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Days 16-17: What Is Fresh and Green in Hamburg?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on November 16, 2011| 1 Comment »

Hamburg

We left half of our toiletries in Belgium with Hans and Ans!  Fortunately, the Brazles are coming to Rothenburg, so we may be able to have deodorant again by Sunday.  Just joking!!

Tip: The more methodical you are in packing, the less likely you are to leave things! Scattering and rearranging your packing, that is, putting your toothbrush in a different bag or putting dirty clothes where your socks used to be, almost guarantees leaving something behind somewhere!

Our visit with the church of Christ in Hamburg was wonderful.  This congregation, planted in the early 1950s, is one of the most mature and stable in Germany. They have four elders and a pretty stable history.  About seven years ago, when the International Church of Christ dissolved, a number of committed young couples joined this church’s work and have been a blessing.

I suspect that this church has been in the phase of church development that I described in the last posting where it is mostly focused on church life and inward things.  Sure, they have continued to have gospel meetings and other types of evangelism that were effective forty years ago, but these activities were church habits and no one really expects them to reach new people in this century.

That’s why we at Let’s Start Talking are excited about their invitation to receive a team next summer. LST veterans Steve and Val McLean from Santa Barbara, CA are very close friends with one elder couple here, so they have been informing the Hamburger (yes, that’s what people from Hamburg are called!) about LST for years.  Finally, the church has invited them to come and actually do LST here!

Much of the maturity and stability of the Hamburg church is a direct result of the lifelong efforts of Dieter and Eva Alten.   I wish I could write their whole story for you, but someone else will have to do that.  I’ll tell you what I know though.

Dieter was one of the very young men converted by the first American workers in Germany after WW II. Very early, he and his wife Eva moved to Hamburg where they worked with Don Finto in the new church planted by Weldon Bennett.  Don left to return to the States and Dieter and Eva stayed.

Sometime in the mid-seventies, an American Christian who had the Dale Carnegie franchise in West Germany was ready to go back to the States, so he transferred it to Dieter. This gave Dieter both greater influence and greater financial stability. I know American workers whom Dieter gifted with free courses; I’m sure he did the same for German workers.

And even while being the national director of Dale Carnegie, he continued to hold meetings, to do training and mediation for churches of Christ throughout Germany.  He was a regular guest speaker in Hannover when we were planting a church there!

Eva is gone now. Dieter is 83 years-old and suffers some speech impediment because of a stroke a few years back, BUT he serves as an elder, he attends every service (Sunday and Wednesday both!), and he preaches on occasion.  I was told that although he can no longer speak as spontaneously, he writes out his sermons which have the same depth and are as full of encouragement as ever!

We visited Dieter briefly, told stories from old times and laughed together. His eyes are full of life. I’m not sure he really remembered us—but that really doesn’t make too much difference.  We will always remember him.

We read together some verses, highly appropriate for Dieter, from Psalm 92:

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in Him.

Thank you, Dieter, for bearing fruit and for staying fresh and green!  And, thank you, Lord, for your servant Dieter Alten!

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Day 3 – The Holy Land?

Posted in Uncategorized on November 2, 2011| 2 Comments »

On Monday night, we met for dinner with the minister and his wife for a church in Nazareth. The town where Jesus grew up is now mostly Arabic and Muslim, with just a remnant of Christians—but then those who saw him grow up among them rejected Jesus then as well, didn’t they!

What a pleasure it was to talk with this man and his wife about their faith and their work. We heard stories from him about his being forced to sleep in unlocked cars as a young man because his family disowned him—literally drove him out of his house and put him on the streets for being baptized in the name of Jesus. Now these two Christians have served faithfully for over twenty years in Nazareth and in their congregation, they have between 40-60 neighbors who break bread together each Sunday until He comes again.

Our real purpose in coming to Israel and to Jordan was to visit with them about Let’s Start Talking and whether we might be helpful to them in their work in Nazareth. They were quite excited about the possibility and are now informing the other church leaders about the possibility of partnership with us.

I did not realize that Galilee was a region of mountains and valleys—but mostly mountains. Our hotel was on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. I woke yesterday, looked out the window and saw the Golan Heights directly across the sea. You will remember that these mountains are the militarized buffer zone between Syria and Israel. The morning was so still that it was hard to imagine the fighting and the loss of life on these mountains.

