Luke's 4th Birthday

Today is Luke's 4th Birthday. Bless his heart. I greeted him this morning with 'Happy Birthday' and he cried and said he didn't want to be four but he was still three. Since his friend Charlie turned four in April, he has been saying is already four.
What I love about Luke:

~ He likes things little boys like - rocks, dirt, playing in the water, bugs, etc.

~ He loves the outdoors.

~ He likes books.

~ Last night he wanted me to read "The Big Picture Story Bible".

~ He likes things with wheels and balls. (He got both today as we gave him a bike. His Grammy and Grandpapa gave him a bike helmet and some balls. His Aunt Susan gave him tickets for the Georgetown Loop Railroad. And his Grandaddy gave him a battery-operated car. He also got two shirts from his Grandmommy.)

~ He likes me to wrestle him.

~ He lets me hold in my lap.

~ He loves his mommy.

~ He gets excited when I come home.

~ He is my son. That's enough, I love him just because he is.

Jailed for Showing Jesus on the Roof of the World

The Voice of the Martyr's persecution blog has a post about two men in Bhutan who were thrown into jail for showing the JESUS film.

The CIA World fact website says that Bhutan ('the last place on the Roof of the World') is 75% - Lamaistic Buddhist and 25% - Indian and Nepalese-influenced Hinduism. So not sure where Christianity fits in there.

Let's pray for our brothers Benjamin Dhunigana, John Dai and that the church there will be strengthened just like the early church in Acts.

On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:" 'Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Praying to Stop the Storm

Last night while I was grilling Luke a hamburger, he was sitting with me on the deck of the house we are staying at right now. It started lightening and thundering like a typical Colorado summer evening. One struck within a mile away.

Luke got scared and said he wanted me to make the lightening stop. I told him I couldn't make it stop by God could and that he should pray and ask God to make it stop. I am not sure if he totally was tracking because in the midst of being upset he also said he wanted the lightening to stop itself.

But it did quit lightening and while he was eating his hamburger, I asked him if he prayed and asked God to stop the lightening and thunder. Luke said he did. But then he also said he told the lightening to stop itself. So I am not totally sure. (Not that I don't have faith God answered his childlike faith prayer. I am just not sure if he prayed or not.)

Robin and I still used it as a teaching moment and reminded him of the verse he learned in AWANA's that 'even the wind and waves obey him'.

God's Provision

The day before yesterday I drove down to DIA to meet a former disciple. Andre who is a Indonesia and his wife Jennifer are serving in Indonesia with Frontiers. When he was a student at UNC, Andre helped reach out to internationals.

He was just in Colorado for a few days to speak at a church missions board and heading off to Minneapolis. We had a great time of reunion and fellowship. I was so encouraged by how God is using he and his family. They will be moving this summer to a new part of Indonesia that has 50 unreached people groups just on one island.

I parked in the economy parking and had a hard time finding a spot. I finally found one on the last row and just squeezed in as the car to right was over the line.

When I got back I remembered something. The door handle on the driver's side of my Camry broke about a month ago and I have been having to open the passenger door and climb through. Sometimes I lean over and roll down the driver's side window. (I have the old style of car where you roll the windows down.)

But the car to the right of mine was only about 4 inches from mine. I couldn't get in. I was able to barely open the door but there was no way my frame was squeezing through. I tried to roll down the window sitting up on the roof of this other guy's car and reaching down using my flip flop but it only did a 1/2 rotation.

I opened my trunk to see what was in there and found a little fishing pole a friend of mine gave me to give to Luke. I tried that but it didn't really worked that well.

It was 102 degrees that day too.

I went back to the trunk and looked around and found this little piece of wood. It's It's been in my trunk for two years and ever time I see I think. I need throw this away or ask Robin what it is for. (Turns out it was to make a garage sale sign two years ago.) So I tried that and I was able to work the window handle and get the window down. From that other guy's roof I climbed through he window and got in.

Crazy. If I had thrown away that stick or had fancy electric windows I don't know if I could have gotten in. I wasn't really prepared. More I don't do a good job of cleaning my car and this time it paid off. I guess I would have called AAA and had them tow it 5 feet.

Faith, Prayer and Fasting

Last week I meet with a friend of mine, Eric Coe, who leads our team in Irkustk. His team in Irkutsk is much like the church in Antioch because there are Americans, Russians, Buryats, and Koreans all serving together as one. Their movement has students involved from many other people groups from across Siberia.

As we met, Eric and I began discussing a passage that we both had been mulling over lately. It is the story of the father who had a demon-possessed son whom the disciples could not heal. (Matthew 17:14-23; Mark 9:14-32 and Luke 9:37-45) The scene of the transfiguration precedes this story in each of these accounts. Much like the two OT heroes who appeared in glorious splendor with our Lord, Jesus would come off a mountain-top experience to face a frustrating situation. Moses had the golden calf thing. Elijah had the Jezebel trying to kill him thing and him wanting to die under a Juniper tree. Jesus comes upon an argument because the disciples could not heal a boy.

I am sure I would be distraught like this dad who ran up to Jesus. His only son was out of his mind. The boy was mute, he was deaf, he had sucidal tendencies, he was oppressed. Life was miserable for him and the whole family. This father was desperate and the disciples couldn't help him. Luke, who we can always count on for chronological accuracy has this scene happen in the same chapter that starts off with Jesus sending the twelve out with power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. Here they were just a little while longer, left on their own for one night, and they couldn't do what he had just sent them to do.

