Tell Us How You Really Feel Piper

The Good Bishop on The Mission of the Church

Mission must urgently recover from its long-term schizophrenia. The split between saving souls and doing good in the world is not a product of the Bible or the gospel, but of the cultural captivity of both. The world of space, time, and matter is where real people live, where real communities happen, where difficult decisions are made, where schools and hospitals bear witness to the "now, already" of the gospel while police and prisons bear witness to the "not yet."...And the church that is renewed by the message of Jesus' resurrection must be the church that goes to work precisely in that space, time, and matter. -- N.T. Wright

Ballard Update

Well, sorry we have been away from the blogosphere lately, but here (by popular demand) is a quick update:

Jenny and I are enjoying marriage tremendously. We keep waiting for it to get proverbially difficult, but it continues to be nothing but pleasant.

Jenny is working at Pharmaca and I am still working at BSH. Our jobs are good as far as jobs go. We enjoy them, but we are really looking forward to heading to the Himalayas.

We have a Nepali language helper here in Boulder who is slowly but surely helping our language training come along.

We went up and did some hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park this week and got some much needed time in nature. We are looking forward to spring here on the front range and getting in mountains as much as possible.

Books we've been reading:
Surprised by Hope
The Reason for God
Cultural History of Nepal
Kingdom Under Siege: History of Nepal's Maoist Movement
The Resurrection of the Son of God
Dancing with Siva
History of Tibet
Don't Let the Goats Eat the Loquat Trees

Nepal Update

Well, Nepal has been in quite a whirlwind these past few weeks, and we have been keeping up with events as we prepare to head to Kathmandu in about 10 months. In fact, you might say that things are a bit of a mess over there. If it is not, it will do until the mess gets there. For those of you who are interested, here is a rundown of the latest events:

A Maoist Bomb Killed Two Yesterday in Jajarkot

Two Were Killed by a Bomb in Biratnagar on Friday

Nepalese Police Arrested 84 Protesting Tibetan Exiles on Saturday