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A Great Mission: Grandkids Camp 2011

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on June 30, 2011| 2 Comments »

Sugar them up! Super-chlorinate them! Wear them out! Then send them home to their parents!! That’s what we tell our kids we are going to do at Grandkids Camp every year.  (I love the sign in the stores that say,  if you let your kids run wild, we are going to give them donuts and a free puppy!)

We borrowed the idea of Grandkids Camp from some friends of ours in Oklahoma who did it for many years, until all their grandkids grew up!!  We have nine gkids now–the oldest is 12 and the rest are all under 8 years old—so we have a few years to develop Gkids Camp before they outgrow it.

Our OK friends did camp for several days, but a 24-hour version seems to work better for us!  This year, our California gkids are coming in TONIGHT, but Aimee and her children are leaving Saturday for a three-week LST project in Natal, Brazil, so we literally only have twenty-four hours when all of the cousins will be here together!  It was important enough that Aimee has packed early, and Ben and Amber delayed their 4th of July trip one day, so that we could have Gkids Camp with all of the Gkids!

Here’s the rough outline for Gkids Camp 2011

Friday, 2:00         Arrive after naps and after lunch!

Decorate their official Gkids Camp pillowcase. When finished, play UNO

3:30        Leave for movie  (Cars 2)

6:30        Swim

7:30        Roast hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire by the pool, followed by smores!!

8:30        Sing  songs around the fire, tell scary stories,  close with devotional

9:30        Back in the house, pajamas on, spread out sleeping bags and put Camp pillowcases on, then pop popcorn,  talk, watch old movies until everyone is asleep!

Saturday, 7:00am             Wake up, put swimsuits on and go in backyard to play Steal the Flag while the sprinklers are running!

8:00        Make pancakes for themselves and parents. Everybody gets to pour and flip!!

9:00        Parents join us for breakfast and swimming

Cleanup and go home!  Pretty simple, but it will be lots of fun. We will take pictures and put them into a little photo book for all the kids as well.

Maybe you have read Josh Hamilton’s book Beyond Belief, the story of an extraordinary athlete, raised very religiously and with lots of parental guidance, but who went into such severe drug addiction that he lost everything.  He shows up one day on his grandmother’s porch, destitute and with literally nowhere else to go. He goes there because his grandmother’s house has always been a loving and safe place for him—and she takes him in and helps him get on the road to recovery as no one else had been able to do.

I hope we never have to do that with any of our grandchildren—but I pray every day that today, while everything is good and sweet, we will build relationships with our grandkids that help them know who God is and that He loves them and that if they need us, we will be there for them in a day of trouble!

Watch for pictures from Gkids Camp 2011—as soon as Mimi and Grandad recover!!

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Two Weeks

Posted in Uncategorized on June 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I’m taking a two-week break to take care of some health issues that I need to address. While I’m doing that, I’ve asked Craig Altrock to share with you some of the work he has been doing on Psalm 119 that I know you will enjoy.  I’ll look forward to talking with you again in two weeks.

Mark

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Parenting Scripts: If it’s not a sin, let them do it!

Posted in Uncategorized on March 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I’m not sure we even have parenting scripts for teenagers. Most of us quit acknowledging the existence of our parents the day we feel like a teenager and don’t find them again until about 19 or 20! Even the best teenagers don’t spend nearly the high percentage of time with parents that younger children do, so parenting teenagers brings its own set of challenges.

Many of the strategies–and perhaps even the foundational principles–of your parenting style may have to be reexamined and changed for teenagers. That’s one of the biggest challenges for you!  As your kids’ parenting needs change, can you change with them?

Here are a few things Sherrylee and I learned with our three teens!

1.  Don’t quit parenting! It’s tempting because much of the advice, control, influence is, at best, unappreciated and, at worst, resented. Sure that makes you mad and/or hurts your feelings, but you are the parent, so you can survive that. The teens still need you!

2. Teenagers still need boundaries! Boundaries are security when teenagers are awash in new choices and don’t have a big enough picture yet to always make good choices. For instance,

Our teens always had curfews–but it was flexible enough to allow more time on the weekends and sometimes extended for special events!  Of course they tested the curfews, but not often because there were always undesirable consequences.  No visiting or having visitors when parents were not in the house! And you have to ask them, “Are her parents home? Bedroom doors always stay open. Always tell us where you are going and when you will be back. That’s about it! Are you surprised that there are not too many?

