I will soon be speaking about homosexuality in a Sunday message and I’m wondering if you might be able to help me out.

Do you, or does someone you know struggle with reconciling same-sex attraction and faith? Would you be kind enough to tell me about how this issue has affected your life and how the Church fits into the picture? Positive experiences or negative experiences… I’d love to hear about all of it, as long as it’s honest. Leave me a comment.

And please, please, don’t use this as an opportunity for jokes or crude humor. This is a serious topic for many, and one the church has utterly failed to address.

And obviously, If you want to post anonymously, that’s cool.

Thanks so much.

Bert

This is just some silliness that I saw on the ‘net this week, which I thought you might groove on.

This guy is rockin’ an all-vocal Bobby McFerrin style tribute to Will Smith.

Epic.

Enjoy.

‘Sup everybody. Getting a lot of hits on my last post, so I figured it was time to hit you with round 2.

At The Lion Park in Pretoria, you can pet and play with lion cubs. Go on a weekday and you’ll have them all to yourself. And… they will have you all to themselves as well.

This is a 2-and-a-half month old lion cub. Looks like Simba. Cute. Spunky. Fun.

This is a 5 month old lion cub. Looks like a rottweiler but with bigger teeth. Aggresive. Muscular. A notch south of deadly but easily capable of sending chubby Americans to the hospital.

Yup.

“I must break you.”

“Ooooh. Can I touch your camera?”

“Dude, get OFF me!!”

Hey Gang,

Just getting back from a truly amazing trip to South Africa. I have much to write about and reflect on, but for now, I’m just going to get some pics up. I took thousands. Literally. So I’ll just hit you with the greatest hits and break it down into small parts.

These first pics are from a place called The Lion Park, where I had some pretty cool experiences.  If you ever find yourself in Pretoria, for about $75.00 US, you can spend an hour with an adult cheetah.  Go for a walk, feed him some tasty raw beef treats and obviously, take hundreds of pictures.

This is Masai. He’s an adult male.

Like most cats, he loved to be petted. His purr was LOUD. Dude sounded like he had a built in subwoofer. In some African cultures, the purr of large predatory cats is thought to have healing powers. I didn’t get healed of anything though. That I know of.

“Please God. Please. Don’t let him chew on my face.”

Is he photogenic or what?

I’m pretty sure he was getting ready to sprint here, but the trainer distracted him with a beefy treat. Cheetahs have binocular vision and can see things miles away.

“Awwww… Who’s a good boy? Who’s a big scary kitty cat?”

He’s tall when he stretches out! Cheethas actually don’t climb though. Their claws are not retractable, which is what helps them attain their incredible speed. Like permanent built-in cleats!!

Thanks for checking out my pics. I’ll be posting some more, bit by bit. As always, comments are welcome!