America's Highway: Oral Histories of Route 66

I apologize for not being on Blogger lately. I have been between contracts at work for the last month (read out of work) and have been using the downtime to frantically work on my PhD Dissertation. I've made great progress. My Dissertation is titled A Consuming View: John Steinbeck’s Cognitive Landscape Created for The Grapes of Wrath. I using a geographical perspective to analyze the landscapes created by John Steinbeck which he uses to play out the scenes of The Grapes of Wrath. A large section of The Grapes of Wrath is devoted to describing the migration route along Highway 66 (Steinbeck's version of Route 66). So, I was excited when I came across this Google Map the other day. The Map is titled "America's Highway: Oral Histories of Route 66". It is a great resource put together by Jay Crim and Shekar Davarya. Here is a link to the Google Map that includes the map and the oral histories. Link.

Thanks guys.

BASIC Worship

Last night at our Thursday Night Worship at The Gate we were visited by the University of Illinois' BASIC group. BASIC stands for Brothers and Sisters in Christ. They are one of our sister Baptist Collegiate Ministries in Illinois. The U of I is on Spring break and the BASIC group was working on a misisons project about 10 minutes from The Gate. I was a little surprised, but very happy they came by. We had Lounge Worship (music, prayer, and reading Bible passages) planned and it worked out very well for the group. Thanks Jim Smith for stopping by. It is always great to see another group of Brothers and Sisters in Christ who enjoy worshipping the Lord.

Feeling Blue

The NCAA Men's Basketball tournament is at the point of being predictable this year. Sure we had a couple of major upsets in the first round, and there are even some teams I didn't expect in the second round. But after last night normalcy is arriving quickly as we move into the Elite Eight.

In the West Bracket Kansas (number 1 seed) beat one of my Alma Maters SIU and will face my other Alma Mater UCLA (number 2 seed) in the Regional Finals.

In the South Bracket OSU (number 1 seed) barely held on to beat Tennessee and will face Memphis (number 2 seed) in the Regional Finals.

If tonight's East and Midwest Brackets hold to form we should see North Carolina (number 1 seed) and Georgetown (number 2 seed) win in the East and Florida (number 1 seed) and Oregon (number 3 seed) win in the Midwest. The only surprise so far is that Wisconsin (number 2 seed in the mid-west was eliminated by UNLV.

I have to cheer on UCLA and Oregon. I love the Pac 10, but as a UCLA fan I can't cheer on USC. So far I am feeling blue! Go Bruins!

What Goes Around Comes Around: Partisan Politics

Thanks to the Politico for this article on the Democrats not living within their own rules. Link. It isn't the Republicans or the Democrats I can't stand. It is politicians in general. They bend the rules when it makes sense for them and scream at others for bending them when it doesn't.

VIPeR - Small, Portable Reconnaissance Robot Designed to Support Combat Within Buildings

I came across an interesting announcement in the ASD Daily Report that talks about VIPeR Robots that the Israeli Defense Force have developed to use in the near future. These robots can help save lives in the war against terrorism. We will see more and more use of robots in the military as we find the force levels dropping and explore alternatives to sesnding our troops into harm's way.

The announcement is located here. Link.

The Great Global Warming Swindle

A new controversial documentary in the UK, called The Great Global Warming Swindle, is designed to show that human-made global warming is the conclusion of bad science. The documentary uses scientific evidence to show that we are in the midst of a naturally occurring pattern of global warming, not the result of humans producing a "Greenhouse Effect." Read the article here. Link.

I stick to the belief that the human-made global warming disaster is just another hoax designed by those whose political interests lie in creating sensationalism. I really don't know how all these items become the agenda of the politically correct police and gather such a following when they are based on poor science. I don't doubt that global warming is occuring, but I don't think it is a result of human introduction of CO2 in the atmosphere.

A Cre8ed Evening at The Gate

Thanks to everyone who came out to The Gate last night for our Creation/Evolution discussion. Our building was packed! My good friends and Sunday morning Bible Study teachers Bob and Liz Ridlon did an excellent job with their presentation, the crowd seemed fired up, and the discussion was awesome. I really enjoyed having the McKendree College Biology Professor in the audience. It left me wondering why we don't have a monthly meeting to discuss the topics of today.

On the other side of the arguement, it is so hard to remain objective when discussing such emotionally packed ideas as "where do we come from?" "Do the Bible and science complement each other?" And, "How do we fix the mess we find ourselves in?" We try to remain objective and look at the answeres both theologically and intellectually, and show that both can exist simultaneously, but rather quickly it turns into an emotional battle. I feel fairly comfortable being a moderator, but I know I am biased also.

