Month: January 2005

Our mission trip funding is coming along quite nicely. Of the $16,000 that we need for our team, we have collected about 14% of that total as of yesterday.

I feel like a kid again, it is so exciting to see how God is providing for trip. So far, no check has come in larger than $100. Most are in $20-$30 amounts. At this rate, there will be about 450 individual supporters for the NI Team.

What a message for today as our students prepare to “come to the waters” and spread the good news.

This is an interesting Time Magazine article worth looking at. Pretty funny, as an evangelical pastor I only knew about half of the top 25. Suprisingly, I’m not on the list! Nor are any of my close friends.

The evangelical world is pretty small though. I’m sure within two degrees of seperation I could come in contact with almost all of them.

Today I am spending my free time doing the family taxes.

I feel like that old game show as I work my way through the interview, “No whamy, no whamy, no whamy, STOP!”

I just hope I correctly estimated my 2004 taxes. I would hate to have to pay more.

I don’t like to complain about my job. But I need to blow off some steam about things that drive me nuts.

My job never ends I seem to be working or available 24 hours a day. Ministry is all about relationships, but there are times when I just want to be alone or not bothered or even just sip a cold something without wondering “is someone looking at me?” Instead I get calls all the time, people stop in my office, people call my house, people want to go do something… at the same time I both love it and hate it. I love it because I love these people, they are my family. I hate it because every single thing I do seems like work. I am always thinking about ministry all the time… Well, there are some private moments. 🙂

I am Mr. Fix it Besides being a pastor, a lot of people know I know a thing or two about a thing or two. They feel free to call me and ask me to do stuff… Which I like to do. But there are times when I don’t want to but feel obligated to because “what will they think of me if I don’t stop what I am doing and help them.” There is pressure in being an authority. It’s one thing to help someone… But it’s also another thing for people to expect me to help them as if it is my job and then not compensate me. That may sound selfish… But if I got paid $25 every time I fixed a PC or did some research for someone or helped them with their website… I could have a lot more kickin around money!

I have no life outside of the church. This pressure is especially heavy now that I can’t play golf. For about 8 months of the year there is a place for me to go that is the opposite of Cheers, where “nobody knows your name.” I can go tag along with people and play 18 holes or I can disappear down a fairway to be by myself. In the off-season all of the just builds up. No wonder I can hit the ball so far?

Everything is ministry to some degree. Some say “being a parent is a ministry.” But also, hiring a babysitter is a ministry. The way I drive my church van is a ministry. How I act when I am at places is a ministry. There is no separation. I have no respite.

Perhaps this is just an indication that I need a few days away? Praise God I have grad school next week where I can stop being PA and start being a stupid grad student rushing to class. I love the anonymity of being at Huntington. No one knows me and that is the best part!

We brought the outside in for a little winter fun in the kitchen. Here is Megan playing with some snow. 

Paul loves to play with clay and we just love to watch him do it. 

I had a funky dream last night. One that I can only pray comes to light. I dreamt that here in Romeo I took some students to a service over at St. Clement of Rome and it drew a little attention. So much attention that the busy priest asked if I would do a sponteneous “Q & A Session” about protestant vs. catholic differences. They were pleasantly suprised when I spent a lot of time highlighting what I admire about my catholic friends as opposed to what they expected. Likewise, they couldn’t believe that I knew things from Scripture… and I challenged them to read their bible for themselves.

Luther at Wittenberg’s Door

This was probably brought on by my late night watching of the movie, Luther. I thought it was a good mivie… definitely showed clearly that Luther never intended a schism.

The battle scenese took me back to the movie Michael Collins.

Kristen and I went to see this movie tonight “on a date.” Let’s just say it is not a date movie. I really wanted to see it since I had heard so many good things about it, but I was unprepared. I would put it in the same category as The Passion of the Christ, or Schindler’s List or Black Hawk Down.



I don’t know jack squat about the “oos” and “ahhs” of film making. But this was about a story. A story that deserves to be told and a story that should wake us up as Americans. A key moment is when the UN colonel tells the main character, “You are nothing to them. The entire Western world doesn’t want to get involved. You are on your own.”

This reminds me deeply of the work of Gary Haugen and The Intenational Justice Mission. Movies like this beg the question “what can I do?” and the unfortunate reality is the the baby boomers who run the world don’t care. The GenX (which includes me) is worse… But there is an emerging American generation that can and will arise to meet these challenges. We can act and we must.

Hotel Rwanda

There is no fear in defending the freedom of the United States from All Blogs. But we should never forget the tremendous price being paid.

As I looked through the Iraq casualty list from CNN, I don’t want to lose sight of this sacrifice these men and women made.

If this doesn’t humble you, I don’t know what will.