The Bi-cynical-ist

Job’s Friends and Their Kin

2010-05-05T09:46:00.002-04:00

I really am enjoying my facebook connection on the web. It connects me with so many people who have been part of our lives at one time or another. Spending time there is part of the reason I post here so infrequently. However, every now and then, I get stirred up and it is time to blog.

Another thing with facebook is keeping up with the struggles people are going through and supporting each other through prayer and encouragement. It can be a real blessing.

Then there are the people who take their cue from Job’s friends and consider it their duty to be the voice of God via the comment box. “You really should....”; “If you weren’t...” ; “The Bible says...”; and so on.

In the book of Job, the main character of the story is set upon by all kinds of hardship and heartache. Then his three friends arrive:

Job 2:11-13 (NIV)
11 When Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

After a week, they couldn’t keep silent any longer. They had plenty of time to think up reasons that Job was in such trouble and they had many wise things to share with him. For the next several chapters they take turns spewing their wisdom all over a man who is already suffering from angst and self-doubt. Thank you so very much.

Recently, a friend of mine was sharing the loss of the 13 year old son of one of his friends. He started the thread out with, “Words fail to express”. Three comments later, one of Job’s friends found plenty of words that were inconsiderate and abrasive.

When friends are suffering, do they really need our advice or do they just need our presence? For the first week, Job’s friends got it right. They wept with him and shared in his hurt. Most of the time, it is enough. Often, it is just the right thing.

Blessed

2009-12-23T05:47:00.001-05:00

I’m blown away by the attitude of one particular person from my new church. She and her family don’t have much in the line of material things. They collect bottles and cans for deposit and use the money to buy food for themselves and their animals. Often she will come in praising God that she found five dollars worth of cans or was able to get her bicycle across a normally busy highway as if the seas had parted for her.

Today, during a phone call, she was talking about what she experienced as she shoveled snow yesterday. She realized that when she moved the snow, it was no longer beautiful the way it was when God moved it. “Only God can truly enjoy the beauty of the snow and move it so that it still glistens. That’s what I was thinking about the whole three hours I was out shoveling snow!”

Me, I have to have a snow blower to clear my 50' driveway. She’s out shoveling, for three hours no less, and praising God and learning from Him in the process. I come away thinking I’m missing something. But I think if I keep listening to this Godly lady, I might just catch a bit of her humble heart.

Do Right - Stay Left

2009-11-20T06:07:00.002-05:00

There won’t be bumper stickers.

I’m starting a movement. I don’t know how many will be moved, but a few would help.

It started with a personal inconvenience and has moved on to change the way I drive. I’m talking about drivers who clog up the right lane at four lane intersections. They plan to go straight through the light and eschew the left lane because there are more cars in it in favor of the right lane that has fewer vehicles in it precisely because of the right turn on red law. So, there they sit, blocking the lane while car after car stacks up behind them impatiently running their right turn signals.

I’m proposing a national movement of courtesy that simply says “Do Right - Stay Left” when going through on at four lane traffic light. However, there won’t be bumper stickers, because every now and then, I forget myself and I am the clod who clogs up the right lane.

(For my friends in Lansing, you can thank the turn from Waverly Rd. (South bound) onto Saginaw Rd (West bound) for this public service announcement.)

Tree by Rivers of Water

2009-09-26T07:33:00.002-04:00

On Friday we were down in DeWitt packing up pictures & such and patching & painting walls where they used to hang. I also took my kayak down to bring north. It was a gorgeous day and I took a break in the afternoon to take the boat out for one more float on my beloved Looking Glass River.

The water was very shallow and slow, so it wasn’t spectacular kayaking, but very pleasant. I chased a blue heron down the river. He would fly off and then wait for me around the bend, repeating the process four times. I could get quite close if I spotted him early and coasted in. There was also a kingfisher that I saw several times skimming the water, picking off bugs and a half dozen large snapping turtles sunning themselves on logs.

As I floated along I looked back a dry tributary and saw a tree whose roots were exposed by earlier heavy rains and had lost the battle with gravity. It was a huge tree, very tall and probably two to three feet thick. It had grown large by being by a nearly constant source of water. But it hadn’t put roots deep enough to support itself, because it didn’t need to to get sufficient water and nutrient. Life was too easy for its own good. When the heavy rains came and the torrents washed away the supporting earth, it became easy prey to the wind.

Psalm 1:3 talks about the person who is like the tree planted by rivers of water. He prospers and bears fruit. I guess the counter point to that is to not get secure and lazy in my supply. God has blessed me abundantly and it is easy for me to draw from the wealth of spiritual riches he has provided. It is equally easy for me to take the supply for granted and only go deep enough to support what I need for daily living, but not enough to stand serious storms. So, I want to go deeper than I seem to need. I need to seek more and more of Him and get firmly rooted. Because the storm is sure to come.

What’s Happening?

2009-09-26T07:30:00.002-04:00

It’s been a long time between entries. That means one of two things: a) nothing’s happening or b) life is nuts. That’s right students. You get an A for the day - the answer is b.

The move to Traverse City is going well, but consumes a lot of time. We have been coming down to DeWitt to stage the house and keep the lawns and such up. With each trip a little more of our life moves north. We were also stopping by the hospital or hospice with each trip to see our friends Don and Sandy.

On August 22nd, Don’s struggle came to an end. God’s amazing timing came into play. A year ago I accepted the wedding of Wes and Catherine, a neat young couple, not knowing that I would be moving to TC. The wedding was originally scheduled for July, but because of his training schedule, it got moved to August 22nd. Because of this, Marcia was with Sandy during Don’s last moments and I was able to be there shortly after. Don and Sandy have been great friends and we miss Don greatly. A couple weeks after, we were down to Lansing again and as we pulled onto the Lake Lansing Rd. exit, “We should meet Don and Sandy @ Applebees” went through my head before I had a chance to stop it. Ugh. Those are the times grief really bites me.

Don’s funeral was scheduled for Wednesday, the 26th of August, so I went into the office on Monday to get the week started. Lori Barclay, the volunteer church secretary, was doing an amazing job of catching me up on things. I was so impressed on how well she was catching on to how I wanted things done and did things with such excellence. A real delight to work with and quickly becoming a great friend. She was to come in that morning and around 10:30 I wondered where she was. A short time later, her husband Pete called. Lori had dropped him off at work early that morning, went home, lay down for a nap and never woke up. She was only 48 years old. A stunning loss to her family and her church and community. Her funeral was on Friday of that same week. Two friends in less than a week. A loss I’m still trying to process. Please pray for our friends, Sandy and Pete as they try to walk from day to day. I can’t imagine what they face each morning.

The following week was the DALMAC ride. This is where I ride my bike from Lansing, over the Mackinac bridge and on to the far eastern tip of the upper peninsula in five days while camping in a tent and call it fun. And it was and it was just what I needed after the rush that has been our life since we got the “why don’t you send your resume” call back in May.

The weather leading up to the week of DALMAC was less than stellar. Cold, windy (directly out of the north) and rainy. The week of the ride was gorgeous - cool (a bit chilly in the a.m.) but sunny each day with light breezes that helped almost equally to hindering. The route changed a bit this year and took us over some new hills and through some beautiful country.

I beat the wall, but it wasn’t pretty. The wall is a short hill outside of East Jordan that goes up to 22% - the steepest paved road in lower Michigan. It is preceded by a long slow climb out of East Jordan that saps the strength out of your legs before you make the turn and start the climb. After last year’s failure, it was not going to beat me again. That is, until I actually had to take it on with far less training than the previous year and a fair amount of additional weight. About half way up I had to stop. I stood there astride my faithful yellow and black racing bike panting and cursing (preacher style - no profanity, of course) my lack of ability. After a couple minutes I began to feel better and a plan came to mind. I walked the bike over to the other side of the road, pointed down hill and got going enough to clip into the pedals and then turned back on the beast. It wasn’t easy and this is NOT the recommended way to ride hills, but I beat it!

Every other time I rode the wall, there were crowds of people standing at the top, cheering. This year, hardly anyone. I think it may have been because of the change in route. There was an added hill called “five tears” hill. It is a hill that goes up and over a ridge leading in to East Jordan in five tiers. The first of which is longer and higher than the wall by quite a bit but only at 17%. There were a lot walkers on that one as well and it took a lot out of people and probably sent many on the alternate route around the wall.

My best funny story from this year’s trip happened only a few miles from home. I was riding into Kalkaska with another rider who had picked me up. We were getting to know each other and having an enjoyable chat at about 20 mph on the flat, wide shoulder along 131. There was a fair amount of traffic, but the shoulder gave plenty of room. So, we really didn’t expect to hear the air horn coming from behind. We initially thought it was an exceptionally loud truck horn, and then I thought “Gabriel!”. It would seem like one would hear a freight train coming. There is a set of tracks that runs parallel to 131 about 20 yards to the east of the road. The train was coming to an intersection, so he had to blow the horn, but I’m sure the engineer was enjoying the moment. I loved John’s response: “I guess I’ll be buying new shorts in Kalkaska”.

Now we are getting into more of a rhythm with the new church and our life in TC. Marcia has been hired in as my secretary and it is great working together again. She does an amazing job but the big disadvantage is that both of us are learning the people and the church. This week’s big challenge has been trying to find out how to get into our AOL email account. Lori was the administrator and no one else seems to know the password or the answers to the password hints.

Last Sunday I preached the “Pace of God” message and ended with challenging the church to take time to give God room in their lives. I committed to putting my hands in my lap and taking a deep breath at each stoplight this week and giving a word of praise. It’s Saturday morning as I’m writing this and I have had 59 opportunities to practice that this week. It has been an exceptionally relaxing week in so many ways. I think I’m going to keep this practice up. It has actually been disappointing on a few occasions when a light turned green just as I was coming up on it!

It didn’t hurt the week that on Tuesday we got a call that we had an offer on the house in DeWitt. It wasn’t a great offer, but not awful either. Our realtor recommended a counter offer and we did that. Wednesday was silent but on Thursday morning we received the call that our counter was accepted. We will lose a chunk with closing costs and price, but not as bad as many people. Chances are good that we will be able to make it up on the purchase in TC. Now we can start looking seriously.

As I reflect on the last two of the paragraphs it occurs to me that, once again, God comes through when I am teachable. When I give up the tension of minor things over which I have some control (my response to traffic lights) He gives relief from the major stressor - selling the house and lots of travel back to Lansing. Thanks, Lord. I’m trying to listen.

Life is So Much Easier

2009-08-12T06:44:00.002-04:00

I’m reading through the Bible in two years in my daily devotions. I’ve done the one year plan and always feel rushed, so when I found my Bible program allowed a two year plan I decided to give it a go. Much better.

However, right now, I’m reading through Leviticus - inspiring. Lots of blood and discharges and uncleanness until evening. The program also takes me to the New Testament to the book of Mark, so I am getting some reading that is a little more digestible.

Interesting contrast today.

I was in Leviticus 16, the day of atonement and I was thinking about how much easier things are today, especially as a pastor. I can’t imagine doing all the things the priests had to do in those days to make atonement for sins. Then I went to the book of Mark and my reading is from Mark 2, the story of the paralyzed man let down through the roof.. I run across this verse:

Mark 2:5 (NIV) When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

What a contrast! Bring this animal on such and such a day and kill it in this manner and sprinkle its blood here and there and don’t do this, because you will have to start all over again or “Son, your sins are forgiven”.

No wonder the religious establishment was upset. Their business depended on complicating things. Jesus made it simple. He made it personal. He made it real.

I’m going to go contemplate how I’m complicating things so I can have a job now. See you later.

A Moving Story

2009-08-11T09:26:00.004-04:00

Marcia and I are in the process of making the move to Traverse City a bit at a time. We started at Journey on August 1^st, but are still in the process of selling the DeWitt house. So, we are living with our son, Kyle and his family while we sell and start and look for a new home, once the old one sells.

To take care of the DeWitt house we are going downstate on our days off, looking after things (lawn, hedges, dust furniture) and bringing a load of stuff up. Last week (Aug 2-3) we borrowed a tow vehicle and enclosed trailer from friends to bring up the freezer, washer and dryer and whatever else would fit. Monday turned crazy and we rushed almost the whole day, not getting away until 6 pm. Earlier that morning, when I picked up the trailer, my friend Gale, almost as an after thought said, hey, I’ve got the spare in the back of my truck. I didn’t have time to get it replaced, it has a chunk of tread missing, but if you had a flat, it might let you limp into somewhere safe. So, I picked it up and indeed, it had a chunk of tread missing about 8 inches long and 3 inches wide.

Spent the week working, never gave a thought to fixing the spare, why would I need it? We headed back to DeWitt on Sunday (Aug 9) and were looking forward to a much more relaxed weekend. According to Gretta (our Garmin), we were to arrive around 5:45 p.m.

Everything was going along great. I keep watch on trailer tires and wheels because they can go bad quite quickly. Just north of Clare I checked the driver’s side mirror to see that the tire was soft. We were only three miles out of Clare, so I kept watching, Next thing I know, it’s not just soft, it’s flat and floppy. Pull over – way over and pull out old baldy. No problem, only three miles.

Problem. It’s Sunday evening. No tire suppliers open in Clair. Nearest Walmart is in Mt. Pleasant. We set Gretta for back roads and limp toward Mt. Pleasant @ 45 mph. The tire is showing a bulge on the inside but we make it. Whew.

Problem: Walmart doesn’t sell that size. They suggest Tractor Supply. They have a tire, wrong size, already mounted on rim. $104.00! We decide to limp as far as possible and then park it in a safe place, lock it up and come back Monday with a new tire.

Miracle: We set Gretta for back roads and find a delightful route on very good secondary roads through the farm lands. I keep watch on the tire, we keep praying. Shepherd passes, Forest Hill, Alma, Eugene, Middleton. Finally Maple Rapids – we are within 25 miles of home! As we cross M-21 on DeWitt Rd, just outside St. Johns, it lets go. We are less than 14 miles from home! Plus, there is a church with a large empty parking lot right there. We pull in, disconnect and finish our trip. We arrive in De Witt in time to see some of our friends in our HomeGroup. Laughter and chocolate crème pie make everything better.

Life is an adventure. You never know what will come. On this particular weekend, things didn’t go as we had planned, and yet all the while we were driving on that tire, I kept waiting in expectation for what God would do. Would we make it all the way or would I come across a front yard with a trailer tire chained to a tree with a for sale sign on it? Or, would it get us close enough to home and go just where I could find a safe place? The latter as it turned out. As we were crossing M-21 I saw the church and thought, if it is going to go, this would be a great place. I looked back, and it was gone. I literally drove about 200 yards on it flat. Thank you Lord, for taking care us us and for eyes to see that you were doing so.

64.3%

2009-07-22T06:43:00.003-04:00

With a major turning point coming in our lives, I began to reflect on the past and being analytical by nature I began to figure some things out. What got me started was leaving West Michigan District after 31 years of ministry. I wondered, how much of my life have I spent in the WMD? A: 55.4%. And, how much of my total ministry to date? A: 88.6%!

Then my mind turned to more important things. How much of my life has been spent married to Marcia? A: 64.3%. I remember at age 40 thinking that I had then been married half my life. Now it is well over that and it truly does get better with age.

It started out with a flirtation in the library at Owosso College, a first date, meeting the parents and getting past the big brother. I remember our first separation, when she went to Spain with a class trip. It must have been during that time that I realized I had something pretty special, because after that trip, the relationship deepened.

Over the years we have had a lot of laughs and we added some yesterday. It was our 36th anniversary and we had a great time just being together. We’ve gone through some really tough times, and there are surely more ahead. But if I could go back to those early days and start over again, I’d go back to Owosso, apply for a job in the library, so I’d have the chance to do it all again. If she’d have me.

Leaving WMD

2009-07-15T07:05:00.000-04:00

First off, WMD is West Michigan District of the Wesleyan Church. It dawned on me this morning that I have spent well over half my life as a pastor in this District. We moved here in 1978 to pastor a small church in Battle Creek and have been in four other churches along the way: Jackson Central, Berkley Hills and Lansing Faith.

It’s been a great run. We’ve raised three children and had the support of the District when there were tough times. We’ve made great friends along the way and learned more than seminary could have ever taught us about leading churches and loving God’s people.

We have been through three district superintendents in our stay here. Each one brought unique things to the table. Vaughn Drummonds (he of white pants and white shoes) set the standard by drawing excellent pastors into the district. He did this in large part by making sure the churches were taking good care of the pastors and providing well for them. In the long view, it is what set WMD up for the kind of success it has experienced. Thanks, Vaughn.

Ron Kelly was a friend before he became our DS. He remained a friend and support as Marcia and I went through some of the darkest days of our personal lives. He also led the district through some transition years. I watched him grow as an administrator and learned from him as he led through dealing with some difficult people and situations. His administrative skills grew to such a degree that the denomination snatched him away to serve as general secretary. (Miss you Ron and Tana!)

Then came Mark Gorveatte and a whole new level of energy was infused into the district. Mark raised the level of excellence even further and made sure that our pastors and churches were healthy. Mark is known for church planting, but what gets overlooked is the effort he has put into trying to increase the health of established churches. Once again, I’ve learned a great deal from Mark and consider him to be both mentor and friend. We will miss he and the WMD team.

In our 31 years here in WMD we have tended to step into churches that were tired and needing renewal. Now we are moving to the NMD to continue that same kind of service. Journey is a great church with an amazing core of leaders. It is our prayer that we will be able to see the church renewed and vibrant once more. Please keep us in your prayers as we begin this next leg (and probably finishing stretch) of our Journey.

Life is Nuts!

2009-07-14T16:54:00.003-04:00

Life is nuts! In a couple weeks we will be moving to Traverse City to begin the next phase of our lives as lead (solo) pastor at The Journey. It was just two months ago that I polished up the resume and sent it off to the North Michigan District as an act of obedience. It was unbelievable how fast things progressed from there. On June 14th I preached there and on Monday the 15th they extended the invitiation and we accepted.

Now we are in the process of selling our house here, looking at houses in TC, packing, and trying to finish well here at Faith. We love the people here and are going to miss them terribly. I am also going to miss the comaradarie of a church staff until Journey is strong enough to begin taking some people on.

In addition, we are enjoying having our Kiwi family with us this month. Today we celebrated Raegan's second birthday at the park by the lake (I'm going to miss that, too.) The whole family was together and it was a very enjoyable afternoon. Of course, to make it even more interesting, we received a call that the realtor is coming to show the house tonight. So, I'm done here and heading home to help get the house show room ready.

POETS, PROPHETS AND PREACHERS Final Thoughts

2009-07-07T21:00:00.004-04:00

The last few days of Poets, Prophets and Preachers are done and I’m sitting on my deck reflecting on my take aways. It was a profitable couple days, since I will soon be returning to preaching on a regular basis after a three year hiatus as a staff pastor. I won’t give too much on content. If you want more specifics, a few others took very good notes and are available @ http://adammoore.us/post/136370065/blogging-poets-prophets-preachers. Apparently, those bloggers disobeyed the “no laptop” rule or are outstanding note takers and have a way of transcribing very quickly. I, on the other hand, am a spineless conformer.

There were several things that struck me as odd about the conference; the aforementioned technology ban, the choice of songs for worship which were highly contemporized ancient hymns, and guided imagery and controlled breathing seminar by Shane Hipps on Tuesday afternoon.

However, I resonated with the heart of the speakers and regained focus on several preaching issues that will prepare me to return. I especially enjoyed Peter Rollins and his hyperkinetic presentation of seemingly random thoughts that challenged my heart nearly as much as the mind. I can see why he makes the institutional church nervous, but it needs to be kept on its toes. As an unexamined life is not worth living, an unquestionable church is not worth being part of either.

One last disturbing observation. Nearly everything Rob Bell taught to this new generation about sermon preparation, I learned from John Maxwell and his cohort a couple decades ago. They havereceived new labels, but are essentially the same lessons: Study hard, dig deep, collect thoughts and ideas, plan well ahead. I guess that should give as much comfort to the old guard of the “pulpit” as it probably unnerves the emerging generation. Some things don’t really change all that much, they are just reborn.

