.

Armed hairdresser pursues suspects

(By Erik)

The headline pretty much says it all.

Before I moved to Oklahoma to work for The Christian Chronicle, I was a reporter for the Savannah Morning News in the great state of Georgia. My beat was cops and crime. Here’s a “flashback” article that I wrote for the Savannah paper back in 1999. Rarely does a haircut go by that I don’t think of John “Mad Dog” Partain.

By Erik Tryggestad
Savannah Morning News
October 30, 1999

Two alleged purse snatchers got more than they bargained for when a hairdresser ran out of his Wilmington Island salon with a gun.

Master stylist and colorist John Partain saw two men run by his business, The Salon at Wilmington, at the Kroger Island Center on Johnny Mercer Boulevard, about 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

"These guys were flying," Partain said. "Then I heard the lady holler ‘They got my purse! They got my purse!’"

The victim, an 81-year-old woman, was attacked in the parking lot of the shopping center.

Partain, 57, who served in the Army before he became a hairdresser, ran to the back of the store and grabbed his gun, a Walther PPK. He said he keeps it there in case his business is robbed.

"I remember (Partain) pushing me up against the washing machine, "as he grabbed the weapon and barreled out the back door, said Lucas Muncie, an assistant at the salon.

Partain watched the two men flee along the fence behind the shopping center. He yelled at them several times to stop.

The man with the purse jumped over the fence into a residential neighborhood and escaped, Partain said. The other didn’t make it over the fence, and continued to run along a drainage ditch in front of the fence.

Partain said he fired the gun into the dirt near the fence to try to stop him, but the man kept running. He fired again, but the man still didn’t stop.

"I wasn’t trying to hit him. I wouldn’t shoot him in the back. He was unarmed," Partain said.

He chased the man around the fence and down part of Penn Waller Road.

"Finally, he was out of gas," Partain said.

The man tried to hide in some bushes, but Partain ordered him down on the ground and kept him there until police arrived.

Chatham County officers arrived and arrested the man, identified as Shannon Deshawn Johnson in the police report, and charged him with robbery by snatching. Johnson, 21, of Miami, admitted to running from the scene, but denied involvement in the robbery, according to the report.

During the arrest, police found Johnson in possession of a small bag of cocaine, according to the report. Also charged with possession of a controlled substance.

The officers also took Partain’s gun, in case it’s needed for evidence.

Partain used to own a salon in Atlanta called Mad Dog John’s. He recently decided to move back to the Savannah area, where he grew up, but chose the tamer name The Salon for his new business.

Hairdressers in the salon Friday had mixed reaction to the incident. Some said they didn’t approve of Partain’s use of the firearm. Others, like customer Debbie Crawford of Tybee Island, said it’s just John being John.

"It seems to be in character for him," she said.

So what happened? Did John Partain get in trouble for discharging his firearm in a quasi-public area? Hardly. Here’s a follow-up report from the Web site of his business, The Salon at Wilmington:

“In an awards ceremony Feb. 28 Chatham County Police Chief Tom C. Sprague awarded John Partain, owner of The Salon at Wilmington, a Citizen's Award. Partain was honored for coming to the aid of a frail elderly widow, with total disregard for his personal safety, by chasing one of two suspected purse snatchers in the Kroger Islands Center. He caught and held one of the suspects until police came and made the arrest. Then he comforted the 80-year-old victim and assured her safe return home. The assailant pled guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison.”

Everything you've ever wanted to know about me can be explained by playing this video

(By Erik)

Click and be ye enlightened

Pretty much says it all. (The song will get stuck in your head after two or three plays, I promise.)

Five things no one knows about me ...

(By Erik)

In continuing the trend I’ve established of mentioning Bobby and/or Tamie Ross in the beginning of every single blog post …

Bobby recently “tagged” me to list Five Things No One Knows About Me. For some time I’ve avoided this activity for the simple fact that any such information would be considered privileged and, if I posted it, would be no longer privileged or indeed unknown. Yet, as I find myself woefully without Netflix movies or anything decent to watch on TV, I feel oddly compelled to comply.

1. I have absolutely no writing ability at all. All of my articles are ghost written by my wife in her spare time. In fact, I’m not even writing this now. I’m in the other room playing Super Pac-Man.

2. I have AT LEAST two fingers on every single hand.

3. I have a brief cameo in the film Mission to Mars. I portray Marvin Morales, the wise-cracking head chef at NASA who breaks into Mission Control throughout the film, grabbing the intercom system and shouting the names of today’s entrees in the NASA cafeteria up to the astronauts as they approach the Red Planet. In the touching scene where Woodrow “Woody” Blake (Tim Robbins) dances with his wife, Terri Fisher (Connie Nielsen) in zero gravity as a wistful Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise) watches, pining for the wife he lost to cancer, I can be heard in the background yelling, “RIGATONI WITH SAUTEED BABY EGGPLANT, FRESH MOZZARELLA AND FRESH BASIL IN FILETTO DI POMODORO SAUCE. GOLDEN BROWN, WHITE MEAT CHICKEN SERVED WITH SHALLOTS IN TERIYAKI SAUCE. THE CHICKEN AND BROCCOLI TORTELLONI IS NOT AVAILABLE ON TODAY’S MENU. I REPEAT, NOT AVAILABLE. THAT IS ALL.”

