Missionary's Missionary

Here's another recommendation for you -- Dottie Shulz, director of missionary care at Missions Resource Network (www.mrnet.org), has started a blog. Dottie, who did her doctorate on missionary reentry, has been great about giving us advice and pointing us to resources to help with our reentry next year (only a re-entry for me; just an entry for Maureen and the boys), but she also has lots of wisdom for helping missionaries on the field stay there, as well as for friends, family, and supporters of missionaries.

Give It A Little Time

I’m writing this post in the hope that our internet connection, which just blinks on and off but doesn’t do anything right now, will start working again, hopefully sometime today. But since today is Sunday, it may be tomorrow when someone at the internet place comes to work and figures out that the connection is down. Togo has numerous internet service providers, but all, except one, have the same dial up number and all go through the same government-owned server. The one independent provider is much more expensive, so our options are limited. Really, for a tiny third world town, I should be thrilled that we have service at all. I’ve learned that, most of the time, you just have to give them some time and eventually it’ll come back on. With things like water and electricity, it helps to have a backup reservoir and a generator, in case it’s a little longer than you counted on.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, today is Jonathan’s 4^th birthday. It’s amazing to me that kids grow up so fast. OK, so maybe 4 years old isn’t quite grown up, but it seems like yesterday that this precious little boy was placed in our arms. For those of you who do not know Jonathan, he is not ours by birth, but he is ours by choice. From the day I first held him, I got the feeling that not much about raising him was going to be easy, and he hasn’t disappointed me. He is intense, strong, aggressive, sometimes defiant – all characteristics that I am praying that God will not take away, but bring into submission to Him and use to mold Jonathan into his servant. I worry sometimes that we don’t know what to do to make that happen. But I remember that although I can influence him, I can’t, and I don’t want to, make Jonathan into my image. But I do ask that God’s Spirit will work with his spirit to make him into the image of his Creator. That process of transformation will take time for Jonathan, just as it is taking time for me.

This morning we visited the church at Kpeyidzi. Well, it’s really more of a cell group of the larger Dagbati fellowship. My first year or so in Togo I was out at this village quite a bit, as we attempted to plant a church there. Jeff Holland and some of the other Dagbati leaders had begun the work. Jeff left on furlough, and it was a good opportunity for me to go along, build some relationships, learn some language, and contribute a little to the church planting process. The church that was planted has struggled a lot. In fact, I had given up on going out there. It seemed that each time we would go out, it would take quite a bit of time to assemble a crowd to worship, and I got the feeling they were only doing so because I had arrived.

At the takpekpe held a couple of weeks ago, I saw a couple of guys from there and they asked me to come out. They assured me that they were meeting regularly. Sure enough, we showed up a little after 8:00 this morning, and they had already started. The crowd was small, but earnest, and we had a good time worshiping God together. The two leaders are being trained by the elders in their cluster, and I shared the teaching time with one of them. One of the most encouraging fellows is out there is Papa Roger. He’s an elderly man who decided to follow Jesus as a result of our ministry in his village. Our churches almost never sing songs translated from English, but this morning they did sing the Ewe version of “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” My heart was strengthened as I heard Papa Roger sing with all of his heart, “Totro meli o, totro meli o”—“No turning back, no turning back.” Growth in Christ, whether for a newborn babe, a newborn Christian community, or someone like me whose been at it a few years—it just takes time.

Papa Roger glorifies God 

Christians from Kpeyidzi worship together 

Birthday pancakes--How do you get kids to look straight at the camera? 

Jonathan's Birthday

Tomorrow is my son Jonathan’s 4^th birthday, but we decided to start celebrating a day early.  Here are some pictures.  The kids on the team came over in the afternoon for water play and the adults joined us for a pizza dinner tonight.  We even  had free delivery—everyone baked theirs at home and brought pizzas to our house!

Birthday Brownie -- Are we having fun yet? 

Jonathan and Ellianna 

Stacked Kids 

Slip 'n Slide Birthday Boy 

Some Comments on Acts 2

In between preparations for today’s party (more later), I’ve been reading some of William Larkin’s comments on Acts 2.  Here are a couple of portions that I thought worth repeating here.

In reflecting on the reaction of some in the crowd to the apostle’s behavior on being filled with the Spirit, accusing them of drunkenness, Larkin asks:

“How should we respond to the work of the Spirit in our midst?  We must avoid the mockery of the scoffer who explains everything in empirical terms.  We must be open to a divinely given explanation.  The mixed reaction of the Pentecost crowd also teaches us that the ‘miraculous is not self-authenticating, nor does it inevitably and uniformly convince.  There must also be the preparation of the heart and the proclamation of the message if miracles are to accomplish their full purpose’ (Longenecker 1981:273)” (Larkin 1995:52).

Is my heart prepared to see God’s miracles?  Is my heart prepared to have God’s Spirit do his work in it?

