Slow-go on the posting and may get even slower for the next week. Japheth is staying here with us and I am keeping him as busy as I can, getting him in front of as many people as I can. I'll update when I can.

Just a couple of thoughts:

1) I hate meter maids! Long story, right Adam...

2) I picked up a stray copy of Time in school yesterday and read a short article about al-Zarqawi. The man was an animal, an absolute dispicable human being, but one thing struck me about him: He spent his youth as a street thug in a dusty town of Zarqa before finding his life's purpose in the terrorist camps in Afghanistan. After retuning to Jordan he was arrested for possessing explosives and spent five years in prison, where he memorized the Koran and drafted cellmates to join his quest to overthrow Jordan's secular rulers. You have to admire the passion of these men, I know I am convicted at their zeal, if only I could capture that and use it for the Kingdom.

3) I never knew what a blessing a new house could be for the family. I was totally against it at first, thinking that it would somehow compromise me in some way or another, but it's been great and we are really thankful!

Ahhhhhhhhhh, the benefits of being a teacher.

This past Monday night I had to go get a new pool cover for our pool. I walk into the store and immediately hear "Hi Mr. Nate!" I turned to see a former student working the desk. I bought the pool cover but had to go back later in the night to get some things I forgot. As I purchased them and asked the clerk how to use them and prepared to pay, he said to my former student, "You know him right, then he gets them for free." How nice.

Then tonight Maiya and I went to Cold Stone for some ice cream. The Cold Stone is located in a little mini strip mall along with a phone store, Starbucks, Jimmy John's, and some new Ebay store. Anyway, as I'm walking out with my Like It Creation, out runs another former student out of Starbucks. He happens to be a barista there (has hooked me up plenty) and in his hand was a venti valencia chai latter, my favorite, on the house! I hadn't even gone in the store, yet there he was. I'll have to rethink any change of occupations in the near future.

Problem number 435 with our insurance system, this one blamed on the consumers:

This weekend is our girls basketball tournament. It's this weekend every year and from 7am to 5pm I sit in a gym and help run the thing, I'm even reffing this year. After the first game, a girl came up to me asking to be taped, so we took her into the training room and I taped her angle. She was walking with a slight limp but made no ill faces as I handled the ankle to tape it. A few minutes later her mother came up to me asking where the nearest Aurora walk-in clinic was. She said her daughter still had a little limp and pain and she wanted to take her in. WHY? You know it's not broken. The Dr. is going to say to ice it, stay off of it, and if it gets worse to come back. See, the problem is that if our insurance covers it, we'll take advantage, and this is leading to higher rates. If that lady had to pay for that care, she wouldn't go in unless it was serious, and rates would stay lower. It's a broken system, and I see no way of fixxing it as reliant as we have become on health care for every little ailment.

I thought this was one of the best emails the SG received regarding the Finals debacle:

OK, I'm sure I'm one of a hundred (thousand?) people e-mailing you this, but name another sport that favors its 'stars' more than the NBA? Can you really imagine Clemens or someone getting an extra 6-12 inches on the strike zone in the World Series just because they are a star? Or perhaps Tom Brady getting the benefit of the doubt (pass interference) on 3-4 passes a game because he's 'Tom Brady'? I honestly think the NBA is much closer to the WWE or something than any other 'professional' sport in the world. As a longtime fan (I actually worked for an NBA team for a couple of years) it makes me sick. ... I no longer want to watch the game much like I don't want to watch the WWE -- its all rigged/fixed.

I used to agree with the star treatment certain players get, and to a degree I still do. While Clemens may not get 6-12 inches I'm sure there is some extra zone given. Star DB's are given a little more leeway on pass interference and I remember back in the day it was said that if Will Clark didn't swing at it, it wasn't a strike (meaning umps would never ring him up on a third strike). But it seems like the NBA has always gone overboard on this, and it only seems to be getting worse with LeBron and Wade in this playoffs. With all of the talk surrounding it, we'll see if anything is done.

Another post from a former prof that I enjoyed:

About 2000 B.C., the Lord tested Abraham's faith:
God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." (Genesis 2:2, NIV)

When Abraham reached the place, he commanded his servants, "Stay here...while I and the boy go over there" (v. 5). The old man then bound Isaac and laid him on the altar.

