Christmas Thoughts

Having twins means assembling two radio flyer scoot-abouts.

Note to self: Avoid 'some assembly required' gifts in the future.

Note to self: Wait until Luke is fully asleep before you start because if he sneaks down it will be near impossible to get him back to bed.

No matter what... 17 month olds will want to play with their 4-yr-old brother's toys and their 4-yr-old brother will want to play with theirs.

Getting kids to play in the snow is a lot easier if you can get them to wear gloves or mittens first.

Snow on the ground does make for a cool Christmas.

Being sick on Christmas stinks.

It's a pretty cool Christmas if Luke gets the exact Thomas train he wanted and he gets it from his Great Aunt who didn't even know that was the one he wanted.

If people give your twins clothes for gifts, they will always match.

Magic Doodle is a good gift for little boys especially if picked out by their big brother.

Getting your wife a gift that she will use in the kitchen is not a sin if she specifically asks for it. But get a back-up one too - just in case.

Expect to receive socks and underwear every Christmas for the rest of your life. Let's face I am not gonna buy any new ones for myself anyway given how long I will go with major holes.

Gift cards make me a miser. I still have about 1/2 left on one I got last year. I got two and I am afraid to go spend them because I won't have them once I do. Why doesn't cash in my wallet do the same for me?

The greatest gifts your little boys can give you is asking you to read the Christmas story along with kisses and snuggling in the chair.

There is no greater act of humility than the Creator of the Universe coming to the world as a baby born in a stable. Well maybe that same Creator allowing Himself to die a cruel death on a cross to save the world from its sins.

Harvest Time - Jill, Josh and Sarah

While many of us are enjoying a snowy (or at least a cold one) Christmas season, Jill, Josh and baby Isaac Felix and Sarah Overmyer are suffering for Jesus in sunny Wellington, New Zealand. (Okay it is 59 °F / 15 °C with scattered clouds as I write but it will be 66 °F / 19 °C the next few days.)

Even in paradise things have been extremely hectic and challenging there for them over the past month. Josh and Isaac have been sick. Jill, as a new mom, has been missing some of the support system of friends and family she’s had from home. On top of all that, they recently had to make the tough decision to send one of their teammates own home this past week. It’s all made for a difficult and stressful Christmas Break. Josh said that they would appreciate prayers for God’s strength and guidance right now.

The universities in Wellington that they are focusing on are fragmented throughout the city as commuter campuses. The Felixs and Sarah are trusting God to raise up a magnificent harvest. A couple directions they feel like God is leading us in terms of seeing a harvest are: breaking into current campus communities through natural/purposeful relationships and partnering with the local church. Josh believes that the Church in New Zealand is a sleeping giant. "We realize we’ll need the help of the Church in NZ to make global impact with Gospel that we are asking God for."

As we continue to reflect on this blessed season and as I think of God’s timing for the Church to awake and see a magnificent harvest of Kiwis and other students around the globe, reminds me of one of my favorite Christmas passages. I guess its not a typical passage you read during the advent season but it sums up to me what its all about. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. ~ Galatians 4:4, 5

How amazing! God out of His great love sent His Son, born in flesh in humble surroundings without a sin nature... the Last Adam, to set us free from sin and the law that reveals our death. He redeemed us so we could be His dearly loved children!

The entire book of Galatians to me can be summed up in... (apologies to Eugene Peterson, JB Phillips and of course Paul.) Why are acting like fools? You didn't receive the Spirit through human effort but through faith. So why do think you are supposed to try to strive for acceptance through the flesh (or mutilating the flesh) now?!? The Law and sin are bondage, death. The Spirit has set you free and made you alive. You are not a slave but an heir - live like it. Live! Live by the Spirit!

As I look more closely at Gal 4:4, 5 and the passages around it, here are some thoughts as it pertains to leading those under us to launch movements everywhere...

~ The playing field is level in the family. We have been entrusted with a role to serve as leaders but we are not above anyone else.
~ His timing is perfect. Ask that the time fully come for the Kiwis and students of every nation to hear the gospel and be set free.
~ Help your team and the young believers you work with to live like heirs and let the Spirit cry out from their hearts, "Abba Father".
~ Walk and lead in the Spirit - not fulfilling the desires of the flesh but producing fruit of which there is no law.
~ Sow together to please the Spirit not the sinful nature, reaping a harvest at the proper time.

Updates..

I haven't posted in a coon's age.

We had a huge blizzard last week. Robin and I ended our internet connection last summer thinking we were going to move. (After six months of being on the market with no movement, we are not listed at present. ironically I saw this morning where a neighbor sold their their townhome. They had a middle unit like us.) So without internet at home and snowed in / Christmas / and colds... I have been on-line.

