Clay Pot Journal

New Blog Sites

2007-05-08T21:11:00.000-06:00

Please look for me at these sites
Clay Pot Journal: Ministry Blog for Albany Church of Christ
The Journey Home: Parker Family Web Log

See you there!

I'm Moving!

2007-03-19T13:19:00.000-06:00

No, we've not grown dissastisfied with life in Albany. Really, I'm not moving, but Clay Pot Journal is. I'm integrating it with our (still under construction) church web site and view it as part of my ministry to this church and community. I hope that what I share will be of some interest to those who don't live here as well.

I'm going to leave my old posts here on Blogger for the time being. Once I get Word Press figured out, I may create a personal site and move them there. For now, I'm making A New Beginning at journal.albanychurch.net .

The Eagle Has Landed

2007-02-20T07:56:00.000-06:00

She's home!

Dark Side of the Moon

2007-02-19T06:22:00.003-06:00

It’s Sunday night after 9:30 p.m., the boys are settled, and my beloved is on the dark side of the moon.

Not literally, but you may be old enough to remember the Apollo lunar missions where the space capsule went to the dark side of the moon and was temporarily out of radio contact – there was always the tension as they awaited re-establishment of contact.

Although Maureen has been 10,000 miles away from home for the last two weeks, we have been able to have frequent contact. Every day—including today—we have talked twice. (Thanks http://www.tel3advantage.com/ for 2.2 cents/minute phone calls.) But now she has left Singapore on Singapore Airlines and is headed toward Tokyo. (Jeremy kept wondering why we couldn’t call her on her cell phone.) After a brief stop there, her plane will continue on with a ten hour flight to Los Angeles. There she’ll have to go through immigration and customs and catch an American Airlines flight to DFW and then the puddle jumper to Abilene, arriving – we hope and pray – at 9:35 Monday night.

In other news…

We’ve done OK here the past two weeks. We’ve had our moments – good and bad – but I’ve grown even closer to my sons by being alone with them for so long. I’ve also grown closer to my wife, as I’ve been reminded how much she does and how much I take for granted. I’ve grown closer to our church here in Albany; they have more than amply supplied us with meals and have shown their genuine concern for me, Maureen, and the boys. And not just the church – everyone in town seems to know that she is gone and near strangers will ask when she is coming back.

At this point, it looks like I’ll be going to the airport alone tomorrow (Monday) night. We realized that Jeremy has to take his TAKS (Texas achievement) test on Tuesday and will need a good night’s sleep. A friend from church offered to come and stay with them while I went to get Maureen. Jeremy was pretty upset when he found out he wouldn’t be able to go to the airport, but I think he has accepted it now. Sometimes it’s tough to know the right thing to do as a parent.

We had a good day today with our family here in Albany. There were quite a few rarely seen faces at church this morning and several stayed around to visit, which I took as a good sign.

When I stood up to preach and I saw them there, I felt my voice trembling as I was overwhelmed with the responsibility to speak a word from God to them—a word that reflected both the call to discipleship and the call to embrace God’s grace.

Tonight we had a men-included baby shower for a new family at church, and we took advantage of the occasion to have a time of baby-blessing for this family and one other recent arrival. It was not a highly ritualized occasion, but it was a chance to speak words of blessing and encouragement over these babies and their families, and to pray God’s blessing on them. I hope this tradition can evolve and mature into a regular feature of our church life. If your church has a particularly meaningful ways to bless children who come into the world, I’d love to hear about it.

(This isn't getting published until Monday morning because Blogger was having issues last night--and they've taken out the thing where you can modify the date/time stamp to make it look like I posted last night. Anyway, Maureen is still on the dark side of the moon, but I was able to check her flight (Singapore Airlines 12 ) and they have left Tokyo, but still have almost 7 hours to go to L.A. Feel free to pray her safely across the ocean with me.)

Goodbye to Ah Kong

2007-02-03T21:31:00.000-06:00

Lawrence Lee with his family--May 2006

My father-in-law, Maureen's dad, Lawrence Lee, left this life last night -- from my perspective -- Saturday morning Singpore time. Those left behind -- Maureen's mom, her sister, her brother, and his three grandchildren -- will miss him. He was 85 and had was in a coma following a stroke a couple of days before.

During all the time that I knew him, "Dad" always seemed a kind, old man. Maureen was nervous about our first meeting. She wasn't sure how he would receive me. But he welcomed me--a stranger and a foreigner--into his family.

The joy of his life was his grandchildren. He wasn't able to do a lot with them, but he longed for their visits and mourned their absence. And they loved him. When I asked Jeremy what he remembered about his grandfather he said -- "not a whole lot, but I loved him."

I'll always be grateful to Ah Kong (grandfather). He is the father of the love of my life. And he took his kids to church. It was through the church that Maureen's beautiful character and molded in the image of Jesus Christ. I don't know if that could have happened without Ah Kong seeing that his children got to church.

Good bye, Ah Kong. We'll miss you.

------------------------

Maureen left tonight (Saturday) to join her family in Singapore. She plans to fly back into Abilene on Feb. 19.

Winter Makes It

2007-01-20T21:57:00.000-06:00

Like much of the country, winter made it to Albany this past week. We called off Sunday services -- the first time in anyone's memory that has happened -- due to icy road conditions. The kids were out of school Monday and had late starts on Tuesday and Wednesday.

But Wednesday was the big day for the Parker household -- That's the day Jeremy and Jonathan got to play in the snow for the first time in their lives!

The only winter that Jeremy has spent in the States was when he was three years old, the winter of 2001-02 -- the year we adopted Jonathan. That year we missed the snow a couple of times because of our travels and the most we saw was a few flurries.

Wednesday morning the boys were so excited to get out in the snow. In keeping with the "You can take the boy out of Africa, but you can't take the Africa out of the boy motif," Jonathan just can't seem to accept that you just have to wear shoes in winter in America.

And to think that my boys' first snowballs were aimed at dad ...

Come see us in Albany and visit Shackleford county's historic restored court house just one block from our house. ______________________________________________________________
On a much less playful note, I extend my sympathy to all the friends and family of Adam Langford and Moses Kimeze who were serving God in Uganda when they were killed in a truck crash this week. One insightful commenter on Mike Cope's blog noted that, when praying for missionaries in the developing world, we need to remember that the greatest physical danger is not terrorists or disease (though these are real dangers), but traffic. Sadly, that has been my experience. First Nancy, then Cyndi, and now Adam and Moses.

Not long before his death, Adam had written in his blog quoting Mahatma Gandhi as saying, "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." Adam added in his own comments, "...I am beginning to believe we need more people who are willing to enter into the suffering of others whether they can help or not. I want to choose suffering for the sake of others."

Adam and Moses, your service was not insignificant, and your suffering is over.

West Africa meets West Texas

2007-01-11T21:36:00.001-06:00

Four things have happened this week that have made me think a lot about West Africa – well, really, there are more than four, but I’m going to talk about four here. On Saturday we had a gathering of former missionaries to West Africa at the Hollands’ home. Jeff, Brenda, Josiah, Ellianna, and Rebecca, our teammates from Togo, live in Abilene, about 30 minutes from Albany. Jeff is getting a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. In addition to the Hollands and our family, the Wilsons (our teammates in Benin), the Baileys (who worked among the Aja in Benin), and the McVeys (20 yr. veterans to

Ghana

), were present. We talked some about Africa, but mostly we just enjoyed being together. There is a feeling of understanding and being understood when you’re with those you’ve served with.

Hanging out with old friends -- Andy Wilson & Dan McVey (but who was I boxing?)

The second incident was a couple of nights ago when Maureen made fufu for us to eat. Fufu is made from boiled and pounded yams and/or plantain – it sort of resembles sticky mashed potatoes. Of course, the secret is in the sauce. Our favorite is groundnut (peanut) soup, which Maureen made with the help of peanut butter. The boys jumped for joy when they heard we were having fufu. Jonathan announced that this was the first time he had eaten fufu in Texas—a truly momentous occasion!

You can taken the boy out of Africa ...

Today I attended a meeting of some of the CofC ministers in the area. We enjoyed a good time of fellowship. I discovered that one of them believes that God is leading him and his family—along with several others—to West Africa of all places. (I can’t say who because he is a preacher and his church does know yet.) We compared notes and shared memories and dreams. It was definitely a God-thing that we met.

Finally, today I was looking on the Blogger home page and happened to scroll down far enough to find this blog of a Peace Corps worker in Togo. He has some great video that gives you a feel for Togo, especially this one. (I still haven’t figured out how to link to/embed YouTube. Any help out there?)

Christmas in Dixie

2007-01-03T08:48:00.000-06:00

I'm a little late getting Christmas pictures posted, and I realize that these may only be of interest to a small group, but these are some folks that are important to me.

Before that, the big news today is that Maureen has posted! Let's hold her to that New Year's resolution.

Me and my boys on Christmas morning

The greatest parents in the world!

Games are always going on around the Parker house. Usually, with my parents, its Rummy, UpWords, or Boggle. Here Maureen is playing Cranium with my sister Carla and her daughter Abby.

Music is always important. This year we discovered the musical talents of my newest brother-in-law, Tony Myrick. He has written some great songs that we think are professional quality. Left to right are Derrick Munson (a foster brother), Tony, my dad (Alton), Jeremy, and my sister Carla.

Jonathanloves to play the guitar with Pawpaw (he's the elf) and this year he got his own!

Here are Maureen and Jonathan with of my nieces (Emma Grace and Abby), my nephew Drew, and his girlfriend Amanda.

More young 'uns. My sister Ramona's sons, Wesley and Ethan, with Carla's daughter Ella.

Jonathan did a great job of playing with Emma Grace on this trip. She loves to follow him around and when he's not in sight she's always asking, "Where's Jon Jon?"

Somehow I missed out on getting pictures of my older sister Ramona and her husband Ken. I have one of my youngest sister Bridgette but she is very pregnant and probably would not appreciate my posting it!

To Clasp the Hands

2006-12-30T13:13:00.000-06:00

To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.

--Karl Barth

(An Aymara woman praying in Bolivia--public domain photo)

Christmas Letter

2006-12-21T21:23:00.000-06:00

For those who may have gotten overlooked in the bulk email-out, we also wish you and yours a wonderful Christmas season.

This year has been yet another in which God has demonstrated his abiding faithfulness to our family. Though there have been many moments of stress and uncertainty, we can look back at year’s end to see how God’s hand has worked in our lives over this past year.

We started out the year in Togo, already preparing for our fast-approaching departure. Anthony was able to complete work on translating the Train & Multiply leadership training series which continues to be used among the Watchi leaders, and is also being translated into the Kabiye (Togo) and Dagara (Burkina Faso) languages. Our final months in Togo were filled with goodbyes as we visited each of the church clusters, as well as packing, selling, shipping, praying, and planning for Maureen’s immigration to the U.S. Shortly before leaving Africa we were able to participate in one last West Africa Missionary Retreat in Ghana. The following week, Anthony flew to the States to interview for a ministry position. While we thought that might be the direction that God was leading our family, it turned out that He had other plans.

We left Togo on Jeremy’s birthday, May 4, following a memorable day in Lomé with our teammates relaxing at a newly-found hotel. At the hotel that day, we were able to meet a Togolese artist whose work we had long admired, and purchased one of his paintings as a last souvenir. Our wonderful teammates sent us off that evening with prayers and tears.

From Lomé, we flew to Paris, where we spent three days sightseeing and preparing ourselves for life out of Africa. We then flew to Singapore where we spent the rest of the month of May visiting family and friends there. Jeremy and Jonathan always love going to the Singapore Science Center. This year we visited the Night Safari for the first time, and we were also able to see some rare, undeveloped wetlands in the middle of this bustling city. As usual, we were spoiled by the hospitality of our Singaporean friends.

On May 31 we arrived in Chicago where Maureen’s immigration procedures went smoothly. The next day we met our family in Alabama, where the real process of missionary re-entry started. There seemed a million details to deal with – buying a car, purchasing insurance, getting cell phones, planning travel, and communicating with churches about prospective employment. These first several weeks in the States were hard, since we did not have our own place and had no idea how long we would be in transition. Our transition was made easier by the hospitality of family, as well as the Steve & Amy Castleman and Bill & Twila Jones families in Birmingham.

Maureen and I made a trip to Dallas to help with a Discovery Lab for Mission Alive, as we considered working with that incredible church-planting ministry. When we arrived in Dallas, Gailyn Van Rheenen greeted us with the sad and shocking news that our dear friend and colleague, Cyndi Chowning, had been killed in an accident in Benin. Anthony was able to return to Texas the following week for Cyndi’s funeral in Denison. Our hearts continue to go out to Richard and all of Cyndi’s family.

In the midst of the tragedy of Cyndi’s death, I (Anthony) was blessed to be able to see many missionary colleagues at her funeral. Two of these, Andy & Rhonda Wilson, our former co-workers in Benin, told me that the church in the small West Texas town of Albany where they had just moved was looking for a preacher. Though I did not pursue the opportunity immediately, it came up a second time at the encouragement of Dan McVey, so I thought that I should give it some attention. In the end, it turned out that this was just what God had planned for us all along.

In the meantime, we were blessed to be able to spend the last part of the summer and the autumn months in Birmingham. The Homewood church warmly received us and aided our reentry in so many ways, including helping out with rent and a very generous house warming, which was also supported by Christians from Disciples' Fellowship. In Birmingham, Jeremy was able to attend Vestavia Hills Elementary East School, where he loved his teacher Mrs. Palmer. Jonathan stayed at home with Mom while Dad occupied an office at church where he prepared lessons, searched for a ministry, made travel plans, and worked on a survey of returned missionaries for a course project. We were able to do quite a bit of traveling in search for a ministry position. When we traveled to Albany to meet the church here, Anthony attended the ACU Lectures and renewed many relationships.

Through many prayers, God opened up the door to the ministry in Albany, and opened our hearts to the church, the town, and the people here. We were able to purchase a 1920s-era home just one block off Main Street and the courthouse square. Albany, though a small town, is rich in its civic pride. It boasts that it is “The Coolest Small Town in Texas,” and has the world-class art museum, publishing company, renowned steak house, exemplary schools, vast ranches, historic architecture, live theaters, and friendly people to prove it.

We spent our first two weeks here in the home of Ken and Marilyn Thompson. Ken is an elder in the church and he and Marilyn are truly “given to hospitality.” We are still in the middle of setting up house with bare walls and lots of unopened boxes. Jeremy is finishing up his third week at Nancy Smith Elementary School. Jonathan has spent many days at the Wilsons’ as Rhonda has graciously watched him while we painted several rooms in the house and moved in. Now we are preparing for a quick trip to Alabama to spend Christmas with Anthony’s family.

If you’ve made it this far, you are truly a faithful friend and we are grateful for your presence in our lives. May the coming of Christmas time herald an even fuller coming of the blessings of God into your life.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We managed to finally get a Christmas tree up this year!

Jeremy and Jonathan received new bikes for Christmas with money given by their “Ah Mah” (Grandmother) in

Singapore

. Seen in front of our home in Albany.

The boys got to see Santa at a Christmas event at the Old Jail Art Center.

The Missional Child

2006-12-21T18:58:00.001-06:00

A couple of nights ago Maureen and I were scolding ourselves for not spending enough time with Jeremy and Jonathan in the midst of all of the transitions that we’ve been going through lately. Somehow, some kind of message, however, is getting through.

Last night we had met with a small group from church to sing at the Bluebonnet Nursing Home. A few people gather there to sing for thirty minutes or so on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. I think it’s great for us and for our children to be a part of this.

When we arrived at the nursing home last night, we were informed that another group would be coming in soon to sing Christmas carols. This was no problem, and as the large group of young people arrived, we simply joined forces. As they were leaving, the group’s leader introduced himself to me. It seems that, in addition to working with the young people at the First Baptist Church, Kyle Bartell also teaches music at Jeremy’s school. His comment made me proud. He said, “I’ve met your son. He told me that ya’ll came to Albany because God sent you here. I think that’s great!”

In Africa we were always concerned that our children know why we were there, and that they know and feel that they were just as much a part of the mission effort as we were. Here in Albany, we are still being led by God and are still very much a part of his mission. I’m thankful that Jeremy continues to see our family’s presence here in that light.

New Beginnings, Precious Memories

2006-12-15T08:49:00.000-06:00

Well, we’ve been painting this week and hope to move in tomorrow. Our new contact information is:

Anthony & Maureen Parker
224 S Jacobs St.
P.O. Box 1353
Albany , TX 76430

Please use the post office box for all mail.

Phone numbers:Home: (1) 325-762-2650
Church Office: (1) 325-762-2078
My Cell: (1) 325-320-3547
Maureen’s Cell: (1) 325-320-4478

Our boys often mention our missionary teammates from Togo, but rarely have they talked about life in Africa. This morning was an exception. Jeremy hasn't been feeling great lately and he's somehow convinced that it is because he has drunk too much local water. He said this morning that he's more used to the water in Africa and in Birmingham. That must have got him to thinking about Africa.

He said, "You know when people used to invite us to their houses in Africa -- I'm not talking about [the other missionaries], but the Africans. Well, one thing is that the food was usually pretty good -- I liked that! And people were friendly, too."

He then started talking about the kids in the neighborhood that he would play with -- Honoré, who is so funny; especially when they play chase, Tsevie and Atchou, who are nice, Rejuan, who is always kind and says ''I'm sorrry'' if anyone is hurt, even when it isn't his fault.

It was neat to see a wave of nostalgia for Africa sweep over my 8 year old and to hear him talk about life in Africa with such fond memories. I think he is doing fine here, though it has to be hard on him to still be ''homeless" after so long. Maybe that will end soon.