My voiceover was cut from the final version of the film’s domestic release. The producers felt my performance was “too cerebral” and removed the romantic tension from the scene. However, the scene was left in its original form for the Italian version of the film. Though I have never visited, I am regarded in Italy as a national hero.

4. Right now I’m watching the religious TV station. It features Kirk Cameron, better known to the world as Mike Seaver of ABC’s popular sitcom Growing Pains, talking about the Ten Commandments. (Actually, a man with an Australian accent and a mustache is doing most of the talking. And no, I'm not sure if I'm spelling "Seaver" correctly.)

More recently Cameron portrayed the main character in the movie version of the popular Left Behind series of novels, a fictional account of the equally fictional belief that the Second Coming will be heralded by the Rapture and seven years of tribulation in which we will be tortured by the antichrist — an evil man with a bad Russian accent in the Left Behind version. He will also be the head of the United Nations, which believers in the Rapture think is an evil organization bent on nothing less than complete world government. They are wrong, of course. It is well known by all free-thinking people that the evil organization bent on world domination is not the United Nations. It is Disney.

Kirk Cameron’s voice is just slightly ahead of his mouth movements on the religious channel. I fear that he might be the antichrist. If he is, perhaps he has the power to silence the moustached man with the Australian accent.

5. “Tryggestad” isn’t actually a name at all. It’s merely an assemblage of random letters I put together by punching a “Speak N’ Spell” repeatedly. My actual name is X92458756-NB478. I am a clone — part of an elaborate government experiment to create an exact genetic duplicate of Leon Trotsky, the Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary, Marxist theorist and founder of the Red Army. The government deemed the experiment, code-named “Treadway,” a failure. I was released into the wild to fend for myself, and the government was forced to devise another method of winning the Cold War — pushing the Soviets to the edge of economic ruin by escalating the arms race during the Reagan era instead of having me — had I, in fact, developed into a perfect genetic double of Trotsky — announce to the Soviets, “Oops, comrades. Looks like I was turned around on this whole communism thing. Free markets rule!”

Can't beat that Chronicle style!

Bobby and Tamie's blog has a neat little search function that lets you look at blogs across the Web that mention The Christian Chronicle. I browsed through them (there's a lot of talk about the "Are We Growing?" stories Bobby's written) and came across one site that had the title "Viagra."

Obviously, I had to investigate.

So here it is — a mention of The Christian Chronicle on a Web site named "Viagra" (I excerpted the section that mentions our publication):

"Viagra what likelihood there was of an disobedient dangerousness by the musicales. but it is desponding that it was after the stern-frame of the Viagra, since it has interpolations from the Christian chronicle-style. The Viagra of this intended poem, re-visit probably the d'asacs of the Pursuest Khsatriya"

Yep, that pretty much says it all.

-- Erik "disobedient dangerousness" Tryggestad

Our favorite airline excuses

(By Erik and Jeanie)

It’s hard for us to top Bobby’s recent airline experience, but here is a list of actual excuses for delayed flights Jeanie and I have heard over the years. Please feel free to post your favorite excuses.

(But seriously, we love to fly … and it shows.)

There’s a small electrical problem with the plane.

This nondescript problem took about three hours to resolve. It was a Memphis to Amsterdam flight, too. And although I say “resolved,” I can’t help but remember that the whole plane smelled like burning electrical wires.

A small part of the handle broke off one of the cargo doors.

We sat on the tarmac for half an hour while they looked for a maintenance guy. Finally, someone showed up with something that looked like — I’m not kidding — clear packing tape. A few minutes later we were good to go.

The flight attendants were delayed going through customs.

… which seemed strange to me, as it was a domestic flight

There’s a small spring in one of the windows that’s broken. We’re trying to put a new spring in now.

This took about 45 minutes to fix, while we all waited on the plane. Jeanie and I were scratching our heads. What sort of window on a plane is spring-loaded?

The TSA is inspecting all the cargo we’re unloading from the place this plane just came from — Tegucigalpa, Honduras. After they’re done we’ll begin loading your luggage.

I was in the plane for that one. (I think they found a few flight attendants in there.)

Since we were late pulling away from the gate, we got behind another plane that’s also going to Chicago, and now we can’t take off until he’s been in the air about five minutes.

Yes, evidently planes generate something akin to a wake zone. This was some sort of FAA rule.

There’s some sort of wreckage on the runway in Lagos, so we’re diverting to Abuja and will wait for them to clean it up.

All I can say is, “Ahhh … Nigeria!”

We don’t have a pilot for this plane

Whoops! They had to call a guy in to fly the plane. He looked like he was about 17 years old.

