mbjones

• Who in the world thought it'd be a good idea to privatize prisons, and put quotas on how "full" they should remain? Essentially what you have happening: if crime lowers, tax payers must spend more as quotas aren't met so you incentivize the state to keep crime rates inflated and prisons full.
• Giving money to child beggars is one of the worst things you could do when traveling through impoverished nations. Did you know, for example, in Brazil child beggars trade powdered milk for coke (as in cocaine, not cola)? Or in India that organized crime runs rings of trafficked child beggars to exploit tourists?
• Thrice has always been a favorite band of mine. They are on a bit of a hiatus but their frontman just released a worship album and it is amazing. That review is from a non-christian magazine, and they gave it 3.5 stars out of 5, which kind of surprised me.
• Worth linking to again, as it came up this week: The Missionary Code and how churches play into it. Dynamics that are important to process through.
• Great questions for the Bible part of a DBS. They'll help any study get deep into the text.
• Interested in the Lavabit story? Here are the details of what all transpired.

The faith passes, so to speak, through a distiller and becomes ideology. And ideology does not beckon [people]. In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid. And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements… The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of [sic] the Church of the people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians.

Please join me in praying for Kenya. I'm sure you've read, seen or heard the news about what's going on in Nairobi. If for some reason you haven't, a heavily armed terrorist group entered and took hostage a large up-scale shopping mall in Nairobi. As of writing this update, the siege is over. The current death toll sits at 72 with more than 170 injured. I'm not sure if these are the final numbers yet, but it's what I'm seeing most in the news.

This event hits particularly close to home for my family because we have good friends based in Nairobi and we plan to relocate there in early March of 2014. It's particularly surreal to read about (and see pictures of) as we spent quite a bit of time at that mall pricing household items and preparing a new budget. As far as I know, we don't personally know anyone affected but our friends do. Most people living in Kenya do.

• Pray with me for peace at the Westgate Shopping Center.
• Pray with me for those injured.
• Pray with me for the families and friends mourning loved ones.
• Pray against backlash against the thousands of refugees and immigrants in Nairobi and Kenya.¹
• Pray with me for the healing of Kenya, and its resilience to bounce back in the face of terrorism.

If you are wondering if this changes our plans, the short and simple answer is no. The reality is a bit more nuanced than that. It's impossible not to be a little shaken by this event - it's horrible and tragic and our familiarity with the area does induce a bit of anxiety. But there is much that keep our resolve strong:

• Calling: We are called to East Africa, with all of the good and bad that comes with that. We knew accepting the challenge to look and head that direction would bring with it an increase in risk and danger. It's the reality of working in the nonprofit/development world in majority world countries. And they are risks my family glad, but soberly, accept.
• Reality: Mass shootings happen anywhere and everywhere. Terrorism will forever be used by cowards to target the defenseless and innocent wherever they might be. It's easy to point at Nairobi and be shocked and full of fear but lets not forget Chicago last week, the Navy Yard shooting earlier in September, and the Boston Marathon bombing. The magnitude might be greater in the event in Nairobi but there are no "terror free" zones. Actually, I'm going to take that back; there could be "terror free" zones anywhere people boldly choose life instead of the death (through fear and anger and bitterness) terror tries to create. We can either be crippled by terror or boldly walk out in a hope that refuses to accept a life quenched by fear.
• Hope: That brings me to the last point I'll make: we have massive hope in the potential of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and the kingdom He inaugurated, to produce real and lasting transformation amongst all peoples. We feel particularly called to those neglected by the world. They are in massive need of new hope like that inspired by Jesus. Often terrorism and other radical elements of society leave a people neglected and in need of this dose of hope but because of those risky, dangerous or uncomfortable outward circumstances, there is no one to walk with them. Going and sharing this hope is the calling we've given our lives to.

Keep Kenya in your hearts, thoughts and prayers in the coming days and weeks as they seek to rebuild as a nation unified (Kenyans, refugees, expats, etc). They will need the support of the world around them.

If you are curious on the backstory of what happened and why, check out the following links as a start: 1 and 2.

