Our story begins on the 1921 British Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition. The British Empire was at its territorial peak and a team of explorers were commissioned to snoop around the mountains of Tibet to find a route to access Mt. Everest. Political and personal differences were causing schisms among the group and a younger explorer with no former experience in the Himalayas had fallen ill. As you can imagine, tensions were pretty high on this death-defying journey. Fortunately, the team was able to find Lhagba La (meaning, “Windy Gap”), which gave future expeditions access to Mt. Everest. The mission was a success and the team returned home safely.
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the more you know
At the Leopolitan Book Forum
They hold an annual book festival here in Lviv, so I went out there with a camera to see what I could see. It was a lot of fun, but I couldn’t help but be grieved by something. I believe that everyone struggles with questions like, “Who am I?” “Where did I come from?” “Where am I going?” “What should I be doing in the meantime?” These questions are just too big to ignore. At the book forum, I met some people who are looking for the answers to these questions in all the wrong places. It really puts into perspective how important it is that we are here doing what we do: translation, teaching, and outreach. Here are some pictures:[Read More]
‘Murica
Happy 4th of July! Today, we are going to talk about where the word, “America,” came from.
America is named after the Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, who went to Brazil about a decade after Christopher Columbus and discovered that it wasn’t Asia.
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How to count to 31 on one hand
Christians should constantly be learning the Bible. Learning is part of a healthy Christian lifestyle. But, there’s no reason that the learning lifestyle should be restricted to the Bible, so here’s a nerdy trick that I learned years ago: How to count to 31 on one hand.
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A blind poet described the sea… what happened next will change how you share the Gospel
One of these greens is not like the other…. Can you pick out which one?
Image from here.
If you were a member of the Himba tribe in Nambia, you probably could have picked out the square in the middle of the top-right quadrant as being unique. However, here’s a member of the same tribe struggling to pick out a blue square in the midst of green squares:
Ibid.
Let’s talk about Santa
Lately, there has been a resurgence back to European Christmas traditions. A few years ago, Dwight Schrute of The Office introduced America to the old German character, Belsnickel. There is also a new movie out this year about the Bavarian Christmas creature, Krampus. I like this resurgence. Too often, the American idea of internationalization is actually Americanization. Instead of expecting the world to appreciate and celebrate our Santa Clause, this resurgence calls Americans to seek out other traditions of the season from around the world.
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