This was the saddest loss that I have seen in the World Cup.
Australia played so well, and Italy wins the game with five seconds to spare.
The ref should have let the game play on and let the players battle it out in overtime.
To end the game on a pentaly kick is no fun. Way to go Soccerooos. You guys played with a lot of heart.
Tomorrow should be a good game with Brazil and Ghana.
I can’t wait to watch this match up.
More soccer to go!
This is an excellent book on Jesus.
The first chapter was excellent.
It was about JESUS’ LOVE.
I think he did a good job of capturing Jesus’
love in beautiful images.
He gives this vivid picture of Jesus talking to Judas
at the last supper. It made me cry because of the deep love
Jesus has for everyone even Judas.
I started reading the second chapter about the church.
This one hasn’t been as good.
Check it out if you have time.
I need another good fiction recommendation.
Anybody been reading some good fiction this summer?
Invitation to: Parade For Reconciliation
Time: 11am, July 1 2006
Marshalling Point: Victory Square (Cambie and West Pender)
Ending point: Chinatown (Gore and East Pender)
Purpose: to compliment the redress of Chinese Head Tax by the federal government with a communal reconciliation and a parade that symbolically reverses the 1907 anti-Chinese immigration parade that turned into an ugly riot where a mob of 9000 ransacked Vancouver Chinatown.
Agenda:
11am Welcome to the event
Historical background: Bill Chu
Need for Reconciliation: Rev. Tama Ward Balisky and Wayne Ho
Symbolic reconciliation between Chinese and non-Chinese Canadians among the audience, with hand-shaking or embrace
11:40am to 12:15am
Parade from Victory Square to Chinatown
Offering of red packages at Chinatown
Closing Remarks
Background:
We live in the shadow of an Empire. That Empire once colonized and now globalize. Like Paul the apostle who was a Roman citizen, we can either claim all the privileges of the Empire’s citizenship or we declare its irrelevance by submitting ourselves to the demands on citizens of God’s Kingdom. Specifically the choice today is to decide whether Canadians’ discriminatory treatment of the early Chinese is acceptable and whether reconciliation is the solution. To help your choice, I have attached a brief history between Chinese and the colonial powers.
This is an invitation to a communal reconciliation event coming up on Canada Day, 2006. The backdrop is the federal government’s parliamentary apology and redress announcement for the Chinese Head Tax survivors and their surviving spouses on June 22, 2006. That was the official redress to an historic injustice. But for the interpersonal and communal discrimination then and now, there is a parallel need for interpersonal and communal reconciliation between the two peoples. We therefore invite you to come and hear the historical and spiritual reasons for reconciliation, then make the people’s choice of walking together with the once marginalized. Invite other Canadian friends and be a witness to the historic truth to others in Canada and the world on coming July 1.
Although Christians have taken an initial lead in planning this initiative, this parade is by no means restricted to christians. It is open to anyone seeking truth and reconciliation. Note also it is not purely a Chinese issue as the government acknowledges discrimination then affected a number of people groups in Canada, and the financial redress will apply to any living spouses of HT payers, be they Chinese, First nations or Canadians. To move on as a country, Canadians need to make an informed decision to seek reconciliation with their past. Please pray that people can see the falleness of human beings in each community and can humble themselves in a collective desire to heal, to honour, to restore and to reconcile.
Bill Chu
Founder, Canadians For Reconciliation
ccia@shaw.ca
I have been using Pandora this afternoon. I just caught Eric Benet’s song Spending My Life With You with Tamia. It brought back some good memories.
I listened to an old podcast of KEXP Live and discovered Jose Gonzalez for the first time. On the right is his album Veneer. I never heard of this guy. It was fun listening to his incredible guitar skills and quality music.
EMMANUEL BAPTIST CHURCH
Member of the Baptist Federation of El Salvador
And of the World Council of Churches
PASTORAL LETTER
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 42ND ANNIVERSARY OF OUR FOUNDING
Gratitude and Fidelity to God:
We give thanks to our God, who in his kindness and mercy has sustained us and allowed us to celebrate the 42nd Anniversary of our founding.