First Week in Albany

2006-12-09T08:18:00.000-06:00

It’s hard to believe that we arrived in Albany, Texas a week ago today. My last post was from Monroe, Louisiana where we were enjoying the hospitality of the Baer family. A cold front had blown through and so we left on a frosty Friday morning heading for Texas. We had a smooth trip and arrived in Tyler, Texas a little early, so we stopped at Wendy’s for lunch before driving over to the East Texas Storage Center, which had generously donated space for storing our shipment from Africa. There we were met by the some men from the West Erwin church who did a great job of packing our belongings into the 26 foot Penske truck that we had driven from Birmingham. We were a little short on space, however, so we had to rent a small U-Haul trailor to pull behind the truck for the rest of the journey to Albany. In Tyler, Dale and Carolyn Blackstone welcomed us strangers into their home and treated us to dinner at The Shed, where I ate the best catfish ever, in the charming town of Edom (find it).

Andy Wilson, our teammate from Benin and current assistant principle in the Albany schools, hitched a ride to a little town about 40 miles from Tyler, and I picked him up a little after midnight. He helped us our greatly by driving the truck (with trailer in tow) to Albany so I could relieve Maureen who had driven our car from Birmingham. Stopping just for lunch at Chili’s in Weatherford, we made it to Albany around 2:30 p.m. last Saturday. Within a few minutes we had a full work crew from the church who unloaded out stuff into a storage building owned by Steve Hudmon, our youth minister.

It has been a great first week. We have been staying with Ken and Marilyn Thompson. Ken is an elder in the church here. We closed on our house yesterday and plan to start painting today. (Thanks to Bea Ruff of Clear Fork Realty and Matthew Breston of Iron Harbor Mortgage for all your help!) We are going to have the hardwood floors buffed and put a coat of polyurethane on them before moving in, hopefully next Saturday.. This is much less expensive than refinishing and should have the floors looking nice. There will be quite a few projects to undertake as we go along, but it seems easier to do these before we move in. (Thanks for the advice, Mom!)

Since we haven’t really started unpacking yet, we have had a little time to explore the town and meet people. Jeremy started school here on Monday and he really loves it. His teacher is Mrs. Fields, who happens to be the wife of the local school superintendent. The kids in the school have been very welcoming and inclusive. We’ve enjoyed walking down Main Street. We’ve explored “The Daily Grind,” the local coffee shop, the pharmacy, complete with soda fountain, and the Heritage Gallery, operated by local artist Cheryl Smith, visited with church members (and north Alabama natives) Jess and Helen Philips in their shop and toured The Old Jail Art Center, a truly remarkable facility for a small, west Texas town. I attended a meeting of the local ministerial alliance and was able to meet ministers of several different local churches and become aware of several opportunities for ministry. Two local families lost their homes in fires just last weekend and the community is responding to help.

Most of all, the people here have just been so welcoming. Everyone seems genuinely excited to have us as a part of the community – even the DPS officer who let me off with a warning last night. (I learned that the speed limit on two-lane country highways drops from 70 to 65 mph after dark—and they are serious about it!)

On the Road

2006-12-01T06:48:00.000-06:00

In the middle of moving, I haven't had a lot of time to read blogs, much lest post, but I thought I'd update anyone who is still checking on our progress.

Yesterday morning at 7:00 a.m., several guys from Homewood showed up and made short work of loading the 26 foot Penske truck that I had picked up the previous afternoon. (Maybe I'll tell the story later of how I got stuck within ten minutes of renting the truck and had to be towed out.) It took us a while to finish cleaning out the apartment, but we were on the road by 10:30. I was driving the truck and Maureen and the boys were in the car.

We arrived last night in Monroe, LA at the home of Kevin and Nancy Baer. The Baers are member of the University church where I had interviewed. I didn't get that job, but we made some new friends, and that is a precious thing.

The plan today is to drive to Tyler, TX to load up our stuff that we had shipped from Africa. Once again, we are being blessed by help from some family members we have not yet met -- some brothers from the West Erwin church will be there to help.

Tonight, the Albany Lions football team is playing in a playoff game in Denton. Go Lions! Late tonight after the game, Andy Wilson (our teammate in Benin and current assistant principle in the Albany schools), will join us in Tyler to help with the drive to Albany tomorrow. Others from the the church will help us unload--probably the men as the women will be preparing for the annual "widow's banquet."

It's great to be a part of God's family -- our move is being facilitated by members of 4 different congregations -- Homewood, University, West Erwin, and Albany.

We have been watching the weather all week and have been praying that the Lord of the weather would clear the way for our move. Now, I know that God has bigger agendas than our move and that many people's plans have been disrupted by the weather--I don't presume that we are more favored by God than they are--BUT, when we pray for something and receive what we asked for, the only response I know to give is to thank and praise the One from whom we asked the blessing. The predictions are for cold, but clear, weather the rest of the way.

Please keep our travels in your prayers over the next couple of days, and pray that we may be a blessing to the people of Albany as we begin a new chapter of our lives and ministry there.

Blogs Galore

2006-11-20T09:23:00.001-06:00

While I seem to be having more and more trouble finding the time and energy to post, I have more and more friends who are getting in on the blogging action. A number of these are Togo missionaries who are excited about getting a decent internet connection—although, according to Murphy’s latest post, it’s only working when the electricity goes out!

In an effort to organize my side bar, I’ve divided my blog roll into four categories. Maureen’s blog—which hopefully will be resurrected once we get moved and she has a computer and an internet connection at home—is in a category of its own, just as she is. Next you’ll find “Cyberfriends.” These are people I know mainly through the internet, but whose cyber-fellowship I value. Then you’ll see a group who are “On the Front Lines.” These are people who are actively serving in front line mission situations, both at home and abroad. You’ll see quite a few new listings there. Finally, I’ve made a group of friends with whom I go way back, several of whom are are former missionaries.

Beatitudes for Our Time

2006-11-20T09:23:00.000-06:00

These beatitudes come from Darryl Tippens’ excellent book, Pilgrim Heart:

Happy are those who serve the world by abandoning it for a little while.
Happy are those who rest, for they will get their work done.
Happy are the playful, for they will be serious achievers.
Happy are the imperfectionists, for they will achieve much.
Happy are those who drive in the slow lane, for they will arrive in peace (or in one piece).
Blessed are those who build walls for they will be fully connected.
Happy are those who say "No," for they will be affirmed.
Blessed are those who know the tie that binds, for they will know the freedom of belonging.

Living in the Details

2006-11-07T16:04:00.000-06:00

This weekend we made the long trek to Albany, Texas – our soon-to-be new home – to reconnect with the church there and, specifically, to look for a place to live. We were told that there was little to no suitable rental housing in the town. Although Maureen has owned an flat in Singapore for several years, this was my first venture into buying property. We knew that there would not be a lot to choose from in our price range, but we felt confident that God would provide something. There was one house on our realtor’s web site that we really liked and would have been a good buy, but it was just beyond our means. Just a few days before our trip, we heard of a “for sale by owner” house that sounded good.

Thursday we picked Jeremy up from school at noon and started heading west on I-20. We had bought a portable video player for the trip and checked out several videos and audio books from the Vestavia Hills Public Library, so the boys did pretty well on the trip, until about 7:30 p.m., when they started to lose it. At about 8:30 we pulled into the Econo Lodge in Marshall, Texas (not recommended) got a restless night’s sleep, and headed out at 7:00 a.m. Friday for our remaining 6 hours to Albany.

That afternoon, we started looking at homes. It turned out that this home (click and scroll down), previously for-sale-by-owner, had recently been listed with another realtor, and the price had come down. When we first saw the house, we were a bit disoriented, and didn’t feel that it flowed very well. We looked at another, smaller home that we could make do with, even though it only had two bedrooms. We went back and saw both homes on Saturday, and—having gotten some rest, both places looked better. We began to see more possibilities. In the end, we made an offer on the larger home and, after a little negotiation, feel that we are able to buy it for a good price. Somehow we’ve misplaced our camera and the photos we took, but you can see a few shots online by clicking here (and, again, scrolling down—it’s the house, not the ranch).

We spent Sunday night in Arlington, TX with our friends Suzanne and Dale Christiansen (Suzanne was one of Jeremy’s first grade teachers in Togo), and drove back to Alabama in the rain yesterday and last night. God was gracious and we arrived home safely about 9:00 p.m.

Today I’ve been finalizing negotiations, lining up inspections, getting some ideas on insurance, and trying to figure out what to do for family medical insurance. One part of me just wants to get through all of the details and focus on living. Another part of me knows that this is living – that life is in the details, in honoring God and being faithful in the mundane, not just in the grandiose. God has repeatedly shown himself faithful in working out so many details of this transition. I’m finally learning to trust him in those that remain, and that, just as the details never stop, neither does his faithfulness.

A Most Beautiful Day

2006-11-01T09:28:00.000-06:00

This morning, as I stepped out of my car to walk across the parking lot to the church office, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling that this must be the most beautiful day that ever has been. The air was crisp and cool, the sun was shining brilliantly, highlighting the colors of autumn that seem to be at their peak. I had forgotten how beautiful fall can be, and I’ve been awed by the dazzling display of God’s creation even as it prepares to sleep through the winter. Could a day be any more glorious?

I don’t think, however, that it was just the weather that had me in such an elated mood. This morning as I awoke, I fumbled on my bedside table (not really a table, but a storage trunk that supports a lamp and several books) for my glasses, and discovered a handmade card placed there the night before by my bride. As I had crashed early, she had stayed up to make me a card to let me know that she still does not regret marrying me ten years ago today. I put on the coffee and returned to bed; soon, our Jeremy and Jonathan were up and piled in with us. Lying there with my family, I thought back to our wedding day ten short years ago and realized that, on that day, I could never imagine how richly God would bless me between that day and this one.

That day, itself, was a most beautiful day. One of our best memories was going to the “Parks and Gardens” near Accra, Ghana to collect bougainvillea and palm branches to decorate our outdoor wedding chapel on the McVey’s front lawn. We were joined that day with many friends to celebrate – friends from Benin, Togo, and Ghana. The youth group from the Amasaman church sang as the guests arrived, and our missionary friends sang during the ceremony itself.

Like all good African events, the wedding got off to a late start. Papa Christian Nsoah, who was to give Maureen in marriage, was late. His wife, Sister Lizzie, who was preparing the food for our guests, had fallen seriously ill. But finally he did arrive—with the food that their daughters and neighbors had helped prepare --and then came the bride—and never has a groom felt so proud. Could a day be any more glorious?

It was a wedding day that both of us had longed for and anticipated for many years. But on that day, we really had no idea what our lives together would be like, how richly we would be blessed in the years ahead. And I’m confident that today, ten years later, we still await blessings--levels of knowing and being known--that are yet to unfold.

It reminds me of yet another beautiful day, a wedding day, for which we eagerly await. Could a day be any more glorious? I think that maybe it could. Because even when that day arrives, we will not yet know all that is to be experienced as our intimate relationship with Jesus grows even deeper. I think that heaven, like my marriage to Maureen, will just keep getting better.

Happy Anniversary, Daa. I love you.

Which way the church?

2006-11-01T09:05:00.000-06:00

“While the gates of hell will not prevail against the kingdom of heaven, it is altogether possible that segments of the church of God will vanish from the earth in the next generation. Jesus once posed the most penetrating of questions, “When the Son of Man comes again, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). He did not answer his own question. I gather that he continues to place this query before us today. Two answers seem plausible: Either we choose spiritual malaise and inevitable extinction, or we choose the renewal that comes through radical discipleship.” -- Darryl Tippens in Pilgrim Heart

Full Report -- Missionary Career Transitions

2006-10-31T09:24:00.000-06:00

For those of you who would like more details on the research I did on career transitions for returning missionaries, Missions Resource Network has posted the results on their web site. You can download the results as a PDF file. Click on the links below:

A Season of Transition for Returned Missionaries – an 8 page article plus 1-page summary of results
Career Transitions of Former Church of Christ Missionaries – full academic paper

You can also read lots of other great articles on missions by going to the MRN Home Page and clicking on the Library tab.

Career Transiton Fact Sheet

2006-10-24T10:07:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, I told you about a survey concerning career transitions for returned missionaries. Well, the results are in. I've written a long paper and an article which I could email you, but here is a quick look at the results.

MISSIONARY CAREER TRANSITION

Based on Anthony Parker’s September 2006 survey of returned Church of Christ missionaries

· Over half reported that career transition was a significant source of stress upon reentry.

· The majority received ongoing support for 1-3 months after return; 10% received no ongoing support; 20% received continuing support for 1 year or more (often working for their overseeing church or being supported by them in stateside ministry). Extended financial support is linked to lower transition difficulty.

· 70% reported that their churches were financially supportive; 60% said their sending congregations were emotionally & spiritually supportive.

· Emotional and spiritual support went hand-in-hand with healthy career adjustment.

· Least career adjustment difficulty – university teaching; most difficulty – self-employment or non church-related employment.

· Most former missionaries report being fulfilled in their post-field careers, but even more report having been fulfilled, and to a greater degree, on the mission field.

· Women reported a higher degree of difficulty in adjusting to career change than did men.

· Elements of a low-difficulty transition:

o Highly supportive sending churches.

o Post-mission field career stems from continuity with previous relationships.

o Continued connectedness to mission work

· Elements of a high-difficulty transition

o Perceived insensitivity on the part of sending churches

o Perceived expectations to quickly enter the American work force

o Lack of suitable credentials for stateside employment

o A failure to receive counsel

o Financial and business difficulties

o Difficult transition to dual-career family life

· Elements of moderate-difficulty transitions

o Flexibility in less-than-ideal circumstances

o A willingness to learn about themselves through their experience

o Functioning effectively while never completely adjusted

· Career transition advice from former missionaries to those planning for reentry

o Plan in advance for career change

o Solicit help from others

§ Colleagues and returned missionaries

§ Mentors

§ Leaders and members of supporting church(es)

§ Business contacts

§ Counselors – missionary reentry, financial, career

o Arrange for a transitional period by pursuing continued financial support upon return from the mission field; ideally, one month for every year on the field.

o Seek a ministry/missions-related career

· Recommendations for sending churches

o Make reentry provisions more generous for those with longer terms of service

o Allow a six-month no-pressure transition period

o Provide a livable income based on American economic realities

o Consider returning missionaries for local church staff openings

o Educate missions leadership and church regarding reentry challenges

· Recommendations for missionaries anticipating reentry

o Nurture professional relationships that can continue off the field

o Keep professional credentials current

o Pursue continuing education

o Get sound advice and counseling

o Educate sending churches

o Stay involved in God’s mission

Crowd vs. Community

2006-10-24T07:36:00.000-06:00

One of the things that I’m looking forward to in moving to Albany, is the opportunity to, once again, experience authentic Christian community. It seems that in a small town, there would be fewer barriers. One amazing thing we observed on our visit last month was that, after the Sunday morning assembly dismissed around 11:00 a.m., everyone went home – and came back at noon with their contributions to the church pot luck for the day. Almost everyone lives within a few minutes drive of the church building, so those amazing casseroles can be kept warm at home. I can’t imagine anything like that happening in Birmingham, or even some rural communities where I have lived.

Texas, like Alabama, is also football country. Pardon my reverse culture shock, but I continue to be amazed by the millions of people who pack sports stadiums. I know that it’s great fun and going to local sports events can be a good opportunity for involvement in the lives of people. But there is a great difference between being swept along with a crowd and taking part in authentic community.

I picked up a book called The Silent Life by Thomas Merton at a used book sale recently. Although he is writing about life in a monastery, I think his words are also appropriate for understanding what the church should be. (Pardon the gender exclusive language, but the book was written in the 1950s.)

There is all the difference in the world between a community and a crowd. A community is an organism whose common life is pitched on a somewhat higher tone than the life of the individual member. A crowd is a mere aggregation in which the collective life is as low as the standards of the lowest units in the aggregation. In entering a community, the individual sets himself the task of living above his own ordinary level, and thus perfecting his own being, living more fully, by his efforts to live for the benefit of others besides himself. Descending into the crowd, the individual loses his personality and his character and perhaps even his moral dignity as a human being. Contempt for the “crowd” is by no means contempt for mankind. The crowd is below man. The crowd devours the human that is in us to make us the members of a many-headed beast.

Now I don’t think this has a lot to say about whether or not we go to football games – but it may say something about why and with what attitude we go to them. More importantly, it says something about why and with what attitude we are part of the church. A church should be focused on building community, not a crowd. Of course, the church is an open, inviting community, which thrives on the diversity of its members and on drawing others into its fellowship, but not at the expense of losing its essential identity as a community created by God’s Spirit to bear witness to his love, grace, and glory.

T is for ....

2006-10-20T10:40:00.000-06:00

T is for THANKS for all of you who have been so faithful in praying for and encouraging us during this reentry process. It ain’t over yet, so please keep up your prayers. This week, however, we reached a significant milestone in our process of settling into life in America.

For a few weeks now, we’ve had a pretty good idea that God was leading us to a “T” state – we had one ministry opportunity in Texas and another possibility in Tennessee—both of which were good and where we feel that God could use us.

This week we made the decision that for us, T is for …

TEXAS!

We have accepted an invitation to minister with the Church of Christ in Albany—the best little small town in Texas. Click here to read more about this town of 2,000, located about 35 miles from the greater metropolitan area of Abilene. In addition to its proximity to ACU, the town has plenty of bragging rights (which I understand are pretty important in Texas) of its own—including two live theaters, an internationally renowned art museum, an annual “Fandangle” that draws crowds from all over and involves the whole town, exemplary-rated schools, the best steak house in West Texas, and just some great people (you don’t move to West Texas for the scenery). The church there has made us already feel so welcome. We are excited about serving Jesus alongside out brothers and sisters there. We will also be able to stay in touch with our West Africa roots—Andy & Rhonda Wilson and their boys are in town, and the Hollands, McVeys, and Baileys are all nearby (“near” being relative to the size of Texas).

