THE POPE CLAIMS THE DISCOVERY OF THE BONES OF THE APOSTLE PAUL
AFGHANISTAN: WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR?
As I have written several times before, I am not in favor of President Obama’s esculation of the war in Afghanistan/Pakistan. He is about to send in more troops, and for what?. The central question is: what are we fighting for? What are we attempting to accomplish? I will write in more detail why I resist the direction the US is taking later.
FACT: Afghanistan supplies more than 90 percent of the world’s heroin, and the drug trade is estimated to account for about half of Afghanistan’s economy. The United Nations estimates that in 2007, the Taliban made as much as $300 million from the opium trade.
US NEW POLICY: Stop attempting to eradicate the opium fields. In the end, it is a Taliban victory, and we have simply accepted defeat. Like much of what we are trying to do in Afghanistan, long-term success is slight to none.
ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION & THE HEALTH CARE DEBATE
I was just in the Ukraine, and I was deeply stuck by the pervasive public drinking (at all times, by all ages, with no visible restrictions) and alcoholism in the country. It began me thinking about “functional population” numbers. Although the Ukraine has a population of 5 million or so, the “functional or productive population” of the Ukraine was certainly much less. As a result, its future is not very promising, especially as Russia continues to extend its influence westward.
As President Obama and the Congress debates health care reform, I doubt whether “alcohol consumption” in the United States will take front stage, even though it should according to a recent major study.
Although the majority of the world’s population does not drink (45% of men and 66% of women worldwide), and moderate drinking may help protect against some chronic diseases, the fact is alcohol’s net effect on health around the world is profoundly. Heavy drinking has a wide range of serious detrimental effects. The study has calculated that 3.8% of global mortality can be attributed to drinking. The study shows that alcohol consumption is a major risk factor for burden of disease. Alcohol is linked to many disease categories. The researchers added that the worst effects seem to be in developing countries.
As I witnessed in the Ukraine, pervasive and heavy drinking has a detrimental economic effect on a nation. In the U.S., they estimated a total impact of $234 billion, about 13% of which were direct healthcare costs. Productivity losses were the largest cost category, totaling $170 billion. The researchers said costs associated with drinking accounted for 2.7% of U.S. gross domestic product.
The researchers identified drinking as “one of the most pressing public health problems in the world.” These facts concerning the regular and heavy drinking of alcohol should be a key component concerning health care in America.
One in 25 deaths across the world are linked to alcohol consumption (4% of world’s death)
THE RISE OF TURKEY OVER THE NEXT CENTURY
George Friedman founder of StratFor predicts the rise of Turkey over the next century.
SEEING IRAN AS IT REALLY IS
I met with an Iranian believer in the Ukraine tonight, and I asked him about the present protests in Iran. His answer: “The best thing about the protest is that it reveals to Americans the real face of the Iranian people, and that Iran should not be defined by the Islamic cleric-dictators.” I fully agree. For example, it is estimated that there are a few million Iranian believers in the underground church throughout Iran. The Iranian churches are also growing in Turkey. In fact, in the near future, the next great mission movement through the Middle East could be from Iranians.
MBAs WITHOUT BORDERS
MBAs Without Borders is another avenue for global engagement.
NEW ACROPOLIS MUSEUM OPENS IN GREECE
Greece’s long-awaited acropolis mueuem has opened.
ENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro declared that domestic violence is “especially evil.” She states that surveys from around the world show that half of the women who die from homicides are killed by their current or former husbands or partners.
PUTTING PRESIDENT OBAMA’S DEFICIT SPENDING IN PERSPECTIVE
I am not among those who desire to scrap the United Nations. Although certainly flawed and limited by its Charter, I am one who acknowledges the many good (and bad) initiatives of the U.N. To help put the enormous 2009 projected deficit spending of President Obama in perspective, the entire 2008-2009 budget of the U.N. is only 4.171 billion dollars (peacekeeping operations not included) compared to President Obama’s deficit spending of one trillion dollars.
BACK IN KIEV
Sarah Grace (my youngest daughter) and I are back in Kiev after participating in a two-week ministry camp at an orphanage in a village located in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine. A moving time of ministry. Tonight was a father/daugher date night as we went to the Kiev Opera House to see a fantastic ballet performance, including live orchestra. I mean good. Blessed all around. We fly back to Arizona on Monday (22nd).
OVER ONE BILLION PEOPLE FACE STARVATION
According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, the number of people on the brink of starvation is set to reach a record high of 1.02 billion – or one-sixth of the global population – in 2009.
U.S. PAYING COUNTRIES TO TAKE TERRORISTS
In order to shut down Gitmo, the U.S. government is going to spend more of taxpayer money to get countries to take terrorists. Apparently, Palau is a case in point. BTW, my father was one of the marines in WWII that took the island of Palau.
Palau’s decision appeared to be linked to a US offer of $200 million in “development and budget aid”, but it was not clear whether Bermuda had been offered a similar amount.
OFFLINE IN UKRAINE
I have been offline for approximately a week now. My daughter Sarah Grace (just graduated from high school) and I are participating in putting on a Christian camp at an orphanage in southern Ukraine (a village near Kherson close to the Black Sea). After a few days in Kiev, we took a 10-hour overnight train trip to Kherson. There were some 50 people sleeping in the same train car, no air, no windows to open, several drunk dudes, and smells impossible to explain. Our ministry team of 15 is living in a very small village house, with no shower (buckets of water) and a outhouse.
I developed these 10 guidelines for using an outhouse:
1 - Wait until you really, really need to go so that your stay will be quick. An outhouse is not the place for long meditations, magazine reading, or sitting and doing your to-do list.
2 - Keep nose plugged at all times. One mistake, one whif could leave you unconscious for a couple of hours until someone finds you.
