The Good Guys

Last Tuesday I got to preach about Christmas and the love of God to a group of cancer survivors and their families. This is the 3rd time I've been invited to speak to them at Christmas time, for their annual Christmas gathering, and it was a great blessing for me to get to minister to them from the Word of God and get to meet so many of them.
We don't have many older people in our church, so I enjoy getting to minister to the older generation here in Hungary from time to time.

After I preached, a man came and sat down next to me, and introduced himself as an atheist. As we got to know each other, it turned out that this man, who is now 80 years old, was a former communist leader in Eger.

He told me how he had become a Communist party member in 1948, when he was 17 yrs old. This means that he not only lived through the Stalinist era of the 50's, but that he was even part of the regime during the harshest, most repressive period of communism in Hungary. Later he became the head of the biggest factory in the region (Berva), and became an upper level party leader in Eger.
His world has changed a lot since the end of communism in Hungary.

The thing that I think many people in the West don't understand about the people who were communists here in Eastern Europe, is that many of these people thought of themselves as the good guys.
They thought of themselves as those who were really compassionate and humane, who cared about creating a society where everyone was equal. They really viewed the capitalists as the bad guys who wanted to get rich by taking advantage of other people rather than creating a society characterized by equality.
They viewed themselves as morally superior to capitalists, because they believed that life is not primarily about accumulating material possessions (Jesus taught that by the way too... see Luke 12:15), and that it is better to be satisfied with having "enough" than to constantly strive for more and better material things (another Biblical concept - see 1.Tim 6:6-8)
They viewed the church as a corrupt institution, a 'good old boys club'.
They believed that certain forms of suppression of freedoms were necessary and good to protect the society they were trying to create.

This man I talked to still believed sincerely in these ideals - as did the other people we were sitting with at the table, all of whom were raised during communism. It was interesting to talk with them and hear their perspective.
The one thing I was able to tell them that I felt broke through their walls against religion was that for me Christianity is not about a church hierarchy or organization, but it is about following Jesus - his teachings and example. When I started talking about JESUS, they were captivated. Especially when I told them that many of the ideals which they believed made the 'old regime' good, were taught and exemplified by Jesus long ago.

In reality, Jesus is the revolutionary their hearts really long for. His revolution is the one that they really desire deep down - they have just been turned off from Christianity by both rhetoric and by the poor representation of Christ that some parts of the body of Christ have been guilty of throughout history.
My hope and prayer is that these people would be able to see Jesus and not the actions of men.

Teaching Kids about the Real Saint Nicholas

December 6 is St. Nicholas (Santa Claus) Day - HU: Mikulás - in Hungary and other countries of Europe.

Nate came into our room this morning and climbed into our bed. He has been pretty excited about Mikulás - today there is a Santa coming to visit his preschool, and last night we took him to a toy store that had a Santa. Nate told him exactly what he wanted for Christmas, and even wanted to sit on his lap.
We proceeded to tell Nate the story of Santa Claus - that is, the real Saint Nicholas - who was not a mythical fat man in red clothes who rode through the skies on a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer, but a devout Christian man, a pastor, who was persecuted for his faith, and gained fame by his generosity to the poor and those in need.

There are some Christians who think that Santa is evil, and that he takes away from the true meaning of Christmas. Not to mention, some would point out, that Santa is nothing more than a misspelling of SATAN, which must be why he goes around in those obnoxious red clothes: because he is from HELL and wants to take you and your kids back there with him!
This of course, is based on a sad lack of knowledge regarding the origin of Santa Claus - the name (in English) being simply a direct derivative of "Saint Nicholas".

For this reason, many Christians protest anything to do with Santa Claus, and tell their kids that Santa is not real, he is bad, and he takes away from the true meaning of Christmas, which of course is Jesus.

