Christmas Proposal

On Christmas, I proposed to my girlfriend of nearly three years and she accepted!

I had been planning on this for about a month, had the ring since the first week of December and only my parents and her parents knew about it until it was actually happening.  Here is the story of how it all went down.

I asked permission from her parents when I went out to breakfast with them last Wednesday.  When I had received their blessing, I told them my plan to send Kelsie on a scavenger hunt at the end of the Christmas present unwrapping. They were very good in helping me set that up.

Sunday morning, I was all a jitter.  It wasn't that I was in doubt as to how she would answer: this was a question I wasn't going to ask unless I already knew the answer.  But the family had voted to give gifts after church, in the afternoon, so I had a lot of anticipation to get through.  And in Kelsie's family each person unwraps one gift while everyone else watches... one... gift... at a time.   With 13 people, I was controlling a minor heart attack after 2 hours of cordial gift-giving.

Finally, Kelsie's dad presented her with a gift wrapped note card that I had prepared to send her on a scavenger hunt.  (At this point it must be noted that I was a good little Boy Scout and actually had two scavenger hunts prepared in case of rain).  I had accidentally given then "rain-check" version to Kelsie and I had to quickly switch it out.

With that done, I ran off while Kelsie read through the clues: each rhyming quatrains that led her through her house and some memories we have there, finally ending at a neighborhood park that has a dock extending out into a large lake.  At the end of that dock, I was waiting under a gazebo.

Kelsie approached and I walked to her, giving her a hug and getting down on one knee.  She of course said yes and we hugged and cried a bit and her family soon arrived in the park and took all sorts of pictures (some of which you can see below!)

Kelsie and I at the end of the dock

 The ring!  The center diamond was my mother's engagement ring.

Us, excited at the park; the dock and gazebo in the background.













We are not sure about the date or location of the ceremony yet, but we will figure that out soon.

Movies Watched

2011

Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit (John Wayne)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Thunderball
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Hombre
Thin Red Line
The Living Daylights
This is Spinal Tap
How to Train Your Dragon
Lethal Weapon III
13 Assassins
Red
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The Sixth Sense
True Grit
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Cars
X-Men: First Class
The Other Guys
Salt
El Dorado
Dirty Harry
Easy A
Gran Torino
The Reader
Field of Dreams
Heartbreak Ridge
Legends of the Fall
High Noon
Cool Hand Luke
The Fighter
The Last King of Scotland
2001: A Space Odyssey
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The King’s Speech
Jurassic Park 2
The Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Winchester ‘73
How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days
Tree of Life
The Man Who Knew Too Little
Tangled
Horton Hears a Who
The Paper Chase
Die Hard
The Family Man
How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Books Read

2011

Jan 3 - 20	The Importance of Being Foolish	Brennan Manning
Jan 5 - Feb 16	Helmet for My Pillow	Robert Leckie
Feb 18 - Mar 1	The Unlikely Disciple	Kevin Roose
Mar 5 - 22	Hiroshima	John Hersey
Mar 23 - 31	A Severe Mercy	Sheldon Vanauken
Apr 4 - 27	Swiss Family Robinson	Johann Wyss
Apr 6 - 18	Cultivating the Spirit	Alexander Astin
May 1 - 9	Peter Pan and Wendy	J. M. Barrie
May 15 - Jun 2	The Last of the Mohicans	James F. Cooper
May 31 - Jun 3	The Radical Disciple	John Stott
Jun 3 - Jun 5	Out of the Silent Planet	C. S. Lewis
Jun 6 - Jun 15	Perelandra	C. S. Lewis
Jun 16 - Jun 25	That Hideous Strength	C. S. Lewis
Jun 27 - Jul 12	Serving with Eyes Wide Open	David Livermore
Jun 27 - Jul 18	To Be Told	Dan Allender
Jul 19 - Jul 25	Treasure Island	Robert L. Stevenson
Jul 25 - Aug 31	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea	Jules Verne
Jul 26 - Aug 8	The Poisonwood Bible	Barbara Kingsolver
Aug 13 - Oct 18	The Fellowship of the Ring (read aloud to Kelsie)	J.R.R. Tolkien
Aug 30 - Oct 16	The Celebration of Discipline	Richard Foster
Aug 31 - Oct 17	Desiring the Kingdom	James K. A. Smith
Sept 5 - Nov 21	Wild Blue	Stephen Ambrose
Sept 27 - Nov 15	The Courage to Teach	Parker Palmer
Sept 28 - Nov 11	Humility	C.J. Maheny
Oct 20 - Nov 17	Cultivating the Spirit	Alexander Astin
Oct 22 -	The Two Towers (read aloud to Kelsie)	J.R.R. Tolkien
Nov 6 - Nov 10	Heaven is for Real	Todd Burpo
Nov 10 - Dec 8	Souls in Transition	Christian Smith
Dec 4 - Dec 10	Culture Shock! Ecuador	Nicholas Crowder
Dec 10 - Dec 20	War Child	Emmanuel Jal
Dec 21 -	Compassion	Henri Nouwen

