Since the CIA is an intelligence gathering institution, that seems like asking "Is Queen Elizabeth British?" or "Is baseball America’s summer pastime?". The CIA doesn’t just spy, though – it also researches public information. Maybe mine, too? (more…)

When I was in high school, my German teacher was able to be distracted by asking him about the trains in Germany. He usually spent the summer vacation in Germany and was quite a train fan. On days when we were supposed to have a quiz or some in-class assignment, getting him to talk about the trains in Germany usually meant that the test was postponed. (more…)

My visit to the dentist yesterday was another opportunity to improve German-American relations. Since I was on the chair for 75 minutes, my dentist had lots of time to give me her opinion on the U.S. President and current U.S. foreign policy. (more…)

Very few countries have ever had a pope. So the chronology of events today was quite interesting for me, especially since I was in Cologne to take care of a favor for a friend. Cologne is the Catholic church headquarters here in Germany.

Here is a chronology in local time (Central European Daylight Savings Time) of today’s election:
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We all make mistakes. Some are more obvious than others. The problem is this: we aren't the only ones to notice the obvious ones. Others notice them, too. That happened to me this week when my neighbor confronted me about my "stairwell sin".
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Germany is really "out of Africa" – it lost its colonies there following World War I. Otherwise I might be writing from Togo or Southwest Africa (today’s Namibia) or traveling from Europe to Africa and racking up lots of frequent flier miles.

Some Africans still seem to have a special interest in Germany, though. Or maybe their sense of geography isn’t so good. We usually notice that a couple of times a month.
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A "Gute Nachrichten" subscriber in Volkmarsen, a town north of Frankfurt not far from Kassel, wrote to cancel his subscription. He explained why in a terse note: "War, fighting, strife, arguing? I can get that via television! Don’t send me your Good News any more, or else I’ll send it back at your expense." It seems this fellow is not very cost-conscious!
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Welcome to the UCOG Today blog!

Why a blog? Why UCOG? Good questions – ones I hope to address in various posts.

First of all, this form of communication provides a convenient opportunity to share thoughts and experiences. Which brings me to the point of my first blog entry, addressed to the greater Church of God community:

What is our charge as Christians? Didn't Jesus tell us to lift up our eyes and look at the fields, for they are white already to harvest? What is our individual obligation in reaching and reaping that harvest?

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