Latest Sports Entertainment

OK, I admit it. I'm stuck on watching professional poker tournaments. And yes, I even have my favorite players: Daniel Negraneau (my personal all time favorite cause he's so fun to watch), Scotty Nguyen, Annie Duke, John Juanda, and Doyle Brunson (gotta love the ones who have been around for a while) among others. My friend Velvia likes Phil Ivey, and he's OK; but when it comes to entertaining poker, I like Phil Gordon best of all the Phil's.

If you want to see what it's all about there are several websites: Full Contact Poker, Full Tilt, Party Poker, World Series of Poker, etc...

I like the strategy of it, that and it's just fun to watch these people try to figure each other out. I've always liked people watching, and this is just a new twist on it.

Exotic travel destinations revisited

Well, my trip to the DRC is back on for the end of January. Instead of putting the text of my new support letter in this blog, I have uploaded it to my website. You can see it at http://cjellis.tripod.com/FEFC/Congo_Support_Letter.htm

If you want more info on the trip, feel free to e-mail me at cjellis66@yahoo.com

Holding Pattern over the DRC

The long and short of it is that my mission trip is being postponed.

Africa is an often unpredictable place. Once again we are seeing this unfold before our eyes. In the past month the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has seen the first truly democratic elections in 40 years. The current President Joseph Kabila and Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba will face each other in a run-off election scheduled for October 29.

Unfortunately, since the final vote totals were announced there have been daily gun battles in the capital city of Kinshasa between forces loyal to each of the two candidates. Tensions are rising as the conflicts continue. Given past experience, it is quite likely that Congo will continue to be very unstable in the weeks and months to come. As you can see this is a very serious situation. Please pray for the brothers and sisters in the Congo Free Church, and for all the people of this war torn country during these difficult times.

The Evangelical Free Church of America International Missions (EFCAIM) office has been monitoring the situation closely and has been in contact with the President of the Congo Free Church. A couple weeks ago President Selenga sent an e-mail to the EFCAIM office requesting that we NOT bring a team of Americans to the DRC in late October and early November due to significant security issues. This means the Congo Vision Trip must be postponed until a later time when the security issues have eased and a new government is in place. At this time there are no specific dates in mind as it will be dependent upon the resolution of the current political conflicts. We hope to be able to go some time in early 2007. It is my intention to still be a part of the team when the trip is rescheduled. I’ll let you know when it happens.

Exotic Travel Destinations

OK, so last fall my travel destination was Israel. It was a dream trip. This year's destination is the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The continent isn't the only difference in the trip. It's not a vacation, but a missions trip. Part of my time will be spent working at a hospital in Tandala - which is in the Ubangi Province (NW part of the country.) I gotta admit that it's pretty well out of my comfort zone, but that's OK. God is going to a lot of trouble (at least by our standards) to get me on this trip, so who am I to argue.

The Tandala hospital is a 180 bed general hospital. It has its own nursing school with an emphasis on public health, Aids, and caring for the needs of a huge population base. There are two full time Congolese physicians leading the ministry. However, workers are needed in almost every area for short or long periods of time.

The Evangelical Free Church of America International Ministries has organized a Missions Vision Trip to the DRC from October 18th thru November 5th. As part of the team for this trip I will get to visit the Tandala hospital and spend a few days working there. This will help me get a better idea of what their needs are and how we could possibly partner with them in ministry.

[insert shameless plug here - it's my blog, I can do that...]
Because this is a missions trip, I'm raising support to cover the costs of the trip, which is about $3,000. This will cover airfare, meals, lodging and other group travel. I will be responsible for my own incidentals and any personal things I may wish to buy. If God leads you to support me financially, your check should be made out to “FEFC”. On the memo line put “Congo Vision Trip-Cindy Ellis”. The donation will be tax deductible. If you want a receipt for tax purposes, please let FEFC office know when you send the check. You can send the check to FEFC at:

FEFC Missions
4220 Monterey Oaks Blvd
Austin, TX 78749

If you want to be on my prayer support team, just e-mail me and I'll add you to my list.