Question of the night that I don't have an answer for (from a religion major):

So if you are a young earth creationist, how do you explain the fact that we can look through a high powered telescope and see stars that are over 4.5 billion light years away? If they are that far away and you can see their light, that means that that light must have originated over 4.5 billion years ago in order for us to se it today. What are your thoughts?

I honestly don't know an answer! If you do, please leave a comment.

I guess I'll check with Answers in Genesis.

Sweet Music

My daughter played a flute solo and duet last Saturday for the district level Illinois Grade School Music Association competition. She did very well and I am incredibly proud of her. Before the competition we go through the ritual of sitting in the gymnasium and practicing along with every one of the other competitors. The sound is overwhelming, both because of the volume and also because each of the competitors is practicing their own song at the same time. It is both loud and confusing. (If I was competing I would not go in the gym to practice, but find a nice quiet place, maybe in the car, to let it loose).

Anyhow, as I sat there listening to my daughter practice it occurred to me that my Christian walk seems a lot like the gymnasium lately. I am happy that my family is dedicated to serving the Lord, but our family is trying to do so much that many times we are making a lot of noise, but not such beautiful music. We are all going our separate ways, and playing our own music, but it never quite comes together in an orchestrated way. I think my job is to orchestrate what we do, and make direct the effort like a conductor. I think we need to slow down a little bit and make an effort to complement each other instead of compete against each other.

Col 1:9-10:
(9) For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven't stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, (10) so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing [to Him], bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.

Lord, help us to live out sweet music in our lives.

12 Crackpot Tech Ideas That Could Transform The Enterprise

I ran across a pretty good article on Info World that lists 12 ideas that could be the next big ideas in technology. Here's their list, it looks a little like a wishlist on Amazon.com. I don't want to get into any depth on each item, so to get more information on each item go to the article:

1. Superconducting computing
2. Solid-state drives
3. Autonomic computing
4. DC power
5. Holographic and phase-change storage
6. Artificial intelligence
7. E-books
8. Desktop web applications
9. Project Blackbox
10. Quantum computing and quantum cryptography
11. Semantic Web
12. Total information awareness

A Heart for Nevis

I was asked this last week to lead our church's (FBC O'Fallon) mission trip to the Caribbean island of Nevis. Nevis is about an hour flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and near the island of Montserrat. I am honored to be asked, and although I prayed about it all week, I knew it was what the Lord wanted me to do from the beginning.


At our collegiate ministry (The Gate) at McKendree College we had an opportunity to minister to a talented young man from Nevis attend for a semester. His name is Kurvin. He came to McKendree, not to be a student, but to work on his 100 meter sprint skills in order to be able to represent Nevis in the 2006 Olymics. Kurvin was a very mature young man and he had endured some hardship, having to leave his wife and children behind in Nevis while he worked hard training for the Olympics. Kurvin was a very strong believer and quickly became a solid member of our ministry. Now Kurvin is a Youth Pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in his native country of Nevis, and it turns out that he is the one we will be working with on the mission trip.

FBC O'Fallon, The Gate's sponsoring church, sent a team down to Nevis last year and I wanted to be a part of it to be able to work with Kurvin, but the timing didn't work out. So, when the church asked if I could lead the trip this year it was very near to my heart.

I received an E-Mail from Kurvin today and he is pondering having us help him with the following items:

Visiting Youth in their homes
Youth athletic ministry
Hosting a pizza party
Hosting a concert
Leading Praise and Worship Services in church and in the town square
Leading Youth oriented Bible Studies

I believe our ministry is well equipped to help Kurvin out, but we need lots of prayer. Specifically please pray for:

Kurvin
The Youth of Nevis (The church is losing the battle for the souls of the young in Nevis)
That the Lord will help us discern what His direction is
That our students at The Gate, and others, will desire and find ownership of this opportunity
That we can have an enduring affect on Nevis

It is easy to visit a place far away from home and to have a short-term impact. But, many times when you leave the impact fades away. I want us to have a long-term impact. I want to develop community with the Youth of Nevis and be able to make a difference in their lives. So, I am not just committing to a summer mission trip this summer, but to developing relationships with another community of believers and those they minister to.

I have started a Nevis page on The Gate's website. It is located here. Link. Please stop by, browse a little, and pray for us as we go.

God bless each of you. He is an incredible God who does incredible things.