One of the privileges of being a missionary on home assignment is the opportunity to preach from time to time. I have given this message on two occasions recently: at Elim Evangelical Free Church in Oak Lawn, Illinois, and at Rockport Baptist Church in Arnold, Missouri. I don’t read directly from my typewritten notes—I tend …
Month: May 2006
Good Days/Bad Days
Here's a quote from The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges: Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace. This sums up our daily dependence on Christ and his grace. …
Teacher longevity
Consistent with past trends, a recent study shows that half of all new teachers leave the profession within five years. I've been a teacher for six years, so I've beat the average. It certainly has more stress, longer hours, and lower pay than the job I had before, but I am happy to be where …
The Periodic Table of Comic Books
Welcome to The GeoChristian. Out of over 600 posts on my blog, this one on the Periodic Table of Comic Books is in the top five in terms of how many people view it. The purpose of The GeoChristian is twofold: 1. To enhance science literacy within the Evangelical Christian community. 2. To present a …
The Future of Mt. St. Helens
I'm going to speculate a little bit about the future of Mt. St. Helens. My basic assumption is that the volcano has a future eruptive history; it is unlikely that it will become an extinct volcano anytime in the near future. I'll give two scenarios for the next few hundred years of the mountain. Scenario …
The Fin at Mt. St. Helens
USGS/Cascades Volcano Observatory Mt. St. Helens, in Washington State, has been undergoing a slow eruption since October 2004. So far, this has been a relatively quiet eruption, compared to the explosive eruption of May 18, 1980. In the past year and a half, there have been a few minor eruptions that have ejected ash into …
Missions Update 5 May 2006
My wife and I are missionaries in Romania with the Evangelical Free Church of America International Mission. We send out an e-mail update to our friends and supporters every couple of weeks. Here is part of our update for this week: Dear Family and Friends in Christ, The Mission of Bucharest Christian Academy “BCA exists …
The Silence of Adam
I usually avoid men's conferences and books written for men. So, when the men's group I was in a few years ago selected The Silence of Adam by Larry Crabb as the book we would be in for a few months, I was skeptical. I was hoping for something with meat in it, not fluff. …
Fashionable Space Suit From Mars
With NASA grant money, students at several North Dakota colleges designed this highly fashionable space suit. The colors are designed to make the astronaut more visible against the rusty red surface of Mars. The news article does not say what kind of protection the suit offers against radiation. However, it does state that the astronaut …
Recovering Ozone Layer
News story: Ozone Layer Shows Signs of Recovery As the level of CFCs in the atmosphere decreases, the concentration of ozone in the stratospheric ozone layer appears to be recovering, and this is good news. Remember that the ozone layer protects us from much of the skin cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation that comes from the sun. …
Graywacke
Our cat, Graywacke, died of kidney stones in Bucharest a couple weeks ago. To have a pet is to have a piece of nature in the home. It will be difficult to move back to Bucharest and not have him there. © Kevin Nelstead (click on image to enlarge) Where did I come up with …
All we are is dust in the wind
According to the English-language newspaper Nine O'Clock, our adopted home city of Bucharest, Romania is one of the dustiest cities in Europe. This not only makes our apartment dusty, it is a health hazard as well. Soils in and around the city have high levels of heavy metals such as lead and mercury. Restoration of …
Lightning
Many weekends, we travel to churches that support us in our work as missionaries with the Evangelical Free Church International Mission. This past weekend, we were at Elim EFC in the Chicago suburbs. Shirley spoke at a women's luncheon on Saturday, and I preached on Sunday. Driving through central Illinois on the way back to …
The Evangelical Ecologist
For my web site of the week: The Evangelical Ecologist, subtitled "A Christian Ecoblog- 'Cause the world isn't ours to mess up. Psalm 24:1." This week there have been excellent posts about the high price of gasoline, and the economics of sustainable development. Grace and Peace