Letters from Lilongwe

I had an amazing time with my family back in North Carolina.  We were able to go to the beach for five days, just chilling out, talking, and resting.  That is the best quality time in my opinion.  None of us had anything to do except for my older sister but we all were able to just wake up late, take long walks on the beach, and chill in the hot tub.  We had no agenda and nothing we had to do, therefore we played cards, watched movies, and just talked.  I loved that time.   Then we came back to the house for Christmas day.  We did a version of our typical Christmas morning which normally occurs in this order; wake up, wait to come downstairs, take pictures on the stairs, read the birth of Christ, open some presents, eat an amazing french toast breakfast, open some more presents, then nap for the rest of the day while waking to play with the new gadgets and gizmos.  This year we ate, went to church, then opened presents.  The major difference this year was that my brother and I go z

Mumford & Sons have become one of my favorite bands recently because of their musical blend.  They mix folk, bluegrass, and some amazing lyrics to captivate audiences.  I know that Mumford is a Christian therefore I try to read into his lyrics, and how he is expressing the effect of Christ on his Life.  When I listen to this song my ears gravitate towards the lines;   " You can understand dependence; When you know the maker's hand" . There are plenty of expressions of how the Lord is working in their lives through their music, but in this line he highlights our dependence on our Father. Once we know his hands, see if work, view his power, we can respond to his glory through our dependence. What lines from this song catch your ear? It's empty in the valley of your heart The sun, it rises slowly as you walk Away from all the fears And all the faults you've left behind The harvest left no food for you to eat You cannibal, you meat-eater, yo

Barnes and Noble came out with an update in the last few week for the Simple Touch Nook and it blocked the basic web browser.  Therefore I am going to root my nook and put Androis 2.1 on my Nook. 5:15pm 12/26/11 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1351719 8:04pm 12/26/11 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1343143 Well it turns out that when do you not have a micro sd card adapter you can not put the image on the micro sd.  This sounds really stupid but I was trying to use my nook as an adapter for the sd card.  I was following all of the instructions put forth but it just can not work the method I was trying.  Therefore I will have to find the adapter that is floating around our house, or pick one up in the morning.  Once I find it then the process should be smooth but if I can not get the ball rolling then it shall never roll. 11:22pm 12/26/11 Ok, somethings went wrong tonight with the rooting process and the installation of Crunchbang on my

Hymns are such a huge part of the Church and an historical look at the way we worship as Christians. In this 3 song EP, David and Leslie wanted to give away three of their favorite hymns that they lead often at Journey Church in Franklin, TN. All three songs will be available for FREE to download on Monday, November 21st on Noisetrade.com! I highly recommend these songs to anyone who loves music in general.  Hymns sometimes are constrained to "Old Fashion" Churches but I feel that the truth that is placed in their lyrics is so very powerful.  As a lifelong Christian I tend to find myself just singing along and not actually worshiping to hymns.  They have become part of the routine but these songs have begun to spark an interest to investigate hymn lyrics and seek out where their biblical truth comes from.   All is Great in the Lord Paul Shackelford

This time away from tech has been amazing and I really needed this time off.  While down at the beach I decided to be intentional with my listening to music for more than just the warm feeling it produces within.  As I started listening to this song I felt the Lord speak to me in my walls and barriers.  I did not realize why at times I really did not want to talk about the Lord, be in community, encourage others, or preach the Gospel to myself.  I just had no desire to be in connection with the Lord, but as I have been away I can see that the reason I sing is because of the sacrifice of Christ.  If I truly believe that Jesus came to the world for our salvation than my heart will know that he is worthy of my life, time, efforts, and everything that I am.   This may just be a jumble of thoughts but my main thought from this writing is the Reason that I sing.  I sing because Christ has paid for my sin, he has paid the price that was assigned to me.  All by the Blood of Jesus! H

While walking across Grbvicka on June 19, 2011 to go get some Pizza Montana I had an idea. So I wrote it on my thumb like I do for most all of my ideas. This idea came from a song I had been listening to by Red.  Not Alone was all that came to mind, at a time when  truly  loving students was hard, living with ten other individuals was hard.  The Lord showed me that I am not alone, he is with me, walking along side me,  comforting   leading, and guiding.   Another off shoot of this idea can from how I wrote "Not Alone"  on accident I wrote the "n" in alone capital and flipped.  So I started to play with some graphics of how this could be incorporated into a Tattoo, logo, band name, ect.  I have no idea what I will do with the mock-ups I have in my little book but in the future I will look back and use it for something! Here is the song that sparked the crazy thumb writing as I crossed a four lane highway in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Slowly fading away You're