We are looking at moving soon after Thanksgiving, with maybe a trip out there in a couple of weeks to look at housing. There are tons of details to be worked out, but God has been so faithful through so many details of this whole transition, that he has built my faith to the point that I’m not feeling the stress—at least not too much—yet.

Cross Country

2006-09-28T07:53:00.000-06:00

Having become somewhat habituated to living in a tiny West African countries where you can drive across the country in less than a couple of hours, our recent travels have left me a overwhelmed at how vast a country America is, and how amazing it is that we can so easily navigate across it. We've looked at different ministry opportunities in Louisiana, Texas, and Oregon. We've come away from each place with the feeling that we could happily live and minister in any one of them. As God unfolds his will for us, I'm thankful for the rich variety of experiences that we have had. We see God at work in so many places (could it be everywhere?), and we are blessed to be his co-workers--right now in Birmingham but, so it would seem, soon to be somewhere else.

Here are a few photos from our journeys.

Jeremy & Jonathan over the Mississippi River at Vicksburg.

We were thrilled to spend some time with our Togo teammates, the Hollands, in Abilene. Here Jeremy and J onathan hang out with their old friends Rebecca and Elliana. My first words upon entering the Hollands' home were, "You have your stuff!" We can't wait to get ours out of storage, but are grateful to the folks in Tyler, TX who are storing the things we shipped from Africa.

I'm afraid we may have overwhelmed the Albany, TX church with our "cheering section" who came to see us. The Baileys (left), former missionaries to Benin, now live in Brownwood. Andy & Rhonda Wilson (right), teammates from Benin, live in Albany, where Andy is assistant school principal. In addition, the Hollands (Togo/Abilene) and the McVeys (Ghana/Clyde), showed up at worship Sunday morning. It was a great West Africa reunion.

After beautiful West Texas, our next trip took us to the Pacific Northwest. We had a chance to see God's handiwork, both in nature and among his people. Above is the Columbiana River just as it reaches the Portland area, and below is an aerial view of Mt. Hood. I do need to dispel any nasty rumors that you may have heard concerning the weather in Portland. We had beautiful weather in the 80s with clear skies for both flights. The view alone was worth the price of the air tickets!

Old Missionaries Survey & Abilene

2006-09-15T09:07:00.000-06:00

Old missionaries never die, they just ……. (you fill in the blank).

What do missionaries do when they leave “the field,” and how does it go for them? How can returning missionaries make a successful transition to some kind of career in the U.S.?

These are some of the questions that I’ve had recently and a D.Min. course requirement has inspired me to do a survey of returned Church of Christ missionaries and how their career transitions went when they returned to their “home” country.

Working for email addresses made available by Missions Resource Network, I sent out about 125 invitations to participate in the survey. If you have served overseas for at least one year and are now living in the States, and if you did not receive a personal invitation to participate, you can still do so.

Click here to participate in the Returned Missionary Career Transitions survey.

Speaking of old missionaries, I hope to see a few in Abilene next week. I just printed out our boarding passes for our flight tonight. We will be in the area this weekend and I’ll be staying until Thursday for the ACU lectures. If you’re in town, drop me a comment or give me a call at 256-226-0445.

Tryouts

2006-09-14T09:38:00.000-06:00

I know that I’ve gotten too slack with my blogging when I actually get a request for an update. This particular request had to do with “tryouts,” which is a bit of a dicey subject since I never know how what I write might be perceived by the churches that we have or will be visiting with. Last weekend we started a three-week string of visits with churches—two for preaching positions and one as an involvement/outreach minister. We thoroughly enjoyed our first visit and expect to enjoy those that remain. It is fun to be with God’s people and see what he is doing in different places. It is a great reminder that God’s kingdom is much bigger than the sphere in which any individual can move. I expect God to show us where he wants us to settle, but this time of looking around is a good opportunity to get to know family members that have to this point been distant relatives and to see what God is doing through them, and how we might be a part of that.

With so much variety in churches these days (something I see as a good thing), it’s hard to know what to expect—even how to dress. One of my questions in lining up this past weekend’s trip was whether I should wear a coat and tie or if dress was more casual. I was told to definitely wear a coat and tie.

Friday afternoon, we knew that we had a five-six hour drive ahead of us, so we arranged to get Jeremy out of school a few minutes early so that we could get on the road. I was a little late leaving the church office because of a phone call, so I rushed to our apartment and immediately began loading the bags that Maureen had packed into our car. As I was about to lock the door, Maureen asked me if I had everything. I hesitated, trying to think of what I might need that I did not have. It seemed that there might be something, but I couldn’t think of what it was.

We picked Jeremy up from school, and hit the interstate. It was early enough that traffic was not bad and we were enjoying cruising along. About an hour from Birmingham, a random thought popped into my head. I looked at Maureen and said, “The suit.”

We hopped off at the next exit, started heading the opposite direction, and lost about two hours on our trip for the sake of a suit.

I did tell the story Sunday morning. I figured the church might as well know who they were dealing with.

I’m not sure that they did get a very realistic picture of our family, however. Some space alien must have kidnapped my younger son and inhabited his body. The kid that was with us actually behaved during church. When I had explained to him that there would not be children’s church and that he was going to have to listen to daddy’s sermon, he responded, “But that’s no fun.” What an ego boost. He did make it, however, with only minimal squirming.

The whole idea of a tryout for a ministry position isn’t really very biblical. I’m not saying that it’s wrong, just not biblical. I mean, how often did Paul “try out” before he preached somewhere? He usually just showed up, started preaching, and waited to see if they were going to welcome him or stone him. I think I prefer tryouts. Once I find out where we are going, I’ll have a “no stoning” clause put in my contract.

I’ve also hesitated to post recently because I just can’t seem to come up with good responses to Steve Duer’s book tag. It seems that somehow I mistakenly give people the impression that I’m a man of letters. I do read a fair amount, but have a horrible memory, so that I can’t just pull up content or even the title of a book I’ve read off the cuff unless there is a specific trigger for the memory. I’m probably sharing Denise’s problem of short-term memory loss. Sorry to disappoint, Steve.

As partial compensation, I’ll throw in a couple of related quotes from books that I’m now reading, The Mind of Jesus by William Barclay, and Participating in God’s Life by Leonard Allen and Danny Swick.

“There is a kind of rationalism which kills wonder. When wonder is dead, wonderful things cease to happen. We might well receive more miracles, if we stopped insisting that miracles do not happen, and began expecting them to happen.” (Barclay, p. 70).

“So when we glibly pronounce that God can work in the world and in our lives but only in a ‘non-miraculous’ way we speak in categories created in the seventeenth century, not in biblical categories. Such a way of speaking, in fact, became possible only in the split apart world of the Enlightenment. Specifically, the Bible recognizes no dualism between nature and super nature, the world of scientific laws and the world of Divine intervention. Therefore, it makes no sense biblically to define a miracle as ‘God’s suspending the rules of nature’—there were no such rules. Instead, life is imbued with God’s activity, sometimes in dramatic, extraordinary ways, other times in more mundane but no less ‘miraculous’ ways.” (Allen & Swick, p. 121)

Jonathan Turns 5!

2006-08-29T09:25:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a big day around our place--Jonathan's 5th birthday. Unlike Jeremy's birth, I wasn't around when Jonathan was born; I did not even know that he existed until exactly one month after the date. From what we've heard, his birth was even a surprise to his birth family. Though they were not expecting his arrival, they began searching for whatever life would hold the most hope for this new surprise gift. Unselfishly, they choose adoption, and we are so glad that they did. We thankful for the folks at Agape who helped them choose our family as the receivers of this precious gift.

We started celebrating his birthday over a week early with a gathering at my parents' to celebrate all of the August birthdays in our family. Sunday night we shared birthday cupcakes with our CORE group from church, Monday morning Jonathan had our tradition birthday breakfast of custom-made pancakes (in keeping with his usual well balanced diet, he also had pancakes for lunch and dinner), and we went and played arcade games that evening, using up our reserve of Chucky Cheese tokens. I offered him cup cakes and ice cream when we got back home but he said, "No, thanks, I'll just have my chocolate milk." Chocolate milk in a sippy cup is still Jonathan's ultimate comfort food.

Here are some photos of Jonathan's various celebrations.

One Last Souvenir

2006-08-27T14:19:00.000-06:00

The painting above is the last souvenir that we purchased before leaving Togo on May 4 of this year. We finally got around to getting it stretched and framed and picked it up on Friday. The painting is by a Togolese artist, Barnabé (Barnabas) Sallah. From the time we moved to Togo in 2001, I often saw Sallah's work in restaurants and hotel lobbies. I always had the intention of purchasing one, but never quite saw one I liked at a price I could afford. Once I even met him at an exhibit at the Sarakawa, Togo's nicest hotel where we would often go swimming, and carried around his cell number in my phone, but never called him.

About a week before we left Togo, Maureen and the other women on the team went for a one-night getaway. The hotel where they had planned to stay was full, so they went down the road and tried out another place. They ended up having a good experience, and Sallah's paintings were also on display there. The women decided that the whole team would spend our family's last day in Togo at this hotel. We could swim, the kids could play, we could eat together, and celebrate Jeremy's birthday which was that day--AND the hotel manager said that she would invite Sallah to bring more of his paintings so we could have a look.

The day went well and finally Sallah showed up. All of the paintings were bigger than what we had imagined and well out of our price range. We talked and visited with him. We found a painting we liked, as did Stacey, our school teacher who was also leaving the following day. But none of us could afford what he was asking. We talked some more. Finally, we offered what we thought we could afford to pay, and acknowledged that the paintings were worth more, but that was all we could give. He accepted, took the painting off it's wooden frame, rolled it up and gave it to us. It was a pretty big roll to carry onto the plane--the main part of the painting is 31 inches square.

The painting then went around the world with us--to Paris, Singapore, Alabama, and stayed rolled up until we got into our apartment. We decided to have a look at how well it had survived the trip. There were a couple of small cracks and a few chips in the thick acrylic paint, but it had made it relatively intact. We took it to Hobby Lobby for framing--we got their "half price" special (is it really half price when you can get that price anytime?), but the framing still cost more than the painting did. Still, we're proud to have our last souvenir on our wall.

Oh, the title, written by the artist on the back of the canvas (along with his name and cell phone number) is "Les Bergers au Paturage"-- "The Herdsmen in the Pasture." How many herdsmen do you see? (I've changed my mind after looking at it more closely.)

What should it look like?

2006-08-18T09:40:00.000-06:00

Homewood minister Rick Kaufhold gave me some material today that included this information. Unfortunately, I don’t have the original source, but if this is anywhere near accurate, it should make us all stop and reflect. Most of you reading this post will find yourselves, like me, squarely in the extreme minority of the world’s population, yet holding access to tremendous resources, power, and influence. What would the world look like if we surrendered all of that to God and asked him how we should use it?

“According to the World Development Forum, if our world were a village of 1,000 people, there would be 564 Asians, 210 Europeans, 86 Africans, 80 South Americans, and 60 North Americans. In the village would be 300 Christians (183 Catholics, 84 Protestants, 33 Orthodox), 175 Muslims, 128 Hindus, 44 Buddhists, 47 Animists, 85 from other religious groups, and 210 Atheists. Of these people, 60 would control half the total income, 500 would be hungry, 600 would live in shantytowns, and 700 would be illiterate.”

He has shown you people what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8, TNIV)

Communion Thoughts: Sunday Dinner

2006-08-07T13:18:00.000-06:00

Here are some thoughts I shared at the Lord’s table yesterday:

When I was growing up, every Sunday my mom would get up early and begin the preparations for a big Sunday dinner. The meal was so special that we called it “dinner,” even though it would be eaten sometime around noon.

A few weeks ago I was up at Lipscomb for their summer lectures, and I ran into Ralph and Betty Nance, a couple that I had not seen in close to twenty years. Ralph Nance taught physics and engineering at Lipscomb, but I knew him best as the preacher, and later an elder, at the church I attended. The Nances had a large family with grown children and grandchildren, and every Sunday the whole clan would gather around the Nances long table for Sunday dinner. And every Sunday there would always be guests invited to join them. On more than one occasion, I was one of those guests, and the feeling of being included as part of such a large and loving family is one of my best memories of my college days.

These days, things have changed for most of us. At best, we go with a few of our best friends after church to a restaurant to eat our Sunday lunch. The meal may be nicer than what we could have cooked at home, but it’s still not Sunday dinner. We may have great food, be with wonderful people, some visitors may be invited along, and we enjoy true fellowship—but we lose some of the intimacy of being in a home where real life takes place.

This time of year, as we rush out the door of church on Sunday morning to get to some other activity, we’re just as likely to grab something at the drive-thru window of a fast food restaurant. In this case, there is no intimacy at all, and what we eat is not that important—it’s just something that has to be done so we can get on to the main event.

Sometimes we approach Communion in the same way—something to be done as quickly and as efficiently as possible so we can get on to the main event. We lose any sense of intimacy as we partake in a room full of people, where each individual is totally isolated.

This lack of connectedness is one thing that led to problems in the way the Corinthian church was observing communion. They, like the early Jerusalem church, took communion in the context of a common meal. But, unlike the Jerusalem church, they did not have “all things in common.” Those who had arrived early—probably the wealthy who didn’t have to work on Sunday—brought the bread and the wine and indulged heavily. By the time the slaves who had been working all day arrived, there was nothing left. And the rich probably didn’t even know that they were doing anything wrong. Paul says that they were failing to discern the body of Christ—to recognize that they were united in Christ to each other. And when part of the body cuts itself off from any other part—the whole body suffers. Paul says, “That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.” By ignoring the health of the whole body, they were eating and drinking judgment on themselves.

Sometimes, though, we break through that and feel a real sense of engagement with Christ and with his body. We understand that we are eating with family—but we somehow we only reach that cafeteria level of intimacy instead of being truly at home with one another.

I think the Lord had something else in mind—when he disciples gathered for a meal, it was in an intimate setting where they were sitting around on the floor and leaning on against one another—and they shared a meal so significant that the church has come to refer to it as “Supper,” even though we usually eat it in the morning.

Showers of Blessings

2006-08-06T07:35:00.000-06:00

This past Wednesday our sponsoring church hosted a housewarming shower to help get us outfitted for life in the U.S. Even before the shower, people who heard that we needed to furnish an apartment responded generously by loaning and giving us furniture. My sister Ramona mobilized her church in Morris, AL to provide us with a “pounding” of common household staples—sugar flour, paper towels, window cleaner, etc. That saved a trip to the Stuff Mart and quite a bit of money.

Our home church, Homewood, has been through a lot of turmoil over the past few years and a lot of people have left to worship elsewhere. In the meantime, those who have remained at Homewood and many new people who have come, continue to make it a life-filled church with many vibrant ministries. As word about our return and the shower got out to both current and former Homewood members, we were indeed showered with gifts and encouragement. But what was most encouraging was to see old friends who now worship in different fellowships reunited, mixing and mingling together as we sorted through the abundance of gifts.

It occurred to me that the four churches in the Birmingham area whose members have so graciously welcomed us to America represent four very different places on the spectrum of Restoration heritage churches. There are differences of style between the congregations, and some differences that go far deeper than style. I agree with some things in all of these churches, and I disagree with others. But I am deeply impressed with the fact that they are all filled with loving, giving people who are seeking the kingdom of God. I dare not judge the authenticity of another’s discipleship just because they don’t choose to worship where I do or do things the way I do them. Oh, how I wish we could all be together now, and I so look forward to the day when we all are. When we stand in the presence of God, there will be no thought of “worship wars” or any other kind of conflict, because our focus will be totally on God and not on ourselves. But we will only be able to participate with joy in that assembly if we extend grace and acceptance to all of our brothers and sisters, wherever they fall on “the spectrum.”

Thanks for all of the input we received regarding our schooling decision. As we prayed and sought counsel, it became clearer that the public school was the best option for our family. We have so much admiration for families who can successfully homeschool, but we didn’t think that it would work as well for us. The transportation issued remained, but yesterday we were offered the loan of a 2^nd car for a month, and this just confirms that God will continue to work out the logistics—not just for this, but for all of the major transitions that we are facing. He is faithful!

A Place to Call Home / Schooling Decisions

2006-07-30T18:21:00.000-06:00

This morning I woke up and realized that, for the first time since we moved out of our house and into the Crowsons’ back in April, I was waking up in my own home. Not my “own” in terms of home ownership, mind you, but not some hotel or someone else’s place. We’ve been living out of suitcases for over three months, and it is great to be able to start to unpack. We are in an apartment complex called the “Arboretum” (I still don’t know whether the accent goes on the “bor” or the “e”) in Vestavia Hills. I just discovered that I can access the office’s wireless internet connection from our patio, hence this post. We are not so hard up that we can’t afford a phone line or cable, but I don’t want to bother with six-month minimum contracts when I don’t expect to be here that long. I’m actually praying that we are not here very long, but for the time being, it’s great to have a place to call home.

Folks here in Birmingham have been very generous in giving and loaning us furniture to use while most of our things are still in storage in Texas. The one thing we have bought was a sofa that we found at a great price at the Lay-Z-Boy clearance sale. My brother-in-law predicted that I would regret not paying the $80 delivery charge. He, my nephews, and I, brought it to the apartment yesterday in his pickup truck. We had quite a time getting it up the bank that leads from the parking lot to our ground-floor apartment, then through the breezeway, and around through the patio door. There were moments that I did regret not having it delivered. But, to tell the truth, now that it’s done, I’m glad the $80 is still in my pocket.

Help us out with a decision that needs to be made quickly. We have been planning to homeschool Jeremy at least for this fall. The main reason is that we hope to have a long-term job soon, which will mean moving, and we didn’t want to disrupt his life even further by getting him into a school and then transferring out and into another one in a short period of time. We also have some traveling we still need to do this fall, and want to do as a family, so we can have more flexibility. Another minor complication is that we only have one car so I would have to arrange my daily schedule around his school hours. Unless we could work out a ride, it would be out of the question for me to take the car out of town during a school week, since there is no local school bus.

