February 28, 2006
Pictures of Egypt
So. We can’t figure out how to get more of our pictures onto this site, but I put all of them on snapfish. Here’s the link, and you can see them all!
your host for this episode : carrie; 10:02 AM | Comments (0)
February 05, 2006
Got Skype?
Ever heard of VOIP? If you have a computer with speakers and a microphone jack, and a good internet connection, then you can use that computer as your telephone. Ok, so it may not completely replace the phone, but it may very well reduce your phone bill.
We recently had broadband internet installed here at our house and now we can talk to Egypt, or anywhere else in the world for that matter, for absolutely nothing… provided that the people on the other end also have Skype.
If you’ve got it, add us to your list (carrieanddan), and then give us a buzz.
your host for this episode : carrie; 09:56 PM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2006
a book report.
Just before I left for Egypt, a woman that I study with recommended a book to our study group. Nancy was just in the middle of it and was enthralled by how this writer is able to put into words and make sense out of the Bible’s teachings on sexual purity. That’s right, sexual purity. I really did just put that word on my blog. The title of the book is “Real Sex: the naked truth about chastity”, author is Lauren Winner.
Now, if you’re like me, you think of chastity as “no sex, ever.” Having now read this book, my eyes have been opened that as a married couple we have a responsibility to God and the greater community to also be actively practicing chastity. Chastity is not “no sex, ever, period,” but rather it’s “doing sex God’s way”. Let’s get rid of the idea that sexuality is just private (in that it’s “none of your business”) but very public (have you ever noticed the very sexual way that people are dressing these days?), and replace it with what scripture teaches about healthy, open relationships where we are close enough to talk about sex and sexual responsibility. So I can get up in your business when I think you’re spending too much time alone with what’s-his-name, and you also can help me by not letting me get too wrapped in couples-world.
Lauren points out the importance of cross-demographic community groups (small group, house church, cell, Bible study, etc). While it is essential that we maintain relationships with people of our same demographic (singles, seniors, young families, etc), it is also essential that we not limit ourselves to those relationships.
I meet every week with this group of women at Mars Hill, and we study the Word of God and we talk about life. The common denominator is that we are all women, but we are all from different backgrounds and are in all different stages of life. I’m a newlywed with no kids, there’s two others who are newlyweds, one of them is pregnant, there’s a single woman, a widow, some women with kids out of college, and one woman with kids still in high school. So though we are all women, we have much to learn from one another because we are in different stages of life.
I love studying with other women, but I love it too that we are not all newlyweds with no children. I think this is what Lauren is getting at. I think this is something that is lacking these days. We don’t invest enough time cross-generationally or cross-demographically. And because we don’t spend enough time investing in these relationships, we have lost the ability to learn from one another and have those healthy, accountabiity-holding relationships offered by singles communing with mothers communing with widows communing with marrieds.
Thanks Nancy for tipping me off to this book. And thanks ladies for being real and making our community real. And thanks Lauren, for using the gift God has given you to bring truth to life.
your host for this episode : carrie; 07:01 AM | Comments (0)