Reflections on Jane's Visit

We had a fun visit from our Illinois friend Jane on Monday. I met Jane way back in 2001 through my church up in Libertyville. She felt sorry for me since I was new in town and didn't know anyone - plus she wanted to set me up with her 17 year old daughter. While things with her daughter never happened, Jane and her family sort of adopted me while I lived in Illinois. She would occasionally cook me German dinners and mended whenever I got holes in my pants.

Well, Jane is the business manager for a professional men's A'Cappella ensemble called Chapter 6. It turns out they were performing near here on Monday, so it was the perfect opportunity for us to hang out with Jane! After the concert (which was great), she drove down and stayed the night at the farm. We caught up on each others lives and enjoyed tea and laughter together.

Reflections on Catholic Wedding

Today I went to my first Catholic wedding. We went and saw Kathi's friends Zach and Amy get married down in West Virginia. It took place in a simple Catholic church in Wheeling, and it involved a not-so-simple Catholic mass. It was definitely an interesting experience and it made me realize how little I actually know about Catholicism. It elicited some good conversations.

Random Signage V

We snapped this picture on the campus of University of Illinois-Chicago. There are just no words. I think they're trying a bit too hard to be relevant to the youth culture.

When Did We Become Whiners?

There have been a couple of things occurring in current events that have really upset me with evangelicalism in America. The first one is a lawsuit filed by the Christian men’s fraternity Beta Upsilon Chi against the University of Florida which prohibited on campus recognition of the group because they discriminate based on gender and religion. There has been uproar among Christians that the university is performing a great injustice on the group.

I’m beginning to fear that evangelicals are litigating and complaining away any effective witness in our culture. When did we become such whiners? When did we start believing that the world owes us anything in the way of rights, recognition, or privilege? We whine and complain when the world doesn’t treat us as it treats its own. The truth of the matter is that as followers of Jesus we are in opposition to the world – the conclusion then is that we will come under continual fire from the world. Why would we expect any less?

The second event is the kidnapping and killing of the South Korean Christian workers in Afghanistan. I perused several Christian blogs that decried how the mainstream media wasn’t giving this injustice the attention it truly merited. Why are we surprised? Certainly, we should strive to have their stories shared for their benefit and for the encouragement of the saints. But, it seems that evangelicalism has fallen into the same narcissistic compulsion in our culture to have our rights affirmed by the mainstream.

I’m beginning to fear that the result of this attitude has been to forfeit much of our credibility in the greater culture. It looks as if we are just another one of the many special interests trying to defend itself in the marketplace of worldviews. The biblical example seems to be to bless those who speak against us, and allow them to trample over us. Jesus spoke on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Time and again history has shown that people are won when Christians endure derision, abuse, and even death with peace, love, and compassion (check out Matthew 5:38-48). I admit that I have no idea if I’m strong enough to do this – I’m a big people-pleaser. God, give me the strength to accept abuse with love. Give us the strength.

Reflections on Messy Missions

I started reading a book called From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya by Ruth Tucker. It's a biographical history of missions from the early church all the way up to today. It basically gives short biographical sketches of some well-known and not so well-known missionaries through the major periods of evangelism in church history. I can't tell you how impacting it has been to read this book, and I'm only a quarter of the way through. Evangelical Christians look up in awe at the great pioneers of missions - people like William Carey, Count von Zinzendorf, or Paul. But, these people were in many ways dismal failures.

Tucker does a great job of portraying these people honestly so that their successes and their astonishing weaknesses are made plain. Some of these figures whom we idealize were materialists, horrible husbands, impatient, ethno-centrists, and more. But, this has done so much to teach me that God works in spite of all of our weaknesses and sin. He took these messy people and established His Church. It's almost too amazing for me to grasp.

All of this has been doing two things in me. First, I'm not holding so high of expectations over myself and Kathi as we enter the mission field. Bottom line: we are going to screw up. We are weak and fearful, and, even worse, we're stubborn, impatient and prideful. But, God works in spite of all of that. Secondly, it is giving me such a great amazement at the love, grace, and sovereignty of God. The work of the Church has been a messy business throughout the centuries. Inquisitions, Crusades, colonialism, and Indian massacres have put a horrible stain on the Church. But, God is not daunted even by these things. He has moved and is still moving. He is so wonderful, good, and loving to all He has made!

Reflections on Family Visit

This weekend we drove down to Dayton to visit with the family. We spent most of Saturday grilling out with my sister, her husband, their baby boy, and my mom. The picture is my sister and her son Gavin. She doesn't look too happy because Gavin has an iron grip on her hair. Anyway, that evening my dad and I rummaged through stacks of old documents and photos left by my grandmother. We found some pretty crazy stuff like personal letters from the 1880s, autographs of Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller that belonged to my grandfather, an old draft notice from the Civil War. It was wild.

Before we headed back yesterday, we went to a going-away party for a guy we met at candidate orientation last year. He just finished his support raising, and he's getting ready to move over to Finland to begin working in a church plant there. We were also able to see our supervisor from GEM as well as another couple from orientation. So, now we're back in Dellroy, and we're trying to get refocused on support raising.

Reflections on Media Sensationalism

I pulled this image off the FoxNews website. They're using this as their tag for the Minneapolis bridge collapse tragedy. Am I the only one who things this is disgusting and shameless? I think we are all aware of the sensationalism that's prevalent in the media, but at what point does it become too much? Of course, the question becomes who is really to blame? They push this sensationalism because it sells, which means that people buy into it. Is the media to blame or are we?

Reflections on Poison Ivy

The past days, I've been suffering from an accute case of urushiol-induced contact dermatitis - a.k.a., poison ivy. I haven't had poison ivy since I was a kid. And, I'm remembering now that I get poison ivy really bad. It's spread all over my arm like some Biblical plague, so I'll spare you the details, but it's generally disgusting. I'm pretty sure that I got it from our dog because I'm usually not one for rolling around in strange, leafy pastures. Regardless, we've been trying various home remedies like Calamine lotion or rubbing it with old fashioned laundry soap. Nothing's working so far.

The episode has piqued my interested on how it all works. Apparently, the oil from the plant doesn't cause the reaction per se. The oil called urushoil bonds with your skin, and once bound your immune system treats the skin as a foreign agent and attacks - hence the oozy mess. Oh, Toxicodendron radicans...what did I ever do to you?!?