I’ve had the good fortune to spend lots of time with kids lately, and it has helped me feel more like a human – very nice.  Sometimes it is aggravating, even infuriating when they do the exact opposite of what you tell them, but most of the time it is a wonderful journey into seeing how God might look at us – his little children, and realize the great patience and long-suffering he has towards us, his sense of accomplishment when we start to grasp something he wants us to understand, and his joy and happiness at our little triumphs and amazements at the things he created with the breath of his mouth.

That was a really cute puppy yesterday who got his rear leg into automatic scratching mode when we scratched his belly in the right place – haha.

What an awesome God!!

A long time ago there was a landowner.  Having lots of land, he decided to lease it out to people.  Some lease-holders decided to dig in their land, melt what they found, and sell it.  Others decided to build something on top of the land and do some kind of business with that.  Mostly it was used to build a place to live on.  Everybody liked the idea of having land, so many times people fought about who should be the rightful lease-holder.  The landowner was gone so long, most all the lease-holders forgot that they were not really the landowner themselves, and made up all kinds of theories to try and explain why they were the real landowners.  But the real landowner sometimes shook up the land or sent lots of water to start the whole land-leasing program over again.

A little group of lease-holders decided to start a carrot patch to grow only perfectly golden-orange carrots, carrots that would be solely for the landowner, and would be grown strictly according to the manual.

It took lots of work.  Many were the obstacles they had to overcome.  Many who brought their seeds to these lease-holders angrily carried their seeds back when they found out only golden-orange carrots would be produced.  The lease-holder’s association was amused at first, and then antagonistic as they found out someone was actually going to use the landowner’s manual to grow carrots.  But the worst opposition was from those who were growing the mixed carrots.  Their double-mindedness would be made plain for all to see if they allowed someone to actually try and carry out the instructions as laid out in the landowner’s manual.  They ostracized them, they circulated falsehoods about them, and they even took this little group to court to try and make them stop attempting to produce golden-orange carrots.  But thru all these problems, the little group of lease-holders saw the answers in the manual, and kept diligently working to produce perfect carrots.

The ground was stony, the monetary reward nil.  Droughts were scarcely over when the floods came.  A fence had to be erected to keep the young carrots from looking over at the other carrot patches, and becoming envious of the blue carrots they could see during the day, and hear during the nite.  Cold spells came that threatened to freeze everything to death.  Sunny days in the summer were enough to make not only the most perfect carrot want to wilt, but even the lease-holders too!  When the leafy tops appeared nicely, many bugs were attracted which required constant oversight.  It seemed that the carrots needed even more care as they came to perfection than they did when first planted.
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future carrot patchRead More »

 Once, there was a group of lease-holders who wished to grow more carrots.  They searched far and wide, and finally decided to lease some land in a country renowned for its hard-working elephants, loose morals, beautiful beaches, and world-class traffic jams. Ostensibly, they wished to grow perfect carrots for the land owner, but in fact, most of this group wished to make lots of money.

So they leased land in a place contrary to the landowner’s manual, and constructed an elaborate carrot patch, again, contrary to the manual.  One of them who professed great love for the manual became the chief caretaker, and a team of caretakers were assembled from all over the world.  Unfortunately, the instructions in the manual regarding hiring of caretakers was not followed, and it soon became evident that even the chief caretaker was not doing what the manual said to do to raise perfect carrots.

Into this background carrot planting began. Seeds were planted, daily they were watered, and many of them grew.  However, the seeds did not produce golden-orange carrots.  Some of them produced some lovely leaves on top, with some symmetrical properties, but when the carrots were dug up and inspected, it was seen that they were mostly blue, with just a hint of orange here and there on them.  This did not seem to concern the chief caretaker much, as he was too worried about how to get more seeds. The other caretakers weren’t too displeased either, as they had been trained in growing blue carrots, and did not bother too much with really studying the landowner’s manual to see for themselves how to grow perfect carrots.
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one carrot patchRead More »

Degrees–In view of all this, our schools should have little to say now of “degrees,” and of long courses of study. The work of preparation for the service of God is to be done speedily. Let the work be carried forward in strictly Bible lines. Let every soul remember that the judgments of God are in the land. Let “degrees” be little spoken of.–Letter 382, 1908, p. 4. (To G. A. Irwin, Dec. 23, 1908.)

While being only a letter, this statement shows what Ellen White thot about educational “degrees”.

Recently i’ve had the opportunity to view someone’s “doctrinal” thesis. It was for AIIAS, http://www.aiias.edu/ a Seventh-day Adventist institution of “higher” learning.  It was about integrating love in counseling young people around ages 6-16.

