Well, it's been a good run with Xanga. Seriously, I've been blogging here since high school days which is a loooong time. However, I am now joining the mass exodus from Xanga to Wordpress. I probably would've been ok to hang around here awhile longer if it weren't for those annoying Google ads. In any case, I will still be commenting on Xanga ppl's sites so no worries there. The good things about Wordpress are that you can comment without starting an account there and also, the themes you can choose from are a lot more aesthetically pleasing. Oh ya, AND you can have a multi-page site. Ok, anyway, you can check out my new blog home HERE.
Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." - Luke 2:8-13
About seven hundred years before the birth of Christ:
For to us a child is born, to us a child is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. - Isaiah 9:6
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah (the town of David's birth), who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. - Micah 5:2
I made a really good salad today. I use the word "made" loosely because really I was putting together a bunch of things which I didn't make at all. But nonetheless, this salad was really tasty and I think you should make one like it too!
So this is what was in it: - organic spring mix salad (baby lettuces, chard, mizuna, jugular, frisee, radicchio -- i don't know what most of those are) - a bit of sliced red onion - sliced white mushrooms - chunks of fresh mozzarella - poppyseed dressing - dried cranberries - and . . . Sahale Snacks' Valdosta Pecans
Ok, seriously, those seasoned pecans (available at a Costco near you) are amazing! And you can totally eat them on their own. They're better than potato chips. I kid you not.
Does anyone else find those Google ads annoyingly obtrusive and conspicuous? Now I have been a Xanga user for seriously years now, but those ads, among other things, seem to justify the exodus from Xanga to other blog hosts . . . Not to mention, thanks to RSS feeds, I can still "subscribe" to Xanga blogs too without having to check my Xanga subscriptions. Ok just thoughts. Really, I don't have time to do anything about it right now.
Anyway, this past Sunday, some friends from church and I went to North Van to visit an Iranian church. There's something about being in a room of brothers and sisters in Christ who come from a country where Christians are routinely persecuted and imprisoned for their faith. It's humbling. You realize the privilege of having the freedom to worship Christ openly with significantly less restrictions and fears. (A month ago, I probably would have said "without" instead of "significantly less" but, after the recent shootings in Colorado, where two young people were killed at a YWAM training base and then, hours later, two sisters also killed at a church, I'm not sure if that would still be accurate.) Currently, Open Doors International ranks Iran as being number three of the top ten countries in the world where Christians face the most persecution, behind only Saudi Arabia and North Korea. Pastor Mehdi Dibaj, one of those who died in Iran for his faith in Christ, is reported as having said, "The Church in Iran is like a rose petal; the more you press it, the sweeter the perfume."
I have been privileged to meet a number of Iranian Christians and have heard many incredible testimonies of how they came to know Jesus Christ as Saviour. If the cost to follow Christ is as high as it is in Iran, then you can be sure that when a person there decides to follow Christ, it is no small decision and he is confident in the One in whom he is placing his trust. I could introduce you to a man who was addicted to opium for over a decade. After fleeing Iran as a refugee, this man's life was changed by Jesus in a very powerful way, so much so that when his parents came to visit him in Thailand, they could not believe that he was their son. His father exclaimed, "The God who changed you is the God I want to follow!" When his old friends, all opium and drug users, saw him, they too could hardly believe it when he said, "I don't use drugs anymore. I don't have any need for them."
Below is a worship song in Farsi that I like which you can listen to on YouTube.
Here is my rough translation:
Great / highly exalted is your name, Jesus Glory to your name, Jesus Power belongs to you, Jesus We praise your holy name, Jesus
Halleluja, halleluja Halleluja, halleluja Halleluja, halleluja We praise your holy name, Jesus
Yes, this update is primarily a means of procrastination. But that's ok. I was reading this article, "Lower Mainland language, cultural shifts," in the Tri-City News. Here are some interesting statistics found in that article from the 2006 census for Metro Vancouver:
- 56.7% of the region's residents say English is their mother tongue; down from 64.2% in 1996.
- total proportion of foreign-born residents in Metro Vancouver rose to 40% -- second only to Toronto (46%) in all of North America
- Richmond has Canada's largest proportion of foreign-born residents at 57.4%
- more than 25% of Metro Vancouver residents now speak a language other than English or French at home most of the time
Some numbers Local cities with highest % of foreign-born: 1. Richmond - 57.4% 2. Burnaby - 50.8% 3. Vancouver - 45.6% 4. Coquitlam - 39.4% 5. North Vancouver - 36.5%
Birthplaces of Metro Vancouver's most recent immigrants: 1. China 2. India 3. Philippines 4. South Korea 5. Taiwan 6. Iran 7. United States 8. U.K. 9. Hong Kong 10. Russia
Tung Chan, CEO of SUCCESS, an immigrant services organization says, "Canada should be very happy and proud to see that we are a microcosm of the world."
For those of us that have grown up here, the multiculturalism of Vancouver isn't necessarily new, but it's still fascinating. I think it is.
