WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • My talk on Fracking and Global Warming at Oral Roberts University. • The faith of a neurobiologist. • Tensions he sees between science and faith. • Deciding to marry – science or faith? • Netflix challenge of the week. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PREAMBLE: I’m giving a talk this coming week called Fracking and Global Warming: What’s the Connection? This is a new topic for me and I had to put some research into it. The talk is at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Wednesday 27 February at 1:15 pm and at 2:15 pm (same talk at both times in room 102 of the Global Learning Center). I appreciate the invite by Dr John Korstad who reaches two different courses on Sustainability at the university.… More “How to balance science and faith.”
Inspiration and hope
Kim McGrath invited me to talk to her first-graders about Christmas in Australia. So with my rabbit trap, boomerang, and didgeridoo, I turned up in December 2018 at her first-grade class at Independence Elementary school in Kansas. Six-year olds!
I can make a noise with the didgeridoo, and the kiddos found this entertaining.
Miss McGrath is a top-notch teacher. She modulates her voice wonderfully, is always encouraging, and corrects her students gently when its needed. And she is multi-tasking every minute of the day. After an hour and a half presenting to her class, I was exhausted. My esteem for such teachers, who do this all day and all week, went up through the ceiling.
Climbing around the red rocks that Gallup, New Mexico, is famous for.… More “Six white boomers”
My birthday is January 7. A few years ago I didn’t have a party and there was no-one to celebrate with. I went to the grocery store to buy some Chicken Teriyaki frozen dinner for my lonely pity-party.
In one of the aisles, I saw a man in a wheelchair trying to reach down and pick up a box of frozen dinner from the floor. I offered to help, picked up three boxes from the floor, put one in his cart and two back in the shelf. His hands shook – maybe Parkinsons?
This small action changed my perspective: FROM — feeling down because I had no-one to celebrate my birthday with, TO — realizing how well off I was because I could walk and run and play pickleball.… More “Grandpa loses house to fire.”
Kim Pollock McGrath is my step-daughter who lives in Independence, Kansas. This is an inspiring story about how God intervened – around the time of her sister’s tragic death – and Kim became an author.
Kim is an elementary school teacher. For many years, she wanted to write a children’s book. Lots of ideas came and went, but she never had the confidence to write. That changed in 2018.
Here is the story in her own words: “Four years ago, while driving out of town, I saw a little tree out in the open field all by itself. Something about that little tree touched me in a special way.
Over the next three years, I would occasionally notice a lonely little tree while I was traveling.… More “A cute new children’s book by Kim McGrath.”
I HAVE NEVER SEEN A BILBY, although I lived in Australia for 28 years. But I wish…
There used to be two species of bilby. The lesser bilby became extinct in the 1950s. The greater bilby is an endangered species.
The following is copied from an article in BBC News. See the link HERE:
A rare marsupial that once ran wild in Australia’s state of New South Wales has been reintroduced into the state for the first time in more than a century.
Bilbies – small nocturnal mammals with long, rabbit-like ears – were last recorded in the state in 1912. But now 30 captive-bred animals were released into a large predator-free enclosure near the town of Narrabri, northwest of Sydney.… More “Is it a mouse or a rabbit or a mini-kangaroo? No — it’s a bilby.”
WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • Cerebral palsy. • The danger of driving. • Frustration. • When things seem hopeless. • The car that changed Jessica’s life.
Now and then I hear of a heart-warming story that is truly inspirational. This story was written from the perspective of Jessica’s mom who I know rather well. Here it is:
CEREBRAL PALSY. When you ask expectant parents if they’re hoping for a boy or girl, often the response will be, “Either as long as it’s happy and healthy!” Sometimes life throws a curve ball and the child you have been waiting for is not what you expect.
My eldest daughter Jessica was so excited to see the world that she came two months early.… More “Jessica Eubank: an Inspiration.”
WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • Story of the rich young ruler. • The interpretation. • An eleventh commandment? • The promise. • Takeaway.
STORY OF THE RICH YOUNG RULER.
A certain ruler asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him,” …You know the commandments: ‘DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT TESTIFY FALSELY, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER.’” He replied, “I have kept all these things from my youth.”
When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “You still lack one thing; sell everything that you have and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.… More “An Eleventh Commandment?”
WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • Where on earth is Tucumcari? • How I got stuck. • Unstuck. • Dinner at Dels restaurant. • Valuable learning.
WHERE ON EARTH IS TUCUMCARI? It’s in New Mexico between Amarillo and Albuquerque on the main highway I40 which runs east-west across the United States. The highway was originally Route 66, made famous in John Steinbeck’s book called The Grapes of Wrath. The 1940 movie starred Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, an ex-convict on parole who with his family escaped the bank foreclosures during the Great Depression by fleeing to California. It was where the term “Okie” came from.
In 1972, I came to the USA and worked in Los Alamos. In 1973, I Moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to teach at Oral Roberts University.… More “Stuck in Tucumcari”
WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • Fish Creek beach. • A little like heaven. • Tragedy at Independence, Kansas. • The process of pain. • Any good purpose for the trials of life?
Fish Creek, Wisconsin is a tiny village pregnant with tourists in Door County – a finger of land that sticks out into Lake Michigan about a hundred miles north of Chicago.
FISH CREEK BEACH. I’m typing up my thoughts on my deck at 3 pm. Across the road is a beach. It’s not a man’s beach like in Australia with enormous waves crashing on miles of golden sand, and tanned surfer-hunks on the watch for rip tides. Fish Creek beach is only 75 yards long, with lawn not sand, and of course the water is fresh lake water not salt.… More “Fish Creek, Wisconsin.”
WHATS IN THIS BLOG: • Is the Shroud of Turin an image of Jesus? • How did the Shroud get from Israel to Turin? • How was the image formed? • What about carbon dating? • Conclusion.
PHILLIP WIEBE IS A FRIEND FROM CANADA. Phillip and his wife, Shirley, helped me make copies of my Ph D thesis while we both were studying at the University of Adelaide. A Professor of Philosophy with a Ph D, he is currently Human Research Ethics Co-Chair at Trinity Western University.
Phillip is also co-director of a very interesting club: the Vancouver Shroud Association. This club meets regularly to discuss the latest findings about the Shroud of Turin. Phillip has meticulously collected reports written about the Shroud, especially the results of scientific studies.… More “The Shroud of Turin, Part 1”