We don't avoid Santa Claus - we don't even want to. We see it as a great opportunity to teach our kids about a great Christian man who loved Jesus and was generous and kind because of the love of God which was in his heart. THAT is the "Christmas spirit".
We tell our kids that there are many people in the world who want to follow the example of Saint Nicholas, and that is why they will meet a Santa at their school and at the mall. And we teach our kids that we want to be like Saint Nicholas, and we are going to be generous to the poor and needy because God loved us so much that he gave us his Son, Jesus, so that we could have eternal life and have a relationship with God.

The Story of the Real Saint Nicholas

The real Saint Nicholas was born in the 3rd century in the village of Patara, in what is now southern Turkey, into a wealthy family. His parents died when he was young, and he was taken in and raised by a local priest. Following Jesus' call to the Rich Young Ruler to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor", Nicholas dedicated to use his entire inheritance to assist the sick, needy and suffering.
He became a pastor, and was later made Bishop of Myra. He became famous for his generosity and love for children.

Nicholas suffered persecution and imprisonment for his Christians faith during the Great Persecution (303-311) under Roman emperor Diocletian.
He attended the Council of Nicaea (325), at which he affirmed the doctrine of the deity of Christ.
Nicholas died in 343 in Myra. The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day, December 6th.

Many stories are told about St. Nicholas' life and deeds. Perhaps the most famous story is one of a poor man who had three daughters who were of marrying age. Because the man was poor, he was unable to provide a dowry for his daughters, which meant that they would not be able to find a descent husband, and would either be married into further poverty or would have to become slaves. After Nicholas found out about this family's situation, he visited the family's house, leaving them 3 anonymous gifts - each time a bag of gold, which was tossed through an open window while the family was sleeping. Legend has it that the gold fell into their shoes, the reason for the tradition in Europe that St. Nicholas leaves gifts in children's shoes. Nicholas provided for these poor girls to help them break out of the cycle of poverty.

Rather than teaching your kids the common myth about Santa Claus, and rather than trying to make Christmas Santa-free, take back the true story of Saint Nicholas and take hold of this opportunity to talk about a Christian man who loved Jesus and who exemplified the true Spirit of Christ and Christmas through compassion and generosity.

Archeological Proof of the Kingdom of David

One thing I love about the Bible is that as time goes on, and as more and more archeological work is done, archeological discoveries confirm the historicity of the Bible.

One of the most famous such discoveries was the discovery of the ruins of a great Hittite civilization in Turkey. The Bible mentioned the Hittites as a great and powerful nation, but because no reference to them was found outside of the Bible and no remains of a great Hittite civilization had be found, the Hittites were used as an example of how the Bible was not historically accurate....UNTIL the Hittite capital and records were unearthed in Bogazkoy, Turkey in the early 20th century, and it was found that the Biblical descriptions of them really were accurate.

Another claim that has been brought against the historicity of the Bible is that there is very little historical record of the Kingdom of David mentioned in the Bible. There are records of Solomon, but very few of David, and for this reason, some have questioned whether David actually lived, or whether he was a purely legendary figure.

CNN put out this video recently about some archeological discoveries which could be proof of David and his kingdom.



I have great confidence in the Bible, and I'm sure that with time more and more archeological discoveries will be made that prove the Bible to be historically accurate.

Bomba Jó - Bomb in Eger

Today while doing a construction project on a garage in Eger, they found a 250 kg bomb from World War 2.
The bomb was apparently dropped by an airplane but never detonated. It must have been covered up by dirt and was undetected for years, during which time someone built a garage over where the live bomb rested and parked a car on top of it every day for the past 66 years.

Here are some pictures of the bomb:



And here is a map of where they found it on Fazola Henrik utca:


View Larger Map

Because of the bomb, they evacuated the entire downtown.
Happens to be that our church is downtown, and was included in the evacuation zone. We have Bible study on Wednesday nights, and what's more is that tonight we had one of our "Vision Meetings" scheduled, in which we talk about the vision of the church and discuss the church's various ministries.