But just as Abraham raised the knife to slay his son, the angel of the Lord stopped him (vv. 10-12). God then provided another sacrifice in Isaac's place:

Abraham looked up and there in the thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided. (Genesis 22:13-14)

A thousand years later, King David chose the cluster of hills surrounding Moriah as the site for Jerusalem, his capital city. Then, in about 950 B.C., King Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. (2 Chronicles 3:1)

Over time, the Jews offered millions of animal sacrifices at that site. However, those sacrifices provided only an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:3-4)

Finally, in A.D. 30, another Son commanded his disciples, "Sit here while I go over there" (Matthew 26:36). Then the Father accompanied His Son from the Garden of Gethsemane, across the Kidron Valley, over Mount Moriah, to a place nearby called Golgotha.

But this time there was no ram in a thicket, no bull or goat on the altar. And even though twelve legions of angels stood by, ready to halt the sacrifice (see Matthew 26:53-54), the Son refused to call them.

On the mountain, the Lord has provided.

... for Today

We generally use the phrase "mountaintop experience" to describe a positive event. For us, the valleys represent gloom and uncertainty. How ironic that, throughout history, the hills of Moriah have represented just the opposite -- testing, drama, and sacrifice.

But perhaps not.

In each instance, what began as trial and cost, ended in deeper faith, changed lives, and salvation. This particular mountaintop (Moriah) became a symbol of life emerging from death.
We'd like to live on the mountaintops (figuratively) and never face death. We'd like ecstatic experiences without grief. We'd like joy without pain, and intimacy without cost.
Moriah challenges such superficiality.

Jesus himself taught that we must first lose our lives before we can find them (see Matthew 16:25 // Mark 8:35 // Luke 9:24 // John 12:25), and the seed must first die before it comes to life (see 1 Corinthians 15:36). The greatest hope emerges from gritty faith, the highest joy from endurance, and the deepest intimacy from sacrifice.

Next time we crave a mountaintop experience that will elevate us above the demands and disappointments of life, we might consider Moriah. That sacred mountaintop points us toward a greater reality -- not of flight but faith, not of escapism but obedience, not of avoidance but sacrifice.

Most importantly, Moriah teaches us that the Lord not only provides on that mountain. He is also present there.

I think I've made it pretty clear here that I'm not a fan of Sojourners. However, this David Batstone is making me a fan of his. Last week he wrote on the civil war in Uganda, this week the sex trade in Thailand:

My ongoing investigation of the slave trade - 27 million people around the globe are trapped in forced labor at this moment - took me to Southeast Asia this past week. Prior to the trip, I had poured over a considerable amount of research about the trafficking of women and children for the sex trade in the region. Reading about the practice is disturbing enough; seeing it first hand proved to be overwhelming.

In Cambodia and Thailand I visited several projects that care for individuals lucky enough to escape - or be rescued - from the bars and brothels that exploit them. I cannot get out of my head the sight of the 50 girls between the ages of 7 and 12 who found safe haven in one rescue center in Cambodia. To think that grown men used these innocent, slight girls for their sexual pleasures numbs the mind. Thanks to the efforts of faith-based activists, these girls are now in a safe environment where they can imagine a better life.

A growing movement of abolitionists offer a glimmer of hope in the human trafficking story. In the spirit of William Wilberforce and his 19th century contemporaries who felt called by God to bring an end to the African slave trade, they act with faith and conviction to "bring release to the captives."

Annie Dieselberg, who operates a refuge in Bangkok, Thailand, views abolition as her Christian vocation. She calls her project NightLight Ministry, playing off the image of a light that leads to safety in moments of darkness. The creativity behind her project matches the compassion that brought it into existence.

When she launched NightLight in 2005, Annie aimed to offer an alternative for young girls who work in bars that operate as brothels. Annie and her husband had worked in various ministries in Thailand for more than a decade. Witnessing so many women in Bangkok forced to engage in demeaning sex work stirred her to pray for the chance to help them. In early 2005 she took a visiting U.S. church group to a brothel bar. While the men in the church group stayed outside praying, Annie led the women went inside to make a caring connection.

"One of the young prostitutes told me that she hated being at the bar," says Annie. The woman was 22 years old, with two children. "When I asked her where she would like to be in her life," Annie continued, "She told me that she would like to be home with her kids."

So Annie and her sisters in the faith paid the bar owner 600 baht (roughly $15) to take the woman out of the bar for the night ? the normal price for a customer. This night, however, the price transformed into a redemption. Annie decided to turn this one-night reprieve into a life-changing opportunity. She had spent the last year teaching herself to make jewelry, and she spontaneously offered the young women a job to work alongside her.

Programs that encourage girls to escape the sex trade but leave them poor and jobless do not lead to long-term success stories. In short, the girls remain vulnerable to being trafficked once again.

