Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Postcard from Colorado Springs

I know, it seems like the blog is dying and winding down since I'm not in Japan anymore. Whilst it is true that I may not have so much to say or so many pix to post whilst living in the US, I don't intend to let the blog die just yet. But at the moment Internet access has been hard to come by. I expected to get some decent time in the Denver hotel but 1.5 hours on the phone w/ tech support and some frustrating convos w/ the hotel's front desk got me nowhere but not connected. So I'm now at the house of my parents' friends in Colo Springs and using their PC. I won't type much...
It's funny that what's been on my mind recently is Jehovah's Witnesses. I say funny b/c it appears that someone in my future workplace is a JW and I didn't really remember much about JW doctrine before about 2 months ago, when the Japanese JWs showed up at my door. But since that time I've been studying a fair amount and am much more ready now. It's also funny b/c I met a JW on the airplane from Oakland to Salt Lake and we talked about good stuff for about 40 minutes. She even pulled out her New World Translation of the Bible and we discussed mostly the Deity of Jesus Christ. But it turns out that, though she claims to hold God the Father (Jehovah) in higher regard than Christians do (given that they are supposedly unitarian monotheists), she didn't actually believe that God the Father is all-knowing as regards future events. Messed up, man. It's just amazing - one would think that a self-proclaimed strict monotheist would hold a very high notion of the One True God. And whaddaya know - it's the Trinitarian who believes that God knows the future exhaustively, not the unitarian. Very interesting.
Anywho, my time in San Fran was really fun. My time in Denver and Colo Spgs has also been fun though a little lower-key. It's been good to be w/ family and I've been able to have some good convos w/ them, and of course it was excellent to be w/ Aubrey 6 days earlier than originally planned since she drove w/ my parents and my brother from Oklahoma to meet my other brother and me in Denver. We had pricelined a hotel and got a pretty good nightly rate and stayed there, explored Denver, ate some good food, and today we went to Colo Spgs and went up Pike's Peak (which Pike never actually summited) and did other tourist-y things like drive thru the Garden of the Gods. We also drove by Glen Eyrie and I asked if we could do a driving tour. They said we only could if everyone in the car was a Baptist. No, not really; we couldn't go b/c they're open until 4 and we showed up at 4:40 or something. Oh well.

OK, tonight is Vietnamese food. Preparing stomach.

2 comments:

Ka Ki said...

I never know how about JW and maybe I should study some. Anyway, it's nice to know that you can see Aub 6 days earlier. And, I'm rejoicing the fact that it means I can talk to Aub pretty soon online. hahaha!!

Fr. David said...

I love going through Rev. 1 with JWs, if only to see the looks on their faces:

A) v. 8 -- "The Almighty" calls Himself the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end."

B) v. 11 -- John hears a voice saying, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last."

C) v. 17-18 -- The owner of the voice, having been identified as someone "like unto the Son of man," says that He is "the first and the last...he that liveth, and was dead; and behold; [is] alive for evermore. Amen."

The One in A equals the One in B, who also equals the One in C -- He who was dead and is now alive.

Much stammering on the part of JWs then ensues.