We left for Jordan early in the morning, but stopped for a short boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. On the boat with us was a youth group from a Baptist church in Dallas! In fact, even at breakfast in our hotel that morning, I had noticed that the tables were mostly reserved for religious groups from all parts of the world! Christian tourists! Christian pilgrims!

This collection of world Christians was even more obvious at sites like the mountain where Jesus delivered the Beatitudes. Most of that mountain is now fields of banana trees, but the higher area has been claimed by the Catholic church and turned into a beautiful garden surrounding a church. In every corner, we heard singing, praying, and the words of the beatitudes being read—in many languages. The obvious devotion of so many Christians was very encouraging!

We met the same crowds with the same spirit just a few hundred yards away at both the beach where Jesus had breakfast with his disciples after the resurrection and where he redeemed Peter by asking him three times if he loved him!

Of course, nobody really knows the exact site of any of these events. These traditional sites, however, have been traditional sites mostly since the 4th century, but some are described even in earlier writings. I’m not too concerned about authenticity because these are certainly the same mountains that Jesus walked beside and, this is definitely the same sea that he walked upon.

As moved as I have been by the sense of history, I must confess not being as emotionally overwhelmed by the “holiness” of the land as many other of my fellow pilgrims. I’m pretty sure it is because I have seen where Jesus has been in many countries. I have seen Jesus work in Thailand. I have heard His words in Russia. I have worshipped in His presence in Ecuador. We have talked with people in Rwanda who have been healed by Jesus.

Jesus came in the flesh and pitched his tent in Israel for a few short years. I believe that with all my heart! But He is not dead and buried here. He is alive, and He has never stopped showing compassion, never stopped administering grace and truth throughout the world.

This country was chosen as the manger for Jesus. Cows ate from the manger before Jesus was born; cows ate from it the day after Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus left. The manger was not immediately plated with gold and preserved as a holy relic! Neither should Israel be gold plated.

Jesus, not the manger, is the Holy One!

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Ten Tips For Overseas Trip Preparations!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on October 19, 2011| 1 Comment »

We are leaving in ten days for a four-week overseas trip. Between now and the time we leave, we have three days of activity at the Global Missions Conference and a five-day visit with our kids and grandkids in California. That leaves today and one day next week to get ready to go.

Sounds impossible, but it can be done with a little planning, so here’s my checklist. I thought I’d share it with you just in case you needed to make an extended trip on short notice or with an unusually short amount of time to prepare.

Let’s start with the things that must be done at home before you can leave:

  1. Stop your mail. Go to www.usps.gov and give them the information and that’s all you have to do! Your mail will be waiting when you return . . . which leads to the next item!
  2. Make arrangements for all recurring bills and payments that will come while you are gone. You don’t want to come home to cut-off notices or threats to ruin your credit.  I have put everything on some form of autopay where possible, including all our utility bills, our water and sewage, gas, electricity, telephone.  If you have any credit cards payments to make, go to your account online and set it on auto pay for the minimum amount each month just to make sure you are never late.
  3. Call any credit card companies and let them know of your travel plans. There is nothing worse than using your credit card once overseas and having it blocked by the company thereafter as part of their fraud security.
  4. Check the weather where you are going, so that you will take the appropriate clothing. It is so very hard to wear a heavy winter coat to the airport in DFW, when it is still 80 degrees every day!
  5. Check your passports TODAY and make sure that they are valid for at least six months beyond the date of your return! This is a fairly new requirement that even seasoned international travelers may not know!  You are also certain then where your passports are.  And carry a second form of picture ID, like your driver’s license, even if you don’t intend to drive.
  6. Take care of pets and/or houseplants.  What about your yard? Make the necessary arrangements with friends or professional services so that you don’t come back to either a jungle or a desert!
  7. Make sure you have enough of all prescriptions for the entire trip. Carry this medicine in original bottles, so it is easily identifiable as prescription medicine.  Also make sure you have an adequate supply of contact lenses and solution.  You probably should carry a copy of your lens prescription with you.  Purchase any OTC medicines you intend to take. In some countries you can find any drug over the counter; in other countries, you can’t even get aspirin without a local doctor’s prescription.
  8. Reduce or replace everything liquid you think you need to take! Shaving cream , toothpaste, deodorant, perfume, men’s cologne, liquid makeup, nail polish remover, cough syrup, nothing liquid can go in a bottle more than three ounces, and ALL of your liquids have to fit into one quart-sized plastic baggie.  And no big cans of hairspray!
  9. Decide about luggage!  The size and number of pieces you need depends on how you pack. We are going to be gone for three weeks, so we will pack for one week—does that make sense? We will pack into carry-on-sized suitcases, knowing that we will likely be forced to check our luggage on every flight except the Atlantic crossing.
  10. Determine how you are going to pay for daily expenses while traveling?  Cash? Travelers Checks? Credit Cards?  I used to use travelers checks but haven’t in years. ATMs have made getting local currency much easier, though not always safer. You have to be a little careful when and where you get cash out of ATM machines; nevertheless, you should make copies of front and back of all your debit and/or credit cards that you are going to carry with you and leave one copy with someone at home and take the other copy with you.  That way, if one or all of them are stolen, you can easily report the theft—or have someone in the States do it for you!