You should notice that these are “family rules” too, like I talked about in an earlier blog, not God’s rules. God has rules for teens too: no sex outside of marriage, no drunkenness, nothing illegal–you know the list. Your teens must know this list too–long before they become teenagers!  They should have already decided to obey these rules before they hit puberty.  Of course, they may test these rules too, but then they are dealing with God and not just with you!  And they should know this!

The way we tried to teach this was something that Sherrylee brought to our family from her maternal grandparents. She tells the story of her parents fussing at the kids when Grandmother CC said, “Max and Joy, if it is not a sin, let them do it!” Sherrylee and I adopted this mantra and found it very effective for these reasons:

a. Determining what is sin is God’s prerogative, so it keeps you out of the sin creation business.

b. It provides spiritual motivation for avoiding sin rather than family or parental motivation.

c. The boundaries set by God are consistent. Family boundaries tend to flex with our own capriciousness as parents, and teens love nothing better than finding inconsistencies in their parents.

The last big area I want to mention in dealing with teens is the area of mutual respect.  One of the big rules at our house because I believe it is also God’s rule was No showing disrespect to your parents. That included talking rudely, rolling eyes, stomping off mad, or any other childish action.

And it takes both parents to make this work. It’s essential for Dad to respond for disrespect to Mom and vice versa. This teaches your children that you love each other, that you are on the same parenting page, and that they cannot play one off the other.

The other side of the coin, however, is that you must treat your teens with respect! No ridicule, no verbal abusing, no abuse of parental power–you must model before them what it means to respect each other–even in the middle of conflict.

Have you ever wondered about Jesus’ adventure in the temple when he was 12, leaving his parents to look for him for three days!!!!  And Jesus was the best kid ever!!  Remind yourself that your teen is God’s child and that God loves him/her more than you do!  You are not alone in the task of parenting your teenagers. God the Father is right there with you!

 

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Becoming a Good “Missions Church,” pt. 2 – Become a Good Church

Posted in Christian Missions, Church Leadership, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on March 10, 2011| 1 Comment »

Part Two in the guest series by Tim Spivey, Senior Minister of New Vintage Church (San Diego, CA)

 

Step one in becoming a good “missions church” is becoming a good church. I don’t mean churches should take care of themselves first, so to speak. I mean that true global vision emerges from an awareness of what God is doing everyday locally. Good churches have embraced God’s vision for reaching their community through them. This initiates a “flat earth” theology–in which God cares about all people, not just the people in my community. I have yet to see this work in reverse. Churches don’t usually come to believe, “Well if he cares about people in Africa, I bet He may even care about people here in Plano.” It usually goes the opposite way.

Embracing local evangelism is like learning the alphabet when it comes to becoming a globally conscious, “missions church.” If we don’t care about the people next door, we probably don’t care about the lost in Indonesia that much either. I’m not saying we don’t feel guilt about the lost in Indonesia. I’m saying we don’t really care about them the way God would want us to.

I’m defining “good church” (though I prefer “great”) theologically by its faithfulness to Christ and His mission. “Good church” practically means healthy and at least moderately effective in reaching its own community. You don’t have to be big to be a great church. But, being a good church is usually a prerequisite for building a strong missions ministry over time. As I said,  good “missions” churches have what God is doing globally in their DNA and awareness…not just in their budget. Many churches who give a high percentage of money to global missions don’t really care much about it.

Becoming a good “missions church” is actually quite similar to becoming a “good church,” because good churches think globally. Thinking globally, however, doesn’t make you a good church.

When a church is truly struggling, it can be difficult to build enthusiasm for visionary ministry abroad. Why? Sadly, the scarcity mentality embeds itself in the church psyche like a tick. It’s fair to say that sometimes new ventures abroad can defibrillate a dying congregation. Odds are, such ministries will never get the chance. The church can only think of survival. They cannot imagine new initiatives–like a family on the verge of bankruptcy has difficulty envisioning their dream home. If you’re in a church like this, trying to get buy-in from leadership on continuing to grow in global mission will be exhausting and depressing.

So, don’t.

Yet.

A more effective overall approach to the problem is to stay vigilant about local ministry while casting global ministry as akin to it–an extension of it. It’s all evangelism. God cares about all people. Global missions are not more important than local mission. It’s a vital part of being a Kingdom Church. Big difference. A healthy local ministry will allow for the funding, vision and “want to” for new global initiatives. It rarely works in reverse. Maybe it should. But, it usually doesn’t.