Annie designed the project to equip young women for life beyond the brothel. Like a prism, NightLight can be viewed from a number of angles. To start, it is a for-profit business that trains women how to make and sell jewelry. The products are made in NightLight's humble factory in central Bangkok, and sold through church networks in Thailand and the United States. The jewelry is high-quality and the design ranges from classic to trendy - my 15-year-old daughter was thrilled with the NightLight pearl-string necklace with a cross that I brought back for her.
NightLight pays the mostly young women a salary twice the minimum wage established by Thai law. Obviously, the workers will not become rich quick off this pay, but the compensation does offer a sustainable livelihood. To pay the women a salary rather than a piecework scheme (per produced item) also enables NightLight's underlying mission to develop healthy women. During the course of a work day, women engage in workshops on health care and HIV/AIDS prevention, managing personal finances, and take English classes. The workforce also is invited to daily worship services to kick off the work day, and a weekly spiritual formation class. Participation in religious activities is not a requirement for employment.

NightLight now employs 32 women in its jewelry business and several more women are on a list pending employment. The biggest hurdle for expansion: financial resources. Truth be known, Annie never intended to grow this fast. The project took on a life of its own as word spread through the brothel bars that escape was possible. And Annie understandably finds it hard to put on the brakes. "At one point early on I felt like we had to halt our progress," she said. "But then one young women whom I had been praying for over six years called me and asked if I would help her leave the brothel where she was working. I took it as a sign from God to move forward," she said. As she says this last statement, she raises her arms as if to add, "And who am I to stop God's work?"

The mixed demographic of the women who find their way to NightLight reflects the international scope of human trafficking. The 32 escaped prostitutes come from nine distinct countries: Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Thailand, China, Laos, Ukraine, and India. These girls did not plan to come to Bangkok in most cases to work in a brothel. They were deceived, kidnapped, trafficked, and exploited.

Annie makes it clear that resisting the criminal networks that make money off the trade of human beings must go beyond the humble efforts of NightLight. "We badly need a movement of the Spirit in the global church," she tells me. When I ask what that will take, she remarks with a laugh that more Christians need to read Sojourners. "What I mean by that," she explains, "is that Christians need to understand that their faith has to take specific action for justice in the world."

When I press Annie whether churches can actually impact the global slave trade, she becomes resolute: "I grew up in the mission field in Zaire for most of my childhood, along with a couple years in Thailand, and I saw a great deal of injustice. But when I watch the darkness that destroys the lives of young children in the sex trade, I feel that I am confronting a profoundly evil spiritual force."

For that reason, Annie looks to churches to deploy prayer and action against human trafficking in their own local region, and link those efforts to international movements. "The world badly needs the love for family and bonds of community that the church teaches," she said. "Now we have to go out into the society and live it."

A quick prelude to the following post: I am going through the Psalms right now and having a hard time relating to the messages being written. They are so foreign to me. If I lived in the Sudan or the Middle East or China and experienced that persecution, I might be better able to relate, but I can't.

Having said that, yesterday was "recovery Sunday" at our church. I was skeptical, I don't know why but I didn't have a good feeling about this, things can get out of hand. But I was wrong. Four people got up and shared for around 45 minutes their struggles with alcohol and drug addictions and how the Lord had or was bringing them out of that. POWERFUL!

One lady in particular stood out to me. She talked about being abused emotionally, physically, and sexually from the time she was four. Maiya is four. She has a daughter who is four. She said her brother used to do things to her that she couldn't even speak of. She turned to alcohol and drugs to numb the pain, she needed an escape. She said she called out to God but in her surroundings and addictions didn't feel His Presence. Broke me right down.

Back to the Psalms, hearing her story, I can relate to the anger expressed at the evil of the days, as I share them right now. A prayer:

Dear Father, please be with those young boys and girls right now who are lying awake hoping that they don't hear the footsteps of the father or brother walking down the hall. Be with them as they hear the doorknob turn, ease their pain not with drugs or alcohol but with your peace, mercy, and compassion. Let them know you are there. Let them know you are a loving and just God and that this evil will be repaid. As David asked for wings like a dove to fly away, give them that as well. Restore them to your Kingdom, let them know of the power of Your redemption. When they call to you, speak to them, give them the peace of God that transcends all understanding. Most of all, protect them from evil and from the evil one, may I never forget them in my prayers. Let them know they are not alone, they are not at fault, and that we are praying for them. Help them to open up and seek help, help them to seek You. AMEN.