POETS, PROPHETS AND PREACHERS Day One

2009-07-06T05:47:00.002-04:00

Clickity-Click and Glare

I’m taking in Poets, Prophets and Preachers in Grand Rapids this week hosted by Rob Bell and Mars Hill church. I thought it would be a great tune-up for me as I return to preaching and an excellent chance for my new Mini 9 netbook to shine. But apparently, it shines just a little too brightly.

I love taking notes, but my hand writing in indecipherable once I do, so having a small, light computer with really long battery life sounded great. Toward the end of the first night while the announcements were presented which included a celebration of lanyards (?) we were told that we could not use laptops during the session because of the glare off the screen and the distraction of the clickity-click sound.

I might have thought that Bell and Co. have joined the ranks of the new Luddites, but this is a conference that includes a session on How Technology Shapes The Sermon. It seems like such a disconnect between who they are and serve (a highly tech savvy generation) that the reasoning sounds tinny. It sends me wondering why they really object to my taking notes on a laptop. What I find most disturbing is hearing such a thin and disingenuous feeling reasoning coming from a group whose buzz words include “authentic” and “honesty”. Any thoughts?

BTW: I will revert to my palm today – (small glaring screen and no click)

Pride Parade III – Return of the Bigots

2009-06-17T10:45:00.002-04:00

For the third year in a row, Faith Church has been showing the love of Christ in a very unusual place (for an evangelical church). We were at the Michigan (Gay) Pride Parade which ends with a rally on the capital lawn. Due to a family commitment in Traverse City, I couldn’t be there, but we have some great leadership in the Christ In Action (CIA) team.

Last year was fairly peaceful because there were no churches protesting the rally. This year they were back in full force. Notice the photo of the protesters; you will see the police moving them across the road. In the second photo is Pastor Brandon Bruce standing in pretty much the same place.

Our team went over to the protesters to give them water as well only to be called “phony Christians”. That actually helped with the outreach as the parade participants saw that we had at least one thing in common, the bigots don’t like us. It opened the door to better and more conversations.

When Pastor Brandon shared the results of the event with the Faith Church family, he said, “We were right where we needed to be. We were there neither condemning people nor condoning their actions. We were simply sharing the love of Christ, no strings attached”.

I love being part of a church that cares about broken people, no matter which way they are bent.

Small World or Big God?

2009-06-09T11:49:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, one of my favorite couples here at Faith Church finished up @ MSU and made a move out to Vancouver, BC. Brennan and Ashley Westerman had been part of one of my small groups and on the worship team. They also got me hooked on kayaking and were involved in several CIA events. On their last Sunday I asked, “Have you got a house lined up?” They told me they were going to be house sitting for a couple who were going on the mission field for one year. During that time they would find an apartment or house for the future.

Then the last week of May, we had the pleasure of having Jim & Penne Koch of My Father’s House, Jamaica www.jaminjamaica.com with us for an extended weekend. We’ve had a relationship with them for four years, but have formalized that relationship into a partnership this year. Jim and Penne are going to spend this coming year doing more fund raising, but to have the freedom to do so required having someone who could act as house parents in their absence. Enter Dan & Jennifer Rennert and their four children.

The eldest four members of the Rennert family went to Jamaica for a week’s visit at the end of the summer of 2008 to meet everyone at My Father’s House and see what it is really all about. They had found MFH on the web and God was tugging at their hearts to get involved. They decided to take the year, beginning in the summer of 2009 to help at My Father’s House!

The week after Jim & Penne were with us, I got this e-mail from Brennan.

Hey Chris!

A VERY crazy thing happened....

We're in Vancouver now, and we met with the people whose house we'll be renting. We've known that they were leaving for a year to be missionaries...we found out exactly where they're going and what they're doing.

Okay, here's the punch line.....

They're taking over My Father's House in Jamaica! We couldn't believe it!

I'm just assuming it's the same place....can't imagine there would be more than one with the same name. So that's pretty nuts. They said the normal leaders are leaving to do some fundraising, and only coming back when groups come in.

Brennan

I related that story to someone and they said, “It’s a small world”. Yes, I suppose it is, but I think this one can be chalked up to a Big God.

Remember to pray for Jim, Penne, the Rennerts and Brennan and Ashley.

What (else) I Did on My Vacation

2009-03-06T21:18:00.011-05:00

Our trip to New Zealand and Bougainville was full. If you've followed along you've caught up on much of what we did. However, no trip to NZ is complete for me unless I catch up with some of the people who first took me there. The Churches of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand.

It was great to connect with several of the church people we have gotten to know over the years here. The first Sunday we went to Papakura to visit our dear friends Edgar and Judy Hornblow - yup - that’s really their name - they are the coolest people you could ever know.

When we first visited Papakura in 2002 they were meeting in a doublewide house converted to be used as their church. They are now building an enormous ministry center that will include two video venues to use as outreach to the community, they have an early childhood development center in place and the new gymn also includes a first class rock climbing wall. (Faith church, we may want to redesign our new building!) : )

In the video below, Edgar takes us on a tour of the new Papakura building:

The message that day was brought by a young woman name Jo. She spent 3 months at Kentwood Community Church and is following a call to ministry now that she is back in NZ. We were blown away by the message she brought - it was powerful, well constructed and well delivered. I got a chance to see her again the Sunday before we left - It is encouraging to see what God is doing in this country. As I sat in the Papakura church on that Sunday morning I was so moved by what God has done in seven years. Our partnership with NZ in the West Michigan District (Rockford is Papakura’s partner) has had an impact that continues to go on and on. This was affirmed again and again over the next several weeks.

Our first contact with New Zealand were Richard and Jane Waugh at the East City Wesleyan Church (partner with Kentwood Community Church). It was great to see them again and spend a fair amount of time with them. The church is in its new facility which was also only a dream when we first met. We got to worship with them on the morning of the last Sunday in NZ. Richard and I always have the most stimulating conversations about what the church could be in the future. He is one of my favorite people in the world.

I got invited to meet with the national missions board and share some of my experiences in Bougainville. Mike Yates (Shore Grace church) is the head of the team and another West Michigan partner (Watermark). Bougainville is one of the key places New Zealand Wesleyans are reaching out to and is having a great impact. Kathy Clifford is a missionary from NZ, splitting her time between Northeast India and Bougainville. She is a great asset to the kingdom. I had the privilege of meeting with her a few times and getting my missions worldview tuned up.

I was also able to spend several hours with one of our Faith Church missionaries, Brent Dongell. Brent is doing great and told me that he really feels like he is beginning to get into the rhythm of life in New Zealand. You can tell by hearing him talk and by how others are responding to him that he is having a great impact. He is filling the youth group gap at Cession Community Church (partner with Lowell Impact) where Brett is lead pastor and Kristen is the catalyst behind children’s ministry. I asked Brent if the children’s ministry would be fueling the youth program in the near future, but he said that the families are largely young and so there are very few even upper elementary kids. So he really is building the youth group out of unchurched kids - Go Brent! Go God! Brent is also leading small groups at Cession.

Cession is doing well. Their band is awesome (Brent sang in the worship team our last Sunday there - I have video!). There are several new families since we last were here, they’ve begun a Sunday morning service and are introducing an alternative Friday service once a month beginning this week. Brett does a great job preaching and there are several others who are very capable leaders and speakers in the church. Brett’s forte is developing and empowering new leaders. I’m so very proud of my family’s church and what God is doing there.

Good to be "home" but this is weird

2009-03-03T12:33:00.003-05:00

I'm really glad to be home and connecting with friends and family here. Using the word, "home" as a segue, here's a weird video that one of my friends put me onto: ENJOY!

Back to Michigan

2009-02-27T12:37:00.004-05:00

Six weeks. It sounds like such a long time, yet goes by so very quickly. We are aboard our flight from Auckland to LA as this is being written. It was a great vacation and mission trip, and I have a mix of feelings about coming home. I will miss my New Zealand family and friends we leave behind. There is always a sense of loss and grief with our departure. Yet, there is an anticipation of seeing our family and friends in the US and getting back to “normal” life. While it is impossible to be in more than one place at a time, it is very possible to have your heart in more than one, or in this case two places. I am leaving some of my heart in New Zealand and Bougainville as I return home.

If you have been following along with my adventures in B-ville, you haven’t heard much about life in New Zealand, so I’ll take this day to catch you up. To the shock of many, I didn’t get much bike riding in. There were several reasons: I wasn’t in great shape for the hills they have around here; There were lots of projects that needed attention around the house and also giving time to help Marcia with the kids so she could do some projects as well; but the reason I haven’t told Marcia yet was that the first Saturday I rode, there was a car-bicycle accident that I came upon shortly after it happened. The rider was laying in front of the car with a broken collar bone and the bike was midway under the car. The group of riders were going through a round about and the car didn’t give way. The rider should be alright, but it affected me more than I expected. I don’t think it will slow me down back home, but it will make me cautious.

The projects around the house kept me busy as well. It seemed like there was something to do almost everyday. Brett and Kristen have bought a really nice home that is about 20 years old. It’s probably about 1,800 square foot three bedroom ranch. However, it hasn’t had anything done to it since it was built, so a lot is out of date and seriously needing maintenance: enter Marcia and Chris.

Marcia had a nearly daily project of “clean kitchen - do laundry - help Rhys pick up toys.” She also did quite a bit of painting. The lounge (living room) is quite large (18 x 24) with a nice crown molding that was painted a silver grey and the walls were done blue gray with a dark taupe grey accent wall. She painted that room while I was in Bougainville and then did the dining room with the same theme the last full week we were in NZ. It was a challenge to paint while the two children were either having naps, in bed for the night or otherwise distracted (where I came in from time to time.)

My first project was removing a really 80's chandelier over the dining room table and replacing it with something much more contemporary. We made the mistake of letting Rhys seeing the project in progress. Rhys doesn’t handle change well, in fact, he originally was not planning to move with the rest of the family from the apartment to the new house. While I had the fixture down and bare wires hanging out of the ceiling, Rhys came out, observed the damage and said, “I don’t appreciate it when people destroy my roof!” to accent his displeasure, he later came out and said, “This makes me very angry!” I expected it to be a very long six weeks. Fortunately, other projects were more warmly received.

Before leaving for Bougainville I put two more light fixtures up in the lounge which really updated the look in there. Then we began work on the guest bath and toilet (two separate rooms) - very common in NZ. The wall paper was a yellow vinyl that was curling up on the edges. The idea was to remove the wall paper and paint. Unfortunately, the builder had wall papered over raw drywall board, so removing wall paper also removed layers of the underlying board as well. We tried our best to do as little damage as possible, but even after patching as best one could, the walls are still rough, but not too bad. I also had to replace and repair trim around the base of the shower. Building is really different in New Zealand. They make great use of MDF (multi-density fiberboard - aka dense paper) in the trim. After being exposed to water for 20 years, the trim was swollen and really nasty looking. It has been replaced with real wood that should last a bit longer.

Another part of the project was replacing aged flooring. We went to the lumber yard and found a really nice looking self adhesive vinyl tiles. They look like dark granite tiles with lighter grey grouting and really are pretty convincing. The best part was they were on closeout and so we did the floors of both rooms for about $70 NZD (or about $35 US). It took me a full day’s work to get them in, but the effect was so dramatic it was really fun.

After the paint and flooring were in, both rooms looked so much better, but we also wanted to update some of the fixtures with a more modern, nickle plated or chrome. They found a nice towel bar on line and had sharp looking handles for the cabinet. The big surprise was trying to find nickel or chrome hinges for the cabinet doors. We looked literally everywhere. They are not to be found in New Zealand. We will buy some - probably at Lowes or even Meijer and have them ready to take back with them on the next trip. It was unbelievable how much time and energy went into searching for something so simple.

After I returned from Bougainville, the next big project was repairing the deck. They have a very nice deck that is 15 x 18. However, it too, showed many signs of neglect. Some boards had broken down so much that there were holes right through them. I spent a day in the sunshine powerwashing the deck. Several more weak boards showed up. When all was said and done, 36 linear meters of new boards were required. Brett and I went to the lumber yard to get the boards and found out that the deck was made of an Australian wood called kwillia. It is very beautiful with a tight grain and costs $7.50 a meter. Pine was $1.50 per meter and won out. Bringing the 6 meter long boards on top of the Honda van was quite a process but after they were stained and installed the deck looks much better and is certainly safer. Rhys helped me with the deck and it was a lot of fun. To remove the old boards, we had to pry them up bit by bit using a claw hammer and a couple large screwdrivers. As I would lift the board with the hammer, Rhys would put the screwdriver in the gap so I could move the hammer and begin the process again. He also collected nails for me and helped me so much. We had fun and later walked down to the market to buy an ice block (aka popsicle) as a reward.

There were several other smaller projects, but we sure kept busy - going home to rest?

Homeward Bound

2009-02-21T01:53:00.008-05:00

Saturday, February 7, 2009

We went to bed around 11 and had to be up @ 4:30 to catch the PMV (Public Motor Vehicle) down to Bukatown. So we were up very early, dressed and finished packing in the dark and were out to the road by 5:15. The stars were out when we first got up and very beautiful, but I could see some clouds moving in to block the view. A few minutes after getting to the road it began to rain. We waited under an overhang for about an hour and 15 minutes before our 5:30 ride came @ 6:45.

A PMV is a flatbed truck with short side rails. Planks are laid across the rails and then there is a canopy frame work overhead with a tarp attached to keep out the rain and/or sun. There were 6 rows of planks on the one we flagged down. (The PMV in this photo is not the one we used - it actually is much nicer and ours had a canvas/tarp roof, but no sides)

We bid our friends in Tanamalo goodbye and climbed aboard. I sat in the middle of the truck and was greeted by the scent of unwashed bodies, “fresh” fish wrapped in taro leaves and other pungent odors. The great thing about smells is that you quickly grow accustomed to them and they blend in.

The plank we were sitting on was about 5 inches wide and polished smooth by innumerable buns sliding all over it every day over several years. This made staying in one place a bit of a challenge, further complicated by the lack of anything to hang onto. So I set my feet solidly, arranged my center of gravity and held on for a two hour+ ride. The roads get proportionately worse the further you get from the government center (some things are the same no matter where one goes). So they started out as abysmal. There has been quite a bit of rain during these two weeks and so the combination of constant traffic and wet roads have led to further deterioration. In other words, it was a very long ride. We were thrown side to side, up and down and forward and back as the PMV tried to avoid the worst the road had to offer.

The passengers were interesting also. It wasn’t long until the truck was fairly full. Some were still drunk from the night before. Two young girls got on and one was busily chewing away on her betel nut. I got an education in how they add lime to the betel nut to get a stronger narcotic reaction from the nut.

The passing scenery was very interesting as we traveled along. The countryside is breathtaking. A drop off into the ocean on one side and the jungle encroaching on the other with coconut palms all along the way. At one point I leaned over to Jeff and said, “I’m having a ball!” It really was a great experience.

We arrived safely (but sorely) in Bukatown around 8:30 a.m. and were taken to the Kuri Lodge where we had a breakfast of four! slices of toast with butter or peanut butter, sausage (aka - hot dog), baked beans and two runny eggs, chased by instant coffee which I tried to improve with a creamer that refused to dissolve. However, the view was magnificent - over looking the channel and the barrier islands, we sat on the veranda and watched boats go back and forth. The water was amazingly clear and the most beautiful aqua color. Fish of several types were easily visible.

While we were there, Dudley, the pastor in Bukatown came to sit with us and keep us company. He was a very entertaining guest. He told us many things about the days when he worked in the mines as an assayer (chemist). He said that at that time he lived just like we do, houses just like ours with carpet and air conditioning and food like ours - T-bone steak....wait a minute, Dudley, you lived better than we do.

He told us many stories and filled us in on some of the on going controversies the people of Bougainville face. I asked him if he knew what the name of the island was before it was named after a French explorer, but he didn’t know that but he did have a great one about how Buka island came to be named. The explorer, Bougain, came to the island and saw two women fishing on the reef. He asked them in English, what is the name of this place. One looked at the other and said, “What did he say?” Which in the local language is “Buka?”. And so the explorer wrote down, “this place is called Buka.”

After staying at the lodge until 11:30 we made our way to the airport. Checked in - security was interesting as they went through our bags and then used a hand wand on every passenger. We waited around in the airport until about 2:15 and then a quick flight into Port Moresby. We didn’t stop on Raboul this time because the airport was shut down due to volcanic ash.

After a quick check through with our luggage, we were in a cab and back at the mission house that has two controls on the shower. Wow - a hot shower feels great after two weeks. Dinner is soon and then off to bed and another day of travel tomorrow.

Finishing Up

2009-02-20T14:52:00.003-05:00

Friday, February 6, 2009

Today we finished up classes. The last three messages were preached and the guys did a pretty good job. Jairus hit a home run with his and pulled himself up to an A- So I ended up with two A’s one A-, a B+ and two B-. Not bad and I think it was a fair reflection of their work. I met with each of the three students and had a good exit interview with each of them.

Part of my coming here was to see if this is something I could do and would like to do in the future. The answer is,a yes. I gained confidence as I gained experience and really enjoyed being with the students and learning more about this place. Jeff is talking about seeing if I can come back to do it again and I looked at the curriculum for the Church History and Spiritual formation classes. I could also teach a Bible class without too much difficulty.

I spent tea time with Nathaniel Sulis who is the national outreach director. They do preaching in the markets sometimes and are talking about doing a revival where the speaker would go from place to place and have a special program. Another opportunity for experience here, although I am more of an encourager than and evangelist. We shared several different ways of doing outreach and I explained servant evangelism to him. I also took him into the library and we went over the better books in it. Most of them are pretty old: Master Plan of Evangelism and Out of the Salt Shaker were newer books. I’m going to pick up a copy of Servant Evangelism and send it over for him and one of the Library.

In the afternoon I finished scoring the grades, took a brief nap and then spent a bit over an hour with the interviews. After that I went to help Jonathan with the door and table he was building. Because he was working on those things, I did some of the rough prep for dinner - peeling kaukau and getting onions ready. I also made a pot of coffee with the last of our store. I’m looking forward to a good cup when I get back to NZ.

After dinner we went up to the classroom for a final meeting, took some photos and ran the videos of the guy’s preaching. Several giggles, as they watched each other.

Our final entertainment was watching “Glory Road”. It was much more meaningful to Jeff and I since it was set in the US in the mid 60's. A sad but glorious movie. Jeff had never seen it and was very impressed. One of my favorites.

What a Coincidence!

2009-02-19T11:17:00.007-05:00

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Today was the first day of preaching. It went well. Japeth, the youngest of our students was first to go. He had never preached before today. When he started out, I was blown away. This clear, concise voice came out of this young man. Each word well spoken. He is clearly gifted to speak. His content was good for one so young and though there were issues with eye contact, being tied to the notes and hand gestures, the over all impression was very favorable.

Raymond was up next. He had a great theme and illustration, but really missed bringing it home. It wasn’t an awful message - I’ve preached far worse, but it just fell short of what it could have been. He also was not prepared to speak when it was time, he was still filling out his forms for the observers. This provided a teachable moment to talk about being ready to preach and not being distracted by last minute details before the sermon starts.

Moses, though hard to understand at times, clearly hit a home run with his message. The content was clear and right out of the text. I found almost nothing to criticize. He did a masterful job of bringing out the best in the story from Daniel 1. He got an A for the sermon and for the class as long as he finishes up his practicum.

After class, I worked on getting ready for the afternoon meetings and then relaxed for just a couple minutes. Rev. Joe and Rev. Nathaniel (the District Superintendent of East Buka) showed up and asked if I could help them. It turns out that the President and Vice-President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB) will be coming to church this Sunday. Joe will be doing the preaching and they will then tour the college facilities after.