However, we have discovered that our apartment is in one of the best public school districts in Alabama and there is a wonderful K-3 school near us. Jeremy is very social and will do better in academics if he is around other kids. Also, neither Maureen or I have education experience, though home school material is pretty well laid out. And what do we do with Jonathan while Jeremy is in school?

Here’s your chance to weigh in on our schooling dilemma. Do we stick with the homeschool plan, or find a way to make the public schooling work? What do you think?

Oh, I lost my wireless connection, but now, a few hours later after writing the above, it appears to be back.

I am Driven!

2006-07-22T20:41:00.000-06:00

We have enjoyed spending this week with my family in North Alabama following his week taking a course in Chicago. The highlight of the week was that Maureen passed her test on the first attempt and received her Alabama’s driver license! So now, I am driven -- by my wife. Before she got her license, she didn't want to drive, but now she races me to the driver's seat.

Sunday we will be heading back to Birmingham. Jeremy plans to attend a four-day camp for first through third graders sponsored by the Homewood children’s ministry. We will be moving into an apartment on Saturday, July 29. Several people are loaning us furniture and they've even planned a housewarming shower for Aug. 2nd after Bible classes at Homewood. (Selections are at Target!) Our address will be 1818B Arboretum Circle, Vestavia Hills, AL 35216. I will continue to use my current cell number (256-226-0445), while we have changed Maureen’s to a local Birmingham number (205-223-2354).

As you continue to pray for the missionaries, the Christians, and the lost among the Watchi, please ask God to continue guiding our family to a another area of fruitful ministry.

Gems for the Week

2006-07-13T16:44:00.000-06:00

For those of you who are wondering how my paper turned out, I got a 95. I guess that means that 95% of the stuff in there is right, and it's up to you to figure out what the other 5% is. The only negative comment was that I left my name off the cover page and didn't use the correct formatting. How's that for doctoral level proficiency?! At least there were only 8 students in the class, so the prof didn't have too much difficulty figuring out who had written the paper.

As much as I have missed Maureen, Jeremy, and Jonathan this week, it has been a good time to get away and have some quiet, prayerful reflection as well as to have my thinking stimulated. The stuff we've been talking about hasn't been particularly heavy, just rich.

Monday we took a bus and went into inner city Chicago to visit the ministry of the Lawndale Community Church and the Christian Community Development Association. There's really no way I can describe to you what is going on in what used to be one of the roughest neighborhoods of Chicago. Have a look at the web sites or read Wayne Gordon's book, Real Hope in Chicago. Wayne is the founding pastor (no, I don't like using the word that way, but that's how everyone thinks of him), a white man who moved into inner city Chicago when he was just out of college. He was the only teacher at the Lawndale high school where he coached football and wrestling who lived in the community. Thirty years later, he's not called "pastor" but "Coach" by all the people in the community.

For dinner, we ate at the Lawndale branch of Lou Malnati's Pizza, which consistently earns awards for the best pizza in Chicago. Their pizzas take your basic Dominios to a whole new level. When the Lou Malnati's chain had opened its 9th restaurant in Chicago, Wayne talked them into opening a 10th restaurant in Lawndale as a "tithe," so that the community could have one sit-down restaurant and so it could provide jobs. The church bought and renovated the building. This restuarant still doesn't turn a profit (largely due to the fact that they don't serve alcohol), but the chain has spread to 24 branches, so they must not be hurting too badly.

On Monday, Don Cousins, one of the founders of Willow Creek Community Church, spoke to us. Don left Willow Creek several years ago when he found that the ministry no longer fit his gifts as a starter and builder. Don now works as a church consultant, and talked a lot about finding the right fit in ministry. He talked about the "Leadership heresy" and how the church often lets the world define what leadership is. I'm sure glad that's the only thing we let the world define for us.

Along these lines, think about this quote that was shared today:

“God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others and by himself …” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Cousins also contrasted an "Institutional" model of ministry with a "Biblical" model. Of course, that just happens to be his model as well. Here is how he constrasts them. (I've changed some of hte terminology to suit our church polity.) What do you think?

Institutional Model

The Elders Lead
The Staff Serves
The Congregation is Served
The World is Ignored

Biblical Model

The Elders Protect (They protect the unity and purity of the church, they see that the Word is faithfully taught, they protect the church through prayer, and see that the body of Christ functions as it should.)
The Staff Leads (This is not just the paid staff, but anyone in a position of leadership.)
The Congregation Serves
The World is Served

Is he on base? Are we off?

Here are a couple of more snippets from Cousins:
"God doesn’t call us so that we can do something for him. He doesn’t need us. He has called us so that he can pour out his blessings through us for his glory."

"Great leaders surround themselves with people who know more than they do and are more competent than they are. Non-leaders surround themselves with people that they can stay on top of."

Well, there's more, but that's enough for one post. I'll be flying back to Birmingham tomorrow (Friday) morning; say a prayer for safety.

Something less theological

2006-07-12T07:46:00.001-06:00

Thanks to Denise's post, I've now generated my Hillbilly name.

Your Hillbilly Name Is...

Jimbo Montana

Hillbilly Name Generator

Practicing What You Preach

2006-07-10T07:54:00.000-06:00

I'm in my classroom in Chicago waiting for the course to start. My paper is due in an hour, so if you have any last minute suggestions, please get them in quickly. Here is the last part of my paper (see posts below) which has to do with putting some of the ideas into practice. It's a little lengthy, I had originally intended for this to be two posts. Your comments are welcome!

These readings convicted me of two practices which I must adopt if I am to be an effective missionary within North American culture. First, I must learn to present the gospel in a way that will capture the attention of non-believers and be comprehensible to them. The content of the gospel cannot be modified, and even its presentation must be driven by theology rather than the marketplace. Understanding the shifts within our culture, however, necessitates changes that must take place in our presentation of the unchanging gospel.

We must present the gospel with authenticity and without a desire to promote our institutions. We must be willing to move to the margins of society, where we serve with vulnerability and humility (Gibbs 2000, 28, 30). “Our age has more regard for the artist than for the orator,” observes Gibbs (2000, 26). I must adapt my rather cerebral style of learning and teaching and embrace more artistic forms of communication.

Ryken believes that the “plain teaching of God’s Word” is sufficient. He acknowledges, however, that “… a major pastoral task is to explain Christianity to people who really have no idea what it means” (2003, 24, 46). If we are to do so, we must communicate God’s word with both authenticity and artistry.

A second practice that I intend to adopt is to foster the intentional planting of new, theologically-driven, contextually relevant churches. I am uncertain whether this mean, for me, being part of a church planting, functioning in a facilitating role in a mission organization, or encouraging an established church to adopt this vision. I do believe, however, that intentional church planting offers a positive way forward in reaching this rapidly changing culture. I use the modifier “intentional” to distinguish these church plantings from “splants”—church plantings that are a thin disguise for church splits.

Established churches need to recapture a vision for planting churches. The modern era saw a movement to consolidate large numbers in institutional megachurches. Many of these were driven by a laudable desire to reincorporate seekers who had wandered from their religious roots. As observed above, however, while these churches will continue to play a role in twenty-first century Christianity, they will not be as effective in reaching the growing number of people without a Christian heritage. To reach these people, we need fellowships that foster intimacy and community, small enough to function with transparent authenticity.

To encourage this, established churches must be willing to release their concerns for institutional maintenance. Gibbs maintains, “Old churches must not simply stand as monuments to the past but as spiritual grandparents that have invested in the future by passing on their life to others and releasing their offspring to form new congregations. Church planting needs to be given priority by old-line denominations” (Gibbs 2000, 73).

Church planting stands in contrast to the individualistic approach to spirituality adopted by many. God has established the church to manifest his reign in the world. This happens through self-giving communities of Jesus’ disciples. These new churches may employ seeker-sensitive approaches, but they must be driven by a desire to reach the lost, not to fill buildings (Gibbs 2000, 148). What is needed is for the church to practice authentic, biblical Christianity with a heart for seeking and welcoming the lost. Ryken notes, “Whenever Christians have joined together to establish teaching, worshiping, and caring communities, they have been able to meet the unique challenges they faced from the surrounding culture” (Ryken 2003, 30).

In a missionary situation, however, many established churches find it difficult to speak the language of the surrounding culture. These churches need to undergo missional transformation, but the pace of such transformation is often slow. Intentional church planting is the response that we need to make to the urgent call to reach the lost around us.

Bright Idea no. 3

2006-07-07T21:02:00.000-06:00

See below for my two previous installments and for the sources cited in this series.

A third understanding that emerged from these readings is that churches are complex organisms. Both intimate relationships and in-depth analysis are required to understand, function effectively within, and lead a church. Perhaps because I have served smaller, rural churches in an advisory, not pastoral, role, I have probably been somewhat slow in recognizing the complexity of the dynamics of even a modestly-sized North American church. The authors of Studying Congregations (1998) discuss the dynamics of local congregations and offer helpful approaches to understanding them. Van Gelder recognizes that “Local congregations are complex creations of the Spirit that require leaders to exercise sophisticated management and organizational skills to give direction to the work of the Spirit in their midst” (2000, 19). Consideration of the nature of the church must take precedence to its function, but its incarnational nature demands that we understand how the church operates on a practical level. The church is both a spiritual community and a social reality, the “communion of saints” according to the Apostles’ Creed. It is “a relational community because God is a relational God” (Van Gelder 2000, 50, 96).

Every congregation develops the characteristics of a subculture. Each has its own a “complex network of signals and symbols and conventions” (Hopewell 1987, 5 cited in Ammerman et al. 1998, 78). As such, the social sciences can be useful for understanding how a congregation’s theology, history, context, and make-up influence both the spiritual and social aspects of the congregation. As the authors of Studying Congregations point out, “Although your context does not determine your congregation’s commitments, it does provide the setting within which you must make your decisions” (Ammerman et al. 1998, 14).

Studying congregations, however, is not sufficient for understanding their function as communities created by the Spirit. Ministers must participate relationally in the life of the church, as interdependent members of the body of Christ, if they are to lead the church in embracing the mission and embodying the kingdom of God.

Idea No. 2

2006-07-05T15:24:00.000-06:00

Well, the help for my homework hasn’t exactly been pouring in, but Steve did ask a good question about who we move from being “inviting” to “infiltrating” churches. I think my last installment will try to address this as I deal with some practical issues. In anticipation, let me say that any kind of transformation is a much slower, though still necessary, process in existing churches. Churches which see the need for this kind of transformation but who do not want to be torn apart in the process should probably look at planting a new church, where the process can happen quickly, and work more slowly, yet consistently, at bringing about this missional transformation at home.

Continuing where I left off last time …

A second idea that emerged from these readings is that the church is the vehicle through which God’s reign is accomplished on earth. We make known the triumph of Christ to the principalities and powers. We dare not dismiss the church as irrelevant or obsolete.

This does not mean that the church pursues relevance at all costs. Philip Graham Ryken correctly warns, “When churches make relevance their primary goal, they are vulnerable to the twin perils of postmodernism: relativism and narcissism” (2003, 22). We can easily be seduced by the culture in our quest for relevance. Rather, the church must understand that it is by nature relevant because God has chosen to make his reign known to the principalities and powers through the church (Ephesians 3:10-11).

Being possessed by God’s kingdom, the church is an agent of the kingdom (Van Gelder 2000, 88). We are called to manifest and to promote the values of the kingdom taught by Jesus—love, justice, peace, and joy—in the world. As God’s kingdom people, we are both reconciled and redeemed. Because we have been reconciled to a holy God, we are “ministers of reconciliation,” both on the vertical and horizontal dimensions (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). As redeemed people, we hold forth the possibilities of redeemed living, as we call people to experience with us the “already” of God’s reign (Van Gelder 2000, 81).

Embodying the kingdom of God also calls us into conflict with every power that competes with God’s sovereignty or oppose his reign. We are inevitably drawn into this-worldly situations that reflect cosmic struggles. In these power encounters, we have no strength except to rely on God and to move forward in faith, confident that the victory has already been won. In faith, we call others to enter God’s reign and to embrace the victory that has been won on their behalf, overcoming the bondage of the rulers and authorities who compete with God—whether demonic oppression, physical addictions, or human oppressors.

Help with My Homework

2006-07-02T21:20:00.000-06:00

Next week (starting July 10), I have a course in Chicago and I have a short paper due on the first day. It’s basically reflections on the required reading. We were asked to write about three “seminal ideas” that we now “own” as a result of this reading, as well as two practices we would like to adopt. Over the next few days, I thought I would post parts of my paper to get your reactions, which will in turn make it a better paper!

Here are the books that these reflections are based on:

Ammerman, Nancy, et al. 1998. Studying congregations: A new handbook. Nashville: Abingdon Press.

Gibbs, Eddie. 2000. ChuchNext: Quantum changes in how we do ministry. Downers Grove: Intervarsity.

Ryken, Philip Graham. 2003. City on a hill: Reclaiming the biblical pattern for the church in the 21^st century. Chiago: Moody.

Van Gelder, Craig. 2000. The essence of the church: A community created by the Spirit. Grand Rapids: Baker.

Here is the first “seminal idea” I chose to write about. I would appreciate your input:

Among the important ideas that I distilled from these readings, I was impressed by the reality that the North American church faces a cross-cultural challenge that requires a missionary approach to the dominant culture. North American culture represents a context in which traditional, modern, and postmodern worldviews are interwoven (Gibbs 2000, 25). Ministry in this context must be able to speak to all three perspectives, without being subverted by them. Unfortunately, the modern worldview has often undermined North American Christianity (Gibbs 2000, 22). As a missionary church, we must seek to understand and overcome such influences, while at the same time seeking to understand postmodern perspectives without being overcome by them.

We should not be surprised to find that the church must assume a missionary outlook, even though we have long felt at home in North America. To be missionary is part of the genetic structure of the church. The church is rooted in the sending nature of God, and this sentness is reflected in the ancient confessions. The church has long claimed to be “apostolic.” While often interpreted to reflect the foundations of the church’s doctrines, practices, and institutional structures, the church is primarily apostolic because it has been sent out by God. Craig Van Gelder maintans, “This sentness is to be the primary dimension of the apostolic attribute. The institutional dimensions of the church, those related to its teaching content and governance, are to support and mobilize the ministry of sentness” (2000, 125).

Neither should the church be surprised that it finds itself at variance with the dominant culture in North America. For too long we have operated with a Constantinian model in which we presumed that the larger culture shared the church’s values. Whether or not that presumption was ever accurate, it can no longer be maintained. We cannot simply meet the needs of the seekers who walk through our doors. Many are looking elsewhere to quench their spiritual thirst. Churches that rely on seekers to fill their pews will find an increasingly shrinking market for their product. Instead, the church itself must become the seeker, transitioning “from becoming an inviting church to an infiltrating church” (Gibbs 2000, 190, 236), and reflecting the heart of its missionary God.

Recovering from Panic

2006-07-01T08:56:00.000-06:00

I’m going to try to be better about blogging, if for no reason than to keep some of you checking in on the off-chance that I may write something worth reading.

We have now been back in the U.S. for one month. I think I can best describe my feelings upon our return as—panic. It suddenly hit me that I had a family of four to care for with no car, no insurance, no house, and no long-term, secure job. I had preached about the virtues of being a “stranger and a pilgrim” in this world—suddenly, being a stranger and a pilgrim did not feel so virtuous.

My response to all of this was to go into task-orientation mode. I spent hours on the phone and the internet trying to get some basic “necessities”—a car, medical, life, and car insurance, travel plans, a social security card for Maureen—worked out. It’s strange that all of these seem like such necessities when they are not at all a part of the life of the Togolese.

In Africa, even though you don’t expect things to go smoothly, it’s still stressful when they don’t. It’s even more stressful when you expect things to be painless and they aren’t. Some of my biggest frustrations have been with airlines and trying to redeem frequent flyer miles and travel vouchers for a couple of unexpected trips that I’ve made since returning.

So…what have we been up to?

In addition to some time with my family (not nearly as much as my mom would like), Maureen and I made a trip to the Dallas area to work with Mission Alive!, a church-planting ministry, in an assessment lab for new church planters. We were also assessing ourselves to see whether we might have a future role in this ministry. It truly is a wonderful ministry and we were able to be with some great people, including Gailyn and Becky Van Rheenen for a few days. In the meantime, our boys stayed with my parents and got to know their grandparents better.

Oh yeah, just before making this trip, I spoke at Homewood, our sponsoring church. I had contracted a terrible cold so I was sounding very nasal that day. Also, I had shortened my Power Point presentation so that it would be more pulpit friendly. Only when I got up to speak did I realize that I had given the office the long version—and my notes matched the short version—so that was a big awkward. I was told that I “recovered nicely,” so that made me feel better.

Back to Dallas—when we arrived in Dallas, Gailyn met us at the airport and broke the news about Cyndi Chowning’s death. We waited as plans developed for her memorial service, which eventually was planned for Denison, near Dallas, but after we had planned to return to Alabama. We had also planned to visit friends in Atlanta the following week. Eventually we worked it out that I was able to travel back for the funeral while Maureen and the boys stayed with our friends there. Maureen and I truly regretted that she was not able to attend the funeral. I was happy, however, that she was able to attend a Women of Faith conference with our friend Lanita Henderson. While in Atlanta, we were also able to spend time with Andrew, Pulcherie, A.J., and Nikki Gordon who were in town for some training for Andrew’s job. The Gordons were our teammates in Benin and are now planning to return to Africa to serve the Djoula people of Burkina Faso with Christian Missionary Fellowship.

Since our return from Atlanta, we have been in Birmingham, enjoying the hospitality of Steve and Amy Castleman and their girls, Emily, Erin, and Elyse. Next week we’ll hit the road again, going to my parents’ for the 4^th, then to Nashville for Lipscomb University’s Summer Celebration and to visit our former teammates the Bunners. The following week I have a D.Min. course at Trinity in Chicago.