A couple of thoughts as I relax for a minute and take a break from moving:

1) I got this email today that there is this new college going into the GB area for college students interested in going into the ministry. They will provide training in preaching, evangelism, worship, etc. What struck me is that they are having a work camp at the end of the month for a week and they are charging people $40 for the week to come and help them rebuild the location. Hmmmmm, I'll pay you so that I can work for you for a week...does anyone else see something wrong with that. I'm all for service, but I don't know if I'm going to pay to go to GB and work for a week. Maybe there's something I'm missing.

2) Dwayne Wade is really getting on my nerves. I'm sick of him complaining (or the media doing that for him) of how hurt he is and then coming out the next night and putting up 40, like he's some hero. Reminds me of Tiger...

3) Speaking of Tiger, call me insensitive, but I find little pity for him this weekend in the US Open. I'm very sorry his dad died, I have no idea how heart-wrenching that is, but it's now been 6 weeks since Earl passed on and Tiger hasn't played since. If he claims rust, I'm all right, but if we are still going to sit there and feel sorry for him because he is still mourning, I'm out. If my father would pass away, I'd be given a couple of days and then expected to be back at work, and performing at a high level. What is different about Tiger?

4) Finally, here is what I hate about Shaq. The guy got flat-out pummeled last night by a man half his size. That would have been a candidate for Hit of the Week in any NFL lockerroom. He went flying! As they said on Friday, "You got knocked the f--- out!" But then I had to listen to him come into the post-game interview room and say that his daughter tackles him harder when he comes home from work. Come on Shaq, quit playin' with us, you got knocked out, and you know it!

I know this is probably more the exception than the rule, but this is exactly why I was skeptical when W promised $10 billion and more to help bail out NO. $1.4 billion is a lot of money, even to the gov! And then they go after the little guys who bring down supplies to sell (generators, water, etc) and make a profit. Bureaucracy...

Just a little update on me after 24 hours of total inactivity:

1) It's amazing how good you feel after being down and out with the flu. Right now, I'm maybe 70%, but I don't know if I've ever felt better. It's like you have to feel the worst before you can appreciate how good it feels to feel good.

2) I was at a wedding on Saturday night and caught an interesting view. I was walking out of the dance hall as the dance was beginning, and it was a group of slow songs being played. As I walked out I caught the priest who performed the wedding standing in the doorway. I wish I could express the look on his face, it was almost envious. These poor guys...

3) With nothing to do yesterday and no way to leave the couch, I rented "Fun With Dick and Jane" On Demand. It sucked! Waste of $2.95! But "Along Came Polly" was on twice and I watched parts of it both times. I'm not a fan of romantic comedies, but as I've written here before I thought this was a good film. Most enjoyable was Philip Seymour Hoffman. What an actor, not a big fan of his characters, but anyone who can take on those roles gets my props. He even got the first-ever character prop from Lisa who commented on his acting, first time I've ever heart that from my lovely wife.

4) This move is driving me crazy (I can't stop the thinking and planning), but I'm very excited it will be done on Saturday!

This week hasn't been the best for the Nate family. On Monday early morning, around 3am, Maiya woke us up with a shrill scream and we flew downstairs to find her covered in vomit. We cleaned her up, put her in our bed, only to come back upstairs to our bed being covered in vomit. She threw up about 3 more times that morning and then a few more on Monday later in the morning. She was a vegetable on the couch for Monday and Tuesday, came out of it on Wednesday and is fine now.

This morning, again at 3am, I awoke to Lisa spewing her guys in our room. She threw up three more times, which launched me into a gut-wrenching tirade of vomit at 11am this morning. Fortunately for us, Lisa's sister just happened to spend the night at our house last night and could take care of the kids until my parents came to keep them for the night. Kendyl showed some signs of sickness as well, but she seems all right.

On the bright side, if this was next weekend we'd be in trouble with the move, so I am thankful for that.

Unfortunately this is all too true. Two years ago I spend 24 hours in Uganda, the city of Mbale, and in the morning we heard from a pastor who ministers in the northern part of that country and he told us the tales of war. Crazy, until then I wasn't really aware of the situation. But it is dire indeed. National Geographic did a story within the past year on it, detailing the lives of the children, the miles they must walk to safety each night so they are not kidnapped in their sleep, and the deprivation of those taken. The anger burns inside of me.

I spent the past week in northern Uganda. I am conducting field research and interviews for a book I am writing on human slavery.

I hope to be one of many to raise awareness of this tragic epidemic. Criminal activity currently enslaves 27 million people globally, half of which are children under the age of 18, and the trade generates an estimated $13 billion dollars annually.