There’s some sort of animal on the runway.

The pilot (the same 17-year-old) assured us that, the last time he was at Chicago O’Hare, the same thing happened.

What Bolivian airports teach us about perseverance ...

(By Erik)

Back in December I volunteered to speak in chapel here at Oklahoma Christian University on the topic of perseverance.

At the time, I didn’t realize I’d get a lesson in perseverance just a few weeks later.

I joined a team from the Austin Avenue Church of Christ in Brownwood, Texas, on a week-long trip to the South American nation of Bolivia. The church supports a five-family mission team there and took about 25 of us down to Bolivia for the inaugural service of the church in Cochabamba, a city of about 1 million souls tucked away in the Andes Mountains.


If you’ve been following the situation in Venezuela, you’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s going on in Bolivia — and a lot of Latin American countries — nowadays. I won’t go into all the details, but there’s tension in Bolivia right now between the socialist president, Evo Morales, and the local governments of some of the Bolivian states, including the one that Cochabamba’s in.

Things got really ugly just a couple of weeks ago, as supporters and opponents of the president’s reforms clashed on the streets of Cochabamba. They were hitting each other with sticks and throwing rocks. Two people died.

And we got stuck in the middle of it.

We were never in danger, mind you. We flew into Santa Cruz from Miami and stayed at a local hotel until we were supposed to catch a domestic flight to Cochabamba. The flight was scheduled to leave at 7:15 p.m. Thursday.


It actually left at about 6 a.m. Friday.

The flight was delayed again and again as the local airline kept bypassing us, sending large groups of people who had been trapped in bus stations for three days on flights to Cochabamba. (The protestors had blocked the mountain roads, essentially shutting down everything but air travel.)

We were stuck in the domestic departures lounge — watching the in-airport “network” that basically was about 30 minutes of commercials and music videos played in a loop. One of the commercials featured a very loud rendition of YMCA by the Village People. So that was the routine — lay on the airport floor or the benches and start to drift off until the sound of “Bah, da da , da da Da da da da da … Young man …”

You know the rest.


When we finally got to Cochabamba, we spent the first day barricaded in our hotel as the protests continued. Most of us were too tired to venture out, so it actually worked out well. And, luckily, the protestors don’t work on weekends. So Saturday and Sunday were great days. We got to tour the city and eat ice cream and stir fry. (Yes, Cochabamba has a top-notch Asian restaurant.)


I’ve mentioned this in blog posts before, but it bears repeating. The book of James in the Bible tells us how we out to feel about suffering:

James 1:2-4 — “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”


The message in these verses seems to go beyond “Just hang on and God will get you through it.” Look at some more verses in the first chapter of James:

James 1:9-12 — “The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”

What James seems to be saying here is, “Hey, if you’re poor, congrats! You have to suffer so perseverance can finish its work, and if you’re poor, you’ll probably suffer quite a bit. You’re very lucky to hold this high position.”

“And if you’re rich, well, condolences. You guys have it a lot better and don’t suffer nearly as much as the poor. But take heart, chances are you’ll lose all of your riches sooner or later and then you’re right down there suffering alongside the poor. God will work it out!”

It’s much easier to read and hear these words than to live them out. I think about the funeral for Adam Langford, a missionary in Uganda who died in a car wreck last week. How do you tell his family to rejoice in their suffering? How do you tell them that suffering is part of building perseverance?

How do we find the strength to carry on in times of suffering? I know that I personally find comfort in the victories of life — the way that God frustrates Satan’s schemes by transforming the horrible into the miraculous.



In Cochabamba, we gave out balloons to children in the public squares — the same squares where people had been beating each other with sticks and rocks just hours before. I think we had about 50 visitors at the church dedication the next day. A few of them brought their balloons.


And we had one baptism to start things off for this young congregation. Wonderful news.


It’s great that we got to observe the fruits of perseverance.

Here’s another story of perseverance that gives me hope. I traveled back to my home state of Georgia a few months ago and met a man named Wesley Brown. Wesley showed me the old balcony of the West End Church of Christ. It’s a storage room now, but back in the 1950s it was the balcony of a church that was all-white. When Wesley attended gospel meetings here, he had to use the church’s “colored” entrance and sit in the balcony.

But the demographics of the West End neighborhood changed, and in the 1970s the church started actively recruiting black members — and they brought on Wesley Brown as minister.

In just a few weeks Wesley will retire after serving for 33 years as minister for a church that — at one point in its history — would not allow him to walk through its front door.


Growing up in the South, I’m certainly familiar with the racism that still exists, and I lament that Sunday remains the most segregated day of the week. But it’s hard to imagine a time when separation of the races was a law. It’s hard to imagine people endorsing such behavior — thinking that’s OK.

I asked Wesley what it was like, and he gave me a straightforward answer.

“Some accepted, some didn’t. Some people grumbled about it. Some of us just went along and prayed that God would knock down that barrier. And he did.”