We had a good Christmas. Just the five of us. The boys got a ton of toys from family. Of course Jack and Drew would rather play with Luke's big boy toys. We still have a ton of snow and just a path cleared to the parking lot so we haven't gotten out much. It's a chore to pile on the coats and stuff of three little boys who don't want to wear them. Jack and Drew pull off their mittens and them cry because the snow is cold on their hands.

I'll try to get some pics up before long.

Coolest Character in Bible for 4 yr old boy

I was reading to Luke in the Big Picture Story Bible the other night. We read the nativity story and he wanted to read one more story as usual.

When we read about John the baptist, Luke remembered his 'sandwich' of bugs with honey dripping out and pointed it out. Though Luke thought the bugs were butterflies and beetles.

I thought, you know John the Baptist has to be cool to a little 4 yr old boy.

~ He eats bugs. Grasshopper no, less.
~ He eats honey. (One of the few things Luke will eat.)
~ He spends a lot of time outside.
~ He wears sandals or goes bare foot.
~ He wears cool clothes - a camel's hair coat and a leather belt.
~ He doesn't have to get a haircut or probably even comb his hair.
~ He hangs out by a river.
~ He uses cool words like 'you brood of vipers'. (Not sure Luke would know what that means but if I said that he called some bad guys 'a family of snakes'; he would think that was cool and might use it.)
~ And he has Jesus for a cousin - how cool is that?

Small World Project

Robin and I watched this ABC News program the night before last on the Small World Project. You know the theory that the whole world separated by six degrees or less. It kind of interests me because of the implications of launching movements everywhere.

The connectiveness of relationships in our global society could enable the gospel to be proclaimed to everyone on a relational level.

Yesterday, I went to Columbia University's Small World Project website and signed up as a guinea pig for their project. My first target is a lady from Spain which I think might not be too hard since we have a lot of people in Spain. The 2nd one I was given seems actually a little harder. It's an actress/dancer from Chicago. We'll see how it goes and if I can connect with them in six degrees of less.

Prayer for Sara and her dad

Sara Thelen's dad is having a pacemaker put in today (15th).

She said there are three things to pray for :
1. That her dad would be healed and that the doctors would have wisdom.
2. That God would use this to bring her dad, step mom and others in her family to Christ
3. That the Lord would meet her in real ways this week, it is really hard for her to be on the other side of the world (Serbia) while all of this is going on.

STINT Leaders: Team - Hibbs

STINT Leaders: Team - Hibbs

Team - Hibbs

Jennifer and Peter Hibbs are leading a team in the midst of launching a new campus ministry in Kaunas (not Kansas), Lithuania. They have found it to be a little frustrating at times trying to create a presence on campus and seeing students respond to the gospel.

And yet, God has been amazingly providing them with some very special people of peace. The Administer of Student Activities at the largest university in Kaunas has been great at seeing Agape as an asset instead of a threat. After some initials concerns that they were a cult, she is now very open to working with them. (It helped that Peter lost the Hari Krishna haircut.) She is pivotal in giving them access into the dorms, as well as introducing them to a group of student Christians that are working through an Alpha Course she is putting on. She also introduced them to the Catholic priest that is in charge of spiritual life at the university.

Their blog is called Team Hibbs which you can read about the origins of that name on the profile. In an email this past week, Peter said, "Jen and I are still learning to 'encourage each others strengths and protect each others weaknesses'. We both are excited to be where God has us and love not only getting to live together overseas, but also striving together toward building the Kingdom. We love being part of a team, both in our own marriage and also on our team. So often it is our experiences in one that equip and strengthen our effectiveness in the other."

Peter has hit it on the head. Christ has called us to live and minister in community, as part of a body, as a team. It is no accident that the church is birthed in community with the immersion of 120 huddled together in an upper room waiting for the promise. His plan has always been for us to build His kingdom under the transforming power of the Spirit as a team equipping and edifying one another along the way.

This morning in my quiet time I was reading Romans 12. We all can quote those great verses that start off this chapter about being a living sacrifice and being transformed by the renewing our minds. I have often used this passage to point out that surrendering on the altar is not only our spiritual act of worship but a prerequisite to knowing His good and perfect will of where He is leading me in this mission.

But Paul doesn’t immediately transition to ministry. At least not in the way I was thinking. I kept reading and noticed that he doesn’t pick up the theme of his ministry to Gentiles until midway through chapter 15. Instead he dives into how this mind renewal starts with not thinking so highly of ourselves. He then spends several chapters looking at how we are to relate to one another in the community, the body, the team. (Yes, there is an aside to responding to government in Chapter 13.)

