Reflections on Suffering and Hope

A friend of mine, Annie Bennett, has written an article for a California magazine about her husband's death and the hope the Lord has given her and her family. I was on staff in San Diego with Annie and her husband Michael in the late 80's. April 26th would have been their 20th anniversary and the 1 year anniversary of Michael's sudden death is 2 1/2 weeks after that.

The magazine is a secular one but she is able share about Christ and the hope Easter brings.

How Men and Women Can Work in Sync

I just read an article on Christianity Today called The Mixed Gender Team. The author writes from a 'church staff team' perspective but I think there are some good insights here in co-leading mixed gender STINT teams united in spirit and purpose. There are some really good tips to understanding and valuing the diversity on your teams as it realtes to men and women. Viva La Difference!

8 months old Today

Dschinghis Khan performs their hit single: Moskau!

Despite popular believe, this is not our STINT Team in Krasnodar.

You Know You are Old When...

You know you are old when
... your lovely wife greets you on the morning of your 42nd birthday with a gift of a Conair Ear and Nose hair trimmer.

...you actually asked for a Ear and Nose hair trimmer.

...your only thoughts are 'I have really needed this for the past two years' and after searching google for an imagine to post is 'maybe I should have asked for the deluxe'.

Why is it that when I turned 40, magically I started getting hair in places I didn't really want them? I even started growing a new tuff of hair on my chest. This would have been great when I was 16 and Magnum PI was the rage but I have no need of them now! I would have rather gotten a Ferrari.

Follow-Up #8 - Good News and Good Deeds

Andy Swanson who is ICS in a closed country wife his bride Natalie has created an 8th follow-up for new believers around Good News and Good Deeds that is worthy of sharing.

Let's get Daddy a 'Vible'

Robin came downstairs from putting Luke to bed last week and asked me if I needed a new bible. Since I still got a new one about a year ago, (see books I am reading column) I asked her 'why'. She said she had asked Luke the day before what he wanted to get Daddy for his birthday and he said a 'vible'. She had just asked him again and why and Luke said, "Cause Daddy likes the 'vible'."

I certainly don't want to discourage that and so glad he didn't want to get me a new 'TV'. I mentioned this to Ryan and Bert who I office with and Bert had a genius idea. He suggested I get a children's bible and tell him that want one that we can read together. So I just ordered myself a Children's vible for my 42nd birthday on Monday. Just did a search on Amazon and went with the Big Picture Story Bible because it looked like the best option. Hopefully it will replace "Green Eggs and Ham" as one of the books I have to read to Luke on my nights to put him to bed.

Tucker's prayer

Here's a story my brother-in-law, Tucker, sent me on an answer to desperate prayer...

It is timber burning season, and we have been burning with the north wind for a couple of weeks when the conditions were right. Usually doing what is called backburning against the wind. There were only a couple of spots we had left to do on my property and Clarence’s (my boss/partner) property to the west. I called for a burn permit and alerted 911 that we would be burning yesterday. Ronnie and Mark, a couple of Clarence’s henchmen next door, were burning the SW and NW corners of my pine timber yesterday afternoon to help finish the burning the property. No problem should do fine and it is hard for it to go anywhere with the wind the way it was. As I was coming out of the woods at 5:30, I see them starting to burn south of the shooting house towards the swamp. I tried to whistle to get them to stop because the North wind would send it into the swamp. It did in no time. The fire department was called to the house on the South side of Blackwater Creek at 8pm because it was burning the vines in the trees at least 20 feet high. I was praying like crazy, “Please Lord Father put this fire out.” The river bottom is full of fuel from the hurricanes and flood debris along the river bank. It hasn’t been timbered in 10 years- it is thick. I couldn’t take a bulldozer down there because the ground is, well, swampy, and it would get stuck in no time. Stars in the heavens with only a few light clouds and only a 30% chance of rain. We haven’t had rain in 3 ½ weeks. At 11pm, I couldn’t take it anymore; I had to do something, even though I really couldn’t do anything. Still praying like crazy, I go to the house and grab the 2-3 gallon car washing bucket and head into the swamp. I go to the creek, grab a bucket full of water, and start putting out the portion of the fire that could threaten the house on the south side of the creek. I found a big set of Bay trees that had been blown over in the storm and the stump hole was full of water. This was helpful because it was closer to the fire. At this point, the fire is approximately 7 acres large into my neighbors land to the SW, up and down in the vines and burning steady along the ground. Pine hearts, and old pine stumps burning hot. I looked at the stump hole and filled the bucket up with water and headed to the fire, praying for God’s help, knowing that he could put the fire out with that little bucket. I am telling you the truth as it really happened, after I poured that first bucket out, it began to rain. Not a torrent or anything, it just started sprinkling. I figured I would work the bucket and the stump hole water, and God would handle the rain. At 1am the ground fire was out, the vines were not burning anymore, just some fallen tree stumps and lighter stumps (old pine trees that still contain the kerosene that is used for turpentine). Not a threat. It rained for a couple more hours, nothing major, but enough. Still some smoking in the stumps this morning, but the ground is wet and all should be fine.

Those who know me, know that I am not the freaky, Bible thumpin’, Christian type, I love God and am thankful for Jesus’ sacrifice. I had to share with you because this would have been a disaster and I am so thankful that this blaze is out.

The point and the lesson- God answers prayers and still delivers miracles! We can pray for miracles and changes in our lives, but we must take the first step in faith, even if it all seems impossible. It was impossible for me to put that fire out with a bucket by myself.

the adventure continues...

