Update from Swaziland

For those of you who love Erin, Claudia Mair, Lisa & Ty here is the latest update from Tom:

Tom Davis' blog - Hello from Swaziland

Update: They home, silent, but home!

Truths so deep

As my old friend the priest Sean Olaoire once said, “Some truths are so deep that only stories can tell them”.

via Bill Kinnon via Doc Searls Weblog

Number 3: Bacon does make everything extra special.

for Heather & Troy

Continuing with the Pizza theme...

Great article on all of the different types of pizza found in the US:

Slice: A List of Regional Pizza Styles

I wonder if Canada has any regional styles? Most of the pizza I've had in Canada is national chain, ie. Pizza Pizza, Pizza Hut - and out east here we have Pizza Delight (which is a nice little restaurant, but their pizza is horrible - who would associate their name with "delight" and then proceed to provide such horrible pizza???) and Greco's, both of which have inspired us to make our own...

If anyone has a good midwest/Chicago thin crust recipe I would LOVE it! Those are the pizzas from my childhood.

Change your leaders, not your lightbulbs

Bono in response to the Davos question:

What one thing do you think that companies, countries and individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?



Want to voice your own answer? Video tape it and send it here:

You Tube - The Davos Question

Deep friendship

My friend Dan has brought friendship into a new light in my understanding. He is passionate about friendship and is writing a book on it. I have learned much from him as my own tool box has been bereft of good teaching on friendship, especially cross-gender friendship. This was a strict taboo in my early theology. Fear controlled friendships and cross-gender friendship crossed every line of interaction between a man and woman who were not married. This idea is far from kingdom life as it should be.

Dan challenges and inspires me and he has begun a series on friendship that I want to track here as I think it is so important for this conversation as we build community:

Faith Dance: Emotional Affair or Friendship Love?

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six

Thanks Dan! Great, insightful writing!

Best Pizza Ever!

Living on the edge of civilization as we do here in New Brunswick we have found access to our favorite foods to be a bit limited. We have learned that making it ourselves is far more satisfying, easier on our bank account and tastier. Part of this education was coming into contact with friends who had more experience in these areas than we did. Our good friends Anne & Ed Gentry were integral in the process of our pizza making skills. (Thank you Anne & Ed!)

Ed taught Keith how to throw dough and let us in on the secret of pizza screens. For those of us without brick ovens (or not wanting to pay the prices of a Pampered Chef Pizza Stone) screens are a wonderful way to bake pizza. We split a case wholesale between our families and since then we have tweaked and played with the recipes and tools to find out what works for us and what we enjoy.

While in Bar Harbor for our anniversary we enjoyed a night out at Rosalie's Pizza and Keith spent some time watching the guys throw the dough, asking them questions and finding a tool that we didn't know existed - a dough docker - Keith got one in his stocking and last week we made the best pizza ever. We had the kids friends overnight and so we made four pizzas, one of them was garlic fingers - oh my! Everyone said it was the best they'd ever had.

It's almost like a science experiment as we tweak recipes, time in the oven and toppings. We haven't perfected the toppings yet - so that's where we need your help - I'll trade you my dough & sauce recipes for your topping ideas! Fair?

Deep Flavor Pizza Sauce
Best Bread Machine Pizza Dough

Please leave topping ideas in the comments!

Oh and Recipezaar is a wonderful place to store your recipes (and to find new ones!) They have nutritional charts with each recipe, so carb counting for Jacob is so easy!

Next challenge - sushi!!

Children should never be soldiers

Please sign this important World Vision petition:

Have you signed the "No Child Soldiers" Declaration? We will deliver these petitions to Congress during our lobby-day visit. Sign the declaration today and forward it to your friends. Our goal is 100,000 signatures. Help us exceed that goal by Feb. 15.

War on Women

Anderson Cooper's feature of the War on Women in the Congo on 60 Minutes.

Please watch, it's painful, but important.

War on Women in the Congo

Thank you Jordon

Cracking nutshells

I read this quote from Tony Jones on Adam's blog Pomomusings from a series he is doing on the Kingdom of God. I liked it so much I wanted to remember it:

Making room for the questions is one of the aspects of emergent Christianity that many seekers appreciate. As a result, emergent Christians often get labeled as “slippery.” They’re told they don’t answer questions directly but answer instead with another (often deconstructive) question. But, these questions are actually attempts to get to the assumptions underlying the initial question.

So questioning is not an act of defiance on the emergents’ part. It is a trait of integrity.

When someone asks, “What is the Gospel, in a nutshell?” I often quote my friend, philosopher of religion Jack Caputo, who wrote of the philosophical impulses of “deconstruction”: “Nutshells close and encapsulate, shelter and protect, reduce and simplify, while everything in deconstruction is turned toward opening, exposure, expansion, and complexification, toward releasing unheard of, undreamt of possibilities to come, toward cracking nutshells wherever they appear.”

Quote taken from Tony's new book The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier

Voting to change culture in America

Vote to change the culture in America - from a culture of materialism and selfishness to a culture of love & generosity.

To order voting guides click here.

via Tikkun

Epiphany

Tiffany Stained Glass taken in September at St. Saviour's Church, Bar Harbor, Maine - not for commercial use.

Vulnerable like a bird

Life is precious. Not because it is unchangeable, like a diamond, but because it is vulnerable, like a little bird. To love life means to love its vulnerability, asking for care, attention, guidance, and support. Life and death are connected by vulnerability. The newborn child and the dying elder both remind us of the preciousness of our lives. Let's not forget the preciousness and vulnerability of life during the times we are powerful, successful, and popular.

Henri Nouwen