Reagan; Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! During this Christian season, throughout our fruited plain, men and a woman are presidential candidates to be the Leader of the Free World.

They should stop and listen to America's exponent of the shining city on a hill.

Parabolic encounters

In the spring of 1999 Virginia and I posited an idea that, in nature, the parabola, has correspondence with the gospel of Christ. The idea bears repeating.

The roots of the word parabola can be traced to the Greek word pa-rab-o-le literally meaning, “a comparison or metaphor.”

Curiously, the New Testament word “parable” shares the same Greek meaning: also a comparison! (This was a eureka moment for me, and it occurred when I was coding documents into a database as a temp in a Silicon Valley I.P. law firm, Skjerven Morrill MacPherson Franklin & Friel, just off the 101.)

When a basketball is thrown, it first rises, and then begins to fall. The curve it follows is a parabola. A satellite dish is a parabola. Its curve causes signals to reflect to a central focus. Reflection is a great property of the parabola, and we benefit from it all the time without thinking much about it.

Now, as missionaries, when we transmit faith across a foreign culture we believe that spiritual encounters follow a parabola. It is often problematic sharing Christ in a world dominated by materialism, modernism, mammon and other belief systems, nevertheless...

Each ray in the diagram symbolizes an individual (or possibly even a community of individuals). A ray strikes the parabola and is reflected to the focus.
The parabola is a type of Christian believer. The focus is a type of Christ.I believe that at the point where a ray strikes the parabola, an encounter between the hearer and the missionary has occurred. Even more importantly, at the exact point where the ray is reflected to the focus—the hearer has understood the meaning of Christ.

Salvation may well follow.

Jubilee Vietnam Church

My wife is shown here with her fans--the JVC Youth--and enjoys fellowship and lunch down in the Jubilee galley following the 11:00 AM service.

California's help from Baghdad

After returning from my meeting at Jubilee Christian Center with Fellee, I was happy to learn of a story out of Iraq, --but boycotted by the media.

It seems that a group of Iraqi soldiers in a military camp east of Baghdad collected $1,000.00 last week to send to my neighbors in southern California, affected by the recent wildfires.

Iraqi soldiers risking their lives everyday, --and still find the time to raise money for charity!

These Iraqis have so much class.

Hmm, let's see, how much did the European Union send?

If American soldiers and Marines are washouts and misfits that they have been made out to be by the mainstream media --why would local Iraqis dig into their pockets to assist American civilians?

Iraqis are indeed working with the finest America has to offer.

A huge differential

This year Islam and Judaism's holiest holidays overlapped for 10 days.

But the differential between them was huge: Muslims racked up 397 dead bodies across 10 countries during Ramadan...while the Hebrews quietly worked on their 159th Nobel Prize.

~natural exponent

If mothers ruled the world

While catching up on world events on FOX News, I saw FOX's report on Sally Field's Emmy award acceptance speech. But FOX News had to bleep parts of it!

In her bleeped Emmy acceptance speech Sunday night, Sally Field said:

Let's face it, if mothers ruled the world, there would be no god_ _ _ n wars in the firstplace.

Wow; I could almost see fire coming out of her eyes.

But this is such false premise. Have you ever seen a mother's reaction when someone tries to come between her and her children? War comes to mind.

Natural Exponent would like to remind Sally Field that there have been female heads of state, mothers, who have waged war. This can be found in any High School history book:

Israel's Golda Meir, India's Indira Gandhi, and Britain's Maggie Thatcher. These 3 mothers waged war in defense of their nation's sovereignty.

Battle dogs

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. David Hornsby and his special security dog Lisa are hoisted into a helicopter during a canine-hoist training mission near Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, on July 15, 2007.

Lisa is attached to the 101st Air Assault Division.

Dogs - they truly do like us, don't they? I'm trying to imagine how poorer man would be without dogs.

.

An exponent of liberty

Edmund Burke
"I flatter myself that I love a manly, moral, regulated liberty as well as any gentleman... It is one of the gifts of Providence."

Long Live The Queen!