As this month has passed, my feelings of panic have eased. I seem to have most of the major “necessities” taken care of, and God has worked out a million details already. I have several “irons in the fire” looking for a long-term ministry. We do feel a need to be temporarily settled into our own place, but we also want to take advantage of this time to reconnect, which requires travel. Some folks here at Homewood are helping us look for some affordable, short-term housing, so hopefully we’ll be able to get into something not long after I return from Chicago.

Please drop us a line to say hi or call us—my cell phone is (256) 226-0445.

Goodbye, Cyndi

2006-06-14T19:50:00.000-06:00

For some time I've been wondering when I would get around to writing my first post since our return to the States. I knew it would be hard to know what to say. Never did I imagine that it would be this hard.

Today Maureen and I flew into DFW to help with a Discovery lab being held by Mission Alive! Our plane arrived a little early so I called Gailyn Van Rheenen who was on his way to pick us up. He told me that they had some bad news that he would share with me when he picked us up in a few minutes.

As soon as we got in the car with Gailyn, he received another call. I could overhear a voice saying, "I know it's like going through Jonathan's death all over again... ." The Van Rheenen lost their 35 year old son Jonathan just a few months ago.

When Gailyn got off the phone, he told us the painful news. Cyndi Chowning, a missionary in Benin, had been struck by a motorcycle and killed. A few details have been filled in since then. Apparently she and Richard were in a village when Cyndi returned to their car to get something. It seems that she was struck by a motorcycle and may have been thrown against their truck. She sustained head injuries. She was taken to the town of Azove for medical treatment, but died soon afterwards.

That's all I know about her death, but I know much more about her life. The Chownings came to Abilene about a year after I had arrived. Already they were 16 year veterans of African missions, having taken part in a church planting mission among the Kipsigis that became a model and a stepping stone for at least two more generations of church planters.

While at ACU, the Chownings were our mentors. They hosted African Mission Fellowship in their home. They inspired us and guided our strategy as our own team formed. Richard was our first visitor just a few months after we arrived in Benin in 1993. Cyndi came with him to visit the next year.

The following year, 1995, Richard was again in West Africa. He had already visited Benin, but did a U-turn and returned to support our team through the loss of our teammate Nancy Vogt who was killed in an accident.

In 1997 the Chownings returned to Benin to live, work, and minister among the Aja people. For four years they lived about 45 minutes from us and we saw each other almost weekly. Cyndi served faithfully at Richard's side, and was with him most of the time he went out to the village which, if you know Richard, is as often as possible.

As I write this, the memories flood back, but I know that I can't write them all here. I just need you to know that another pilgrim has gone home, being struck down in the very act of bringing God's word to people who would not have otherwise have heard it.

The Chownings were planning to leave Benin next year, having helped begun yet a second church planting movement in Africa. They wanted to be closer to the children and grandchildren. Please pray for Richard and for all their family as they walk with God through this painful time.

The photo was taken in April when we last saw the Chownings at the West Africa Missionary Retreat.

More from Singapore

2006-05-26T22:02:00.000-06:00

This week I took the boys back for an encore visit to the Singapore Science Center, which is their favorite place to go here. In addition to serious science, the Center also has a lot of fun things to look at and do. Though it may appear that I got upset with the boys, chopped off their heads, and served them on a platter, rest assured that they are fine.

This chair lift at Sentosa island felt much riskier to me, but the boys loved it!

Yesterday we saw much of Singapore from two different perspective--up high and down low.

We usually get around Singapore on the MRT--a train system that encircles the island and is good for getting to most places. There is also an extensive bus network, but usually we just take it for connecting to the MRT. Yesterday, however, we opted to take the bus for a cross-island trip which took about an hour. It was a nice, relaxed ride that took us through parts of town that we seldom see. Without going into a lot of details, the return trip took almost two hours, on a longer route in rush hour traffic. Because we got on early, we had seats, unlike most of the other passengers who stood for the entire ride. After the morning ride, I was thinking about how it can be better travel when we slow down, make more stops, and see something different. By the time we got home last night, I was ready to get back on the fast track. I guess there are times for a slow pace, and times when we need to pick it up a little.

For a higher perspective, we took both the chair lift on Sentosa island, plus the much higher cable car across Singapore's harbor. (All of this was courtesy of a friend who gave us the tickets!) I found the lower chair lift scarrier because there was much less protection. The kids were oblivious to the danger and enjoyed it much more. Ignorant bliss or childlike trust?

A Sophisticated Take on the Da Vinci Code

2006-05-24T02:27:00.000-06:00

In addition to the articles recommeded by Carson Reed (N.T. Wright's is especially good), some of the guys here in Singapore pointed me to a less confessional perspective found at:

The New Yorker: The Critics: The Current Cinema

In case you're not inclined to read the entire review, here is a pretty good summary of the point-of-view of this high-brow magazine:

"The movie is baloney; the movie is an accurate representation of the book; therefore, the book is also baloney, although it takes even longer to consume."

Of course, that's just one guy's opinion. I haven't see it yet. The one person who I've talked who has seen it advised us to wait and buy the pirated DVD because the movie wasn't, in his opinion, worth the ticket price. (I'll withhold the name of this respected clergyman.)

Photos from the Quarry

2006-05-22T20:23:00.000-06:00

Here are some snapshots we made at the "Little Guilin" rock quary on Saturday.

McInternet -- You gotta love this place!

2006-05-21T23:58:00.000-06:00

We woke up yesterday morning to the 21^st century's worst nightmare – no Internet. Since we arrived here in Singapore two weeks ago, we had been freeloading off of a neighbor’s wireless connection. It worked Saturday night, but Sunday morning, there was no connection. By Sunday night, we figured out that our neighbor had secured his connection so that we could not access it. I certainly don’t blame him or her (we’re not even sure which neighbor we were freeloading off of); we could have been hackers or virus-spreaders; but it was nice while it was lasted.

So now I’ve been relegated to making the ten minute walk to the nearest McDonalds, which is a free, wireless hotspot. School must have just let out because lots of kids in uniforms just came in. I guess I’ll be making a daily trip for a hot fudge sundae. (I’ll need to check to see how far the signal will reach and whether I actually have to come inside.)

If anyone is still checking this blog, I’ll update you on what we’ve been up to the past few days:

We spent the last three days of last week with Maureen’s aunt. She and her Scottish husband live about a fifteen-minute train ride from Maureen’s parents, where we have been the rest of the time. They have a nice apartment overlooking an old quarry that has become a lake. The area around it has been turned into a park and it is quite picturesque. Saturday morning we went out with the boys for a walk and ended up climbing the forested hill behind the quarry; when we came down the other side, we didn’t feel like climbing back up, but ended up making a much longer trek around the long way to avoid going back over the hill. Saturday was also Maureen’s birthday. I took her out Friday night for shopping and a meal while her aunt watched the boys, and then the whole family got together for a cook-out and her brother’s place on Saturday night.

Sunday we visited the new location of the Citivision church, where I had the honor speaking. The people there were most gracious, but I had a hard time getting through my lesson as my kids were behaving horribly. Any ideas on what to do as a dad when you’re preaching and your kids are misbehaving? Do you stop in mid-sermon to correct them? I would have in Africa, but it just didn’t seem to be the thing to do here. I’m sure no other preachers (or preacher-wanna-bes like me) have ever had this problem.

Now we’re back with Maureen’s parents. She is busy several days this week taking her parents for different medical appointments. I took the boys over to a local park this morning and they had a good time on the playgrounds. This park is also a mini-botanical gardens with some beautiful forested walking trails – and it’s within spittin’ distance from Maureen’s parents’ place. You wouldn’t expect to find such a place so easily in a city of 4 million, but I guess they don’t call Singapore the “Garden City” for nothing.

Tagged Again

2006-05-09T23:05:00.000-06:00

Jenna has started a new round of tag with new questions, so I’ll play along.

my favorite spices/flavors
1) smoked bacon
2) curry-green or red
3) taco or any Mexican seasoning
4) arabica coffee

four things I must do daily in hygiene
1) brush teeth
2) wash hair
3) wash face
4) anti-perspirant (aren’t you glad?)

4 things I'd rather be doing
1) reading a fast-paced novel
2) listening to a interesting/challenging lecture/sermon
3) Sunday p.m. adult worship & prayer with the Tabligbo team
4) teaching/preaching

what I'm reading
1) Revelation (with the kids, at Jeremy’s request)
2) The Essence of the Church, Craig Van Gelder
3) Straits Times, Singapore’s daily newspaper
4) These blogs

4 people I'd love to meet
1) My grandfather – Papa (James Raymond) Parker, who died when I was 2 but who left behind a rich heritage of faith
2) David Lipscomb – who strikes me as a particularly courageous leader in the Restoration movement
3) John Mark Hicks
4) Bono

jobs I would have liked to do
1) travel agent
2) counselor
3) doctor
4) extreme sports professional – not

my favorite time-wasters
1) Movies/TV serials (Alias, 24, Lost) on DVD
2) TV News
3) naps
4) web surfing/reading blogs

some websites I visit often
1) My Yahoo!
2) Bloglines.com
3) Google
4) ACU & Lipscomb “churches looking” lists

people I'm tagging (respond in comments or on your own blog)
1) Patti
2) Steve D.
3) Matt E.
4) Dee

Passing through Paris

2006-05-09T05:53:00.000-06:00

This past weekend we stopped in Paris for a couple of days of "decompression" between the goodbyes of Togo and the hellos of Singapore, where we arrived last night. The trip was quite tiring for the boys, but God answered our prayers with beautiful weather in spite of the meteorologists' predictions of showers and thunderstorms. We didn't buy any souvenirs, but we took lots of pictures -- here are a few of the more interesting ones.

Jeremy was fascinated by this man who had the birds outside the Louvre eating out of his hand. (Notice the bird hovering above Jeremy's shoulder.)

The boys, tired from three days of walking, enjoyed seeing the sights from the comfort of the river boat.

What man made for God (Notre Dame) and what God made for man. Who do you think did a better job?

Maureen was particularly happy that Paris was in bloom.

Maureen took on the Paris traffic to take this photo from the middle of the Champs-Elysee.

Friends, Romans, countrymen ... Jonathan imitates Mark Anthony in the Louvre.

One tuckered out boy and his dad.

2006-05-04T00:45:00.000-06:00

Parting Sorrows -- Maureen with Edemno at church last Sunday

Last Post from Tabligbo

2006-05-04T00:42:00.000-06:00

Once again I’ve taken a long time between posts. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, it’s that I have too much to say – or at least too much going on through my mind and I’m not sure how to say it.

We left our house a week ago and have been staying in the Crowson’s guest house. I can’t tell you what a big help they and all of our team have been to us. Just one example: Two nights ago we were eating at the Koonces and Maureen took some last minute sewing over to do on Louise’s machine. She never got it completed and left it behind there. Yesterday afternoon we came back to the Crowsons after running some errands and saying our goodbyes to our old neighbors. When we got back here, there was a plastic bag at our door containing the sewing project that Louise had completed for Maureen.

On Tuesday, I was with Marty as he was giving some counseling to the Tabligbo elders, who have been hurt by some recent events. Marty explained to them that we all experience “woundings” that we have to deal with. Without any elaboration, he mentioned that they were wounded by our leaving. He did not mean this as any kind of criticism of us for leaving, just saying that there is pain in the separation. I was reminded of Henri Nouwen’s book, The Wounded Healer, and how we minister, even more effectively, when we minister out of our own woundedness. This team has certainly done this for us.

Two days ago I celebrated my 45^th birthday. Does this qualify as mid-life?

Today is Jeremy’s eighth birthday. In about three hours, we’ll be leaving here and going down with all the team to a guest house with a pool for a low-key party, and then hang out at the Baptist conference center in the afternoon, get some rest, showers, etc. before flying out tonight at 10:20. One little hiccup – the people who are buying my car said that they need me to go with them to the vehicle registration place to sign over the papers – so that will take a little time out of my afternoon.

Sometimes I wonder what kind of husband and father I am, leaving here without a “secure” (what an illusion!) long-term job waiting when I get back. As I was lying awake in bed this morning, God reminded me of Abraham who just knew that he had been called to leave, but did not know his final destination—except that he was “looking for a heavenly city, whose builder and maker is God.”

I’m no Abraham, but I am thankful for this faith-building experience. God has displayed his love and his grace by taking care major stressor that we have faced as we have prepared for this move – Maureen’s U.S. visa, shipping our belongings, selling our vehicle, …. I could go on. I’m sure there will be other stressors on the journey, but I think that I am learning not to get quite so stressed—as I grow deeper in my confidence in God’s faithfulness.

Dithering

2006-04-20T14:55:00.000-06:00

It’s not too often that Togo makes the international news – when we qualified for the World Cup – last year’s riots and political turmoil – now a French press agency has picked up on the story of a newspaper editor who recently became a voodoo priest. Click here to read the story about Togo’s High Priest Heviosso of voodoo and the tabloid press.

The article paints a pretty rosy picture of voodoo. The editor/priest declares, "Voodoo does no harm. It protects you if you are honest and sincere. It hates treason and lies.” Yeah, right.

Just back up a few paragraphs. This man was apparently chosen to be a voodoo priest by an oracle in Vogan, a town between Tabligbo and Lomé, about 45 minutes drive from where we live. Though the article doesn’t say, the oracle was probably a “bokono,” a traditional diviner who gets messages by consulting a power known as “Afa” (just “Fa” in Benin).

The editor-turned-priest recounts how he came into his new role: "One day, I heard that the oracles of Vogan had designated me as a voodoo high priest. For a while I did not want to do this, because my wife is a pastor in her church", he says.

"But in the end I accepted, mainly because of all the misfortunes that befell my family during the time that I was dithering."

Whoa… “All the misfortunes” are obviously being attributed to his hesitancy to take up the role prescribed for him by the diviner. But I thought that “Voodoo does no harm.” Maybe it does no harm as long as one submits to its rules, regulations, sacrifices, initiations, and ceremonies. This article reveals the primary power that voodoo has over people—the power of fear. This man gave into the pressure to become a voodoo priest because he was afraid that the misfortunes would continue if he did not.

I’m not saying that the “misfortunes” that befell this man and his family were sheer accident. He’s probably right. They may well have been caused by his “dithering.”

“Dithering” is something that we humans are prone to. Joshua basically told the Israelites to “stop dithering”—“But if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15). Years later, Elijah challenged those people’s descendants: “How long are you going to waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” (1 Kings 18:31).

Even those of us who think we’ve got our minds made up about the true God can be just as guilty of dithering. That seems to have been the problem in Laodicea—the one church that Jesus had nothing good to say about in Revelation. He told them, “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15).

It seems that ditherers don’t fare well with God, either. He calls for commitment.

So does that mean that we are motivated by the same kind of fear that moved this voodoo priest to finally make a commitment? I think there are some important differences, not the least of which is that the one to whom we are committed, because He is eternal and holy, is the only one who is worthy of our absolute allegiance. Another difference is that God does allow us the freedom to not choose him. Of course he is offended by those who alienate themselves from him. And those people risk being alienated from him eternally. But what offends him the most is those who claim to have chosen him, yet by their actions show that they are dithering—their choice is not whole hearted.

The existentialists were right when they said that we give meaning to our lives through commitment. What they didn’t see is that whether that meaning is valid depends entirely on the object of our commitment. Are we committed to what is wholly good, pure, eternal and true, or are we committed to gods or goods that seduce with quick-fixes and temporary solutions?

As for me and my house …

Perspective

2006-04-19T10:51:00.000-06:00

Like everywhere else in the world, we’ve watched fuel prices climb pretty steadily in Togo over the past few years. Putting off the inevitable pinch, I had not put any fuel in our car since we returned from Ghana almost two weeks ago. Yesterday I pulled into the local Total station with each of our Toyota Prado’s two tanks less than ¼ full. I didn’t even want to think about filling both tanks, but I didn’t set a limit as the attendants at the station began pumping. (There’s no such thing as self-service here, although there was one station in Benin where they would let me pump my own.) I had them stop the pumping at 40,000 francs (about $75). I had not even completely filled one of the tanks.

As the numbers on the new gas pumps clicked rapidly away, I noticed that the service station attendants were laughing among themselves. I soon discovered what they were laughing about – they were just amused that, in a matter of seconds, I had spent more on diesel fuel than they made in an entire month! I was humbled and even a little embarrassed by this fact. These guys are not bums. They have to be fairly well educated and are probably looked at by others as having good jobs, just by virtue of the fact that they have a steady income. They speak at least two, but probably three or more languages. But within less than a minute, I had spent what was to them a lot of money on fuel which, if I am lucky, will last until we sell our car in a week or so.

I’m not real sure what I’m getting at here. We need our cars for our lives and ministries, or so we tell ourselves. Even if I gave my car to the local brethren instead of selling it before I leave, it would be absolutely useless to them. There is no way they could pay to operate it, much less maintain it. But it does make me wonder why our needs are so much greater than theirs.

It also reminds me to reflect a little before I complain about paying for luxuries. Thanks to generous supporters, I can put fuel in the car. And if I couldn’t, like the Africans, I would find another way to live.

Maybe what I am learning is that I need to be more intentional about my lifestyle. I have no idea what resources I will have to live on in the States. I’m not even sure what I’m going to do for a long-term job, though I’m confident that God will provide. When he does, it may be a little, or it may be a lot. If it’s a little, maybe the choices will be easier. If it is more, then I’ll need to think hard about what is needed and what is truly useful—what helps and what hinders living a full life. And never forget those who will never have a credit card to swipe as they wince and push the “Fill” button at the gas pump.

Be It Ever So Empty ...

2006-04-09T01:16:00.000-06:00

We returned home last night after a ten-day trip to Ghana. Even though most of our stuff is gone and the house is pretty bare, it is still good to be home. In my case, it’s just for a few hours as I leave tonight for a six day trip. Please pray for Maureen and the boys while I’m away, safety in my travel, and that God will continue to work to reveal his will for our family.

