A Brief Update:

Greetings, readers of this blog!

I have made it back to the Philippine Islands safe and unharmed. (Also, on an unrelated side note, I have not been killed by a giant Tsunami, nor have I perished in a gaping crater opened up by an violent earthquake. After receiving a few long-distance phone calls, I realize that this might be something that I should say. ) My journey back was long, stressful, and deserving of an entire blog post (maybe two) in its honor. However, that story will take some time to tell, and time is something that has been running scarce. So, that story, along with its pictures, is still to come.

As many of you may already know, I have returned to the Philippines to serve temporarily as the Communications Officer for APNTS (Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary). My goal is essentially to get people talking and connected: person to person, department to department, committee to committee, and then APNTS to the Globe. A large focus (and my personal interest) will be with an initiative against Human Trafficking and Exploitation called "StepUP". This is a large partnership between APNTS, Visayan Forum, NCM, and a few other NGO/Humanitarian groups. I hope to become well acquainted with this kind of work and eventually do my Dissertation in the community/human development and the integration of such programs. That is another story that is yet to be told.

In the meantime, my life has been consumed with papers and final revisions to my thesis before it goes for publishing. I have felt terrible for, once again, allowing this blog to gather dust while my life galavants onward--stories untold, and thoughts unrecorded. So... to stave off the encroaching feelings of guilt and soothe the inklings journalistic negligence, I thought I would jot you all a quick note to say that all is well. And it is.

Until next post,

Jarrett

(** The picture above is from "American Culture Day". I made it back to the Philippines just in time to join. At APNTS every cultural group has their own day in which they share a little about their culture and provide some "cultural food". This year, we made Peanut Butter and Jelly.)