Well, here we are. About one month into summer. It's time that I began living up to my promise that I would start blogging regularly. I'm going to aim for twice-a-week, but once-a-week will be the minimum, at least for the next few months. The content will hopefully be varied, mostly focusing on weekly updates of my life in NJ, but also including some church thoughts and short stories that are being developed over at BDWHITE.com

So now for the life updates in fun Presidential Press Conference format:

Mr. President, John Smith from Mundane Magazine; where are you living now?
New Jersey. Subletting an apartment in Princeton for the summer. Will remain in NJ after, but not sure exactly where.

Mr. President, Alberto from Intelligent Inquiry; now that you are a Master of Divinity and Theology, are you raking in the big bucks?
Well, naturally, Alberto. I'm getting a hefty part-time to half-time raise from the church I'm working at (Praise Korean Presbyterian). I'm looking forward to the raise in salary, but even more than the money, I'm looking forward to focusing more of my energies in ministry.

Mr. President, John Smith again; what exactly are you doing at this church of yours?
I don't really have an official title. But, if I were to have a title, it would probably be something like Pastor for the Youth and Children's Ministries. My work right now is pretty focused on the Children's Ministry, but there are plans at the end of the summer to hire someone who is more qualified to be running a program of this size. At that time, I am slated to take over the Junior High youth program (which, coincidentally, was the first position I held at Praise nearly 4 years ago).

Mr. President, Hornet_lvr99 from the twitterverse; we've had many people asking, and we want a definitive answer this time...will you or will you not be attending your 10-year high school reunion this summer?
Unfortunately, the answer to that is that I will not be attending. I know that I really would have enjoyed seeing everyone, but my work schedule has just made it impossible. Primary lesson learned: book your tickets to these types of events early so that you have a strong excuse to bring to your boss when he/she asks you to give up your life during the summer.

Okay, enough of this narcissistic fantasy. Hopefully that helps to answer a few questions some of you might have. Basically, I'm still in NJ and plan to be here for the next year at a minimum. I'm working as a youth pastor. I'll be applying for PhD programs for the fall semester beginning in 2010.

If there are any other questions that I've missed that you really want the answer to (because I know my life is sooo interesting), just leave a comment, and I'll answer it right away. Speaking of which, leave a comment, anyway. I'd love to hear from everyone, especially those of you whom I have not seen in quite a while.

As always, many blessings. Be back next week, when you can expect awesome reporting about our church's VBS!

Already a master of divine things, I decided to take a year and master all things theological as well. This past Saturday, I celebrated my graduation. And even though the pomp and circumstance was truly inspiring, the warmest moments were those when I found myself surrounded by:

mentors both old...

...and new...

...old friends...

...church friends...

...wonderful colleagues...

...but most of all...

...my family.

Because I'm a big geek who is drunk from lack of sleep, here is a lovely graph of my writing output during the month of April (in pages) versus the date:

Can you tell the various days when things were due? :-)

And no, that last spike is not a mistake...I really did write 19 pages in one day. Nineteen pages of Christian ethics. Oh yeah.

The really sad thing is that I have 30 more pages to go before next Friday!

A drum circle sits outside of Miller Chapel today.
An amazing display of solidarity, of tolerance, and Christian love.
The rhythmic drumming filled our minds,
Drawing us closer in communion with our African brothers and sisters.
Swaying, clapping, singing,
Thump Thump Thump Bump
In the midst of the revelry,
Rejoicing in our postmodern perfectionism,
A realization rose up from the beats:
Why is everyone in the drum circle white?

* * *
Once again, it just goes to show--it takes a bunch of white people to think that drums at 11am in Princeton, NJ makes any sense.

Sorry to my African and African American friends and colleagues. We try. We just kind of suck at it.

Oh my. Far too long silent. And, I can't really promise I will be doing any better in the near future. Classes and church work have been....time consuming, to say the least. I sincerely hope to start writing again in the near future.

