« humblethorn

the personal blog of paul vernon

Thank you for taking the time to view humblethorn. The purpose of this blog is to have an outlet to share my thoughts, quotes, ramblings and the occasional item of interest as I serve as a missionary to the Akha in Northern Thailand. Mostly, this is an outlet (in English!) for me to feel like someone out there is listening. So, to whoever you are, thank you for being my listening someone.

Many people have asked about the name "humblethorn". I would love to explain it, but I honestly don't fully understand it myself. In very simple terms, it is an identity that I have come to realize in Christ. I do not claim to be humble, rather that I am often humbled by my own weakness.

Feel free to navigate through the links on the top of this site to read more about me or just to view the photo galleries, videos, podcasts and journals about our lives with the Akha. Now... on to the posts!

There's always a deal at WalMart

Monday, April 10, 2006

Have you ever heard of Horatio Alger? If you are from America, you should know this name. While England had Charles Dickens' wonderful work Great Expectations, America had the dime store novels of Horatio Alger. Known as "rags-to-riches" stories, these dime novels told the stories of boys who succeeded despite the incredible odds stacked against them. Alger is famous because of the way he captured the American spirit to thrive despite adversity.

This would be a great place to write something deep and meaningful, instead we're going to go light and ridiculous. As we left Denver there were many serious changes going on. On top of the list was the concern of how the Broncos could get past the Pittsburgh Steelers and Indianapolis Colts without Trevor Pryce? Well, they might just have their very own rags-to-riches story in the making. Although I am quite certain they didn't get this guy for a dime, there always are great deals to be found at Wal-Mart.

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