By the way, don’t carry cash in your billfold in your back pocket, not in your backpack, nor in your purse, nor in those fanny packs (either front or rear versions).  The only safe place to carry cash is in one of those money belts that fits under your clothes—which is quite inconvenient, so you put just a little in your pocket, but no more than you could afford to lose.

That’s enough for today, but before Sherrylee and I leave, I’ll be back writing about preparations at work and things that must wait until the last minute to do.

Here are a few thoughts for you on leaving things until the last minute. I hope they make you laugh!

  • “Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday.”
  • “You know you are getting old when it takes too much effort to procrastinate.”
  • “Even if you’re on the right track-you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”  Will Rogers

 

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Can You Live Your Whole Life For God? YES!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on October 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Yesterday, Sherrylee and I were in Oxford, Mississippi. You may not know that Oxford was our first home as a married couple. Before we went to Germany, I spent two years in Oxford, working for the church as a campus minister while completing my Masters degree in English.  The first year I was there and before Sherrylee and I were even in love, I lived with Doug and Cora Beal Shields, one of the elders of the church in Oxford.

Doug was a professor of physics at the University of Mississippi, but his real work in life was the campus ministry, which he had begun, supported, and led because of his passion for the mission of God among the young people who came through Ole Miss.

At that time, campus ministry was mostly  offering fellowship for Christians and in-depth Bible courses. Not only did the Student Center offer regular devotionals, but an evening meal and a place to just hang out—I’m not sure that’s what we called it then, but that’s what we did.

Doug had bigger and better dreams though.  First, he raised the funds and built a dormitory for Christian students.  Ole Miss is a top-tier party school, so his experience was that students who came and stayed in the university dorms usually ended up in the parties instead of the devotionals.  Even he moved away from the idea of sheltering Christian students years later, but at the time, this was a very ambitious dream for a small campus ministry.

But his second dream was much bigger—almost shocking.  He asked the church to hire a campus evangelist—someone whose sole task was to go on campus, find students who wanted to find faith, and then study the Bible with them.  This person would also minister to the Christian students on campus and try to involve them in the local campus ministry and/or local church activities.

What was shocking for 1968 is that the first campus evangelist the church hired was a young woman!  Sandra Purkey took the first position—which had to be called women’s counselor to avoid having female ministers.  In 1969, I was hired then to be a campus minister for the male students.

Sherrylee and I married in April 1971 and moved into a small, back porch apartment in Oxford. She took her courses and I finished my thesis, then we left for Germany in September.  The Oxford Church of Christ supported us for all of our eight years in Germany.  That was forty years ago!

Now Doug and Cora Beal are in their mid-eighties, a little slower, a few health concerns, but the primary topic of conversation when you visit them is the same: the kingdom of God!  They want to talk about the new approach to campus ministry; they talk about trying to heal the wounds of a church rift several years ago.  They want to tell us about their FriendSpeak program, reaching out to international students at Ole Miss.

The word that kept coming to mind as I thought about them was perseverance, the willingness to continue to work and dream in spite of difficulty, in spite of setbacks—to do whatever it takes to bring glory to God in the place where you are.