Been getting the first round of immunizations. Not fun either but necessary. I go back in September for round 2. The Austin Diagnotic Clinic's Travel Clinic at the North Austin Medical Center is very good and thorough when it comes to determining what immunizations are needed. Some of them still make me sick, but I think I'm done with those. Don't expect side affects from the ones I still need.

I'll be posting more (and more frequently) about the trip and what I learn.

Delusional 'preachers'

OK, so I did a commentary titled Don't Disrespect the Military on Voice in the Wilderness about the followers of Fred Phelps and their protests at military funerals. However, I'm just as upset about the religious aspects of his so-called 'ministry'. Personally, I would call Westboro Baptist Church a cult instead of a church.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a cult is defined as being:
"A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader."

and a ministry is defined as:
"The act of serving"; "The profession, duties, and services of a minister."; and "The Christian clergy."

If you need to read it for yourself, see Dictionary.com.

From what I can tell the only person Fred Phelps is serving is Fred Phelps.

Additionally, what he 'preaches' is not in line with scripture. Hatred of people is not of God. While God hates sin, He does not hate the sinner but desires for the sinner to come to Him in repentance. God desires for all to be saved, however, Phelps holds that only his followers will be saved. Do not get me wrong about the stance that God desires for all to be saved. I am not saying that all will be saved. Scripture tells us some will spend eternity in hell. However, God desires that all be saved, although He gives free will and the decision is ours, thus some will perish. And yes, this means that God even desires for Phelps to be saved.

I'm not going to comment on what I think Phelps salvation status is. That's between him and God. However, I am going to say that I believe those who lead others astray will be held accountable for not only their sins, but for all those they led away from God and His will. Scripture says that "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." Luke 12:48b

Sadly, Phelps is not the only 'delusional preacher' out there. He just happens to be the one who is currently the most vocal. Yes, I've left a church before because what the Senior Pastor was preaching did not line up with scripture. We all have a responsibility to hold our preachers accountable for what they preach, and if what they preach cannot be backed up by scripture, then we should not be giving our support to that particular church.

Multiplying things

First, if you don't read "Voice In the Wilderness", you should read Travis's post from yesterday "Go Forth and Multiply". It's a very interesting look at demographics and politics.

The other thing that's multiplying again is internet hoaxes - more specifically, the one about "Touched By An Angel" and Madeline Murray O'Hare. Will this e-mail ever die?!?!? If you get this petition, do not send it on. That's why God created the 'delete' key. It's a hoax and has been going around for years. Unfortunately, it gets sent to those with conservative values who get all riled up and defensive (which I couldn't blame them for if it was true), so they send it out, therefore unknowingly propogating the hoax. Let it die people. Just let it die.

Prohibition and Persecution

For those of you who check "Oz" and not "Voice in the Wilderness", check my post on VITW of this same name.

Wondering about Robertson and the Holy Land

I wonder what Pat Robertson is thinking. He truly shoved his foot in his mouth when he commented that Ariel Sharon’s stroke was God’s punishment on the Israeli Prime Minister for diving the land by pulling our of Gaza. He shoved his foot far enough that the White House criticized him for it. Ok, yeah, sure he apologized, but he never should have made the comment on international media in the first place.

I also wonder whether he apologized because he truly felt remorse, and believed his comment to be wrong; or if it was to restore the good will of Israel so he could go ahead with his proposed theme park near the Sea of Galilee. Either way, it worked. The Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli Tourism Ministry is reconsidering its decision to cancel its contract with Robertson after he apologized to Sharon’s son.

And while I’m wondering, I wonder what Jesus thinks of Robertson commercializing the Holy Land by building a theme park. I know that tourism is Israel’s biggest industry, and the proposed theme park will bring in a good amount of revenue, but so did the money changers in the temple court.

Having visited Israel a few months ago, I have a problem with there being a theme park in the Galilee region. A church on a holy site is one thing, but a theme park is something else all together. Even so, there were places that we visited that I would have preferred to see without the churches built on them – for example, the Mount of the Beatitudes. While the church is beautiful and has a great view of the Sea of Galilee, I would have liked to see the site as it was when Jesus taught there. I wasn’t the only one in our group who felt this way.

