N. Charles St.

Spring semester begins tomorrow. This past weekend I was at an InterVarsity retreat for Ministering Across Cultures. It was pretty great, I forgot how nice it is to be in a place with a majority of christians. We learned lots of good things concerning, you guessed it, how to effectively minister across cultures. I started for the first time to actually picture what it will be like when I am in China. I am used to being in situations where I understand things extremely well. At school, usually it is me doing the explaining and teaching...so this will be great. It will be a good humbling change. Because I am sure I will not have a clue what I am doing. But at least now I am prepared for my upcoming ignorance.
During one of our breaks over the weekend a group of us went wandering around the area ostensibly looking for nana's childhood home, but to no avail. Instead I got to take a lot of great pictures with my camera.
peace.

Thom Hickling, Sad To Say Goodbye

Here is a picture of Thom Hickling, who passed away this week, as he was when I spent the most time with him. He was a good friend, music, and business associate, especially throughout the 80s when we first moved to Pittsburgh and started MSN. Always had a good word for everybody, and he always went out of his way to go the extra mile in expressing love, patience, and good will. He was a really funny guy, and always had a different perspective on reality and faith, cutting through all of the mumbo jumbo. I remember the time he and I were talking at lunch over reading Bible stories to kids, and he talked about the way people sanitize the Old Testament. "Take Noah's ark, for example," I remember him saying. " Those animals were not nearly that cute, and I have never heard a preacher or a parent talk about the smell!" He always challenged me to live out my faith in fresh ways. The last time I saw him was a couple of years ago when we had dinner at a local Baltimore resaurant in the city! What a fun evening! We tried to hook up here in the Burgh a few times the last year or two, but my schedule prevented those couple of occasions. What time he did have here after he moved to Baltimore was almost always for his kids. I will always regret that I did not make the last jam session he invited me to, and that we will never get to go that Orioles game this summer at Camden Yards. I don't believe in rock and roll heaven, but, if I did, I know he would be in the band, just because it would be so much fun.