Do you agree?

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A Missional Day in the Life of A Dental Hygienist

Posted in Christian Culture, Uncategorized, tagged on March 3, 2011| 3 Comments »

Our children all married well–wonderful, thoughtful Christian spouses. Today I want to introduce you to Amber Rogers Woodward, Ben’s wife. She is a dental hygienist, a mother of three, and much more. She has a great blog about her family mostly, but a couple of days ago, she posted the following vignettes from her life that blew me away.

I had just been at a conference where the word missional was used thousands of times, often in an attempt to define it. Here, I thought, is what missional looks like in the real world. Missional is a Christian woman, listening at the right time, naturally talking about her faith at the right moment, a woman who is in tune with what God is doing and does not live in the false dichotomy of a life in the church building and another out.

I have to share this with you–with her permission, of course. I believe you will be inspired as I was.

Every day I have patients that AMAZE me with their stories of faith, struggles, fear, and joy.  I know I say this every time…but I never quite get use to the fact that I have such a unique job position that drops me into people’s lives, literally face-to-face:), to be a sound board for each of them. Hearing my patients stories  over the last 10 years has truly changed my life in SO many ways!  So every so often  I like to write a few of them down…to remember…and to share with whoever is reading this:).

Mr. J.  and I were talking about the fact that he use to smoke, how he quit 2 years ago, and how he managed to quit.  He was kind of ho-humming around about how he quit…I kept pressing  him saying, “I’ve heard it’s really difficult to quit…you just quit…no medication or anything?”  Finally he began to tell me his story.  He started by saying, “Let me preface this story by the fact that I am not all that spiritual…I believe in God…but I don’t really go to church anywhere…I’m a really good person…but just really haven’t had the time to look into church stuff.  So I had tried to quit smoking numerous times in my life…I tried everything…hypnosis…medication…cold-turkey…none of it had worked.  One day I literally decided that I could never do this on my own.  I got down on my knees one night before bed and I prayed to God to take this desire away from me…that I was giving up total control…and I needed His help.  When I stood up, I can’t explain it, but I knew I would NEVER touch a cigarette again.  I just felt different.”   I was telling him how great that story was and how neat it is that God chose that particular way to show Himself to him…when he tells me, “I know that God has WAY more important things to do in the world than care about my desire to quit smoking, yet I can’t explain it, that is exactly what happened!” Of course that led to a great discussion on how God cares about every little desire of your heart because he LOVES YOU!!!”     I smiled all the way home thinking about how Awesome God is to show that big burly man that he cares about every little desire…if you surrender it to His Will!

This next patient, 60 yo female,  I had not seen before.  She doesn’t come in all that regularly.  I had seen in her chart that her husband had died about 6 months ago.  While I was cleaning her teeth we were talking about her husband, life, etc.  I had seen on her chart that she had been diagnosed with sleep apnea and  so I asked her if she was sleeping with a machine to help at night.  She was telling me that it was uncomfortable and noisy and that ever since her husband had died she had not worn it.  So we kept talking, I was encouraging her to wear it, and I told her about my dad having had it and that he passed away at the age of 40!  I got up to go get some x-rays and as I was sitting back down to finish cleaning her teeth she looked at me with big tears in her eyes and said, “I think you are an angel that God sent to me today to tell me your story of your dad.  I’ll be honest I have stopped wearing it, because I want to die, and I feel like that would be the easiest way to go…just go to sleep one night and not wake up!  Because of our conversation today I promise you that I will never go another night without wearing it!”   I really do not even have words to describe how I felt…we talked a little while longer…she left…and I was in AWE of the conversation we had just had!  WOW!!

This next patient I had seen a few times before and I knew that her daughter was expecting twins any day.  So she came in to get her teeth cleaned and I was asking her about the babies.  She told me that about 4 months prior they had discovered in an ultrasound a large mass on one of the babies tailbone…and that they were told that it meant she would be born with spina bifida.  Her daughter had delivered the babies a couple of weeks prior and discovered that the mass was only a cyst…it was removed…and she is perfectly healthy now.  She was talking about how they had been praying for the mildest form of spina bifida to be the outcome.  What she said next was such a good reminder for me…she said, “I can’t believe that we didn’t have enough FAITH to pray that there would be NO spina bifida…we just believed the doctors…they said they were 99% sure!”  This was such a good reminder for me to have enough faith to be BOLD in my prayer life…that ANYTHING is possible with God!

