Returning from my Writing Cave

Well, for the past 45 days, I have been writing, writing, and oh yeah, writing a bit more.  Needless to say, it has been challenging to blog about such a topic.  At any rate if you would like to read a 25 page paper on one verse (2 Timothy 2:2), and/or if you would like to read the first [...]

Quick Update

As you can probably tell from my lack of posts the last couple of weeks, life has gotten quite intense around here.  For the months of Nov. and Dec. we are solely reading and writing…a ton! Unless something unusual happens, I won’t be blogging until after I see you at Christmas.  I hope you are able to [...]

What’s your Command Philosophy?

You may be thinking, “What’s a Command Philosophy?”  If you have been following my previous posts, you may recall that my leadership class is led by a former Drill Sergeant for the Marines, Dr. Russell West.  His entire approach to leading this class is called Reflexive Leadership.  He has one objective–to make us uncomfortable and to frustrate us in order to see [...]

Not your typical dinner conversation

Have you ever felt like a lightweight?  I’m not talking on the bathroom scale…I’m talking about when you spend time with a person and you just know that you are in the presence of a spiritual giant? Tonight we had Totok (pictured left–from Indonesia) and Upal (on right–from Sri Lanka) over for dinner.  As you know, I like to [...]

Bobblehead Brad Prayer

Sometimes we just get a little off track…

California Trip… Amazing Race Style

Can you guess where this picture was taken?  Note the background. For the first 11 days of October our cohort of 7 joined with 8 international students (they are going through this doctorate program over a five-year period–so they only come to the states once a year for 6 intense weeks each year) in an adventure throughout [...]

One of my Assignments

I have debated if I should post my class writings on this blog.  To this point my answer has been, “no chance,” mainly because I know that many of you are more proficient in writing and since I haven’t gotten my grades back from the first 3 classes, I don’t want 1,000 editors correcting my phrases and thus [...]

Hardships of life…A bigger Perspective

Warning:  This is not a pleasant post.  Stop reading if you want to stay in the dark regarding the extent that evil men are willing to go to gain wealth and power in this world. Last week, I had lunch with Aihia (pronounced A-I…He is pictured just in front of my left shoulder in the second row).  [...]

A Kentucky Greeting

Over the weekend we had the opportunity to return to Elkhorn and Stoner Creek United Methodist Churches to preach.  I served those two churches from 1998-2000.  They are wonderful people and will always be considered an extension of our family. This video is a greeting from Stoner Creek (quite ironic that I am now serving [...]

My 4 Days as Monk

For 4 days and 3 nights over Labor Day weekend, our cohort (which for the next 6 weeks includes additional international students from Germany, Ireland, Kenya, Ethiopia, India and S. Korea) visited the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, KY.   We were living in and among 40+ men who have taken the vows of celibacy, silence, solitude, and [...]