When he gets to Acts 2:39, Larkin, a Presbyterian, surprised me with these comments:

“Now we have come full circle.  The salvation promised by Joel (and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved—Acts 2:21/Joel 2:32) is accomplished by Jesus (God has made this Jesus…Lord—Acts 2:36).  And it is humanly appropriated when one is baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (v. 38) with the assurance that the gift of salvation is for all whom the Lord our God will call (v. 39)” (Larkin 1995:59).

I’m not sure why I was surprised.  It’s what the text says.  It makes me optimistic that we who embrace our Restoration heritage can contribute to a broader Christian dialogue, whether on the subject of baptism or otherwise, from a standpoint of accepting and being accepted, not as those who are suspicious or under suspicion.

She's Back!

By popular demand, Maureen has posted again!

Jenna and Stacey, our new teachers 

The Exploding Blogosphere

I’m blogging today from Accra, Ghana.  We drove here yesterday and met our Stacey and Jenna, who will be teaching our kids this next school year, at the airport.  We’ve been very impressed with both of them so far and look forward to getting to know them better.

I never know what to expect from my kids.  I was thinking that my youngest, almost 4-year old would be a little shy on first meeting them.  Instead, he has been talking their ears off and amusing us all greatly with reports of every superhero he has ever seen.  He begins every sentence with “You remember …” and proceeds to quote verbatim the lines from The Incredibles, Larry Boy, Spiderman (the old TV cartoons; he hasn’t seen them movies!), etc.  I try to spiritualize the lessons with him and talk about Jesus as our No. 1 hero, but I’m not sure how far I’m getting.  I guess kids just wanna have fun.

More and more of us missionary types are getting into blogging – only after a long, hard day in the village, of course.  Matt & Andrea Miller, who serve among the Kabiye people of northern Togo, and I just round Randy and Kelly Vaughn’s blog, though it has been around for a while.  They serve the Aja people in Benin.  Also, our team is trying to get a team blog going.  (By the way, Greg, it uses Word Press, so I’m getting to try it out for free.)

Some people have described blogging as, for them, a spiritual discipline—a habit of reflecting on their lives and putting those reflections into words that are meaningful to others.  I think I’m finding that not blogging all the time, and not reading every blog as soon as it appears in my Bloglines watch list is going to be a spiritual discipline that I need to practice.  It could easily eat up a lot of ministry and family time—in fact, I must confess, it already has.

I will continue to blog and will continue to read—just try to go for more moderation.  And if you’re one of my friends and I don’t comment on your blog, don’t assume that I haven’t read it.  I probably have, and chances are you’ve said it better than I could, so why should I say anything?  On the other hand, I expect you all to comment on all my blogs, just to stroke my ego and let me know that someone likes me enough to read these ramblings.

If any of you have developed a good system to stay in touch through blogging without letting it encroach on you other passions, I’d love to hear about it.

On another subject, my wife has developed shingles, which is related to chicken pox and is a kind of herpes virus.  We think we caught it early and are treating it, but it can be very painful.  Please pray for her healing.

Audience of One

My teammate Murphy Crowson just began a new blog. Check it regularly for what I anticipate will be some great posts. The title, "Audience of One," describes how Murphy tries to live his life, not trying to impress people or being dependent on anyone's approval except that of his God.

Medics in the Band

For the past few nights, I’ve been watching the HBO production Band of Brothers on DVD, borrowed from some fellow missionaries.  The series traces the history of “Easy Company,” a company of American paratroopers in World World II.  In spite of its disturbing, graphic reality, I think it’s healthy for adults to watch such films so that we never think that military solutions are easy ones, and so that we remember the price that has been paid for the freedoms we enjoy.  I don’t want to glorify or even justify war.  But the reality is that our world would be vastly, unimaginably different if some wars had not been fought. 

When I was growing up, getting Walter Cronkite’s reports on Vietnam every night, I often thought that if I had to go to war, I would be a conscientious objector and go as a medic.  Maybe I thought that would be an easy way out.  Watching this film, I’ve been incredibly impressed by the bravery of the medics.  I’m not sure if I could have ever done that job.  They often ran, unarmed, into the line of fire to treat a wounded comrade.  Their utter selflessness amazes me.

Maybe these medics would be a good model for ministry in the world.  (I almost wrote “in the church,” but then it occurred to me that the church’s primary role is to minister, not to be ministered to.  At least that was Jesus’ goal, and he is our pattern. )  The medics are in the middle of a battle, yet they are not combatants.  They do not attack, but they are under attack.  Their goal is to heal, not to wound.  They risk their own safety to save others.  They are covered with the blood of others, so that they can heal.  They often do not succeed, but their service redefines success.   The justice of their cause does not depend on the just-ness of those they are serving.

