John Gunter

Thoughts on Life and Living

I am grateful for a much needed vacation (the superficial)

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This is Ryan Sweeney and I diving in the Andaman Sea. . .
This is Ryan Sweeney and I diving in the Andaman Sea. . .

Do you ever find yourself in desperate need of a vacation?  Well, I found myself in that position a few weeks ago.  The stresses of the year, all the transition, travel, and challenges of work and life had just piled up.  I’m grateful that the Lord provided an exceptional break from which I returned from this past weekend.

Thailand is a weird and wonderful place.  I have had the fortune of going there many times since moving to Asia over 10 years ago.  Somewhere between 10-12 times, to be semi-exact.  Most of these times have been for work.  This time it was both work and a vacation which I tacked on to the end.

On this blog, I have tried to stay away from simply reporting on life.  Not that there is anything wrong with this, just not something I have chosen to do on this forum.  However, my time in Thailand was so great that I want to write 2-3 posts on it.

My next post will be more of the serious things I have taken away from this vacation.  However, here are some of the superficial highlights of my last 10 days of some much needed rest and recuperation. . .

I am grateful for the SUN of Thailand. . .  You see, we don’t get the sun much in this city of which I call home.  Even “sunny days” are overcast at best, with a grayish-brown hew which the sun fights its way through from time to time.  During the winter months, we will go weeks on end without seeing the sun at all.  Therefore, my favorite part of Thailand is always simply being in the sun.

Sounds strange, but it is true.  You don’t know what you have until it is taken from you.  Growing up in Atlanta, I took sunny, blue skies for granted.  Not so anymore.  As I sit here back in my East Asian apartment right now [Read more…]

Times when I hate being single!

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This post is from my series called “My thoughts on singleness (a series. . .)“. To read an overview and previous posts from the series, please click here.

Inviting another guy to movies like "Nottinghill" is never acceptable. . .
Inviting another guy to movies like “Nottinghill” is never acceptable. . .

As I type this, I have 4 hours and 50 minutes to go on this flight (according to the flight tracker). Not too bad, except for the fact that I have already been in this airplane for over nine hours. Unconscious bodies are strewn everywhere, with only the flicker of seat back movie screens cutting through the darkness. It is 3:29am where I took off from. Yet, I am not asleep, as I almost never sleep on planes.

Here is what is on my mind right now. . . during times like this, I hate being single. I travel a good bit and I’m often on long flights like this one. Always traveling alone makes trips like this that much more brutal than they already are.

So, in honor of this LONG flight and being single, here are a few of the times when I really, really don’t like being single. [Read more…]

My thoughts on singleness (a series…)

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Me (with Craig Clarke) at the Sunken Road from the Battle of Fredericksburg. . .
Me (with Craig Clarke last summer) at the Sunken Road from the Battle of Fredericksburg. . .

Table of Contents for this series on singleness:

(Explanation and overview of this series follows this list of contents)

Recently, Ruthie Dean asked me to write an article for her blog on the subject of singleness. I was honored, as her blog is exceptional. Additionally, it is a subject I have thought about often. This is probably obvious from the simple truth that I AM single and have been for quite a while. As a result, I had been meaning to write on the subject of singleness since I started this blog 9 months ago. However, it took Ruthie’s request to write for her blog to finally get me started.

So, what began as an article for Ruthie Dean and now evolved into an entire, ongoing series on singleness.  I don’t proclaim to be an expert on the subject, just a guy who has had a LOT of practice at being single.

I know that many people who read my blog are married. Actually, most people who read this blog are married. If that is the case, I hope marrieds can benefit from this series in three ways.

  1. Life and laughter – I hope that whether you are single or married, much of what I talk about will be equally applicable. To say it will be about singleness is a bit of a misnomer. This series will be about life. Given that I am an old bachelor, my angle will be from that of the vantage point of singleness. Also, I hope that some of it will be funny for all of us, if nothing else, humorously awkward.
  2. Understanding and ministry – Singles are increasing in number around the world. Did you know that for the first time in America history there are more single adults than marrieds? People are getting married older than ever in America. Divorce is a norm in society. Never marrieds are also increasing. Your churches, neighborhoods, places of work, and even your families will be increasingly populated with single adults. Hopefully reading this series will help you understand and relate to this growing population.
  3. Your future family – If you don’t already, you most likely will have children one day. Eventually, they will be single, at one time or another, in their adult lives. Hopefully, this series will be helpful for you in this way.

Life, Asia, friends, and family (pictorial highlights of 2012)

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My time with John Robert's "Flat Wolfie" at a local 1,200 year old city
My time with John Robert’s “Flat Wolfie” at a local 1,200 year old city

It is December 30, 2012.  Time to get contemplative about this past year and think more about what is to be accomplished this coming year. . . or at least that is what “they” tell us.

Well, I’m not going to do exactly that in this post.  However, I am going to look at a few of my favorite personal pictures of the year from four broad categories (life, Asia, friendship, and family) and talk a little about each.

The top picture is me with “Flat Wolfie” in one of the ancient cities that I frequently visit near where I live.  Who is “Flat Wolfie” you ask???  Well, this is Whitefield Academy’s version of the children’s story “Flat Stanley”.  One of the things I have enjoyed over the years has been helping my nieces and nephews DOMINATE in the [Read more…]

Grieving the brokenness of CT, but celebrating Christmas

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CT2 horz.2
Images from both the shootings and the Christmas season

I think we are all a little “off” right now.  Thoughts and images of the horrific happenings in Connecticut are surely at the forefront of most of our minds.  Believe it or not, the same thing happened here in Asia just a few hours prior to the one in America, but with less damage.  A mad man entered an elementary school and stabbed 22 kids.  Unbelievable that the events were both on Friday.

It is horrible.  There is very little else to say.

Parents are not supposed to bury their children.  When they do, it truly is tragic.  My heart breaks with the parents whom are spending this week prior to Christmas saying good-bye to their beloved children.  It really does.  I’m sure they were busily preparing for the happiest of all times, and then this happens.  It makes me physically nauseous just writing this now.

In writing this post, I am not going to even attempt to make sense of this event.  It defies explanation.

I will say this, though; we live in a broken world.  We live in a world where real evil [Read more…]

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