We left last Thursday and drove over to Kumasi, Ghana. Our drive took us through some beautiful, hilly areas that we have not been through before. In Kumasi, we stayed with the Obengs and visited and said goodbye to several of Maureen’s friends from her days as a nurse there before we were married.

From Kumasi, we traveled down to Accra, Ghana’s capital and largest city. As we approached Accra, we were happy to see that the highway leading into the city had been widened to four lanes – but then got quite a fright when we realized that traffic was traveling in both directions on both sides of the median! We spent a few days hanging out and eating out with our teammates in Accra, just to have some focused time together before our departure.

From Accra, we went to Elmina and Coconut Grove resort for our annual West Africa Missionary Conference. This year we officially combined the retreat with missionaries from the Christian church (we’ve been visiting one another’s retreats for the past few years). It was a great and refreshing time of fellowship.

I’ve posted a few pictures below. Click here to see a larger version of the group photo from the retreat.

2006-04-09T01:01:00.000-06:00

Sunrise at Coconut Grove. That's why they call it a RETREAT! What a restful and refreshing experience during a very hectic and stressful phase of life.

2006-04-09T01:00:00.000-06:00

Old friends and new. Jeremy (right) with old friend Stephen Crowson (left) and new friend Drew Jones, an MK from Ivory Coast.

2006-04-09T00:58:00.000-06:00

Our family at the 2006 West Africa Missionary Retreat at Coconut Grove, Elmina, Ghana.

2006-04-09T00:57:00.000-06:00

Samuel and Comfort Obeng, also in Kumasi. Brother Obeng has been the visionary leader behind many good works in Ghana. Maureen lived next door to the in the Obengs when she was a nurse in Ghana. We stayed in their guest house on this trip.

2006-04-09T00:54:00.000-06:00

Gabriel and Afia Opong in Kumasi, Ghana. Gabriel is an elder and preaches for the Bomso church in Kumasi. Afia and Maureen were good friends when Maureen lived in Kumasi. Since then, Afia has taken classes and now speaks English!

2006-04-09T00:51:00.000-06:00

The daring young man ... Jonathan shows off his trapeze skills.

I Sing Praises to Your Name!

2006-04-01T16:52:00.000-06:00

Let me start by apologizing for my hiatus from blogging and thanking those of you who keep checking this page without finding anything new of interest. I’ve been overwhelmed by the incredible pace of change in my life right now, and equally overwhelmed by the knowledge that this pace of change probably won’t slow down anytime soon. This has been a great time of faith-stretching, and I’d like to share with you a couple of ways that I’ve seen God work directly in my life lately.

This past Tuesday we packed and sent off a shipping container with our personal belongings that we wanted to bring back to the States. We found that we had quite a lot that we want to keep—books, pictures, and furniture. We’ve had a good bit of furniture built here in West Africa. Not only is it 100% hardwood, which we’re told is almost impossible to find in the States, but we also think that having some things from our African home in whatever new home we end up in will give a healthy feeling of continuity between our present lives and what they will become.

We were sharing the container with two other families who are also leaving West Africa. When we began to look at what they were wanting to bring back and what we wanted to bring back, it became very difficult to see how it was all going to fit into the forty-foot container that we had reserved. We kept packing, and kept finding more stuff we wanted to keep. At the same time, we began to think about the things that we would leave behind if all did not fit. We became increasingly certain that we would be making those tough choices, praying—perhaps with little faith—that we would not have to.

The morning that the container arrived in Tabligbo, I was shocked when I saw how big it appeared to be. When I read the measurements that were posted on the outside of the container, I saw that it was over a foot taller than what we had expected. To make a long story short, there was plenty of room for everyone’s belongings. We heaved a tremendous sigh of relief.

I’m writing this post from Accra, Ghana, and we’ve traveled hundreds of miles over the past few days. We have passed many shipping containers riding on the backs of trucks. I am convinced that none of them were as tall as the one God provided for us. Our transit agent told us that it was a brand new container; that this was probably only its second voyage. It seems there is a new size for shipping containers, and we got a big one. I believe that God cared about something as “worldly” as shipping our goods and provided just what we needed.

I’ve been going through another saga trying to arrange plane tickets for a whirlwind trip to the States. I needed to make a trip back to check out a ministry opportunity (and to be checked out), but there didn’t seem to be the means. Then last Saturday, my teammate Jeff Holland told me that he had won a free ticket to Paris at the horse club where his wife Brenda rides. They were not going to be able to use it, and offered it to me if I could. This past Monday, I spoke with some folks in the States and they invited me to come over, using the free ticket to get as far as Paris. It would be a quick trip—less than a week. That would allow me to maximize my time with my family, and to not miss any of our Sundays of saying goodbye to the different churches here.

So I began investigating possibilities for getting to the States. I found out that any ticket that is good for less than a one-week stay is incredibly expensive. But I called SIAMA, a missions travel agency based in the Netherlands, and found that they could issue a ticket with no minimum stay. They were able to get me a good price.

I had already been trying to get the Togo to Paris ticket issued. I called the airline and made reservations for the dates we had discussed. Because we had been packing our container on Tuesday, I could not go down to the airline office that day to claim my free ticket. The following day, all businesses, schools, and offices were closed in the morning, because of the total eclipse of the sun that was seen in our part of the world. So Wednesday afternoon, I made the one and a half hour drive down to Lome. My reservation was in the computer. All I had to do was pay the taxes and fees and the ticket – wait – the ticket could not be issued because the airline was at the end of their fiscal year and couldn’t issue a new ticket until April 1—three days later. But by then (now), I would be in Ghana But really it couldn’t be done until April 3, since the 1^st was a Saturday. But there would be NO PROBLEM, I was assured. They could even email me the e-ticket.

But we are in Africa. And I, an experienced African missionary, know that things can never be as simple as that. I assumed that by Monday or Tuesday, I would be trying to get through from on the phones from Ghana to Togo, desperately trying to get them to issue my ticket.

Boy, was I wrong.

Our travel plans put me through a 48+-hour internet blackout. This was one of the best things for me in a long time, because there was nothing I could do about the situation but to pray—which I did a lot of—and to trust—which I’m still learning to do. My stress levels, I must admit, have been running pretty high all week.

When I arrived here in Accra today and checked my email, I saw the confirmation, as I had expected, of my flight from Paris to the States. But then as I scrolled through my email, I was astounded to see that my Togo-Paris ticket had also been issued – 2 days ago – well before April 1. I checked all the details and everything lined up just right.

I heaved a great sigh of relief and basked in the knowledge that God truly is amazing and does amazing things for his kids. I know my travel plans are miniscule compared to the problems that many people—even some of you who are reading this—are facing. But God reminded me that he cares for me, and I know that he cares for you too.

For another story of God’s amazing grace and mercy and eagerness to act on behalf of his children, I encourage you to read Christine Crowson’s post on their family’s Audience of One blog site, as they family goes through the enormously complicated process of adopting a child from China.

Game Park Slide Show

2006-03-18T15:31:00.000-06:00

Murphy has posted a slide show of our trip to the game park on our team web site.

Click here to go straight to the show.

Blue Belt!

2006-03-16T14:24:00.000-06:00

“My bruder’s got da blue belt!” Jonathan was more excited than anyone today when Jeremy was awarded his blue belt in Taekwando. The boys usually have their lessons at the Koonce’s house, but our yard is a little more level, so they choose to have their “test” in our yard. Their teacher, Mr. Frank, comes up from Lomé on Thursdays. For those of you who know Jeremy, you know he’s not a very aggressive kid, but this is toughening him up a little.

Jeremy shows his stuff.

Jeremy (blue) and Tanner spar.

Jeremy receives his blue belt.

Notice how the four year olds are acting like, well, four year olds?

Game Park Trip

2006-03-14T02:56:00.000-06:00

We rolled in last night about 8:30 p.m. following a twelve and a half hour trip home from a trip to the Penjari game park in northern Benin. This was a father/son camping trip that we had been trying to pull off for some time now. The dads and sons on our team made some good memories. We were accompanied by Jenna and Stacey, our kids’ teachers, and Glenda Spears, Brenda Holland’s sister. We let the girls tag along to help keep us guys civilized. This was my boys’ first experience at “real camping,” as they called it – I guess that’s opposed to spending the night in tent in the yard. Well, after four days away, I’ve a lot of catching up to do, but I did want to let you know where we’ve been.

For the perspective of one who was left behind, read Maureen's Musings on being "Home Alone."

2006-03-14T02:54:00.000-06:00

Happy, tired campers

2006-03-14T02:47:00.000-06:00

Elephants in the forest

2006-03-14T02:42:00.000-06:00

Snack time

2006-03-14T02:41:00.000-06:00

Franks and beans for dinner

2006-03-14T02:40:00.001-06:00

Baobab tree at sunset

2006-03-14T02:40:00.000-06:00

Hartabeasts

2006-03-14T02:39:00.000-06:00

Bath time for the elephants

2006-03-14T02:34:00.000-06:00

Waterfall, northern Benin

2006-03-14T02:33:00.000-06:00

Cob Antelope in Marsh

Spaghetti Hermeneutics

2006-03-08T04:47:00.000-06:00

I thought this comment made by eddy (sic) on Mike Cope’s blog was thought-provoking.

We had a spaghetti supper Sunday nite. Amazing how many different ways spaghetti was interpreted--some unfamiliar with the law of exclusion added meatballs and mushrooms. No mention of sauce had been made but evidently, sauce was necessarily inferred. It was a good dinner for our community and most folks humbly admitted each recipe was good.

Keeping Busy

2006-03-06T10:29:00.000-06:00

I’ve been on the road quite a bit and, until today, too busy to blog. One incident on my travels, seems to better fit the “Grace Notes” category. Click here to read about “Grace at the Mosque.”

Living Among the Pagans

2006-02-25T02:47:00.000-06:00

We’re excited today as we get ready to go down to Lome to welcome my friend Tod Vogt, his mother, and his daughter, Hannah. They will be here for about a week and I’ll be spending much of that time with them in Benin, where Tod and I formerly worked together.

Carson Reed has reported on a dialogue that he has been having with some Christian leaders on missional thinking; specifically, what evangelism in the local church look like. Here are some thoughts I put togther on the subject:

Rick Wood’s reference to Jesus’ “marketplace approach” got me to thinking about what this might look like for ministry today. From his following comments, I know Rick doesn’t have “marketing the church” in mind, but unfortunately this is the approach the church usually takes. Guder, Hunsberger, and others have lamented the role that the church has often assumed as a vendor of religious goods and services, which must compete with other vendors.

(The marketing analogy does have some merits. There is, in a sense, a marketplace of ideas. People do make choices about worldview and ultimate allegiance. In presenting Jesus, we try to persuade others to choose him. What is ultimately Christ-denying, however, is when we follow the content-less approach of contemporary advertising and market the cross by covering it with a slick veneer in an effort to make discipleship appear less costly.)

I think that the African market may be similar to the marketplace in which Jesus interacted, for the market is not only a place where goods are bought and sold, but also a place where people come together. In Togo, the weekly market day is a time to congregate, to share news, to make connections.

The market is also a busy, hot, crowded, dirty, smelly place. To tell you the truth, I don’t really like to go there. I’d much rather be working in my office or meeting with a few mature church leaders who already know me and share my priorities. I’d rather do my shopping in a clean, impersonal, air-conditioned supermarket.

Evangelism can be shared as good news, however, only when we are engaged in the real-life activity of the marketplace. Peter says “Live such good lives among the pagans …” (1 Peter 2:12). How much of our lives are lived “among the pagans”?

This is a particular challenge to those of us engaged in full-time ministry. We have to be intentional about seeking out opportunities to live “among the pagans,” because we may not have many opportunities if we do not. In The Missional Church, the authors define the minister’s role as a missionary to the congregation, who in turn takes God’s mission to the world. No doubt, that is a large and important part of our function. But we cannot equip the church to minister in the world if we are disconnected from it.

Connecting with those who visit the public meetings of the church is a good place to start. To fail to do so would amount to criminal negligence. But this may not lead us to “living our lives among the pagans.” Always there is the time crunch. We have to find ways, however, to present Jesus, not just through the show we produce on Sunday mornings (that’s what I felt I was watching when I visited Willow Creek—but I sure enjoyed the show!), but through the fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives. Otherwise, people will never witness the hope we have and demand an explanation.

The “evangelistic effort of the local church” should consist primarily of equipping Christians to live lives “among the pagans” that put Jesus on display, lives that display hope, and equipping them to “give an answer” (1 Peter 3:15)—to verbalize why that hope is in Jesus and to invite others to put their hope in him. And while it is true that “Our job is not to save, but to present Jesus,” our job is to pray passionately that people will see the Jesus who is on display, that they be drawn to him, and to provide direction for their search.

Keeping Up With the Bloggers

2006-02-17T16:17:00.000-06:00

According to Dee, these "Word Clouds" are the latest thing. And if Dee has one, I know I want one too. I'll save you the Google search. Go to Snapshirts.com. I don't think I'll be ordering a t-shirt, which is apparently their motivation for doing t his. The word clouds are supposed to show the most frequently found words on your web site. Anything to keep up.

We've had a rather full week. One of our big events was getting robbed in Lome, which you can read about on Maureen's post, or see my perspective in this Grace Note.

We're having our annual Watchi men's conference this weekend, winding up Saturday morning. It's been so good to see these men together as they take real leadership for the movement.

Both Maureen's dad and mine have been in the hospital this week. My dad had a dye test and I just heard from my sister that he got a basically good report--no new blockages and his old stint is holding. Praise God!

OK, I'm "It"

2006-02-09T00:24:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Denise, I’ve been tagged. For my readers who don’t know Denise, she was in the singles group at Homewood when I went there to get to know they church before they shipped me off to Africa. Being single at the time myself, we hung out in the same circles and had a lot of fun. Neither of us are singles now, but we’re still buds. It’s good to have re-connected through blogland. She’s now living with her family in one of the four places that I’ve lived (listed below).

So, here are my answers:

Four Jobs I've Had:
Grocery bag boy at Big Star supermarket in Florence, Alabama (and we even took them to your car!)
Deli clerk at Kroger in Nashville (Had to get a job once mom and dad had to start sending two kids to Lipscomb.)
Recreational Therapist at Abilene State School (I got to play with some really neat people for 20 hours a week.)
Secretary to a missionary-in-residence at ACU (Yes, guys can do that. Right, Alan?)

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over:
Chariots of Fire
Star Wars—episodes 3-6
Lord of the Rings—all episodes
Toy Story 2 – I have kids, so I have watched it over and over.

Four Books I Could Read Over and Over:
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
I just LOVE the main character (‘cause he loved me first.)

Four Places I've Lived:
Killen, AL – born and bred
Auckland, New Zealand (They don’t call it GodZone country for nothing.)
Abilene, TX – Grad school that changed my life.
Tabligbo, Togo – Home for the past 4 ½ years and less than 3 months to go. After here, the adventure really begins!

Four TV Shows I Watch:
(Only when I can borrow the DVDs)
Alias
24
Lost
CNN News (on those rare occasions when I’m near a satellite TV)

Four Places I’ve Been on Vacation:
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park – This has become my family's default vacation spot.
Tanjung Pinang, Bintam Island, Indonesia – Ask me to tell you a funny honeymoon story sometime.
Coconut Grove Beach Resort (Elmina, Ghana) – Best getaway place in West Africa
Dano, Burkina Faso – No reason anyone would want to getaway there, except to see good friends.

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
My Yahoo – For news, sports, and weather
Bloglines – This is where I find out who has posted since my last check.
BBC News – Good way to catch up on the world and it loads quickly with a dialup connection
Mike Cope's blog – Doesn’t everyone?

Four Favorite Foods:
(Maureen says I eat everything, so it’s hard to pick a favorite; but these are four I really like.)
Bak Qua – Spicy Chinese BBQ pork
Fajitas – or just about anything TexMex
Singapore Chili Crab
Fried Catfish

Four Places I’d Like to Be Right Now:
In bed with my wife (OK, I saw that someone else had said that, but it’s true. In fact, I’m going right now. I’ll finish this later.)
At home with my kids.
In Alabama, talking with my mom
Worship at Homewood

People to Tag:
Randy
Bryan
Murphy

Why did I get my M.Div?

2006-02-09T00:09:00.000-06:00

When a rock star can preach like this? Talk about lay leadership!

Please, it'll take a few minutes, but read Bono's message at the National Prayer Breakfast or if, unlike me, you have a high speed connection, watch the video (link courtesy Greg Taylor).

Then, if you have the time, go back to the Matthew's House Project homepage. I just discovered this site, but it looks like there's some good stuff there.

What do we expect?

2006-02-08T05:18:00.000-06:00

I think that most of us have been stunned by the reaction in the Muslim world to the cartoons depicting Muhammad in less than honorable terms. If I understand correctly, Muslims would be offended by any depiction of their prophet, just as they would of any “graven image” depicting God. Fair enough.

I was almost equally stunned this morning when I opened an email to a newsletter that I was somehow subscribed to. It is called To the Source, and deals with issues of contemporary culture from an evangelical Christian/conservative Catholic perspective. They often have a lot of good things to say. But I disagreed with the gist of today’s article.

The author says that, just as Muslims object publicly when their beliefs are ridiculed, so should Christians. Here are a couple of excerpts that I hope will represent fairly what the author, Dinesh D’Souza, a Stanford scholar, was saying.

Obviously, in the Muslim world, blasphemy is a big deal. But if Muslim intolerance has gone too far, have Christians taken tolerance to excess?

But what is striking about conservative Christians is how passive and invertebrate so many of them are when their deepest beliefs are violated. The distinguishing quality of the Christian seems to be niceness, and I don't mean this as a compliment. When a man calls your wife a whore it is not a virtue to respond with niceness. When your religion is mocked and blasphemed, it is sign of cowardice to pretend not to notice.

