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Saturday, June 30, 2018

Facebook Suggestion Post #3

Even though we are not currently in the Philippines, I planned on writing a culture post and what better way to do that than to go all the way back to my facebook question from April of 2017 when I asked for questions that American may have about the culture that I, from my vast storehouse of experience with the country and culture, am able to answer with ease in roughly 500-700 words.


This suggestion comes from a certain Robbie Waller, who would like me to write about the need for Walmart in the Philippines. 

In some sense, the Philippines would benefit greatly from Walmart. People would be able to get everything they need (and a bunch that they don't need) in a convenient one-stop-shop. People would have everything they need for fixing things and not have to jerry-rig the things that are broken. But in other ways the Philippines does not need Walmart. I think that while yeah, of course, obviously, it would make shopping easier, it would also do something horrible to the culture of the Philippines. The way I see it,  Filipino people are some pretty resourceful men and women. They have lived through multiple centuries of being subjects to other countries, influenced by still others, and now they are (from what I can tell) in transition still. In some ways the vast majority of people are still trying to figure out what it means to be Filipino, and what exactly being Filipino entails. This transition and influence has caused Filipinos to be very resourceful and to look at problems and challenges from a very different perspective.

Their resourcefulness comes through in a myriad of ways, but it is most easily on display when you are in the market area. There you have the convergence of the two big aspects of the culture: the farm and the city. You see farmers who live in simple wooden houses in a village with a dirt path for a road who get up ridiculously early to catch a jeepney (with all their produce) into the city so they can get to the market to their stall. You see the pedicab driver who is sweating profusely under his shirt that he has wrapped around his head to keep the sun off with some knock-off Ray-bans to keep the sun out of his eyes riding around on his rig (decorated with colorfully recycled items) looking for passengers. All over the market area you see this resourcefulness and for an American who is "fresh off the boat" it may seem almost sad and disconcerting, seeing as quite a bit of the need for this type of resourcefulness is due to poverty, simply having to recycle and reuse items because they can't always afford new things. Down the street, near a school, classes have taken to recycling soda bottles for gardening, and ingeniously saved space with the planting of flowers and herbs. 

Now, here is why I think that having Walmart would be horrible for the Philippines: If we as Americans move to a small town and for some reason unknown to mankind, there is no Walmart, then we may seriously wonder how in the world we will survive. We may wonder how in the world we are supposed to buy groceries or car parts or movies or furniture or home repair supplies or any number of other goods and services. The Philippines has a few malls that have their own department stores and grocery stores inside that do function in some ways as a one-stop-shop, but these are out of the budget for quite a bit of the country. But even middle class families (and I'm sure upper class folks too) have a vein of resourcefulness inside, and they often don't seem feel lost and adrift in the world when stuff breaks or they need a quick fix for x,y, or z. Americans tend to, sans Walmart. Filipinos, in some sense, are free from the reliance on big stores like Walmart to provide all they need or want. They are able to get things done without the need to run to the big chain stores to make sure they have exactly the right tools or supplies. Don't get me wrong, there are specialty shops for bike parts, hardware stores, etc. and people will go and get what they need from these establishments if they need to. But it seems like if, in a pinch, something needs to get fixed and you are in the jungle on a dirt path and your bike breaks down, well...you simply deal with it how you can. More often than not, it works out. If it holds together long enough, you can indeed go to the bike parts shop to get the parts you need to make the needed repairs. But the resourcefulness of the average Filipino is quite impressive, and it is because of their attitude towards recycling and reusing items that I think that Walmart would actually take something away from the culture. 

Saturday, June 16, 2018

A Review of Praying the Bible by Don Whitney

NOTE: Since I haven't posted an article, or book review, in a while, it seems good to remind my few readers that in no way do I profit from these reviews. These are simply books that I feel have helped me either in my personal walk with God, or in ministry, or it has made me think about a topic in a different way. Dr. Whitney is not paying me for this paltry review, nor has anyone else. Enjoy!


Now, I love reading theology books. I love the nuance and the precision that it takes to nail down and explain certain doctrines or ideas. Yet, when I look at some of my books, I sigh, because there is simply no logical way that I will ever actually read the whole thing; they are simply too long.

I also love prayer. Wait, no. That's not quite true. I love the idea of prayer, but the reality is often lacking.  I lose my train of thought. Or what feels like  forever to pray was really only a few minutes. Or I sort of repeat the same things that I normally pray for and feel really discouraged by the whole thing. Because of this, my prayer life suffers, and every sermon or biblical text on prayer feels like the condemnation of a shameful dirty secret: a Christian who can't pray!

If you just so happen to feel the same way, then I would highly (is there another superlative that makes it more forceful? If there is, use that) recommend Praying the Bible by Donald Whitney.

Dr. Whitney is a professor at THE Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky and he deals quite a bit with practical spiritual disciplines. His books on spiritual disciplines (both personal and corporate) are pretty good, but Praying the Bible is just too legit. Why? Well I'm glad you asked....

This book tackles a perennial problem, prayer. In a rather short book, only ten chapter clocking in at about 106 pages (including two indexes), Whitney packs a punch that, given the time it takes to read the book, should radically transform your prayer life. Now, before I start sounding like I'm selling a magic pill that cures cancer, let's break down the book:

Chapter one outlines the problem, and in chapter two Whitney gives the solution to a stale prayer life: praying through the Bible. in chapter three he gives the method for using the Bible as a guide to prayer (spoiler: it may not be just as you think). In Chapter four he deals a bit more with the method and chapters five and six deal with some good examples of praying through the Psalms and other biblical books. In chapter seven Whitney "forces" you to pray through a psalm, heavily suggesting that the reader stop reading until the exercise has been done. Chapter eight walks through common responses to his method. Chapter nine, barely a few pages, sums up the first chunk of the book before going to chapter ten, which covers historical examples of his method.

In my opinion, this book needs to be handed out to church members by pastors for free, until everyone in the congregation has at least one copy in each household. I cannot recommend this book enough for those who feel like their prayer life is stale, or even sadder, seemingly nonexistent. For those who will put in the work to actually practice this "revolutionary" method for rich prayers it pays dividends almost immediately.

The only real complaint that I have is that the book is too long. Whitney labors the point in a few places, seemingly repeating himself just to reach a minimum of pages by the publisher. This could have probably been an in-depth pamphlet and would have been just as eye-opening to read through.

Even with this minor thing, I would highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone who may happen to read this!