a new doxology

My dad is currently living in Africa. Not permanently, but he is living in Tanzania for the next three months to partner with Tumaini University - a Lutheran University in Iringa - and the Iringa Diocese to help them fine-tune their administrative procedures and do long-range planning. In the states, he is a philanthropic advisor (development/fundraising) at Luther Seminary, he is also an ordained Lutheran pastor and a former college president; and it is because of his experiences in both academic and ministry settings that he was asked to help the Lutheran church in Tanzania. As a way of sharing some of his experiences during his time in Iringa, he is writing a blog called “Tom goes to Africa.” He has only written two entries so far (he just got there last week), but it has been fun to read what he has been doing so far. For instance, he visited a church in a nearby village this morning and during worship there was an unexpected surprise. Here’s the story in his words,

During the singing of one of the choir anthems, I heard a chicken clucking loudly. I thought there must be a chicken pen just outside the open window. When the offering was taken, I realized that someone brought the chicken to church to give in the offering. The chicken, along with the rest of the offering, was brought to the altar and placed beside those of us seated there. It was well behaved. After the service, all non-cash gifts given during the offering were auctioned off in the sanctuary. Not only was the chicken well behaved, but must have been very good, because it fetched $3.50. We were told later that the one auctioned in the Cathedral in Iringa only went for $1.00.

Someone brought a chicken to church to give for offering…how funny is that? I attended a suburban mega-church this morning and I’m imagining how people (including me) would react if someone brought a live farm animal to give as their offering. Looking past the humor of the situation, how powerful a witness is it when you realize that the person who gave that chicken might not have had any money to give; but they did have a chicken (a “well-behaved” chicken!) and giving that chicken as their offering was probably a great sacrifice to the person and their family since it most likely provided them with eggs and, eventually, meat. Still they chose to give it as an offering of thanks anyway. It reminds me of the story of the widow’s offering found in Mark 12:41-44 (also Luke 21:1-4). Here’s the story from Mark’s gospel,

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Mark 12:41-44 (NIV)

I am excited for my dad that he has this wonderful opportunity (and proud of him for doing it), but I am sad for me and my family (especially my mom) because we are going to miss him. My mom is going to visit him for a few weeks at the end of his time there, but aside from the emails and occasional phone calls I get from him, I will have no contact with him until he comes home at the end of March. I am thankful for the innovations in technology-communication that allow me to have even this limited contact with him while he is on the other side of the ocean, but I am also thankful for my dad’s ability to understand enough about technology that he is brave enough to write a blog so that others (not just me and my family) can learn from his experiences. Selfishly, I’d like to ask you to pray for my dad, the people he is working with and their efforts to provide quality education for the people of Iringa; and I invite you to read along as Tom goes to Africa.

A few final observations from my dad on his first week (especially his first Sunday at church) in Tanzania…

Men sat on one side and women on the other, for the most part.
Liturgical dance is alive and well in Kilolo - there was dancing during every choir anthem.
God can sing louder, even than a great African choir. Even though it thundered and rained on the metal roof repeatedly during the worship, the the pastor just went on, without the aid of a microphone.
Time was suspended for one day. All that mattered was that the people were together worshipping God.
I have yet to see anyone using a cell phone while driving a car.
I’ve only seen about five people smoking cigarettes any time during this first week.
It would be impossible to be on a low carb diet here.

If you somehow missed the first two links to his blog, click here to read it.

[Note: the reason for this post is to pass on a link to an interesting essay about life, dating and marriage, but I found the need to first explain why I ever read this essay in the first place. If you are not interested in my explanation and prefer to just read the essay, click here and read it now...otherwise, read on and you will eventually find the link below.]

Like most people around my age, I have several email addresses on various email services including the grandfather of free mail on the internet, hotmail. I actually have two hotmail addresses and one of them is the very first email address I ever had (my dad helped me sign up for it sometime around 1997 when we had dial-up internet and a Dell computer with a whopping 1GB hard drive…coincidentally, my parents finally replaced that computer two years ago and that single event – my dad helping me set up an email account – over ten years ago was the only time that one of my parent’s helped me do anything related to computers, the internet or technology).

Nowadays - since gmail was created - I don’t check my hotmail accounts very often, but I still use one of them for bills and online orders; and since the other is my first email address I think I’m keeping it because of an emotional connection (plus it’s fun to look back in my inbox and see emails from when I was in high school…way back in the 90s). Even though I don’t really use either hotmail address much for actually writing emails, I still check them every couple of days just to make sure I don’t miss anything important. The way my hotmail email checking usually goes is something like this; I sign in to one of the accounts and delete my new junk mail (since that’s all I seem to get at either), then sign out so I can sign in to check the other one and do the same thing again (delete junk, then sign out).