Sound reasonable? Perhaps. But I think that it’s easy to miss that this is a key distinction between Muhammad and Jesus, and why their followers are on such divergent paths. Jesus taught his disciples to expect to be in the minority, to expect persecution, and to accept it as the normal state of affairs. He himself set the example of how his disciples respond to insults—“he opened not his mouth.”

Muhammad, on the other hand, taught his disciples to expect to be in the majority, to dominate, and to resist persecution. He regularly led raids on neighboring tribes. In the spread of Islam, persuasion was considered the ideal means of conversion, but those who were not persuaded were taxed severely and commercially isolated. Islam is a religion of the majority. Its adherents cannot accept anything less than cultural domination as normal. I do not say this to insult Muhammad or his followers, just to point out that Jesus and Muhammad taught different things, and therefore their followers respond differently to insult and injury.

This is not to say that Christians do not seek to influence society and the culture surrounding them. We follow the example of One who revolutionized the world, but who did it through peace. Of course it hurts and even angers us when we see and hear our Lord insulted, but we honor him best by responding as he did, not in following our instinct to strike back.

A Big Box of Cereal

2006-02-03T05:43:00.000-06:00

I read this amazing quote this morning on Chris Chappotin’s blog. Chris is doing church planting in the Ft. Worth area.

I Think I See a Plank in my Eye

If you are looking for some sobering words, read this quote from Philip D. Kenneson's Life on the Vine: Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit in Christian Community:
"If all God cared about, for example, was that people were fed, then presumably God might have chosen to distribute [the world's] resources more equitably. But God also cares deeply about the way people get fed. To see why this might be the case, entertain the following thought-experiment. Imagine that you are going away for the weekend and you need to provide for your five children in your absence. You could, if all you cared about what that they were provided for, give each of them a large box of breakfast cereal and instruct each to take care of him or herself in your absence. But you could also make one of the children the steward of the cereal with instructions to make sure all were provided for, knowing that this would require the children to learn to interact with each other in ways that would be unnecessary in the fend-for-yourself strategy.
What if God has entrusted to some of us much more than we need, not as a sign of God's favor or as a 'blessing' to be hoarded, but as a call to reach out to those in need that they might be provided for by the One who loves them most? It may be that too many of us have taken the large box of cereal, written a check for 10 percent of its volume to the church, and then gone off to enjoy one heck of a big breakfast. Surely this is not stewardship." (pgs. 52-53)

Living in Africa, it’s hard to forget what big box of cereal I have. Last night, about 7:00 p.m., just as I had started the bedtime routine by reading a chapter from The Chronicles of Narnia to Jeremy, our neighbor came to our gate. She said that her sixteen-year old son had broken his leg at 5:00 p.m. and needed to go to the hospital. She wanted to take him to a Catholic hospital, about 45 minutes from us, so that it would be set correctly.

I made some quick preparations to take them and pulled my car across the road to their house, where a large number of neighbors had gathered around the injured boy, who was lying on a concrete slab. Someone had made a splint for his leg. A man who seemed to be in charge (I learned later he was a school principal) was saying that we could not take the boy yet because the father had gone to get a taxi to take him to the hospital, and we couldn’t take him without the father’s permission. We waited around for a while; I asked my guard what he thought was going on, and he said that the father was probably out looking to borrow money so they could afford the hospital bill. Then the principal came to me and suggested that we go ahead and load the boy into the car so he would be ready when the father returned.

We got the boy and his mother loaded into our car and the father returned almost immediately afterwards. As the four of us left for the hospital, it seemed to take forever even to get out of Tabligbo. Knowing that the boy in the back seat had a broken bone made me more conscious than usual of all of the bumps and pot holes in our town’s dirt roads. Even once out-of-town, the paved road is badly potholed for about the first 15 km. Then it gets a little better.

We arrived at the hospital and drove up to the “emergency room.” They brought out a gurney and the boy’s parents and I lifted him out of the car on to it, and wheeled him in. The emergency staff consisted of a couple of nurses who checked his temperature and blood pressure and then slowly registered his personal information in a large notebook. The emergency consultation cost 3,000 francs—about $5.50—which I saw the father slowly count out from a bag of small change he had brought. Eventually a medical assistant came and took a closer look at the injury and began a medical file. Nothing could be done until the next morning, when the family would have to pay a deposit of 45,000 francs ($85, or a month’s salary for our housekeeper) to cover x-rays, a cast, etc. before treatment would begin.

I asked the father how much he had, and he said that he had 30,000 francs, and that he would return to Tabligbo with me that night and try to bring the rest of the money the next morning. (I knew that meant making another round to his friends and relatives to try to borrow more money.) As I watched the parents slowly count through the stack of change and 1,000 franc bills they had brought, I shared some of my cereal box with him.

Of course, a broken leg would set you back a lot more than $100 in the States, but proportional to this family’s income, this costs a lot more to treat. And insurance? It’s unheard of.

Already this morning, two other people have come to my gate needing help. One, a known scammer, I turned away. The other I helped.

I’ve often said that the most difficult thing about living in Africa is not the malaria and it’s not being separated from family—it’s being a rich man in a poor society. During my earlier years here I really resented the burden. But over the past few years I’ve learned to look at it differently. God has entrusted me as a steward, not to save the world (that’s His job), but to bless those I can within my sphere of influence. And in giving me a bigger cereal box, he is teaching me more about how to let go of myself and serve others.

Inheriting the Earth

2006-02-01T03:01:00.000-06:00

I’m not ready to unconditionally adopt the pacifism advocated by Lee Camp in his book Mere Discipleship (see my Dec. 19, 2005 post). But reading his book certainly made me more sensitive to the contradictions which Christians easily enter into in advocating war-making. I thought this paragraph from last night’s State of the Union address was a good example.

Lacking the military strength to challenge us directly, the terrorists have chosen the weapon of fear. When they murder children at a school in Beslan - or blow up commuters in London - or behead a bound captive - the terrorists hope these horrors will break our will, allowing the violent to inherit the Earth. But they have miscalculated: We love our freedom, and we will fight to keep it.

Obviously, President Bush was referring to the Beatitude, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). Not the violent, but the meek. How then do we move to the position, “we will fight to keep our freedom”? It’s amazing how easy it is to weave in allusions to Jesus to defend a position that Jesus would never have taken.

We just celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and now we mourn the passing of his widow, Coretta Scott King. Surely the path of non-violence that they advocated presents a more Christ-like alternative.

I am thankful for the freedom I enjoy as an American, and I realize that this freedom was bought with blood, often shed in violence. I have trouble rejecting the use of force in all circumstances. But I do think we need to be careful not to twist Jesus’ words to justify our own agendas.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

2006-01-29T15:38:00.000-06:00

Tonight we had our annual chinese New Year dinner with our team. We're blessed to have teammates who so eagerly join with our family in this important cultural celebration. Of course, who wouldn't if it means getting some of Maureen's cooking. This year we had fried rice, rice and beef satay, stir fried vegetables, and baked chicken. All the kids enjoyed getting their traditional ang pow (red packet) from Auntie Maureen. Jenna and Louise came over in the afternoon to help with the preparations. This year's celebration seemed to mean more to everyone as we realized that this is the last one that we will celebrate in Togo with this team.

We do wish all of you God's richest blessings in the new year.

By the way, this is Maureen's year. I get a kick out of telling people I married a dog. Of course, that only applies to the Chinese zodiac, as the photos below will readily attest. (Shouldn't they have called it the year of the fox?)

Ushering in the Year of the Dog

2006-01-29T15:10:00.000-06:00

Our Family on the first day of Chinese New Year

Our "family" reunion dinner--the Watchi team joins the celebration

Tucker gets his ang pow from Auntie Maureen

Have you ever seen two finer looking Chinese boys?

Hurt Without Harm

2006-01-21T12:16:00.000-06:00

Maureen and I have been reading a book called Boundaries with Kids by Henry Cloud and John Townsend. I’ve found a lot of very practical help in the book in dealing with my kids, such as empathizing with their frustrations and yet setting clear boundaries. Yesterday, the kids had a friend over after school to play. When dark and supper time drew near, I told them that I would need to take their friend home. Jonathan, my youngest, did not like that idea at all. I cut off his protests and explained to him that it also made me sad when my friends had to leave, but that if he didn’t straighten up, then his friend would not be able to visit next time. Knowing that I was serious, Jonathan accepted reality and went inside. When I returned from taking the friend home, Jonathan had already had his bath and was ready for supper.

OK, so it’s not exactly the wisdom of Solomon, but I do appreciate the practical help.

Another principle in the book is that parents should look for ways of discipline that hurt, but do not harm, the child. In the early years, that may be “hurt” that the parent physically applies to the child. As they grow, the hurt comes from structuring consequences that come from the child’s own choices, and allowing the child to experience them. It’s hard to see your child hurt, but they will not learn self-discipline without experiencing pain.

Hurt, however, is not the same thing as harm. Children should be allowed to experience hurt, but it is the parents’ job to protect them from harm, and certainly to never do anything that would harm the child physically, emotionally, relationally, or spiritually.

I’ve been reading about the resurrection of Lazarus, and I’ve been intrigued with Jesus’ delay in coming to Bethany, where Mary and Martha had been waiting for him to show up and heal their brother. Have you noticed that, when Jesus does finally arrive, Mary and Martha both greet Jesus in the same way? “Lord,” they both say on separate occasions, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21, 32). It sounds like they had been saying this to one another -- “If Jesus would just show up, he could heal him. If Jesus had come, none of this would have happened. We called for Jesus. Why hasn’t he shown up?”

Maybe you’ve felt the same way. Maybe you’ve called for Jesus, but he hasn’t shown up. Why does he let you hurt so badly?

Jesus knew that he intended to do something much greater than healing Lazarus – he was going to raise him. But he also knew that in order for that to happen, his friends had to hurt. But what keeps this from being a cruel manipulation is that Jesus was hurting, too. In his commentary on John, F.F. Bruce translates that Jesus “shook with emotion” and “burst into tears” (John 11:33-37, p. 246). In her earlier confession that Jesus was the “Messiah” and the “Son of God” (John 11:27), Martha had been exactly right. But Jesus was also the Son of Man. Even more than it hurts me to see my kids hurt from the consequences that I impose on them, it hurt Jesus deeply to witness the pain of others – especially pain that he himself had caused.

But Jesus would not allow his friends to be harmed. As he had already told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” In Jesus, even death is not ultimate and so, in spite of death, no ultimate harm can come to the believer.

Jesus allows—sometimes even causes—us to hurt. But because he is resurrection and his is life, he always protects us from harm.

Hope

2006-01-12T00:17:00.000-06:00

It’s been a while since I posted anything—maybe the family news and creative juices decided to take a post-holidays holiday. Several of you have found Maureen’s recent post. If not, I encourage you to wander over to Maureen’s Musings and have a read.

Several weeks ago, the guys on our team started reading some excerpts from devotional literature and meeting together weekly to share our thoughts and reactions to what we are reading. This week we’re reading some selections from Thomas Merton, a recently modern (mid-20^th century) author. Merton writes about meditation, which is something that I don’t know much about. The suggested activities after the writing include spending fifteen minutes a day meditating on a single theme.

Do you know how hard it is to spend fifteen minutes focused on one thing, even if it is multi-faceted? My thoughts for the day are on “hope.” I knew that if I didn’t write some of these thoughts down, I would lose them, and this seemed to be the most secure place to put them—at least as long as Blogger stays in business. (Did you ever wonder what will happen to all these millions of posts when they decide eventually to hang it up, or someone else decides for them? It’s bound to happen one day.) – Now, see what I mean about the difficulty I have focusing?

It occurred to me that my hope is always tethered to the second coming of Jesus, but even that hope is anchored in the resurrection. My thoughts then turned the original disciples and that lonely, hopeless Sabbath they spent between the crucifixion and the resurrection. It was only a day, but if you’ve ever been without hope, you know how long a day can be. And the nights on either side. Night time can be the worst.

It didn’t matter that Jesus had repeatedly told them, “I’m going to die, and on the third day rise again.” They couldn’t grasp the first part, so the following promise didn’t sink in either. Yet although they had lost hope, hope itself was not lost. Beyond all hope, Jesus did rise again, did again appear to them, and did pour out his Spirit upon them. In spite of their hopelessness, Jesus was faithful to his promise.

Jesus has told me that he is coming again. While I think I have a little better grasp on that than the disciples did of the resurrection, my thinking and behavior often betray the fact that I don’t have a great deal more faith than they did. How often do I think and act as if this were the final epoch, that this world is all there is? And while I know Jesus will return, it’s hard to live in eager expectation. And I have so many questions about what the new world will be. What is the “new heaven” and what is the “new earth”? Sometimes it seems this present reality will be totally replaced, at other times it seems that it will be renewed.

I gain some encouragement from the knowledge that my confusion is not as great as that of those early disciples. Because they bore faithful witness to the resurrection, I have even more to hang my hat on than they did. Yet sometimes my hope does grow weak. But just like them, even though I may be tempted to lose hope, hope itself is not lost. Just as the certainty of Jesus’ resurrection did not depend on their grasp of his promises, so the promise of his appearing does not depend on me or how strong my faith is. For hope is rooted in God, and not in me.

And so it is when it comes to all the other things that I hope for—for my own maturity, for my family’s future, for fruitful ministry, for the strength, stability, and growth of the Watchi churches. Even if I lose hope, hope is not lost, for hope is rooted in a faithful God, and not in my foggy vision.

Imagine

2006-01-01T05:35:00.000-06:00

Imagine your schoolroom was a thatch-roofed hanger on wooden poles, with no walls and a dirt floor.

Imagine your desk was a narrow wooden bench that you shared with another student.

Imagine you had no text books.

Imagine your student-teacher ration was 100:1

Now imagine you could not use your hands.

May this young man, AKPLASSOU Yao Atchou, who lives in Amoussime, Togo, encourage us all to overcome whatever challenges lie before us in 2006.

God bless and Happy New Year.

(Photo courtesy of my neighbor, a different Yao, who I wrote about on this Grace Notes post.)

Holiday Meal

2005-12-31T03:19:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we hosted a holiday meal for some of our friends here in Tabligbo—our houseworker Emily, our guard George and his family, and the elders at Tabligbo and those of their families who could attend. Emily is single, but she is raising her orphaned nephew, David. For me, the best part of the day was Jeremy’s prayer last night, when he thanked God that he had found a new friend, David.

Papa Antoine and Jacques

Emily and David

Everyone Together

George and Family

Christmas Photos

2005-12-31T02:59:00.000-06:00

Our family skit

Team on Christmas Day

Here are a couple of photos from our team Christmas gathering that I talked about in an earlier post.

BBC NEWS | Health | How malaria dupes immune system

2005-12-29T02:38:00.000-06:00

We always knew malaria was tricky, now we know why!

"It's like a leopard being able to change its spots." --Dr Alan Cowman

Read the BBC article.

Neither Seeking Nor Rejecting Anything

2005-12-29T02:29:00.000-06:00

“What God asks of us is a will which is no longer divided between him and any creature. It is a will pliant in his hands which neither seeks nor rejects anything, which wants without reserve whatever he wants, and which never wants under any pretext anything which he does not want.”

“What folly to fear to be too entirely God’s! It is to fear to be too happy. It is to fear to love God’s will in all things. It is to fear to have too much courage in the crosses which are inevitable, too much comfort in God’s love, and too much detachment from the passions which make us miserable.”

“How dangerous it is for our salvation, how unworthy of God and of ourselves, how pernicious even for the peace of our hearts, to want always to stay where we are!”

“All is not too much for God.”

--François Fénelon (1651-1715)

Christmas...The Rest of the Day

2005-12-26T01:42:00.000-06:00

Happy Boxing Day, everyone! (I always liked the way the British have of squeezing another holiday out of Christmas.)

Yesterday afternoon at 4:00, we headed over to our teammates the Koonces for our team Christmas party. Louise is a great decorator and had spread a beautiful Christmas table (actually, several tables; there were 21 of us). Our first order of business was the Christmas follies where each family was charged with entertaining the crowd in some way. These skits were performed on a stage—complete with curtains—set up next to the Koonces’ jungle gym. The Crowsons had come up with a “Guess-and-sing-that-Christmas-carol Pictionary-style game that was lots of fun (even though my team lost). The Hollands & Sextons did a funny old West adaptation of the nativity story, while the Koonces entertained us with a Togolese version of the 12 Days of Christmas. Trevor was really cute as “a bat in a mango tree.” Not having an original bone in our collective bodies, our family performed a nativity skit from a Willow Creek production, Long Story Short. We discovered that the boys, especially Jonathan, are much better at remembering their lines than the old folks.

Following the obligatory team photo, it was back inside for food, glorious food. The cooks on our team really put on the dog—I should say, put on the turkey (that was actually moist!), dressing, cranberry sauce, potatoes au gratin, Mexican corn casserole, green bean casserole – pretty much the same things most of you ate. Louise broke out some precious Millstone hazelnut coffee that went great with the desserts.

Gift exchange was as chaotic as a it should be in a big family. We all made out pretty well and enjoyed sharing with each other.

Of course, we were exhausted by the time we got home. Today we are taking Stacey and Shannon down to the beach. We plan to stay one night, while they will stay on until Thursday. We’re trying out a new place that looks pretty nice, and the price is right. Their full-color brochure advertises in English, “Come into your air-conditioned room, turn on the television, and you’re all set for a good night’s sleep!”

Hope your Christmas and Boxing Day are as much fun as ours!

Christmas Day ... So Far

2005-12-25T06:09:00.000-06:00

We’re almost halfway through Christmas day in Togo, while most of you who will eventually read this haven’t roused yourselves from your visions of suger plums quite yet.