Year End Lists

The next few blogs are going to be lists of what I've done this year: a compacted form since I do not blog often.  But I followed the example of my friend Josiah this year and wrote down what books I've read and movies I've watched. It's been an interesting practice to see how much time I've spent on some things and how the titles of the books and movies can reveal what's important to me.

We read a book for my grad program this semester called Desiring the Kingdom by James K.A. Smith. A major premise of the book was that our actions form habits which shape our lives and reveal what our vision of the good life is.  So hopefully through these few lists you can see a glimpse of what the liturgies were in my life this year.

To tie it all together I might finish with some sort of tying-it-up thoughts, but seeing the frequency of my posts this year, it's doubtful.  Especially because I am gearing up for a missions trip to Ecuador which you can follow on my missions blog next month. 

Sportz! Or "Why I Love the Tour de France"

I  have watched the Tour de France for a number of years now, ever since Lance started winning like crazy.  While I've never really been huge into any sport and I definitely don't follow cycling outside of its biggest tour, each July I've enjoyed following the peloton through the Pyrenees and Alps to the Champs Elysees.

What sets it apart from other sports for me includes a number of things from the commentary, the surroundings, and the mindsets of the athletes.  So I thought I'd compile my top ten list of why the TdF is better than football, basketball, or soccer.*

10. I enjoy bicycle riding myself, so it's actually fun to see the pros go at it and enjoy it (probably more than I do).
9. It's a long term "game" that requires patience to follow and lots of thinking ahead.  As a three week race of over 2,000 miles, it's like the Lawrence of Arabia of sports.
8. The camera work that follows the race should win some cinematographic awards.  The helicopter cam is one of the best and is great at highlighting both the beauty of the countryside, the road, and the pack of riders. During one of the earlier stages this year, I found myself looking at the top of a church steeple with an angel on top.  This one.  Below, the peloton charged into view and the helicopter slowly circled the angel atop the spire for nearly three minutes as the riders wound their way into, through, and out of the small town.  Fantastic.
7.  History.  I love history and they're always cutting away to some battlefield or landmark that has significance from the 11th Century, French Revolution, or WWII.
6. The French country side.  I've been to France and I still haven't seen as many chateaus (like this one from today's stage), Pyrenees, or Alps that they show us during the tour.  Then there's that classic shot of the riders pedaling through the field of sunflowers.
5. The sheer athleticism.  I ride my bike to work most days, about 21 miles round trip.  It's kinda tiring.  These guys do between 120 and 200 miles each day.  And they're going way faster than me.  The sprinters ride all that for the whole day and still manage to charge the finish line at up to 40 mph.  Incredible.
4. They climb mountains on bicycles.  Yes.
3. The commentary is fantastic and hilarious.  Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen are these British former cyclists who know the sport and strategy and are great at cluing us into what the riders are thinking and planning.  They also say ridiculous things because they are British. "The peloton are just letting the breakaway fry in the the saucepan of the afternoon day sun before they reel them back in!" "We're watching these riders absolutely haul their carcasses up this mountain!"
2. The stats and the different races.  It's not just who gets to Paris first.  The sprinters competition to see who can get highest points on the flat stages and the King of the Mountains (self explanatory) keep things interesting as you continue to root for someone to maintain the yellow jersey.
1. The team mindset, the self sacrificial acts, and "professional gentlemanry" are things that do not have this kind of presence in any other sport.  Each team has a leader who is going for an overall win in Paris, some have sprinters and some have climbers.  Depending on what's going on that stage, most of the riders are there to not help themselves, but to help their leader.  There are riders on the team who are the exact same size and shape as the team leader so that they can give their bike to him in the event of a mechanical breakdown. These guys ride in the front and take the wind so that the leader can be fresh to beat his rivals when the time comes.  The lead out the sprinters right up to the line and sometimes carry multiple gallons of water just so someone "more important" can save energy.  Some guys can absolutely destroy their own chances to be able to ride the next day in an effort to make it easier on their leader.  What sport has such selflessness?   Even rivals are good about respecting each other- when Lance Armstrong was brought to the pavement by a careless spectator, his rival, Jan Ullrich stopped and waited for him and ended up ultimately losing.  But he recognized that that foolish spectator wasn't really a part of the game unlike in other sports.