Praise God for real-life examples of perseverance like Wesley Brown.

So, whenever you face struggles and hardships in your life, I urge you to keep your faith.

Based on my experiences in the Bolivia airport, I offer you these poetic words of encouragement.

Young man, there's no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, young man, 'cause you're in a new town
There's no need to be unhappy.

Young man, there's a place you can go.
I said, young man, when you're short on your dough.
You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time.

It's fun to stay at the …

You know the rest.

Our Christmas tree is still up ...

(By Erik)

Yes, that's how far behind we are on our post-holiday chores. It seems like we haven't been able to catch our breath since mid-December. Now that Bobby, Tamie and I have finished the content for the February issue of the Chronicle, I have a bit more time to reflect, relax and unpack.


I spent almost a week in the South American nation of Bolivia. The photo you see is a close-up of "Cristo de la Concordia" in Cochabamba, a city in the central part of the country. I have many stories to tell about this trip (including being stuck in the Santa Cruz airport waiting for a flight. It was supposed to leave at 7:15 p.m. Thursday and didn't actually get off the ground until 6 a.m. Friday. The song "YMCA" is still going through my head. I'll explain later.)

Some of you who read this blog knew Adam Langford, the missionary in Uganda who was killed in a wreck last week. If you'd like more background on what happened (and if you'd like to know more about the church leader, Moses Kimezi, who also died in the wreck) we've posted a story about the accident on our Web site. (Click on Adam's picture to read his final mission report.)

More posts coming. Promise.

How bout them ... Gators!

(By Erik)

I honestly never thought I’d say that, but I’m most impressed with the Florida Gators' 41-14 win over Ohio State. Wow! What a defense!

After all the mouth-running and smack-talking about who deserved to go to the BCS’ big game (and Florida’s coach did his fair share) I told Jeanie that it would be best for the SEC if two things happened:

1.) Michigan (who many said should’ve gone to the championship game instead of the SEC champion Gators) loses to USC in the Rose Bowl.

2.) (Much less likely) Florida blows Ohio State out of the stadium.

Two out of two ain’t bad! And the Bulldogs posted a come-from-behind victory against Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl (though, as usual, there’s no reason they should have gotten into that hole in the first place).

So, despite bowl losses by Tennessee and Alabama, it turned out to be a pretty good bowling expedition by the SEC — the BEST conference in the nation, in my humble opinion (and in Ohio State’s, I’d reckon).

Tryggblog: We’re huge in Brazil

(By Erik)

That’s ”Somos enormes em Brasil” in Portuguese.

If you scroll down the right hand side of this blog you’ll see our Clustrmap, a generalized atlas that shows you where in the world people who are looking at this site are located. (That was a horrific sentence. Good thing I don’t write for a living.)

As a self-styled international reporter, geography buff and — most of all — complete geek, I love looking at our Clustrmap and guessing about the people who are completely wasting their time on Tryggblog.

(Click on the small map and you’ll see a bigger version unless the Clustrmap site is overloaded, which happens on occasion — and incidentally, I almost always misspell “occasion” when I type. Comes out “ocassion.” Once again, good thing that I’m not paid to write, and thank you rolling spell check.)

The total number of hits Tryggblog gets is relatively small. There are a variety of reasons for this, but the primary two are:

1.) Not posting content on a regular basis, giving people a reason to “tune in” daily or weekly, and …
2.) Not posting content that’s of any value whatsoever — unless you’re a fan of the Georgia Bulldogs, Kent Allen and Def Leppard.

The biggest two dots on our map — i.e. the cities that give Tryggblog the most Tryggviews — are Oklahoma City (that’s mostly me checking the site to see if anybody else is looking at it) and Nashville, Tenn. (that’s mostly my parents looking at it because I never call and how else are they supposed to know anything about what’s going on in my life?)

It’s hard to tell the precise locations of the smaller dots, but here are a few other places where people are reading Tryggblog:

Brazil: We have several large-ish dots in this South American country, despite our complete lack of content relating to soccer. The hits largely are the work of Ann White, who kept up with Trygg-related events while she traveled through the area. (Check out Ann’s blog if you want to see a Clustrmap with many more dots than ours.)

Japan: “Domo arigato” to the good people of Tokyo for checking in with Tryggblog. I’ve met several folks from Mito and thereabouts — including folks at Ibaraki Christian University and the Mito Church of Christ. Perhaps Yuki Obata or his father, Shiro, are looking at the site.

Canada: There are some big-ish dots over what I believe are Montreal and Quebec City. I visited those cities (plus Jonquiere, way up north) a couple of months ago and stayed with Mike and Lise Mazzalongo (Verdun, Montreal), Keith Percell (St. Foy, Quebec) and Jean Grenier (Jonquiere). I also logged onto Tryggblog when I was at their homes — hoping it would register hits on the map. (Sad but true.) Jean Grenier was traveling through Oklahoma recently and we went to lunch at Ted’s here in Edmond. His exact words when he tried the habanero salsa — “Ooh la la!” (They treated us like kings, by the way — big shout out to Ted’s.)