At the very least, I can point you to some new content over on BDWHITE.com. Yeah, remember that site...where I used to write stuff? Well, since I'm still preaching fairly regularly, I thought the least I could do would be to post my latest sermon up there, especially since I managed to get it recorded. So, here's the link:

B.D. White Sermons

The specific sermon you're looking for is "The Church Is...". Clicking on the sermon title (or this link) will take you to a very rough (read--copy and pasted) html version, but there is a nice PDF version listed below the description, as well as the audio recording in both ogg and mp3 formats. Let me know what you think!

Oh, by the way--Claire, if you read this and then go listen to the sermon audio...please forgive my horrible, horrible Scottish accent. Or, at least, don't make fun of me...too much. ;-)

Just saw that Amazon announced the Kindle 2 yesterday. For those of you who don't know, the Kindle is Amazon's ebook reader that uses that fancy, awesome e-ink. The original Kindle was met with largely positive reviews. Well--nothing but positive reviews about the service, but wishy-washy reviews regarding the hardware. Most of the complaints had to do with the button layout.

That's why this Kindle 2 announcement is pretty big. From what I've been able to see from pictures, it looks like Amazon has really tried to fix the hardware problems of the first Kindle. That's great, because like I said before, I heard nothing but positive reviews about the actual Kindle service. So now, with the Kindle 2, we have the amazing Amazon Kindle service, combined with a sleek and refined ebook reader--a total win situation.

There are two great things about the Amazon Kindle service that make me really want to get one of these devices. The first thing is that the Kindle is tied to the Amazon bookstore. One of the big pain with ebooks has always been that it is hard to find good ebooks. But Amazon, which is easily one of the largest (if not the largest) bookseller in the US, is working to make as many of its books as possible readable on the Kindle. That's pretty huge. Plus, the store is tied into the Kindle hardware. So you can search and download for a book directly on your ebook reader. To my mind, this is kind of doing for ebooks what Apple and iTunes did for downloading music with the iPod.

The second big thing about the Kindle service is that your purchase of the Kindle hardware includes EVDO always-on internet for free. The Kindle uses Sprint's cellular network to connect to the Amazon store, download blogs and newspapers, and even check your rss feeds. And this isn't some trial-period internet. You have this internet access for as long as Amazon is still a viable company and they're still using EVDO cellular networks. Brilliant.

Anyway...I guess the whole point of this post is that I would love to have one of these devices, but I'm poor. So, instead I'll just praise it on the internet with the hope that one of you will buy one so I can steal it from you. :-)

Adapted from one of Peter Marshall's prayers for the Senate.

O Lord Our God, if ever we needed Thy wisdom and Thy guidance, it is now--as we stand upon the threshold of a new year, fraught with so many dangerous opportunities. We pray that Thou wilt bless this man chosen by the people of this nation, for Thou knowest him, his needs, his motives, his hopes, and his fears. Lord Jesus, put Thine arm around him and give him strength, and speak to him to give him wisdom greater than his won. May he hear Thy voice, and seek Thy guidance. May he remember that Thou are concerned about what is said and done here, and may he have clear conscience before Thee, that he need fear no man. Bless each of us according to our deepest need, and use us for Thy glory, we humbly ask in Jesus' name.

As I sit here listening to Obama's inaugural speech (a very good one), I am struck by a change in my reality. The hope that Obama describes is no longer my hope. I do sincerely pray that Obama can achieve and continue to espouse the ideals he proposed in this speech. But my ideals, while not entirely contradictory, cannot be won by the great efforts of a nation...or a President. Rather, they have already been achieved by one man, one God. My hope is not that we should work tirelessly to create and protect these great ideals, but that we should work tirelessly to proclaim the truth that these ideals have already been created and are available. Available in America...but more especially available in Afghanistan, and Iraq, and North Korea, and Columbia Colombia, and...and...and...

*NOTE: Curious about why "Columbia" came up as a legitimate spelling, I checked the definition: Columbia: America; the United States; -- a poetical appellation given in honor of Columbus, the discoverer. (from Webster) I consider this perhaps one of those wonderful unintended uses of language. :-)

It still continues to be one of my dreams to spend several years of my life living on a ship, sailing from one harbour to another, reading and writing and meeting friends along the way.

Problem is...you would kind of have to be rich to do that. Plus, from what I hear, life on the high seas hasn't gotten any safer.