But more than just persistence, I admire their willingness to do it for their entire lives! Doug had a full academic career, even serving as an assistant dean for several years at Ole Miss. He is a recognized scholar, but his life was only about God!  He retired from teaching and research, but he has never taken one step backwards from his passion for the mission of God. And Cora Beal is even more vocal, just as passionate, and right there leading the way in her own right.

Someone said, “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.”  That is Dr. and Mrs. Shields of Oxford, Mississippi.

I would like to live my whole life working as hard and focused in the mission of God as Doug and Cora Beal Shields.

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Are You Depending On a Walk-Off to Win the Game?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on September 30, 2011| 1 Comment »

Wildcard Wednesday was a historic night in major league baseball.  The losers lost after being ahead and appearing to be winners. The winners won after looking like losers until the very last moment.  The losers (Boston and Atlanta) lost worse than anybody before them! No team had ever collapsed as badly as both of these teams did in September.

It was a great day for the game of baseball—but that’s not the way life really works!

Let’s lay out the metaphor to make sure we are talking about the same things. Instead of a game, I’m talking about Life—your life and my life—and in place of the last game, I’m talking about what the Scriptures call the Day of Judgment.   What is at stake is eternal life, not a pennant.

Here’s where I want to go with this metaphor:

First, there will be no surprises on that last day!  Everyone will know what is true. They will also know what is false.  They will all confess that Jesus is Lord! Those who are saved will know why and those who are lost will know why. No surprises.

Second, the winners will all be winners and the losers will lose.  Those who have been saved are guarded, their salvation is sealed, and no one will be lost.  The losers may have pretended at times to be saved, but they don’t fool God. He has seen their heart from the beginning and known its hardness.

Third, no walk-offs –no unexpected victory for the hopeless !  Jesus already has defeated death. He trampled it—so while a last minute conversion may appear to us as a last minute victory, we have not surprised Jesus! He has been pursuing and preparing for that “last minute” since the foundation of the world.

Fourth, no triple play can spoil the victory! The opponent is helpless against the righteousness of God. The opponent is helpless—not that he cannot create pain and havoc, not that he can’t challenge and twist and lie—but the opponent does not have the power to pull off a miraculous play that dooms one that wants to be saved and belongs to the Lord.

I love baseball and can’t wait for the roller coaster of emotions during the playoffs this year, but I’m glad that my salvation does not depend on something as capricious as—me!

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“Hesed” and Harding

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on September 28, 2011| 1 Comment »

The Original Entrance to Harding University

A trip to Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, is always a bit nostalgic. For four years, this was my home, my community, and my church!  My parents dropped me off at Armstrong Hall in 1965, a couple of days before most freshmen would arrive, so there I was by myself except for the football players who had to report early.

My first class in college was Old Testament Survey under Neil Pryor. He was young, personable, funny, and never forgot your name! He later became the academic dean of the university and a classroom legend.  Dr. Pryor died this week, another saint on the other side.

My freshmen year was also Cliff Ganus’s first year as president of Harding. He inherited the presidency from George S. Benson, another legendary figure in churches of Christ. Dr. Benson had been one of our early missionaries to China, later came to Harding and took it to true collegiate status—then did the same for Oklahoma Christian University.  Dr. Benson stayed heavily involved in African missions, virtually until the day he died.  Cliff Ganus had large shoes to fill, but, in his quietly profound way, he became the heart and soul of Harding.

I saw Dr. Ganus last night at the Harding Lectureship. He and his wife Louise both will turn 90 years-old in the next few months, both still sharp and active. Dr. Ganus reminded me that he first came to Harding as a freshmen in 1939, so he has been a part of the Harding community for 71 years!!!

David Burks followed Dr. Ganus as president of Harding in 1987. His fingerprints are especially obvious on the campus, which has totally been transformed during his presidency. In 1969, the small campus was centered around the Lily Pond and in the years of Dr. Burk’s presidency, the old buildings have been reconstituted, and dozens of beautiful buildings have been built. The small college of my day has become a sprawling university on a beautiful campus.  And Dr. Burk’s is equally as loved by the students as his predecessors!