3 - Never look down into the hole. I mean not only could you go blind, you will experience bad dreams that night guarenteed.
4 - Enter with an attitude of gratefullness.
5 - Only think pleasant thoughts during your stay. You know, blue skies, roses, and that kind of stuff.
6 - Don’t drop your only roll of American toilet paper down the hole (which I did, and then I retrieved it. Don’t ever try this yourself unless you have very long arms, extremely desperate, and many years a world traveler).
7 - Do what you need to do during daytime, nightime is dangerous.
8 - When squatting make sure you are well balanced. If your older, being balanced does not mean you will be able to get up, however.
9 - When finished, get out! Don’t attempt to admire your work. Realize from the beginning that it will not be a piece of art.
10 - When first opening the outhouse door, take the position of a ready-run pause before entering to make sure no other animals or big insects have moved in.
I took another overnight train trip back to Kiev last night to discuss with a large ministry their vision to extend their service into Turkey. Friday night I will take another 10-hour overnighter back to the village and continue ministering at the orphanage. Interacting and ministering with orphans has been a deep moving experience, my first time.
Sarah and I will be returning to Arizona on June 22nd. Please keep us in prayer that God will do a deep work within our hearts and his kingdom of love will be experienced by our kids.
MITT ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT IN 2012
Now that Obama is committing an economic disaster at the speed of light, at this early stage I am leaning toward Mitt Romney for president in 2012. He has seasoned, economic knowledge, able to stand up to Obama in debates, and has first-hand understanding of the car industry.
EUROPEAN UNION TO BAN CANADA’S SEAL PRODUCTS
In response to EU’s upcoming ban on seal products, Canadian governor eats raw seal heart.
AFRICA’S NEED FOR NEW LEADERS
Regardless of your overall view of president Obama, Wangari Maathai’s article “Where are Africa’s Obamas?” speaks loudly for the desperate need for new leaders in Africa.
FRANCE OPENS MILITARY BASE IN GULF
France opens its first new military base overseas in 50 years located in the United Arab Emirates (state of Abu Dhabi).
NEW MONGOLIAN PRESIDENT
A Harvard-educated leader of the Democratic Party has become the new president in Mongolia. Mongolia (pop. 3 million) emerged in 1990 from more than 70 years of Communist rule. However, more than one-third of its citizens still live below the poverty line. The average income last year was about $1,700.
OUR WORLD - GREENLAND
On June 21, Greenland (population 56,000) will become a self-governing country after approximately 300 years under the rule of Denmark.
ELLEN DEGENERES TULANE COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
Parents need to think twice about sending their children to America’s historically top universities. Case in point, comedian and lesbian Ellen DeGeneres was the 2009 keynote speaker at the Tulane University Commencement.
MISSIOLOGIST RALPH WINTER DIES
Dr. Ralph Winter, one of the great missiologists of our day and the founder of the Center for World Missions recently died. He will enter the glory of God and celebrate with the saints from many people groups from around the world.
POPE ON FACEBOOK
A new Vatican website, www.pope2you.net, has gone live. The Pope meets you on Facebook, and another allowing the faithful to see the Pope’s speeches and messages on their iPhones or iPods.
HOW TO LOVE OTHERS
God is love. God loves every person as if they were the only person on earth. The problem is not with God, it is humans lack of love. We so often put conditions on our love toward others. If we like them, we will love them, and if we don’t life them, we will not love them. Thomas Merton’s quote below is some good practical advice in love:
“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.“
THE EMERGING CLIMATE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
The “Green Gospel” against climate change is leading the emergence of the future “climate industrial complex.”
“Some business leaders are cozying up with politicians and scientists to demand swift, drastic action on global warming. This is a new twist on a very old practice: companies using public policy to line their own pockets.”
“The tight relationship between the groups echoes the relationship among weapons makers, researchers and the U.S. military during the Cold War. President Dwight Eisenhower famously warned about the might of the “military-industrial complex,” cautioning that “the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” He worried that “there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties.”
MEDICAL MISSIONS - PACKED WITH LOVE
The Catholic Medical Mission Board has recently launched a new campaign at www.PackedWithLove.org. You can put your name on a shipment of medical supplies that will be sent to people in need around the world. Check it out. Last year, CMMB provided nearly $190 million worth of medical supplies — free of charge to developing countries around the world.
OBAMA’S FIRST AFRICAN VISIT
President Obama will bypass Kenya (his father’s homeland) and Nigeria (the largest African nation) and will visit Ghana in his first presidential trip to Africa.
CHRISTIANS LIVING IN BASIC NEED
By 2025 70% of all Christians will lack access to basic needs of food, water, shelter and medical care (Source: www.GlobalChristianity.org).
OBAMA SENDS MORMON REPUBLICAN TO CHINA
President Obama has appointed Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. as ambassordor to China.
OBAMA TO SPEAK TO THE ISLAMIC WORLD
President Obama plans to address the Islamic world from Egypt in June. Depending on the content of the message - location is excellent - it can hopefully be a positive step in relationship with Muslims. In his speech, he must clearly deal with the ideology of Islam terrorism, the Jihad declared against America, religious freedom in Islamic nations, and the ongoing persecution of Christians in Islamic nations.
If Obama does not deal with real issues in his speech then it will be nothing more than a show-op that will end with many Muslims loving Obama, and still hating America, human rights, and religious freedom.
THE FUTURE OF MONASTERY OF SAINT GABRIEL
In a remote village near Midyat, South East Turkey, a land dispute with neighboring villages is threatening the future of Mor Gabriel, one of the World’s oldest Christian monasteries, also known as the monastery of St. Gabriel, a property of the Syrian Orthodox Church (Suryani).
Dr. Andrew Jackson's New Book on Mormonism