Reflecting on the theme of our Anniversary “Affirmed as a Church faithful to Our Lord Jesús and to His Gospel”, we feel the moral obligation to share some Pastoral words with our missions, communities and sister churches, with organizations and institutions of like mind and with our people in general.
To be faithful to Jesús Christ our Lord is to stand for the values of the Gospel in our situation of generalized crisis, a situation which is based in a crisis of ethical and moral values. As Christians, as a Church, we believe more than ever, that the values of the Gospel must be put forth as an alternative means to change the violence, the impunity, the injustice and the poverty which surround us like walls preventing our search for a better future.
The Reality of Sin which insults the sons and daughters of God
What face do we see in our society, in our people? We see a face of uncertainty, a face exhausted by our daily reality, but at the same time, a face looking for something, looking for hope, for ways to confront this situation full of violence in all its forms: fraud, despair and death.
As Evangelical Christians we cannot ignore this situation, much less accommodate ourselves to it and remain untouched. It is imperative to identify this avalanche of death as something rejected and abominable in the eyes of God. Who can be safe in this country while death dances its macabre dance, cutting off the lives of children, youth, men and women. These victims, generally poor, have their lives cut short while others look on helplessly.
This economic crisis and all of its consequences, have been here forever, subjugating, oppressing and humiliating each son and daughter of God. This has been the major problem with which we have grappled during most of our history. It is a situation which convicts us all of many things, of meanness, lack of solidarity, greed and ambition. To be clear, this disastrous poverty, which victimizes the majority of our people, must be met with both national and civil maturity. We cannot continue dividing our people into the few who have captured all the national riches and the many whose lives are doomed to poverty and humiliating misery.
This is not primarily a political or ideological problem. It is a permanent mark on the face of this country, which after 175 years of supposed independence, only provides evidence of our continuing moral and spiritual poverty, especially of those in various levels of power, who have served the interests of the few and not the interests of the whole population.
The church of Christ, faithful to her Lord, must identify the real truth about El Salvador. At the same time she must steadfastly confront this truth which systematically denies life, justice, dignity, and peace to the sons and daughters of God here in this country.
The pathetic crises in the health, education, housing, and water distribution systems are the products of a lack of vision and political will, and at the same time, the burdens of corruption which has stolen the public monies and benefited those connected to power. This disgraceful corruption, which is like a curse built into the different structures of power, is something which we must all oppose and denounce.
We are witnesses to a supposed democracy in respect to our laws, but that is just talk in the style of the Pharisees. In our country, in an amazing and unheard of form, the Rights of the State are violated and the laws continue to be applied in a discriminatory and unequal manner without respect for international treaties and laws. It is neither right nor ethical for Public Figures to boast of applying the laws rigorously when they have tolerated and covered up the crimes of those associated within their circles of power.
Our Pastoral Call
As church, as disciples faithful to our Lord, faithful to all truth and justice, and interpreting the feeling of our communities as well as wide sectors of national life, we petition the authorities in each of the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Powers
1º) That they use all means and mechanisms of the Law TO PROHIBIT THE IMPORTATION AND SALE of firearms as well as adopting strong laws which restrict the carrying and use of firearms.
An armed population is simply inclined to violence and crime. It is imperative that we obey God’s law which says “DO NOT KILL” (Éxodus 20:13). God’s intention is that nothing should threaten life. “ They will neither harm nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord” (Isaíah 65 :25).
2º) That all the Churches in El Salvador, together with all the sectors of national life unite together in a “National Crusade for Peace and Reconciliation against the Violence”
3º) That there be NO INCREASE in the cost of electricity or in any other cost of public services.
The truth is that the population already cannot bear the high cost of living which has only been made worse by the imposition of the dollar as Salvadoran currency. It all contributes to an increase in the price of basic products and services, which in turn affects the economy of the poor majority in this country.
