...in the outer...: Why I am in California

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As an INFP, you are Intraverted, iNtuative, Feeling , Perceiving. This makes your primary focus on Introverted Feeling with Extraverted Intuition. This is defined as a NF personality ... the Healers or Idealist. As a weblogger, you have wonderful words to express your feelings ...

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Recommended for your Library

Ethics: The Heart of Leadership
Edited by Joanne Ciulla. An important collection of essays by philosophers, leadership and management thinkers considering the role of ethics in leadership

Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness
By Robert K. Greenleaf, Larry C. Spears, Stephen R. Covey. Servant and leader--can these two roles be fused in one real person in all levels of status and calling?

Warranted Christian Belief
By Alvin Plantinga. Third in a trilogy of works on the issue of warrant - the basis of the rationality of Christian beliefs written by arguably the most important philosopher of religion alive today

Renovation of the Heart
By Dallas Willard. A philosopher and quintessential Christian teacher relates and reflects on what it means to put on the character of Christ.

Foreign Bodies
By Hwee Hwee Tan. An impressive first novel by young new author from Singapore acclaimed as an up and coming Pulitzer Prize winner

Mammon Inc.
By Hwee-Hwee Tan. Second novel by this very important young new author from Singapore applauded the world over, including The Times in London and the New York Times

Three Philosophies of Life
By Peter Kreeft. Three life philosophies presented through the works of three of Scriptures most beautiful poetry books, Job, Ecclesiastes and Songs of Solomon

Horrendous Evil and the Goodness of God
By Marilyn McCord-Adams. A seminal response to the age-old problem of evil which attempts to take seriously the theological ramifications of the character of God

Blink
By Malcolm Gladwell. Blink is about the first two seconds of looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant.

Smart Mobs
By Howard Rheingold. A social commentary about how "sophisticated mobile Internet access is allowing people who don't know each other to act in concert".

Linked
By Albert-Laszlo Barabasi. An engaging treatise about the fundamentals of interconnectedness and complexity that underlies neurology, epidemiology, Internet traffic, and many other fields.

The Peaceable Kingdom
By Stanley Hauerwas. A clear explication of a Christian ethic based upon the meaning of the gospel, highlighting virtues and character, and narrative as a mode of ethical reflection.

The Goldsworthy Trilogy: Gospel & Kingdom, Gospel & Wisdom, Gospel & Revelation
By Graeme Goldsworthy. A collection of masterful works expositing on the centrality of the Scriptures: the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Grace and Law: St. Paul, Kant, and the Hebrew Prophets
By Heinz Cassirer. A Kantian scholar looks at the Old Testament Law, and Paul's understanding of it, concluding that Kant's delimma is answered by the gospel of grace.

The Un-Right Christians

Progressive Christian Blogger Network

Church Directory of Evangelical Blogs

Thursday, September 16, 2004

Someone asked me the other day why I am in California. Here is part of the answer...I was born in Malaysia. As a young lad, my father lost his job and could not find another position anywhere because of his age. My brother at that time just completed high school and got an offer to join the Singapore Army. My father had served with the British Army years before that and happened to meet an ex-Army friend. Through this friend, he received a job offer to work in an Australian offshore territory called Christmas Island. My Mom initially could not join him because he had only a single room on the Island, but the plan was that as soon as he got himself a "Married Quarters" he will send for Mom. He was on the waiting list, and apparently it would be rather "soon" that he would get one. So, it was decided. I was to be sent to live with my Uncle and Aunt while my Mom moved into a one-bedroom apartment near a factory where she worked. My Uncle and Aunt were my surrogate parents for a number of years. Our family of four were broken apart then and never really came back together again... I was a young adolescent who needed guidance, love and care from his parents but were unable to have it. I missed Mom and Dad so much during those years. One of the shows on TV that I used to watch was the Waltons. I remember thinking, "That is the family I want to be in! I want to go to America and find the family that I don't have!"

Years later, my dad came to take me with him. Even though the entire family had then made our home in Australia, and I lived there for many years, and started becoming one of the locals in terms of vernacular, a little bit of the culture, and even being an Aussie Rules Football fanatic, something was missing for me there. It was home in one sense, and yet I was still longing for the land of the Waltons. To cut a long story short... almost twenty five years later, my wish almost came true... I arrived in California! It had been a long road, and I have not yet found the Waltons, but perhaps, by God's grace, I can recreate our own "Waltons" here in this land...