As I read these chapters I asked myself : "How do I view those I serve alongside? Is my love sincere? Do I see that I have a continuing debt to love one another? Do I accept others the way Christ does? Do I see them as He does – delighting over them and rejoicing with singing? Am I living in a way that leads toward mutual edification? Am I shepherding those placed under my care in way that encourages their strengths and protects their weaknesses?"

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:5,6

Season of Sickness

Well I think we in recovery and not contagious.

Last week was a week of stomach flus and bad colds. Luke must have picked it up at school or church and passed it on... first Jack, then Drew, then Robin. I was the only one who was spared the stomach flu. But I did get a cold (achy, sore throat, bad cough). It didn't help that Luke coughed right in my face several times on night. "Hey dad, you need to be sick too."

Some recent Portrait pics

We had some family portraits done on Monday. We broke down because we realized we have not been able to take a real family pic in a long time. Luke would either run away or give a full back to the camera. (He said he was scared of the flash.) And basically it was hard to get 5 people all smiling at once. We got a package that allowed us to keep the CD of all of them.

There is a link to the side of ones I loaded up from Picasa. (I think I might us this route from now on rather than the mccullough pics blog or club photo.)

You can click it if you really want to see them. They are the better ones. For some reason I followed the stuffed animals and balls used to distract the boys and had some really goofy looks that I didn't upload.

STINT Leaders: Countin' the cost - M and D

STINT Leaders: Countin' the cost - M and D

Countin' the cost - M and D

M and D are leading for a 2nd year in EA. They were at the 05 training but not last summer. The week of Thanksgiving, they saw 6 new guys trust Christ. They held a number of outreaches at which 9 disciples either helped out or shared their testimonies. One of which was D’s disciples, Snapdragon. I will get back to her later.

We all know that following Jesus means taking up our cross and denying ourselves. It’s recorded in the gospels several times and even is mentioned once as a prerequisite to be considered worthy by Him. But sometimes the cost seems bigger than what we bargained for.

In Luke 18, we read of Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler. After hearing Jesus challenge this guy, Peter goes, “Hey wait a minute [my embellishment], we have left all we had to follow you!" When I read this it’s like he suddenly has a flashback to his business, boats, nets, and fish he left by the seashore 13 chapters ago. It’s about this time in the year in the stormin’ cycle of cultural adjustment and as holidays approach that we or others on our teams start saying, ‘wait a minute…’

I was reading what M posted on his blog yesterday: "The power was out for 11 hours today- no internet, no TV, no heat- and its cold... and it goes out once a week. I just finished hanging my clothes to dry. When they dry they'll be hard and may not smell that good. And quite frankly I have gotten tired of the food. I feel like I eat the same thing every single day- and it's because I do. I try to think of something new to order, but it's the same thing. I am longing for a good burger... or at least McDonald's or Arby's or Taco Bell or Pizza Hut ( my roommate said he'd kill for a Pizza Hut). It's still hard to communicate sometimes- though sharing the gospel in another language with the taxi driver this evening was fun. But seriously, will I ever learn this language? I see a character and think I should know it, but I have no clue. I feel I study a list of 40 words for ten hours a week and remember 4 of them. I'm living an adventure, something I never thought I would do when I was younger; something I dreamed about when I got a little older... truly God uses the weak things, the foolish things of this world. Even with all the [hassle], it is well worth it!"

M's comments are so common - though maybe not all of us have come around to the well-worth-it stage. Our 'sacrifices' seems so insignificant when we read about our dear 19-year-old sister in Christ who has been walking with God for just over a year. Snapdragon has left all to follow Him. Her friends make fun of her. Because she would not give up her faith in Christ and come home, her own mother made her sign a legal document divorcing her parents, saying now they only have one daughter, her younger sister. Crushed, broken and hurting, she wept wondering if she would be alone forever and what to do next.

D called on her friends and supporters to fast and pray for Snaps. A few days later she woke up and said she wouldn’t live for them anymore, but work hard for herself and for God, to honor Him, not to just make these people happy or like her. Snaps said, "My ideas are changing every day. I think it is because too much, I mean so many people are praying for me to walk with Him even though my life is so hard."

Jesus responded to Peter’s wait-a-minute comment by laying out the full benefit package. I'll use Mark's account since he adds persecution to the mix which seems appropriate after reading about Snaps. "I tell you the truth no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life."

May you experience hundred-fold blessings this Christmas season! Together lets lift up Snapdragon and young believers like her around the globe who have left all to be counted worthy of Him.