Joe and Nathaniel needed to write a letter to both men letting them know they had accepted the invitation to have them present this Sunday. They wanted help typing the letters and it also involved recreating their letterhead and updating it. We had already printed the letters and were getting ready to send them when we discovered the address still said N.S.R. P.N.G. - (North Solomon Region - Papua New Guinea) the old designation for Bougainville before gaining autonomy. This would have been a very big gaff since the fight for independence. Fortunately we caught it. They also needed a program printed up, so I did that for them as well.

I finally got a late lunch and then it was time for my three interviews with the men who had preached that morning. I really enjoyed my time with each of the men. I showed a video of them preaching to each of them, and gave them their grades.

Once finished there, I went to help Jonathan with some wood working. He is building a table for the laundry room and a screen door for the flat. I’ve been helping him by being an extra pair of hands. I also took some more photos of things around the area - animal and human.

It has been a long trip and I am ready to get back to Marcia and the family. I miss them, but I will miss Bougainville also. This morning I came across Marcia’s study notes for her Bougainville presentation for WKFM from 2001. In it she mentions to pray for a community leader who is trying to overcome betel nut habit. His name is Ezekiel - Yeah, that would be chief Ezekiel who I have come to love and who is free of the habit, and whose son, Lesly, is one of the star

students in the class. Then there was a story by Frank Midivane, the former missionary here, about a boat trip they took. In it is mentioned the church secretary, Dudley (see photo) - who I have also met. He is now pastor of the church in Bukatown and former National Superintendent. Who knew I would meet all those people or be here when she studied that back eight years ago. What a coincidence! (Funny how many of those happen to those who follow Christ, isn't it?!)

I Dream of Abdul

2009-02-18T17:45:00.003-05:00

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The meal and the birthday party were very enjoyable. The chicken was very good! Cooked with noodles over rice it was quite enjoyable. I tried the fish, but out of courtesy to those who really like fish, gave up a major portion of mine to others (I am so considerate!) We finished with coffee, tea and Milo (like ovaltine) I introduced them to mocha by suggesting chocolate in the coffee. They tried it, but didn’t seem overly impressed. However, since I had introduced it, from now on it will be called Michigan Style coffee.

Whatever I ate, must have really set me off, however (this bit is written the next day). Last night I had the most vivid dreams I’ve had in a long time. Something about an Islamic messiah who was being raised from the dead, but instead of a tomb, it was my camping tent in the back yard. It got stranger than that, but you get the idea. I think it was the spirit of the chicken haunting my dreams.

The rest of the day has gone well despite the strange rest overnight. I finished up my lecture section of the class and tomorrow come the sermons. Three Thursday, Three Friday. The men turned in their outlines and I must say I was very favorably impressed, especially with the ones by Japeth, Raymond and Moses. The three that preach tomorrow.

In the afternoon I helped Jonathan gather lumber and then rip and plane it down to size for building a screen door for the flat. We had a good time working together and the wood is beautiful. It has a mahogany / teak quality to it. Very beautiful. I also made the walk down to the store with Jeff later in the afternoon. All in all, a fairly relaxed day.

A joke from last night told by Lesly:

There was a man from the highlands of PNG who had the traditional hole through his nose for keeping a bone in it. He had the bone out, just the hole. A fly was buzzing around his head and kept passing through the hole in his nose. The fly did this several times when the man had enough. He waited for the fly to come toward the hole again. Plugged one side of his nose and blew his nose through the other nostril. Then he said to the fly, “Do you think I am your shortcut!?

This, apparently is uproariously funny to Bouganvillians. It is, admittedly much funnier when told by Lesly and acted out rather than put on paper.

World Famous in Bougainville

2009-02-17T12:10:00.004-05:00

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

This morning started out with a nice compliment. Joe told us before devotions that he had heard from the wife of the President of the Autonomous Bougainville Region that her husband had heard that they had a very good preacher at Joe’s church on Sunday. The President had heard of the topic of trusting in God instead of our own strength and wanted to come hear it this Sunday. It won’t be happening because we are on our way back to New Zealand that day, unless, of course, the President pulls strings and won’t let us off the island. (Just kidding).

The new president is a strong Christian and has just taken office. Still, to be noticed by someone of that stature is quite an honor. Apparently, someone from the church here works in the parliament house and was talking about the principle of the message on Monday. While this is a great honor, at the same time, I couldn’t help but think, “Who am I that anyone would notice me or what I have to say. Only because the Lord has blessed me with the possibility of doing the things I get to do. How the Lord has led!

The class went very well today. The topic today was delivery of the message. I felt like the teaching was right on target with what I needed to tell the guys and they were very engaged. Jairus came in late because he has a bad tooth that is causing him a lot of pain. Raymond also had a migraine today. Today is also Lesly’s 29th birthday, so he was a bit distracted, but it still went well.

We have been invited to Lesly’s birthday party. They have killed a chicken and Jonathan has pulled enough ingredients to make a couple small cakes - banana cake of course. We are bringing along the fresh fish and rice we were planning for dinner. So it should be an interesting experience. Details tomorrow.

Appy Noon!, Monday, February 2, 2009

2009-02-16T15:50:00.002-05:00

There was a big storm last night. Wind, heavy rain. Didn’t know if I should be worried or not, but we are in a strong building. The trees were blown around a bit and one of the students said that people would make a lot of money today by going around and picking up coconuts that were blown off. So, it’s not all bad. The ground is well watered and everything will be growing rapidly. A couple of the children were out collecting mushrooms very similar in size and shape to our white toadstools. These are edible so they may be similar to the Portobelo mushrooms.

After class Jonathan and I went down to a store about a kilometer to the west. We had a pleasant walk, stepping around mud puddles and a new crop of dead toads in the road. We got close to the store and found a pond just loaded with toads in the heat of passion. (Enough details). We shielded our eyes and passed by to the store.

The little enterprise was just one room tacked on to the end of the house but fairly well stocked with everything from potted meat to ready to wear. The store owner was very friendly and the children in the area came around to check out the tuntalala (white men). The people are very nice and we are always greeted with bong bong! (Morning!) Or So Hasa (hello) or Che bong (good evening) or Appy Noon! (Good afternoon).

After we got back Jonathan tried his hand at coconut shelling. It wasn’t entirely successful, but we did get to the meat of it (lost most of the milk). It is really good and makes a nice snack for between meals.

Jeff and I are missing out on the Superbowl. Jeff is missing it more than I since he’s from Ohio and still a Cardinals fan. It does bring home the remoteness of this place when I can’t get on line to find out what the score is. I miss missing out on the new commercials more than the game, but we’ll both catch up when we get home.

Our entertainment this evening was a little less enjoyable, but more important by far. We watched the documentary “The Coconut Revolution”. If all is to be believed, the BRA were totally in the right and the cause very just. I think that was mostly true, but the documentary seemed a little too good to be true. However, Jeff was quite impressed by it and said it opened up his eyes to many things he had not known before about the conflict. It was very powerful. I had watched about half of it back home before coming. They were very resourceful in overcoming the blockade and the leader, Francis Ona said the blockade had forced them to find their own resources and resourcefulness.

Go to: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9073157933630784238 or Google "Coconut Revolution" to watch the video (almost an hour)

Sunday in Bougainville: February 1, 2009

2009-02-15T13:19:00.006-05:00

A new experience. Preaching in Bougainville. The clouds cleared out for the first time in several days and it was a very warm morning (and I have to dress up!).

Church was fun and interesting. Several different things going on and both Pidgin, English spoken with the local dialect thrown in from time to time. The singing was typical of island singing, ragged beginning as one person starts it out and people join in a few at a time, but by the second verse, the harmonies (and dissonance) are in full bloom and it is wonderful. The Wesleyans in Bougainville do not use instruments because that is what the Pentecostal churches do and we won’t be as worldly as they. There is a push among the young to introduce instruments and so there is tension in the church over how worship music is to be used. Sounds way too familiar.

When it was my turn I got up to speak with not a little nervousness. Stepping into something strange is always a bit scary. I shouldn’t have worried. God was right there to help. I should

mention here that one of the things I have been stressing with the men in class has been the importance of prayer for the preacher. Ten minutes before class was to start, I gathered with the students and had them pray for me. It was a very special time. They are good men.

The message went well. I told the story from 2 Chronicles 20 where a choir defeats an army. The choir sang just before I got up to speak, so it was very timely and the people seemed to be with me throughout. I had to speak very loudly, so my voice is a bit tired tonight. Fortunately, I only had to preach it once, instead of the usual 4 times I would at Faith.

After service there was “refreshment” which is really Sunday dinner. It was good and the foods

are familiar by now: kaukau, green vegetables, baked pumpkin, there was a fish and a chicken dish that I passed by and lots of rice. The greens were a bit different than I had had and were quite bitter. Otherwise, it was very tasty. I am becoming a big fan of kaukau - the white sweet potato they have here. The flesh is very similar to the consistency of boiled potatoes, but had that hint of sweetness so they can be eaten with nothing added and be quite enjoyable.

When I arrived for refreshment, one of the women in the choir - a very outgoing sort - said she was sorry that she had kept her sunglasses on top of her head when she came forward to sing. I joked with her that I thought she had four eyes and needed them and everyone laughed very loud. Then I let her know I had not even noticed, but it did not matter. The choir was good and we had a good day of worship.

Chief Ezekiel showed me the drums they use for celebration and for communication with other villages. They are very large, made out of logs. They are dug out but only have a small slit open on the top through which all the material must be removed. The Chief told me it takes many months of work to make these drums. There were three there, each larger than the next. They really follow the four part harmony pattern with these with the smallest being the highest and so on. The bass drum was not there - Chief Ezekiel said it was what we would call a “woofer”! (See yesterday's entry for a photo of Ezekiel and the drums)

Tasol!

More Culture Lessons: Saturday, January 31, 2009

2009-02-14T17:01:00.005-05:00

A hard working Saturday in the morning. We had class today to catch up from starting on Tuesday. It was strange and made it feel like Friday. I taught the last section on sermon structure and received their first major assignment on the text, proposition and purpose of their sermon. Mostly they did very well. I had two that I needed to have improvements completed. Mostly they were very good and I was able to find positive things in each of their assignments.

After class I talked with Lesly for a while then came down to the flat. Jeff introduced me to

Ezekiel Roman - Lesly’s dad and the clan chief. It was good to meet him - a very intelligent and strong leader. He works with co-op of farmers to help raise the standard of living on Buka Island. We talked about many things and I learned a great deal about agriculture here on the island. Their biggest cash crops are coconut products, mostly oil and copra (roasted coconut) and cocoa. They send most of their cocoa raw to Samoa to be processed. He would like to have a processing plant here on Buka, but there is the problem of finance and a greater problem of reliable electricity. He estimates that the cost of setting up a plant would be about 2 million kina (something just under $700,000.00 USD). It would allow them to give the farmers more for their raw cocoa and still make more profit for the processors. Shipping would cost less also. He

said the processing plant on Samoa should be here because Samoa produces something like 5,000 tons of cocoa per year and Bougainville produces 80,000 tons. I’m sure that part of the reason they don’t have it here yet is that the country has been politically unstable. There are also some issues of culture to consider. If one clan gets ahead of the others, the others will sabotage the first to bring them back in line with the rest. The genius of the co-op is that all benefit, therefore no one needs to feel left behind.

(The picture is of Ezekiel Roman showing me the tribal drums. Each takes 3 to 4 months to make. He is holding up his hand to show the size of the largest drum which he called, "the woofer".)

After I spent time with Ezekiel, I went over to the office and finished off the message for Sunday and printed out enough copies for the students each to have a copy. My hope is that they will see the things I have been teaching them in action and be able to understand better by example than they would by pure lecture. Because of this, I had to be very careful in writing the message to follow the homiletical rules I have been teaching - what a pain! I haven’t intentionally written a proposition, purpose and transition statement in years. But, on Monday we can use the message as a teaching tool. Anything to help the team get better.

Telling Time in Bougainville: Friday, January 30, 2009

2009-02-12T16:28:00.004-05:00

This morning was a fairly quiet morning. Up around 5:30 had a shower, devotions and caught up on my blog from yesterday. Breakfast with the guys and then off to class.

Today was chapel and I was surprised to see Alex being the one to bring devotions. He did ok but his lack of experience showed. It was brief, but also gave me some material for helping explain things later. I also found out that I need to find the right words for people to understand what I am saying.

The first indication of it was when I was telling the class that we could take a break and start again at nine ten (9:10). They all looked at me blankly and I tried again with ten after nine. Someone got it and said ten past nine and then they all got it. Seems simple, but if you are working in another language, it would be very difficult and nuances would make a difference. Later I was teaching about a proposition statement. Lesly asked the difference between a proposition statement and the theme. I’m sure there are some differences, but not enough to count in this situation - it is now called the theme and they are all moving forward more easily now. Then we got to the purpose statement and that became, “goal”. Having the right word is so important here.

Did a lot of resting today - it has been raining quite a bit, so not much chance of going out to explore. I did stop over to the student’s kitchen to see how they cleaned out and shredded coconut. A really ingenious way using a bench with a round metal protrusion off the end that is serrated. It works very well but still looks like plenty of work.

Bougainville Update: Thursday, January 29, 2009

2009-02-11T19:10:00.006-05:00

A full day. The class went very well as I shared various types of preaching with the men. Rev. Joe gave me a very good example in the devotion time and it was useful for tying things together. The examples seemed to help the men connect, but it was not the only benefit; several times as I was sharing truth while sharing the example, the Spirit of the Lord settled down upon us. They really connected when I shared the story style of preaching. It was fun and lively and we are beginning to connect with one another.

During my morning break, Rev. Joe came over and we talked at length. It was a very good give and take. He taught me much about the culture and students that was helpful to understanding. He also shared several things with me about the struggles they face here and how he became national superintendent at such a young age. He is very capable and is a tremendous asset here on Bougainville. At the end of our time it was amazing to me how much our problems are alike though we have very different cultures.

Most of the students had not made much progress on their inductive study, so in the afternoon study hour I spent 10 minutes with each of them. It seemed to be good study and we shall see today if it made any difference. Today begins the study of a proposition (big idea) statements.

Jeff and I took another short walk after study and before dinner.

It was a bit cooler (not cool) but considerably more comfortable today. The jungle areas here are very dense. Jeff says that if anything is left alone for a year or so, the jungle takes it back over. When we got back, Alex and Lesly were working on the garden plot. They are growing all kinds of interesting vegetables including broccoli and bok choi. Lesly’s sister went to agricultural college and has passed her knowledge on.

Jonathan created another masterpiece of a meal last night. We are eating far better than I imagined we would. I took a picture of the meal just because it was so nicely presented and was quite tasty. We had canned beef over rice (better than it sounds) kaukau - a sweet potato that is more white than ours and not as dry, various veggies as a garnish and the mystery spinach/asparagus bush that we have had most nights. There was pineapple and mango for dessert - the tropical fruit here is amazing and will ruin me for ever eating mangos from Meijer.

I decided not to use the message from Daniel on Sunday since Moses is using chapter one from Daniel for his sermon. So I will be writing a new one this week. That will be better anyway. So I worked on that for a while last night and then went to bed.

Saw another cockroach last night when I got up to go to the toilet. He was really fast. And large.

I had to be really careful where I stepped because even though I could see where he was, he moved so fast I almost had him run across my foot before I could pick it up for the next step. GROSS! Our friendly household gecko is getting more comfortable with us apparently, because he seems much more free to chatter in the middle of the night. We have one large one as far as I can tell, and several really tiny ones. It is more and more likely that the thing I had run across my neck the first night was one of these. Jonathan saw one with a tail missing. Could have been from being snatched up and thrown across the room.

lukim you behain (see you later!)

Creepy Crawlies, Craters & Communication

2009-02-10T18:59:00.008-05:00

I had an uneventful night of sleep, no creepy crawlies again, but each of us have killed a 2 inch cockroach in the last 24 hours. The ants are under control and the flies are down to a few hundred.

Class got off to a noisy start today. Just as devotions were concluding it started to rain and when I got up to start class I had to shout to be heard as the rain beat on the steel panel roof.

I’m not sure I’m getting through but I hope so. They seemed to catch the concepts of the study tools and I wish I could get more to them. It seems a shame that I have a library full of stuff I only use occasionally and they have nearly nothing. Even the Bible school library is very limited. There are lots of books, but many of them are very old and/or culturally irrelevant. Several books I have used in the past and have cast off as outdated. Others have done the same and so the books end up here.

I showed them some of the good classics that are useful - Halley’s Bible Handbook and Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. Moses asked if they were available - I doubt it - but I will look into getting some shipped here. Bringing them here in the luggage isn’t really practical because of the massive weight. I guess I’m just frustrated by the whole have/have not dilemma.

I do love the way the team is working together and the easy camaraderie of the three of us. There is a good spirit of doing whatever we can to work together to get things done.

After classes last night Jeff and I went for a walk around. He pointed out an interesting feature of the campus. In the main yard there are three large depressions. They are bomb craters from WWII! They aren’t all that deep any longer but are quite large around. This area was an area of heavy conflict during the war and the locals hid in caves down by the ocean.

We made our way down there this evening - taking a trail that led down and I wasn’t really believing where we were going. The trail got fairly steep as we descended over coral and then there was a place where you used a knotted rope to lead to an aluminum ladder set into the wall to get down another 20 feet. Then it was still down hill over jagged coral until it finally leveled out. The ocean was beautiful and I picked up a shell and a bit of coral as a souvenir.

When we got back I stopped by the cooking hut of the guys. They were making KauKau - a cross between potato and sweet potato. We got talking about crops grown different places and Raymond asked me to describe maize. I told him how it grew on a stalk and had one ear that grew rows of large yellow seeds. Jairus said, “sounds like corn”! We had quite a laugh over that one.

Then tonight after dinner Rev. Joe came over to talk. We had a great time with him. He is very helpful in understanding the culture and has explained many things to me. He also has an engaging personality and great sense of humor. I’m loving this place and loving the people.

Mmmm - Tastes Like Asparagus!

2009-02-09T14:23:00.007-05:00

The green stuff from yesterday’s entry turned out to be very good. It did indeed taste like asparagus, but a little stronger and a bit tangy - but good with no ill effects. We have also been enjoying mangos - very delicious and refreshing.

Sleeping started out well last night. I was wiped out by 9:00 and lay down and soon was out until about midnight when I had a yet unidentified creature crawl across my neck. I instinctively grabbed it and threw it away from me. I didn’t experience any poisonous bites or swelling, so I guess I’ve survived another adventure. I did not, however, sleep that well for the rest of the night. Any slight tingle or the curtain moving against my leg put me on high alert. It was hot, but not unbearably through the night.

Jonathan has been taking great care of us. The laundry was done and the meals have been very tasty. He also is very inventive. He made french toast this morning, but since we didn’t have syrup (not many maple trees on Bougainville) he made his own by boiling down sugar and water. It really was quite nice - not over sweet as maple sometimes can be.

The first day of class went well. We only had three students to start, because three of the

students thought class began next week. They arrived mid afternoon. The day began with devotions, singing and prayer. Then introductions were made and I began my class.

With only three students, it went faster than I anticipated and we were done a bit early. I hope I was able to communicate O.K. One of the students was quite sharp but another was very shy and I’m not sure he understands English well enough to keep up. Have I mentioned that it’s hot here? By the end of class, my shirt was soaked through. Clothes won’t last long here as I am going through a couple sets per day.

I was reflecting on the remoteness of this place. When I was in Zambia, it was backward and Haiti was oppressive, but both places were very advanced in the tools that can be put into the hands of pastors there. Both places the pastors have computers and many have laptops. They have access to books and other basic tools for preaching. This country has almost nothing. I am very glad to be able to provide the NIV study bibles for the students. It will give them the most basic, but adequate starting place. On the other hand, almost everyone carries a cell phone now. They only came in a year ago but most have them and have adapted quickly to the technology. Texting is the choice of communication as it is cheaper here than talk minutes.

