Conrad's Editorials

The Philippines just got hit by a major typhoon killing hundreds.  And another typhoon (which might end up being a super-typhoon) is going to hit in two days. 

This has affected our minitry.  Our pastors are trying to get food to their communities.  But we need your help.  Please consider supporting us financialy along with your prayers.  A donation link is on this page.

Here's a message from my dad who is the founder and head of the ministry "Lambat":

Parma can intensify to a super typhoon. It has entered Philippine territory but still 2 days away. If it stays in its current path it will hit the central eastern part of the country. Even if it does not make landfall, it would enhance the southwest monsoon and bring rains to parts of the Philippines either on Friday or Saturday. 

We have many ministry partners in the areas most threatened by Parma (local name: Pepeng).

We need to earnestly pray that the Lord would spare His people from devastation that Parma packs within itself.

This day, four Lambat pastors and their wives went to two towns in Rizal province that suffered most in order to bring relief goods (rice, canned goods, noodles, etc.). They were deeply saddened by what they saw. The brethren they reached were very appreciative of our effort.

I am committed to helping out our ministry partners get back on their feet. There are other pastors who have volunteered to go. 
Dad

Please consider ministering by your tax-deductable financial donation. I am hoping to raise $2,000.

in Christ,
Conrad

If you're in the Decap fantasy football league, draft day is tonight. Go here for info.

It's weird how a thread on the message board can be a ministry to me, but that's exactly what's going on. 

Peter, who has been a members of the Decapolis message board since 2003, was diagnosed with brain cancer about a year ago and has been posting about what he is going though.

Half of my Facebook newsfeed is taken up with those stupid quizzes.

You know what I'm talking about...

What color are you?
Result: You are yellow.

What character of Lost are you?
Result: You are Jack Shepard.

What childhood disease are you?
Result: You are Cystic Fibrosis.

What Windows XP Service Pack are you?
Result: You are SP 1.3.

You know what? Take my quiz:

How Do You Irritate Your Friends?
A. By filling out facebook quizzes.
B. With facebook quizzes.

Result. You Take Meaningless Quizzes. Your friendwill now hide your profile so they can move onto more important things onFacebooklike people putting up pictures of themselvesmaking a pouty face while flashinga sideways peace sign.

The Oscar Meyer Wienermobile had a little bit of an accident. It ran into a house. Here's what the police had to say... Police said the driver was trying to turn the Wienermobile around in the driveway and thought she was moving in reverse. But she instead went forward and hit the home.

Now, I'm no physics expert, but I'm pretty sure that the difference between moving forward and backwards is fairly significant. Typically when you get closer to something, it appears to get larger. But don't be fooled. It's not magically growing, it's just getting closer.

If it's getting smaller, don't be alarmed, you are getting further away from it.

You can use this new found knowledge in real life. When your friend asks you to see Transformers 2 with him... make him 'smaller'. In other words, walk away from him. The faster he appears smaller the better. Continue this until you can no longer see him.

Now take out your cell phone. Then find his contact record. And then... delete it.

You have successfully mastered forwards and backwards.

Nations immortalize the most essential parts of their culture into statues.

For example, we have the Statue of Liberty, which represents freedom, which is so vital to us as a nation.

Rio de Janeiro has the "Christ the Redeemer" statue, which of course represents the salvation Christ brings to mankind.

Japan, on the other hand, erects a full scale, 59 foot, RX-78 Gundam robot. Which of course represents the Earth Federation's war against the Principality of Zeon.

We took a lot of video during our visit to the Philippines (thanks to Chance Glasco). This video explains the ministry over there that's run by my dad. We would appreciate it if you helped support the ministry - which is directly involved with hundreds of pastors, teachers and over ten-thousand kids.

You can donate here. We haven't received any donations this year through Decapolis, so your help is very welcome.

Thanks,
Conrad

It's my awesome wife's birthday. For her birthday we went to the Shenandoah Mountains where we smiled at each other for 15 miles straight.

Then we went to Luray Caverns and got lost. I am posting this article from there because we haven't found our way out. Fortunately for us, there's WIFI down here.

Happy Birthday Julia! I love you.

There are two types of people in this world. Ones that think people are inherently good, and people who think people are inherently evil. Which one are you?

Have you ever been around someone raising a kid? You don't have to teach kids how to hit, lie or be selfish. That's what kids do. If they get upset, they hit their sibling or parents. If they don't want to get into trouble, they lie. If their sibling plays with some random toy, they want to play with that same toy. You don't have to teach them any of that, it's all completely natural to them.

Then don't get me started on why you have locks on cars and houses, why we need police or military, why families don't get along, why there's so much divorce, why kids hate their parents, why people are jealous of others, why MTV still exists, why people eat at Long John Silvers.

This matter is important because this is about how we see ourselves. Do we see ourselves as good? Then we don't need to change. But if we see ourselves as evil, then there's some work to be done.

And if we think we're good, we might have to revisit the definition of good.

Mark 10:18 Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone.

We should be comparing our goodness to Christ, not to all the other sinful humans around us. That's like two pigs comparing themselves to each other, or two piles of puke, or the Star Wars prequels comparing themselves to each other.

Just because there's someone around you that is worse, doesn't make you good.

The more we understand God's goodness, the more sin we'll see in ourselves.

God is like a big bright light. When you're far away from him, you only see big obvious stains. But the closer you get to God's light, the more dirt you'll see, under your fingernails, in between your toes, in your nostrils.

So if you want to understand what good really is, then study the life of Christ and his commands.

We can just sit and wallow in our mud or we can try to understand how sinful we are and do something about it.