There are almost 7000 students attending Harding University this year! Sherrylee and I just laughed last night as we were walking out of the Benson Auditorium following the lectureship and award ceremony for Max and Opal Johnson, which I mentioned in the last posting.

In a small, dimly lit alcove near the auditorium, there were a couple of students, dressed in shorts and T-shirts, sitting legs crossed, facing each other.  It wasn’t until I noticed that he had a pen and had started to write on her leg that the couple even caught my attention.

My first thought was, oh boy, Dr. Benson would roll over in his grave if he saw this out in front of his auditorium! Things were very different then. No shorts, no PDA (public display of affection), and light bulbs in every dark corner of the campus!

But what made us laugh came next. Just as we got just even with this couple, we heard the girl say, “No, no, hesed  (which she said with an exaggerated guttural, clearing-her-throat sound) means “unconditional love.”

I don’t know what the context of this conversation was, but where on earth except at a Christian college like Harding would you hear a couple sitting in the dark late at night, discussing the meaning of a biblical Hebrew word?

No doubt, the role of Christian colleges in our fellowship is changing, but I’m very thankful for schools like Harding, where completely committed Christians still spend their entire lives filling up our children and grandchildren with the information about God’s world and faith in the Creator!

 

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The Night Train to St. Petersburg

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 13, 2011| 2 Comments »

The work in Russia in the early days after the collapse of the Soviet Union was extraordinary. Last year, I told you the story of how LST went to Moscow in the summer of 1991, and working out of a local school, began reading the Bible with people who would literally cry sometimes because of their joy at finally hearing a Word from God. (See “A Personal History of LST”)

One of the most moving stories from those days was about the person who had the only Bible in the small Russian community, so he rented pages from his Bible and people paid him to have an hour to read the story of Jesus for themselves.

LST went first to Moscow, but soon thereafter was invited into Saint Petersburg, where we have continued to send workers yearly.  My first trip between the cities is a great illustration of those early days.

Everything had to be done through a Russian liaison. In those first days, many of us hired a Russian couple named Volodya and Lena. ( I can mention their names because half the people in Russia have the same names, so I’m not invading their privacy.)

One of them would meet you at the international airport, take you either to your hotel or sometimes to their apartment, where you could stay, called the people you needed to talk to, negotiated for you for rented space, told you where to eat and where not to eat, taught you how to ride the subway system, and exchanged money for you.

You needed this kind of help for several reasons. Few people spoke English, so you needed them to translate, but Russia was rather lawless in this transition from Communism to Russian democracy and people were poor, so there was a lot of street crime.

 As Americans, we were prime targets for petty crime of all kinds as well as just exploitation. Prices for Americans would not only start out ten times higher than for Russians, but then would be raised again in the middle of the transaction. The people we would rent classrooms from would try to change the rent on us weekly, so it was an environment where you needed to work through a Russian liaison for some assurance and stability.

I needed to go to St. Petersburg to meet with the Christians there about bringing an LST team the next summer, so I decided to take the overnight train, not really knowing what an experience it would be.  Lena took me to the ticket office where she negotiated my ticket for me—getting a price well below what the agent had first said it would cost!

The next day, Volodya accompanied me to one of the Moscow train stations, telling me basically not to talk English in public. I felt pretty cloak-and-daggerish, especially going into the dimly lit train station. We get to the train that I’m supposed to ride and Volodya instructs me to wait for him, so I wait as he approaches one of the train conductors and talks with him for several minutes. At the end of the conversation, he pulls a set of pencils, a small $3.00 calculator, and some chewing gum out of his pocket and gives them to the conductor. This is what he called “tipping” and was what seemed to make everything work in those days.

He called me over, told me everything had been arranged and that I was safe and should not worry. I was taken care of–and handed me over to the conductor. The conductor took me to a small, spartan compartment on the train that was obviously a sleeping compartment, let me in, shut the door and locked it behind him. That was a little spooky!  But I was taken care of . . . so I settled in for the overnight trip.

There were two bunks, and I was given the top one. At the end of the bunk was a rolled up mattress with straw stuffing—yes, I’m pretty sure it was straw—zipped in a mattress cover with a sheet, wrapped in a blanket.  So I unrolled it and lay down and read until the 10 watt bulb in the compartment was no longer adequate to read by and until I relaxed enough to get sleepy.