A firestorm has been sweeping across the Muslim world because H.M. Queen Elizabeth knighted the "infidel" Salman Rushdie.

Happily, free speech is a heritage of English-speaking nations.

I think that by knighting Rushdie, the Queen is honoring the freedom of conscience (and speech) that English-speaking nations love. That makes her a symbol of free thought. Indeed this is how one comes to Christ --through the free-speech efforts of the evangelist.

Long live the Queen!

The Genuine Article II

Ho Chi Minh City: A pastor explains to me that his friend (at right, with his wife) has been jailed 6 times because of his Christian faith.

This underscored a hard reality to me: I do not know what it means to be a Christian, --and suffer its consequences. (He is the genuine article.)

(J-Team Vietnam::May 2007)

Solution to Illegal Immigration

If illegal aliens are here to do the jobs Americans won't do, maybe more could come to Jubilee Christian Center --George & Virginia could use more missionary candidates.

The Genuine Article

What does it mean to be a Christian?

Mrs. Obregon with a woman (left) who lives somewhere in the 10/40 drop zone.

This woman has had to live without her husband for 15 years—that’s how long he’s been imprisoned for his Christian faith. She sells cloth to make a living.

“I am uneducated, but God uses me,” she informs Virginia and me.

She goes on to inform us of the most astonishing fact—150 people worship at her house each Sunday. This woman has also seen minority tribesmen come to Christ in her country.

Her husband’s previous evangelistic efforts have resulted in 21 churches planted throughout her area.

(She is the genuine article.)

Two Orchids of Vietnam

Above, First Lady Mrs. Lan Bui and First Lady Mrs. Virginia Obregon of J-Team, relax before our hectic back-to-back Prophetic Seminars in Ho Chi Minh City.

Our 5-man J-Team was composed of all Jubelites from Jubilee Christian Center, rare, since Virginia and I have always deployed to Vietnam with missionaries from different churches.

Love is in the Air

Upon returning from Vietnam on Tactical Team-J, Virginia and I shared with Jubilee Vietnam the same ideas that we delivered to Vietnam's church leaders, i.e., the love of our Father God.

Indeed, Mrs. Obregon is all too aware of the kinetic energy of a moving mass:

Therefore she sought help from me, Andrew Le, and Kevin Danh as the congregants melted under God's hand.

Love is in the air.

Greenpeace is building a god!

Environmental activists are building a replica of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat--where the biblical vessel landed after the Great Flood.

According to AP from Istanbul:

Turkish and German volunteer carpenters are making the wooden ship on the mountain in eastern Turkey, bordering Iran. The ark will be revealed in a ceremony on May 31, a day after Greenpeace activists climb the mountain and call on world leaders to take action to tackle climate change.


~ Hmmm, does anyone doubt that global warming is a substitute religion?

The data on mass murder

Virginia Tech Shooter
Originally uploaded by Geo & VO.

Mass murder is often the first serious crime unbalanced individuals are caught committing --this is the case of the Virginia Tech shooter.

But since the Fall of Adam there have always been deranged individuals. If someone is determined to commit mass murder there is usually very little that can be done to prevent it.

(Curious: NBC must be the network of choice for homocidal maniacs.)

Most of the time these creatures can't be locked up, until it's too late. You see, in the USA it's not against the law to be crazy. It's certainly
not against the law to be an unsociable loner.

Wait, he mailed a package? What? --on his way to murder as many people as he could he dropped off a package at the Post Office?

My head is spinning.

But another thing, if you study history general purpose sociopaths don't issue manifestos, --there is some sort of ideology involved here. I need more data on this creature.

But this is the experimental data we do have:

32 are dead at Virginia Tech...50 million dead from Roe v. Wade...

Young Laotian delegate, Bangkok

VIRGINIA IN BANGKOK, WITH LAOTIAN
Originally uploaded by Geo & VO.

Virginia is seen here giving a wristwatch to a young Laotian, who was a delegate to the Missionary Symposium in Bangkok; March 2007.

We always take California-donated gifts on every deployment so that we may bless others with whom we meet and interact.