Had a brief walk around the neighborhood with Jeff this evening. Saw a few interesting sights including a cocoa tree with pods on it. MMMMM chocolate! But it wasn’t ours to harvest. A nice evening meal and a shower and I am ready to call it a day.

Tasol! (That’s all!)

Day One - Arrival January 26, 2009

2009-02-08T18:48:00.007-05:00

Day One - Arrival

I’m sitting in the kitchen of the Bougainville Bible College guest house, surrounded by half-naked men. It is HOT - but a lovely hot. We’ve arrived safely in Tanamalo - a small village on the north coast of Buka Island. Buka-town is the main trade area for Bougainville and also where the airport is.

We departed from Port Moresby this morning - leaving the house @ 4:50 a.m. and boarding our plane at 6:30 a.m.. We had a long wait in the line at the airport to check in and while doing it met a cacao farmer from Rabaul, New Britain. He was a fascinating fellow and very friendly. He said that he normally harvests 4 tons of cocoa beans per month - enough to keep all the women in Lansing, MI happy for about a week.

Once again, our flight was on time and really a pleasure. (Are you listening US air industry?). We flew to Rabaul for a brief lay over. The island of New Britain is gorgeous! I took several photos from the air. One of them is of an active volcano which also complicated our landing pattern since we had to go out over the sea and come back in to avoid the volcanic ash cloud. The airport had been closed briefly earlier this week to sweep up the ash accumulating on the runway.

We had to de-plane in Rabaul - and get right back on after going through security. Then

we flew into Buka - our approach was again breathtaking. Beauty, not scary - the flight was smooth and good. The airport is really small, which is to be expected. The interesting bit was the WWII anti-aircraft gun by the terminal.

We collected our luggage and began meeting lots of people. Rev. Joe who is the principle of the Bible School and National Supt. for Bougainville, Leslie, one of the students, Nathaniel who is National treasurer, National evangelism director and District Superintendent for the East Buka district as well as a local pastor and he is very young. Pastor Wesley is the pastor of the church here in Tanamalo. It wasn’t long before we warmed up and began having a great time of sharing.

We caught a ride into Buka-town to do some banking and shopping and wait for our ride out to

Tanamalo. The town is not very large, but very busy. Market is each day and it is the place where most people come to do business because some parts of the main Bougainville island “do

not have law and order”. The main island is only about ½ mile away across a channel. I remember Marcia teaching about the long boats that take people back and forth across the channel in the children’s mission class. Today I got to see them in action. Quite interesting. You can cross for 2 Kina - a little less than a dollar.

Leslie took Jonathan and I to do the grocery shopping while Pastor Joe and Jeff went to do some banking. The store was very crowded - what no shopping carts! And very hot - what, no air conditioning!. But we found everything we need and tried a few local treats that were recommended to me by missionaries in Port Moresby the night before. The beef flavored biscuit was really quite tasty!

Speaking of food, (kai-kai is the Pidgin word), we ate lunch at the local restaurant - it was interesting - but edible. I had two sausages (luke-warm) and rice. Also on the menu was a chicken curry where the chicken was simply chopped up bone and all & huge chunks of taro root on the side. Taro is a staple here, but is about 120% starch and very dry. Tapioca is also grown here and I look forward to trying it, but I understand it will be nothing like the nice pudding I enjoy so much. Fun little bit: There was a sign on the wall informing their “valued customers” that the price of soft drinks is now 2.50 kina. Then, “10 Q for your understanding”. Pidgin is really a very logical language. Say it out loud and often, you will have it.

We stayed in Buka-town for most of the day waiting for our ride. Part of the delay was a really impressive downpour which put a stop to most commerce and traffic in town. It rained for about an hour and dropped a good 1 - 2 inches of rain.

We started out for Tanamalo in the back of a Toyota pick-up around 1:00 - The three white men got the seat of honor - a board across the top of the bed of the truck up by the cab. The others rode sitting on the top edge of the bed and seeming to not hang on all that desperately. Our driver was inspired and we flew up the increasingly narrow road until we arrived.

Our lodgings are adequate, though we are doing battle with flies and ants right now. I have murdered easily 30 flies and another one just buzzed me. The ants are all over the place. We will deal with them in a bit. But we are settled in and showered and shirtless and about to enjoy our first meal whipped up by Jonathan - Tuna, rice and some green stuff we picked up at a stand along side the road. If I don’t write tomorrow......

In Papua New Guinea

2009-01-25T02:25:00.003-05:00

The first leg of our trip to Bougainville has been successful. I am now sitting in lovely 90 degree heat in Port Moresby, PNG. The trip has gone amazingly well - both of our flights left and arrived early. All my luggage made it through. Utterly revolutionary. Are we sure the US is a civilized nation?

The country is beautiful. Rugged hills and mountains, winding rivers and the colors one expects in a tropical country. We were met at the airport by a quartet singing to greet us. Coming through customs was a breeze and the greeting by the people friendly and warm.

We are spending the night at a mission house in Port Moresby and then off to Bougainville in the morning. Right now, we are relaxing in the lounge talking with other missionaries who are in transit. It was interesting reading a local newspaper and find how much our culture influences fairly remote places. Other things strike you as different and let you know you are in a very different place. One of the interesting bits was a plan for a funeral service, starting with the casket leaving the home, at what time it would arrive at the church, etc..

The country is very clean and the people show great pride in their homes and city. A huge contrast to a couple Carribean island nations I’ve been too. It is incredibly warm here - about 90 right now, but there is a light breeze that carries with it the scent of the charcoal fires from the neighboring area.

So far a delightful trip. I probably won’t be able to update until we return to this mission home on the way home on Saturday, February 7.

I Felt Right At Home

2009-01-21T13:43:00.003-05:00

I went out for a bike ride yesterday morning. The hills are still amazing, but I'm getting the hang of them again. I rode out to the shore and then back out. A climb of 300+ feet in about a kilometer. So I am beginning to feel a bit more at home.

What made me feel like I was home were a couple other incidents. Twice I had trucks pass uncomfortably close. In both cases, I looked up to see they were from Waste Management. I felt like I was right back climbing the hill on Wood Rd! They are a plague upon the earth.

The other event happened on a lovely quiet road that is exceptionally hilly. I had just finished climbing a quite steep hill (lowest gear at about 7 mph) and was enjoying a short coast down the other side. Ahead of me was another rather picturesque climb that was quite steep with several curves back and forth. About halfway up the hill (1/4 mile away) I saw two exceedingly large creatures walk into the roadway. I didn’t recognize what they were until I got much closer. Rottweilers!

As I approached one moved off the road as if to let me pass. Instead, he was waiting in a rather

un-obscure ambush. The dog’s head had to be close to a foot across, he was enormous! I pulled along side and he jumped out into the road barking in a very unfriendly way. It is impossible, at my level of cycling, to outrun a Rottweiler uphill. So, I talked to him. “Have you had breakfast?” He seemed entertained enough by this to not take a chunk out of my leg, so I continued to talk, he continued to bark and we, together, made our way up the hill. The other dog must have been an apprentice Rottweiler, because it just watched and took notes, thankfully, because I really can only engage one oversized canine at a time. I heard a brief whistle and both animals turned for home as I sprinted away - at 6 mph.

38:29:44

2009-01-14T13:05:00.006-05:00

As we left our home in DeWitt on Monday morning around 10:00 a.m. to fly to New Zealand I punched the start button on my stopwatch just for giggles - by the end of the trip, I wasn't giggling anymore. The trip promised to be a long one - about 26 hours, it ended up being much longer. This is our story (roll "Dragnet" theme music).

Monday, 10:00 a.m. DeWitt, Michigan. There had been a bit of snow overnight, but not much and the roads were in good condition which gave us hope. The trip to Grand Rapids was uneventful, we checked in without waiting in line and only had to remove one item from one suitcase to make weight limits. All our bags weighed in within 1 1/2 pounds of the 50# limit.

We drove across town to pick up Jill and Cole. Kent and Jill are car sitting while we are away. We had a delightful lunch with them and they dropped us off at the airport in perfect time. We waited with the only worry being the short (40 minute) lay over in Chicago. Then the delay notice came up - 15 minutes. We boarded and found out basically the battery was dead in our plane and we needed a jump. They finally got the engines started and off we went.

Arriving in Chicago, to the credit of American Airlines, only a few minutes late, we dashed down one concourse, over two and back up. As we were between concourses, we heard the last call for our flight. As we arrived at the gate, both breathless, we saw them pulling the jetway away from the plane. The ticket agent, seeing we were international went to work to get us on the plane - what a thrill to be that guy - the one everyone looks at thinking, "So you are who we've been waiting for!" And where are our seats? Last row!

We backed away from the gate and got de-iced. Then pulled back up to the gate, because the flaps were no longer working properly. We waited about an hour and had the pilot tell us several different versions of what was going on and how they were going to get us on another plane if this one couldn't take off - none of which turned out to be right. We deplaned and headed out to the gate where they told us to wait only to find out that was the wrong gate. We went to the right gate and found out there wasn't a plane waiting there, just one harried AA ticket agent. Someone suggested calling AA and so I did. To my amazement, I got connected right away and before I could get to the front of the line, they had us booked on a United flight to L.A. and then - big change - a Quantas flight to Sydney and then to Auckland that would get us to Auckland around 5:00 p.m. Wednesday instead of our original 6:00 a.m., but it was still better than an overnight in either Chicago or LA and then arriving on Thursday.

To get to the United ticketing agents we had to go from Terminal 3 to 1 - a walk of nearly a mile. We got in line behind a family from Germany with an adorable little girl who kept us engaged and helped pass time. We finally got our tickets and headed for our second security check of the day. We had plenty of time - until....

Because of the number of cancellations and quick bookings, the number of "random" extra security checks went way up. I was one of the lucky ones. I asked the right question: "Do I need to do anything more with my carry on than take out my laptop?" and got the wrong answer, "no". It took 1/2 an hour for the line to move through and when I did get in place, they took my backpack through three times and delayed us even more. By this time our time cushion had evaporated and I sent Marcia ahead to the gate with the intention of catching up. I finally made it and the jetway gate closed behind us as we got onboard. For the second time that day in Chicago I got to be "that guy".

It was 7 pm and the snow was falling heavily. The wings were covered in snow (my fault probably) and so we had to de-ice once again. Half an hour later we pulled away on a snow covered taxiway. The runway wasn't much better and after we got away I was thankful that we didn't have to land there. 10 hours after leaving home, we had only covered about 200 miles of our 18,000 mile trip.

We arrived in LA @ 9:45 p.m. local time (12:45 on our body-clock) and had to find our way to the Quantas ticket desk. This involved a shuttle bus ride, getting off at the wrong spot and walking nearly a mile again. The agents were relatively helpful and did finally manage to get us seats together. We were, however, chastised for not having arrived sooner if we had wanted se

ats together: An indication of Aussie hospitality that was going to become far too familiar in the next several hours.

We actually had time to wait before boarding in LA. As I was getting on the plane they stopped me and told me I had to check my carry on because it was too large - never mind that it was smaller than Marcia's. Regardless, I had to check it through. I assumed it would be placed in the front of the plane and I would reclaim it as I got off in Sydney - they didn't ask me for my final destination. Arriving in Sydney I was told I had to go to the transfer desk and get it sent to the right plane.

I stood in line for 45 minutes waiting to talk to the transfer agent. When I finally got to the desk the agent told me "You will have to put in a lost baggage claim for it when you get to Auckland. It's too hard for us to try to find it." There was a woman of Indian descent right behind us and she was told the same thing. She had had a similar experience to ours with rerouting of her flights and had been trying to get to her destination about the same duration.

We arrived in Auckland finally and found a very welcoming environment. The immigration stop was well manned and therefore had short lines. The agent who took care of us was friendly and efficient. While waited for our baggage on to come off the belt we had a very nice lady talking to us. Later when it turned out that NONE of our luggage arrived, she directed us to the next very helpful person who put in the report. Our large luggage is to arrive today (Thursday) and my carry on....not too sure.

So, I'm setting here finishing this long entry after a good night's rest, but without a change of clothes since Monday morning. (Be thankful that technology hasn't advanced to the point of sharing odors!) The total time upon arrival at Brett & Kristen's new home: 38 hours, 29 minutes, 44 seconds.

But this makes it all worth it!

Our Christmas Letter - a.k.a. - The History of Our Lives

2008-12-24T05:01:00.011-05:00

Last year I posted Marcia's Christmas letter here and will do the same again. Among ou friends, her annual update is anticipated because of its humor and down-home charm. It is long, so grab a cup of hot chocolate, or egg nogg and read on.....

MERRY CHRISTMAS, 2008

Dear Family & Friends,

We trust your year has gone well. Ours has had its share of ups and downs but we are very

thankful for many blessings from the Lord, even in the not-so-good times. For us, 2008 began with Kristen and her family here from December 18-January 10. The Sunday before they left for home, we were all together one final time at our former church in Grand Rapids. Chris had

the privilege of dedicating Raegan, Pixie, and Cole; then after the church service a photographer friend of ours took photos of all six grands and family photos. It was a madhouse trying to get everyone seated and looking at the camera. Uncle Brett discovered a way to entertain the kids, though, after a ½ hour of unsuccessful attempts to control the squirms: he looks very funny when he does the Chicken Dance! And seven week old Baby Cole just slept through all the pandemonium. When we took Kristen & Brett and the kids to the Lansing Airport to see them off, we had lunch in the airport café before they boarded. As we ate, Brett was trying to make conversation, and innocently said, “So Rhys, what was your favorite part about visiting the States this Christmas?” Without hesitation, Rhys replied, “Playing with Granny!” Kristen and I quickly swung away from Rhys so he couldn’t see us crying. We knew that we would not see them again for an entire year so this ‘good-bye’ was a tough one. (Chris and I are heading to NZ January 12-February 23, 2009; 4 weeks vacation for Chris, with a 2 week trip to Bougainville. I will be staying in NZ the entire

time. At Thanksgiving, Lily saw what I have already packed and said, “I want to go to New

Zealing, too.” I’m afraid she would be terribly homesick, though.)

AND WE’RE OFF...

Chris writes: Once we had our plans for New Zealand in the works, I contacted my friend, Jeff Fussner who is Global Partners (Wesleyan Church) area director for the South Pacific. I asked if he might have a side trip that we could make together. He invited me to teach homiletics (the art and science of preaching) in Bougainville. Where? Bougainville. It is a small island in the Solomon chain off the east end of Papua New Guinea. Jeff & I will be traveling there at the end of January. I’m looking forward to the challenge of teaching in a very different culture. If you

want to know more and follow my adventures in B-ville (as well as other entries/videos of our grandchildren, my head being shaved, etc.), see below...

- In April, we took a to Jamaica to work with ‘My Father’s House’, a home for children at risk. (Several friends said, “A missions trip in Jamaica? Oh right!” Believe me, we saw a side to Jamaica that you don’t see at Sandals Resort.) I served as the team leader, which meant

herding the 16 volunteers and dealing with problems. All in all, it was a great trip, doing lots of repairs around the compound. We also served a rural community by carrying water up the

mountain to fill reservoirs (barrels). My favorite story from that trip involves a 4 year old boy named Felix, who loves Spiderman. I had gotten my computer out to update my blog when Felix came over to help. He saw a picture of Rhys wearing a Halloween Spiderman costume.

Felix said, “That’s me. (Pause) That’s

me...when I was white.”

- It’s no surprise that I spent a considerable amount of time on my bike (I will log over 7,000

miles by the end of the year). What is impressive is Marcia’s 50 mile day on DALMAC. I have ridden this 5-Day tour several times but this year Marcia rode the majority of the first day with me on the tandem - beginning in DeWitt and finishing north of Alma. We had a great time together, but Marcia was glad she

wasn’t going on for the remainder of the week.

OUR GRANDS – THE BRIGHT SPOTS IN OUR LIVES...

- Faith is 8 years old and in the 3rd grade. She had a big year in that her tonsils were removed in the spring before she could begin orthodontic work. The doctor measured her tonsils by placing them on a ruler, then taking a photo. Great memento - not! (When Lily saw it, she called them ‘bloody meatballs’ and told us she is going to have her bloody meatballs taken out when she’s 7 ½ like Faithie. ☺) Faith also is in dance class again after being away for 3 years while they lived in Florida. Her dance recital was in June and we were so proud of her. She looked graceful and beautiful. She is beautiful from within, too. She loves babies and was a great help taking care of Raegan last Christmas and always in taking care of Cole when we’re together. Faith can get Cole to laugh even when he’s tired. It’s no surprise that she named one of her dolls Raegan and another Cole. And on most days, Pixie

enjoys being ‘mothered’ by Faith, too.

- Lily turned 4 at the end of October. She is a little clothes freak and loves to play dress up or create her own style, sometimes layering 2 or 3 outfits at the same time. Lil loved having her Auntie K here. She had a shirt and pants that were similar in style to one that Kristen wore so she called it her “Auntie K outfit” and wore it nearly daily until she outgrew it! As I was helping Lily get dressed one day last summer, she said, “I’ll choose an outfit for Pixie, too, so she can look fab-LEE-us like me.” Lily also loved ‘Baby Raegan’ and when her maternal grandmother bought ballet shoes for all 3 girls, Lil insisted that Baby Raegan needed ballet shoes, too, so Gram bought the shoes and Granny mailed them to NZ. (Both Lily and Pixie started ballet class in September so next June’s recital should be triple the fun!) When Lily sets her mind on something there isn’t much chance of changing her mind. When they visited at Thanksgiving,

Lily asked, “Granny, can I help you cook? You’ll cook more faster if I help you.”

- Rhys celebrated his 3rd birthday in March. He is quite articulate, often sounding older than his years. I was talking to Kristen one day, telling her about hitting a deer on our way to church. Kristen was commenting and when Rhys overheard what had happened, he got on the phone and asked, “Did Papa hit a deer? I don’t believe it!” He acted like he had heard the most shocking news. The Jones family moved in November from a 2 bedroom to a 4 bedroom home. Rhys is a ‘homebody’ so he was persistent in saying, “I’m NOT going!” I tried my hand at encouraging h

im to move by asking, “Where will granny sleep when we come to visit?” “With me in my bed,” Rhys answered. “But where will papa sleep?” I asked. His solution: “With mama in her bed.” Thankfully Rhys did move so Granny won’t have to sleep in a twin bed with Rhys and Brett & Kristen won’t have to share a bed with Papa. Kristen and Brett are expecting Baby #3 in May. They went for an ultrasound last week but don’t plan to find out the gender of the newest Jones. However, Rhys is quite sure – he told us: “She’s a boy”.

- Pixie, who turned 3 years at the end of September, lives up to her name – she’s an adorable,

affectionate little pixie. She has very expressive eyes that dance when she’s happy and that look like thunderclouds when she’s unhappy. One day

I told the girls on the phone that I wanted them to help me decorate our

Christmas tree when they came down after Thanksgiving. Then I heard this scream in the background. It was Pixie; she was delighted! And I don’t know when I’ve enjoyed decorating a tree more than I did this year. The girls ooh-ed and aah-ed over every ornament, running them over to show their mom before placing them on the tree. Some branches have 3 or 4 ornaments hanging in the same spot. I didn’t move a thing. To me the tree looks beautiful just the way it is! During that same visit, we were playing with the toy doctor kit downstairs. Pixie had just been treated 10 days earlier for a double ear infection so when it was her turn to be the doctor, she took the otoscope, very gently pushed Lily’s hair back, and said, “Let’s take a peek in your ear.” I asked,

“What do you see, doctor?” Dr. Pixie: “Uh, plus.” Me: “Do you me

an pus?” Dr. Pixie: “No, plus.” There you have it: Lily has ear plus!

