Why does my fantasy baseball team stink?*

So, possible answers to this question:

A. Something is very wrong with math and statistics.
B. My team got off to a really slow start.
C. Baseball doesn't make sense after all.
D. The Makoko Redbirds are waiting to make their push until after the All-Star break.
E. All of the above

I would like to think (B) and (D). Hopefully some of the roster moves I've made will help in the long run. If you're interested (the main new guys are in bold):

C Bengie Molina
1B Mark Teixeira
2B Orlando Hudson
SS Hanley Ramirez
MI Stephen Drew
3B Garret Atkins
OF Ryan Spilborghs
OF Brian Giles
OF Aaron Rowand
OF Rick Ankiel

P Roy Oswalt
P Dan Haren
P Todd Wellemeyer
P Adam Wainwright
P Tim Hudson

CL: Chad Qualls

*The Makoko Redbirds are in 6th place (out of 8) so it could be worse.

-T.M.

My Dawning Conviction

Currently reading:

How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil, 2^nd Edition
by D.A. Carson

Currently listening to:

Jeremy Enigk, Return of the Frog Queen (1996)

I have to say that reading the above book by D.A. Carson has been a real breath of fresh air. An Australian missionary friend let me borrow it, after raving about it for weeks. Again and again, Carson says things in this book that I don’t really hear many other people saying (perhaps being willing to say?). For example, in his chapter on death he says:

There is a cultural factor at work in the Western world that must be squarely faced. Death has become the last taboo. I can write about sex and breasts, discuss homosexuality in public, and debate the ethics of abortion, but I must not mention death in civilized company. (103)

How about that. I really like an author’s willingness to point out inconsistencies in a belief system, and bring the authority of the Word to bear on it. That element of hard-hitting truth has been very welcome.

So (as you may have gathered from previous blog articles perhaps) lately I’ve been feeling a little worn down by many of the very issues he talks about in the book: social evils, poverty, war, illness, death, etc. He even brings this up in the first chapter of the book, using the example of a Christian who goes to the Third World for a time, and he says the problem really for many people struggling like that is “the dawning conviction that there is something wrong with one’s belief system somewhere.” And I think that’s exactly it. I haven’t really been able to put it into words before.

I think from reading the book so far (I’m still only halfway through, but I’m sure it won’t take longJ) one of the major problems in my belief system has been my consistent underestimation of the vileness of sin. I underestimate it in my own life, in the lives of others, the world as a whole; and that pain and suffering in a very real sense show us how wicked our sin really is.

Fresh air.

I'll keep you posted (there's even a whole chapter on the mystery of God's providence!)

And oh, by the way, the Jeremy Enigk (Sunny Day Real Estate) album is amazing. I couldn’t believe it’s been out for over 10 years. Where have I been! It’s really quite mellow, somewhat depressing, but he makes good use of instrumentation and they’re quality songs. So there you go.

-T.M.

Tanzanian Drive-Thru

Last weekend (May 1-4) we were able to get away to Mwanza for a short trip. It is a 3 hour drive on all paved roads. Mwanza has many things that Musoma does not, including supplies (certain canned goods, cheese, bacon, etc.) and restaurants (Chinese, Indian and Pizza). It was a lovely trip and the weather was beautiful. We stayed at our friend Naomi's house-- check out this beautiful view of Lake Victoria!Between Mwanza and Musoma is a little area called Kiabakara. It's not quite a town-- I think it's most accurately described as a produce stand with a nearby village or 2. Local farmers stand on the side of the road and have buckets of fresh produce. The selling process was culturally stressful to us for such a long time. Then a few months ago we were traveling home from Mwanza and started to really appreciate not getting out of the car to do our produce shopping! Now it's often one of the highlights on the drive back from Mwanza. Here's how it works. First, a car or bus pulls over between the 2 speedbumps (these mark a "slow zone"). This is an invitation for all the women to approach your car (or bus as you can see above) with buckets piled high with produce. You choose what you want, bargain the price, pay and take the fruit through the window. Sounds easy, huh? It usually is. Sometimes, though, you get someone who is being really pushy about their rotten bananas and will actually put them inside your car trying to get you to buy them. Oh, another fun thing is to just tell one person what you want (ie: naomba ndizi na matango-- I'd like bananas and cucumbers). They'll call out NDIZI! or MATANGO! Then 3-4 people selling those items will run to your car so you're more likely to buy theirs. It's quite the event.
We can usually tell how we're doing on the culture stress scale by how we look at this event. If we're homesick and culture stressed, the Tanzania Drive-Thru is really overwhelming. When we're doing well, though, it's a lot of fun!

-JLR

Expectations of a Missionary: Rejecting the MHC

So, the last article I wrote concerning poverty and missionary lifestyle got me thinking about a slightly related issue I’ve been bothered with as of late.

It has to do with expectations of a missionary; both his own expectations of himself, as well as others’ expectations of him. Specifically, in regards to the concept of the “missionary hero”, and how this concept changes these expectations. William Carey. Adoniram Judson. Hudson Taylor. David Livingstone. These and more are our “missionary heroes”.

I find hearing about the lives of these missionaries to be extremely encouraging. The reoccuring theme that I find so encouraging is the constant response of faith to suffering. And so it’s interesting that the very thing I find so encouraging is also the thing that bothers me the most. And here’s why. The problem is not the missionary hero’s response of faith to suffering, and the application of that needed encouragement to my own faith, it’s this: that others expect on some level that those sufferings will be the same today (or very similar), and if they’re not, then the modern missionary does not measure up. Plus, I find that I have those same sort of expectations of myself, whether I want to or not. I’ll call it a missionary-hero complex (MHC).

These missionaries never went on furlough.

These missionaries never took a vacation.

These missionaries never saw their families again.

These missionaries lost many of their children.

These missionaries lived with malaria, and a lack of drugs to treat.

These missionaries had to travel by boat for months on end.

Etc.

Should I compare myself to this?

This is what Dr. J. Herbert Kane says:

We usually think of the missionary pioneers as making a great sacrifice when they went to Africa and Asia in the nineteenth century. This is not altogether true. When Hudson Taylor arrived in China he didn’t find any indoor plumbing, central heating, electric light, or telephone service. So what? He didn’t have them back in England either. Where then was the sacrifice?...There is a sense in which today’s missionary candidates make greater material sacrifices than their predecessors a hundred years ago. This should be borne in mind when we are tempted to criticize the younger generation for their reluctance to forego the amenities of Western technological civilization.

Thoughts? Thanks for reading.

-T.M.

Please check out Blood:Water Mission

If you haven't checked out this website before, I highly urge you to do so; and if you have, please do so again:

http://www.bloodwatermission.com

Blood:Water Mission is an organization founded by the lead singer of Jars of Clay, Dan Haseltine, "committed to clean blood and clean water to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic, to build clean wells in Africa, to support medical facilities caring for the sick, to make a lasting impact in the fight against poverty, injustice and oppression in Africa through the linking of needs, talents and continents, of people and resources."

These are areas (poverty, the need for clean water, the need to fight HIV/AIDS) which we have witnessed firsthand here in Tanzania. We assure you these problems are very real.

God bless.

-T.M.