new blog

After over a year of inactivity, Ethio-net has finally allowed us to access blogger. My new blog is at galatawaaqayoo.blogspot.com. Please come and visit!

Off into the Yonder

Paul and I have recently accepted a call to work at Gimbie Hospital in Ethiopia, Africa. We will be leaving on Monday, May 19, 2008, and will be out of the USA for roughly two years. We will be starting a blog devoted to our African adventures as soon as possible. When we do, the link will be posted here. Enjoy life, look to the light, and all are welcome to come and visit us!

Running with a Reason

Barry (Paul's brother) and I are currently training to run the Knoxville Marathon at the end of March. John and Martina (another brother and my sister) may also be joining us. However, instead of just pounding our knees aimlessly for 26 + miles, we've adopted a mission to make the venture worthwhile: raising money for the Diamante Project in Argentina. We're asking all friends and family to sponsor us for every stride we run. For more information on the project in Argentina, check out http://diamante-project.blogspot.com. For info on how to donate, write to me at Petra.Houmann@gmail.com.

Our Garbage Disposal...

Eager to reduce the amount we send to landfill every week, Paul and I have taken to sharing our extra food with the neighbors who live behind us. Their culinary tastes are exceedingly diverse. I've always prided myself in the broadness of my palate, but Barbara, Bessy, Belle, Babette, Belinda, Beatrice and Buttercup have far surpassed my expertise. Then again, perhaps they're just too polite to turn down our offerings of onion and banana peels...

Food for Thought from Farf

Is the Holy Spirit eternal like the Father and the Son? Or is His existence limited to the history of our planet? When Jesus went home to His Father He told His disciples, I cannot be with you any longer, but I will send you a substitute (i.e. the Holy Spirit). When in Heaven, our direct contact with Jesus (and His Father) will be re-established and, hence, a substitute seems superfluous.
If that is not the case what then is the role of the Holy Spirit?

This paragraph was sent to me by my Danish grandfather (Farf). We would both be interested in what any of you have to think about this...

The Plurality of God

Many of the world's major religions do not believe in the Trinity: the concept that God is composed of three beings (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) acting as one. Islam, Judaism, and even some forms of Christianity hold that God is one and only one. God is singular - never plural. I find it especially interesting that Jews hold this belief, considering something I recently discovered about the Old Testament's grammatical treatment of God. The Hebrew word for God is "Elohim." The ending "-im" always denotes a plural. If the writers of the OT had wanted to portray God as singular, they would have used the noun "Eloh" instead. However, they chose specifically to implement the use of the grammatical plural ending. Interestingly enough, although the noun "Elohim" is uniformly used to refer to God, the verbs which accompany His actions are almost always in singular! I do not think the Hebrew writers were linguistically incompetent. They knew what they meant when they used a plural noun with singular verbs: a morphological equation for the Trinity.

I suppose it's incorrect to say that the Hebrew writers concocted the theme. The Orchestrator of the scriptures chose the description Himself. For illustration, let's simply read verse 3:15 from the book of Exodus: "And God (plural) said (singular) moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the LORD God (plural) of your fathers, the God (plural) of Abraham, the God (plural) of Isaac, and the God (plural) of Jacob, hath sent (singular) me unto you: this is my (singular) name for ever, and this is my (singular) memorial unto all generations."

Plenty of Paw Paw

During an excursion along the Maury River last Friday, we lit upon a whole "orchard" of wild paw paw trees. The fruit has a pleasant mango/papaya-like flavor. Yet, interestingly enough, it seems to be unappealing to both the mammal and insect kingdoms: not a specimen of it had been touched! We decided at once to load our canoe with as many pieces of fruit as it could hold. Clambering ashore, Robby, Martina and I tossed fruit at Paul while he did his best to catch and deposit them in the boat. Despite the lost samples which floated downstream, we ended up with a fair amount. Even after parceling some off to my parents, Martina, and Robby, we maintained 12 pounds for ourselves (about 80 individual pieces). Now we are enjoying paw paws for breakfast. And paw paws for lunch. And paw paws for supper. This morning, I ate ten. You know, I'm starting to think that if I were a wild animal living on the banks of the Maury, I wouldn't eat paw paw either...