Today is the fourth anniversary of Tom Fox's death. Tom was killed by his kidnappers in Iraq on March 9, 2006, 104 days after Harmeet, Norman, Jim and Tom were driving back from a Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) delegation visit when their car was pulled over by armed men and they were kidnapped. Since I didn't know Tom personally, I can only really write about my experience of his loss. For a more intimate portrait of Tom, see these eulogies by my colleagues.

It's been a busy winter. A series of trips has kept me busy over the last month and more lie ahead.  My return to the road renewed a debate I always have within myself whenever I pack my suitcase.  What is the proper book-to-clothes ratio for any given trip?

In January, Boa Sr died. At 85 years old, she was the last speaker of Aka-Bo. Until the 1850's those who spoke Aka-Bo were an one of 10 Great Andamanese tribes living their traditional life ways in the Andaman islands. Today, there are only 52 members of the remaining Great Andamanese tribes still living.

This is a tragic loss for the human family at many levels. Survival International has this haunting recording of Boa Sr singing.

When I was a kid, my mom regularly packed my sister and me into our red express wagon and pulled us the few blocks downtown to the Lancaster (Pa.) County Public Library. Wandering through the shelves of books that fill that grand brick mansion, we had free rein to stuff our bags with any book that caught our eyes ...

Last week my alma mater, Goshen College, announced that it would begin playing the Star Spangled Banner at sporting events. Their press release frames the decision as an exciting new theological and socio-political adventure for the college. Make sure to read the press release especially the quotes from GC president James Brenneman and the GC Presidential Council.

January 24 was the sixth straight day in a row of low hanging clouds here in Chicago. The snow that's been on the ground for weeks has mostly melted in the slightly warmer weather and the two months of trash it was hiding has resurfaced. In short, its the last sort of day when normal people would think to pull out their camera and go for a walk. But I realized that I've taken some of my favorite photos on days that didn't seem very scenic or beautiful. So I set off along the sidewalk to the Loyola Park beach. Roughly the first half of the photos are from my walk 6 blocks to the lake and the second half are the from the sandy, dirty ice bergs I found there.

One of the things I'm noticing about these photos is that I enjoy the parts that are just slightly out of focus as much as I enjoy what's in focus. For example, look at the branches behind for the purple mushroom bird feeder. They look like layers of tissue paper layed over each ther in intricate patterns. In other words, its all about short depth of field.

You can click on individual photos below to see the larger version, but I recommend the Dreary January Afternoon slideshow as the best way to follow along, step by step on my walk to the lake and along the beach.

Last evening I sat around our living room with 22 other Living Water Community Church folks and had a frank conversation about racism. The conversation was passionate and open. It ranged from personal stories to talk of definitions of racism and even touched on the practical. It was a new conversation to have with so many people in our congregation. My hope is that our sharing together will the start of a serious process that will include our whole church and not just a one Sunday event in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

As most of you well know, the vision of Martin Luther King was not simply dreams of black and white children playing together. It was not just about sitting down and being friends. Some of us have heard of his radical critique of the triple evils of poverty, racism and war. But in Malcolm & Martin & America: a Dream or a Nightmare?, James Cone goes far beyond the quotes and the sound bites to look at the grain of King's life and shows how his life path and vision was and is inextricably linked with that of Malcolm X.

In honor of the end of the decade, I decided to collect my favorite images of the decade, starting with 2000-2004. I've included captions for all of them to give some context: I took this photo of a father and son on my way to work one day in London. They were watching a Hindu festival outside the Murugan temple in Highgate. For me, this photo captures the passage of time at a number of different levels. Fittingly enough, I took it while working for the Mennonite Historical Committee. The watch is a Men Sim time piece which the Historical....

For the last few weeks, I've been wrestling with how to respond to Levi Miller's column on "peacenjustice." My first reaction was one of anger and frustration. No wonder the Mennonite church has had such a hard time integrating peace and justice into our whole denomination! The director of our publishing house mocks it as a buzzword and sees it as a product of "cultural chatterers." Miller seems to see shalom (the Bible's word for peace and justice) as a little more then a worn out fad. It was much loved by the Sandinistas and Sojourners in the 70's, but it is time to grow up and move on.

During my time in London, one of the joys was returning to three much loved pockets of green space in Highgate. They are Queens Wood, Highgate Wood and Hamsptead Heath. I also spent a morning walking around Epping Forest in the Northeast corner of London. Below are some of the photos I took. For me, they offer glimpses into sacred spaces much, much older then the city around them.