I return.

It's good to be home in my nice, clean, heated house. R & C are doing very well, and E is quite entertaining. She says 'uh-oh', 'hot', and 'more'. She also has words for drink and thank you, but they don't sound anything like 'drink' or 'thank you', so they're hard to represent here. The church is back on it's feet, too, so things are looking up. It was a nice visit. I can't wait to go back!

In other news, My Friend Tami is getting married! Huzzah!

And I was reading an interview of Kemper Crabb today. You can find it here: http://www.kempercrabb.net/articles.html# . Click on 'Harry Potter Interview'. Kemper Crabb is a priest in the Episcopalian church, a musician, and a very intelligent man. This is the best apology for Harry Potter I've heard yet. Here's an excerpt:

'...I suppose I like the books because they promote witchcraft and magic, and I figure they will turn millions of innocent children into slavering tools of Satan.'

Just kidding! Here's a good one:

'I do think Christians don't know how to read well, although we should be the ones who do know how since the Book that God gave us invited all of these artistic principles and genres that are employed in Scripture, whether it's poetry, apocalyptic literature, narratives, epistolary forms, etc. We are hampered in our reading of Scripture and general literature because we don't place value in those things. Most Christians are functional pragmatists anyway; they want a technique, their own form of magic, some kind of quick fix even in their faith life. It is that same attitude that rules how they read Scripture, and how they read literature. That is one of the reasons the Church is an absolute zero integer in its influence on the cultural world presently, except for the few Christians who know differently. Consequently, the pagans rule the realm of the arts at this time because the Church thinks they know better.'

But this one's my favourite:

'Jenni: How should a Christian read the Harry Potter books?

Kemper: I suggest English.'