New Guitar, Insights into life during Malaysia, Questioning Evangelism

a)
I wrote this in a draft a long time ago (like, November), but didn’t post it:

I got a new guitar (! Built-in pick-up, and its got a tiger-print going on haha. Pretty sweet, and it was less than 70 bucks Canadian. I named it Cyndi (not actually).

b)
Thoughts about Malaysia:

I) Yep, Lydia is right, Malaysian food is great. However…. I still think Chinese food is the best. Unlike what I said about the other foods, Malaysian food is Chinese-influenced, but manages to use it well. Good times.
II) Giraffes are sweet.
III) Monkeys are sweet.
IV) Rambo is awesome (he wasn’t in Malaysia, but I saw Rambo IV there)
V) Danny Sh***** is scared of snakes. (hahaha…. I just realized I can refer to him as Danny Sh**man, but I wasn’t sure if people would find that funny. Voice your disapproval, or that’s what I’m calling him in subsequent posts)

c)
Also wrote this a long time ago but didn’t post it:

This year my job is to do Evangelism. But what’s a real issue is that my heart is not as sensitive to God’s leading, or as full of compassion for the lost as it should be. So I definitely wanna learn more about evangelism and read encouraging and inspiring books about the topic.

So, I picked up Questioning Evangelism by Randy Newman. The guy’s a cru staff down in the States. It’s not my favourite book of all time, but it’s pretty easy to read and helpful. The big idea is that often what’s more effective in Evangelism is not what you say, but the questions you ask that get them thinking. I definitely wanna apply it to my personal witnessing.

Here’s a taste:

“You Christians drive me crazy.. you Christians just believe everything you read in the Bible with blind faith… I read this book by this guy who’s done a whole bunch of research on this. It wasn’t the Red Sea. It was the Reed Sea. The Reed Sea is only a few inches deep, and they could have waded through it without any miracle-of-God stuff.”

…

“So how would you translate Yam Suph?”

“Huh?”

“How do you translate that Hebrew phrase that most Hebrew scholars translate the ‘Red Sea’? I assume you’ve looked into this”

“Well, I just read the book.”

“Do you remember who wrote the book?”

“No”

“Do you remember what his credentials are?”

“No.”

“Well, something must have convinced you that this guy knew Hebrew better than the Christian and Jewish scholars who translate the phrase ‘Red Sea’. Something must have convinced you that he knew Hebrew well enough to think that Yam Suph referred to the Reed Sea instead of the Red Sea. What was it?”

…

“I don’t know?”

“You mean that you just believed what this guy wrote with blind faith?”

(116-118)

Haha.. So, I’d recommend the book. There’s a really good chapter on marriage (how to answer the question “What’s so great about Marriage?” with more questions) and lots of good food for thought. And although I gave you a pretty sarcastic excerpt, its quite sensitive and compassionate.