Because the church was inside the evacuation zone, those of us who came to church found each other, and after waiting for a while for them to let us back into the city center, we decided to go to our house and have the Bible study in our garden. Turned out that our neighbor was entertaining guests in the garden, so we tried the basketball court at the end of our street - which also turned out to be full.
When we got to the basketball court, I realized that we were right across the street from the house of a family from our church, so I went over and asked if we could meet in their garden. They are wonderfully hospitable people, and they let us come and have our meeting in their yard.

In the end, it turned out to be much nicer than sitting cramped inside the four walls of the church building.
Here's a picture of our Wednesday night group in Kati néni's garden:

Life in Eger is never dull!

American Christianity

I got an invitation to teach a class this fall on church history at a school of missions in Ukraine, so I have been reading the book "From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya" by Ruth Tucker as part of my preparation.

Today I came across a quote I found very interesting. It was written in 1926 by a Japanese Christian leader named Kanzo Uchimura. One of his main goals was to establish a truly Japanese church and Christian movement rather than have a Christianity that was viewed as a western import.
Here's his critique of American Christianity:

Americans must count religion in order to see or show its value…. To them big churches are successful churches…. To win the greatest number of converts with the least expense is their constant endeavour. Statistics is their way of showing success or failure in their religion as in their commerce and politics. Numbers, numbers, oh, how they value numbers! … Mankind goes down to America to learn how to live the earthly life; but to live the heavenly life, they go to some other people. It is no special fault of Americans to be this-worldly; it is their national characteristic;

Kanzo Uchimura, “Can Americans Teach Japanese in Religion?” Japan Christian Intelligencer 1 (1926): 357–61, cited in Walls, “The American Dimension,” 2., found in Tucker, Ruth A. (2010). From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions . Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

I like Uchimura's focus on establishing a truly indigenous Christian movement in his country - I believe that should be the goal of all mission work.
I think there is something to what he says about American Christianity, although I don't fully agree with his critique.
On one hand, what he says about how Americans tend to measure success in ministry similar to how they measure success in commerce is often true, and definitely deserves consideration.
On the other hand, Kanzo Uchimura himself came to faith in Christ through the efforts of American missionaries in Japan, and I think the focus he mentions of American Christians to make as many converts to Christianity as possible is a noble, and Biblical thing.

As one who is American but has lived outside of the US for many years now, I have gained a bit of perspective on American culture and mentality by being able to observe it from the outside. Despite all the critiques that could be (and are often) made, there are some very positive things that I see. For example: American people are generally very generous, and are quite willing to give of what they have to help people in need or to support causes that they believe in. That is a praiseworthy thing. Also, Americans tend to have an entrepreneurial spirit - which amongst believers can create a culture of being willing to step out in faith and attempt great things for God. The parting words of William Smith Clark, the American missionary who trained the local evangelists who led Kanzo Uchimura to the Lord were: "Boys, be ambitious!" I believe that culture of being willing to step out in faith and follow the Lord wherever he leads is something which is not American, but very much Biblical, and something which Jesus taught and demonstrated in his life and ministry.

What do you think?

Reflections on a Semester of Religious Ed

This past Tuesday Rosemary and I had our last Religious Ed class of the school year at the "gypsy school". It was our first semester there and we definitely learned a lot.

Here are some reflections on it this past semester:

• When I met with the director of the school last year and she asked us to come and teach Religious Ed, she told me that years ago some Catholic priests used to come to the school to teach, but they stopped coming because they couldn't handle the kids. When I heard this, my first reaction was to assume that they probably just didn't like the kids because they were gypsies, or maybe their program was so boring that it didn't hold the kids' attention.
  However, I must admit that there were many times this semester when I found myself thinking: "I totally understand why those Catholic priests stopped coming to this school..."
  Almost all of the kids are really poorly behaved - they are disrespectful and run around and curse and fight during class - and it is very tiring to work with them and keep things in order.
  BUT - sometimes there are breakthroughs. And the breakthroughs are what makes it all worthwhile. When you see some kid understand the basic truths of the Gospel, and you realize that there is no one else in their life who tells them about the things of God or even simply that they are valuable - that is what makes all the frustration involved with teaching them worthwhile.
• MUSIC is the best method I found to reach these gypsy kids. I could have talked until I was blue in the face, and they wouldn't have remembered anything I said - but as soon as I pulled out a guitar and taught them some songs, they immediately memorized them, and the lyrics stuck with them.
  Charles Wesley wrote literally thousands of songs, which in his time, in the 18th century in England, were "Contemporary Christian Music". He said that one of his main goals in writing music was to teach the uneducated working class the doctrines of the Bible. Many of them couldn't read, and many of them wouldn't sit through a long sermon and retain all the information - but if they could easily learn doctrine through songs. So Charles Wesley wrote music to teach the poor of England the truths of the Gospel.
  I found that this is the most effective way to teach these gypsy kids about Jesus as well. At the beginning of the semester I taught them a song called "Ó Én Hiszek Jézusban" (I believe in Jesus). The song is really just a very succinct statement of faith - and it is catchy. And for the rest of the semester, whenever I asked them a question about Jesus, most of the time they answered by quoting the lines of that song! That means that they remembered it - and it stuck in their minds. MUSIC is a wonderful resource for teaching the deep truths of the Bible.
• One thing I will do more next year is kick more kids out of class if they misbehave. Because there are some kids who want to be there, and some kids who think that they are doing you a favor by being there, and so they just do whatever they want, and they are a drain on the entire class.
• Another thing I would like to do more next year is to do more big programs. We had a group come from New York, who did a big program for the entire school, and it was a great success. I would love to have groups come who do puppet shows and stuff like that.
• It seemed to me that a lot of these kids had problems at home. Some seemed neglected and some had a lot of anger. There comes a point when you stop being frustrated at these kids for being so badly behaved, and you start feeling compassion for them because most of them are products of the environments in which they are raised.
  
• I think the opportunity to teach Religious Ed is a great thing, and I would like to do this in more schools, and I pray we will have open doors to do so.

Please join us in praying for these kids, their families, and the future of this ministry.

Digital Nativity

What if social media had existed when Jesus was born?
Check this out:

Tear Down This Wall

Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.
In reflecting on the events which led up to the wall coming down, it seems there were a few key events which almost didn't happen.

• German Politburo member Günter Schabowski accidently blurted out at a press conference that East Germany would allow its citizens to pass through border crossings into the West, and then made it worse by adding that this would happen immediately, even though that was not what East Germany was actually planning to do. Because of that error, people gathered at the borders and at the wall on Nov 9, 1989. More about this here.
• According to this video, Ronald Reagen almost didn't say his famous words: "Mr. Gorbechev, tear down this wall!"
• Margaret Thatcher was actually not supportive of German re-unification, fearing that a unified Germany would be too powerful a force in the center of Europe.

But the wall did come down, and communist governments in Eastern Europe fell not long afterward. Nowadays its hard to imagine it any other way.

Here is a list of walls which are still standing around the world.

Rules

I recently read the Rule of Benedict for my class on Church History. Benedict's Rule is essentially an all-encompassing list of rules for how a monastery should function (i.e. Benedictine monks). There were many "rules" written; one for each faction or group - but the Rule of Benedict is seen as a standard, and is even considered canonical by some branches of the the church.

Anyways, as I was reading it, I found some things interesting and/or funny:

XXII. How the monks are to sleep.- Let them sleep in separate beds, and let the beds be suitable to their manner of life. Let them sleep clothed, girded with belts or cords - but without knives at their sides, lest they injure themselves in sleep.
Yea, so no pajamas, and no knives in bed either! If they hadn't pointed that out, who knows what could have happened?!

XXX. Concerning boys under age, how they shall be corrected.- ...as often as such persons offend, they shall either be punished with extra fasts or, coerced with severe blows, that they may be healed.
Severe blows? In every monastery they had monks who functioned as doctors. I wonder if the referenced to healing them means that they beat the young ones so they could practice healing them???

