Farewell June

Well here we are 1/3 of the way through summer. Farewell to June. July is going to be great. July 4th is always special as we celebrate our nation's Independence. For me this means grilling out with friends and shooting fireworks after dark. Next year I get to teach my son, John, how to 'do fireworks'. Yes, papers have been sent in and now someone in the bureaucracy called Homeland Security will decide whether my new family are terrorists or not and give permission for proceeding on to visa application. So the waiting game has formally begun in getting Christie and kids over here with me.

Everyone repeat after me: Kansas is God's Country. The other day I went to open the refrigerator door and there it was. A refrigerator magnet stating, "Texas - God's Country." What? How did that get there? In all the people coming and going through my house someone slipped that thing onto the refrigerator. Under normal conditions I would consider this graffiti. But since it obviously came from a friend, albeit anonymously, it stays as a reminder of valued friendships who love to 'tease' with good humor. (After all, whoever it was who placed that thing on the refrigerator has had to put up with my humor for many years.)

At the end of July, (actually 25 days, 11 hours from now) I will be landing at the Tagbilaran airport in Bohol as I travel back to the Philippines to be with my family for a brief visit. During the trip I will have the privilege to share with a conference of Korean pastors ministering in the Philippines as well as preaching in two churches new to me. As exciting as these opportunities are, they are really side trips compared to spending time with Christie and the kids. The picture posted is a view of the Chocolate Hills on Bohol. During the dry season the vegetation on the hills dry up and the hills look like hundreds of Hersey Kisses have been dropped from heaven and landed in the center of Bohol.

The rest of the summer will have an international flavor here at the house. Pete Valdez, pastor, then interpreter, then acquaintance, then a sponsor to my marriage to Christie, and now friend (this is the progression in our relationship) will be spending week here with me during July. Pete is a wonderful man of God from the Philippines. When August roles onto the scene I have the honor to host Tomek and Renia Bieniek for a week. Tomek and Renia spent a week here two years ago and enjoyed it so much they are coming for a return engagement! This couple from Poland are precious and have hearts so in love with the Lord. It promises to be a great summer.

Before I close I need to share that Hannah Davidson, a college age student from CTC, is now in Tanzania for five weeks. Be praying for her as she serves the Lord among orphans in Tanzania. If you want to follow her adventures this summer, check out her blog at the following link: prayfortanzania.blogspot.com

Blessings to all!

Living Well

Driving home yesterday from the funeral of my sister-in-law who died four months after discovering she had inoperable cancer gave me a chance to reflect on a life well lived. Listening to those who shared about Colleen's impact on their lives I found myself in agreement with what a great gal she was. And yet a part of the story was left out in the narrative of her life. Yes, Colleen was a believer in Christ (and a very effective and mature one), but the story behind the story is the transforming work of grace in Colleen's life. The power of the Holy Spirit is so real and is able to renew a life and make the heart and soul on an individual so in sync with the Heavenly Father that what naturally flows out is the image of the Father. Colleen excelled at this. Life - the life of God came forth from her so naturally. This is as it should come forth - naturally. As Paul states in Philippians 1:6, God is at work in us throughout our lives. Colleen worked to remain open and pliable to the things God was depositing into her life. As a result of her open heart to the things of God in combination with the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, throughout the years Colleen consistently brought God's life to many others. Well done, Colleen. Well done, Holy Spirit!

My countdown clock shows 30 days, 2 hours until I return to the Philippines to spend time with Christie and the kids. Four days ago we officially filed papers to start the process of getting Christie and kids visas to come to the U.S. Time wise we are hoping sometime in December there will be cause to celebrate the family uniting in the U.S.

Life is certainly good. Family and friends in abundance. A great country in which to live. A future brighter than the past. A new golfing buddy coming back to Valley View. And a God who loves so extravagantly. Life is good.

Blessings

107 - Pancakes - Electricity

I am writing this blog from Arizona while attending a conference. Landing at 4:00 in the afternoon to be greeted with 107 degree temperature did feel rather excessive. However, the conference site keeps the meeting room so cool that I get "goose bumps" before each session ends. So the solution (since I did not bring a jacket) is to run outdoors at every possible break to get warmed up! The conference has been great. I head home tomorrow to more normal temperatures.

At lunchtime on Monday I found myself staring at the Denny's menu offering "all-you-can-eat-pancakes" for $4.00. When I asked the waitress what the record was she said 9 pancakes (by a 12 year-old boy) was the most any of her customers had eaten. Ah, the challenge. I can do more than that. So here you have me vainly trying to revert back to my gluttonous childhood and consume 10 pancakes - just for the record. All was going well on the road to the record even as each bite of the 7th pancake told me a wiser person would quit while still able to crawl back to the car. But just 3 more pancakes and the record is mine! As I was finishing off pancake number 8, the waitress brought pancakes 9 and 10 along with horrifying news. The waitress on the other side of the room said she had served an eight year old girl 11 pancakes. This is like moving the goal line whenever you get close to it. I've played games with people like this. They keep informing you of another rule to the game as you go along. Of course, the new rules never seem to be an advantage to you. 10 pancakes were within distance but 12? How stupid was I going to be on this afternoon?

On the home front. This morning I heard the statistic that there are 1 billion persons on the earth living without electricity or running water in their home. (U.N. statistics) As of today we can remove 4 of those statistics. Christie and children have now gotten electricity to their home! The first electric appliance Christie was going out to buy was . . . an electric rice cooker! I will get to see how well Christie cooks rice in 46 days, 5 hours, 12 minutes. That is when, according to the countdown clock on my computer, I will land in Tagbilaran to see Christie and the kids again!

Well God is certainly good. It is fun being His child. And, by the way, I did quit at 10 pancakes. I decided to let the eight year old girl keep her record. And yes, I felt stuffed for at least 24 hours.

Blessings.

Wild Thoughts on a Summer Afternoon

Here are some thoughts floating through my mind while waiting for the last graduation service of the year.

Someday I may "get it". I just received a text from my sister coming back out of the Rocky Mountains. How could someone want to spend a week in the mountains when they could enjoy the wide open spaces of the prairie? Someday I may understand this phenomena. But for the time being I will enjoy watching the masses cross the prairie to the mountains totally oblivious to the beauty surrounding them. When I watch this migration I am reminded of the lemmings running blindly over the cliff to their deaths.

The oil spill in the gulf is a great boon to the evolutionary scientists. With so much oil spewing forth in the gulf it must surely be creating such hostile environments that today's species will have to evolve into something different to survive. The fittest of these survivalists will one day get their pictures in "Nature" and "Science" magazines. So the evolutionists are gleeful in their anticipation of these future new species. The only problem is, they won't be around in 50 million years to know if this ever occurred! Oh, the poor evolutionist. He will have to live by "faith" since he will never be around to observe what he believes.

An idea worth pondering. With the gulf oil crisis having no end in sight this is another opportunity to explore additional alternative energy sources. How about inventing cars that run on hot air. Then President "O" can nationalize all the BP gas stations in the U.S. as a punitive measure for their mistake. Government owned and operated service stations will then be available for all freedom challenged individuals. Now this is just the first step in getting America back to work. Next will be the construction of a pipeline network connecting the government owned and run BP stations to a source of hot air to run the newly invented "hot air automobile". Millions of Obamajobs will be created. Endless Obamajobs - just building another BP service station will require another pipeline to the source of hot air. Where, you ask, will all these pipelines run to the source of such massive quantities of hot air. Follow the pipelines east, young man, east across the Potomac to a big white house and an outhouse with 535 stalls.

Blessings (and enjoy the day)