I finished another book today – in this case, I was listening to the audio version.  The book was Slave by John MacArthur.

No matter what you think of MacArthur or his theology, I bet you would agree that the theme of slavery in Scripture – especially that we are slaves of Christ – is a theme we as a Church today have not meditated on enough.  So it’s worth taking time to do so.

How did the early believers think about slavery?  What was slavery to ancient Israel, and to the Roman Empire?  How does this relate to our adoption by God as his loved children, and to slavery to sin?

You can buy Slave in paper or Kindle formats at amazon.  Slave is also available in Spanish.

Usually on Fridays we try to have some family time.  After our gallivanting all over the place lately, we were ready for an evening at home.

So we made some popcorn and watched God of Wonders (see trailer below).  It was especially appropriate because Nathanael is studying astronomy (and actually the video also talked about water cycles, which Hannah has been studying).

So today for my photo of the day I took a picture of the moon.  I understand that the moon is the same phase wherever you see it around the world (in this case 23% of full), but at a different angle.  As you can see, here (from Hannah’s window at 8:39pm) it looks like a boat or a cradle.  You can even see some of the detail of the surface of the moon on the dark side (click the image for higher resolutions).  Not bad for a point-and-shoot camera in the middle of the city!

Sadly, two people on our team of CAM missionaries are leaving to go to another team.  Rollie and Jo Ann Smith are joining another team (for various reasons – none of them bad!).  (Well, bad for us – because we’ll miss them!)

This gave us a golden opportunity.  At our last team meeting, the other team members snuck out and made a video for them.  After all, even missionaries can have fun.  Sometimes.

As you’ll see, the video was really made for them, so some explanations are required before you watch.  First, a "T2" is a Transformation Team (two ts, get it?) – that’s what our mission teams are called.  All CAM missionaries are on a T2.

Secondly, some poetic license was being taken (ok, a LOT of poetic license!) – the Smiths aren’t really being sent to Pachuca (a place in central Mexico), but they’re joining the Pachuca team – so called because most of the missionaries have been from around Pachuca (actually, that’s not even the official team name).

Lastly, and most obviously, they changed teams because of mutual discussion and agreement, not … well, not for the reasons you’ll see here.

So even if you’re not an "insider", you might enjoy this video.  A good reminder that we have some cool missionary friends.  Or some weird missionary friends.  Or both.

(By the way, as we told the Smiths – be sure to watch the whole thing – it’s just over 10 minutes)

Over the holidays I tried to organize my books a little – that is, paper books, audio books, Kindle books, other types… books I’ve started, books I’d like to read, and so on and so on.

Well, I finished one of those books that I had already started – audio, in this case – The Next Story by Tim Challies.

The Next Story is a book about technology.  And I would highly recommend it to anyone who uses technology.  Even if you only send the occasional email, or do a search online once in a while.  In fact, if you’re familiar with most of these words, this book is for you:  Wikipedia, Facebook, Google, Hotmail, Email, Internet, Blog.

You don’t even have to agree with the author – the point is to take a little time to think about these things that we or our family members use.  Don’t you think it’s worth a little thought?

But Tim Challies doesn’t just make you stop and think – he makes you think biblically.  Have you ever thought about how the Gospel relates to Twitter?  What the Bible has to say about email?  You might be surprised.

As an added bonus, Challies is Canadian.  ’Nuff said.

You can get The Next Story in a variety of formats at amazon.com.  As a matter of fact, the Kindle version is only US$1.99 at the moment (90% off sale!) (oops – looks like that deal is over!), and the audio version free with a 14 day trial of amazon’s Audible service.  Surely you can afford a little time to think about technology and how you’ll use it in 2012…

Last night I threw together a video (when I was too tired to do anything else) (except to wash some dishes).  Now this is actually everything but Daryl and Iwona’s wedding, because, of course, I was in the wedding.  So I leave that to the professionals.

So what you’ll see is a few clips from the decorating to the couple leaving after the wedding.

Enjoy!

Some of you have kids who are just starting to use Facebook (ours aren’t there yet).  As in every area of life, it’s important to train them to use this for God’s glory – right?

Here are some thoughts on just that, taken from a longer video entitled God’s Technology:

Incidentally, I just heard a sermon by David Murray that also focused on technology, and the "noise" that we so easily let into our lives.  If you’re interested, you can listen to that right here:  Be Still

Will your kids be going to Sunday School this morning?  Here’s a little glimpse into one Sunday School class in our church in Ixtapaluca (in Jesús María).  This video was taken by videographer Nicole Greiner.

Incredible time-lapse photography of our planet from space.  Taken last month.

via challies.com

Yesterday I presented the second half of the 2000 Years of Missions Seminar in Cremona, Alberta.  This is the part of the seminar covering the "modern era" of missions.  Once again I’ve collected a few clips to give you an idea what we talked about.

I admit it wasn’t my best day.  We came later than I had planned (fortunately I had set up the room the night before!).  When we were just about to leave for Cremona, I fell on the stairs with a jug of water, soaking myself and creating a lovely indoor waterfall.  These are the kinds of things that happen Sunday mornings!

But, people were kind and we managed to have fun in spite of a touch of chaos here and there.

This past Sunday we enjoyed spending the day in Mirror, Alberta.  In the evening I presented the Maximizing Your Short Term Mission Trip seminar.  Below I’ve shared some clips from the first half hour of the seminar, so you can hear a little of what we talked about.

For more on some of the seminars we’ve offered, see our seminars page.