XLII. On silence after compline.- Monks should practice silence at all times, but especially in the hours of night. Therefore on all days, whether fasting days or otherwise, let them sit together as soon as they have risen from supper (if it be not a fast day) and let one of them read the 'Collations' or 'Lives of the Fathers', or something else which may edify the hearers. But not the Heptateuch (the first 6 books of the Old Testament) or 'Kings'; for it will not profit weak intellects to listen to that part of the Scripture at that hour.
So, after dinner no one is allowed to read or listen to Genesis-Judges or Kings. I had no idea that was a problem!

And my favorite:
LVIII. Concerning the manner of receiving brothers.- When any new comer applies for admission, an easy entrance shall not be granted him...Therefore, if he who comes perseveres in knocking, and is seen after four or five days to endure with patience the insults inflicted upon him, and the difficulty of entrance, and to persist in his demand, entrance shall be allowed him...
4 or 5 days?! Insults inflicted upon him?! I wonder what that was like - Hey, you're an idiot, and you're momma's ugly! Go away or else I will insult you a second time!
Interesting. I wonder if it was anything like this:

Sopron Picnic

20 years ago the "Pan-European Picnic" was held on the Austrian-Hungarian border at Sopron to protest the Iron Curtain. During the picnic 600 East Germans used the opportunity to push through to the West, and significantly, were not shot at by Hungarian border guards. It was one of the main events which led to the fall of the Berlin wall.
Here's a video from CNN about it:

Denied

Last week, on August 20, the President of Hungary, Sólyom László was refused entry into Slovakia.
The president was going on a private visit to a town in southern Slovakia with a majority ethnic Hungarian population to unveil a statue of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary.
The reason the Slovak government gave for refusing entry to the Hungarian president was the day he chose to come on. The Slovak government told Sólyom László that he could come on any other day, just not August 20th. When he came anyway, he was turned away at the bridge where he tried to cross into Slovakia.
This is the complication - because whereas for Hungarians August 20th is Saint Stephen's day - one of their most important holidays, when they remember the founding of the Hungarian kingdom, which used to include the territory of modern Slovakia and Transylvania - in Slovakia August 20th is the anniversary of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, in which the Hungarian army also invaded Czechoslovakia to shut down the "Prague Spring" - an attempt by Czechoslovakia to move away from communism and Soviet domination.
The problem is that Hungary and Slovakia are both EU members, and Slovakia's denial of entry to the Hungarian president is contrary to EU law which permits freedom of movement between countries.
This isn't even the first time this kind of thing has happened to Sólyom László. On March 15, he went to Romania, to celebrate Hungary's national day with Transylvanian Hungarians, and while his plane was in the air, he was refused landing permission, and ended up having to come into Transylvania by car. Pretty embarrassing for a president...
Both Romania and Slovakia are sensitive to Hungarian territorial claims to their land, and view moves like these by the president as challenging their territorial sovereignty.
I can personally understand why Slovakia and Romania are concerned about Hungarian claims to their land. I can also understand the Hungarians, who don't want to lose touch with fellow Hungarians who were separated from Hungary not by their own choice.

What do you think? Was Slovakia justified in doing this? Is the president of Hungary challenging the sovereignty of these nations by his visits there?

Superheroes VS Lenin

Lenin. Moscow. Superheroes. The USA.
All these are on the list of my favorite things. Exactly why this glorious video by the Hungarian electronica band Neo is worth watching over and over.
Check it out:

Cyril and Methodius Day

Yesterday was Sts. Cyril and Methodius Day in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Cyril and Methodius, were, in my opinion, pretty cool. I think they deserve a holiday.
They were brothers, born in Greece, in the 9th century, who became missionaries to the Slavic people. They have been called the "Apostles to the Slavs".
Cyril and Methodius translated the Bible into the language of the Slavs - now called Old Church Slavonic, and created an alphabet - the Glagolitic alphabet - which was suited to match the specific features of Slavic language. They evangelized the Slavic people, and are seen as heroes throughout the Slavic world to this day.
As a missionary, I can't help but be impressed with that. They did what He said to do:
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Tegnap Szent Cirill és Metód napja volt Csehországban és Szlovákiában.
Véleményem szerint, királyok voltak. Szerintem megérdemlik egy ünnepnapot.
Testvérek voltak, akik Görögországban születtek a 9. században, és missziónáriusok lettek a szláv népek között. Valamennyien a "Szlávok Apostolai"-nak hívják őket.
Cirill és Metód a szlávok nyelvére fordították a Bibliát - ma ezt óegyházi szláv nyelvnek hívják, és kitaláltak hozzá egy saját ábécé rendszert - a Glogolita ábécé - ami alkalmas volt a szláv nyelv sajátosságaira.
Ők evangélizálták a szláv népet, és a mai napig hősöknek tartják őket szerte a szláv világban.
Mint missziónárius, ez nekem nagyon tetszik. Ők azt csinálták, amit Ő mondott:
18Jézus hozzájuk lépett, és így szólt: "Nekem adatott minden hatalom mennyen és földön. 19Menjetek el tehát, tegyetek tanítvánnyá minden népet, megkeresztelve őket az Atyának, a Fiúnak és a Szentléleknek nevében, 20tanítva őket, hogy megtartsák mindazt, amit én parancsoltam nektek; és íme, én veletek vagyok minden napon a világ végezetéig."

Socialist Realism

There is something I like about Socialist Realism. Maybe its because it is something different and something of the past, but for whatever reason, I like it.
Here are some posters in this style from communist Hungary:
Van valami amit szeretem a szoc-reál stilusában. Lehet, azért mert más és egy múltbéli, de akár miért is, szeretem.
Itt van egy pár szoc-reál poszter Magyarországból:

And here is one more poster, from the Soviet Union, which says in Russian: "Religion is Poison":
És itt van még egy poszer, a Szovjet Unióból, amely azt mondja orosz nyelven, hogy: "A Vallás Méreg":
This poster shows the ideology that went along with socialist realism, which was not so cool and which has surely had lasting effects on this part of Europe.
Ez a poszter mutatja azt az ideológiát ami a szoc-reál mögött állt, ami kevésbé szuper, és ami biztosan maradandó hatással volt Európának ennek a részére.

Nerd Fact

Rosemary often says that my brain is full of "nerd facts" - silly facts that I bring up in sentences which begin like: "Did you know that..."

Here's the nerd fact for the day: Hungary is one of only 4 countries in the world that use the date format of yyyy/mm/dd. The only other countries that format their dates this way are Lithuania, China and Mongolia. This is interesting, because the main theories about the origin of the Hungarian people is that they are an eastern people group, with closer relations to Mongols than to the Slavic and Germanic peoples around them.

Another interesting thing is that the United States and its territories are the only places where the dating format is exclusively: mm/dd/yyyy - Canada and Kenya also use this format, but they use others as well.
Maybe we should conclude that this proves that Canadians and Kenyans actually descend from the USA.

Here's the map - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Date.png

20 Years

This year marks 20 years since 1989, when many of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe fell.
The BBC has a cool page about this, with old video footage from 1989:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7961732.stm

St. Patrick

My dad is Irish, but the only really Irish things I remember growing up were eating corned beef and hash and having a big Irish wake after my grandmother's funeral. I'd have to say that the Irish deal with death better than anyone else I've ever seen - they go out and have a big party with the family and keep everything very lighthearted.

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, and I wanted to write then, but just now found the time - at almost 1am...
Anyways, St. Patrick's Day is a cool holiday in my opinion, not just because of the green beer and pinching people - but because of who St. Patrick was.
Patrick was a Roman Briton born in Wales around 390 AD. He was captured and taken to Ireland as a slave when he was 16 yrs old. After living there as a slave for 6 yrs, he managed to escape back to Britain. While there he joined a monastery and became a minister, and later decided to go back to Ireland as a missionary.