Raegan, who was 1 year old in July, is a tiny dynamo. For her hefty start at birth, she is a

petite little girl, absolutely beautiful with long dark hair, blue eyes, and a ready smile. Don’t let that innocent look fool you, though: she is extremely active, always on the move. Raegan loves music; one day Kristen found her playing in her toy

kitchen, trying to sing their ‘thank You, Lord’ grace song as she ‘prepared’ a meal. One of her first words was ‘amen’ and Brett says it’s not because she is overly spiritual but rather because she enjoys food so much. We try to visit on-line as often as possible so Raegan now thinks we live in the computer. When she hears the Skype ring, she walks over to the computer and says “Papa”. We’re anxious to actually get to cuddle her in about 3 short weeks!

- Cole celebrated his first birthday in November. He lives the closest to us out of all the other grands and we love having him nearby. He came to stay with us for a week in September while Kent & Jill went to Wisconsin where Kent took a one week class at U of W for his job; it was fun to have a baby in the house. Unlike Raegan, Cole is a big boy. (His mommy is so tiny, but she’s young and has lots of energy for toting him around!) Life has taken on a new turn since Cole took his first steps about 2 ½ weeks before his birthday and he has successfully climbed a flight of steps. No more leaving the door or gate open at their house! Cole’s talents include: making ‘motor’ sounds when he’s playing with cars or trucks, making a ‘popping’ sound until his mouth dries out (there’s a video of that on Chris’ blog, October 25 entry), and saying ‘whoa’ or ‘wow’ when something amazes him. Very funny little guy!

GOD’S GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR EVERY NEED...

Chris: Cancer has reared its ugly head this year in ways we didn’t anticipate - but before all that happened, I shaved my (not so ugly, by the comments I received) head in the cause of children’s cancer. My friend, Doug, lost a son to childhood cancer two years ago. The St. Baldrick’s foundation raises funds for childhood cancer research. I raised $880.00 - less than my goal of $1,000 - but close enough. To see pictures and a video of the ‘shaving’ process - go to my blog: http://bicynicalist.blogspot.com/2008/03/id-pay-to-see-that-movie.html

Marcia: I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in September, had a total thyroidectomy in October, and completed treatment on December 9. (The treatment was easy: one radiated iodine pill to kill residual thyroid cells, which required 4 days of isolation at home - I called it ‘house arrest’ - due to my being radioactive.) With this type of cancer, no chemo is necessary and the cure rate is 96%. But cancer is cancer and we found ourselves totally depending on God’s grace, peace, and strength. There is a line from a song recorded by The Martins that I found especially comforting, “But the will of God won’t lead you where the grace of God can’t keep you. You will never be out of His care.” And around the time of my diagnosis, two of our dear friends were diagnosed, one with melanoma in his lung, and the other with esophageal cancer. We also found out that my dad’s prostate cancer has spread to his ribs, spine, and hips. The day before my surgery we (my siblings) went to the doctor with my folks to get the report of Dad’s bone scan. When I awoke that morning, the song, "We stand and lift up our hands for the joy of the Lord is our strength. We bow down and worship Him now; how great, how awesome is He! And together we sing, 'Holy is the Lord God Almighty. The earth is filled with His glory...'" was 'playing' in my head. Then the words of Jesus from John 16:33 came to me: "In this world you WILL have trouble. But TAKE HEART. I have OVERCOME the world." Let me tell you the Spirit of God washed over me in a powerful way and He filled me with His grace to face what looked like could potentially be the worst two days of my life. I climbed out of my bed, ready to face what was lying ahead. So we are walking a path right now where we wish we weren’t traveling, but we are not alone. There is One who walks with us, even carrying us when we don’t feel as if we can keep going. How I praise Him for comfort and release from fear.

We realize that many of you have faced struggles, too, this past year. If there is a specific way we can pray for you, please e-mail us at chinterman@juno.com. We hold you close in our hearts, dear family and friends.

Love,

Marcia and Chris

Bougainville Update

2008-12-21T22:18:00.005-05:00

I spoke with Jeff Fussner, area director for the Pacific Area for Global Partners on skype - (what a great tool!) We will probably be spending a couple days in Paupua New Guinea on our way to meet with the Keilholtz and then on to Bouganville from there - so I will get a little extra experience out of this trip.

I will be teaching in the morning for three hours each day Monday through Friday and then we will be visiting churches on the weekends. This means I will probably be preaching in a couple places (more experience!). I will also have to wear a tie on Sundays - I think I know where I put them - Fortunately, no suit is required. It is supposed to be really hot!

I may also get some snorkeling in - more ocean time in! I got to get into the east side of the Pacific in November when the staff from Faith went out to SanDiego for an outreach conference. I surfed! Well, I was up for 5 to 10 feet, but it was witnessed by Scott Ferguson, so it is official. I had much better luck just riding the board in on my belly.

I'm getting into water sports, apparently, because I also just bought a kayak. I wasn't brave enough to try it before the river froze over because I'm pretty sure I WILL tip it over a time or two before I get the hang of it. I got hooked in October when our friends, Will and Johanna Bennetts brought their three person canoe out and we floated the Looking Glass River from downtown DeWitt to near our home. What a great day - I want to do more of that. I so enjoyed the tranquility - and, unlike my bicycle - no gravel trucks passing two feet away.

We leave for New Zealand on January 12, so I will keep posted here and on Facebook what is happening.

Bougainville Bound...

2008-10-29T06:36:00.023-04:00

I want to let you know about the next adventure in my life and to invite you to partner with me in it. From January 25 to February 8, 2009 I and my friend, Jeff Fussner, will be in Bougainville to teach a two week course at the Bible College there. I will be teaching practical message preparation (aka: homiletics). It’s a great opportunity for me to share my 30+ years of experience with developing pastors and to learn from them as well.

So....where is Bougainville? It is a remote island in the Solomon Island chain near Papua New Guinea (PNG). I’ve been telling people that we fly into PNG and then go somewhere more remote. The people of Bougainville have been the subject of oppression for sometime and in the last decade have won a measure of autonomy and relief.

I will be posting updates here as the time draws nearer and a detailed report once I return.

Funds needed: $1,800.00

Raised to date: $1,840.00 We've exceeded the goal by $40.00! - thanks for your support! WOW! Extra funds will be put to use to help students at the Bible School.

Bougainville

Facts:

Area: 3,590 sq mi (slightly smaller than Jamaica) The most northerly of the Solomon Islands but arbitrarily linked in colonial times to PNG.

Population: 160,000 about 20,000 lost their lives in the fighting during the 1990’s. An additional 40,000 became refugees.

Economy: A large copper mine opened in 1972 provided 35% of the national income to the PNG central government but severely damaged the ecology of the island. The mine was closed in 1989.

Politics: Local opposition to incorporation in PNG at independence in 1975 led to a war for Bougainville’s independence in 1988. After intense fighting, a cease fire was finalized in 1998. In 2000 negotiations about the future status of Bougainville commenced.

Religion: Almost entirely Christian. Roman Catholics 80%, United Church 10%, also Seventh Day Adventist. Many are nominal with much syncretism.

(Data taken from Operation World 21st Century Edition)

FOR MORE ON BOUGAINVILLE AND THE HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT THERE: http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/jfadt/bougainville/bv_chap2.htm

My Talented Grandkids

2008-10-25T14:36:00.004-04:00

Given the giftedness of their granddad, it shouldn't be too surprising that my grandchildren also have amazing talents. A couple videos bear this out. The first is the oldest, Faith at her dance recital last June. The second is a talent much closer to my kind of gifting: Cole showing off his amazing noise making ability.

C I A - Jamaican Style

2008-04-09T21:39:00.010-04:00

On Tuesday we traveled up into the mountains - about 20 minutes away - to carry water for the families there. We filled 5 gallon jugs and buckets from a spigot near the church and then carried the water to fill 55 gallon drums outside their homes. It was quite an eye opener as to how others in our world still live. As Carl noted: "I'll never take running water for granted again".

Today's slideshow can give you a bit of an idea of how hard we worked and how much harder the lives are of those who live this everyday.

In the afternoon we came back and largely picked up where we left off. Gardening, painting, bike repair, organizing and prepping for concrete work.

On Wednesday, we worked HARD! Most of the men spent the day mixing concrete by hand for the hammock posts on the pool deck and parking pad in the front. The concrete ingredients had to be hauled from the back to the front. One ingredient is called marl - a gypsum-like subtance. It had to be broken up by pickaxe, screened into a wheelbarrow and hauled to the front. We called them the marl-barrow men. The parking pad was finished just before it rained.

Several of the women worked on the gardens again and did a fantastic job. They really got into their work! As this picture clearly shows....

Dereck, when he was not being one of the Marl-barrow men - worked on the play set replacing rotted rope on the rope ladder and swinging bridge. Connie spent the day with needle and thread - sewing on buttons and repairing clothes for the children. At the end of the day, I caught them relaxing and enjoying the fruit of Dereck's labor.

Several others helped out in various ways. Erin and Jen did more painting and organized cupboards, Kathy updated the website for My Father's House with dozens of new pictures. Erin's big adventure of the the day was taking the younger children on a bike ride down to the beach where they caught 15 hermit crabs which one of the little girls put them in her shirt pocket - not the best idea. But fun - which is what most of us have had - even though we are very tired - and very sore. It's been a great day of serving and falling in love with these children.

Jamaica Trip - Monday Report

2008-04-08T08:41:00.003-04:00

Monday was a very full day as the following slide show demonstrates....

It was a wonderfully warm and mostly sunny day until late afternoon when it threatened rain and thunder rolled off the mountains.

A bit of explanation of Ackie (spelling unsure). It is a fruit that grows down here and when cooked tastes and has the consistency and appearance of undercooked scrambled eggs. Can’t wait to try them.

We’ve had a few taste adventures. There is callalu - which is a leafy green vegetable which doesn’t taste quite as sweet as spinach but not as bitter as collard greens. Then there are star apples that taste nothing like apples. They are more like a cross between a mushy melon and a grape with enormous black seeds. But they are quite tasty. We will also be having real yams - they have one in the pantry that is 7 inches in diameter and about a foot long and it has been cut in half! We will also be trying bread fruit which is grown right here in the yard.

Another new experience was the frequent blackouts and brown outs yesterday. The lights began to fade and then just go out about mid-afternoon and continued until well after dark. Carl and Barry were trying to do some welding which was really difficult to do when the voltage kept changing. This is also the explanation for not sending out this update last night. It was ready, but the connection was not cooperating. So my apologies for being a bit late.

Jamaica Sunday

2008-04-06T22:54:00.004-04:00

We had a great day today. A very relaxed morning. Church didn't begin until almost noon. So we had plenty of time to get around. Eat a great breakfast - we were introduced to McPenne's or My Father's House egg McMuffin - a yeasty bread slice with egg and cheese - it was GOOD!

Here's a quick look at the church experience - it was much longer, and more meaningful than the video can convey, but it will give you a taste.

The afternoon was spent with the kids. Some swam in the pool, others went to the ocean and took beautiful photos.

Now it is late evening, the children are in bed and we are sitting around sharing. It's been a great day.

We are In Jamaica!

2008-04-05T23:05:00.001-04:00

It was a really long day - beginning at 3:00 a.m. in Lansing and ending at 10:30 in Jamaica. Along the way we drove to Detroit, flew to Minneapolis and then flew down to Jamaica.

Everything went smoothly. A great trip. We ate a quick meal at a true Jamaican fast food place.

Yummy!

Then the real adventure began - a 1 1/2 hour trip over the mountains and across the island on narrow, winding road with 14 of us in a small Toyota van and our luggage and two others in a pick-up. I was sitting on a cooler and holding on for dear life.

We arrived, safely, well after dark. Had our meeting and are winding down.

A quick story to go with this last piciture. I was getting the computer out to update this blog and Felix came over to help. As it booted up, there was a picture of my grand-daughter Raegan on the wallpaper. He wanted to see more of her until he saw Rhys in his halloween Spiderman costume. Felix loves Spiderman and he says, that's me. Then the punchline. That's me when I was white.

You have to love kids and their creative imaginations. So he's the first of many here to win my heart. More tomorrow.

Nite!

Lance?

2008-04-04T06:25:00.005-04:00

I did a quick ride to Waucousta yesterday. As I rounded the last corner a guy in a van yelled out - Hey Lance!

Was it the speed?

Was it the aggressive riding style?

Was it the trim, toned body?

Maybe it was the yellow jersey.

Or maybe it was the hair.

Anyway, it was nice to be outside and not freezing to death for a change!

Creepy Christians

2008-03-25T12:06:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine brought another friend to church for the first time. It was their first experience with church in a very long time. After the service, he gave us what I consider one of the greatest compliments we could receive. He said, "They weren't creepy".

Unfortunately, to people outside the church world, a lot of Christians are creepy. I didn't have to wait long after hearing his comment to run into a couple of them.

The very next day, I was stuck in traffic on the freeway. The road crews were repairing the pot-holed surface and had taken three lanes down to one. Most of us had all gotten in line crawling forward. As I neared the place where the orange barrels squeezed the traffic into final submission a $40,000 SUV went blasting by on the left - a huge Herbalife Distributor decal in the rear window. Just as I was thinking, boy am I glad I'm not a Herbalife dealer, I saw it - less obtrusive, but just as recognizable - the fish - Creepy Christian!

Then this week I got a call on my cell phone. Our warantee has expired on our Saturn and we had received multiple voice messages trying to get us to buy another extended warrantee. I decided to take the call and tell them to not call again. I didn't get a chance to say a word before she jumped into her pitch and told me all the advantages of the warrantee and what would be covered. I finally got a word in edgewise and told her I just wanted to ask to not be bothered anylonger. Her answer, and I quote: "Well, why didn't you say so. All you had to do was tell me! So, you have a blessed day. And rememeber that Jesus loves you!" DO NOT annoy me and then try to witness to me. Creepy Christian!

Which makes me stop and wonder how often I am a creepy Christian. I hope less than I could be, but please, can we who claim to follow Jesus, be a bit more conscientious about how we interface with a world who wants nothing to do with HIM largely because of US.

What's your creepy Christian story? Or better, when you saw a believer really living Jesus in front of others.

I'd Pay To See That - The Movie

2008-03-19T14:51:00.006-04:00

In a world with far too much hair. In a time when children are suffering. One man stands alone to offer up his best on their behalf....

O.k. - I was sitting - and there were lots of other people doing the same thing - but it probably was my best feature - I've raised $880 and glad to have done it.

I'd Pay To See That III - The Aftermath

2008-03-16T20:54:00.009-04:00

UPDATE: Getting Close - but not as close as my haircut!

CURRENT PLEDGES & CHECKS: $880.00

Thanks to: Don & Sandy, Brandy & Judy, Greg & Jen, Marcia!, Eric & Janine, Norine, Gary & Cindy, Tom, John & Sheila, Dennis & Shirley, Dan & Sonya, Jason & Joann, Marc, Kathy & Christina, Brett, Kristen, Rhys & Raegan, Carl & MaryBeth, Bob & Sandy, Dave, Amy & Sydney Joel (whose occasional "hand on top of head" pose I now totally understand), Tracy, Kate, Seth & Riley and Cleo and Kathleen.

I came up short of the $1K goal but it is still not too late to contribute. I did my part in faith, please take part in making a difference in the lives of kids and their families.

So, the day came and I now have a very short haircut. Just little tiny bristles left. My hat fits more loosely, but doesn't come off because the little bristles act like velcro!

There were a large number of people from the church who had their heads shaved. It was a very positive experience in many ways. Team Hawk (named after the son of Doug and Kim and brother of Stephen and Kelly) collected several thousand dollars and made a huge impact on those there to observe. It was a privilege to be part of this.

Doug and Kelly on far left - Stephen in blue shirt - front on right.

My friend, Diane was the only woman to have her locks shorn in our group. What a sacrifice and what a hoot she is! Thanks to all who supported us. I should have the video up in a day or two.

I'd Pay To See That II

2008-03-05T13:39:00.020-05:00

Well, it is going to happen. I will be going bald on March 16th. My "friends" have been adamant that the $1,000.00 bounty on my locks will be met. If you would like to be part of the fun and make a difference for the future of some of our children, here's the steps:

1: go to http://www.stbaldricks.org/

2: click on "get involved"

3: in the HELP THE CAUSE window click "Make a Donation"

4: in the search for a participant window type:

Chris

Hinterman

click "go"

5: follow the "donate now" link

You can donate on line with a credit card or download a form to make a donation by mail.

Thanks for your willingness to make me look ridiculous and to help fight childhood cancer.

For the background on this, see my previous post below.

I'd Pay To See That!

2008-02-27T13:59:00.004-05:00

How do you like my new look? Actually it's an intentionally poor photoshop of what I might look like bald. And I could be, if you are like my friend and co-worker Judy who said, "I'd pay to see that"!

On Sunday, March 16th, there's an event here in town put on by the St. Baldrick's Foundation. They raise funds for children's cancer research by getting people to shave their heads. Last year they raised over $12 million. I am willing to do my part, but I don't come cheap.

If I can get people to donate $1,000 to St. Baldricks in my name, I will, on March 16th lay it all down - at least all my hair! Then I will post a picture of the real-deal here on my blog for all to enjoy. I may even be able to get a video of the golden moment.

My greatest fears are 1] that my hair will never grow back in or 2] it will finally come in gray. But this is a great cause I care deeply about. I'm doing this for my friends Doug, Kim and Stephen because of Hawk. I'm doing this because of Laura and her mom and dad. I'm doing this for Ashley who lost a leg, but gained our deepest admiration. I'm doing this for those other kids I don't know, but my heart still breaks for them and their families. And though they are not children I'm doing it for Marcia's dad, Mo and Shirley and Claire and Kim and Bill and for my mom who has been a cancer survior for going on 30 years now.

Check out the website at http://www.stbaldricks.org/. Then leave me a comment if you would "pay to see that"! As soon as I am registered as a participant, I'll let you know. If I can make a difference in one of these kid's lives, then bald is truly beautiful - but hopefully, not permanent.

I love my job!

2008-02-08T16:35:00.000-05:00

I have got to be one of the most fortunate guys in the world. I love my job ... almost every day.

I get to connect with people around the world and from time to time travel to see them. Coming in April, Marcia and I will be going to Jamaica to visit "Our Father's House" - a home for children there run by Jim and Penne Koch. I've met Jim and there have been several Faith church folk who have gone in recent years.

I get to be creative and hang out with creative people. Yesterday an impromptu staff meeting broke out in my office and Brandon, Scott and I began talking about big ideas and dreaming what ifs. The three J's (Judy, Jennifer and Joanna) are great to work with and inspire me to do better.

I also get to give things away in Jesus' name. This month we are doing activity bags for children at Sparrow Hospital. I envisioned nice little bags of coloring books and crayons and a few other little things with them. Then one of our guys who works with Toys for Tots stepped up - They have a backlog of some items that were not distributed and he wanted to get them in the hands of kids who can really use and enjoy them. So with permission of the higher ups, I have two huge boxes of really cool toys that we'll be able to share with shut in kids this next week.

This weekend I am performing a wedding for a young couple I just met. Not my usual M-O, but they live out of state, so another pastor counseled with them. I got to do a couple sessions with them yesterday and today. They are a neat couple and it is my privilege to get to speak into the lives of these two just getting started.

Are there days I don't experience pure joy? Of course. But more often than not I'm saying, "I love my job!"

Jesus Junk and Holy Hardware....

2008-01-28T22:04:00.000-05:00

My friend, Karl used that phrase to describe the stuff we market as the new religious icons. Back when the prayer of Jabez was a big deal they were marketing it like crazy. There were the usual books and cds. Even a "prayer of Jabez for Toddlers" as if 2 year olds aren’t already adept at enlarging their own territory by taking whatever toy some other child has. I suggested to a friend of mine who is in marketing and shares my passion for cars that "Prayer of Jabez - Raised White Letter Tires" might be just the thing for reaching the unreached hordes of street racers who want to be "(kept) from harm so that (they) will be free from pain".

Today I was in one of those purveyors of Jesus paraphernalia. While browsing through the various offerings, I discovered that Jesus junk had sunk to a new low. First it was a 25' carpenter’s tape measure with "Build On The Rock" printed on the side. Other than being way overpriced, it was merely amusing.