Much later that night after I was asleep—lightly—I heard the compartment door being unlocked, then slid open. The conductor came into the room—not the same one, but a lady conductor! I pretended to be asleep, but was aware that she was checking on me. Then she took off her jacket and blouse and lay down on the bottom bunk! Well, that kinda woke me up!

But she had been “tipped” to make sure I arrived in St. Petersburg safely—and she did. She got up about an hour before our arrival, put her uniform back on, and went out very quietly, not to disturb me—as if I had done anything but sleep fitfully all night!

Just before arriving, she brought me hot tea and a biscuit for breakfast, then escorted me off the train until I was met by our contact in St. Petersburg.  I thanked her with my best Russian. She acknowledged, but didn’t smile. Russians really don’t smile a lot.

This small little adventure reminded me not only how we are constantly dependent upon God, but that most people in the world are good people, just trying to live from day to day.  For a few pencils, a calculator, and some chewing gum which she probably took home to her kids, she had allowed this unknown American to sleep in her compartment—risking her safety. Maybe she didn’t sleep much either.

I wish I could have told her about Jesus. I hope someone else has.

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If You Wear The Badge: Remembering 9/11

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 10, 2011| 3 Comments »

The towers had fallen, the Pentagon was on fire, but no one knew what was going to happen next. We had a small TV at the LST office, and as much as we tried to work that day, we all kept drifting back to the TV to watch the reports. 

We didn’t express our personal fears at first, but eventually someone voiced the question of who will want to get on an airplane and fly to a foreign country now? What impact did these terrorists make on the willingness of Christians to go into the world?

I had just finished writing the lead article for LST’s Fall newsletter. It was no longer the right tone, so I sat down and wrote the following:

September 11 re-shaped the world in which all of us live.  Our priorities have shifted as individuals and as a nation; the same is true at Let’s Start Talking.  This newsletter was ready on September 10—but some of it was no longer appropriate by the end of the next day.  If we took a little longer in saying to you what is on our hearts, we knew you would understand.

After the initial shock and outrage came a longer period of deeply felt grief. So many dead and missing, so much destruction, our shattered sense of security at home—the horrific reminder that this world is ruled for a time still by the Prince of Darkness—what could we do but grieve!

While grieving, however, we learned something about how to respond to tragedy and darkness.  You too probably noticed the many people running for their lives, running away from falling buildings, from death and destruction.  Everyone was running away—except for the Rescuers!  In the midst of the crisis, hundreds of firemen and police ran towards death and destruction in hopes of saving a few!  The actions of these men and women changed the future for many others.

The metaphor is powerful.  As Christians, we wear the badge of Jesus Christ, serving as Rescuers for God!  We cannot stay home and protect our own interests; we dare not retreat from going into all the world; we must not isolate or insulate our churches, our outreach, our missionaries, or ourselves in the face of darkness and destruction.  Because of the badge God gave us, because of the Name He lets us wear, we must run towards the darkness, into the danger, and look for those few that can be saved.

We at Let’s Start Talking will not forget the example set by the firemen and other rescue workers in New York.  We are calling on God to make us strong and courageous this year. We need you to go with us and support this army of God more than ever!

For those who wear the badge, the job is not yet done! Ten years later, people are still dying in darkness, buried under steel rafters of Sin. No one worried about cost, distance, or duration. Whatever it takes, wherever they are, however long it takes–those were the parameters on 9/11!

We wear the badge. We have only one choice—only one desire:  to run toward the ashy darkness with the hope of leading one more person out of destruction into light! 

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Do You Know the Way To Santo Domingo?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on September 9, 2011| 1 Comment »

I’m not entering THE BEST LST STORY EVER contest, but I hope you will!  I do, however, have several stories that I want to share with you over the next two weeks as we move toward our big weekend of September 23-24!

If you are a new follower of my blog, you might enjoy reading the series I wrote last year at this time: “A Personal History of Let’s Start Talking” http://wp.me/pO3kT-7U

Santo Domingo

One of Our Best Travel Stories

In 1994, LST was scheduled to go to work with the church in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, for the first time.  It has long been our practice to visit sites before we send teams there in order to make sure that both we and the local Christians/missionaries know what the expectations and commitments are going to be.  LST never goes to work with any church or missionary without an invitation, but a few hours of face-to-face conversation have saved us from many awkward and/or difficult situations.