Assemblies of God school--Bangladesh

Virginia and I found the source of the tiny pitter-patter at the AGE Center in Bangladesh: children who are attending class served by the Assemblies of God.

We were surprised to learn that Muslim parents also send their children to this Christian school. They enroll their children because of the quality of education, even though Christian principles and the gospel are taught to all students.

The AGE Center contains a triad: a Christian school, a Bible college, and an A.G. Church.

This campus is a little larger than our Jubilee Christian Center admin campus in San Jose, California.

Jubilee Vietnam

Jubilee Vietnam Church
Originally uploaded by Geo & VO.

Easter at Jubilee Vietnam

Andrew Le >> JUBILEE VIETNAM
Originally uploaded by Geo & VO.

An amazing interpretation by Jubilee Bible College student, Andrew Le, of a folk song in the Vietnamese language that gave glory to the risen Christ --on Easter Sunday.

I was amazed that this young man knew and could sing the old school traditional Vietnamese folk music style.

Andrew delighted the Vietnamese senior citizens seated in the sanctuary.

Tactical Team-I in Bangladesh

Happy to report that our 4-man I-Team were guests at the Women's Ministry Dept. at the large Assemblies of God campus in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

During a break from our seminar Arise Deborah! I-TEAM sampled the curry chicken & rice served us; yum!

(About 40 women delegates were in attendance, some with their babies!)

Pastors Dennis & Martha Das had our delicious food prepared.

Arise Deborah! (I-Team)

In Dhaka, Bangladesh, our 4-man I-Team was attached to Ethnos Asia during the times that we ministered. Our womenfolk conducted a Deborah Seminar for Bangladeshi women at a local A.G. church.

Indeed, I requested to sit in on it to see how it went. Arise Deborah! is designed to educate Bangladeshi women to their rightful place in society, in their community, even in national life --as Christians.

Here, Virginia befriends a few of the 40 delegates who were interested in getting a closer look at an American woman who personifies the spirit of Deborah.

Religion of Piece(s)

Bangkok --our 2nd Home
Originally uploaded by Geo & VO.

An ice cream vendor was beheaded in Thai Muslim south.

As we prepare to deploy to Thailand on Tactical Team-I, I've learned that a Buddhist ice cream vendor was killed and his headless body left sitting on the bicycle seat of his cart in Thailand’s Muslim south.

The vendor, a 45-year-old Buddhist originally from the country’s north east, was shot three times in the back of his head while riding his cart into a Muslim village in Pattani.

They chopped his head off and walked away with it, leaving his body sitting on the ice cream bike’s seat.

How can there be a fatwa against ice cream?

No one in Arabia could make ice cream in Mohammed's day!

Happily, our Team will be lodging far north in Bangkok prior to our departure to Bangladesh.
~

Full of oneself

A type of Christian full of himself
Originally uploaded by Geo & VO.

“God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves.”
—Dwight L. Moody

“Deflate yourselves.” —Dwight L. Obregon

The mind of God

A Cathedral of God
Originally uploaded by Geo & VO.

II Timothy 2:15
"Study to show thyself approved unto God...a workman...rightly dividing the word of truth."

"But now bring me a man who deploys to God's mission frontier. And, when the man arrives he becomes an exponent of Christ."
~ 1 George 1:1

Global outlook

~

Imminent deployment >>Tactical Team-I

The Bangladesh Consulate in L.A. returned our passports with our Bangladesh VISAs affixed inside.

The evolutionary process of one's Christian life ends with the happy contentment of serving Christ on the mission frontier.

Indeed, for Jubilee Christian Center missionaries, faith without works is dead.

Power

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. --Lord Acton

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New Year's Resolutions

A Pensive Mood
Originally uploaded by Geo & VO.

After reading Pas. Adam Bernal's article in the December issue of Jubilee Life, I began to feel inspired regarding New Year's resolutions:

"Maybe it's time to start a list of possible New Year's resolutions..."

"Hmm, lose 20 lbs... Stop being a jerk... Buy stronger mouthwash... Read the occasional book... Bathe more often..."

Okey, Dokey; that takes care of my co-workers; better think up one for me now.