New blogging home

Ladies and Gentlemen, If you are looking for a "Few Minutes with Andy', I have moved to a new web home: Global Andy ! Not only is my blog there but info on our minsitry and other little fun things.

So after almost 1000 blog posts on 5 different blogger blogs I wrote for and 2 more I contributed to, I am now under Wordpress. Quite frankly it took me a while to master the intial set-up but it allows me to do more than just blog.

But I will still blog sharing opservations of life, family and your basic random stuff. I promise to write from time to time about the travails of my house to keep the Burning Hearts Revolution and his lovely wife laughing at my expense. And all the posts you may have loved/hated/missed on this site and the achived devotions on STINT Leaders have been imported to the new site. (Even the one the Burning Hearts wife gently rebuked me on.) Now you can find it here!

If you like visiting my blog, there are a number of ways you could choose, I prefer Google Reader myself as you can subscribe to all your favorite sites and its then its like have a newspaper that you can visit. So simply add globalandy.com .

Free Audio Download - Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places

One of the best books I have read in the last few years is being offered free on Christianbooknotes.com: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson: Free Audio Download

12 mp3 files that take forever to download. But hey they are free!

20 Years Ago

BTW, the NY Times has a new photo of a different angle of the "Tank Man".

Denial, Despair and Hope

I am reading No Place Left to Bury the Dead.   It's subtitle is "Denial, Despair and Hope in the African AIDS Pandemic".   So far I have only read the denial and despair parts.  

I have to say its frustrating to read of the despair.  Don't get me wrong.  It's a book everyone should read.  Heaven forbid that we continue to turn our back on our neighbors in Africa because its too painful to engage in their sorrows.

The first third of the book (where I am now) is centered around the life of one woman in Lesotho who is HIV+ and the realities of this epidemic on this tiny country that is encompassed by South Africa.  It's frustrating though to read things like how the very people who most could use proper medical care and antiviral drugs to keep them alive can't afford them.   Or knowing a widow will lose her home because her son has died of AIDs.

I am really looking forward to the 'hope' part of this book.

This morning, in another book,  I read: 

"You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor,  but the LORD is their refuge."   

And I went back and read Psalm 10:  

"Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless....  you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand.  The victim commits himself to you;  you are the helper of the fatherless.   You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted;  you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed,  in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more."

That's hope.

Kung Fu Found Dead

David Carradine was found dead in Bangkok. Carradine was made famous by his 1970's role as Kwai Chang Caine, in the TV Series Kung Fu. 

In other shocking news it was found that Carradine was not Asian after all.

Tell it Slant - Book Review

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant---
Success in Cirrcuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightening to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind---  Emily Dickinson

Eugene H Peterson his 'conversations' of Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, Eat this Book and The Jesus Way with Tell it Slant: a Conversation on the Language of Jesus in His Stories and Prayers.  

Peterson has become one of my favorite authors.  His way of writing and command of language takes theology into a 'can't-put-it-down' style.   His insight into the stories and prayers of Jesus bring new understanding to the reader.  Peterson draws you in and allows you to experience Christ in a whole new way.

In first half of Tell it Slant, Peterson focuses on the parables of Jesus recorded in Luke, parables told on the travel narrative as Jesus heads to Jerusalem.  These parables 'dazzle gradually' and help us understand the Kingdom of God but also how Jesus used language in between life and ministry.

In the second half of his book, Peterson takes us to the language of Jesus through His prayers.  he focuses on six prayers combining the words on the cross as one ultimate prayer.  Peterson is passionate that we don't need seminars on 'how to pray', we simply need to follow Christ's lead for prayer is at the very heart of our existence.

I'd rate this book up there with Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places.  Once you get into the rhythm of Eugene Peterson's writing you are compelled to read on and you better off for it as well.  5 Stars.

Luke: When I Grew Up

Yesterday Luke finished his year of kindergarten. (sorry not a current pic)  No graduation but they did have a pool party.  Robin and I are proud of him as he has learned a lot this year and really grown in terms of interacting with his class.

Last night we were talking as we went to bed.  he said, "Dad when I get older I am gonna feed orphans like you.  (Note:  Not sure I feed orphans but we are going together as a family to work with a ministry this summer that does that in South Africa.  You can read our team updates here. )  He said, "I am going to run an orphanage.  Dad, there are a lot of kids who die every year because they are hunger and I won't be able to save them all but I can save a few from dying."  

WOW!  Robin and I are hoping this summer is a life-changing time for our boys.  But even before we go, Luke is already thinking of serving those who don't have.  When I was six I was saying I wanted to be something like a baseball player, an astronaut or a famous actor.   My son is saying he wants to serve the poor and run an orphanage!

(Before you put him on a pedestal, know that he got a time out earlier that evening for acting disrespectful  during the blessing over supper meal.  Its a nightly occurrence.)

Bombing of a Starbucks

This morning a small bomb went off outside a Starbucks store in New York City

Personally I find it easier to pay $2 for a really good cup of coffee, than a $1 for a lame one.  It has never crossed my mind to bomb a coffee shop but I have considered throwing a brick through the window of a few with lousy coffee.

Where are the Other Kids?

Last week while sitting around talking with parents at Luke's soccer practice, it hit me that I was the poorest parent there.  No surprise as we live of a missionary's salary.  But as I heard them talk about all the expenses of children's sports and I contemplated how Robin & I thought through our budget in order to find money to pay for soccer.

But my thought wasn't 'woe is me'.   It was was 'what do all the underprivileged kids in our community do?'   It hit me that they can't be involved in recreational sports.   I don't even know.  Maybe Lafayette cuts families with little or no incomes a break.  But then how to they pay for the cleats, socks with the required shin guards, gifts for coaches, etc?  How do working single moms get their sons to practices?  Where are they?

I got this idea I have been toying with... what if we had a league for under-privileged kids?  And what if we got business & the faith communities to donate equipment and coaching?  As I have shared this with others, I have come across a few potential roadblocks.  Like where can we find fields for these kids?   How will we get them to practices and games?

Yesterday I threw my idea out to a good friend who loves sports and cares about the community.   Coach Donny had a more brilliant idea.  Instead of starting a separate league, why not have each team sponsor a number of unprivileged kids?  (Genius!) The parents (or sponsors) chip in to buy equipment and take it own to get the kids to practices.   That way they participant with the other kids at the same level.  No need for more coaches or soccer fields or refs or whole separate organizations.  You level the playing field.

So here's the dilemma...  I have the idea so I can't let it die.  I'd like to go meet with those in power to make this happen - those in agenecies that serve the poor, school officals, city rec officals, those in the faith community.  My goal is to say a year from now to have it where every kid in Lafayette Colorado can particapnt in city rec sports just like my kids can - at least soccer and baseball.

If you live in Lafayette and want to help me make this dream happen, feel free to contact me.