Justice and Mercy

I was reading Luke 18 over the weekend. Jesus tells two stories about prayer. One is about a widow and the other a Tax Gatherer. Both are desperate prayers. One cries day and night for justice and the other beats his breast for mercy.

One is commended for her faith and the other for his humility. Yet both had faith in the character of God and both were in humble positions. The widow was in a humble position by the very nature that she was a widow. The Tax Gatherer humbled himself. Both were desperately aware of their need. They were both without hope unless the 'judge' intervened on their behalf.

In one story the antagonist is an unjust judge who stands in contrast to a just, caring God. In the other story the antagonist is a Pharisee who stands in contrast to the Tax Gatherer. The Pharisee trusts in what he has not done (robbed, evil deeds, adultery), and what he does (tithes and fasts twice a week).

Luke says that Jesus told the first story to show his disciples that they should always pray and not give up. Luke says that he told the second one to those who were confident in their own righteousness and looked down on others. The end result of the prayer for justice is a fair judgment and the end result of the prayer for mercy is justification.

I read these stories again and wonder... Do I really see my situations as desperate? Do I truly have faith? Do I humble myself or am I trusting in my own righteousness? Will I see justice and mercy? Do I really care?

The Empty Tomb

Luke went to Awanas Thursday and it was a special class on Easter. He said the memory verse without really practicing it. Since then he has been asking a lot about the tomb and Jesus.

"If Jesus is everywhere, why is He not in the tomb?"
"Is here?" "Has Daddy seen Him?"
"Where is the tomb?"
"How old is Jesus?"

Irish Blessing

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be e'er your back.
May your heart be as warm as the hearthstone.
May the rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May the Good Lord keep ya in the hollow of His hand.

Link to "It Might be Salty Kool-Aid"

Okay I don't want to just promote my own personal blog but there is a story I posted today that as a leader you might want to check out. It's about a time when God provided miraculously when our team thought He has deserted us.

It might be Salty Kool-Aid

Over a month ago I wrote about an incident that happened in 1998 when I was on a mission trip in Mongolia and we had no water. The other week I saw my friend Patty who was on that trip with me and it reminded me that I should finish the story.

Let me set it up again. Fifteen of us were on Jesus film project where we were showing the film in villages in the NW corner of the country. We were traveling with fifteen Mongolians and would split off for a week at a time with teams of five Mongolins and five Americans. For most of our time we were far outside of civilization. In fact there were no paved roads amout 20 km outside of the capital Ulaanbaater. Every day we traveled to a new town and along the way had to pump water from whatever source we could find.

Early on we were in an area north of the Gobi and were near a lake that was twice as salty as the ocean. We heard of a spring nearby and while the women on my team showed the film one afternoon, Chad and I went looking for it. We empty all of our water bottles and pumped water but once we tasted it we realized it was still very salty. We sheepishly told our teammates. Chad got the idea of adding Kool-Aid mix to it to make it bearable to drink.

My team started crying and saying we were gonna die because we had no water to drink. All I could think of was that this must have been how Moses felt. I didn't know where water was. We were just following the other jeep of Mongolians to go to the next town. It would have taken us five days by jeep to get back to civilization if you call Ulaanbaater that. And that would be a best case scenerio. I said (not out of great faith but more to get the focus off me failing as a leader), "surely God did not bring us out here to die. He will take care of us" And for some reason I added, "Maybe this is exactly what we need".

Well for several days we had nothing else. We all drank salty Kool-Aid. I think at least 4 of us had the 'd' too. But we later found a stream with a huge pool at the bottom of a waterfall and forgot about our trial.

Actually it was the next summer when I saw Patty at a conference and we exchanged Mongolian stories. She said 'can you believe we drank that salty Kool-Aid?' I had totally forgotten about it. It was not a month later that I was reading in a book and it said a primitive form of rehydration formula was 1 part water, 1 part salt and 1 part sugar. Salty Kool-Aid! I broke down weeping realizing that God not only had not deserted us but He was providing for what we needed but did not know we needed!!!! We had rehydration formaulas but we might not have used them because we were early in our mission trip. He knew what we needed and forced us to drink it. The next time I saw Patty I shared with her and another friend who was with us, Annette, what I read. They started weeping too.

Patty and Annette later moved to Siberia to help launch a ministry in Irkutsk. Now Patty is preparing to go serve in another country that I can't mention alongside some Russians. She told me that often when she faced a trial in Irkustk she would think of this story and say, "I better be careful because maybe God is giving me salty Kool-Aid to drink."

I have to admit that my first response to trials is very much of the flesh. This weekend was very trying dealing with a sick family. I hope that I can like Patty pause and remember the time I was in the middle of no where and all I could muster up was 'surely God has not left us'. It might be salty Kool-Aid!

Blogarithm

I use Blogarithm to help me manage all the blogs I like to read. I was telling a few friends about it so I thought I should just post it. I really recommend it because you just enter the URL for the ones you want to track and they send you an email each day of who has updated their blog or website. The email will give a short intro and then you click the link. I think I am tracking like 50 blogs. Who has time to check all of them to see if someone has posted something new that I want to read?

There are probably some other similar services but I like that I get only one email a day even though it tells me who change their blog the day before.

Back in Colorado

Well we returned home yesterday. It was a looooooooong day. Jack and Drew woke up with a cold in the middle of the night. So we dealt with some fuzzy boys who would not sleep very much on the flight. I guess the rest of the plane did too. Fortunately most of the plane was gracious to our situation. And again the United flight attendants were very helpful. I feel a little guilty having left Robin this morning with cranky kids. I am gonna try to get some work down and return home by lunch.