on April 25. 
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Back in the USA!
Thanks for your prayers and loving messages! Too many to count! Just to let you all know, we have now arrived in the USA to begin our furlough. We will be residing in Chicago for this season and we are looking forward to reconnecting with as many of you as possible!
This coming Saturday, April 25, we will be in Vancouver, WA for my brother Doug’s wedding. More on that with pictures will be posted next week for sure!
Gotta go for now... the jet-lag is heavy this time!
This coming Saturday, April 25, we will be in Vancouver, WA for my brother Doug’s wedding. More on that with pictures will be posted next week for sure!
Gotta go for now... the jet-lag is heavy this time!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Dinner at Jimbaran
Evelyn, Everett, Joy and Steve McKinney for Joy's birthday dinner on March 27 (day after because of Nyepi on the 26th) at Jimbaran Bay in Bali. Ethan is in the water :-) The seafood here is only parallelled by the awesome view and friendly service!
Above the Buzz
There is much to be said about leading a quiet life. Our family is enjoying a quiet week-end here in the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic nation during Holy Week. Thursday, many stores are closing early. Good Friday will be completely still with no malls or stores open. Clergy members will be busy, Churches will be packed, some even conducting services & events non-stop with members ducking out only to eat and sleep a few hours before returning. Then on Easter Sunday, retail will come back to life in force and everyone will be out and about. Especially those who had run out of food & couldn’t buy any...
We were in Bali, Indonesia recently during the week where Nyepi day falls, a Hindu holy day which calls for silence. All citizens of Bali, a Hindu community in the midst of a Muslim nation, must follow the rules from 6pm the day before and the city doesn’t come back to life until after lunch the day after. The Hindu’s fast, abstain from pleasure and are forced by local law to keep the lights (TV’s and air conditioners) off. In hotels like the one we were staying in, we were told to dim lights, pull the shades and keep noise to a minimum. They let the hotels bend the rules a bit. We were not allowed to leave or to go to the beach (only the swimming pool) because legally, nobody is allowed even to walk in the streets. The surprising thing was that at 4pm the day before Nyepi, I tried to get cash at multiple ATM’s and found them all completely turned off. Oops!
In both cases, we settle in to a quiet period of time. We prepare by piling up books, plan on catching up on our conversations, engage in family activities, pray, meditate, study, write and more... but we are the kind of family that cannot accomplish much for long if it’s ‘too quiet.’ Some people cannot work if it’s not quiet and others cannot work unless there is noise in the background. I think more people need the noise in the background in this generation then from the previous generation who needed the quiet of a library kind of environment to get things done. I call the noise ///The Buzz///
There is another kind of buzz. If you are going to do something significant with your life, if you are going to stand for something or try something new, there is going to be a buzz about you. The apostle Peter said that we should not be surprised when we experience all kinds of trials and attacks as if something unusual were happening to us. In modern society, persecution often comes in the form of gossip, bad publicity and generally from religious Christians who use worldly means to neutralize or discredit one another. In short, they create a negative BUZZ.
My thoughts? Welcome the buzz. If nobody is against you and if life is easy, then you will accomplish little. When there is noise around you, it forces you to raise your voice and stand up to be heard. What really matters will be clearer and you will learn to choose your words wisely. Timing will become more important and you will move forward in a stronger more confident stride with less worry, making every effort to accomplish your mission. And the greatest benefit of the buzz? It exposes who is truly with you, who is against you and even the biggest group... the ones who are neither for you nor against you. Notice I didn’t say you would find out who your friends are? I don’t believe knowing who your friends are matters nearly as much as you think. Some of your best friends will create the loudest buzz about you and some that you would not consider to be your friends will rally with you and will be those who will stand with you and truly encourage you in the Lord. Why? Because even though you don’t connect with them on a friendship level, they do connect with you in your vision and mission in Christ’s calling.
Welcome the Buzz! Embrace the Buzz! Rise above the Buzz and accomplish something great in this life for God! In the end, you will be someone that when you are googled a few years from now, the world will see what you have done. As for those who were buzzing about you... well, they will be the ones doing the googling...
We were in Bali, Indonesia recently during the week where Nyepi day falls, a Hindu holy day which calls for silence. All citizens of Bali, a Hindu community in the midst of a Muslim nation, must follow the rules from 6pm the day before and the city doesn’t come back to life until after lunch the day after. The Hindu’s fast, abstain from pleasure and are forced by local law to keep the lights (TV’s and air conditioners) off. In hotels like the one we were staying in, we were told to dim lights, pull the shades and keep noise to a minimum. They let the hotels bend the rules a bit. We were not allowed to leave or to go to the beach (only the swimming pool) because legally, nobody is allowed even to walk in the streets. The surprising thing was that at 4pm the day before Nyepi, I tried to get cash at multiple ATM’s and found them all completely turned off. Oops!
