its movie week

Well, this week will be a little showcase of how Lydia's days are....starting with the turtle that we had on loan. In the beginning she squealed and ran away from it. Now look what has happened. It is good that our friend come to pick up the turtles on loan, otherwise i have a feeling that the poor fellow might have turned into a drum, football, or whatever else Lydia might have used it for with her imagination... Denna vecka ska kallas för film vecka med Lydia, för att se hur hennes dager går. Vi ska börja med en sköldpadda som vi fick ta hand om för en månad. I början, Lydia skrikade och sprang ivag. Kolla nu hur hon har förandrat! Det var bra att våran kompisar kom för att hamta sköldpaddarna, annars jag misstank att Lydia skulle har anvant honom för en trumma, fotball, eller vad hon skulle fantisera!

just a little clown

Ha. What can I say. This little clown nose accidentally came with us from Sweden, and Lydia loves it! She usually pulls it off within seconds of setting it on her nose, so we had to be quick to get this shot... Vad ska jag säga, denna lille näsa kom med oss från Sverige på misstag, och Lydia älskar det! Hon brukar ta av det så snärt vi sätta på det, så man måste ta en bild så fot det går.

Lydia looks like the camel...

You can never go to the zoo enough...especially with handsome guys like this to look at. Check out those charming and engaging eyes! He is checking us out, I know it!Actually, Lydia had a playdate with her little friend here (the girl below not the goat above). Seems like most of Lydia's little friends are older than her, but this time she tried to hold Lydia's hand as she walked alongside her stroller. Lydia tried to pull her hand away which made the girl just grab on harder...Oh, soon Lydia will be old enough to play together with you, have some patience little girl! The zoo here is about 20 minutes away (walking) and costs about 50 cents a person. Not bad! It is possible that the animals around here recognize us by now, but that's ok, it is a great "outing" with other mothers and friends. One of my friends joked that this camel looks a bit like Lydia! (as it is light skinned with blue eyes...and most local camels look more like the people here, darker skin and dark eyes.) Lydia is going to have a LOT of languages in her head though, as the signs here are in french and arabic, and she is also learning the names of animals in english and swedish. Poor girl. Man kan aldrig gå till djurparken för mycket, speciellt när det finns snygga gubbar som kolla på oss som han (geten). Vilket snygga ögonen han har...och ser hur han titta länga på oss... Lydia hade en lektid men hennes lilla kompis har. Hon vill hålla i Lydias hand, men Lydia vill inte det, så den tjej fick tåg på Lydias hand och hålde i det så hårt hon kunde. Åh, har lite tålamod min kompis, snärt ska Lydia blir tillräckligt stört att leka med dig! Djurparken ta 20 minuter att gå dit, och kosta ungefär 3 kronor för ingång. Inte dåligt alls! Kanske djuren känner igen oss, eftersom vi kom ofta, men det gör inget, det är en perfekt plats att komma med kompisar och andra mammor. En kompis till mig sköjade att Lydia ser ut som den kamel, med ljus hår och blå ögonen. (kameler har brukar ser mer mjörk utt) Lydia har mycket att lära, när skyltarna är på franska och arabiska, och hon också lära djur namnen på engelska och svenska. Stackars lilla Lydia!

that was a witch of a lunch!

Ha. Sometimes I am not fast enough to capture all the language mistakes when people write signs or even wear tshirts in English. But I could not let this sign pass me by. I wonder how you make a sandWITCH? I didn't even know there were witches in this country.... Other tshirts that have made me laugh in the past week or so.... Little boy wearing a shirt that says, "wild for the night" Serious looking lady wearing a shirt that says something like, "eat me" Guy with his friends with a shirt that says, "i think i recognize you from facebook" And a plethora of people who buy second hand American clothes from the street market here with funny slogans like, "Billy's plumbing and guttering" a man with a shirt that he probably didn't understand that says "Breast cancer relay for life, Atlanta 2005" and so on... When it is a common experience to get catcalls in the streets, it is a nice de-stresser to have a little fun reading English along the way. Vi ofta skratta när vi ser grejer som har skrivits fel på engelska har. Till exempel, den störa skylten prata om mackor, (Sandwich på engelska) men säga häxasmörgås istället. Vad är det för nånting?! Vi gillar att ta bilder på allt som är fel stavat har. Till exempel.... En pöjke med en tröja som stör Vild för kvällen på det Ett seriös tjej med en tröja som säga ÄT MIG på det En kille som har en tröja som står Jag kommer ihåg dig från facebook på det. Och väldigt många som har andra hand kläder på sig med roliga amerikansk grejer skriven på det, typ, Billys rörföretag, maraton för bröst cancer, Atlanta 2005...allt möjligt. När många killer gillar att vissla och prata med mig på gatan, det roligt att har nånting att skratta åt istället!

Interesting title...

Daniel and I just finished reading an...interesting book. Written in the 90s, it confronts the possible dangers within the megachurch movement. Good old Os Guiness loves to make sure that people are thinking. Here's some quotes from the book. Ever heard of plundering the Egyptians? Far from leading to an exodus, modern church growth often uses the ideology and tools of Egypt to make the life of the people of God more comfortable in captivity. (Dining with the devil 1993, page 21)

What happened to the clear days of speaking the gospel clearly...do we depend too much nowadays on the idea that "people will see I'm a nice person and become a believer as a result?"

- Ponder the fact that the twentieth century was heralded as “the Christian Century,” summed up aptly at the beginning of the century in John R. Mott’s slogan—“the evangelization of the world in this generation.” Yet the century is ending, as Jacques Ellul says, in a situation closer to the saying of Jesus, “When the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” The problem is not that Christians have disappeared, but that Christian faith has become so deformed. (Dining with the devil 1993, page 81)

If you depend on numbers, watch out. Only God really knows the true numbers of church growth.

…a very large part of church-growth success in the west (as much as 80 percent in America, some say) is growth by transfer, not by conversion. As Jim Petersen of the Navigators says: “Increase of this sort isn’t church growth at all. It’s just a reshuffling of the same fifty- two cards.” (Dining with the devil 1993, page 49)

One last thought on the exaltation of numbers.

Even theologically conservative churches that self-consciously oppose secularism are nevertheless themselves often unwitting bastions of a secularized version of Christianity, and that, “The two most easily recognizable hallmarks of secularization in America are the exaltation of numbers and of technique.” (Dining with the devil p. 49, quoted in 9marks p. 24 )

It is always good to stay on our toes, and check and double check ourselves that we don't get distracted on the joyful journey of evangelism and church growth. Det är kanske för svårt för mig att oversätta...vi har just läst en bok som jag tänkte mycket om och har uppmanat mig. Det prata om kyrka utveckling och problemarna och utmaningarna därinne. Fråga Daniel om du vill vet mer. Kram!