At present, I have three categories into which I organize my posts. The first is the First Mate’s Log, which is just general postings about my life. The second is from the Captain, which is all my theological or Christianity related posts. Lastly is At the Mast, which has all my other essays and random writings. More explained as added.
el StormRidero
In my opinion, Remains of the Day should never have been made into a movie. Since it has been, the character of Stevens has been so distorted so as to not even resemble the intricate character created by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Hi, if you are visiting the site, bear with me. I am trying out new themes and looks, so stuff may be hard to read/or random. Soon (I hope) I will have a semi-permanent look.
Thanks,
StormRider
Today is Pentacost (Sunday will be for all you in the US of A, too). I am realizing how narrow the American church is. The best thing about living in another country is expanded world view. I never knew that there was a Pentacost holiday. The Catholic church has designated (like it has most holidays) today as the anniversary of that unparalled event when the Holy Spirit came upon the early Christians and empowered them to speak in the tongues of men, and proclaim the Gospel to those gathered, in their own language. It was cool celebrating the day when the Catholic (as in Universal) Church began, the church to which all believer’s are members.
Today a Swedish translator spoke in the English lotu (church/church service) about Hope. Since the Swedish say the last thing they lose is Hope, it was ironic that in working on his translation of the Bible, he was having trouble finding the word for Hope. After much time and little success, one of his national helpers got a word from God. I will not try to reproduce that word (I can’t pronounce or spell it) but it means “that which causes us to look up and see that which is invisible”. This translator shouted, “Hallelujah!” because he knew that this was the word he was looking for.
Hope is that which causes us to look up and see that which is invisble. True Hope is from PapaGod and causes us to look up to Him, and to Jesus, the image of the Invisible God. When we hope and trust God, we are looking to Him to make and keep all things right; and though we cannot see His hand, we know it is there, guiding and working. What better thing can we profess than that we have Hope?
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” – Hebrews 11:1
Well, we played our last official game as the UIS-SC High School fast pitch softball team. The first Saturday of the season we played the “older men” of the community as a scrimmage, and beat them rather soundly. The next week we played teams from Aiyura, a National high school, and from Numinoi, the New Tribes’ centre (which is about three hours from here). The Numinoi team kicked our tails, 23-3, but we managed a win against Aiyura. For the next three weeks we have played the adults, and beaten them consecutively and quite badly. Although they have been getting better, we were smoking them today, score going into the last inning was 14-7. Due to tired pitchers and a few errors, they got within two, but died with back-to-back outs.
I played the season at third base, and played with heart and sadness. This would appear to be my last game, and season, of organized ball. From a little boy I have loved baseball, and begged to stay up late to watch the All-Star game, the Playoffs, and the World Series. I have watched great players such as the Cardinal’s Ozzie Smith (one of the best shortstops to play the game), Kirby Puckitt, a Hall of Famer from the Twins, Cal Ripken, the Iron Man, and many others. As a kid, Nate and I would play ball in the backyard, drawing up rosters of our favorite players and organizing seasons, even though the only players we had were he and I. We played with a baseball, until we broke a window, then the game got interesting as we played with tennis balls. In the spring and fall we would rush to finish school and get outside. The summers were three months of uninterrupted ball. Eventually we played on real teams on a city league for three years, and lastly (for me) I played last year on the church team in Fla, and here at Ukarumpa International School. Baseball remains the love of my heart, and September and October will always come with magic.
Brian Souers, Akron Aeros batboy – “Baseball is a dance of the heart and spirit. The best players have that dance inside of them.”
I was telling Alex, second of the three best players on our team (Clint, he, and I being those three, in that order) that guys like us will play ball however we can. I intend to do just that. Baseball runs too deep in my blood.
Next batter, number 13, Philip “the StormRider” Martin…
Hello, Everyone!
Welcome to the StormRider’s Blog. This is where I can keep all of you up to date on what is happening in my life. I can promise only to write as often as possible. If you want more of me, check out theocrats.com, where I post the occasional article. I would like to thank my brother, Joe, for lending me the space on his domain, and setting up this blog for me. (At some point I’ll learn to do this myself.)
in haste
the StormRider
