The Most Popular Birthday and My Reading List

Reading friends,

Today is a brief blog.

I’ve been sick all week with a viral digestive bug.  Pray for healing.  I leave Saturday for a trip Up Country with my home church in Louisiana.

Two things are on my mind and heart:

One: Birthdays in South Sudan

Two:  Books I’ve been reading.

Birthdays 

We’re working on Visas for an upcoming trip to Ethiopia.  Edward Dima is president of our Baptist Convention of South Sudan.  Edward and Ding Lual are traveling with us to the refugee camps of Gambela Region,  Ethiopia.

Edward supplied me with his full name, passport number, and other dates.

One date jumped out:   date of birth:  January 1, 1969.

Edward is one of the thousands of young South Sudanese who walked across their country during the midst of the Civil War.

They are known collectively as The Lost Boys.

When they finally arrived in Ethiopia and then Kenya, they were given identity papers.  Few knew their dates of birth, so the organizations assigned most of them January 1.

As in 1-1-69.

If you’ve seen the recent movie,  “The Good Lie”,  the Lost Boys (and Girls) were told,  “It’s a good date.  There will always be a celebration on your birthday.

I was reminded that my friends like Edward, Ding, and dozens more have experienced things that I will never understand.

They are my friends.

They are my teachers.

LLL   

That’s “Life Long Learner.”

It’s a major goal of my life as I inch closer to sixty.

Reading is the avenue where I strive to learn, grow, and be stretched.  The image (from my Kindle) above shows some of my recent books.

Several comments:

The book in the center of the page is What is the What. It’s the best Lost Boys of Sudan book I’ve read. It’s worth a reading just to understand the origin of the title.

You can see a few of the Bible versions I read.  I get a daily dose of Proverbs (reading the chapter that confirms to the day of the month).  I’m also digging into the Gospel of John, Joseph in Genesis 37-50, and much more.

I enjoy biographies.  Two of listed here.   Wilson is an excellent study of one of our most complex and important presidents.

Rebel Yell is a recent award-winning biography of Stonewall Jackson.  I’m currently in the midst of it.  Wow.

Many of the early African explorers stories are free on Kindle.  I’ve read of Livingstone, Speke, Baker, Burton, and more. It helps me understand this area that is currently our home.  Baker’s Discovery of Lake Albert comes alive as I drive through the very areas he wrote about.

I’ve always loved history.  An Army at Dawn is about World War II and our American forces in north Africa.  Two American Indians history make the list.  They tell the stories of Quanah Parker (Commanches) and Red Cloud (Sioux).

Self-help/improvement books are always on my list.   The Happiest Life and unique Japanese-inspired The Magic of Tidying Up are neat (pun intended).

I use Evernote daily and am always trying to learn more about this tool to organize the paperwork of one’s life.

Two of the best books I’ve read (and am currently re-reading) are:

Essentialism  by Greg McKewon and The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

All the Light We Cannot See is the best novel I’ve read recently.

I share this titles simply as an accountability tool that I’m trying to live by my “LLL Motto.”

What are the best books you’ve read recently?