Our travel agent prepared our agenda and sent the tickets to our office. We threw them into a drawer until the day before we left, but when we did look at them, we noticed that she had us flying first to Miami and then to Caracas, Venezuela, and spending the night there.

I called to confirm this, and she said she was sorry but there were no direct flights from Miami to Santo Domingo!

 And so we left the next day for Santo Domingo via Miami and Caracas.

As we waited in the Miami terminal for our Caracas flight, I noticed on the flight board several flights from Miami direct  to Santo Domingo. I actually called the travel agent from the airport and told her what I saw, but she assured me that she had researched it and we still had to go through Caracas. OK!

We boarded the Caracas flight, flew four hours to get there, then spent the night in a hotel that provided security both from the airport and back because of the threat of highway bandits.

Our adventure began again the next day when we arrived at the international part of the Caracas airport, tickets in hand for the flight to Santo Domingo—but as I looked at the flight board, I didn’t see our flight.  Our flight was VE 122 at 9:25am  and the only flight to Santo Domingo on the board was VD 121 at 9:15am.  Well, it was Latin America, so we just thought someone had made a mistake on the tickets. In these pre-9/11 days, those kinds of errors happened occasionally and were usually no big deal.

We had no trouble checking in for VD 121 to Santo Domingo, boarded the plane—a pretty small plane—and took off right on time at 9:15am.  About thirty minutes into the flight, however,  we started to land. Nobody was upset, so I wasn’t either. It didn’t seem to be an emergency. In fact, we picked up a few passengers on this unscheduled stop and then took off about forty-five minutes later.

Finally we arrived in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic—about an hour later than our itinerary said we would—and were met by very gracious, but puzzled missionaries.

After our sincere apologies for being late and causing them so much trouble, I mentioned that we had had an unscheduled stop between Caracas and SD. They said, “Why did you fly through Caracas?”

“Because you have to from Miami.”

“No you don’t! There are six or seven direct flights every day from Miami to Santa Domingo!”

“No way!”

It took only a few more minutes to unravel what had happened . . . . have you figured it out?

Our travel agent had written our tickets for Santo Domingo, VENEZUELA, not Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  Santo Domingo, Venezuela, is a small town buried in the Andes—not where we wanted to go.

The hilarious part is that with our ticket to this little Andean village town, we had managed to the WRONG flight on the WRONG airlines at the WRONG time—and got to our desired destination!

God moves in mysterious ways—and so do Mark and Sherrylee!

I’ve got another LST story about flying to Siberia that I will tell you next.

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The Best LST Story Ever! Contest

Posted in Uncategorized on September 7, 2011| 1 Comment »

THE BEST LST STORY EVER!

 Let’s Start Talking is accepting entries for its first THE BEST LST STORY EVER contest.  Over six thousand workers have had LST/FriendSpeak experiences since this ministry began in 1980. Each of you has stories that only you know. We want you to share the stories that touched you, the stories that inspired you, and the stories that continue to motivate you in your walk with God.

AMAZING PRIZES!!!!!

Submission Guidelines

 

The subject of your story must be related to your Let’s Start Talking/FriendSpeak experiences. The story may be about your experience, a reader’s experience, or a church’s experience, but the experience must be directly related to a Let’s Start Talking project.

  • Entries must not exceed more than 750 words.  There is no minimum word count requirement.
  • All stories should be titled.
  • Multiple submissions are allowed.
  • Please:  Send your entry via email to LST@LST.org and put “Story Contest entry” in the subject line.
  • Entries MUST be received by midnight, September 18, 2011.
  • Entries WILL NOT be returned.  It is important that you maintain a copy for your files.
  • Winners will be announced and prizes awarded in conjunction with the LST Benefit Dinner on September 24, 2011.  Information about the awards will be made public on the LST Facebook fanpage
  • Authors give the Let’s Start Talking Ministry all rights to publish any submission as the ministry determines is appropriate.
  • Decision of the judges is final.


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