See more of Amber’s posts at her blog site. You can get to it in the Blog list in the right column on this page.

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The Second Year!

Posted in Other, Uncategorized on February 11, 2011| 6 Comments »

One year ago today, I started this blog–and I must confess that I have enjoyed it immensely!  If it didn’t sound so melodramatic, I would probably say that blogging regularly has changed my life in meaningful ways.  Just a quick list will show you what I mean:

  • I spend most of at least three and sometimes more mornings each week writing. I started writing this post before six this morning because I woke up thinking about it. It usually takes me somewhere between one and two hours to write each post, edit, find pictures, apply tags, check category boxes, and post it.  That’s a significant amount of time each week.
  • I hardly go anywhere any more without someone mentioning the fact that they have enjoyed reading one or keeping up with my posts.  I don’t mean lots of people because in the blogworld, mine is microscopic; I just mean I do have a widely spread and wonderful set of readers.
  • It has been a great challenge to address even highly sensitive topics positively, which for me means not just to criticize–probably not even criticize at all–but to offer a positive idea that if adopted or practiced would achieve a positive change.  One gets the impression that the only way to be heard in our media world today is by being both cynical and offensive. I’m still of the persuasion that we can speak the truth in love.
  • I love the task of seeing what is going on around me and looking for that which might be of help to someone else.  I’ve enjoyed doing the movie reviews as I have for many years, but I’ve especially enjoyed writing the “How to Talk To Kids About Movies” reviews. I probably should have done more. I’ve loved talking about the British TV series that Sherrylee and I have been hooked on. In my imagination, these posts help a few people experience a TV world that they wouldn’t even have tried otherwise, one that opens up their world in a positive way.

Well, I said a short list, didn’t I. Brevity continues to be a challenge. I’ll work on that this next year.

In my first post, I made you some promises which I want to post again.

  • I will be honest and truthful, but not blunt.
  • I will try to limit myself to what I know about and not write about things I don’t know about.
  • I will try to be helpful to you the Reader rather than just cathartic for my own benefit.
  • I will stop when I’m finished.  

These still work for me. I hope they don’t surprise and that you find them consistent with the blogs that you have read.

In addition, I promised a focus to the posts, which were

  • Christian missions –especially foreign missions, and even more narrowly short-term missions.
  • Christian culture – especially juxtaposed to western culture, and even more narrowly in family cultures.
  • Bible study – I really want to share regularly things I learn about the living Word—it’s just who I am.

I only feel that I did not do nearly as much Bible study with you as I had planned. We did do the Luke 10 series as well as the Advent series, but I really want to do a lengthier study of Acts with you this year.

As we begin this next year together, let me say how much I appreciate your comments, both online and in person. It’s much easier for me to write for people with names and faces than to just write out into cyberspace, so just be aware that I’m really thinking about you when I write.

 

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The King’s Speech: A Movie Review

Posted in Uncategorized on January 23, 2011| 3 Comments »

George VI, King of England

For those of you who never watch R-rated movies as a matter of principle, this film is an example of why I differ with you.  No sex, no violence, no battle scenes, no mafia—in spite of all of these deficits, The King’s Speech (2010) is a movie you need to see!

It is not for children, but only because the film addresses adult issues in a thoughtful way. And I am not using the word adult as a code word for anything immoral. You may be offended by some of the language, but if you can get past that, you have the opportunity to be inspired.

The King’s Speech is based upon the true story of Albert Frederick Arthur George, Duke of York, who became King George VI of England quite unexpectedly! He was the second son of King George V and second in the line of succession after his older brother Edward.  Upon their father’s death in 1936, Edward ascended the throne as Edward VIII, but in less than a year, he abdicated the throne in order to marry the twice-divorced American Wallace Simpson.  That is about as racy as this story gets.

Colin Firth does an outstanding job of playing the stammering duke and reluctant king. He brings to the role both the inherent haughtiness of royalty as well as the naiveté of royals about the common life and life of commoners.

Helena Bonham Carter plays a winsome Elizabeth, Albert’s beloved wife. She is extraordinary in those scenes where she is mistaken for Mrs. Johnson and then in that moment where she is revealed as the queen to the wife of Lionel Logue, the king’s speech therapist.

