Earliest Copy of the New Testament is Now Online!

This is incredible! A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is now available to anyone with an Internet connection! The fourth-century Codex Sinaiticus has been digitally photographed and is searchable like Bible Gateway. It contains the New Testament in Greek, and portions of the Old Testament (Septuagint). 

I've written about it in more detail at Blogging the Bible.

Prayer request

As I was catching up on Facebook tonight I saw that Jonathan Hanegan posted a link to a news story from Bolivia. The Cochabamba church of Christ youth group was driving to a camp for holiday break and had a tragic accident which killed several teens. Joshua & Julie Marcum are missionaries there and Joshua was one of the injured. Julie has written his account of the accident and rescue operation on their personal blog (link above). A brief summary of the accident is on the youth group blog and there is an article in Los Tiempos (you may need Google Translator for this one unless you can read Spanish).

Please pray for the families that lost loved ones as well as those injured. Also pray that God will turn this tragedy into a blessing for the families and those around them.

Esther 2 - What took Xerxes so long?

Curious as to why it took Xerxes so long to appoint a new queen? Check out my latest blog post on Blogging the Bible. Be sure to try out the interactive map with trivia questions!

Esther Chapter 1

I'm really enjoying our study of Esther this summer. I've done a little bit of extra research, which Ryan has invited me to contribute to his site Blogging the Bible. 

I just finished a post on Esther 1 - Queen Vashti Deposed. It is full of history, intrigue, lavish parties and big egos. I hope you enjoy it!

In the future I'll put all my Esther and other Bible-related posts on Blogging the Bible. Ryan has used this site to blog through the book of Matthew, some of John, and a few in Jeremiah. Bookmark it or add it to your RSS reader--there's something there for everyone!

What bird is that?

For several weeks now we've been hearing a familiar but unknown bird call. When we would hear it call we'd try to trace the sound back to the source, but with no luck. 

We searched many web sites to get a picture of possible birds and an audio file of their calls. We had a couple ideas, but still no visual.

Finally yesterday we were able to match the call with the actual bird. It was a mourning dove! 

Wichita Workcamp

This past week our church teens, with teens from around the area, helped six homeowners and made the news in the process! Wichita Workcamp took on six houses to scrape, paint, and spruce up the yards, at no cost to the homeowners. The Wichita Eagle wrote a nice article about the event, pictures and video included. We are very proud of our youth group and their selfless service to others and hope that it spurs others on to service as well.

Raw food success!

Well, here I am 8 months after our first post on our raw food experiment; one dose LESS of methotrexate (*loud cheering*) and 21 pounds lighter. This "science experiment" was to see if eating fresh, unprocessed, uncooked food could cleanse and heal my body's cells enough that they could start to heal my rheumatoid arthritis. 

It is important to note that I have not been 100% faithful to eating raw vegan these last 8 months; I have typically been "raw until dinner" and then had cooked food and meat at dinner. And then there are the times where we ordered pizza, or went to Freddy's for some frozen custard. Or the cannoli at Il Vicino. Mmm. But I digress. The point is that my body is at a point now where it requires less medication, even only eating 50-60% raw each day. I would call this experiment a success! 

My rheumatologist and family doctor have closely monitored me and have been very happy with the results. Because of my medication they check my blood every six weeks and my kidneys and liver every three months. I have been in remission for over a year now, meaning that while still on the medication I show no clinical signs or symptoms of the disease. In the last 8 months since decreasing my methotrexate dose and increasing fruits and veggies my lab results have actually improved!

I've also noticed other positive things about eating fresh, real food: my chronic acne has almost completely disappeared, as has my rosacea. My energy level has increased, I rarely have migraines now, my hair is thicker (a side effect of methotrexate is hair loss), and the whites of my eyes are solid and bright white again. 

Using the books Raw Food Detox Diet, Raw Food Real World, and the web site Raw Epicurean, we slowly replaced the type of food we ate. We replaced refined sugar for natural sugars like agave nectar or stevia; instead of white or wheat bread we started eating sprouted grain breads (like Ezekiel 4:9 products). We shifted our whole food mentality from convenience food to "how close is this food to its natural state?" Another change was the "quick-exit" eating schedule itself; fruit till lunch, add in greens and grains at lunch, then add meat at dinner (optional).  

The next 8 months of the experiment will continue to see more "standard American diet" replaced with more natural ingredients. I'll work on increasing to 80% raw each day, and start exercising (which up to this point I have not once exercised). Given the past success I expect to see continued improvement. My next rheumatologist appointment is in August, at which time they may decrease my dosage again...