Slavery takes a tragic twist in Uganda. Children are abducted and forced to serve in a rebel group calling itself the Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA has snatched up as many as 40,000 children over its 20-year existence.

During my visit to Uganda, I interviewed numerous young people who escaped the LRA and have gained refuge and rehabilitation at World Vision’s Children of War Center. Only a few days out of captivity in some cases, the children spoke of unimaginable terror. Some of the children I spoke with had spent eight years in servitude, and many had spent at least four years with the LRA.

Most of the boys are trained to be mass murderers. I realize that language is strong, but it fits. The LRA targets young children because they believe they are more easily molded into trained killers. They learn how to engage in combat with soldiers and are forced to pillage defenseless villages, often leaving countless dead in their wake.

A smaller percentage of the girls are forced to be soldiers. Most of them become sex slaves and domestic servants to the older LRA soldiers. Typically after a village raid, the commanders divide the girls up amongst themselves. Only men of a certain rank have the privilege of owning these young girls.

At the moment most of us who are 21st century abolitionists focus on stopping the captivity and ongoing abductions of children in Uganda. Spending some time there, however, I got a glimpse of an equally daunting task: How do you bring about reconciliation once the terror comes to an end?

World Vision workers in the camp already are starting to address this dilemma. Idah Lagum Lumoro, a counselor and camp director at a World Vision center, shared with me a heart-rending tale of a woman who had her nose, lips, and ears sliced off by the rebels. When she came to the rehabilitation camp, she was horrified to encounter the very rebel soldier who had ordered her torture. In his own defense, the young man claimed that a superior officer in the LRA had commanded him to give the order. Even though civilian witnesses present at the crime confirmed that fact, you can imagine how difficult it was for the woman to forgive this young ex-officer.

That story, unfortunately, is not rare. Nearly every child abducted into the LRA has been forced to participate in atrocities. Typically, an abducted child's initiation is to kill a family member, or perhaps someone from his or her home village. For that reason, after release many of the children fear to return to their home village.

Many of the young girls have given birth to a child. They too do not view a return to their home village because the years of rape have brought them shame.

For that reason, Lumoro and her team of World Vision counselors not only help individual children to restore their lives after they escape. They reach out as well to the communities from which the children have been abducted and against which they might have committed atrocities.
Lumoro explained to me that in the Ugandan culture, when a murder is committed it is not only an offense to a particular family, but against an entire clan. A stipulated restitution must be made. If that restitution is not fulfilled, then a murderous revenge will be sought against another clan. In northern Uganda today, however, nearly 90% of the population lives in internally displaced person's camps and murder has ruled for two decades. It is impossible to balance the score with traditional restitution.

Lumoro asks her Ugandan brothers and sisters to practice forgiveness as an exercise of healing. "If we forgive, and ask for forgiveness, we are set free; then we can walk in unity," Lumoro told me. She presented the choice that Ugandans have to make for the future: "Only in unity can we rebuild our land with peace and development. If we do not forgive, our communities will explode in the future."

When people have been wronged, they often harbor a conviction that they cannot satisfy their hurt until justice (really meaning revenge) can be done. Maybe then, they say to themselves, they can begin to forgive and forget.

Lumoro emphasizes, however, that revenge and forgiveness take us down two distinct roads: "Forgiveness starts with today's enmity; revenge nurses the enmity until it can reach satisfaction in some future opportunity."

"If you want love to take root in your life," Lumoro reminds me, "you can only travel down the road of forgiveness."

I hate it when professional athletes show up to camp or the season out of shape, don't get lucrative extensions, and then take it as an insult and stick it to their old team (see Clemens and Shaq to name two). Love or hate Kobe, the SG is exactly right, although they never should have given away Shaq like they did:

Shaquille O'Neal: Everyone thinks that Kobe demanded his own team, which was why Shaq ended up getting traded. Actually, this is only half-true. Shaq was woefully out of shape for the 2002-03 season -- although he had just won three straight titles and was probably Kobe'd out, so I can't totally blame him -- then pushed for a lucrative extension that summer even though he had two more years remaining on his contract. Faced with a power struggle between their two superstars, as well as a gigantic financial commitment to Shaq, the Lakers panicked and stupidly held a fire sale (getting 45 cents on the dollar for him). Then Shaq deflected any local blame in Los Angeles by blaming Kobe and declaring war on him, one of his smartest political moves and yet another reason why Shaq needs to run for office some day. It wasn't nearly as sleazy as the Riley/Mourning things, but it was still a little slimy. And remember, he did the same thing to everyone in Orlando.