Lionel Logue, played magnificently by Geoffrey Rush, would steal the show in any other film without Colin Firth. While the king’s stammer is the problem, Lionel Logue is the character that moves the entire film along, ultimately, bringing all things to resolution.  His grandson Mark would describe him as the man who saved the British monarchy.

Director Tom Hopper once again, as he did in the fantastic John Adams mini-series, brings the humanity of his characters to the forefront without diminishing the historical context within which they lived. Ultimately we realize that the king’s impediment has much more to do with his self-image than anything mechanical. All who know him see his strength of character. I especially love the scene when his wife returns in their conversation to their days of courtship and talks about the wonderful, stammering man she fell in love with!

It is just these touching moments—completely British, i.e., understated and devoid of anything maudlin—that makes this such a classy film.  Another such moment is the first meeting of the new king with his daughters Elizabeth and Margaret.

But the unexpected friendship of the king of England with a most common, untrained but highly inventive and extraordinarily intuitive speech therapist is the crux of the story. The unlikely relationship is as it should be: unlikely, unpredictable, embarrassing sometimes, painful, and often rocky as these two men look for what they need.

How they help each other is a matter of history, so there are no surprises, but it makes the film all the more pleasurable that it is based on fact, not fiction.

The reason it is rated R is for some use of dirty words, which is part of the duke’s speech therapy and one of the most comical scenes in the film.  Even the children in the story who overhear the patient swearing are offended, so it is not meant to be titillating.

With just enough humor and with great wit, and perhaps even better pathos, a wonderful story is told of a historical time and place, of class struggle, but primarily of the human need for love and friendship. This film deserves all of the honors and awards it will certainly receive.

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Church Resurrection Requires Radical Action!

Posted in Church Leadership, Other, Uncategorized on January 20, 2011| 6 Comments »

Resurrection Requires Radical Action!

Sherrylee and I were just in California for a week, doing Let’s Start Talking Training and visiting with good friends and family—many of whom are church leaders in their respective congregations.  Much of our conversation revolved around the situations in which their local congregation and other congregations in California found themselves.

For instance, one congregation—very stable and financially secure—was struggling with being very stable and financially secure! Being comfortable may be the most precarious situation of all. At least one of these churches had recently hired a new preacher that was thinking out of their box, getting involved in the community and not staying put in his office!

The question for these kinds of churches is: who gives up first? Do the members give up the comfort of predictability and familiarity or does the New Guy give up . . . .just give up?

Then there were the churches discussed that had had glory days 10-20 years ago, but today they are either below or about to slip below a critical mass of members. They may have had as many as several hundred, but now they are in double digits—low double digits in some cases.

The leaders of these churches are burdened with their dilemma. They know that to do nothing is to die. They have been trying everything they know to do these last few years, and nothing seems to have stopped the constant seepage of members, moving away or going to other churches—usually the lively community churches.

The question for these churches is: in spite of the desire of the few remaining, can this congregation be resuscitated or is it time to pull the plug? As painful as it sounds, even Jesus said that sometimes death must precede life.  If planned well, the death of one congregation might even spawn multiple new congregations that have a chance at life.  But something radical must happen or life will just slip away.

What kinds of radical actions might result in resurrection of a dead church to any kind of new life?

1.            Close the doors for a year. Re-start with a new name, a new concept—and new leaders!

2.            Import new people as “missionaries.”  Do whatever it takes to support them, both financially and with permission—no, begging them to be as aggressive as they will in penetrating the community.

3.            Liquidate the assets and distribute them to new church planting efforts.

4.            Seek out a healthy church and either merge into something new or unconditionally submit to the leaders of the healthy church!

Radical is the operative word here!  Nothing less will succeed.

The faithful few who keep a church’s doors open are almost never the ones to resurrect it in any form. Regardless of the magnificence of their service or generosity in previous years, there comes a time in almost everyone’s life when they have to step back and let others lead the way. Those who do that graciously finish as great leaders and are well-loved! Those that cling to power or reputation are destined to wither with the congregation or even worse—be asked to leave by the new leaders.

The last of our church groups are those new churches, either new plants or migrations of people wanting a new start. The heady first days of these churches are full of great promise, new ideas, experimentation, fresh wind and fire.  I’ve experienced this as a church leader, and I would wish it for everyone.