No doubt the medics’ willingness to sacrifice had something to do with the union they felt with those they were helping.  I don’t think medics crossed lines to serve the other side very much.  There is a dichotomy between the kingdom and the world.  But the kingdom is in the world, though not of it.  Jesus was not of the world, but he not only identifies with those who are “In Christ,” but with all of humanity, in our humanity.  I see in myself a need to more closely identify with the world in our common humanity, so that I have a clearer view of who the enemy is – and who he is not.  It’s only when I view those who are being attacked by the enemy as part of my “Band of Brothers,” that I will dive into the line of fire to rescue them.

The trouble with every metaphor is that it’s bound to break down somewhere.  Don’t press this one too far.  But could it help to view ourselves, we who minister as part of the corps of Christ, as medics in the middle of the world’s battles? 

(By the way, if you ever want to give the gift that keeps on giving, send a good video series, preferably on DVD, to missionaries.  It’ll get passed around to several families, maybe even over two or three countries.) 

Any ideas?

If anyone knows how to block these spammed comments or how to delete unwanted comments, please drop me a line. Thanks.

An update: apparently Blogger does allow me to delete comments, but I couldn’t get this to work in my Firefox browser (seems to be a cache problem) and had to resort to Internet Explorer. Still, this could get annoying.

A Foretaste of Glory Divine

“… you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to thousands of angels in joyful assembly. You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself … . And you have come to the spirits of the redeemed in heaven who have now been made perfect. You have come to Jesus … and to the sprinkled blood… .” (Hebrews 12:22-24, NLT)

“After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9, NLT)

Last night I was overwhelmed with the realization that I was experiencing a foretaste of the great eschatological gathering of the nations in jubilant worship to God. I was together with Christians from the southeastern corner of Togo where we work among the Watchi people in our annual “takpekpe”—big meeting. As my teammate Jeff Holland (pictured above -- can you guess which one?) pointed out, the lessons they teach may leave something to be desired, but these people sure know how to worship. I really can’t imagine the richness of our heavenly worship when we have people from every nation and tribe and people and language together, but I do know that it will be infinitely more pleasing to God than the mono-cultural staleness that we sometimes offer. I count myself blessed to be able to participate in worship that would at one time have been utterly foreign to me, and thankful that I have been enriched by the worship of the poor.

What I've Been Up To Lately

I haven’t been blogging very much lately. When most people write their excuses for not blogging, they’ve usually been busy or gone or some extensive vacation. Well, I’ve been at home and, while somewhat busy, no more so than when I was blogging regularly. I guess I’ve been hard pressed to find anything original to say. Do you ever get the feeling that it’s all been said and that “there’s nothing new under the sun.”

For example, we just had an interesting theological issue raised at the lunch table, but I don’t think we really moved the discussion forward any. My son Jeremy wasn’t happy with what he had been served for lunch (spaghetti casserole—what kid wouldn’t like that?), so he got sent to his room to work on his attitude. We asked his friend, Stephen, who is visiting, to say the prayer for lunch, and in doing so he prayed for Jeremy to obey and to come eat his lunch. A little while later, after some coaxing from Mom and Dad, Jeremy did return to the table to eat his lunch. Stephen, wishing to give glory to God, said that it was God who made Jeremy come. Jeremy insisted that it was because he chose to come and eat. Stephen countered that God made him choose to come. So, which was it – did Jeremy choose to come on his own, or did God force or in some way influence the decision. If so, was it an authentic choice? At seven years old, these guys are already wrestling with the dilemma of divine sovereignty and human freedom. Of course, they moved on and forgot the issue, preferring to enjoy Scobey Doo. Maybe we theologically minded adults should take a cue.

Although I haven’t found anything new to contribute, I’m glad that some of you out there still have functioning brains and are doing so. I just finished reading Down in the River to Pray by John Mark Hicks and Greg Taylor. You can read my review by clicking on the link to the Amazon site, but overall I thought it was an excellent book. It confronts head on some of the dilemmas faced by those, like myself, who hold a more-or-less traditional CofC theology of baptism, while at the same time finding ourselves functionally fellowshipping many who do not hold the same view. Continuing in the Greg Taylor literature, I’m now reading his novel, High Places, set in Uganda where Taylor was a missionary, which I’m enjoying in a depressing sort of way.

A couple of blogs that you might want to check out from some guys who are also doing some thinking -- Carson Reed’s Musings and Shawn Duncan’s Chronicle. Both of these guys minister at the Northlake Church of Christ in Atlanta. I’ve found their reflections valuable.

Maybe I’m a bit braindead because of the case of malaria I got right after I returned to Africa, but more-than-likely it’s due to the hours I’ve been spending in front of the computer typing in the Ewe translation of the Train & Multiply material. I’m down to two books to go, but they are long ones. The end, however, is in sight. Sometimes it’s a little discouraging that I earned two master’s degree to be a typist, but it’s a job that needs to be done and very few people know English and Ewe and how to use a computer. So, this is has been one of those servant things that seems noble at first, but gets wearisome before the end. I guess that’s what servant-things are like.