“… Administer true justice, show mercy and compassión to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.”
(Zechariah 7:9-10)
4º) That the Legal Rights of all our citizens be restored so that there will be no more abuses of power or violations of the law.
That there will be no more covering up or consent to impunity, which gives birth to much of the delinquency and criminality that is causing us ruin and despair as a people.
That this abusive gift of $25,000 to each retired magistrate, who already has his pension, not be approved, while poor families among us are humiliated with a mere $15 per month.
“Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the handoff the wicked.
Rise up O God, judge the earth for all the nations are yours.”
(Psalm 82: 3,4, 8).
As a Christian Church we affirm our commitment to sharing the Gospel of God’s Kingdom, to practicing Christian Values and to assuming the responsibility of solidarity in accompanying and serving the poor and marginalized brothers and sisters of our country. We call upon all men and women of El Salvador to walk in the paths of God’s redemption, in the hope that the dream of God, full of peace and justice for our country, will bear fruit and flower for the good of all our brothers and sisters.
“No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates, Praise.”
Isaíah 60:18
May the peace and blessing of God be with us in this hour when our faith is challenged to persevere and remain faithful to Jesús Christ our Lord. Amen.
Rev. Miguel Tomás Castro
Pastor Iglesia Bautista Emmanuel
Vice-President of the Life and Peace Institute of Sweden
June 9&10, 2006.
I started reading this book and read three or four chapters in this book.
Unfortunately I could waist my time on it because I was not engaged by this one.
It was about a guy that had a genetic disease that caused him to appear in different points in time, thus a Time Traveler.
In the end, I couldn’t engage with the book. I tried to read it, but I didn’t enjoy the back and forth and how he would meet himself in different points in time. I put it down.
Now I am reading a book I really like called a Glimpse of Jesus by Brennan Manning. You got to read it if you haven’t read anything by Manning. It is an excellent introduction to his writing.
Being from Latin American heritage I feel like I must like the World Cup.
In the past I would watch it every now and then, but I never really liked it.
However for some reason the 2006 World Cup has captured my attention.
I have enjoyed watching excellent fútbol.
In reality, I don’t know how to play good fútbol, but watching teams like Brazil, Ivory Coast, and Argentina I am begining to appreciate excellent teams.
I was so sad to see US go out. It was a tough loss. I felt like they played with lots of heart. Their punishing tie to Italy was one that will not be forgotten. I also thought they played with a lot of class against Ghana. There were games that I saw before that where the teams would play on when a player was hurt, but the US would stop play when a player was hurt. I liked that.
Washington Post Article from last week talks about the possibility of another period of killings for social control. Read the article below. This is really scary. I hope it can be different.
El Salvador death squads targeting criminals: Church
Reuters
Thursday, June 15, 2006; 7:32 PM
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (Reuters) – A spike in the number of murders of gang members and criminals in El Salvador is raising concern that resurgent death squads are carrying out “social cleansing,” the Catholic Church said on Thursday.
Last year, 3,812 people were murdered in the Central American nation where a civil war between Marxist guerrillas and the right-wing government raged from 1980 to 1992, up from 2,993 killed in 2004.
Church lawyers said in a report that the killings “systematically” targeted criminals, and recalled the brutal murders of rebels and sympathizers carried out by right-wing death squads during the war.
“The systematic nature of the cases leads one to believe that they have been committed to sow terror and carry out social cleansing,” the report said.
The Church did not say who might be responsible for the killings, but during the conflict it was mostly members of the security forces.
In recent years, El Salvador and neighboring Guatemala and Honduras have suffered a surge in crime carried out by Hispanic street gangs originally formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s.
In April, El Salvador’s police chief said regional governments could wipe out the tattooed street mobs in two months by treating them like opponents in a war.
I like Lilo’s cartoons.
He has a creative way of making hard issues funny.
Wandering Thoughts 2 