Squirrel!

Have you seen the new Pixar movie Up? We love it; the story lines, characters, and--squirrel!--hilarious talking dog collars. I could really identify--point!--with the dogs and their "chasing shiny objects" mentality. Lately I feel very stream of consciousness, where I start on one thought and end up somewhere totally different before coming back to my original thought.

To demonstrate, I'll share one of those "streams" with you. So I'm studying Esther this summer, and in my previous post I mentioned that the events in Esther were about the Jews remaining in Persia, called the Diaspora. I was talking to Ryan about the exile and I mentioned the "dee-uh-spore-uh". After a moment of silence, Ryan said, "did you mean "dye-as-per-uh"? I had never, ever heard it pronounced his way, and he had never heard it pronounced it my way. We speak the same language, right? This led to a consultation of Dictionary.com, where they clearly pronounce it Ryan's way. Grrr. So all week I've been working on my pronunciation so I wouldn't screw it up when it came time for our first video session on Esther. 

That exercise got me thinking about pronunciation in the English language. Granted, diaspora is a Greek word, but we try to apply English pronunciation rules to it (like we do most other foreign words). That reminded me of a great video I saw on YouTube. This video is a funny, interesting, and perfect example of silly English spellings. 

Love that guy! And he is so right about the need for reform; English is entirely too complicated. Nevertheless, I stand corrected on "dye-as-per-uh." 

Diaspora was an interesting "shiny object" to chase, and I even learned something along the way. But seriously, my entire week has been this way; one thing after another until my head spins. I need a break! Maybe I'll go watch Up again.

Esther

We've arrived at my favorite part of summer: summer women's Bible studies! I look forward to this all year because this one night per week connects me to other women of different ages, experiences, education, and levels of faith, and brings all of us together over God's word.  Out of many, one!

Each week several different Beth Moore studies are offered at the homes of church members throughout the city. Groups of women gather by geographic location to watch a one-hour video lesson by Beth and then discuss the week's "homework." In between the weekly group sessions are individual lessons for each person to do at home each day of the week. This year I am hosting a group of 10 to learn about Esther.

Esther is a small book in the Old Testament tucked in between Nehemiah and Job. Chronologically it takes place in Persia several centuries after the Kings (David, Solomon) and after the first group of exiles leave Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem. In other words, Abraham > Moses > Conquest of Canaan > Judges > Kings (David) > Prophets > Exile to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar II.

Shortly after Nebuchadnezzar, the Persians took over. During the time of Esther, Persia was ruled by Xerxes the Great, who is known for amassing one of the largest armies in ancient history for a failed attempt to invade Greece. A contemporary of Esther is Daniel, who foretold the invasion of the Medo-Persian Empire by the Greeks. The Persians would be taken over by the Greeks, led by Alexander the Great, just a century later. Another interesting note is that modern-day Persia is called Iran.

The book Feasts of the Lord notes that during this Persian rule, the Jewish Diaspora (dispersion) that remained in Persia had learned to fit in with the culture and avoid anti-Semitism. In fact, the name "Esther" is not her given Hebrew name; it is a Persian tribute to the pagan goddess Ishtar that was used to hide her Hebrew name, Hadassah. At this point in history the anti-Semitism had grown to the point of persecution. The villain in the story, Haman, plots and schemes on how to eliminate the Persian Jews. Enter Esther and her uncle Mordecai to foil the plot and save the Jews. As much as the story is about their loyalty to serving God, the story of Esther is a story of God faithfully delivering his people from annihilation. 

As much as I love geography/history/culture facts, I'm more excited to hear what God needs to say to me through this study. From what I gather reading the cover, this study will focus on Esther's courage and the parallels we can apply to our lives today. Most importantly, it will lead us to a deeper understanding of the One who protects us.

Most definitely "easy peasy"

Success! I sewed my first flannel swaddling blanket and coordinating burp cloth. I made it for my cousin's new baby, and I'm sure she'll love it.

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it, given my sewing machine's touchy personality (I honestly think it hates me). After a thorough cleaning and oiling the machine worked like a charm!

The Easy Peasy instructions truly were easy peasy. This was probably the easiest thing I have ever sewn! It only took me one hour per set, despite the fact that I really haven't sewn much since I was 9 years old.

I hit some good sales at Jo-Ann so each set only cost me about $5.00 to make, including fabric, thread, and appliques.


I'll print off a page of swaddling instructions to include in the gift bag. Now off to get a cute bag and tissue paper for tomorrow's baby shower! I hope she likes it!