Jesus says, "You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you and put up with you?" I don't know if he was speaking to the crowd, the father, the disciples or all of them. I know Luke says that Moses and Elijah were talking on the mount with Jesus about his upcoming death and in all three accounts Jesus tells the disciples that He is going to die right after this. So I imagine Jesus is thinking about upcoming death and wondering, "Man, can I leave these guys behind? Am I going to have to extend my stay here or what?"

Ministry is crazy sometimes. It seems like sometimes it's like you can't do no wrong, God is moving and showing up and the joint is jumping. And then suddenly it seems like nothing seems to work. Where did the power go?

The disciples ask Jesus why couldn't they drive out the evil spirit. matthew records that He tells them that its because they have little faith. If they only had faith the size of a mustard seed they could move mountains. The boy's dad was struggling with believing. The disciples had microscopic faith. And Jesus points out that the lot of them are an unbelieving generation.

" 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." Do I really believe that? I say I do but maybe I need to say like the dad, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" .

In a footnote in Matthew we learn that in later manuscripts they add that "this kind only comes out with prayer and fasting." This is similar to Mark too. Funny how we like certain additions to later manuscripts and then there are others we don't. I like "he who is without sin..." and don't like "they will pick up snakes" so much. But I digress.

I wonder if I am so quick to jump on the addition of fasting and praying? I like that over the idea of not having enough faith or impotent faith. Seems easier to take that route. But really, isn't prayer - desperate persistent prayer - a sign of faith? And really isn't fasting - true fasting not some pharisitical show or a cool Christian fad - what you do when you are desperate? Maybe even if it wasn't orginally there in the text I think still persistant prayer and real fasting when I face powerless ministry situations or desperate life situations would be evident if I have faith. The passage I link above in Luke 18 is a story told so we would learn to pray without giving up and He ends asking if he will find faith on earth.

Persistent prayer, fasting and faith are all woven together. The power available to us is unlimited. Nothing is impossible. Mountain-like obstacles of life and ministry are moved. People get delivered, healing happens and families are restored.

Mark says that Jesus commanded the demon not to return. It was a complete transformation. Then right after this in the next chapter in Luke Jeus sends them out again with 50 more disciples. They come back with joy and say "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." Again Luke with the chronological thing. I have to believe this is no accident. They have power available now to do what they couldn't do before.

Eric and his team have been praying and fasting this spring. They have seen more things happen in ministry than before. (I can't remember if he said more than he has seen in his eight years in Siberia or just lately, so I will leave it at that.) Barriers are being removed. Lives are being changed. And Jesus' glory is being revealed. They were believing but God is helping them overcome their unbelief.

Blue Sky

Krista Mikalatos - Matt Mikalatos' lovely wife - has a new blog and a great post about looking expectantly to God for Him to show her blue skies. Which is so needed not only in the Greater Northwest but wherever you serving Him.

The picture is really of their two cute girls which I stole from BNR. But Zoe (on right) looks and dresses a lot like Krista.

The Children's Blizzard

I finally sat down this week and started reading this book I bought last fall. It's been in my reading list to the right for months but actually I picked it up and few times and ended up reading other books. I finished it last night.

It is called the Children's Blizzard. It is a tragic story of a blizzard that stuck the Great Plains in 1888. It's called the children's blizzard because the day of January 12th started out as a unusually warm morning after weeks of cold weather. So most of the kids in the Dakotas, Nebraska, and western Minnesota went to school that day and often with very few jackets. But the warm weather was just the front of a massive cold wave from Canada. When it struck it struck fast and with incredible fury. Many children died trying to make it home or even to the nearest farmhouse. Men even died trying to get from their barn to their house.

It's a good read especially of how people react in a crisis. It reads like a mystery at times. The author does a good job of describing why and how these immigrants from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia came to settle the Great Plains, about weather systems and what happens when hypothermia sets in.

Erik Steffen Went Home

My friend and fellow co-worker, Erik Steffen, went home to be with Jesus last night. Erik leaves behind a wife, Kelly, and two boys, Alex (2 1/2) and Jensen (11 months).

Erik came to know Christ as his Savior while a student at the University of Georgia through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. He and Robin were involved in Crusade at the same time. Robin remembers him as a dynamic leader who boldly shared his faith.

Erik went on a STINT to Turkey and joined staff and served in the Great Lakes region where he met and married Kelly.

I haven't known Erik that long. I had heard of him and then we communicated a few years back about some STINT issues as he was serving as partnership coordinator for the Great Lakes region. The next year - 2004 - Erik joined the WSN team and took the same role in the Great Lakes that I have in the Great Plains (Associate Regional Director). I only got to spend time with him at a couple of WSN Nat'l meetings but I really enjoyed getting to know him and especially talking abut the Dawgs. I recruited him to be a team with me to help design and plan a training conference for our WSN summer project leaders in January 05. I remember him apologizing to me for being behind on his job because he was having these severe headaches. It turned out it was brain cancer.

I have really been impressed by Erik and Kelly's faith and perspective. God has really used him these past couple of years as he fought cancer. I can see many lives he has touched just by reading their updates.

I am saddened that my friend and brother is gone. I am sad and grieve for his bride and that his little boys will grow up with no memory of him. I rejoice that his suffering is over and that he with his Lord that he loved and served.