A disgrace to the West

Someone emailed this picture to me today. Just in case you can't read the small text, it says that this vulture is waiting for the child to die so it can eat him. It was taken in 1994 during the Sudan famine. The child is crawling toward a United Nations food camp one kilometer away.

If you oppress poor people, you insult the God who made them; but kindness shown to the poor is an act of worship. Pr. 14:31

Kaleidoscope fun

I'm watching you


Gollum, precious? Believe it or not, this is my face.


The many faces of Susie

Pull up a... er...

Kaleidoscope Generator

Take 3

Clapper board generator

Far from perfect

I saw a t-shirt the other day which read:

"Jesus save me... from your followers".

I think it was meant to be a joke, but it speaks of something that people do experience, something that I have experienced at times.

Jesus is known in the Bible as the Prince of Peace. So why are his followers sometimes cruel, divisive, and hurtful? God is love... so why is it that some of the most un-loving people I know have called themselves 'Christian'?

I'm sure you can think of times throughout history when people have been 'evil' in the name of God. Not all of these are quite accurate, but people have named the Crusades, slavery, the war on Iraq, and other sad things as things done in the name of Jesus.

How can this be? Does the Bible really teach that this is how people should behave?

Dear reader, if you have felt the 'wrath' of people claiming to be Christians, I sympathise with you. But please understand, these people are human, and humans are some of the most cruel, sinful people around. Know that Jesus himself would never condone cruelty, hatred, or coldness of heart. We must understand, that while Christians try (or should try) to daily become more like Jesus, many of them are still a long way off reaching that goal. I am a follower of Jesus, and though it hurts me to even think of it, I have probably hurt people in the past in ways that have done His reputation much injustice.

But let me encourage you: Look beyond the imperfect people, and see the perfect Jesus who loves both his followers and you with undying love. See the Jesus who is not like many of his followers (although I can assure you that those who are most like him are the most caring, selfless, humble people you have ever met).

I've seen Jesus as he really is, as revealed in the Bible, and since then I've come to forgive those who have done wrong to me, even if they thought they were doing what he wanted. I've come to learn to live with his followers; I even try to understand them.

I hope you will able to do the same.

International Nurses Day

Today is International Nurses Day, apparantly. I didn't hear anything about it at work, but oh well, hurrah for us!

In honour of the many nurses who have come and gone before, I would like to propose an acrostic poem. It was composed by me 5 minutes ago.

N oooooo! I'm not having a shower today.
U nder the bed. Yes, it's living under there...
R ichard? Ratchet? ...Oh, Rachel. Pleased to meet you.
S orry, dear, I can't hear you. I haven't got my hearing aids in.
E veryone else has sugar in their tea. Why can't I? No, I'm not a diabetic!
S he's lovely. And you are too... Oh, you all look after me so well. Thank you.

It's the old story...

This is a true story. It happened to a friend of a friend of mine...

I've been thinking about stories. Did you know that at least half of the world's population prefer concrete methods of learning such as stories and symbols? Yet many people, when they try to communicate interculturally, use very Westernized methods like well-rounded arguments with 3 points and a series of pieces of evidence. Then they wonder why their audience switches off!

I'm used to communicating like this - I can write essays and debate issues, but I've realised I need to become a much better storyteller if I am to communicate to people of other cultures.

So, what makes a good storyteller?

A few things I've noticed about good storytellers is they have a sense of humour, they are attentive to visual details in their story (eg. someone's facial expression, or the way they walk), they can communicate feelings and moods really well, and they use tone, silence and facial expressions to create suspense and expectation.

What do you think?

Answer this

What is so fragile,

That all it takes,

Is to say its name,

And it will break?

Ifserqe

If this was a real word...

What would it mean?

I think "ifserqe" is the state of delerium reached by students who have written waay too many essays, or solved too many algebra equations.

A key and a packet of biscuits

I am still alive... just letting you know.

An update on what is happening with me:

I'm frantically doing assignments; 7 to go now.

The ";" key on my keyboard is not working very well for some reason. Warranty is a great thing.

My mum got these really cool bikkies on special at the supermarket - they're Kraft Peanut Butter In A Biskit. It really stops the munchies... I love them! Only then I found out they are a 'deleted line'. Nooooo!

I found a cool website. It has archived websites from many many years ago right up til now. You can see what they very first ebay website looked like. I guess I could even look at archives of my blog... what it looked like before I learned how to play with html. Very interesting!