The people at Microsoft—who did not originally create hotmail, but quickly bought it in 1997 when they realized how popular it would become—are brilliant because they traffic all hotmail users through the msn.com homepage, meaning all advertisements, features and other content they display will be seen by millions of people daily who did not even choose to visit their website, yet still could potentially end up spending significant online time on one of the sites that lives under the ever-expanding msn umbrella. The way companies like Microsoft have created inter-webbing connections and relationships between various companies and their websites – while making crazy dollar bills from naïve internet consumers like me in the process – is absolutely incredible.

I wouldn’t list msn.com on any of my lists of top or favorite websites, yet I still end up on the site a lot more often than I intend or even realize. The links from msn that I tend to click usually end up being articles from their “Dating & Personals” section. Now before you start thinking all sorts of ridiculous and untrue things about me, let me explain. I don’t actually click on a tab to the section with that name, but articles that happen to be from that section (although it’s unknown to me at the time) are often featured on the msn.com main page that I’m channeled through between my hotmail accounts, and normally the articles have catchy titles about things I can relate to or that at least sound interesting – something like “How to date on a tight budget” or “First-date faux pas” – and it probably doesn’t hurt that the title is usually next to a picture of an attractive girl that I’d like to date if given the chance (although anyone who knows me know that if I was ever “given the chance” to be in the same room as these girls, the chances of me actually talking to them are less than 3%). I know that I’m not the only one who reads these corny, yet often insightful articles. In fact, I’ve been in the middle of conversations with friends when one of us has actually used some of the advice (sometimes even quoting something from a “dating and relationships” articles from msn) and the other person called them out, and by doing this, admitting that they too had read the article.

Back to the reason for this post. I want to pass on a link to one of the articles from msn.com that I read this morning while checking my hotmail (I originally wrote this back in June, before I had started this blog, so it was actually not “this” morning, but I double-checked and the article is still online). It’s a bit different than the usual dating and relationship articles I have gotten sucked into reading, mostly because it doesn’t give a lot of advice, but is more of a personal essay about taking a chance on love and making it work. In that way, I guess it does offer advice to people in the dating world; it’s just not a blatantly obvious advice column (perhaps this is why I am feeling brave enough to admit that I read it and pass on the link to you). The essay is titled “Married at 24: Crazy in Love or Just Crazy?” and it’s written by a woman (Elissa Schappell) who is writing about her own life. It’s a witty and introspective account of unexpectedly meeting her future husband while living a carefree, young and single life in New York city and the also-unexpected struggles of marriage that followed. I don’t want to give anything away, but I want to share a one-line preview of Schappell’s essay in hopes that it might convince you to read it. Just hours after meeting her future husband on a train, she is struck by the thought “I am either going to marry this guy, or I’m going to kill him so no one else can have him.” How wonderfully beautiful (and scary) is that?

Okay, enough from me. Here’s a link to Elissa Schappell’s essay, “Married at 24: Crazy in Love or Just Crazy?” I’m prepared for your jokes if you think sharing something like this is funny, but at least read the essay before leaving a comment teasing me for having read it.

anewdoxology was born almost two months ago and it’s been fun watching it become…whatever it’s becoming. I had wanted to start a blog for over a year when finally I created this site and I have really enjoyed having a place to share my thoughts and pass on some of the things I find interesting in the worlds of faith and culture; and to my surprise–although it’s hard to tell for sure–it seems some of you actually enjoy reading/seeing what I’ve been sharing. *Note: the only proof I have of this claim are a few comments people have shared with me–like, “Hey, I’ve been reading your blog and it’s pretty cool”–and the “Blog Stats” from wordpress that currently show that anewdoxology has been viewed 1,205 times since it went live in November…and no, it doesn’t count my visits to the site in those stats.

I started this blogging thing as a trial, unsure of how it would go (sort of like an experiment); but I quickly realized it was something I really liked and wanted to continue doing (assuming people were reading what I was writing). While I’m still not sure what anewdoxology is going to become, I’ve begun thinking of it as more than just something I am trying out as an experiment–it’s become part of who I am and how I communicate with other people–it’s become an effective/alternative way for me to share my thoughts with others, it’s just that I use a keyboard instead of my voice.

In what I guess could be seen as both a personal and public commitment to my blog, I decided to clean up the web address and make it a bit more official. I bought the domain name www.anewdoxology.com today, so “.wordpress.” is no longer in the name (although anewdoxology.wordpress.com is linked to the new site so it will get you to the same place). I might “try on” a few new looks for the site in the near future; but the thoughts, videos, photos and links will match what I’ve posted in the past.

Happy New Year and thanks for reading! I hope you’ll continue visiting anewdoxology and maybe even tell some of your friends about it. Feel free to share your thoughts on anything by leaving a comment, or just email me.