Random

• IT WAS ANOTHER DAMP weekend in Phoenix -- thanks to El Niño. The ground is so saturated right now that the lakes in our backyard are not going to quickly pass into the sandy soil. However, it's all good. Other than a few extra muddy days this means that we're looking forward to a spectacular spring wild flower show throughout central Arizona. It should start to show up in a few weeks -- once we warm up just a few more degrees. It also means that no one is allowed to scream "Drought!" this summer.

• TIM KELLER identifies the "Big Issues facing the Western Church" ~ link

1. The opportunity for extensive culture-making in the US
2. Rise of Islam
3. The new non-western Global Christianity
4. The growing cultural remoteness of the gospel
5. The end of prosperity?

• HOW SHOULD churches and leaders be preparing to address these big issues facing the church? ~ link

• WHEATON IS A GOOD COLLEGE. But it is not, nor has it ever been, the flagship of anything -- especially American evangelicalism. By definition evangelicalism is a flotilla without a flagship. ~ link

• A MEMBER OF THE CHINESE military reviews Avatar -- He doesn't get it, either. He thinks he does, though. In his mind Avatar is a window into the American psyche and our unchecked willingness to embrace violence as a means toward global domination. (The propaganda machine lives!) The fact is that we're not that capable. We can't even beat Canada in hockey. ~ link

• MARCH IS Chamorro history month.

• FISH FALLING FROM THE SKY in Australia -- and they're not being dropped from airplanes. "The freak phenomena happened not once, but twice, on Thursday and Friday afternoon..." It's a mystery with some potential meteorological explanations. ~ link

• NICHOLAS KRISTOF'S Op-Ed piece in the NY Times:

...Over the last decade, however, that divide has dissolved, in ways that many Americans haven’t noticed or appreciated. Evangelicals have become the new internationalists, pushing successfully for new American programs against AIDS and malaria, and doing superb work on issues from human trafficking in India to mass rape in Congo. ~ read more

• NORTH KOREAN TRAFFIC COP ~ (via)