As I was getting ready to leave the store I encountered something that truly appalling. You know the "Easy" button made popular by Staples office supply. This was a cheap (in every sense of the word as my old friend Evan likes to say) rip off of that gimmick. It said, "Heaven, It’s That Easy" and when I pushed the button to see what happens I was treated to a reading of John 3:16 - King James Version naturally.

I was so embarrassed. Not just because I was standing there as that stupid little box played on and on - I was embarrassed for Christianity and for the way things like this cheapen what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

Tell the believers in Somalia, who are starving and dying for their faith today that "it’s just that easy." Try to convince those in the Muslim and Hindu worlds who have left their traditional faiths to follow Jesus that it is "just that easy". For that matter, tell it to anyone who has been a servant of Christ for any length of time. It’s anything but "easy" and to say it is, is both an insult and unbiblical.

"Take up your cross and follow me....it’s just that easy." Luke 9:23

"In this world you will have trouble...it’s just that easy." John 16:33

"In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,...it’s just that easy." 2 Timothy 3:12

Just three of many sayings that indicate the Jesus Road is a bumpy one.

I’m not a glum Christian - I laugh a lot more than most. And I really do believe that this is the best possible life - but it’s not easy. Maybe it’s better because it isn’t.

A Spit In The Ocean

2008-01-23T15:32:00.000-05:00

I’m reading a book that was given to be by my good friends Derek and Connie. The irresistible revolution is written by Shane Claiborne - a person I admire for his courage and willingness to do more that talk about living out his faith.
Here’s a brief sampling....

Most Christian artists and preachers have remained strangely distant from human suffering, offering the world eternal assurance over prophetic imagination. Meanwhile, many of us find ourselves estranged fron the narrow issues that define conservatives and the shallow spirituality that marks liberals. We are thirsty for social justice and peace but have a hard time finding a faith community that is consistently pro-life or that recognizes that there are "moral issues" other than homosexuality and abortion; moral issues like war and poverty. So some folks just end up trying to save individual souls from their sins and others end up trying to save the world from the "system". But rarely do we see that the sickness of our world has infected each of us, and that the healing of our world not only begins within us but does not end with us.
"I am alone, surrounded by unbelieving activists and inactive believers."

Some people do a great job of refining and expressing the muddy thoughts I’ve had floating around inside my skull. Shane is one of those guys. I’m frustrated by my own inability to connect the real gospel with the real world. As a born and bred evangelical I’m cloned to treat the world as if we can solve all the world’s problems by reading the Four Spiritual Laws.
I’m coming to believe that sharing, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life" is a paraphrase of James 2:16 ("Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,"). We are missing a huge part of the Gospel when we fail to combine both the life giving Word and life giving bread (or shelter, clothing, clean water, etc).

I’m not exactly sure where this ends up, but I’m on an exploration of what it means. We are going to be partnering with an elementary school that experiences a 70% poverty rate. We are also working with a clearing house of material needs to the poor of Lansing. It’s not enough, but it is a start.

Last year when I went to New Orleans to work on Katrina relief, I got a taste of what it was like to try to do something, but to feel like it was woefully short of adequate. Using an expression I picked up from Marcia’s side of the family, I said to one of the two homeowners we assisted, "I feel like all we’ve been able to do to help down here is a spit in the ocean." To which they replied with an emotion filled voice, "Thanks for coming to spit in our ocean". I guess I just need to say, I don’t want to get paralyzed by the size of the need. I can’t do everything, but I can do something. And I will - as God leads....

Any thoughts?

I'm Back!

2008-01-17T12:12:00.000-05:00

When I started blogging last summer, I promised myself I wouldn't let this happen....long gaps between entries. However, having the family home and other things around the holidays took precedence and so, gaps happen.

It was an amazing time with the grandkids. They are every bit as fun as all those old people used to tell me they would be. But as a bicynicalist, I won't turn maudlin on you. I'm back and back to blogging.

(Can anyone get the obscure connection to the pic?)

Our Christmas Letter - Our Life

2007-12-15T21:59:00.000-05:00

For those of you who don't get our annual Christmas letter (and thus miss out on Marcia's candor and wit) here is this year's edition:

Oh Baby, Baby!

Our family was blessed this year with the arrival of two grandbabies.

Raegan Emma Claire was born to Kristen and Brett on July 15, weighing in at 10 lbs., 2 oz. She has a head FULL of dark hair -- to the point that her mommy put her hair in pigtails at age 3 months and she had her first haircut at 4 ½ months old. Raegan has a beautiful smile and is a happy baby. We love to hear her laugh and coo when we are talking to Kristen on the phone. Kristen & Brett are very good about posting pictures on the web, so you can check them out at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/JonesFamilyNZ

Cole Michael was born to Kent and Jill on November 13. He weighed in at 8 pounds even and was 19" long. He is our 6th grandchild but the first one in which we have actually been at the hospital in time for his birth. We are happy that Cole only lives about 55-60 minutes away from us; it’s nice to have one in the neighborhood! Chris has a meeting in Grand Rapids on Monday so I’m going to Cole’s! Cole was 9 days old when he came to our house on Thanksgiving – it was lots of fun to have a newborn here. Watching him while he sleeps is just like watching a tiny miracle. I think you can find ‘Cole’ videos at:
http://www.viddler.com/mrmrshinterman/videos

And Others Who Bring Us Joy

#1 - Faith is 7 years old and in the 2nd grade but she acts as if she is 27. She has her own e-mail account so when Brett sent pictures of Rhys and Raegan to her, Faith wrote back to Auntie K: "Raegan is so-o-o-o cute it makes me want to cry and Rhys...oh my gosh what a cutie. ...well, the little cutie’s got a present under the tree." Faith enjoys writing; in fact, I bought a story that she wrote about a pooping dragonfly. Last summer she told me she was writing stories and selling them for 25 cents. I was her first (and as far as I know, her only) customer. As she read the story to me, we were both laughing so hysterically that I couldn’t help but make the purchase. Funny how that little story instantly became a treasured possession – and it only cost a quarter!

#2 - Lily turned 3 years old on October 27 and is a funny little character. She loves to play and does a good job entertaining herself. But sometimes when you think she’s off playing, she is really getting into mischief! On one of our trips to Florida, I was in the bathroom drying my hair. Lily came in, climbed up on the toilet seat, and when I turned around to talk to her, she had taken Q-tips and stuck them up her nostrils and in her ears!! Last spring, it was taking Kyle & Hope about an hour to get Lily in bed each night because Lily kept getting up, saying she wanted to pray. After a few nights of that, they decided to pray, "Please help the girls to stay in bed tonight" and then were surprised when Lily finished their prayer by saying, "so we don’t get in twouble."

#3 - There is never a dull moment with 2 ½ year old Rhys – he is a party just waiting to happen! We were in NZ in July and Rhys generally came downstairs each morning and climbed in bed with us. The first morning I put my head on his tummy and called him my lumpy pillow. A few mornings later, Rhys put his head on my tummy and said, "Hey, my lumpy piddow." I also would say, "I’m hungry for some...", then pretend like I was eating his ear, cheek, belly, or neck. Well, he’s extremely ticklish so when I ‘chewed’ on his neck, he really giggled. One morning Rhys climbed in bed and asked, "Granny, are you hungry for some neck?" He was also Chris’ little shadow – he loves his papa! Kristen asked Rhys last week who is his best friend and he answered ‘Um...granny and papa.’ We’re so glad he remembers us now in between visits.

#4 - Pixie certainly is a sweetie! In July as we were leaving after a visit, Pixie stood on the driveway calling out, "I lovesyou, granny. I lovesyou, papa." Immediately I felt a lump in my throat and wow, was it ever hard to drive away. On Pixie’s 2nd birthday (September 29), we had a small baby shower for Kent & Jill in the afternoon, then her birthday celebration in the evening. When I brought out the decorated shower cake, Pixie’s eyes lit up and she squealed, "Oh! Happy Birthday to me!" – so we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ even though the cake read ‘Welcome Baby’. That evening, she giggled and squealed her way through opening her gifts. Pixie loves Shrek so that was her party theme; she looked absolutely adorable wearing her ogre ears.

Each grandchild has her/his own unique qualities and brings so much joy to our family! There’s always lots of laughter when they’re around!!

And Away We Go

- I went to Florida for 10 days in April to babysit – and that was it for this year because our kids moved back to Michigan in the summer! Yippee!!
It only takes us 3 hours to get to their house now. Kyle’s & Hope’s new address is 11405 M-72 E, Williamsburg, MI 49690-9714. (Kent and Jill have a new address, too. It is: 3570 Redkey Dr., Grandville, MI 49418.)
- Chris & I went to New Zealand July 17 - August 15 so we could meet our new granddaughter! We had a wonderful 4 weeks with Brett, Kristen, Rhys, & Raegan. Strange that while we’re there we miss our family and friends at home – yet when we’re home, we miss our family and friends in NZ. Each place holds a part of our hearts. We are very excited that Kristen and her family will be coming home for Christmas this year. They arrive in Lansing at 11:25 p.m. on December 18. Can’t wait! Rhys wants to build a snowman (no, they don’t have snow on the north island, so he only knows about snowmen from watching dvds) and if we don’t have snow here, we’ll drive north ‘til we find it!!
- In March Chris went to New Orleans with 3 other men from our church to work on ‘Katrina’ Relief. They were surprised by the amount of rebuilding that still needs to be done, even though the hurricane hit in August, 2005. Our team was there for one week and they were able to help two families. They wished they could have done more.
- And then around Labor Day, Chris and 8 others from our church went on a 5 day bicycle trip from Lansing to Mackinaw (actually his ride ended in DeTour Village in the U.P.). The average daily ride was about 75 miles. A couple thousand people go on this annual ride – I was not included in that number! We do have a tandem but a ride like that is WAY out of my league. Plus, they camp out and I don’t like bugs or cold showers!! Chris loved it, though, and will go again next year. This winter, he and I both are trying to ride our stationary bike on a daily basis. (Of course, Chris is more serious about that than I am. He rides farther and faster.)

In Sickness and In Health...

Throughout our marriage we’ve been very blessed with good health. How-ever, Chris’ wedding vows were put to the test when I began experiencing physical problems in May. I ended up having surgery in October to biopsy my lungs and some lymph nodes; thankfully, I do NOT have cancer. The actual surgery was a bit more than I bargained for but Chris, my mom, and my dad were excellent care givers. I also experienced the Lord’s faithfulness in a wonderful way the day after surgery. As I laid there with tubes and lines connected to every imaginable part of my body and a damp wash cloth over my eyes, Chris put earphones into my ears so I could listen to praise music. When I heard words like "You are my strength when I am weak ...when I fall down You pick me up ...You are my all in all" and words like "Thank You for the cross, Lord. Thank You for the price You paid; bearing all my sin and shame, in love You came and gave amazing grace", I couldn’t help but raise my hand (even though I could only get it about 2" off the mattress!). Chris softly chuckled and said, "Honey, are you worshiping the Lord?" I nodded slightly in the affirmative and continued on with my own little praise session. It was so refreshing when the Holy Spirit swept over my heart with His sweet presence and it was such a relief to concentrate on Jesus rather than my physical need. It was amazing how God lifted my spirit way above the physical realm and ministered to my heart. I may have felt like the dickens physically but I was feeling great spiritually!

************************************************
You are dear to us, family and friends. We hope you have a terrific Christmas and a blessed new year!

Are You Smarter Than An American?

2007-12-06T12:27:00.000-05:00

Two Videos That Give Clear Evidence of American Superiority

Sing with me...

"So I'm proud to be a U.S. American,
Where at least I know I'm free.
I don't know much of anything else,
But it's all that matters to me."
And I gladly stand up, next to you
and embarass us all today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt
America is - such as - a country
God bless the USA.

The Obnoxious High-Tech Papa

2007-11-21T12:28:00.001-05:00

The ultimate in obnoxious grandparenting in a high-tech way. Here is a link to a 31 minute video of Cole...

I've removed the video and will replace it with shorter version later.

An Angel Lives Two Houses North

2007-11-18T20:32:00.000-05:00

The last few weeks have been exceedingly busy. I've worked hard, but the work has been piling up, especially around the house. Yard work has literally been "piling up" as the Maple Monster in the front yard has finally decided to shed its leaves. My plan has been to spend the last two Mondays off mulching them and getting them ready for pick up. Which means other things get left for later.

Two Saturdays ago we came home from my best friend Randy's daughter's wedding to see a pile of leaves at the curb and my yard immaculate. After a moment's thought I had a pretty good idea who my benefactor was. A week later the yard was filled again and this time Marcia was home as my neighbor, Roger, came through with his vacuum/mulcher and spent significant time cleaning up our yard again. This was in the midst of one of the busiest ministry weekends I hope to experience for a long time.

Roger is this wonderfully humble guy who thinks I'm doing him a favor by spending a bit of time with him and going on an occasional bike ride together. I honestly haven't invested that much time in him, and I truly enjoy our times together. Mostly, I've listened. So, now, I'm the one humbled...by a guy who has shown Christian humility and service I teach about, but don't practice nearly as well as he.

And then there is...Cole Michael Hinterman

2007-11-13T17:08:00.000-05:00

Cole was born this afternoon (11/13/07) at 3:03 p.m. He is 8 pounds even and 19 inches long. Lots of dark hair and baby blue eyes. He is very alert and showing off those eyes quite often.

Jill is doing great and Kent is expected to make a full recovery. They will be at Spectrum Downtown for a couple days and then off on the new adventure of life with baby.

Waiting for # 6

2007-11-13T14:55:00.000-05:00

Marcia & I are here at Spectrum Health Downtown (Grand Rapids) waiting for Grandchild # 6 to come along. We are waiting patiently (not!) with Jill’s parents and sister. We should be hearing soon and I will update my blog with the news.

Last night we were talking about how it is we got to be grandparents of 6 grandchildren so quickly. However, we don’t care so much if we sound old, we don’t feel old and we are so much enjoying those little creatures. Each one is precious and unique - Faith - the dramatic, beautiful first born. Lily - best known as the “q-tip” girl around the church is strong willed and unintentionally funny. Rhys is...hmm - strong willed and intentionally funny. Pixie fits her name - a delightful little sprite - Raegan’s personality is just beginning to show but appears to be another good natured, fun loving soul. And then there is.....I’m not giving it away yet...but you can count on plenty more stories from Papa Chris

Heritage

2007-11-08T21:48:00.000-05:00

We Hintermans are of Swiss descent. That's our coat-of-arms to the left - we aren't much for flashy graphics apparently. My great-grandfather Rudolph emigrated here in the later 1800's from Zurich. I grew up on the little farm that he settled six miles south of (where in the world is...) Merrill, Michigan. The log house that he built still stands and I had many adventures in it - both real and imagined - growing up there.

This week I was doing a little net surfing and ran across an article on the Hintermann (the old spelling - as if it isn’t a long enough name in its current usage!) family. It was all in German so I used a free online translator. It is worth every cent I paid for it. The translation is rough, but allows one to get the gist of the article.

Here are a few out-takes:

The Hintermann are one of the completely old families of Beinwil, (A small village that has a fairly strong Hintermann contingent) which already established themselves there in the outgoing Middle Ages. From where they came, is not anywhere held. If we test however, where except in Beinwil there are today "Hintermanns", the strong spreading of the name in the canton Zurich is noticeable, while it in other cantons do not (makes no sense) at all is. Therefore a strong probability exists that the Beinwiler Hintermann came from there. The first (makes no sense) mention of the name in Beinwil falls in the year 1500.

The following stanza explains so much....

Traces of the branch of Hintermann in the canton Luzern are us so far in the sources do not meet. There are descendants anyhow there today no more. In Beinwil however the sex spread with the time strongly. After the family listing of 1589 the village counted already seven Hintermann families.

A few final thoughts about the translation: I have always thought the name meant "the man behind" either indicating that our family lived geographically behind some more prominent personage or that we served as servants or that we were just a bit slow (the most likely of the options) However, in the on-line translation the Hintermann name was literally rendered as "backer". I like that! So maybe our family name means - "I’ve got your back!" Or I’m one who works behind the scenes to assure the success of another.

I’ve had several people ask how I’m doing with being "only" a staff pastor. After all, I spent thirty years as solo and lead pastor in four churches. The truth is, I’m loving what I am doing now. I enjoyed helping Joel succeed in his ministry and am very excited about the days ahead with our new lead guy, Brandon. So, I guess if anyone else asks me how I’m doing in this role, I can just say, I’m a Hinterman - it’s in my blood.

Glowing for Jesus

2007-11-01T22:34:00.000-04:00

That is the singularly most scmaltzy title I've come up with yet. I have every confidence I can do worse. Anyway - last night was Halloween and our CIA team went out to distribute glow sticks to kids in the neighborhood near the church. It was cool - and rainy - but it was also COOL! Our group was near Post Oak School and we went through 200 sticks in about 35 minutes.

Our success may have been location, or it may have been our enthusiastic barker. My buddy Neil came along with his parents and sister. He was dressed up as Peter from the Chronicles of Narnia. While his mother, Sonya held up our "Free Glow Sticks" sign, Neil was shouting the same at the top of his lungs. At one point he was yelling, "Free Glow Sticks! Free Glow Sticks! Just follow the sound of my voice!" What a riot.

It seems to me that Neil was having more fun than the hundreds of other ghosts, goblins and assorted monsters & superheroes around us. I love what we do to show the love of Christ to those who don't yet know Him. But I also love how we are teaching a new generation that it is normal and fun to demonstrate our Christ-love to others. Neil may have missed out on "trick 'r treat" but he gained something much more valuable. Besides, believe me, Neil doesn't need the sugar.

The Ride: Week Three: Going Home

2007-10-30T19:32:00.000-04:00

Here's the final video in "The Ride" series. The audio can be heard @ www.lansingfaith.com/messages Thanks again

Worship Wars...or

2007-10-27T15:04:00.000-04:00

How I Unintentionally Became a Contemporary Worshiper

I was raised in a very traditional church. I cut my teeth on the Praise and Worship hymnal. "What A Friend We Have In Jesus" is on page 63 - I don’t have to look it up - we sang it every Wednesday night. My dad loved the Chuck Wagon Gang - had all their albums. I remember going to an early Gaither concert (with Hank and Hazel Slaughter) and coming away thinking it was the best worship service I had ever experienced. I stayed awake through several "All Night Sings" at the Flint IMA auditorium. Thrilled to the tenor reaches of Jake Hess and chilled by the deep, deep bass of J. D. Sumner. I even sang in a traveling Southern Gospel group - a career of exactly one Sunday. I said all that to say this...(classic, traditional preacher line) ... I have deep roots in traditional the (revivalist 1940 to 1965) worship style.

Somewhere along the line, I left the traditional worship camp and became a contemporary worshiper. I didn’t set out to do it. There was no plan. Nor was I taken hostage by Stryper or Petra and forced to listen to drums and guitar in the 110 db + range until I succumbed and let go of my polyester suit jacket and Wildroot hair tonic.

I can, however, point to one watershed moment at our denominational general conference in 2000. Each plenary session included a time of worship in varying styles. One featured our current District Superintendent, Mark Gorveatte on the piano doing a traditional, but very entertaining set. Later there was a group from Australia that was (for its day) very contemporary. I didn’t know the tune. I couldn’t keep up with the words. I didn’t identify with the style. Therefore, I couldn’t worship.

Or, could I? A few rows up and half a section over was a small group of teens and twenties having the time of their lives. Clapping, singing, swaying, hands raised and faces radiant. I worshiped watching them worship.

I’ve shared that story several times over the last seven years as an example of how we can worship even if it isn’t "our style" or more correctly, the way we connect with and experience God. Some discussions this past week have given me an opportunity to ponder that moment and the subsequent changes in my heart and worship once again. And I have made a few new discoveries.

I realized that....

I had to appreciate a different kind of worshiper

Before I could appreciate another kind of worship.

