A recent archeological find has uncovered coins from ancient Egypt’s Hyksos dynasty that contain the image and name of Joseph, the biblical patriarch. The news appeared in an article in the Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram:

“Joseph’s name appears twice on this coin, written in hieroglyphs: once the original name, Joseph, and once his Egyptian name, Saba Sabani, which was given to him by Pharaoh when he became treasurer. There is also an image of Joseph, who was part of the Egyptian administration at the time.”

Read more about the story from Israel’s National News, or from this Assist Ministries article which outlines additional biblical and historical material related to the find.

Diane and I are on a weight loss regiment. We both want to shed about 80 pounds before our 25th wedding anniversary in December. So today I decided to get some exercise done on the elliptical machine. About thirty minutes into my exercise the steel bar for the right side pedal snapped. No kidding. My bulbous frame snapped a steel bar.

Man. I’m powerful.

I have not been active here for many months—since November of 2009. That’s a long time away. But recently I’ve been thinking about returning to the blogsphere to spend some time sharing and reflecting upon my life in Christ and what it means.

So, expect me to start posting again soon.

I was given access to the roof of Central Tower in downtown UB today. I spent about an hour taking various shots of Ulaanbaatar. I also applied some “tilt-shift” effects to the images to create the illusion of miniatures. The images are on my Flicker page.

Raindrops falling in front of my lens on July 21st, 2009.
Click the image for a larger version on my Flickr page.

I don’t know if I’m going to continue this blog or not. Between my duties at Eagle TV, my seminary studies, and other issues, I’ve not been much in a blogging mood. Maybe it’s time for me to sign off when it comes to this blog.

Of course the creative spark may suddenly hit me again and I’ll want to rant and rave about something. But until that happens I doubt I’ll be here much.

Thanks to everyone who took the effort to spend some time here with me.

A 12-year dream for me is about to come true. My course work with Reformed Theological Seminary begins May 1st. I’m focused on a certificate in Old Testament studies and hope to eventually work my way toward an M.Div.

It’s about time I educated myself.

I started on the reading assignments yesterday. I read two chapters of an introduction to Old Testament. I’ve got over a hundred pages to do by this weekend, also focused in Old Testament with the book, He Gave Us Stories, by Richard Pratt. I’ve actually read this book before, and liked it very much so I’m looking forward to digging into it more as a student.

Even though it’s distance education it still feels a bit strange to “go back to school” after 27 years. I’m a bit nervous, but looking forward to it.

I decided to go “back to school” to prepare for future ministry and also help me augment my current ministry with Eagle TV. I’m doing a lot more teaching now, and hope to increase that part of my activity.

I’ve wanted to attend RTS for nearly 12 years. But each year I checked on it there was something that kept it just out of my reach, health issues three years ago, financial trouble a few years before that, conflicts with ministry at various times. This is the first year that everything seemed to match up to make it possible for me to get started. I’m so thankful. My schedule is much more reasonable now, giving me time after working at Eagle each day to devote to study.

Your support helps me pay for the dream, so thank you for all that you do in supporting our ministry, and now, my education.

BTW, if you haven’t given in a while and would like to help with a gift of support then please visit www.thomasterry.com/gift.

I am traveling to Albuquerque on Saturday to spend a week meeting with folks, including some time encouraging a new family that will be moving to Mongolia this summer from the Duke City. After my time in Albuquerque is complete I’ll make a quick run back to Tucson to pack up for my return trip home to Mongolia.

I’ve been in the States for eight months, minus the three weeks I spent in Ulaanbaatar in January for Rochele’s wedding. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to getting back home, being with my wife and youngest daughter Whitney, and getting back to work.

About a month after I return to Mongolia I’ll be starting some distance education classes on Old Testament Studies through Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS). I’ve wanted to attend RTS for the last twelve years and this was the first year that my schedule and finances would permit it. Why am I taking seminary classes with RTS? To prepare for future ministry of course, and to augment my current ministry with Eagle TV.

During the last week my course materials have been arriving. Stacks of books, software, and audio lectures are sitting on the kitchen table waiting for packing day. Among the many books, almost half of them are for Hebrew studies. Needless to say, language isn’t one of my strong suits. Mongolian has been more than a little tough for this full-time working guy. I’ve no little trepidation about taking two classes in Hebrew. In 1993 I took six months of Arabic and did pretty well. I’m hoping that the magic will come back, so to speak, for the Hebrew studies. One of the things I enjoyed about Arabic was that is was a completely different animal from English, not just in sentence structure, but also the characters. There was something about that that actually helped my study. The characters can’t be confused with anything English, unlike Mongolian where an H is an N, and a P is an R, and so on. I’m hoping the same thing that happened to me with Arabic will also happen with Hebrew.

By the way, don’t ask me to translate anything from Arabic. I’ve lost almost everything I knew, which was just an elementary level anyway.

Looking forward to being in Albuquerque for a few days.

Diane emailed me this picture of the kitchen window.

Yup, that’s ice on the inside of the window. When I returned to Mongolia a few weeks ago I snapped this one with my iPhone.

What makes these so remarkable to me is that we have those new-fangled windows that are supposed to be sealed so that what’s outside stays outside. But since the kitchen is where you boil water and cook, the moisture in the air traps at the windows, and apparently, the seals and thus the ice starts building up.

Click on the images for the Flickr versions.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting in Tucson, Arizona where there’s no ice save what’s in the freezer.

Original at my Flickr page.