A Prayer of Faith

Milosevic Died in his prison cell recently, reminding us of the terrible
Balkan Wars that took place in the 1990’s. And then again… did it? I mean,
did we know about it in the first place? I don’t know about you but I was
busy during the 90’s finishing my biology degree, serving a mission,
traveling (to much more desirable places than the Balkans), dating boys, and
eventually getting married. In the near future I’ll be turning 31 and in
the advent I’m temporarily turning into one of those older people who talk
about their life in decades.

I currently live in Albania and although Albania itself was not technically
involved in the war, ethnic Albanians in Kosovo were. I’ve been traveling
through Montenegro (of Serbia and Montenegro), and Croatia who were both
involved in this terrible war marked by ethnic cleansing. Thousands of
people were killed because of their ethnicity regardless of sex or age.
Civilians turned into murderers killing or turning their neighbors into
refugees. It was a terrible civil war.

I, however, was studying for Chemistry Exams, planning my Friday nights, and
shopping at thrift stores. Friends didn’t want to talk about war. We
wanted to talk about music. We were interested in internationally traveling
but not international crises. Will it be the same for people who are in
their twenties now? Will they look back to their twenties and realize they
had no idea what was really going on in Iraq when Sadam Hussain dies in ten
years in his prison cell? Is “twenty-something” getting life in order and
is “thirty-something” a ticket beyond our county borders? Or is it just me?

When dancing with doubt, it’s important to remember that the gate swings both ways. Sure commiseration feels good, and *nothing* fees quite like having your own feelings validated by seeing them articulated by someone outside yourself, not chocolate, not sex (the very crux of blogging’s draw, if you ask me). You might even find someone who tripped along the same path where you find yourself caught and pick up their breadcrumb trail. You also might inadvertently snag someone else and land them in your quandary. Make sure you leave a trail of your own breadcrumbs for them to follow out.

Sure, as you pass through the trail you might pick up a few stragglers and be able to help guide them out having found some crumbs that they missed. You might also leave some stragglers from your own party you brought with you. As on any wilderness trail you might hike, ‘pack it in, pack it out.’ Be true, be honest, leave no crumb unshared. Where two worlds meet with nothing but free agency between them, never forget that the gates swing both ways. Make sure you’re not holding the gate open for someone hitting the trail unprepared.

If it’s your hand that’s on the gate as they pass through, it’s your head their loss is on if they don’t make it back.

I’m not sure how widespread the practice of dumpster diving is, but at the university I
went to it was a annual tradition. The residence hall board would demand that students be completely moved out within 24 hours of their last final exam. Families with more money than time would throw away tons of stuff rather than spend the time loading it into their car and moving it. If you had good timing and no scruples you could make off with some really great stuff. One of my friends found an official university sweatshirt with the tags still on it, someone else I know found a fully functional Dell computer. After I got married, and was no longer one of the kids being kicked out of the dorms, I was able to participate in the trash-laden frivolities. We found a whiteboard, a metal shower basket, a textbook on natural disasters, a few crt monitors, a half-used box of garbage bags, a trundle bed and a dollar bill. Read the rest of this entry »

An inveterate maker of charts and graphs am I. So I’ve created, for your reading pleasure, a Table of Books of Judeo-Christian Scripture. And I’ve posted it at Wikipedia, mankind’s second-greatest creation (after children).

You’ll be amused by the column headings, I assure you. Enjoy!

– The Editrix

Here, by request of the lovely Naiah, is my Prayer of Faith intro.

I’m a sixth-generation Latter-day Saint — though I wasn’t raised in the Church. My father’s been non-practicing since he was a teenager, and my mother’s not a member. My early exposure to Mormonism was being dropped off at Primary while my mom ran errands.

When I was a young teenager, a good bishop took an interest in my welfare, and persuaded me to participate in a temple trip. Found God, found the gospel, found my soul on that trip, and I’ve been solid ever since.

Put myself through college. Graduated BYU while pregnant with number three of seven. Lived in Asia most of my adult life. Acquired a few advanced college degrees and a good husband along the way.

I homeschool because I think institutionalizing innocent children is evil.

I’m an ecumenicalist and an unabashed Judeophile.

Naiah’s profile description of me was perfect, so it stays. I’ve added a picture — pre-lasik — of me and my trusty spectacles.

Looking forward to reading the musings of my fellow Prayer of Faithers!

– The Editrix

Its difficult to identify myself with anything but feeling rotten right now. I’m pregnant and morning sick and my life revolves around adequate rest and my next mini-meal. But I’ll try and muster up some info here in an attempt to remember who I really am.

I currently live in Albania, which fulfills a lifelong desire to live overseas. I’ve also lived in Germany, Fiji, and I served a full time mission in the Dominican Republic. I have travel logs from Guatemala, Honduras, China, Indonesia, Australia, and Europe. I used to say to myself that I wouldn’t get married until my passport was full. I changed my mind when I met my husband who insisted we could do it better together.

As I live life overseas in a developing county, I encounter the challenges of raising kids in the church without aspects that I take for granted in the states, ie. no nursery, foriegn language, dysfunctional primary. I cherish my relationships with fellow Albanian members, however there are things I miss about my ward family back in the states. I turn to the bloggernacle for my personal fullfilment of gospel discussion in English.

I graduated from BYU with a degree in Biology Education. My Biology classes rocked at BYU. My professors did not shy away from what would otherwise be controversial topics in mormonism. I enjoy discussing ethics and evolution from an LDS persective, and add women’s issues to that and you’ll have yourself a real chatterbox.

I currently teach part time pre-Algebra, Algebra, and Music at my daughter’s international school. I enjoy working while both my children are in pre-school, but I find that for some reason I still have to explain/make excuses to fellow mormons why I’m not a 100% SAHM.

I’m really mediocre at piano, guitar, violin, and voice. My husband and I have fun writing mediocre music together. We have an extensive CD/MP3 collection (and can’t help but take advantage of the pirated MP3’s here in Albania that have like 10 albums on one disc and cost three dollars…).

It’s great to be in your company, and I look forward to getting to know you all better.

Deciding to one-up Naiah’s distaste for writing bios, I outsourced this introductory post to a guy I trust (who also works cheap).

Asked to introduce my wife to an online audience, I’d like for her audience to know the following ten things about her:

Read the rest of this entry »

My sister once called me a ’stone-cold fox.’ I’m not sure where that came from, but I took it as a compliment, and got sort of attatched to the idea of being foxy (which means cunning first, and attractive second according to Webster’s Dictionary). Clever, is my favorite adjective, and everyone knows that foxes are clever. During my freshman year of college I switched from being an english major, to an astronomy major, hence the affinity for stars. So that’s where the name comes from, the rest of what I say is my own opinion of myself and may not be strictly objective. Read the rest of this entry »

A Prayer of Faith, a new group blog with a new voice coming soon.