out

It seems like my blog is all about leaving, coming back, preparing to leave, traveling. I guess that's all I do that's noteworthy.

This is it. I am leaving in five hours and embarking on I have no idea what. I am excited and apprehensive. God is sovereign. Please pray for me. I will be missing my friends. And I see my family in 9-10 weeks! hooray!

Even if you don't write me letters, send me an email and I will see it eventually. Or comment on my blog. Or just "like" one of my photos on Facebook, or something. So I know you're alive and still want to be my friend. I'm turning 21 in Ukraine. That'll be fun.

All right, friends, that's it. See you on the flip side.

thoughts on one more week

Five days left in the country.

May 31 is the day I leave. It is also the two-year birthday of my blog. Happy Birthday, blog!! And what a two years it's been. Having a blog is a weird thing. It simultaneously validates and trivializes life. It simultaneously strokes the ego and reinforces one's unimportance. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I feel bound by it. It has been a comfort and connector while I am away from people, and an abandoned friend this past semester. It is an outlet. It is also just kind of dumb.

favorites from the last two years: Washington DC, giving blood, animal hatred, cold and dark Russia, visa madness, so many cultural observations, missing family, ice storms, sleep logs...
and so much more.

You should try blogging some time. It at least gets people writing more than a facebook wall post.

I won't have much access to the internet in Ukraine. So I am going to take up snail mail letter-writing. Please be my pen pal for the summer. Mail will probably take up to 2 weeks, so I would recommend not sending anything after July 20th -ish.

Here is my address:
c/o Doug Shepherd
Shiptitskix 1a Apt. 9
L'viv, Ukraine 79016

Give me your address, please. This will be fun.

Speed Thy Servants

Speed Thy servants, Savior, speed them;
Thou art Lord of winds and waves;
They were bound, but Thou hast freed them;
Now they go to free the slaves:
Be Thou with them, ’tis Thine arm alone that saves.
Be Thou with them, ’tis Thine arm alone that saves.

Friends, and home, and all forsaking,
Lord they go at Thy command,
As their stay Thy promise taking,
While they traverse sea and land:
O be with them; lead them safely by the hand.
O be with them; lead them safely by the hand.

When they think of home now dearer
Than it ever seemed before
Bring the promised glory nearer
Let them see that peaceful shore.
Where Thy people rest from toil and weep no more
Where Thy people rest from toil and weep no more.

When they reach the land of strangers,
And the prospect dark appears,
Nothing seen but toils and dangers,
Nothing felt but doubts and fears,
Be Thou with them, hear their sighs and count their tears.
Be Thou with them, hear their sighs and count their tears.

When no fruit appears to cheer them,
And they seem to toil in vain,
Then in mercy, Lord, draw near them,
Then their sinking hopes sustain:
Thus supported, let their zeal revive again.
Thus supported, let their zeal revive again.

In the midst of opposition
Let them trust, O Lord, in Thee;
When success attends their mission,
Let Thy servants humbler be:
Never leave them till Thy face in Heav’n they see.
Never leave them till Thy face in Heav’n they see.

There to reap in joy forever,
Fruit that grows from seed here sown;
There to be with Him, Who never
Ceases to preserve His own;
And with gladness give the praise to Him alone.
And with gladness give the praise to Him alone.

-words by Thomas Kelly, 1820

best case scenario

Some of my more faithful blog readers (anyone? anyone?) may remember my Russian Visa Debacle of 2008, in which I applied for a visa to go visit my family, and it didn't come in time, resulting in me missing my flight, rescheduling, traveling 48 hours alone, etc. It was a miniature disaster.

This summer I am going to Ukraine, which is right next to Russia, where my family is. So, I applied for a Russian visa, and planned to go see them. As of some time last fall, you have to get a visa through a separate agency, instead of straight from the embassy. I called them and they said that they will process it in 10-20 business days, with 12 being best case scenario. I figured that, considering my family's history with these things, I could calculate all 20 days, plus 2 days of shipping on either side.

I put my passport in the mail last Saturday, and it was supposed to reach the visa agency in VA last Tuesday - eight days ago. Counting the 20 days and shipping, I was expecting to get it back sometime in the last few days before leaving the country on the 31st. I didn't think it would be late, but you just never know.

But I wasn't even nervous YET, cause I still have three weeks to get nervous.

My passport came back in the mail TODAY. I have my visa. I am going to visit my family. This, my friends, is the BEST case scenario. [if not better!]

I am so happy.

I get to see these crazy faces:
hooray!!

The Alternative Christs

Let us now clear up the situation a little. The New Testament tells two stories for two different sorts of readers. One is the old story of the achievement of our salvation by the sacrifice oand atonement of a divine personage who was barbarously slain and rose again on the third day: the story as it was accepted by the apostles. And in this story the political, economic, and moral views of the Christ have no importance: the atonement is everything; and we are saved by our faith in it, and not by works or opinions (other than that particular opinion) bearing on practical affairs.

The other story is the story of a prophet who, after expressing several very interesting opinions as to practical conduct, both personal and political, which are now of pressing importance, and instructing his disciples to carry them out in their daily life, lost his head; believed himself to be a crude legendary form of god; and under that delusion courted and suffered a cruel execution in the belief that he would rise from the dead and come in glory to reign over a regenerated world. In this form, the political, economic and moral opinions of Jesus, as guides to conduct, are interesting and important: the rest is mere psychopathy and superstition. The accounts of the resurrection, the parthenogenetic birth, and the more incredible miracles are rejected as inventions...

- Bernard Shaw, preface to Androcles and the Lion

I have a paper on this preface due tomorrow, for my Bible as Literature class. Shaw is pretty inflammatory. I feel as though he is here presenting a false dichotomy. Wish me luck.