Central African Republic: Tryggblog finally registered its first hit in Africa. And it came from an unlikely country — the Central African Republic. I only know one soul in this whole nation — Worlanyo Bor. Brother Bor and his countrymen have endured a lot of hardship in recent years as the CAR recovers from years of political strife.

(This post got a bit unwieldy in the writing, so I’ll return to this subject later. Still a lot of countries to cover.)

An audiobook worth downloading (especially if it's still free)

John Hodgman plugs the paperback version of his book

It looks like iTunes is back up a running after it crashed on Christmas Day (too many kids with brand new iPods, evidently). Anyway, if you go online right now you can download a free copy of the audiobook The Areas of My Expertise read by the author, John Hodgman. It’s an abridged version, but still clocks in at more than six hours of free material.

Hodgman, in case you didn’t know, is the “I’m a PC” guy from the Apple commercials. And he’s a brilliant, deadpan comedian who makes frequent appearances on The Daily Show.

Some Christmas photos

Santa makes his way down the Oklahoma River during the Devon Energy Holiday Parade.

We had our first fire in the fireplace (Jeanie's dad helped).

We had dinner at Chelino's in Bricktown and got to see some of the lights.





Here's a photo of my favorite tree ornament.

I say Christmas, you say "Christ"mas ...

(By Erik)

On Christmas Eve (a couple of days ago) I gave the afternoon sermon at Tealridge, an assisted living facility next to the campus of Oklahoma Christian University. In case anyone's interested, here are my sermon notes. (I apologize for the broken sentences and bad syntax.)

Matthew 9:1-8 (New International Version)

1Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven."

3At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!"

4Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? 6But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." 7And the man got up and went home. 8When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. This is the day I always liked best as a kid. Couldn’t get to sleep the night before Christmas, would wake up at 4 a.m.

I was actually relieved when I came to an understanding about the truth behind Santa Claus — that my parents played a bigger role in his existence than they had first let on. (I have to be careful how I phrase that in case there are any young readers out there.)

I had always been bothered by the concept that a guy in a red suit from the North Pole was in charge of my Christmas order. I was afraid that somehow he’d mess it up. Knowing my parents were in charge of the situation was quite comforting.

I knew I was getting older when I started looking forward to Christmas dinner more than Christmas presents.

I grew up in a church that wasn’t comfortable with the notion of Christmas as a religious holiday. That was seen as the stance of the “denominational” world and we didn’t want to single out the birth of Christ as something to be celebrated once per year. Some members of the church I grew up in wouldn’t even say the word “Christmas.” Our church hosted “holiday parties.”

At the time — the late 70s and early 80s — there was a movement in America to “secularize” Christmas, to limit references to Christ in public displays and school performances. And members of my church found themselves in the awkward position of supporting the secular elements of our society — who didn’t see Christ as important.

Today we’ve moved almost 180 degrees from that standpoint. There’s a large effort throughout the country to put Christ back in Christmas. It’s a kind of backlash to what we saw up until the late 1990s, I think. Anyone who tries to secularize the holiday is pounced upon by angry masses of Christians. Sometimes I’m afraid we Christians come across as being intolerant of anyone who doesn’t believe as we do. I’ve even heard a few people this year who are taking to calling it “Christ”mas.

What would Jesus say about all of this? I imagine he’d tell us that the manner and date of his birth aren’t nearly as important as the manner of his death, burial and resurrection. Instead of debating about whether or not to celebrate his birthday on Dec. 25, Jesus tells us to remember his sacrifice regardless of the date. That’s what we just did with the Lord’s Supper.

When believers get wrapped up in debates — debates about anything — we miss the point of Christ’s message. The older I get, the more I’m convinced that the central message of Jesus teaching is “you’re missing the point.” In fact, that seems to be a recurring theme throughout the entire New Testament. Look as the epistles written after Christ’s resurrection and you’ll see the apostles addressing a number of problems in the young churches. Always their message is the same — “you’re missing the point. Concentrate on the things that matter.”

When Jesus heals the paralytic in Matthew 9, what does he say first? “Take heart, son. Your sins are forgiven.” How would the paralytic young man react? “Well, thanks, but I’m here because I can’t walk.” And what’s the reaction of the teachers of the law? “This fellow is blaspheming!” No man has the authority to forgive sins? Only God can do that.”

But who was Jesus? Jesus was God. Remember the words of the first chapter of John:

John 1:1-2 (NIV)

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.

John 1:14 (NIV)

14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,[d] who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

And how does this man — this Word who put on flesh, the son of God — how does he respond to the religious teachers? “Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk?'” What’s more important — forgiving sins or healing infirmity? If you think it’s more important that this young man walks, you’re missing the point.