It was a handbook on how to carry out a Sabbath School program for children.  I’m not kidding.  The more i skimmed, the more i thot – “Hey, this looks familiar, VERY familiar.”  Approximately 1/4 of the thesis was literally a hymn book for young folk.  Around 1/4 was letters from people saying how much they had been blessed by this being done in their high school, and the bulk of it was how to carry on a Sabbath School service with a sample song, prayer, and a short story about Joseph, Moses, Daniel etc. and applying it to various situations kids today may face.

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degrees and “non”senseRead More »

この間バンコクのダイソーに行って、すごい懐かしかった！　１０分くらいで「日本」に浸され、何も不思議なく商品の説明とかぜんぶ読めて、本当に良かった。普通はね、看板とかぜんぶがタイ語に書いてあるから「当たり前」何が書いてあるか分からない。　それがね、ちょっとだけながら、ストレスの原因でしょう。　特に食料品の場合！　英語も少し使われているので、なんとか生活の上ではあまり問題ないけど、やっぱりぜ～んぶ理解できて、落ち着く。　この店はなんか日本から店を丸ごと飛行機に載せ、バンコクのど真ん中に落としたって感じ。　タイにぜんぜん合わないものも多くて、「大丈夫かな」とちょっと心配するくらいです。　ほんの少しでも日本に帰ったって感じを与えてくれて　－　有難うダイソーさん！

ちなみに、ダイソーはサイアム・ショッピング・センターの真向かい。　一括６０バーツ。　日本の値段の倍くらい。　

So now two weeks of the Christmas holiday school break is gone….yawn. 

My normal sleeping pattern is to go to bed around 11pm (i know, it should be more around 9:30), sleep until around 3am, then lie awake for 1 – 2 hours thinking about everything this little brain can wrap itself around, then go back to sleep when it starts getting light outside, then waking up for good around 7:40am.  I’ve often thot that this is a bit “abnormal”, and that was reconfirmed to me this week by friends 🙂

Anyway, last nite the same thing happened, except, instead of 1 -2 hours, it was more like 3 hours of lying awake…. One reason is that it is cold in Bangkok now, probably around 18C (65F) at nite, so i have to turn off my fan which normally drowns out the 6-lane traffic outside.  Also, last nite i was thinking and praying about the possibility of opening some kind of new school in the northern part of Thailand, a school based 100% on the Bible and on the inspired counsel in the Spirit of Prophecy (books by Ellen White), and also thinking about what to call people, and how the Thai 1858 Great Controversy translation is progressing, and what i should be doing in life, especially after my teaching job finishes in May or June (or perhaps earlier if the school is sold).

 Anybody, if you have good advice on how to start a little self-supporting school along the lines of Madison, Avondale, Battle Creek etc., please help us out.  This is a very big project in my estimation, altho in the overall world view, i know it is not so large.  But to start a school following God’s principles in EVERY line, i really believe could have a huge impact not only on Thailand, but on the whole world 🙂

“Madison, God’s Beautiful Farm” and “Nashville Agricultural and Reform Institute” are two books i really want to get a hold of, and i will also be reading diligently “Proper Education” in Testimonies For the Church volume 22.

Saw this web site this morning explaining how the Jews are persecuted.  It is so true, and so ignored/falsified by most of the world’s media. http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened/

1. Go home (heaven).
2. Print a new health book that is a compilation similar to Counsels on Diet and Foods.
3. Get the Myanmar and Thai 1858GC translations completed and print and help distribute them.
4. See the Romanian, Chinese, and Azeri 1858GC translations completed.
5. Find more translators for Indian languages and Indonesian and Spanish.
6. Get the animation for the 1858GC at least half done, and find funds to do this, and if possible, funds to make a 3D movie.
7. Get funds to my northern Indian pastor friend to support 10 full-time evangelists working near the Bhutan border, in preparation for the opening up of that country probably after elections this summer.
8. Help my Thai friends start either a school for kids, or a Bible training/medical missionary school for teens/adults etc.
9. Do my work well at the school where i’m employed.
10. Keep doing 1858 Great Controversy studies and Bible studies with people.
11. Go to Japan.
12. Finish off the corn flakes i bot in Greece in 2006.
13. Keep telling the straight truth, and learn more from the Bible and Ellen White’s writings what the straight truth is – especially in regards to end-time prophecy and the 1260 days and 7 trumpets.
14. Read the entire Old Testament thru for the 4th time (currently twice English and once Japanese).
15. Be led by God every moment.

