Random

...Johnna Hayward, new Covenant short-term missionary going to Belgium, leaves in three days.

...Chris and Diane, who are off in some Asian country teaching, have a blog. They were in our Covenant mission orientation group.

...Missiopedia -- a wiki of missiology information -- a little spartan at this point but with great potential.

...Extreme poverty in the US is growing rapidly -- now at the highest it has been in 30 years. The poverty rate is growing 56% faster than the growth of the population. 16 million Americans now live in "deep" poverty.

...Our nephew, Scott Bickerton, is skating in the Canada Games this week. He's a speed skater.

...Pirates have hijacked a UN food ship off the coast of Somalia. This is the kind of thing which can turn pacifists into hawks.

...One of the best parts of Eugene Peterson's translation/paraphrase of the Bible is the way he handles Proverbs. There is a certain freshness that captures the intention and spirit of the original really well. e.g.

"A quiet rebuke to a person of good sense does more than a whack on the head of a fool." (17:9)

"Mercy to the needy is a loan to God, and God pays back those loans in full." (19:17)

"Fear-of-God is life itself, a full life, and serene -- no nasty surprises." (19:23)

...My church website of the week is Kaleo Church in Houston. It's really clean, simple, and informative.

...Guam is becoming "the linchpin of Washington's new Asia strategy," according to an article in Newsweek which is examining the build-up of troops out on here on our 220-sq mile (at low tide) rock in the middle of the Western Pacific.

I'm not sure that I'd say that this as a regional build-up but more as a regional reconfiguration. Guam is probably the most strategic island in the world right now. And for the very small but vocal contingent of locals who complain about the growing US military presence, if they were not here some other less-friendly army would be. This is just too valuable of a piece of real estate in the big picture of global stability for any world power to ignore. (Chamorros on a whole are among the most patriotic Americans I've seen. They have a very symbiotic relationship with the US military.)