He teaches us a similar lesson as he calms the waters of a terrible storm. Look at Mark 4:36-41

Mark 4:36-41 (King James Version)

36And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.
37And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.
38And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
39And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
40And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?
41And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

What is Jesus telling his disciples? You’re missing the point. You’re focusing on the wind and the waves and forgetting that the “master of ocean and earth and sky” is right here in the boat with you. Focus on what’s important. The storms of this life will pass — and I won’t let you drown.

It’s so hard to focus on Jesus — on what’s important — when there’s so much grief and pain in the world. Our nation is at war, and a lot of our soldiers in the Middle East will be spending Christmas away from their families. We’re even talking about sending more troops overseas, and it seems that we’re facing war without end.

The Bible class my wife and I attend at Memorial Road is called the Just Starting Out class. It’s a class for young married couples and in recent years it’s been the congregational baby factory. One of these couples is foremost on our hearts today because their baby — a 6-month-old girl — is in the pediatric intensive care unit downtown at the University of Oklahoma hospital. The baby started having seizures about two weeks ago and hasn’t stopped. It’s been an especially intense experience for me because my wife, Jeanie, is one of the doctors treating this child. Right now that’s where she is. The baby’s family and my wife are going to spend Christmas Day in the hospital.

Sometimes I think we squabble about Christmas, or “Christ”mas, as a way of drowning out the real problems that we have in this life. We focus on minute details because we have real suffering, real pain that we’re trying to block out. But Jesus reassures us that he is the master of all, and most importantly that there is a life after this.

And what happened in that manger more than 2,000 years ago grants all of us eternal life. It’s so hard to focus on that through all the “noise of life,” but sometimes we find that sorrow and war are the very things that help us focus on what is important.

I want close by reading you a short piece written by Steve Valentine. Recently we did a story for The Christian Chronicle titled “Worship in a war zone.” We asked soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan to tell us what it’s like to attend church services in the military. We discovered that there are at least six Churches of Christ meeting in the Baghdad area.

Sgt. Valentine, an Army reservist, served for 15 months in Iraq and worshipped with a church in Taji, a city about 20 miles from Baghdad in the volatile Sunni Triangle you’ve probably heard about on the news. He wrote the following account:

(Read Sgt. Valentine's account here — it's worth clicking on this link promise!)

Philippians 4:4-7 (NIV)

4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

'The lats are brat at nat'

(By Erik)

Stole this from Ann's blog. Purty accurate, as far as I can tell. What do y'all think?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The South   That's a Southern accent you've got there. You may love it, you may hate it, you may swear you don't have it, but whatever the case, we can hear it.
The Midland
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The West
The Northeast
North Central
Boston
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Feeling the (complete lack of) heat

(By Erik)

I’m sitting here in my rather cold office. Since the students (and some of the professors) have gone home for the holidays, the heat is off here in the Bible building. We have space heaters, but mine blew a fuse in my office. So I'm picking blogging over heat right now.

We were warned about this early last week, and it reminds me of an e-mail conversation that floated around the Bible building among the faculty and staff. I kept a transcript and am reprinting it here.

Names have been changed to protect the innocent — namely me, since none of the Bible faculty knows I’m doing this.

It started when a staff member, “Victoria Walters,” informed us that the heat would be off during part of the holiday break.

Bob Plumber: “So, does this qualify as ‘news hot off the press’ (or as ‘hot news for the press,’ at least as it applies to the folks at the Chronicle)?

Chet Kiwi: “Let’s just have a heated debate about that question, Bob. I’m betting that comment will receive a cold reception, though.”

Curtis Nikon: “I think this is what happens when we send our degreed professors to a national convection. As Origen said in his work against Celsius, ‘Send me a thermos stat.’”

Bob Plumber: “Oh, boy, this is really starting to snowball now! I just hope the conversation doesn’t drift off into absurdity! But then, considering some of the flakes who have been weighing in so far …”

Curtis Nikon: “Bob (Sled) Plumber, I hope you are not wishing to precipitate a host of cool replies from your colleagues. There’ snow ay I would respond in kind. Ice rink from such pedantry, from being puerile as the driven snow. You get no icy retort from me, my friend. As Descartes said, ‘I thawed, therefore I am.’ De-luged with these silly e-mails, I’ll-pine for the good old days when every Jane norDick felt any compulsion to respond to every single missive received. Let sleeping dog sleigh.”

Victoria Walters: “As our colleague Richard Poe so wisely said, ‘Cool it.’”

Curtis Nikon: “Alas, we will always have the Poe among us.”

Chet Kiwi: “If you can’t take the heat …”

Cline Antwerp: "My esteemed colleagues, if you were in Australia at this time (as we are), where summer is just beginning (104 degrees yesterday), this silly discussion would have never taken place. Festus was right, 'Your great learning is driving you insane.'"

Homer Shankson: "Insanity may explain some of what’s going on."

Bosworth Floss: “We’re feeling the heat here at the Chronicle as it’s deadline week. Please put the discussion on ice as we’ve got our feet to the fire. And, by the way, thanks for the laughs. With warmest regards ...”

That effectively ended the conversation (Bosworth can be such a killjoy.)

