some Noel works

Noel Collins Pfeifer, Reviewer

Making Room: Recovering the tradition of Christian Hospitality
by Christine Pohl

Pohl begins with a historical excavation into the ancient Christian tradition of hospitality and finds it to be a quintessential part of the Church’s identity. The material is well-researched and well-presented. She gleans strength from her treatment of Scripture, tradition, reasoning a plausible re-shaping of it in contemporary culture and being shaped by the experience of historical and present day hospitality ministers. Pohl writes of hospitality as a deeply Biblical practice that God even forged into the Covenant with Israel through their “identity as aliens and related responsibility to sojourners and strangers.” (27) They even saw it as a place of sacramental meeting with God. Pohl is also critical of many aspects of today’s particularly Western context that have and may continue to impede hospitable churches and homes. These include fear, busyness, loss of a sense of Church as family and the valuing of individualism. However, Pohl has not lost hope and continues to explore the possibility of reconstituting hospitable attitudes and practice with the help of God and the wisdom of those who have previously taken up the mantle. No conversation on hospitality would be complete without defining “stranger”, the art of welcoming, the dignity of persons, the power of recognition, communal meals, multiple Church or family co-operation, and the importance of laughter. She also outlines many of the challenges inherent to this ministry and those nitty, gritty, honest fears and questions that may very well keep people from ever even attempting hospitality. Pohl does not pull punches or minimize the loss of this hallmarking tradition, but it is clear that she believes in an educational-conversational approach rather than simply making Christians feel guilty about it. She speaks as a prophet in, for and to the Church. Overall, it is a vastly helpful book for those who recognize that our society is truly yearning for belonging, and that the Church is in a unique position to offer genuine belonging and love through open hearts and open doors. It is a highly accessible read, enabling to the hospitable of heart and exhortative to those who are not gifted but consider hospitality a valuable tradition to be resuscitated in the Church. For further practical help, she includes some brief information from existing hospitality ministries worldwide and an extensive bibliography. Making Room is an important asset to this Biblical discipline’s rediscovery and incorporation, which Pohl would say, and I would agree, is paramount to the proclamation of the Gospel and the symbol of our eschatological hope of feasting together at the wedding banquet of the Lamb.

The REAL story of Roswell, New Mexico

On our way to ABQ, we stopped by Roswell's UFO Museum and Research Center, home of all things alien and UFO-related.  Spurred on by the events of a fateful July evening in 1947, this Museum documents the history of the town and the accounts of those involved either in the discovery of aliens and their aircraft downed in Roswell or the cover up which took place thereafter.  And it's great; you can take photos of anything except the Gift Shop :)  My one critique is that for a legitimate establishment with a very compelling story to tell, they sure had a lot of typos.  For all of you who know me, this is something I cannot abide...especially for museums and centers of fact transmission.  I mean seriously, as though America isn't already full of skeptics, why further that skepticism by clueless editing of walltalkers?  Well, before this turns into a post on typos, we'll move on....

You know you're in Roswell when...

I blew this up because I want to make sure you can see the "TOP SECRET" part...also, I never found anything explaining space light generating from aliens groinal regions so your guess is as good as mine.

Sorry the bottom's so blurry, it reads "Certain artistic license has been taken to show visually what has been reported."  Whoa, I'll say.  I thought Steve Miller was the only space cowboy but boy was I wrong.

This is a very partial list of propaganda on why it's likely that aliens exist and come to Earth.  Please note the Bible verses.  It's funny how few people really take the Text as legitimate and yet, when it comes to proving aliens exist, everyone's a believer.

The stuff that dreams are made of...or at least UFOs and/or weather balloons and/or government cover-ups.   This is a photo of a photo of one of the first military persons on the scene of the 1947 Roswell incident with the man to first discover the crashed UFO and its dead inhabitants.  He kept pieces of the craft which were like aluminum but immediately went back to their original shape once manipulated.  The original pieces conveniently disappeared from military personnel offices shortly thereafter.

This is an explanation of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".  Please note that one of the only people they consider "sophisticated" and a legitimate source is a pastor.  Awesome.  I hope I have such claims to fame to look forward to!

Noel pictured with RALF (Realistic Alien Life Form, for long) and the New Mexican flag, with a place like Roswell, how can one not be proud to be a New Mexican????

Greg befriending the poor caged RALF-good luck, little buddy.

One of the many alien wares shops in Roswell.  Actually, we were legitimately perplexed by how many businesses did not capitalize on the whole UFO/alien thing.  I mean, come on!  Nobody's going to go anywhere in this town if you don't claim to have something to do with inter-universe relations. 

This comic pretty much sums up the whole UFO museum for me.  Like, well, they can make up weather balloon stories and crash dummy stories (2 ways in which the government tried to deny the incident and say that it was really them running tests, etc) if they want, but we all know that one way or another, it was actually the aliens.