I believe that Robertson’s sees the theme park as being for the benefit of those who would travel to the Holy Land on a pilgrimage, and for the nation of Israel. And I’m sure it will to some degree, and to a large dollar amount. However, I can’t help comparing the proposed theme park with the booths of the moneychangers in the temple courtyard of Jesus’ day.

Finally, I wonder whose idea it was to stop referring to the project as a theme park and start calling it a ‘Christian Heritage Center’. Call it what you will, it’s still commercializing holy sites, and I still have a problem with it.

This brings us back to my original statement. I wonder what Pat Robertson is thinking.

Intelligent Design Under Judgement

For those who read Oz, but not Voice in the Wilderness, check out Travis's posting on Intelligent Design, In Judges We Trust. He's got some really good points there about presenting options and letting people make up their own minds.

The Deeper Majic of Narnia

After seeing Narnia this weekend, several things came to mind, many of them similar to what my friend Travis posted on VITW, "That's Narnia Business". All in all I liked it, though there were parts of it that I was truly disappointed in. I had to keep reminding myself not to get caught on details, things that were in the movie but in the book. In comparison, both the BBC version that came out in 1988 and was aired on HBO, and the animated version released in 1993, were truer to the book. This Narnia is most definitely a Disney movie designed to keep the audience enthralled even though it had to stray from the book to do so.

While the larger main themes of betrayal and redemption through the sacrifice of another are still present with the Christological imagery, I think Disney should have stayed closer to the book, and paid more attention to details.

My other disappointment with this movie is that I don't really like how Susan was portrayed. She was shown as being much more overly pessimistic than she is in the book. Travis commented that he thought she was cynical. Yeah, I can go with that. I think Disney went over the top in her unbelief. In the book she is not so much cynical and pessimistic as she is timid, and unsure of things. The movie shows her has being totally without hope to the point of being reckless, not only with her life, but the lives of her siblings. This is all prior to meeting Aslan of course. While it makes the imagery of going from hopelessness to hope through the one who brings salvation much more dramatic and distinct, I don't think is true to Lewis's portrayal of her in his book. As I said before, this is totally a Disney movie.

In spite of my disappointments with the movie, I can see the appeal to the mass market. My hope is that the part of the deeper magic of this version of Narnia is that it will have the same magic found in Harry Potter in that it will encourage both children and adults to read more. I'd love to see school-aged children pick up the entire series to read, and then bring their parents along on the trip as well, or vice-versa. In this age of mass video entertainment, that would truly be magical.

Vince & the NFL

While I didn't post it here, I'd encourage you all to read my latest post on Voice in the Wilderness. It basically gives my reasons for why I think Vince Young should stay at UT for his senior year even though he could be a first round NFL draft pick.

Hook 'Em Horns!

That which we may or may not be required to know

I don't pretend to even come close to understanding public school finance, which would make me fit right in with the TX Legislature since they can't quite seem to get it right either. School finance has been and issue for well over a decade and it hasn't been fixed yet, and I'm not totally convinced it's just because Republicans and Democrats can't agree. The latest in the ongoing saga is the decision handed down by the TX Supreme Court stating that the current plan is unconstitutional.

One of the main reasons listed for finding the current school financing plan unconstitutional is that the individual school districts have no control of the tax rates. The court holds that the state-designated cap on property taxes which are used for public school financing is in effect a statewide property tax, which is prohibited in the TX Constitution. Maybe the June 1 deadline stated in the decision will light a fire under the Legislature to actually come up with a better plan. I'll let them borrow my lighter if it will help get that fire lit.

The other points of this lawsuit are the adequacy of public school funding and the equity of school funding between districts. The court holds that current school funding is adequate to achieve a 'general diffusion of knowledge.' The problem with this is that the standards used to measure whether to not the schools are achieving this are set way to low. The current requirements for a school to be rated as 'academically acceptable' are focused on reducing the failure rate, not educating the students in a way that will prepare them to function in our society as adults. The court's majority opinion on the school finance decision addresses this, although it's long and may take a little bit to wade through.

