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Yes, as we have just rolled over not one but two numbers on the calendar, I thought maybe we should take a look back at the past ten years to see where we’ve gone.  I mean, a lot has happened.  Ten years ago at midnight, I was standing on the hill above Twisp waiting for the lights to go out…oh, Y2K, you really threw us for a loop.

So here’s a list of the top ten best things (or at least interesting things) that happened in the past decade:

10.  I graduated from high school!  And college!  And grad school!

9.  Ran the London Marathon and broke the 2:40 barrier (also ran three other marathons this decade…shooting for ten in the next decade!)

8.  Played with a crazy monkey while living in Ecuador for a year, working at Covenant Bible College.  Also went spelunking with a one-legged man.  Also climbed a 19k+ ft mountain: Cotopaxi.

7.  Travelled all around Europe…from Norway to Greece and everywhere in between!

6.  More and more running…running in high school, running in college, running aftercollege…lots of good times, good races, good people…in the Mountains in Winthrop, on the beach in Santa Barbara, on Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, through the streets of London, through the hills of Thailand, getting chased by dogs in Ecuador, getting stress fractures in the summers…is it sad that I spend so much time at this activity?  I don’t think so.  It’s provided some pretty incredible moments.

5.  Went to Thailand for a four months and loved it…lived in a tribal village, ate great food, had crazy adventures.

4.  Spent a year in Scotland doing my masters degree.  Hung out with some great folks, explored higher theology, got started in professional coffee making.

3.  Worked on a llama ranch in Colorado for the summer after college.  Also fought forest fires for a couple of summers…hence my alter ego: Fuego.

2.  Spent a year with the Canby Community learning to live well.

1.  Learned a lot about life, about God, about people, about myself.

Goals for the next decade: 1.  Get a Ph.D., 2.  Run sub-2:30 in a marathon, 3. Spend another year living overseas, 4. Live well.

Well here we are…in the middle of Black Friday/Buy Nothing Day?  Are you fighting the man?  Well, in case you just couldn’t resist the low, low prices, don’t worry…I’m not judging you.  It’s about a lifestyle, not just a day.  So I continue to encourage you to join with me in the pursuit of a lifestyle of simplicity.

I wanted to follow up my last post with a few more ideas for you.  It’s easy to say “We should all give away money”…but the problem is how to do that in a constructive way.  I just wanted to highlight a few places that you could contribute:

1. I mentioned Advent Conspiracy in my last post.  Go to their website, see what they are doing in your area and get on board with it!

2. Clean Water For Haiti is an organization that my housemates in Portland and I contributed to last year.  They work on providing clean water wells to the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

3. Kiva is an organization that provides micro-loans to people around the world, helping them to get on their feet and to be able to provide a living for themselves and their families.  One of the cool things is that most of the time the money is paid back as these entrepreneurs start to make money.  It goes back into your Kiva account and you can redistribute it to help out another person.  Sounds to me like a better use for my extra money than to have it sitting in a bank.

4. Finally, I’d just like to pass on an opportunity that was presented to me.  I went to Thailand for a semester during college and the program that I was part of goes back every year and revisits many of the same areas and people and villages, building ongoing relationships.  Well, as we get to know these people pretty well, Ajarn Mike (the guy who leads the trip…Ajarn is Thai for “professor”) looks for ways that we can help out with development and education among the Thai people and especially among the Hilltribes and so he will occasionally (and especially around Christmas) pass on these needs and opportunities to those of us who have participated in his program and built these relationships with the Thai people.  A couple of days ago, I received one of these emails from Ajarn Mike, outlining a couple of projects for which he is collecting donations this year:

The first is a school that will serve five Lahu and Akha villages, to be established in one of the villages that students have visited several times in recent years.  About $9000 more is needed to complete that project.

The second project is to help fund an orphanage.  It only costs about $25 dollars to feed a child for a year or about $1500 for the entire orphanage for the year (not much!).

If you would like to contribute to either of these projects, let me know and I will give you the information.  The great thing about these is that all the money is going directly to the people who need it!

I’m planning on giving away a significant chunk this year.  I don’t say that to be self-righteous, but just to let you know that I’m practicing what I’m preaching.  I have been blessed through support from many people for my time up here in Alaska and I feel that I should pass on that blessing to others.

Have a wonderful Christmas season as we reflect and stand in awe of the miracle of the incarnation of our God.