Podcast problem resolved

OK. We've got the problem resolved with the podcast. Those of you on the campus of Oklahoma Christian and Memorial Road should be able to hear it now. Let me know if you can't.

Listen to it here.

In case you can't hear the podcast ...

For those of you on the campus of Oklahoma Christian University or the Memorial Road Church of Christ, the links I've created to the Kent Allen podcast are being blocked by OC's filtering software. (Evidently OC considers my content to be inappropriate for the young minds on this campus! Ha!)

I've got an e-mail in to the administrators to lift the ban on the podcast. Meanwhile, the second link to the material (Flash version) seems to be working, but I can't get it to play on my computer here at the office. I'll work on an alternative and post it as soon as I can.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

Podcast: An interview with Kent Allen

(By Erik)

As many of you know, Memorial Road Church of Christ is saying goodbye to our minister of 25 years — Kent Allen. We just had a farewell dinner for Kent and his wife, Phyllis. I prepared a podcast interview with Kent for the program. Here's an audio link to it on the Internet. Please give it a listen and let me know what you think.

Listen to it here.

If you have trouble opening the file, try accessing the Flash version or look for a variety of formats here.

More snow pictures

The storm has moved east, but the snow is going to stick around for a bit.

Brrrrrr!

We measured about four and a half inches of snow and ice. (Our unscientific method involved opening the garage door and holding a ruler against the edge of the white stuff).

Ho ho ho! It's snow snow snow!

(By Erik)

We're in the middle of our first winter storm of the season. It started yesterday when temperatures dropped like a rock and clouds moved in. We've had a night of freezing rain followed (finally) by some Christmasy-looking snow. Now we're getting a mix — and some thunder. It's pretty cool.

Jeanie was on call last night and had to drive back in the stuff at 7 a.m. She made it safely and is sleeping now. I'm here enjoying our warm and comfy den. The power's still on and Oklahoma Christian is closed for the day. (I brought some work home with me just in case.)

I'll go get a photo of it a little bit later.

Time for some coffee!

Some thoughts on Thanksgiving from the original George W.

(By Erik)

Jeanie and I were at the mall yesterday and saw Christmas decorations, gifts and trimmings aplenty. And yes, we saw Santa, too (from a distance. I didn’t go get in line to see him or anything. Jeanie wouldn’t let me. I promised her I wouldn’t cry when I got up there to him, but she didn’t believe me).

These days it seems like we skip Thanksgiving and go straight from Halloween to Christmas. There are tons of Christmas commercials on TV already — and none of them are very Christmasy, either! For some reason Target and Old Navy, two stores we frequently frequent, have released Christmas commercials that I find especially cold and sterile.

There’s no red and green — just blue and white (evidently, the new Christmas colors). And instead of Santa and stockings, there’s a white-haired, Warhol-looking European designer saying, “I have created for you a winter wonderland.” Where’s the love?

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving.

Have we lost the true meaning of Thanksgiving? Have we demoted it to “Practice Christmas Turkey Day?”

To jog our memory, I present this excerpt from George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation. It’s rich with faith language — and it really made me stop and think.

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

We talked about this a bit in our Bible class this morning at Memorial Road. We were in Matthew 26, talking about the Lord’s Supper and how it took place during Passover. We talked about what the Passover means to Jewish people and what the Lord’s Supper means to us. Have we lost sight of that as well?

I think that George Washington would have made a great preacher.

If he wanted to write for the Chronicle, though, we’d have to have a little chat about run-on sentences!

Vive Quebec!

(By Erik)

I'm back from a trip for The Christian Chronicle up north. I spent a few days visiting churches and missionaries in the Canadian province of Quebec. It was a bit on the cold side at times, but it was a great trip. Imagine a rainy, snowy land full of good-natured, French-speaking Midwesterners and you've pretty much got the idea. And its cities look a lot like Europe.

I'm including a few photos I took in Montreal. These aren't my best, but they're the only ones I have access to here at the house.

Here's a shot from downtown Montreal. It was raining, as you can tell. The older sections of the town look very much like Europe.

Here's a shot from the top of the "mountain" near the middle of Montreal. Mike Mazzalongo, a missionary and minister for the Verdun Church of Christ, was our tour guide.

Mike told me that Montreal was the site of the world's first hockey game. Here's a poster advertising the play The Canadiens, which shares its name with the city's celebrated NHL team.

Here's a shot of my rental car. Turns out Quebecers do drive on the same side of the road as us. Boy, is my face red! (But it's healing. The doctor said I could be eating solids again by the end of the week!)

Who do I look like to you?

(By Erik)

Here's something Ann's blog pointed me to. It's pretty cool, but it's being WAY too kind! Great to know that I look a little bit like Abdullah Gul? Does anybody know who he is?

(I've had to move the image off the site since it was messing up the rail on the right. If you want to see it, click here.)