Nothing is more exciting than a fresh new congregation birthed out of a desire to expand the Kingdom of God.

There are big questions for these churches as well, but for the moment, it feels like enough just to celebrate them!

Thank you for launching out, thank you for accepting the challenge of starting ex nihilo! Thank you for the courage  to risk failure. Thank you for the boldness to follow God into the Unknown.

Does your congregation fall into any of these categories? If so, what radical action are you going to take?

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MLK and Lofty Words

Posted in Christian Culture, Other, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on January 17, 2011| 1 Comment »

In anyone’s list of great American speeches, Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech is among the very best.  As I thought about great modern speeches, I thought about Franklin Roosevelt’s “The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself,” delivered early in the Depression that brought America to dusty knees.

 

I thought about John Kennedy’s “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You” speech, delivered when a country was afraid it might be losing its place in the world to Communism.

Then, in a very different time, Ronald Reagan lifted a nation’s broken heart after the Challenger disaster in just about four minutes of carefully planned rhetoric, including the final words about the ill-fated astronauts who “slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.”  He also is created practically with the fall of the Berlin Wall with his “Tear Down This Wall” speech.

I wonder if we will ever have another speech of this caliber by an American statesman?  Bill Clinton was a great speaker, but both his most famous as well most notorious speeches seem to all deal with infidelity.  Both Presidents Bush could occasionally produce a reasonable sound bite, but I don’t believe either will make the rhetorical Hall of Fame.

President Obama has great moments!  His eloquence is apparent, but history will judge if his words and ideas inspire future generations as great speeches do!

Of all of these, I believe Dr. King’s is the one that will last the longest. His words are not pretentious; the metaphors are simple, but the power of his rhetoric stirs people to tears even now, some forty-eight years after that day in Washington D.C., on the mall.

If you just think about each of the speeches above, some commonalities are strikingly obvious:

1              The address is unashamedly bipartisan—universal. King does not talk only to or about African-Americans. He talks about “all of God’s children!” Kennedy talks to “my fellow Americans.”  Strident, partisan rhetoric may capture the votes of the masses, but the words have no lasting power.

2.            The words are all meant to bring people together, to unite people behind great ideals! Freedom, universal needs, human rights, these have been ideas that have inspired great work and great words since men could speak. Petty people have petty ideas. Great people rise above pettiness.

3.            Lofty language carries lofty ideas. Sherrylee and I visited the JFK Presidential Library in Boston last year. I remember clearly reading the instructions that JFK gave to his speech writers for his inauguration. He asked for brevity, he asked for simplicity of ideas, but he also asked for memorable language.

We do not live in an age that appreciates lofty language. In fact, perhaps the opposite is true. We are suspicious of rhetoric and we don’t understand metaphor.  Brief attention spans, 24-hour news cycles, and information overload have made extraneous words obsolete!  But are the right words ever unnecessary??

President Reagan could have closed his Challenger remarks by saying, “We are all saddened by their death!” instead of quoting the poetic lines about touching the face of God, but would anyone have remembered it?

President Kennedy could have said, “Don’t expect government handouts; get busy and accomplish your own goals and we’ll all be better off!—but who would remember what he said?

Dr. King could have argued legally the case for civil rights, or simply scathed white Americans for lynching the civil rights of Black Americans. Instead he found rhythm and poetry that lives on!

They all chose lofty words, inspiring words, words that were delivered to bring people together, words that captured people’s imaginations with images they understood.

I have a dream that we can talk civilly to each other in public, that we will expect our leaders to do the same, that we will vote out abusive rhetoric in politics.

I have a dream that we will allow sublime language back into our churches to lift our spirits, to inspire us, to unite us, to help us imagine God, to help us hear His Spirit.

“In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God!”

We once made the acquaintance of a young Greek girl named Mary. She was a wonderful person, but unchurched, so we gave her a copy of the New Testament in Modern Greek. When we gave it to her, we opened it to the Gospel of John and asked her to read these first verses. As she did, she began to cry. She said, she had never read anything so beautiful!

She did go to church with us, but then we lost contact, so I don’t know if the beautiful words became saving words for her or not. I have no doubt, however, that salvation is beautiful, that it is lofty! After all—The Word IS God!

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Stories of Wine and Romance!

