Friday Notes

I ENDED UP with one of the new nickels today -- offset Jefferson head on one side and a bison on the other. Apparently they are issuing a version of it this summer that will feature a Pacific Ocean view instead of the bison.

I like it but at first glance, before realizing it was President Jefferson, I thought someone had stuck me with some of that funny Canadian money. (Sorry, Randall, I couldn't resist)

QUEST CHURCH in Seattle is featured in a Seattle PI article on the strength of a pan-ethnic church.

BRUCE AND KATY DOCKTER, Turlockers on a one year sabbatical in Oaxaca, Mexico, are learning to pace themselves in their language studies and are looking for a place to live. Sounds like they're having a great time. Their blog can be found at mxdockter.blogspot.com

Most recently Katy has been a teacher at Wakefield Elementary School. Bruce is a dial-a-ride bus driver. They are both a part of our congregation.

BOTH AOL AND MICROSOFT have beta versions of personalized start pages. Neither look terribly impressive -- even for betas. The thing which none of these start pages ever seem to match is my.yahoo's calendar function. I want to see my line-up for the week next to the news and my bookmarks. I don't want to have to click a calendar button to see it. I want it integrated.
The squeaky clean looking Google start page has the same deficiency. And the my.myway.com, which I really like otherwise, also lacks an integrated calendar.

OVER 170 MUSLIM SCHOLARS from 35 countries, representing the eight main schools of Islamic interpretation, held a confab earlier this month in Amman -- establishing mutual recognition and condemning terror as inconsistent with Islam.

Even though I respectfully disagree with Islamic theology and world view, I think we need to give these leaders credit for stepping up to the plate. And we need to recognize that most Muslims are more in-line with these scholars than the more publicized lunatic fringe which doesn't even think twice about blowing up innocent people.

FREE AUDIO BOOKS -- The Times Online has a promotion for downloading a free audio book for the next four weeks. The catch is that they think you should be either a UK or RoI resident to access the download.

OUR VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL wrapped up last night. I'd have to say that it was the best organized, most focused, and most energetic children's ministry with which I've ever been involved (and my role this week was really minimal). It certainly wasn't the largest children's ministry I've worked with but it was the most cohesive and tight staff. That is, there were over 40 volunteers and I didn't hear one person gripe or see anything but a real attitude of service. There were about 95 kids total and the cultural mix of the families truly reflected the red, yellow, black, brown, white, rich, and poor landscape in which the church serves.

The kids really got into the music and choreography. And last evening when I told the Bible story the children kept wanting to ask more questions about Jesus. They were a curious and adventuresome lot.

We worked together to collect 68 pounds of coins, all of which will go toward school supplies for children in war-weary Congo. It will be fun to see what all of that translates into when we get it counted.

Can you tell how grateful and excited I am about all of this?

ON THE WAY OUT -- Yesterday afternoon the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America voted overwhelmingly to leave the National Council of Churches of Christ. The reason for the withdrawal is the general liberalism of the NCC and a growing sense that the relationship with the ecumenical body has not been very fruitful. Link to Mere Comments story