Random

• Perfect storm -- drought conditions and rapidly rising food costs -- 14 million people in Africa are on the brink. ~ link

• The Colorado River, which has been running dangerously low recently, got a good shot of rain. Several people in the Grand Canyon had to be rescued. ~ link

• The storm which formed over us on Guam this past weekend now has a name -- Tropical Storm Nuri -- and it's bearing down on the northern tip of the Philippines. Nuri is expected to become a category 1 typhoon before hitting the Philippines -- and category 2 before visiting Taiwan.

• Susan Beaumont has a really fine and concise summary of the leadership challenges associated with larger churches -- that is, churches smaller than mega but generally with more than 250 in worship. ~ link

• LA Times article on the 600 cowboys churches in the US ~ link

• One of our students was asking me about good books written by someone with an amillennial view of the end times. Everett Wilson published Jesus and the End Times in the mid-70's. It's out-of-print but is available for free online. ~ link

• I was pulling into the parking lot of Guam's main post office in Barrigada this afternoon and I heard the newsreader on the radio quote the Turlock Journal -- yes, the Turlock Journal -- a flash from the past! It was a story with new details about the June 20th murder of a federal corrections officer in Atwater, California -- just south of Turlock. He was killed by two prisoners from Guam.

In spite of the tragic circumstances it's good to hear that the TJ is still in business -- and that they've morphed into an international media source. For several years the Journal pulled highlights from this blog (with my permission) and ran them as a local column. In 2004 the paper went from a daily to a twice-weekly publication. That transition had nothing to do with my departure from Turlock. :-)

• Hawaiian islanders are turning to online distance education because of higher gas prices. ~ link

• "Until I get there, focus on reading the Scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers, and teaching them." ~ 1 Timothy 4:13 (NLT)