In both cases, we settle in to a quiet period of time. We prepare by piling up books, plan on catching up on our conversations, engage in family activities, pray, meditate, study, write and more... but we are the kind of family that cannot accomplish much for long if it’s ‘too quiet.’ Some people cannot work if it’s not quiet and others cannot work unless there is noise in the background. I think more people need the noise in the background in this generation then from the previous generation who needed the quiet of a library kind of environment to get things done. I call the noise ///The Buzz///
There is another kind of buzz. If you are going to do something significant with your life, if you are going to stand for something or try something new, there is going to be a buzz about you. The apostle Peter said that we should not be surprised when we experience all kinds of trials and attacks as if something unusual were happening to us. In modern society, persecution often comes in the form of gossip, bad publicity and generally from religious Christians who use worldly means to neutralize or discredit one another. In short, they create a negative BUZZ.
My thoughts? Welcome the buzz. If nobody is against you and if life is easy, then you will accomplish little. When there is noise around you, it forces you to raise your voice and stand up to be heard. What really matters will be clearer and you will learn to choose your words wisely. Timing will become more important and you will move forward in a stronger more confident stride with less worry, making every effort to accomplish your mission. And the greatest benefit of the buzz? It exposes who is truly with you, who is against you and even the biggest group... the ones who are neither for you nor against you. Notice I didn’t say you would find out who your friends are? I don’t believe knowing who your friends are matters nearly as much as you think. Some of your best friends will create the loudest buzz about you and some that you would not consider to be your friends will rally with you and will be those who will stand with you and truly encourage you in the Lord. Why? Because even though you don’t connect with them on a friendship level, they do connect with you in your vision and mission in Christ’s calling.
Welcome the Buzz! Embrace the Buzz! Rise above the Buzz and accomplish something great in this life for God! In the end, you will be someone that when you are googled a few years from now, the world will see what you have done. As for those who were buzzing about you... well, they will be the ones doing the googling...
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Don't Spoil the Punch Line
The Merriam Webster On-Line Dictionary defines “Punch Line” as: “the sentence, statement, or phrase (as in a joke) that makes the point.”
Of course we most often use this term in reference to a joke. The telling of a joke requires skillfull timing in order to deliver the one line which will invoke the laughs that we are going for... The reason we would warn someone to not spoil the punch line can be that if the teller is an inexperienced “joker,” the punch line could be announced too early. Or even worse, a by-stander who knows the joke, maybe even a younger person might tell the puch line before the person telling the joke has a chance to finish building his case. All of the relevent information must already have been given, put out on the table if you will, before the punch line can be delivered.
Another famous quote which has similar implications is this. “It’s not over until the fat lady sings.” This is a term often used in the sport of baseball. At the end of the game, particularly in days long gone by, a fat lady with a vibratto voice would come onto the field and sing a final song at the end of the game. It used to be that the stereotype of a lady with a good voice was that she would almost always be fat.
Your team might have been down 5 to 8 and you are in your last play. But you should never stop trying to get that hit which could still win the game because “it’s not over until the fat lady sings.”
Here’s my point for today. The enemy is always trying to set you up for a failure or a fall, but God will always take that demonic set up and turn it around so that it can be used as a divine STEP UP.
There are many teachings which admonish us to trust God, let Him fight our battles, give it all to Him, turn the other cheek, don’t take offense, forgive those who persecute us and the list goes on. It is a major theme in the Word of God and one we must understand and appropriate in order to live blessed lives. But I invite you to look at it from the perspective of the two thoughts I have shared today.
Don’t spoil the Punch Line! God’s timing and execution of your needed deliverance from your circumstances are PERFECT! You may look like a fool right now... you may be humiliated right now... your friends and family may have turned on you for now... but it is God’s plan and you are firmly in His grip! This set up that you may be experiencing is ultimately designed to be a step up.... UNLESS YOU SPOIL THE PUNCH LINE. Don’t defend yourself, don’t manipulate the situation, don’t talk to everyone and your brother about it. Quiet yourself down, be still and know that God is working on your behalf, pray, and wait. Do something productive in the Word and in prayer. Build yourelf up in your most holy faith and set your eyes on the hills from where your help is going to come. Let me say it this way. Don’t let the devil win by playing into his plan. Stick with God’s plan and don’t spoil the punch line!