There's more I'm sure.  But it's on Versus this month at 8am (if you want the awesome British commentators). At least watch the last 20 km around 11am.  It's usually pretty intense.


*You can hate me later.

I'm going to Russia

Again- the blogging action is not currently happening here.  I'm leading a Taylor World Outreach Spring Break trip to Russia next week.  I've been chronicling the preparations on my missions blog and hopefully will be able to transcribe some journals afterwards. Check it out: gollerinmissions.blogspot.com 

Book Review: The Unlikely Disciple

Being a student of Christian higher education and personally very curious about how people of other worldviews think and operate, I decided to pick up The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose.  In short, it is the recounting of a semester in his sophomore year when he went from Brown University (described as a liberal bastion) to Jerry Falwell's Liberty University (a real haven of ultra-conservative Christianity).  What makes this book so interesting to me is the similarities between the Christian education at Liberty and the one I received and am working in at Taylor.  I would, of course, say that there are vast differences between LU and TU, but from the eyes of a non-Christian student from Brown, it makes for an eye-opening experience of some very similar things.  Also, Roose is the same age as me.  I was a sophomore as well when he engaged in this experience.

The first thing that I appreciate about Roose is his open-mindedness.  He enters into Liberty pretending to be a Christian but encounters some very alien worldviews.  But instead of shutting down and spouting typical rhetoric that is used to combat it in the political arena he is constantly giving it a chance and waiting to see what his peers at LU really think of truth.  One example that is very hard for Roose is his class on "The History of Life".  The class is housed in neither the history nor Bible department because it is a class that teaches the student how to defend young earth creationism and thus is more in the old style of rhetoric or philosophy.  This certain class really bothers the author and he spends much of his time compartmentalizing his secular thoughts so as to not go crazy but he remains willing to be taught and I appreciate that.

Another thing that strikes me about Roose's experience is how worried his family is for him.  They way his parents and friends exhibit concern would be similar if I were to suddenly become a fan of Charles Manson or decide to spend four months in war-torn Africa (wait, I've done that last one).  His parents are legitimately afraid of him becoming indoctrinated by the school of the man who blamed 9/11 on liberal behavior like homosexuality.  His lesbian aunts are aghast that he would spend time among the people who have caused their community such great hurt.

In fact, the homosexuality issue is a big one in the book.  Roose has some gay friends back at Brown and doesn't personally see anything wrong with it.  As he learns more about the Bible and Christianity he admits that he sees a disconnect with the lifestyle and morality, but he is even more appalled at the flagrant and often profane homophobia that he sees on Liberty's campus.  The hate he sees and hears directed at homosexuals is his greatest stumbling block because the love that his Christian peers preach and often seem to ooze is nowhere to be seen when it comes to interacting with those with whom they disagree.

Despite his strong resistance to the social issues promoted on campus, Roose becomes surprisingly open to Christian theology.  At one point, he admits his ability to give intellectual assent to Christ's death and Resurrection.  He sees a bona fide difference between his Liberty friends and his Brown friends and he labels this (through his careful observation) as something spiritual.  He has a hallmate who invites him to prayer most nights and as he gets into the idea of becoming concerned for one another's issues and giving that concern to a higher being, Roose finds himself suddenly growing in spiritual maturity.

I don't want to spoil too much more for you, but it is so interesting to watch him wrestle with the ideological differences, to get around prejudices, and to embrace a well thought out view of people so different from him.  His interview with Jerry Falwell (weeks before Falwell's death) shows how he is able to humanize a man that he and many of his friends have seen as a terrible influence in politics.

I recommend this book for anyone in Christian higher education (whether working or studying in it) for it's ability to see our worldview with an honest outside opinion that will cause you to check some of your own prejudices when thinking about your own ideological opponents.