10 things this missionary MUST do on furlough

When people find out we’ve been in Tanzania 2 1/2 years without visiting the U.S. — and that we plan on living here a total of at least 10 years — the first thing they say is this:

Wow!  That must be hard.
What do you miss the most?

What do I miss the most?  That’s an extremely difficult question to answer.  It’s like asking a father which of his kids he loves the most.  The answer is all of them.

But the two questions are not exactly the same, mind you, because I’ve not sired much of anything you’ll see in this list.  Nor do I miss everything about the states.  But I do miss a lot.  That’s why I’ve made this top ten list.  

brett’s morning blend (16nov10)

Cones & Holes

The Pharisees built fences around the Torah.  They then required others to acknowledge and live by their fences.  Shaun Groves describes all this with cones and holes, and it makes for a great illustration.

Lose 27 Pounds Eating Twinkies

I’m no nutrition expert, and I don’t pretend to be.  But having finished a few triathlons in my life — and not being overweight at 33 with a kid — I occasionally get questions about exercise and losing weight.  The simple formula I use is a common sense one.  If you’re steady at one weight now, exercise more or eat less — or both.  Be concerned with your total energy in (you don’t have to actually count the calories) and your total energy out.  If you burn more calories than you eat, you lose weight.  And that same common sense approach says, if you want to feel good, don’t get the bulk of your calories from chocolate-covered french fries.  I don’t worry a great deal about what I eat, but if I’m trying to drop weight for a race I eat slightly smaller portions.  I don’t worry about when I eat foods — none of this “no food after 6pm” stuff for me.  [And remember weight itself isn't what you really care about; nope, that's size.  Muscle weighs more, but looks a whole lot better.]

We like to make things so complicated.  This guy lost 27 pounds eating only foods from a convenience store.  I love that.

My Brother’s Graduation Fall

There are three guys from Harding staying with Christie and I right now, and we’re also holding one of their professors for ransom.  As usually happens, I mention to people from Harding that my brother graduated from there.  They ask his name; I say Brian Harrison.  They want to know which one.  And I say the really crazy one.  This is the day my brother graduated:

Cam Newton on ESPN — by Chad Gibbs

For those of you who enjoy football and don’t read Chad Gibbs, you should head over to his blog for a look see.  He’s got a book that I’ve not read (apparently it’s not for sale in Africa) — God and Football: Faith and Fanaticism in the SEC.