Saturday is our night to feed our school teachers. We get to enjoy their company and they get to save on groceries! Jenna is visiting her mom in France, and Stacey’s sister Shannon is visiting her here, so we had Stacey and Shannon over last night. We had finger foods for our Christmas Eve – mini-pizzas, miniature BBQ pork chops (they were miniature because they came from a local pig who was still squealing yesterday morning), fried rice, Indonesian satay (beef kebobs and peanut sauce)—you get the picture, all the traditional Christmas fare.

Speaking of getting the picture, it will be a while before you get any of our Christmas pictures this year. A certain 4-year old dropped our digital camera yesterday and now all we have is a “lens error” message on the screen. Thankfully, I bought an extended warranty, so I hope we’re covered. Since this happened on a holiday weekend, so it may be Tuesday or so before I’m able to find out—then we’ll have to send the camera back—who knows when we’ll see it again? I’ve taken a few photos with our old film camera and will scan a few once we develop them.

In the meantime, still speaking of photos, I’ve opened a new photo page on Flickr. Click here or under “Links” in the side bar. I’ve posted a few old ones and I’ll go through my archives to try to find a few more old favorites.

To my eyes, it was a little bare under our Christmas tree this year, but you wouldn’t have guessed it by the boys’ reactions to what Santa brought them. Jeremy had been asking for a Game Boy SP, which I happened to pick up in the States back in July. Just a few weeks ago, in his letter to Santa, he asked for a “Sonic” game for the Game Boy. I had no idea what that was, but found it on the Internet and Shannon was able to bring it. When he opened his presents, a literal tear came to his eye. As we talked about it later, he said, “I was so happy, I didn’t know what to say.” Jeremy speechless. Now that’s a Christmas miracle.

We watched another miracle last night—Miracle on 34^th Street, the original version. With our DVD player out, it was probably quite comical to see four of us crowded around the laptop. I had forgotten how good the movie is. I was impressed with how well this secular Christmas story communicates an important part of the Christian message—that transforming power lies in the “intangibles”—in faith, hope, and love—and not in worldly power structures. And that we have to keep believing this, even when “common sense” tells us otherwise.

After Santa and breakfast this morning, we went to church here in Tabligbo. The church has been discussing its worship times, so I asked the elders on Tuesday what time they would be meeting today. I was told 9:00. We arrived only a few minutes late, just as they were taking the collection, which is seldom the first “act of worship.” I soon discovered that they had changed the time to 8:00 a.m. We only continued for another forty-five minutes or so, so the boys were thrilled with the short service. They asked me to come back and speak next week, when they’ll meet at 7:00 a.m. But, they told me, that’s 7:00 African time, so come at 8:00 pepepe.

Well, Christmas day is only half over, I’d better get away from the computer and enjoy it with my kids.

It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Christmas

2005-12-23T01:47:00.000-06:00

Yesterday morning I went out for a little exercise. As I took my first deep breath, my olfactory nerves immediately said, “Christmas.”

What they had picked up on was the heavy presence of dust in the air—dust that had blown in with the cool, northern winds that arrive this time of year, known as the harmattan. Maureen has done a lot of baking and has decorated the house beautifully, but it was the dusty smell of harmattan that told me, “Christmas is here!”

My teammate Jeff Holland forwarded me this article on Christmas in Asia. Of course, the comments on Singapore interested us. I’ve never seen a display of Christmas lights in America that can compete with the Orchard Road shopping district in Singapore. But most puzzling was the question the article brought to mind—“If Muslims in Indonesia can wish one another “Merry Christmas,” why do retailers in America have a problem with it?” On the other hand, maybe we are better off if those for whom the phrase has been emptied of it’s true meaning, do just stop saying it.

For those of you who didn’t get our mass e-mailout, here’s our family’s annual year-in-review:

Dear friends,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you! It’s once again time for our annual update. It’s amazing, isn’t it, how the years keep getting shorter and shorter?

Early in the year, we celebrated Chinese New Year with our teammates here in Tabligbo. Anthony participated in the annual Watchi men’s meeting, spending three nights in Sedome.

In March, we were blessed with a visit from Alan and Lanita Henderson with their sons Levi and Josiah. Alan was Anthony’s roommate back in their college days at Lipscomb and has been a great friend ever since.

We all worshiped on Easter Sunday with the Adangbe cluster of churches in the isolated village of Bagoukope. The road to the village took out our vehicle’s four-wheel drive, but we managed to keep the car moving for a wild, West Africa road trip through Togo, Burkina Faso, and Ghana. In Burkina, we visited the Nazinga Game Ranch, which has one of the most dense elephant populations in West Africa, and we were not disappointed with our elephant encounters. We also visited our friends on the team working among the Dagara people of Burkina. Probably the most terrifying aspect of the trip, at least for the Hendersons, was fighting night-time traffic in Kumasi, Ghana. We also visited the Elmina slave castle before the Hendersons flew out of Accra.

Togo faced a political crisis in the first half of the year following the death of the long-time president. His son was immediately appointed president, but stepped down after local and international calls for elections. He was finally declared winner of the hotly-contested election, which provoked some violent clashes between security forces and protestors. Things were eerily quiet here in Tabligbo, but in light of reports of violence coming in from surrounding towns, we decided to go to Ghana to wait out the situation. With the Hollands and Crowsons already out of the country on furlough, our family and the Koonces evacuated with our two short-term couples, the Bontragers and Newlins, who returned to the States.

Security in Togo returned to safe levels very quickly and we only had to stay out of the country for a short time. While we were in Ghana, we were blessed by the hospitality of the Village of Hope, an orphanage that became, for us, a place of refuge. We also enjoyed the previously scheduled West African Missionary Retreat while we were there.

The month of July found our family divided—but only geographically. Anthony traveled to the States to take a course toward an advanced degree, while Maureen and the boys went to Singapore to be with family and friends there. Anthony was able to get to know his new niece Emma Grace. In September, we welcomed a new Singaporean nephew/cousin, Justin Lee, whom we have yet to

meet, into the world.

Anthony made two trips this year to visit churches and Christians in Benin. The Watchi churches held their annual all-church conference in August and a three-day women’s meeting in November. Our final trip this year was a Thanksgiving holiday trip to northern Togo for our kids’ sports camp, where the boys worked on their soccer, baseball, football, and basketball skills.

In our ministry, Anthony has continued to put a lot of energy this year into the translation of the Train & Multiply leadership training curriculum. The process is almost complete and we look forward to having the final edition into the hands of Watchi leaders soon. The concept, which focuses on leaders mentoring leaders, is beginning to take root and several Watchi leaders are mentoring younger ones. Anthony has also been involved in mentoring the elders of the Tabligbo church and teaching in different villages.

A new area of ministry for Anthony this year has been writing scripts for World Christian Broadcasting. WCB, based in Franklin, Tennessee, operates a short-wave radio station in Anchor Point, Alaska and is constructing a second station in Madagascar. All programming is oriented toward non-believers and is broadcast in English, Chinese, Russian and, soon, Arabic.

Maureen has been more active in women’s ministry this year, building relationships through village visits, teaching some on health issues, and using her nursing skills as opportunities have arisen. Her primary ministry continues to be in the home where her three boys keep her very busy, and where she enjoys extending hospitality to those who come our way.

Jeremy and Jonathan continue to grow and mature. Jeremy is now in second grade and Jonathan is attending pre-school at our local Tabligbo “MK” school. They both enjoy their teachers, Miss Stacey and Miss Jenna, as do all of us on the team. They’ve also been learning a little Tae Kwan Do as their extra-curricular activity. Jeremy has developed a talent in origami, and Jonathan is a big Spiderman and Star Wars fan.

Many of our thoughts this year have been on our upcoming transition to life in the States. We plan to leave Togo in early May 2006 and, after about a month’s visit in Singapore, arrive in the States in June. This is part of our team’s overall phase-out strategy and this decision has not come about because of any unhappiness with our life and work in Togo.

We know that it is time for a change, but we are not yet sure which direction God is leading us. It is a time for building faith and trust in God. We covet your prayers as we seek His direction, as we pray God’s blessings on you and those dear to you.

With love,

Anthony, Maureen, Jeremy, and Jonathan Parker

An Embarrassing Call

2005-12-19T00:19:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I started the book Mere Discipleship: Radical Christianity in a Rebellious World, written by Lipscomb professor Dr. Lee Camp. I saw the book recommended by Mike Cope (I think it was there, though I can’t find the post right now; Mike does have a “blurb” on the back cover, so I know he’ll vouch for the book), and put it at the top of my Amazon wish list. When I learned that we had a visitor coming to Togo who could bring it, I got her address, had it shipped there, and it was delivered to me yesterday.

I first met Lee when he was a freshman at our mutual alma mater, Lipscomb University (or David Lipscomb College as it was known in those days). In the halls of Sewell dormitory, Lee never impressed me as a scholar. Wait a minute, that didn’t sound right. I never thought of him as a scholar, just a really nice guy. It was years later, when our paths crossed again at ACU, that I started to recognize that not only was this guy really nice, he was also really smart.

As I’ve only made it through the first chapter, I can’t really give you’re a review of the whole book, but I did find myself identifying with these words:

There is, I must confess, a deep part of me that is embarrassed to advocate a “radical Christianity.” For I find, in these recent days of my pilgrimage, that the more I seek to surrender to Christ, the more I discover those idols to which my “old self,” as the apostle Paul calls it, has been desperately clinging. It turns out, of course, that my sins are not all that interesting, but the same as the lot of all humankind: pride, ambition, lust, greed, self-seeking. The more I pursue the light of Christ, the more he illumines the diseases of my heart, the dysfunction of my soul. I have long desired quick fixes for my thorns in the flesh, my defects, my failings—but Christ has granted me none. But he does, as I walk behind him, alongside him, and alongside others on the Way, grant me daily bread, daily sustenance, his grace being always sufficient for the day. (p. 24)

Thursday Born

2005-12-14T07:46:00.000-06:00

Wander over and see my latest post on the Grace Notes site. You’ll find some more good, redemptive reading there as well.

Good for the Soul

2005-12-11T15:34:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I was once again listening to NPR on my Worldspace satellite radio, when I heard about something called “PostSecrets” It seems that someone has started a service where people are encouraged to send in their secrets on anonymous, handmade postcards. Many of these are available in a book, and some are posted on the PostSecrets blog.

Most of the secrets that are shared are actually confessions. As the radio played in the background, the one that really caught my attention was from someone who worked at Starbucks. “Whenever a customer is rude to me,” the server confessed, “I give them decaf.” I’ll be sure to be nice the next time I order coffee, especially if it’s first thing in the morning.

Other confessions are much more serious, and some even tragic.

“When I was 4, I told my grandpa I hated him. He died before I could apologize. I’m still sorry.”

“I suspect my religious upbringing is the reason I can’t get turned on without breaking the rules.” This confession was written around a portrait of Jesus that had been decorated with a rather comic mustache.

You’ve heard that there are no atheists in foxholes. Two confessions, which take quite opposite approaches, might make us wonder if there are really atheists anywhere. One person wrote, “I always say that I don’t believe in God. No one knows that I pray to him every night, ‘Dear God, don’t let me die alone.’” Another wrote, “I tell people I’m an atheist, but I believe I’m going to hell.”

Others, through this service, have begun to learn something of the power of confession. The radio program reported about one woman who wrote that she had originally written her six secrets that she was afraid to tell to anyone on postcards and had intended to mail them. Then she decided to share them with the person whose rejection she most feared. She placed them on the pillow beside the head of her sleeping boyfriend, and headed off to work. That day, her boyfriend showed up at her work place and asked her to marry him.

I thought that this was a marvelous illustration of God’s love toward us. The only thing that hinders from fully experiencing his love is those dark spots on our soul that we try to keep him or anyone else from seeing. We want everyone, including God, to think that we have it all together, when really we are torn apart inside. All God is waiting for is for us to bring those dark secrets into the light and release them to him. He will never spurn those who cry out for his love.

It should be the same way in the church. The flip side of confession is called absolution. I used to think that meant some kind of human “binding and loosing” of God’s forgiveness. It may have something to do with that, but much more simply, it simply means helping one another accept the forgiveness that has already been granted in Christ. When God says that he will forgive our confessed sins, we sometimes have trouble believing that simple promise. We need brothers and sisters to come alongside us, not only to say, “I forgive you,” but also to say “You are forgiven.” They help us believe God’s promise.

When James says, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed,” I think he had a holistic view of healing—it has physical, spiritual, emotional, and social dimensions. Confession is good for the soul. True healing, however, doesn’t come through an anonymous postcard (though that could be a good beginning), but, like the girlfriend learned, through personal encounter—an encounter with the living God and the community of his people.

So…what’s your secret?

Church Dismissed

2005-12-10T02:32:00.000-06:00

I liked this photo, taken by Maureen, of the Kpeyidzi church returning home, some carrying the benches we sat on, after worship last Sunday. The tree is pretty cool, too. Click for larger image.

Books, Movies, and Hermeneutics

2005-12-09T05:57:00.000-06:00

I commented on Steve Duer’s blog a few days ago that our family here in Togo is way ahead of those of you in the States, having been treated to a pre-theatrical release version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I explained that, as I was reading the book to Jeremy, he told me that it was just like watching a movie in his head!

Today at Jeremy’s school is “dress-as-your-favorite-character” day, and one of the boys plans to come as Huckleberry Finn. Maureen mentioned to Jeremy that he should read that book, but Jeremy’s response was, “I’d rather just see the movie.” I explained to him that it was better to read the book first and to use his own imagination, and then he could see the movie to see how it compares. I also explained that the movie was just someone else’s imagination, and that if he had seen things differently, it didn’t mean that he had been wrong. I didn’t go into detail with Jeremy about how everyone brings their own experiences to any book and they understand the author’s descriptions in terms of those experiences. Right now I’m reading To Kill a Mockingbird. I’m from Alabama, so I think that I have a pretty good idea of the places Harper Lee is describing. But I’m not from south Alabama, so my mental images probably do not match up exactly with the ones in her head as she wrote the book. Of course, if I read carefully and pay close attention to her descriptions, my vision and hers will be closer, but never exactly the same.

All of this got me thinking about how different people can read the same Bible and yet come out with such different understandings of God’s vision for the world, for his kingdom, and for his people. We all come to Scripture with different backgrounds, experiences, and—for lack of a better word—presuppositions. When we encounter God’s vision in Scripture, our vision is never exactly the same as his. Not only are our worlds vastly different from the original human authors, but our vision is infinitesimally small when compared to God’s. Does that mean that we can never see what God wants us to see? No, for that would mean that God had failed as a communicator. It does mean, however, that we will never see all that he wants us to see, and that others may have clearer vision in some areas than others.

When I read Harper Lee’s descriptions of the lawns, houses, and people in a small, south Alabama town, certain images are conjured in my head. My mind, too, will supply details that she leaves out. An African may read those same descriptions, just as carefully as me, and have a totally different vision. His mind, too, will fill in gaps, and in much different ways that I will. One of ours will be closer to the author’s original vision, but neither will match exactly, and neither is wrong. In biblical interpretation, it is helpful to know as much as we can about the world in which the authors lived. We can, however, have a true—but never complete—understanding with only limited knowledge. And our knowledge will always be limited.

There are some applications that I think I can draw from this little analogy. First, I need to be diligent in my study of Scripture so that I see as much as I can of what God wants me to see. Second, I need to hold my vision with humility, knowing that it only begins to approach God’s. Third, we need a community hermeneutic. I need to learn from other’s understandings, especially those who come from different backgrounds, because their experiences will allow them to see elements of truth that I cannot. Finally, we want to understand any writing, we need access to the author. When it comes to the human authors of Scripture, we can only access them indirectly—through their writings and what we know of their circumstances. But with the divine author who reveals himself through the sacred writings, we can actually talk with him, listen to him, and wait for him to make clear to us what he has revealed.

Sports Camp and Other Travels

2005-12-04T08:13:00.000-06:00

You probably know the feeling--it's great to get away, and it's even better to get home! We are glad to be home after a good week in Kara. All of our team joined the Kabiye team for a belated Thanksgiving feast on Monday. This wasn't a good year for African turkeys, so we made do with chicken (which everyone knows tastes better, anyway). Of course we had to carry on that great Thanksgiving tradition of bursting the turkey piñata--one for kids and one for adults.

Tuesday through Thursday were filled with our third somewhat-annual sports camp. Kids played and dads coached through three days of soccer, baseball, American football, and basketball. Jeremy developed a new love for basketball. The sports context provided many opportunities to teach lessons for life. It was a great reminder that our kids are our first mission field and a good opportunity to help them develop spiritually as well as physically. My involvement was quite limited on the third day as I was hit by a twenty-four stomach virus (affectionately labeled “The Big D”) that was running through the missionaries up there.

Saturday we spent a day shopping and swimming in Lomé. While the guys were at the pool, Maureen made a trip to the Grand Marché where she found some clothing bargains and bought cloth to do some sewing. This morning we worshiped with the Kpeyidzi church and encouraged them with the same message that we had been presenting to the children that week--"Run in such a way as to get the prize!" (1 Cor. 9:24) They encouraged us by their numerical and spiritual growth. Some of you may remember an earlier post about this church and Papa Roger. He was still there and just as joyful as ever. Alfred and Marcellin, the two young men who served as leaders there, have grown a lot. It doesn’t seem too long ago that leaders from other churches were telling them off for their laziness. Today they were well prepared (they didn’t know we were coming) and Alfred’s lesson was very good. It’s been quite a while since we’ve been out there. These two younger leaders are being mentored by elders from nearby congregations. A long time ago, Greg Newton told me that the missionary’s strategic absence can help new Christians grow more than their continual presence. Guess he was right. A humbling, but strangely comforting, thought!

2005-12-04T07:40:00.000-06:00

Sports Camp -- Jonathan runs the football in the peewee match.

2005-12-04T07:37:00.000-06:00

Sports Camp -- Jeremy scores two points in junior basketball. (He also made a goal in the big soccer match!)