26 January 2015

how giving are we?

Michael recently asked me, "What's the difference between tithing and almsgiving?" I figured by the look in his eye that he knew the answer. Being Jesuit-educated, I was a bit embarrassed to not know the answer. "Um, it's kind of the same thing? Where we're supposed to give 10% of what we earn to charity?" He replied, "Well, that's not entirely correct."



And by answering incorrectly, I had proven the author of "The Limits of Philanthropy," an article we recently highlighted in our Reading Rainbow post, right. So what is the difference? And should you care? And why am I talking about this when we live in Tanzania?

Let me give this a shot.


19 January 2015

i am a missioner.

Yesterday, I turned 29 years old, so naturally I feel like this is my last good year of life before my youth leaves me behind forever. Ashley and I prefer to think of the entity of us as "young love" and to live out the words of Death Cab for Cutie, "stay young, go dancing." We'll see how that goes a year from now.

But as I age like a bottle of not-so-fine wine, I am spending more time reflecting on who I am and how I see the world around me. Living in Tanzania has given me lots to reflect on. With our first year in Tanzania behind us, I began to reflect on the very title that defines who I am: missioner.

channeling jean valjean.

16 January 2015

reading rainbow - 16 january 2015.

It has been forever since we last did an edition of Reading Rainbow, but several interesting articles have cropped up lately that we felt were worth sharing. Click and read below.


12 January 2015

how to hike the usambara mountains.

To end our adventure-filled first year in Tanzania, Michael and I had the opportunity to go on one last trip, so we went to Lushoto, a small town located in northeastern Tanzania. We had heard it was one of the most beautiful areas of Tanzania in which we could do some serious hiking, so we jumped at the chance.


Most tourists to this country only have time for the Serengeti and Kilimanjaro, but if you have some time to tread on the less chosen path, look no further than the Usambara Mountains.

05 January 2015

why we became vegetarian.

No, this is not a New Year's resolution. I don't do those.

For those who know me and my meat-loving past, prepare to have your freakin' mind blown: I am now a vegetarian*. And Ashley too.

I know what you're thinking: the world must be ending and we're all about to die at the hands of the Cylons. Similar thoughts ran through my mind. At the very least this blog post will send a shockwave of destruction through our prior home state of Texas - the land of the never-ending meat fest at Salt Lick BBQ outside Austin, dinosaur-size meat bones at Smoke in Dallas, and room after room of barbecue sauce at Rustlin' Rob's in Fredericksburg.

But bear with me and we just might get out of this mess alive, in one piece and heck maybe even craving cottage cheese mixed with spinach in an Indian curry.