Patrick was one of the earliest Christian missionaries to travel abroad to spread Christianity. There isn't a lot we know about his time as a missionary in Ireland, except that he preached the Gospel and baptized many people, including some members of the royal family.
One of the noteworthy things which Patrick did as a missionary was live in solidarity with the Irish people. Patrick wrote that he "sold his nobility" to enhance his commonality with his Irish audience. He learned their language, and lived among them, instead of separately.
In a lot of ways he left a good legacy for missionaries who came after him.

Here's to Patrick the missionary and the Irish people. Corned beef forever!

Garden of Eden?

According to this article, archaeologists have found a site in eastern Turkey which they claim to be the most important discovery in the last 50 years.
Based on its location, and carbon dating saying that the site is about 10,000 yrs old - as opposed to Stonehenge at 3000 yrs and the Giza pyramids at 2500 yrs old - some archaeologists are suggesting that this is the location of the Garden of Eden.
The idea is intriguing, considering that it would match up roughly with the dating and location described in Genesis, but for some reason I'm not totally convinced yet.
What do you think - is this the location of the Garden of Eden?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1157784/Do-mysterious-stones-mark-site-Garden-Eden.html

E-szerint a cikk szerint, régészek megtaláltak egy olyan helyet kelet Törökországban, amelyet egyesek a legfontosabb régészeti felfedezésnek tartják az utóbbi 50 évben.
A hely elhelyezkedése alapján, hozzáadva azt, hogy a szén dátumozás szerint az ott talált tágyak kb 10 ezer évesek - összehasonlítva a 3000 éves Stonehenge-dzsel és a 2500 éves gizai piramisokkal - egyes régészek azt állítják, hogy ez az Éden kertjének a területe.
Szerintem nagyon érdekes ez a feltevés, mivel hogy nagyából egyezik azzal a dátumozással és elhelyezkedéssel amit az 1.Mózes könyvében olvasuk, viszont valamiért még nem vagyok teljesen meggyőzödve róla.
Mit szóltok hozzá - ez az Éden kertje területe lehet?

Goodbye Rocky Mountain News

When I was growing up, there were two main newspapers in Denver: The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. It was always kind of like a Coke or Pepsi type of thing - some people preferred one, other preferred the other, and it was more about style and feeling than about the content, because both were good. At our house we always had the Rocky Mountain News.
But times, they are a changin'. I took this picture when I was in Denver in December:That sign's probably not going to be up much longer, because the Rocky Mountain News has printed their last edition, and a Denver icon has passed away.
In this internet age, old slow media will have to adapt or else go the way of "The News" and Rest in Peace.
Here's a video about it:

A New One

I know its kind of late to be writing about the New Year, but we've been very busy here in California, so I haven't had a lot of time to sit and write.
So, once again, this post will contain some pretty random thoughts.

• Rosemary and I are officially geezers. Or maybe misers. Whatever - we are old and boring.
  Our New Year's Eve of 2008 was not spent partying like it was 1999, but rather going to bed around 10pm, because we were tired and bored. We watched a movie, and then around 10 decided to just go to bed.
  I remember that my parents used to do this same thing, and I thought they were so old and weird. Now that has become us...
  

• As the clock struck midnight and 2008 gave way to 2009, a few things changed in Europe:
  - As 2008 passed into history, so did the Slovak Koruna, as Slovakia became the first of the former Warsaw Pact countries to integrate to using the Euro currency and join the Eurozone. Congrats to SK! Hungary is still not going to be getting the Euro for many years to come...
  - On Jan 1st, Czech Republic became the first of the former Warsaw Pact countries to take over the 6-month rotating EU presidency. One of their stated goals is working towards EU membership for the Balkan nations, specifically for Serbia.
  - Vilnius, Lithuania and Linz, Austria became the new European Capitals of Culture.
  

• This has nothing to do with the New Year, but I was turned on to a very funny blog by a friend of ours: www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com
  It has pictures of professional cakes, some with mistakes, others just unbelievably weird, etc...
  Browse through it if you have time; some of the stuff on there is really funny - we cracked up.

Anyways, I hope you had a happy New Year, and pray that your 2009 will be blessed.