LayGuy

I’ve been blogging at www.layguy.com for just over two years now.  Before that I posted a few items on Yahoo 360 and I copied a few of those posts over.  Tonight I took a trip into my stats just to see what’s been popular on this blog and below are the top half 5 posts over the years.  Hope you enjoy..

 

 

1. Man Turning Into A Tree

When I wrote this post, I had no idea just how popular it was to become.  It was the story of Dede – a man in Indonesia who contracted Human Papillomavirus (HPV) – a bug which causes skin diseases and warts.  However Dede suffered from a rare form of immune disorder where his body was unable to cope with HPV and his warts took on a “bark like” quality and just kept on growing and growing and growing….

 

 

 

2. Bill Hybels says “We Made A Mistake”

Will always remember when I heard Bill Hybels say, “We made a mistake” in regards to the “attractional” or “seeker sensitive” approach.  He admitted that this created a breed of shallow and spoon fed Christians.  Research by his church concluded that the goal of churches is to create disciples who are “self feeders” and are able to grow in their spiritual maturity and develop a deeper relationship with Jesus.

 

 

3. Watch Rob Bell’s NOOMA Online For Free!

While I am not a big fan of Rob Bell – mainly because of his emergent type need to need to question everything – I am a fan of this guy’s ability to communicate.  A great example of this is his NOOMA series of video’s – short stories designed to draw out conversation on spiritual matters for small groups.  I collected all his NOOMA video’s I found online (21 at the time), made a VODPOD collection and posted them on my blog.  Worked like a charm until they were deemed copy write and whoever posted them online had to take them off.

4. America’s Top 50 Influential Churches

This was posted back in July 2007 and has been getting constant hits ever since.  Snatched and expanded from www.churchrelevance.com at the time, this post lists (with URL’s and some Pastor’s blogs) the most influential churches in the US back in July 2007.  Makes for interesting reading and a great place to check out church websites and resources on some of the best churches around.

5. The Demon Seed – Fallen Angels

This is one post from a series of posts I did on the Nephilim – the hybrid offspring of angels and humans before the flood and the real reason God destroyed the earth.  Most Christians (including Reformed) don’t take this topic seriously and brush it off as fantasy.  But I invite you to take a journey with me with this series of posts and you will never see history the same way again.  Entire series (although unfinished) listed below.

The Demon Seed

The Demon Seed – Pt 2

The Demon Seed – Text & Questions

The Demon Seed – Fallen Angels

The Demon Seed – The Nephilim

The Demon Seed – Demon DNA

The Demon Seed – And Also Afterward

Hmm…. makes me want to complete this series.

When you think of your family tree, you don’t usually think of a literal “family tree” do you? Well most people wouldn’t – but unfortunately for one family in Indonesia, they do.

Meet ‘Dede’ – a 35 year old father of two living in poverty in a remote village in Indonesia.

Dede grew up normal, but at 15, he had an accident where he cut his knee. From then on, warts and welts started taking over his body and have simply kept on growing to what resembles “bark like” qualities.

His wife bolted leaving him to look after his two kids. As his condition worsened, Dede became completely dependant on others for even the most mundane tasks in life – such as putting on clothing.

When he cut his knee as a teen, a virus entered his body – HPV. Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the bug which commonly causes warts and other skin diseases. Those of us who had or have warts can usually fight off this bug with our immune systems.

But in Dede’s case, things get a little more complicated. He suffers from a rare genetic fault which renders his immune system void in helping stop the spread of this virus through his body. The video clip below demonstrates the shattering reality of this in Dede’s life.

An American dermatologist, Dr Anthony Gaspari of the University of Maryland, has come to the aid of Dede after being exposed to the story on Discovery Channel.

Gaspari believes daily doses of Vitamin A could drastically reverse the growth of warts to the point where Dede can use his own hands. The rest of the growth can be frozen and then surgically removed. This is great news for Dede as his greatest worry is not seeing his children grow old and not meeting his grand children.

I’m stoked for Dede and am moved by Gaspari’s determination to treat this guy. This story is about to go live as the Discovery Channel “My Shocking Story” series, and will be shown on the Discovery Channel at 9pm on Nov 15. For more details visit the programme’s website.

Already the cruel blog world is making fun of this story calling Dede a freak and using all manner of puns to put him down. He has suffered enough in his life and my hope is that one day, he will be cured of this disease.

Tags: Dede, Tree Man, HPV, Human Papillomavirus, Discovery Channel, Warts