1. Please see here for the fears in "little Mogadishu". ↩

• Pat Robertson is always in the news and it never seems to be good. This is horrible actually. Raising tons of money for refugee work, and funneling it into a diamond mining venture? I hope this gets the attention that it deserves.
• Like webcomics? This one is pretty good, consistently. It's faith based, so keep that in mind. I particularly like the one linked (although its not "haha" funny).
• I've had my eyes on Kenya since deciding to move there. Accordingly, I found this short article to be interesting: Kenya is developing their own Goth subculture.
• iOS 7 is out! Check out this article For some of the finer details, tips & tricks.
• It's hard not to like the blog of Jaime (the very worst missionary). Here, she discusses openly and honestly a recent trip with WorldVision. It's a worthwhile read that looks at the good and the bad.
• Midlake is one of my favorites and they have new music coming out!
• I'm a bit impressed with this dialect survey. It pegged my dialect as most similar to Norman, OK (where I spent 10 formative years). And that's without telling "it" I'd ever been there, and that I currently live in South Africa.

Syria is a tough situation, complicated by competing interests vying for support. I've heard lots of different opinions and sides over the past few weeks, and thought I'd share what I've found to be some of the more helpful articles.

• A good mentor/friend leader wrote this. It's against US intervention in Syria.
• An outside perspective here.
• Russia & China are at odds with the west over incomplete information (see here for one story).
• Perhaps the best article I've read so far comes from Carl Medearis. It's not long, and doesn't go into a lot of the current news, but rather serves to setup the situation. I felt like I stepped away from it with a much clearer picture of the madness.
• And finally, to lighten the situation, The Onion's take: let's just send all of congress into Syria.

As an addendum, regardless where you fall politically on this and similar topics, this is a good reminder of peripheral affects.

Maybe it's education. Maybe you need a liberal arts college education to be properly shocked by the bible.

Maybe it's life experiences. On the margins life is more brutal and violent. There, in the midst of that social location, the bible doesn't sound strange at all. It seems to fit. And this seems to be the case worldwide. The bible speaks to the third world, it is alive and powerful. But in the educated and liberal Western world the bible is a shock and a scandal.

Or perhaps something else is going on. But if either of these two factors are in play then it seems that offense at the bible is associated with privilege. Whenever I've heard complaints about the bible being horrible I've generally been talking to a person of advantage and privilege. Generally White. Generally educated. Generally rich (by the world's standards).

And it's likely that my privilege is blinding me in certain ways in how I'm listening out of the margins. I may be really missing the boat on this. 

Regardless, does any of this mean that the privileged concerns about the bible should be dismissed? No, I don't think so. Being a privileged person myself I share these criticisms about the bible and wrestle with them. But given where I'm reading the bible I'm increasingly less obsessed with these sorts of questions, issues, and criticisms. Mainly just because these objections aren't coming up.

I'm not wholly dismissive of the complaints of the privileged regarding the bible, but I am, generally speaking, much less interested.

From Richard Beck's blog. Thought provoking, and something I've discovered to be pretty darn accurate. Incidentally, his blog is one worth bookmarking.

• There was a study done that showed megachurches to be an 'intoxicating' experience. Don't go to the bar to get drunk; just go to your friendly neighborhood megachurch.
• It looks like we are heading to a leader's meeting in Taiwan later this year. I found this article on illegal architecture there fascinating.
• Christianity in the west can oftentimes be inseparably linked to our consumeristic tendencies. This is an article that examines some of that narrative. To quote the end:

We need thicker, richer stories that can sustain us. We need stories that focus not on our emotional status, but on Christ & his ongoing mission in this world that we find ourselves caught up in. We need Christians everywhere to repent of their consumerist faith designed to augment their life rather than remake it. Above all, we need Christ himself, and openness to the wild things he might do in and through us if we would just take our eyes off of ourselves for but a moment.

I'm looking forward to this...

• Found this to be a helpful post on eating well in the midst of poverty. There are simple things to do that go miles.

• eBible.com is under new ownership, and launched a new version. It would seem they are looking to compete with YouVersion.

• Neoliberal economic theory, and it’s grip on American Politics is something I’ve found disturbing over the past few years. This is a pretty good article on it (and some of the reasons why I’m not much of a fan).

• In the web-startup-world, Lanbito appears to be an interesting competitor to Wufoo. Like the pricing, but don’t yet like the feature list. Add some things, and I’d consider migrating over.

• If you are on facebook, then you’ve at least heard tell of a the forthcoming changes. Here’s a good round up of what to expect. It doesn’t appear that they are changing pages much yet, just profiles (this is important if you are managing several).

Well this seems like a good enough roundup for now. Hopefully you can find some good reading material there!

VC Camp 2011 from Brandon Jones on Vimeo.