4th of July in Philadelphia

I know these are poor pictures, but they're all we've got.
On the 4th of July this year, Nathan and I went to Penn's landing in downtown Philly to watch the fireworks and listen to the Philadelphia Orchestra play.

Braciole

I love cooking! There is an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" where Debra makes braciole and everyone loves it. So, I looked the recipe up online. It is a pounded out slab of beef, stuffed with seasonings, currants, pine nuts, provolone, and prosciutto, and then simmered in a tomato/red wine sauce. It turned out really well and was very yummy, but it was kind of a complicated and lengthy process.
The bruschetta was amazing too. Nathan said, "I love it when you make this!" And that recipe I made up myself. :)

The Legitimacy of Scholarship and Writing in Christian Ministry

In the past couple of weeks I have been wrestling through whether or not the radical nature of New Testament Christian ministry allows for a Christian academic, or publishing ministry. What sparked this turmoil was the report of a short-term missions team upon their return from Uganda. It forced me to consider whether spending a large portion of my time working at studying and being a scholar was something that could exist simultaneously with all the other needs of Christians around the world.

While there is no necessary dichotomy between Christian scholarship and radical Christ exalting self-denial. I had to (and still need to) work through whether my desire to be a scholar is a self gratifying desire to live the American dream.

I am very grateful for C.E. Hill and E. Randolph Richards for their insights into the apostolic mission as a writing ministry. While many may believe that writing and scholarship has no place in the radical ministry of the New Testament, Paul did not believe so.

In the approximately 14,000 private letters from Greco-Roman antiquity the average length was about 87 words....The letters of the literary masters, like
Cicero and Seneca, were considerably longer. Nonetheless, Paul stands apart from
them all. (Richards, Paul and First-Century Letter Writing, 163 [quoted
in C.E. Hill, God's Speech in These Last Days)

The average length of Cicero's letters is 295 words; the average length of
Seneca's is a whopping 995. But the average length of Paul's letters is
2,495! Even Colossians, short by Paul's standards, is (by my count, according to
the NA27 text) 1416. ( C.E. Hill, "God's Speech in These Last Days" in Resurrection and Eschatology, 226.

E. Randolph Richards estimates that even after the time and effort Paul and Timothy put into writing Colossians (including pre-writing discussion and possible note-taking and production of multiple drafts) each copy of Colossians would have consumed about half a day of a scribe's work and that Paul would have spent, by conservative estimates, the equivalent of $502. Implying that his longer letters would have
cost even more.

Thus, for Paul writing was not a waste of his time and money, when he should have been visiting or planting a church, but a vital part in his role as the apostle to the Gentiles, and so it should not be considered a waste of time for you or I today.

Racism

Check out this helpful article on the challenges faced by theological institutions.

http://online.worldmag.com/2010/07/07/no-racism-does-not-explain-everything/

Our New Apartment

So, we are finally all moved into our new apartment at CLC. We love it here. The area is beautiful and after a little paint and lots of arranging furniture, we are feeling very at home. Other than the exhaustion we both feel from moving, we feel much more settled and relaxed. There are still some things to organize and re-organize, but we'll get there. My husband even allowed me to go to IKEA and get some new decorating items. (woohoo!)
However, being a Minnesotan up to this point, I was shocked at the dangers that came with running around here. I pictured these roads in the hills surrounded by trees, as being quiet with low traffic. Not quite...My first attempt at running, I ended up hovering by a tree on a road with no shoulder and uphill on the side, so I couldn't even balance on the curb, with semis and cars driving by probably wondering what I was thinking...it was pretty scary. My second attempt, I ran up and down the short section of road that actually had a shoulder, and then did hill sprints up the driveway to the CLC campus. LUCKILY, someone informed me of a park nearby that has a 1 mile loop of a trail around it. It's perfect! With distance markers each quarter of a mile. So, now I can proceed getting ready for the NYC Marathon. :)
So, who would have thought getting a P.O. Box would be such an ordeal? After 5 trips, about 10 forms of ID, and 3 different clerk's, we finally have one. After much difficulty, we also finally have our new diver's licenses. Now, if we can just get our new car registration, we'll be all set. There are so many moments, where I wonder if we'll ever have the ambition to move again! But hopefully, this challenging experience with help make future moves easier.
And I am thankful to have a working oven.... (sigh) even if it is so small that my cookie sheets don't fit in it and the temperature dial is off so it gets much hotter than it should. And I'm thankful for electricity and air conditioning, even if, ever time I blow dry my hair, we blow a fuse and one of us has to run down stairs to flip the switch and then we proceed to re-set all the clocks in our home. I am realizing my lack of patience with things that are inconvenient, and I've been very convicted of not being grateful for the blessings we do have.
So, praise God for his care for us, and that He is faithful to remind me of my sin and selfishness! He has given us so much, and even if He had not, what He has done for me on the cross is far beyond anything I deserve. Meditating on that truth gives me so much joy and puts things in perspective. I really have nothing to complain about. Praise God He loves me even though I continually make much out of things that should not be.