Oh man, now I know why the British rave about the Greek Isles.  After being in Israel my family and I flew to Athens then ferried to Hydra.  When we arrived there were two donkeys waiting to meet us because this old sea port has no cars, the houses were built before cars so the passageways will only fit one donkey loaded down.  So we commenced to hiking up the mountain to our Bed and Breakfast above the city.  At first I was reluctant to give my duffle bag to the Donkey but once we made it to our hotel I was glad I wasn't lugging around another thirty pounds. This place was great, they had amazing Greek food, most of which is Turkish but don't say that in Greece.  They had beautiful beaches, massive cliffs, clear water and perfect sun.  It doesn't get much better than that its like all country sounds rolled into one, but were in Greece not North Carolina. I have been thinking through the comfort that I live as the son of a professor, I have had the world, literally, ha

During our stay in Jerusalem we stayed in the old City at the Christ Church Guest house, it is part of Christ Church which is the oldest Protestant Church in the Middle East.  The location was great, service was great(actually it was manned by a team of 10-15 volunteers), lack of A/C was just fine with me.  This Guest House is a form of ministry used to be able to house short and long term missionaries to Jerusalem and one night I got to talking to two men in their mid 50's.  I was sitting near them doing some writing in my Journal and they struck up a conversation.  One man worked for an NGO in Palestine to outfit disabled children with wheelchairs.  He was accompanied by a full time missionary who started telling me about some of the amazing experiences the Lord has used him in.  The one that sticks in my heard(I am writing this a week after) was as we were talking about boldness and how the Lord allowed him to talk to two Palestinian women and how they are both following Chri

It all started at 2am on the morning of Sunday the seventh day of our trip.  We awoke jumped in the Rental car with our bathing suits and some walking shoes.  As we were leaving Jerusalem for the Dead Sea my mother took a wrong turn but we were on a major highway that was deserted, so I piped up from the backseat to just back up and take the exit but she didn't get this message for another 300m when she started to slow.  As she put the car in reverse and had the car going about 25mph in reverse we say blue lights coming from behind coming quick.  So mom brought the rental Ford to a stop and a soldier jumped out of the Humvee and we said very innocently that we were trying to get to the Dead Sea and we got an armed escort out of town.  About five minutes later we roll through a check point and then another to get into the West Bank.  Israel has their checkpoints of lock-down and the way that they are so effective is they just racially profile each person.  If you look Israeli, or

This song has so much power, even if you remove the lyrics.  I just decided to take in the full potential of the song by turning the stereo all the way up and playing the song a few times.  Before even looking for a video of this song I knew it was related to the Civil War and the separation that occurred between loved ones.  This song starts out explaining the battle field and how the soldier has survived the terrors of war.  As the song continues to build you can tell that the soldier wants to be with his love.  They have been separated by this war and now he wants to be back with her.  The last few lines portray his death and how he has been reunited with his "True Love".  I believe that this song describes his "True Love" as God, our eternal True Love. He has returned to his maker after being killed in Battle and this song paints that picture so well. This song has tons of power in the music behind the lyrics, it adds so much to the meaning of this song!

I discovered All Sons and Daughters while downloading music from  NoiseTrade  last spring .   They have an amazing blend of soft beautiful harmonies that create a praise which melts your heart.   When I started to research the duo of David Leonard and Leslie Jordan I realized that I had seen the name David Leonard before.  It turns our he was the lead singer of Jackson Waters, a Christian Pop/Rock band that I saw in concert at Pittsboro Baptist Church back at Northwood.  I really loved their sound and have listened to their album over and over again.  When I saw that some of their sound had been  transferred  to All Sons and Daughters I was very excited.  For the longest time I saw satisfied with the free songs they posted on NoiseTrade but today I decided to finally start supporting artists that I enjoy.  Now I am able to relish all of the great songs that they put on their first EP, Brokenness Aside No1 .  You can pick up this album from Google Music for $5.99, its well worth your