Once I came to love them, I came to love their means of worship.
What is dividing our church is not the style of worship,

But our refusal to love those whose means of encountering Christ
is different than ours.

The Ride: Week Two - The Wall

2007-10-27T14:43:00.000-04:00

Here's the Video for Week two of my series of teachings on "The Ride". Enjoy and listen to the message @ www.lansingfaith.org

Scary Moments - Present Peace

2007-10-22T20:28:00.000-04:00

October is the month for scary moments. Halloween is next week and that means there should be a Friday the 13th marathon on AMC or TNT coming up. I enjoy a good scare most of the time. One of my favorite stories of our early marriage is how Marcia scared the liver out of me one night when I came home from work. We lived in a trailer at the time - laid out with the master bedroom at the back and a second bedroom and a bath off a long, narrow hallway. As I walked back, thinking Marcia was in the back bedroom, she jumped out of the darkened bath and "booed" me. I fell with my back against the wall and just melted down to the floor. It was a good scare.

Many of you know that we just passed through another scare and this one wasn't so good. Just before Memorial Day, Marcia ended up in ER with an inflamed ankle. They were pretty sure it was cellulitis. Further tests ensued including a CAT scan of her kidneys. The kidneys were clear but they found some cloudiness in her left lung.

More tests.

As we continued pursuing what was going on, it got a bit scary. The doctors were pretty sure it was something called sarcoidosis but they needed to eliminate lung cancer as a possibility. To do so meant doing a lung biopsy which would mean being in the hospital for several days and off work for up to 6 weeks. That right there raised our levels of concern and when they started pushing things ahead very quickly, we got even more concerned.

Marcia had the procedure last Wednesday (which is why there has been a significant hole in my blogosphere). The preliminary diagnosis is that we are in the clear on the cancer issue and it is 99% sure sarcoidosis. It is treatable and, since she is currently symptom free, bears watching and that is all. She is home and recovering fairly well. Her pain is fairly well managed and she is getting stronger everyday.

Through all of this we have experienced what other people of faith often express - there is a wonderful peace - even in the midst of scary times. Two Sundays ago I was scheduled to speak on the place of suffering in the believer’s life. That message was planned long before we knew that three days later, Marcia would be undergoing major surgery. It gave a whole different perspective on the words I spoke, and while some of them were delivered in faith, I believed every one of them. We also sang the Chris Redman song, "Blessed be the Name" which contains the lyric: "Every blessing you pour out, I turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in, Lord, Still I will say...Blessed be the name of the Lord"

Thankfully, we will never know how we would have responded had the outcome been different. What we do know is that in the midst of uncertainty, we experience present peace. And still do ... What an amazing gift.

And - thanks to all who have been praying for/with us...it has made all the difference.

A Cup of Cold Water

2007-10-11T10:09:00.000-04:00

This article was just published in "the Tidings" our district newsletter. (OK, it's not the NY Times - or not even the Lansing State Journal - but it's something). We had several contacts immediately after the event, but not since. I expect it will take doing this a few times to get traction and begin to make a difference.

Faith Church has a reputation around Lansing (Michigan) as being the church that shows the love of Christ in practical ways. Its C.I.A. (Christ In Action) ministry is in the community on a monthly basis doing some random act of kindness. At a recent fireworks display where Faith Church provided 2000 snacks and glowsticks to the kids and six portajohns for the spectators, one man said, “Oh. You’re that church”. These responses have become commonplace as the CIA ministry, begun seven years ago, matures. Started under the leadership of then Community Life Pastor, Jess Allen, CIA seeks to break down artificial barriers between the church and people who, for various reasons, have no interest in what Christ has to offer. In Faith Church’s view, many of those barriers have been constructed by the Church itself. Well intentioned defense of Biblical values has devolved into judgmentalism and bigotry. Rather than creating pathways for persons to find their way to Christ, we have often built defense works to keep out any who would dare question our beliefs and particularly our standards.

Faith Church is committed to breaking down artificial barriers to the Gospel and reaching out to those who reject the Church. So it was, on June 30, 2007 fourteen “C.I.A. operatives” went to the Michigan Pride March at the state capitol. This event drew over 2,000 gays, lesbians and their supporters from around the state of Michigan and the region. It also drew protestors. Several religious groups were there, holding pacards and shouting through bullhorns. One sign proclaimed: “Lies Satan tells us….God loves everyone”.

Then there was Faith Church. Four teams of three following Jesus’ invitation to give “cups of cold water in (his) name”. In this case it was 1,500 bottles of iced water. A few refused our offer when they realized it was a church, but most were extremely grateful and several significant discussions ensued. Many assumed Faith Church to be a gay affirming church because of our approach. Whenever possible, we tried to make clear that we would have some very different views on the issues, but that we realized the other approach wasn’t working. We were there to start a conversation rather than a confrontation. We were able to show the love of Christ and on several occasions express our desire to open a dialoge about the issues facing homosexuals without compromising our stand.

Since the event we have received three phone calls and one letter of appreciation from parade participants; a much higher percentage than usual. I am proud to be part of a church that is willing to get beyond our walls and the artificial barriers that have been built between us and a world who needs to know Jesus.

This is the transcript of one of the phone messages we received....

My name is _____ _______. I’m living in ________________. I was at the rally in Lansing on Saturday…the gay rally. I was so moved by that simple act of you guys giving out water, that last night it just about brought tears to my eyes. I thought, “you know, those are the actions that say more than words.” I really appreciated what you guys did. You’re doing the right thing. You’re doing a great job.

I'm On Your I-Pod

2007-10-10T15:46:00.000-04:00

Or, at least I could be.....Scott, our media tech extraordinaire has hooked us up to be able to pod-cast our sunday teachings. So, go to www.lansingfaith.org/messages and click on the podcast link. There you will find last week's teaching that goes along the the video on the previous post.

Now you can take me along in your pocket....

Maybe not the imagery we want....

The Ride: Training for Life Video

2007-10-04T12:24:00.000-04:00

Here's the first video for "the ride" teaching series that begins this Sunday @ FaithChurch. The audio of the teaching will be on www.faithchurch.org sometime next week.

Thanks again to Don Williams for doing a great job pulling this all together.

solvitur ambulando

2007-10-02T16:21:00.000-04:00

"The thing will solve itself as you go on". I love this concept, I just didn’t know it had a fancy Latin name. So often, things that seem to loom as huge problems work themselves out as you go along.

I ran across the Latin for it while reading Wm. Barclay’s commentary on II Timothy 2:14 as part of my spiritual discipline regimen. The verse says, "Remind your people of these things; and charge them before the Lord not to engage in battles of words--a thing of no use at all, and a thing which can only result in the undoing of those who listen to it".

In this morning’s staff meeting we were talking about how we do church and the fact that we do a lot of talking in church. But how much actually gets done? We discuss great principles and ideals, but then ignore them as soon as we walk out the door. One person once related to it by wondering if there wasn’t a large "anti-life-change magnet" installed above the exit doors that took away all the good intentions they had during the church service.

We talk and talk about what is wrong with our world and the other people in it (it is rarely our fault) but do little to change things. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if the church was the church outside these walls. If we got out and walked around in the world and see how some of the problems of this world might resolve themselves.

Well, I would love to ramble on more about this, but I have to get this Sunday’s message started and then go to some meetings to discuss policy and then have coffee with friends to talk about some other people in the church.

Or....maybe I’ll take a walk.

Jay Leno Commentary - NOT

2007-09-26T14:12:00.000-04:00

Here we go again. I got one of those chain forwards that are almost as annoying as Blogs. It quoted commedian Jay Leno as defending the President and current state of affairs in the USA. It's very well written and makes some great points about the citizens of the US being spoiled brats crying about how bad things are while we enjoy nearly every advantage. Actually, I thought it was pretty well stated. Only problem is, it was not written by the great lantern-jawed one. Leno is quoted at the end of the piece and people take it that he wrote the rest of it, even though it sounds very little like his style or content. The actual author,is Craig R. Smith and it was published on WorldNetDaily.com at Thanksgiving, 2006.

I have gotten into the habit of checking out things like this because so many of us, and Christians in particular, are quick to pick these up and begin shouting and passing them along as if it could be found in the King James Bible. Two classics that keep recurring are the Madelyne O'Hare trying to get Christian Radio banned or that the Procter and Gamble logo contains Satanic symbols. So, please! When you get one of these things, check it out before forewarding to your entire mailing list. If we want others to listen to the WORD we proclaim, our other words should be well considered.

If you want to read the article and disclaimer that inspired this rant, go to:

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/l/leno%20commentary.htm

The Winds of Change

2007-09-25T12:48:00.001-04:00

Inerrancy! Until It's Inconvenient

2007-09-20T12:56:00.000-04:00

It's amazing to me how certain, ultra conservative groups, will shout about Biblical inerrancy until it interferes with their theology. Right now I'm reading "Victory Over The Darkness" by Neil Anderson. It really is a pretty good book, and we have used it for one-on-one discipleship for sometime.

However, as I'm reading through chapter 2 - ironically entitled "The Whole Gospel" I find that the author has taken leave of his commitment to Biblical inerrancy in favor of his eternal security theology.

He quotes James 5:19-20 "My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins".

Then he writes, "(these verses) appear to have a similar reference to unbelievers. The ‘sinner’ is to be turned ‘from the error of his way’ and be thus saved from ‘death’. Because this is most likely spiritual death, it suggests that the person was not a believer. In both of these uses of ‘sinner’, James is using the term as it was used among the Jews for those who disregarded the law of God and flouted standards of morality. The fact that these ‘sinners’ are among those addressed by James does not necessarily mean they are believers, for Scripture teaches that unbelievers can be among the saints (see 1 John 2:19).

His arguments have merit, but only if you disregard what the verses are actually saying. First of all, it talks of one who "wanders from the truth" not one who has never accepted it. The word for "wander" is "planao". It is only translated once as "wander". The most common translation by far is "deceive" or "deceived". Sounds very much like what happened to Adam and Eve when they "wandered" from the truth.

The verse also uses the phrase, "bring him back". To bring someone or something back, the logical understanding would be that they or it must have left the point of origin in the first place. The original language uses the word, "epistrepho" which is most commonly translated "convert" from their "error" which is a form of the same word "planay" used earlier.

I see many scriptures that support the security of the believer throughout the Bible. I also see several (like this one) that indicate one can choose to forfeit or abnegate their relationship with Christ. However, that is not my argument here...(I’ll save that one for later). What is really cheesing me off today are those who hold themselves up as defenders of the faith and then intentionally mishandle God’s Word to defend their preconceived notions.

Bottom Line: I believe in the inerrancy of the Scripture. I just don’t believe in the inerrancy of your interpretation of the Scripture. Or mine, for that matter.

The Littlest Spartan Cheerleader

2007-09-19T10:43:00.001-04:00

This is our little cheerleader from New Zealand! We are doing our best to spread the good Spartan word around the world. Raegan Emma Claire Jones is two months old and is even more adorable than she appears here. (Just Papa's opinion of course, but I am rarely wrong about such things).

Missing Joel

2007-09-18T10:39:00.001-04:00

When someone has been a significant part of your life, there are things that just make you think of them.....

This makes me miss Joel, even more! Click on the picture below for the full effect.

Success! The Ride Promo

2007-09-17T11:20:00.000-04:00

I got it to work! Yeah!

Unfortunately, I've no idea what I did different that caused it to work.....

My geekiosity remains limited.

Don Williams - Hero of the Week!

2007-09-13T11:11:00.001-04:00

The promo video for my October series of teachings is complete. I gave the raw footage to Don on Sunday and he had this complete for me by Wednesday. What a video editing stud! Thanks, Don! The series looks like this: October 7 – Training – Getting Ready for Life October 14 – It’s Not All Up Hill – It Just Seems That Way October 21 – Going Home – The Pay-off Should be a fun and hopefully, helpful series.

Well....I tried to upload it. Met the limit of my geekiosity

Planes, Trains and Semi-Trucks

2007-09-06T13:57:00.000-04:00

I’m back from Dalmac and we had a great time. The team performed well. Even those who were a bit short on the training side did fairly well. The first day was actually the most difficult. I totaled 84 miles on mostly flat roads. It would seem that flat roads would be to one’s advantage, but it was very warm and humid and the wind that helped us as we left Lansing, turned on us early in the afternoon. The roads were also very busy and in poor condition over the last ten miles which made for a fairly miserable finish to the day. Cold showers were followed by a hot meal and we lay down to rest around 9:30 after devotions and our CIA water bottle distribution.

Our camp site was about 75 feet away from a set of train tracks. We wondered if they were still active. 11:45 pm it was officially confirmed that they were, indeed, still in use. A diesel engine came through and lay on the air horn as it passed our tents. About 45 minutes later (just as I was fully back into REM sleep) he returned with loaded cars that groaned and screeched for at least ten minutes.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 30th

Thursday found us heading for Lake City - the highest point in lower Michigan. My mapping program says that we gained almost 600 ft by the end of the day. What it doesn’t say is that we went back down quite a bit, too. But it was great weather and lunch was spectacular at Lake George Campground. Part of the day was in much prettier surroundings than the first day. It was Andrew Smith’s birthday, and we all had ice-cream to celebrate - even though he stayed back in the camp asleep in his tent. There was a band playing down by the lake and we had a great time relaxing after another nearly 80 mile day.

Our camp was at the Lake City High School. More cold showers, but thankfully, no train tracks. There was, however, M-55 just a little way from our tent. All night long, semi trucks came into town gearing down and making an awful racket. At least the trains had only come through twice. There must have been 20 trucks throughout the night. The next morning, we would joke that all we needed now was to find a campsite at the end of a runway.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31st

Friday morning was COLD! I put on my warmer gear and hopped on the bike early heading out with Cleo and John. They can flat out fly! Friday’s ride went from Lake City to Central Lake High School at the north end of Torch Lake. I left the others behind and rode with the two speedies as far as Williamsburg (between Traverse City and Kalkaska). What a beautiful ride! The road is rolls and twists around lakes and rivers. There were some pretty challenging hills along the way but far more interesting than the flats. One cool thing was connecting with the only guy who refused one of our water-bottles. I didn’t set out to do it, but he and I ended up riding together for several miles and struck up a conversation at a rest stop. For the rest of the week he was cordial and I hope we gave him a different view of church people.

My purpose in going ahead on this particular day was the chance to connect with my three grand-daughters who live about 3 miles from Williamsburg. They (and mom, Hope) came down to visit with me. We had a great time and shared a huge cookie. The rest of the day took us around beautiful Torch lake. Everyone was having a great time with the more interesting, even if more challenging, terrain. There was one last good climb over the hill from Torch Lake to Central Lake. I had been riding with Sharon Garner for much of the afternoon, but left her at the top of the hill to enjoy a downhill blast into town. I hit 44 mph - my record for the week. Our camp was behind the high school, away from traffic. It was a blissfully quite night, except for the snoring symphony. (I’m told I joined in on the chorus.) The showers were even a bit on the warmish side. Sharon stayed in a B & B just down the street from the camp - we were all quite jealous! Total miles for the day: 80.5.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1st

Saturday was the shortest of the days. It was also the steepest. We got into the hills first thing. There is a steep climb out of Central lake and then right back down again. (I hit 43 on that one but took it easy because of rumors of very rough and dangerous roads ahead). I enjoyed riding with Mark Weishar for most of the morning. There were some beautiful places to stop and enjoy the view and take photos. We arrived in East Jordan before lunch and knew that “the wall” lay ahead. There is a mile or two of slow climbing out of East Jordan and then the road turns a corner and it goes up the steepest paved road in lower Michigan. It is a tough climb. I was really hurting when I heard Chisom, Jen and Andrew yelling encouragement. It is amazing what that can do for you...that and the prideful unwillingness to admit defeat in front of friends.

The rest of the day was hardly less challenging. More hills lay ahead and the long descent into Pellston was preceded with one last brutal climb. As tough as the hills were, we all made every mile and lived to brag about it. We set up camp on the grounds of Pellston High school. The showers were the coldest yet. We got camp set up, showered and relaxed in the tent while we waited for dinner. We had just settled in when a twin engine cargo plane began its approach to Pellston airport right over our campsite. The absurdity of it set us off into gales of laughter. By sunset a couple Lear jets, a Gulf Wing, assorted private planes, another cargo plane and a Northwest commuter jet had passed overhead. Mercifully, they don’t do night landings at Pellston “International”. Total miles for the day: 63.3

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2nd

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous. We were up early to make the time cutoff for crossing the bridge. The road was good and mostly a slow downhill - with a tail-wind. I rode in with Paul Curtis and we averaged nearly 16 mph. We arrived in good time and connected with the rest of the group for photos down by the Straits park with the bridge in the background. Then we gathered at the van, Chisom donned the helmet cam and we headed up and over. Crossing the bridge in a car is interesting, but nothing like crossing on a bicycle. We only made about 7 mph on the climb due to other riders ahead, but nobody was in a hurry. The water was a deep aqua blue and the sky as clear and blue as could be. The height and wind made a few of us nervous, but everyone crossed without incident and joined the fellowship of only a few thousand persons who have crossed the Macinac Bridge by bicycle.

We connected with Doug Maier, our sag-wagon driver, on the other side, put the helmet cam away and said good-bye to Paul who took the ferry boat to Mackinac Island to meet with his family. The wind was getting stronger, but for the most part, would be in our favor for the rest of the day. It was fortunate that it helped us, because there were gusts up into the high 20 mph range and it was steady at 20 to 22 mph. As a result, we flew toward De Tour Village. The route took us along the northern shore of Lake Huron. We stopped several times to take photos along the way, but still brought our average up to the 17 mph range for the day. I was only a mile out of town when Marcia passed me in a black suburban with the plate “JETDRVR”. (Thanks Dan and Sonya for the use of your vehicle.) We all made it in with time to spare, got everything sorted out and headed for home: tired, sunburned and victorious.

Total Miles for the week: 388.5
Total Time on the Bike: 25:04:31
Average Speed 15.5 mph
Maximum Speed: 44 mph

CIA

This trip was promoted and supported as a CIA event. I can’t say enough for Doug Maier who took the load for most of the hands-on work with giving out water, Propel packets, apples and granola bars to many riders. Doug did a great job of connecting with people and letting them know that Faith Church cares about people. Each evening, Doug would have stories of different people he connected with, giving them a card or water bottle as seemed appropriate.

The water bottle distribution went great. We had many people stopping us to ask what it was about and we were able to promo the teaching series I will be doing in October. The video Chisom took with the helmet cam will be utilized with the series as well. As far as I know, only one person turned down a bottle - the aforementioned person with whom I later connected. We saw our bottles in use on many bikes throughout the ride.

We also rode with a number of persons who are unchurched or de-churched. I, personally, had some very significant conversations with several persons and a couple guys in particular. We also have received a couple notes via e-mail thanking us for our work this last week. I love being able to represent Christ in a very different venue. I love being out where unchurched and de-churched people outnumber us. I love it when “they” express pleasant surprise at encountering muscular, adventurous and friendly Christians. I love my job and the people I get to rub shoulders with.

Thanks to the whole team who made this event a success: Chisom Wilson and Jennifer Neal, Cleo Townsend and his son-in-law John Hughes, Sharon Garner, Paul Curtis, Mark Weishar, Andrew Smith and the best support person we could ask for, Doug Maier. We missed having you along, Joel Gorveatte, wherever you are!

Several persons have expressed interest in doing the ride next year. I hope I haven’t given the impression that the entire trip is about hurting and struggling. Most people, with a good measure of training before hand, can make this journey. There were people who were quite overweight out there and the ages ran from young children to octogenarians. There are hardships, yes, but also hours of enjoying freedom and beauty you can’t see any other way. Friendships were initiated and deepened. Memories that will last a lifetime were created. And isn’t it the overcoming of hardship and the common experience of defeating them, that gives us more to share and makes us ready to face those more significant challenges that come to us in day to day living?