1. Make sure you know what the will of God is for you!
2. Travelling can wear you out.
3. Sabah Malaysia, in general, has the most dedicated Seventh-day Adventists anywhere.
4. The false doctrines of “don’t judge” and “unconditional love” are still very much alive in our SDA church.
5. Many people are nice to you until you point out their sins.
6. Kids are very precious, especially when you see their minds humbly accept Jesus as God 🙂
7. Working for someone is hard when Christian principles are not viewed (or carried out) in a similar light.
8. Most workers could care less about anything other than their paycheck.
9. Being white in a poor land can make you a target of various things.
10. You should change your water bottle every so often.
11. My best friend has the biggest bank account in the world 🙂
12. Some church leaders will offer to kick you out of places if you disagree with them.
14. It is a very good thing to show mercy.
15. Smells of food cooking can really make you sick.
16. Lots of bus drivers in Bangkok are crazy.
17. If you don’t use toilet paper, make sure there are no cuts on your fingers.
18. Kids learn more about life playing at recess than in the classroom.
19. Four seasons are good for your mental health.
20. A true friend is very, very precious and rare.

2008 starts off with a real name for this blog instead of “blog theme” – ha!

Wishing everyone a closer walk with Jesus this new year.

I think my new year’s resolution will be the same as last year’s – to pray more.  I really, really want to know the will of God, and then have the health and courage to do it.

No matter what.

Three weeks ago my apartment building caretaker gave a tenant all the keys in the place, and he got into my room and stole all my money (which i’ve gotten around 60% back). Now, this morning, i open my door to see seven men standing around, and two of them flash police badges. They asked me about the man who just moved in next door, and i tell them that a couple of ladies moved in, and i saw a man with them last Friday. They sing karaoke until late at nite, and when i knocked on their door 2 nites ago, around 10:30, they turned it off. The police asked me to knock on that door, which i did, but thot it was very strange. No one came, so i told them i needed to get to work, and as i had finished my cucumber and cracker that was the tail end of my breakfast, i vamoosed.

Should i stay or should i go?

I’ve heard this idiom for a long time, and always knew it was not correct, but seeing this graph today shows, at a glance, just how wrong it is:

http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2007/11/21/last-2000-of-growth-in-world-income-and-population-revised/

Sure am glad to live in this golden age of the world, even tho this world is hell compared to the unfallen worlds.

Two new videos were put up on YouTube today.  One is of the 8th Southeast Asia Union Mission Pathfinder Camporee held last week in Thailand, and the other is of a Christmas Pageant held at the elementary school where i teach.

Pathfinder Camporee: 

 http://youtube.com/watch?v=_kpsx9nipJg

Christmas Cantata:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=a4zwrc1BZtg

I don’t believe any of the current spin — that the world is warming and us humans are to blame. There is no scientific evidence at all for humans causing any rise in temperatures, as there is no hard scientific evidence for any type of rise in temperatures at all! They say that in the last 100 years, temperatures have risen 0.6C. That is with a margin of error of around 1C!! But even if true that it has risen 0.6C in the last 100 years, it still doesn’t mean that the long-term “since the flood” trendline has been broken to the upside.

What i despise about the whole “global warming” myth tho, is that it has become a religion, and anyone talking against it is automatically branded as “cuckoo”. It should raise lots of warning bells in especially Seventh-day Adventist minds when we see people of all religions/faiths/athiests etc. join together in promulgating some theory.

I have seen that most all of the leading “global warming” promoters (btw, the people who started global warming first said the world was in global cooling, but nobody believed them, so they changed their tune 180!) are nearly all pro-death – meaning that they believe the less humans there are, the better.

Well, today i found this article that shows where this whole movement may be leading in their next steps to “save the planet”. It comes from a doctor in Australia who proposes a “carbon tax” on every baby:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22896334-2,00.html

“A WEST Australian medical expert wants families to pay a $5000-plus “baby levy” at birth and an annual carbon tax of up to $800 a child.

Writing in today’s Medical Journal of Australia, Associate Professor Barry Walters said every couple with more than two children should be taxed to pay for enough trees to offset the carbon emissions generated over each child’s lifetime. “

It is nice to see at least one person has a clear mind:
“Australian Family Association spokeswoman Angela Conway said it was ridiculous to blame babies for global warming.
I think self-important professors with silly ideas should have to pay carbon tax for all the hot air they create,” she said.”

What is probably next (or maybe a few years down the pipe)? Outright killing of people of who don’t go along with this – of course starting with the killing of the unborn and very old and mentally mixed-up….