Current requirements for a school in Texas to be academically acceptable state that only 25 % of their students have to pass the science portion of the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test, 35% have to pass the math portion, and 50% have to pass the English, writing and social studies portion. The rates will increase incrementally until 2009 when the rate will have to be 70% passing in all areas, but it doesn't really make sense to start the levels low and incrementally increase them. I've found that when you settle for standards that require lower levels of education that's exactly what you'll get. Allowing students and teachers a lower level of accountability in passing rates on the TAKS now doesn't promote increased learning as there is a lower base to build on which will make it harder to increase the passing rate at later dates. And people wonder why our students aren't better educated.

Because the passing rates are measured by standardized test scores, I feel like I need to comment on the reliability of standardized tests. While I recognize the need for a uniform system of evaluating what students have learned, I am not a big fan of standardized testing. While it may show how much a student knows to a certain degree, I believe that it is more a measure of how well a student tests. Additionally, the TAKS test doesn't cover all of the prescribed curriculum, and therefore isn't necessarily an accurate measure of whether or not a school has provided a 'general diffusion of knowledge.'

Unfortunately, without a better way of evaluating how well our schools are preparing students to function in college and society, we are stuck with standardized tests. I'm sure this issue will be visited again in future posts. Equity in funding between the districts is a different issue for a different time. Not even the high court would touch the Robin Hood law in their latest ruling.

Maybe some day, someone will come up with a better method of evaluating how effective our schools are. And maybe Legislature can fix public school finance.

Hmmm... a girl can dream can't she?

Black & White & Grey all over

Shalom! I'm back from Israel with only minor jet lag. Am trying to catch up on US news since the only newspaper I've read in the last few weeks is the Jerusalem Post, which I highly recommend for keeping up with news in the Middle East. Lessons from my pilgrimage:

1) Close counts only in horse shoes, hand grenades, and Holy sites. Given the multiple turn overs in occupation and control in the region for the last few millenia, it's hard to tell sometimes which is the actual site, and twhich is the 'traditional' site as designated by the Catholic Church. At first this bothered me, but as our tour guide, Doreen, said, it's more about the symbolic importance than about the actual location sometimes. Although I must say those Byzantines sure knew how to do mosaics and stained glass.

2) Nothing in that area is as black and white as we would like to make it. For every person you talk to with one opinion, you will find another with an opposite opinion. I took a side trip to Bethany, which is just outside of Jerusalem, in the Palestinian West Bank. Our guide was a Palestinian Muslim who was very knowledgeable about the Christian sites in Bethany. He took us to the tomb of Lazarus among other sites. He told us that he believes that those in power keep trying to make the issue of control in the region a religious one when it is really about possession of the land and political power. This was totally opposite of an editorial I had recently read stating that those in power keep trying to make it a political issue when it's really a religious issue. I really don't think we can have one without the other. The political issues are religious, and unfortunately the religious issues are political.

3) True peace in Israel isn't possible until Jesus returns. As simplistic as that may sound I believe that there will be temporary periods of relative peace, but no true lasting peace this side of Jesus return. There are too many different groups with history there, and the future for every one of us, whether we want to admit it or not, lies there.

4) I don't know nearly as much about Judaism or Islam as I should. I was amazed that both our Jewish Israeli guide and our Palestinian Muslim guide knew much more about Christianity than I know about either religion.

All in all the trip was absoultely fabulous. I'm still processing the great amount of information that I've been given over the last few weeks, so I'm sure there will be more later on the subject.

The merry old Land of Oz

Allow me to introducce myself. I'm Cindy; and I live in central Texas, although I grew up in Kansas. This is what led to my name for this blog. I figured that since I'm not in Kansas anymore, I must be in Oz.

I find lately that there are things that happen in life that keep me in awe of what God is doing in and through me, thus the play on words - Awes & Oz.

I was encouraged to do this by my friend Travis who is the Voice in the Wilderness. His blog is at http://austinvitw.blogspot.com/. I encourage you to read it. He covers pretty much everything from politics to religion to the BCS and why it's evil, plus anything else that comes to him.

There will be more to come although it may be sporadic at times. You may also see me contributing to the VITW.

Now I'm off to see the Wizard.