Posted in Short-Term Missions, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on January 15, 2011| 1 Comment »

I promised to tell some of the stories behind the LST Expectations and Commitments, formerly known as the Guidelines.

First, I want to say that almost all of the stories come from the 1980s when Let’s Start Talking was just beginning, and we were learning how to do short-term missions in a very new way!

Secondly, all of these stories revolve around people who were 19 or 20 years old and have since become very mature, responsible people.  These early stories should not reflect on them anymore than they do on Sherrylee and me and Let’s Start Talking now.

Too Much Wine

At the same time when most of the home churches of our students still preached and proscribed total abstinence from all alcoholic drinks,  Western European Christians virtually all drank beer frequently and had an occasional glass of wine.

Almost without exception our first workers were offered beer and/or wine during those early LST projects by their hosts!  One of our young women who had never even tasted wine before saw a glass poured for her at her host’s dinner table one special evening. Panicking a little, she decided that she would just down that one glass quickly and get rid of the problem. Of course, her host immediately poured another glass, which the student chugged as well!  She really doesn’t remember much of the rest of the evening.

After hearing this story, we decided it was just better to insist on abstinence, thus Expectation #7 – Protect the integrity of your testimony!

Too Much Romance

It was the very day their team was leaving for Germany on an early LST project.  They had been dating for some time at college and had come to a critical point in their relationship.  He was ready to ask her to marry him. She was trying to figure out how to break up with him!

As it sometimes happens, she found exactly the right moment to break up with him just before they boarded the plane for their six-week LST project together!  He cries for the entire flight, while she talks to a young Air Force officer that she just happened to be seated next to.

After this team had been on the field for about a week, Sherrylee and I get an emergency phone call! Come to Hildesheim! The entire team is engulfed in civil war, with the guys on His side and the girls on Her side!

Sherrylee and I drove up from Mannheim, met with the team, laid His and Her’s relationship out in the open and tried to bring some peace and harmony to the team. By the end of a very long evening, everyone is crying, everyone is hugging, so sorry for the trouble that has been caused. Everyone is going to do what is right. He is going to be stronger!

We leave, but before the second week is over, we get another emergency phone call from the team! It’s not working! He can’t eat; he can’t sleep; he is so heart-broken that sometimes he can’t even get through a conversation with His readers. She on the other hand is just having a great time—which makes Her team members mad who now almost all feel sorry for Him.

We drive up there and offer Him a little break—a few days away from the team so he can pull Himself back together!  He accepts, and we make the arrangements for Him and take Him to a friend’s home for a few days.

In the meantime, we learn that it makes all the guys mad that He is “punished” by being taken away from the team, when She is the problem!

Anyway, after just 24 hours, He calls us and says he feels so much better and has rejoined the team. Thanks for having given Him such good advice and support!”  So, we think, maybe they will hold together until the end of the project, which is now just three weeks away.

Three or four days later, we get the call and NOTHING is working right, so we drive back up to Hildesheim, move Him off of that team permanently, and place Him with another team about four hundred kilometers away.  It’s not ideal, but it is the best we can come up with.

The Hildesheim team seems to improve with some of the tension relieved. We visit the young man on His new team, who, in general, is better as well—especially since one of girls on the new team has started paying Him special attention!!

Well, two weeks later, all of our LST teams meet at a Frankfurt hotel for our EndMeeting before we fly back the next day. We meet together, pray together, and just celebrate what God has done during the summer!

After the meeting is over, He comes up and wants to talk to me privately. As He explains it to me, before He and She ever left the States on this project, they had planned to travel around a little together, visiting friends in Italy. He wanted to know what I thought He should do in light of the current situation.

I told him, “GO HOME! Are you crazy? After all you guys have been through—what are you thinking??

Against my advice, He and She traveled together to Italy.

Three months later, they were engaged.

In May of the next year I performed their wedding ceremony!!

Unbelievable!

But as we have pointed out to our workers each year since, what was the effect on the mission project? So, because of this incident—and many similar others, LST has a very strict no Romance policy—sometimes called affectionately our NO LOVE policy.  Today it is Expectation #5 – Use all of your time for developing spiritual relationships and none of it for romantic relationships.

Btw, He and She had many happy years of marriage until He died of a brain tumor just a few years ago. They were faithful Christians, leaders in their churches, all of their years together.

Lord, forgive me the sins of my youth!

 

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