Over the last few weeks I have begun to realize things about my tendencies that I never really took much care to look deeply into.  Stuff that I normally just do out of habit or some random nonsensical reason.  I have been realizing more about how I express myself and through what medians.  Being an introvert I tend to keep to myself most of my opinions and thoughts when around a lot of people.  Since I dont really like to pipe in my thoughts in a conversation I am content with being in a room with other people and not saying a word the entire time.  Ok, I am diverting from my original topic of writing with this thought. My levels of that I allow myself to be exposed would consist of the medians that I put my thoughts out at. Most Personal to Least Personal While in Oxford I took a my bible, journal and two cameras  and just walked around Oxford!  Oh how I miss a carefree summer Journal : When I have time, I write most every thought on those pages, this information comes s

I have been at the bottom of the pit before where I could not see above the rim.  Being torn down by the mistakes of my past, not thinking that I was in any shape to come limping back to God.  I felt as though I would be simply rejected for my wrong deeds and sent off more another round of torment.  But this song affirms the life and message of Jesus which is that he came and died for us so that the barrier that separates us from our heavenly father.  Now we can be remade and have a regenerated heart that does not resemeble and of our past failues.  All of our sins have been washed clean and we stand before the Judge in a white robe with no signs of our previous selves.  This is amazing therefore I posted this song! There's a girl in the corner With tear stains on her eyes From the places she's wandered And the shame she can't hide She says, "How did I get here? I'm not who I once was. And I'm crippled by the fear That I've fallen too far to lo

About five years ago I first heard of One Laptop Per Child while reading an article in Popular Science.  I saw a product that was meeting third world students at an impressive place.  OLPC was building cheap durable computers to be used by students in developing countries.  They could be powered by a hand crank or a small solar panel.  This is one step towards equipping students to learn material that can only be reached by a personal computer. During my Highschool days OLPC was running a program called Give One Get One.  A tax deductible contribution of $400 sponsored one computer to be sent to a school in a developing country and one computer would be sent to you.  At the time I really wanted a personal computer so I did a lot of research to convince my parents with the fact that it would be contributing technology to a place of need and at the same time I could get my own computer. In the end it made little to no sense for me to buy a computer created for elementary school

Over thanksgiving we as a family were trying to figure out how we should spend our Christmas break as a family.  This will be one of the last extended periods of time that we spend together because of how we are being called to different parts of the country and world.  One of the purposed plans was to head up to the West Virginia mountains and spend some time skiing and relaxing up in the mountains.  Therefore when I was packing to come home from Tech I got together all of my cold weather cloths.  I decided to shoot an email out to see if we were actually still going skiing and sure enough I had missed the memo that we were renting a house down on the coast for the week.  It turned out to be a much better idea to spend this time at the beach because its warm in the mountains and not many slopes are open. These last two days have been characterized by me sleeping a lot and eating tons.  Both were things that I missed out on a lot during finals week.  I ran out of food at the house

This is an incredible video that gets you thinking about our priorities during the Christmas season.  Do we focus on material gift that bring flutters of happiness or do we focus on giving our time to important relationships?  Take a took at this video because it puts a new perspective on the holiday season I saw this video last year and it caused some of my focus in both asking for gifts and what I gifted to others.  How will it change your thinking about the season of giving? Feels Great to be back at Home in my own bed, also its so quite in this house its crazy! All is Great in the Lord Paul Shackelford

After Economy was released on Google Music , I could not stop listening to the album because of John Marks lyrical talent.  I feel in love with many of his songs from The Medicine, and one of my favorites is Death in his Grave .  The release of Economy got me very excited and my expectations were met.  Just weeks after the CD's release I went to see David  Crowder Band , John Mark opened along with Chris August.  At this time I got experience these new songs live and they became stuck in my head.  While walking around Tech the lyrics would not leave me head. " Once from the dust Once from the grave Daughters and sons From the ashes you’ve raised And hidden our faults Even from your own face And scattered our debt upon the waves" I did not remember what song it was from so instead of doing a quick Google search I decided to listen to the album once more and find the song I was in search of.  Now it is your turn to meditate on these lyrics I guarante