A few more memories from the Classic City

(By Erik)
During our recent trip to Georgia I was able to swing by Athens (the "Classic City") and reconnect with Connie and Terry Norwood. Terry is an elder of the Campus View Church of Christ, and he and Connie have been adopted parents for hundreds of students in their decade of ministry. (That's Connie in the photo, talking to one of the new graduate student at UGA just outside Sanford Stadium.)

I wrote a story about the Norwoods for our latest issue of the Chronicle. If you have a minute, please give it a look and let me know what you think.

I can't say enough good things about the Norwoods or the Campus View church. I feel like I grew more as a Christian in my three years in Athens than I did in my four years at a Christian university. I'm glad I went to both schools (I wouldn't have gotten my job at the Chronicle — or met Jeanie — without my connections in Nashville) but I'm especially glad I had the opportunity to be a part of the Campus View family for a while.

Here's a photo that relates to the story about the Norwoods. I love the sign. (Sorry the photo turned out kind of dark).

Here are the Cosgroves, a Campus View couple that served as my "Adopt-A-Dawg" parents during my first year at UGA. They live on a big piece of property out in Oglethorpe County and regularly have the gang over for bonfires and horse riding. Great folks.

Last but not least, here are some current members of the Georgia Christian Student Center, ready for the game. There hasn't been all that much to cheer about in Georgia football this year, but at least we pulled out a win over Mississippi State this past weekend. The guy on the far left is the son of Harold Shank, one of our new Bible professors here at Oklahoma Christian University.

Click on any of these photos to see larger versions.

PHOTO: Jesus 'tween the hedges

(By Erik)

Here's a photo I took outside of Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga., just before the start of the Georgia Bulldogs' game against the University of Tennessee. Just a few feet away are the stadium's historic hedges.

It was a heartbreaking loss for us Dawg fans, but not nearly as heartbreaking as the at-home loss to Vanderbilt one week later. For those of you who don't follow Southeastern Conference football, I'm trying to think of an apt analogy. But the only analogy I can think of is, "That's as bad as losing to Vandy!"

What can I say? It's a rebuilding year!

We'll post some more information about our Georgia trip soon.

ALBUM REVIEW: Freddy Mercury is back from the dead — and he's praising Jesus!

(By Erik)

A couple of days ago I bought Wide-eyed and Mystified, the latest album from Downhere, on iTunes.

The band’s song, “A Better Way,” has been getting a lot of play on a local Christian station. Another song from the album, “The More,” is in heavy rotation on the Christian alternative station. The rest of the album is equally great.

“A Better Way” begins with Jason Germain’s vocals on the verses. The first time I heard the song I thought, “eh, this is nice.”

Then came the chorus, and the high-tenor voice of Marc Martel kicked in.

“Whoa, this guy sounds a little bit like Freddy Mercury,” I said, and the thought of the late, flamboyant frontman of Queen singing spiritual songs gave me a giddy thrill. I kept waiting for a Brian May guitar solo.

(Most of the hair-metal bands I loved in the 1980s, including Def Leppard, were heavily influenced by Queen, by the way. A lot of them, including Leppard, performed at a tribute concerns after Freddy died of AIDS in 1991.)

“A Better Way” reminds me a lot of “Under Pressure,” a duet by Queen featuring Freddy and David Bowie. (The famous bass line from that song was sampled without permission by Vanilla Ice for the infamous hip-hop hit “Ice, Ice, Baby.”)

Even if you’re not a Queen fan or even vaguely familiar with the band (if you’re my wife, for example) you’ll still love this album. Most Christian music fans will be more comfortable with comparisons between Marc and Kevin Max of DC Talk. He has that kind of a voice, and it’s a great counterpoint to Jason’s vocals on the album.

I was concerned that Wide-eyed would be lyrically thin after hearing “A Better Way,” a beautiful, but simple, expression of Christ’s love for us. But the album has some exceedingly clever lyrics. My favorite song is “The Real Jesus.” Here’s a sampling:

Jesus on the radio, Jesus on a late night show
Jesus in a dream, looking all serene
Jesus on a steeple, Jesus in the Gallup poll
Jesus has His very own brand of rock and roll …

Jesus started something new
Jesus coined a phrase or two
Jesus split the line at the turning point of time
Jesus sparked a controversy
Jesus, known for His mercy, gave a man his sight
Jesus isn't white

Jesus loves the children, holds the lambs
Jesus prays a lot
Jesus has distinguishing marks on His hands

I don't care if they got it off a Christian-bookstore bumper sticker, that last line gives me chills.

'Go ahead, lead all four verses'

We stole this from Bobby and Tamie's blog, but it's too good to keep to ourselves!

Here's what all the 728b kids will be asking for this Christmas — Song Leader Revolution!

Learn more about the video and it's creator here: www.songleaderrevolution.com

Trying out a new mapping program for our blog

(By Erik and Jeanie)

We haven't been updating this blog very regularly. Apologies for that. But we've just added this cool program that will show us where people are who are looking at our blog (assuming anyone's looking)!