About the photo: It has nothing to do with Dalmac or bicycles. I Googled "planes trains automobiles" and this came up. Too wierd not to use

Riding With Purpose

2007-08-28T13:40:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow I head off on an adventure! I’m riding Dalmac (www.biketcba.org/DALMAC/dframe.html) from Lansing to De Tour Village in the UP! The total will be 380 miles over five days. I also will be camping out each night in the new tent I got for my birthday! There are eight others going along from the church. It should be a lot of fun. We are going to be combining the trip with a CIA (Christ In Action) event. We have 300 water bottles to hand out and our sag-wagon (a wagon to pick up those sagging) will be giving away water and Propel. So we are turning a fun event into an outreach event.

I guess I regret that we have to “turn it into” anything. It doesn’t seem right to make our faith something we tack on to the side of our lives. We have this feature on our house that was added on as an after-thought. We lovingly call it “the wart” because it just doesn’t fit. My walk with Christ is not a “wart”. It is the central part of my being and purpose in life. Everything else is supposed to (not that it always does) flow out of my relationship with Jesus. Colossians 3:17 (NIV) says, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” That includes riding bicycles ridiculous distances.

There will be over 2,000 other crazies out there on this trip. It is my hope that we, as Christ followers, will be the salt and light we are called to be. At the same time, we will be sharing our lives in a quiet and, hopefully, winsome way. As in my previous post, I’m put off by those who put off those still seeking by their “in your face” methodology. If too much salt is put into food, you want to spit it out. If light is too bright, it gets turned off or sunglasses get put on. I want to be “just right” in my sharing my faith with others. To invite them in and live in a way that they want to know why I am the way I am. Pray with me that this week will be a time for the Dalmac team to be salt and light as we sweat and pedal.

Airline Christianity

2007-08-21T14:12:00.000-04:00

On they last leg of our most recent trip, Marcia and I were separated by the airline. I in the front, Marcia clear in the back. I sat with a nice family and our conversation turned to church things. Turns out they are a Christian family from the Grand Rapids area.

We were having a nice chat but you could tell they were trying to find out if I was appropriately conservative. I was more concerned about the others sitting around us and how they may be taking the way the conversation was going. I decided to test them as well and mentioned my recent involvement at the Michigan Pride (gay and lesbian) Parade. I explained that we were seeking to do what Jesus called us to do, to give cups of cold water in His name. The response I got was the cold shoulder in Jesus name. It got real quiet as they went back to their books and I did the same.

But I hope I did a little airline evangelism on that ride. I hope they will come think about the gospel in a little broader terms. I hope they will cease seeing the lost as the enemy.

Exporting America

2007-08-17T16:09:00.000-04:00

Just back from a long trip to New Zealand. Re-entry into US culture can be a bit of a shock.

Ways you can tell when you are in the USA

"Delayed" appears on the screen after your flight number

People are pushy and obnoxious

Coffee is weak and puny

But the milk shakes are actually thick and heavy

And so are most of the people

However, on this my third trip to New Zealand. I've noticed

that the people are increasingly rude and pushy around Auckland.

the traffic is awful (Auckland adds 280 cars PER DAY! to the road system)

there is more trash laying around than there was six years ago on my first trip

the once excessively health conscious people are becoming thick and heavy

the politics of New Zealand are increasingly screwed up

I'm so glad that we, in the US, can have such a powerful impact on the rest of the world. Soon, I can feel at home wherever I go.

In Case Mark Gorveatte Goes Missing

2007-08-09T03:22:00.000-04:00

Remember the movie DAVE, where an ordinary guy takes the place of the president of the US? It's said we all have a double somewhere in the world. I think I've found Mark Gorveatte's.
So, if Mark wants to go off to Cambodia or Azerbaijan - I know where to locate his double: We will need to do something with the hair....

Shaping Up - III

2007-08-05T17:30:00.002-04:00

The final installment in this series of introductory blogs.

How I became a cynic....

A dysfunctional church

Several years ago I read a book entitled: Toxic Church. It could have been written about my home church. The church I grew up in was a family run outfit. (Not my family, though we got into the middle of several clashes along the way.) The church would grow for a while until someone threatened to show talent for leadership, then we would see a sudden decline. It was also a very closed and judgmental place. I remember one fellow who began to attend church that had a tobacco habit. I overheard a couple gossips taking about him: “He can’t wait to get out of church so he can light up. And now, there are cigarette butts on the sidewalk!” I say, put ashtrays where the communion cup holders are if we can get more unchurched people to follow Jesus! In fairness – the church wasn’t a complete disaster – I had a great teen class Sunday School teacher and a couple humble, beat up and persistent pastors who loved me and influenced me greatly.

I arrived on the Marion College campus (now Indiana Wesleyan University) in the midst of the tongues crisis. I’d never heard of such a thing and was too naïve to really understand what was going on. The denominational leaders came on campus had a meeting and outlawed speaking in tongues. They said it was a dead gift. I wasn’t very sophisticated nor educated at the time, but something just didn’t seem right about that. And it wasn’t. We have now modified our statement to a “don’t ask – don’t tell” level. An improvement of sorts. I become more and more disillusioned with the hierarchy of the church as I see those in power exercise their influence to stay in power. So, why stay in this church – because the bride has spots and wrinkles wherever you go and I am called and compelled to be a steam-dry iron right here if I can make any difference at all.

Continuing Education

My world view shifted considerably when I began taking classes at Eastern Michigan University. I got my MA in counseling from there in 1993. The classes I took there and the many experiences as well, challenged many of my simplistic view of life. I did not lose my salvation. I did not come out an atheist. Rather, I had to come to a much more mature and fuller understanding of my faith and my walk with Christ. It helped me undertand that morality was much larger than the subject of sex. It helped me see why many reject the American/Republican version of Christianity. And it shaped me for what I am doing now.

Shaping Up - II

2007-08-01T00:07:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I started a post about things that have shaped me into the person I am today...the blog continues.....

Husband and Father

o Dad

§ My dad was a quiet influence on my life. He didn’t say much. Only occasionally raised his voice. Often took me along on projects. There’s a picture somewhere of me around 2 – 3 years old in my jump swing holding up a board for dad. He taught me that you can fix almost anything if you are not afraid to try. Including broken hearts.

o Marcia

§ Pay attention. Marcia put this concept into my husband/father vocabulary in the first year of our marriage. It has served me well and my family, too. I still have a tendency to drift off. Writing this reminds me again. Marcia has made me a far better man than I ever would have been otherwise.

Bicyclist

o Grandpa Alvah

§ There’s a old photo of my grandpa Alvah and his brother astride single speed, wood rimmed bikes getting ready to ride from Merrill down to Jackson, MI (just short of 100 miles). When I would fall off my bike, he would shout encouragement from his rocking chair on the porch of the log house, “Come over here and I’ll pick you up!”

o A girl’s Schwinn and a Rudge 3-Speed

§ I learned to ride on a powder blue 20” Schwinn girls bike. I didn’t know that I was supposed to be embarrassed by the low top tube. Given male anatomy and my lack of skill at the time, I may have that to thank for my current virility!
§ My first “racer” was a light weight Rudge 3 speed – 26” wheeled bike given to us by some friends and repaired by dad and I. My first long ride was to school at the end of my freshman year.

o Bicycle Tours

§ The bikes lay aside once I got my coveted drivers license until I was a youth pastor and there was a district bike trip announced. The youth group went together and got me a Schwinn Varsity. It was shiny and new and weighed a ton, but it got me through that first trip and I was hooked.
§ I’ve been riding ever since with a long line of better and better bikes along the way, but all of them have a special place in my memories.

Shaping Up - I

2007-07-31T06:17:00.000-04:00

Vacations are a great time to review ones life. Beginning to Blog has given me a vehicle by which to process my life audit. As I’ve been doing this, I’ve been thinking of the things that have shaped me. Here’s my list:

What shaped me into being a Follower of Christ

Parents: Mom & Dad brought me to church regularly and influenced me profoundly

Rebellion: At one point in my life, I rejected everything Mom, Dad and the church taught me about being a Christian. It wasn’t fitting or working.

Return: My parents faith became my faith as I returned to Christ as a junior in high school. I became a follower of Christ rather than a churchy person.

What shaped me into being a Global Christian

Bai Bankura and Fanny Farmer: Bai Bankura came from Sierra Leone to stay in my home when I was 10. He let me ask all kinds of questions. I remember setting at his feet and listening to his beautifully accented English.

Fanny Farmer was a missionary I heard about in YMWB (Young Missionary Workers Band – we had no instruments) as a child. I think I just liked her name. I got to meet her when I was a young pastor in Brighton, MI. What a treat.

South Africa (1982): My first missions trip to build a church in Venda, South Africa. I discovered missionaries were real people and the world was far different than portrayed on the 6 O’clock news.

Subsequent Missions Trips: I began to have my world view changed as I began to see the philosophy shift from paternalistic to partnership. Still much work to be done there.

Steve Edmondson: Steve raised my view of what missions could be. Missions conference became the highlight of the church year rather than a tack on. Thanks Steve!

Partners

2007-07-29T15:25:00.001-04:00

I'm back in New Zealand primarily for the birth of our grandaughter Raegan. It just happens to coincide with a church planter’s assessment center led by a team from West Michigan. A whole bunch of us are here – probably the most of any one time in the history of the partnership between the Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand and the West Michigan District of the Wesleyan Church. So, this Sunday was an interesting Sunday for me to observe what has happened over the past six years.

It was about this time in 2001 when I received a call from Mark Gorveatte asking if I could host Richard and Jane Waugh at Berkley for a Sunday. I nearly said, “no” because I had just begun a new series of messages that week. What a fateful decision that was. By saying “yes” my whole life was changed. We had a great time and found our hearts knit together.

Less than a year later I had the privilege of leading the first team from WMD to NZ to do exploration of what a partnership might look like. We had a lot of meetings and made many friends in the process. The most important question asked me initially took me off guard, but has come to add new shape to my view of what partnerships are supposed to be.

“So, does partnership mean you give us money and then get to tell us what to do?” Kiwi’s are known for being direct, but the question was over the top even for most of them. It grew out of a frustrated heart – it put me on notice – partnerships have to be mutual – there has to be benefits to both sides.

Yesterday I attended services at two New Zealand Churches. East City – partner with Kentwood Community and Cession – partner with Lowell Impact. As Wayne Schmidt spoke to the ECW family I was struck by what a blessing again is mine to be one who simply connects people and then steps out. Wayne brought a powerful message appropriate for the ECW church as they are about to go ‘possess the land’ of their new building. The Kentwood people have done much to develop the leadership of ECW. But in one comment from Wayne’s greeting to the ECW people, I also saw what they were teaching Kentwood. ECW is the most culturally diverse church I know. Pakeha (New Zealanders of European descent) Maoris, Chinese, Indonesians and other Polynesian Islanders, all mixing and treating one another with great love and respect. Kentwood, like so many of our churches, is primarily a white church. And, frankly, Grand Rapids has more than its share of prejudiced whites. The Kentwood Community Church, to it’s everlasting credit, is trying to change all that. It’s a great challenge in North American culture. ECW becomes a model and an inspiration for the change.

Then yesterday as I watched Phil Struckmeyer pour into the lives of the Cession people during the morning (only hours after getting off a 4:30 a.m. arrival from the US) I was blessed again. It was great to see what both churches are gaining. Cession is looking at planting and Impact has gained a missionary heart for the world. I also loved the way Phil backed out and let Cession be Cession. He wasn’t the visiting dignitary, he was a praying partner.

Which lets me segue to my concern about the ECW service. It felt very North American to me. The voices are primarily North American. The worship leader is Canadian, the interim pastor is from the US and then the main speaker was from the US as well. I’m not saying this is all bad or should have been done differently on that particular day. But I did miss that beautiful New Zealand brogue and I am concerned that ECW – especially in its position as “anchor church” not become a North American outpost.

Tour de Specimen Cup

2007-07-27T14:12:00.001-04:00

As a huge fan of the Tour de France, I am disappointed and perplexed by the way this “clean tour” is panning out. It is no longer a race of who is the fittest and most courageous. It’s about politics, power and who can get away with the most the longest.

It is really disappointing that the top riders in this year’s tour have been removed. They say Vinokourov was caught blood packing and Rassmusen lied to his team about where he was when he missed a couple tests. If so, I can’t abide what they did, but I can understand at least Rassmusen and lay the blame largely elsewhere.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) has taken an adversarial role that begs resistance and rebellion. You can see them from time to time at the finish line being more obnoxious than a news reporter, grabbing the winner of a stage and hustling them off to be tested. Lance Armstrong, in his book Every Second Counts tells how the random testers would show up at the most inconvenient times and make a pest of themselves. At one point, his wife Kik is in labor and they are heading out the door for the hospital to deliver their twins. The people from random blood testing show up and insist that they go through with the testing. The only compassion they got was the female tester telling the male tester to hurry.

That anecdote came to mind when I heard about Rasmussen – I can see a guy trying to get away from the annoying pestering of the UCI’s yapping dogs. It doesn’t excuse him lying to his team – which makes little sense – but it is understandable.

So now the tour isn’t about teamwork and struggle and pain – it’s about rules and testing and cheating. I think I’ll just go out and ride my bike – and anybody who rides faster than me….they must be blood doping.

If You Come to a Fork in the Road

2007-07-26T13:43:00.000-04:00

Yogi Berra is often quoted as saying, "If you come to a fork in the road, take it". I love his befuddled comments because even though they appear confusing, they actually make a lot of sense.

Riding and driving here in New Zealand is also a bit confusing. When riding, I have to check traffic over the right shoulder instead of the left. Brett (son-in-law extraordinaire) loves to hang back when we are approcaching the car to see if I'll instinctively head for the right side of the car. He enjoys my embarassment as I find the steering wheel has somehow been moved to the opposite side of the car! Pedestrian crossings are the most dangerous. I'm conditioned to look left for oncoming traffic and then step out to cross. There is never traffic coming from the left - but lots from the right.

Then there are the round-abouts. They abound in NZ. One enters on a sign that says "give way" and you yield to anything coming from the right. Then you close your eyes, hit the gas or stomp the pedals and throw yourself into the mess. When you come to the proper exit, you signal and make your way on to the next round-about - ususally in the next block. Actually, I like round-abouts because like Yogi's quotes, even though they appear confusing, they actually make a lot of sense. I love not having to wait for traffic signals here.

American traffic signals are the bane of my life - particularly the one at Herbison and Old - 27 in DeWitt. If you are not sitting at the crossing into or out of the Meijer lot when the light turns green for those across from you, the light stays red. If you happen to be riding an aluminum framed bicycle at the same intersection, the light doesn't change even if you've been camped there for hours because the magnetic pick up in the pavement totally ignores you. And how often have we set at a light (im)patiently waiting while there is absolutely NO TRAFFIC coming on the cross road. Typically, some poor schmuck comes along just as the light turns green for me. It makes no sense.

I would advocate the installation of more round-abouts in the U.S.. Not for the aforementioned Old-27 intersection - a four lane round-about is a nightmare on a whole new level! But many minor lights and four way stops could be replaced with lovely round-abouts with planters in the middle. It would be great sport to go watch U.S. drivers deal with them for the first few weeks as well.

So, I'm out on my ride the other day and I'm making my way around a beautiful round-about with brick pavers and garden in the central circle and what do I come across...a fork in the road...literally. So, I took it.

The Hills Are Alive --- With the Sound of Wheezing

2007-07-25T21:51:00.000-04:00

It’s official! I am out of shape. I thought I was doing alright, but the hills around Auckland, New Zealand will not endure fat slackers. I’m about 15 lbs heavier than I was 2 years ago when I rode around here – and a year of living in the flat lands around Lansing has robbed me of my climbing legs and lungs. It was foolish, but as I headed out this morning I decided to take on the toughest hill in the area – PointView Dr. It is less than a kilometer long and climbs steeply about 400 feet in that distance. There are places on the climb that are so steep that concrete trucks lose bits of their load and leave it on the pavement. So, it is really steep, but I climbed it non-stop two years ago. Today, I stopped about 2/3 of the way up, waited for my heart rate to slow down to near red-line and then got back on. I made another few hundred feet linear and 30 – 40 feet vertical when I had to get off and WALK! I haven’t walked a hill in years. It is so humbling. From there I got to ride up and down several other challenging hills including a 2 k climb of 300 to 400 vertical feet. I only covered about 16 miles, was passed by another cyclist like I was standing still – which I almost was – and then crawled back to Brett & Kristen’s apartment.

This Saturday, I’m supposed to ride with the Manukau Veterans Cycling Club. I did well with them the last round, but now I’m fearful of another humiliation. But, I will be out there anyway – giving it my best and trying not to shame my American roots. After all, we’ve dominated the Tour de France for eight years, how dare I let the home-team down. Perhaps I can pull out a Floyd Landis-like recovery and power past all other pretenders. All I need is an extra dose of testosterone.

Or, maybe I’ll be humbled again. That would probably be the best. Humiliation can do one of two things – give you a view of reality that you are an older, overweight, cheese and ice-cream loving lug or it can motivate you to train harder, discipline oneself to push back on the ice-cream and go out and kick some scrawny Kiwi cycling butt.

As with so much of life – there are always challenges and choices.

(The first photo is of the bottom of Pointview Rd and the second is a veiw one gets of the same hill from across the valley.)

UNCERTAIN LIFE

2007-07-25T06:29:00.000-04:00

A year ago we left the security of a position at a church that loved us and was so very supportive. So, why go? Mainly because the position was so secure. We loved our BHWC people and they loved us, but they had become content. Content to stay in one place – even better, to go back a few years to the “good old days” before I moved on in my development as a person and pastor. So for the good of the church and ourselves, we began searching for a new place to serve.

Enter: Faith Church

Shortly after announcing my resignation, I began a long conversation with Joel Gorveatte – lead pastor at Faith Church in Lansing, MI. The more we talked, the more I liked the possibilities of becoming the Community Life Pastor. Several persons asked me about how I would handle not being the “big dog”. In retrospect, it’s been about what I’d expect. A few times I would have liked to make decisions my way, but for the most part, it’s been no big deal. As with so many things, there are trade-offs. I haven’t had to deal with a lot of the leadership hassles – hiring, firing, budgets, nominating committees and annual reports.

On the other hand, I’ve been able to focus on some things I’m very passionate about. I’m loving the CIA (Christ in Action) ministry. It is remarkable to see the number of people who have begun to come to faith (church) and later come to Faith (following Jesus) through simple acts of service. It has been my pleasure to guide the re-visioning of the church’s Global outreach. Similar efforts are underway for the discipleship and men’s ministries.

Turning Points

When we hired in @ Faith I asked Joel about his plans for the future. He told me how he had been approached in the past, but had no interest in changing churches. He would be happy to be at Faith for his entire career. With those words of assurance I signed on the dotted line.

On a Thursday a few weeks ago, Joel called those of the staff in the building together and let us know that he was being courted by another church and he and Tracy believed they were to pursue the position – which meant he was resigning as lead pastor at Faith. Since I and the rest of the staff are technically hired by the lead guy, our jobs are also suddenly up in the air. By all rights I should be upset and anxious. I’m not.

Why? Could be that I’m just in denial or not in touch with reality. But I don’t think that’s the case. First of all, I know when Joel told me he had no plans to move, he was being absolutely genuine. I’ve been in the same place. I have served in several places and in most of them, I planned to stay for the rest of my career, until the call to move on became clear to Marcia & I. I knew this when Joel gave me his assurance and accepted the risk – because Faith is where I am supposed to be right now. Secondly, experience has taught me that life is only as uncertain as the foundation upon which it is based.

My trust is not in my current position and paycheck. This is not what I’ve planned, nor expected, but I am called to a career of serving Christ in the vocation of a minister. The next thing may not be convenient nor as good a fit as I find at Faith, but following Christ has always been an adventuresome journey. Why should I expect it to change now? And who knows, maybe the next place is the same place.