Did you know that the more guilty you look right now if you are being falsely accused, the better you are going to look after God vindicates you? Do you understand that the more humiliated you are right now, the more confidence you are going to have after you are done passing through this fire?
Say this to yourself with me right now... “Everything is going to be great!” Now say this... “It’s not over until the fat lady sings!”
Of course we most often use this term in reference to a joke. The telling of a joke requires skillfull timing in order to deliver the one line which will invoke the laughs that we are going for... The reason we would warn someone to not spoil the punch line can be that if the teller is an inexperienced “joker,” the punch line could be announced too early. Or even worse, a by-stander who knows the joke, maybe even a younger person might tell the puch line before the person telling the joke has a chance to finish building his case. All of the relevent information must already have been given, put out on the table if you will, before the punch line can be delivered.
Another famous quote which has similar implications is this. “It’s not over until the fat lady sings.” This is a term often used in the sport of baseball. At the end of the game, particularly in days long gone by, a fat lady with a vibratto voice would come onto the field and sing a final song at the end of the game. It used to be that the stereotype of a lady with a good voice was that she would almost always be fat.
Your team might have been down 5 to 8 and you are in your last play. But you should never stop trying to get that hit which could still win the game because “it’s not over until the fat lady sings.”
Here’s my point for today. The enemy is always trying to set you up for a failure or a fall, but God will always take that demonic set up and turn it around so that it can be used as a divine STEP UP.
There are many teachings which admonish us to trust God, let Him fight our battles, give it all to Him, turn the other cheek, don’t take offense, forgive those who persecute us and the list goes on. It is a major theme in the Word of God and one we must understand and appropriate in order to live blessed lives. But I invite you to look at it from the perspective of the two thoughts I have shared today.
Don’t spoil the Punch Line! God’s timing and execution of your needed deliverance from your circumstances are PERFECT! You may look like a fool right now... you may be humiliated right now... your friends and family may have turned on you for now... but it is God’s plan and you are firmly in His grip! This set up that you may be experiencing is ultimately designed to be a step up.... UNLESS YOU SPOIL THE PUNCH LINE. Don’t defend yourself, don’t manipulate the situation, don’t talk to everyone and your brother about it. Quiet yourself down, be still and know that God is working on your behalf, pray, and wait. Do something productive in the Word and in prayer. Build yourelf up in your most holy faith and set your eyes on the hills from where your help is going to come. Let me say it this way. Don’t let the devil win by playing into his plan. Stick with God’s plan and don’t spoil the punch line!
Did you know that the more guilty you look right now if you are being falsely accused, the better you are going to look after God vindicates you? Do you understand that the more humiliated you are right now, the more confidence you are going to have after you are done passing through this fire?
Say this to yourself with me right now... “Everything is going to be great!” Now say this... “It’s not over until the fat lady sings!”
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Great Service at TFI!
Joy, Devin, Ethan and I had a wonderful service at Tabernacle of Faith in San Juan (Manila) this morning! We met many new people in the Church since the last time we ministered here and the power and presence of God was amazing!
It has been wonderful visiting friends and relatives in the Philippines these last few days and we will continue visiting and resting here for another week or two before heading on to Portland, Oregon for my brother Doug's wedding and then on to Chicago.
Many have been asking what our prayer requests are since departing Jakarta. The number one prayer request we have is that God will clearly lead us to our next location. The one place that we are not planning to go at this time is Jakarta because we want whoever the next Pastor of ICCJ/ICWS is to have plenty of time and space to be established. I hope that this clears it up for those who have been entertaining rumors that we are coming back to Jakarta to another Church. Friends, if you don't hear it from me, then you shouldn't "hear it" at all. OK? :-)
Thanks for your prayers and for your love!
It has been wonderful visiting friends and relatives in the Philippines these last few days and we will continue visiting and resting here for another week or two before heading on to Portland, Oregon for my brother Doug's wedding and then on to Chicago.
Many have been asking what our prayer requests are since departing Jakarta. The number one prayer request we have is that God will clearly lead us to our next location. The one place that we are not planning to go at this time is Jakarta because we want whoever the next Pastor of ICCJ/ICWS is to have plenty of time and space to be established. I hope that this clears it up for those who have been entertaining rumors that we are coming back to Jakarta to another Church. Friends, if you don't hear it from me, then you shouldn't "hear it" at all. OK? :-)
Thanks for your prayers and for your love!
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