Been a while

There have been a lot of things going on this week. Monday night at our common meal we had some time to sit around the table and share what we were thankful for after our "thanksgiving" feast. It was a very powerful time of sharing and I think it took us to a new level as a community. The people that come on Mondays keep referring to it as a "family away from home" and I agree. I've never been a big one for relationships with family let alone anyone else, so this is pretty big for me as well. Not so much with being close but with being dependent upon each other...that is all new for me...I'm just slightly independent and always have been, but I see the Holy Spirit beginning to change that.
We also prayed for people as they left the house Monday...it is pretty cool to see this thing evolve. I am really enjoying what it is and looking forward to where it is going.

Wednesday the band played for the International Student's Thanksgiving Dinner. It was pretty fun. We played, Our Love Is Loud, Wild Thing, Revolution, and Sweet Home Alabama. I really enjoy playing with the folks in the band and I hope we get the chance to do this more often...This has been 2 gigs in a month...after a 6 month dryspell that's pretty good.

Thanksgiving was good and I was glad to see our families. Macee had a blast playing with all of the kids and I was able to spend some time with my brother and sister that I don't see very often. Pray for Dan and Tina...they will be finding out what their future holds here in the next few months from the Methodist church. I can only hope that they get moved up here to northwest Ohio somewhere. I could handle that...

I talked to Lee today. It was good to hear from him...he is an awesome man of God and is truly a disciple of Christ. I enjoyed hearing parts of his story and how life is going in Amsterdam. Maybe he'll start a blog soon so we can gain some insight from his experiences and learn a little more about his story...maybe...but don't hold your breath...if I had been I'd have been dead and burried by now.

I am working at the 'church' building right now on some stuff and have actually gotten a few things to work right. It is nice when the hours you spend working on technical stuff aren't for naught. All I have to say is, why on earth doesn't Media Shout play the audio with the video on a video cue??!?!?!?!?! How stupid is that to have to put both an audio and video cue in for a simple MPEG? Maybe PowerPoint is still good for something...

At times like these I just can't say how much I appreciate Sara and Macee. I wouldn't change anything about our lives right now. I have the best family a guy could every want...

Fog Delay

Thank you God for a 2hr. fog delay yesterday...you must have really known how much I needed that. I mean of course a cancelation would have been even nicer, but I won't complain.

After some praying and a talk with my wife(who always seems to say the things I need to hear when I need to hear them)yesterday morning on the way to school during our 2 HR. DELAY YEEEEHAAAAWWW, I really felt more of a mission again with what I am doing right now in the classroom.

It seemed all of a sudden, but I was given several opportunities to show a few students that I care about them...small things really...but meaningful I think...I just hope that through all of my ugliness they can still see a little bit of Jesus in there somewhere. Although, I still don't know if I can do this another 21 years.

We were able to put some shoe boxes together for Samaritan's Purse, Franklin Graham's organization, that will go to needy children around the world. I was humbled to be able to participate, yet discouraged about not doing more...we've got the thanksgiving basket this week to put together which I'm really looking forward to as well, but why does it have to be only around the holidays that we are doing this...what, people are only needy in november and december?

Tired of teaching

Today was the first day in my 8 and a 1/4 years of teaching that I actually thought I might look for some other vocation at the end of this year.

I really don't know how much I am doing for the kingdom where I am right now. When you have sooooo many students that treat you(and all sources of authority for that matter) with disrespect, it is difficult to teach let alone be the salt and light you're supposed to be. I mean if it was adults being disrespectful to me I suppose I could just deal with it and turn the other cheek, but you just can't let it go if you are trying to manage a classroom full of them and actually accomplish something.

The kids I am dealing with are getting worse every year...they just don't care...about much of anything...except themselves of course. Sometimes I feel like I am just wasting my time...

It's been a rough week and it's only wednesday...yikes...

I've been thinking...again

Sara and I were in the kitchen the other night cleaning up and she got my attention and directed it to the dining room where Macee was kneeling with one of her baby dolls. I shut the water off at the sink so I could hear her without her knowing we were watching and we could hear her praying with her baby just as we pray with her. Sara wrote about it on her blog and it went something like this:

As I was cleaning...Chris and I were working on the dishes...i
noticed that it was really quiet......I figured I would find a mess
made by a little blonde girly....what I found was my baby girl,
kneeling at the edge of her baby...tucking her baby into bed and praying with her. She had her hands folded and said "Tank
you Jedus for our day,"..."okay baby, what else do you want
to tank Jedus for.."..."good job baby".....and so on...

It was enough to make a grown man well up with tears...I just hope and pray that Macee will see the real Jesus in us as we live this journey with her.


I was just thinking today about Jesus, the Jews of His day and the oppressive, even barbaric, Roman rule over them. Jesus could very well have caused a revolt against that Roman empire and brought the Jewish people out from under the Roman dominance and into their own nation again, but He didn't...why? Jesus spoke of loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us...He had compassion on those in need...He kept the woman caught in adultery from being stoned, yet He didn't have to beat up anyone to do it. The disciples didn't organize a militia and go on the offensive when Stephen was stoned and when others were beaten and tortured for their faith. When did Jesus teach us that violence is the solution for violence? When did He teach us to strike back? Many questions...your thoughts?

still more thoughts

nice rant Dan...I like it...you ask good, hard questions that we all need to be chewing on, which was my intent when I posted what I did.

my problem with Bush and Iraq is that we didn't go in to simply be the good Samaritan(at least that wasn‘t the impression I got). We went in for our own "protection" and to find these weapons of mass destruction that were going to certainly be used against us. That is not a reason to invade a country...not on the supposed ability they have to attack us(in my opinion). If it was said from the start that we were going to take Sadaam out because of the atrocities and horrible ways in which he had tortured his own people, then I think I would be a little more on board with it, but those weren't the reasons. It was for our own self-preservation...but now that it isn't so obvious that Sadaam was this great threat we first thought he was, now we have to say that is was for the good of humanity that we did what we did. Well if that was the real reason then why didn't we take care of the job back during the Gulf War? It appears to me that Bush has a "strike first lest ye be struck" mentality and I don't think that is the best way to live out the Gospel.
Now the question of going to the aid of others under military oppression is a different story all together, but still something I do struggle with...when do we act and when don't we?
Easier to talk about what we should and shouldn’t do when we aren’t the ones making the decisions.
I don’t claim to be the bearer of truth...I am just a follower of Christ trying to figure out what my role is in this and what I think our role as Americans is in the world around us.

Does disagreeing with our president's military philosophy make me a hippie?

Sara just posted about my thoughts and I think she's got a point, I think I should be talking less and praying more...

God help me...to bring about healthy discussion all the while seeking your will and your face in all that I do...

more thoughts

After re-reading what I wrote yesterday, I just had some more things rolling around upstairs.
I can't say that all war is wrong. I don't think it would have been right for everyone to sit back and just allow Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party to take over the world. If I saw two people fighting, you bet I would step in and try to break it up. If I saw a stronger person beating up on a weaker person, you bet I would jump in to the aid of the weaker party.

I just don't know exactly how that applies to what we do with our military power, especially in Iraq...neither of those scenarios seem to be the reasons we went in. It was for the "good of America." In the old testament, we see Israel beating up on all kinds of people to preserve their nation...Are we just another Israel that is going to end up someone else's slave in the same way we have enslaved others for our own purposes?

There are many angles to use when looking at the happenings of the world around us and sometimes things just don't make much sense...I wish it was as simple as I sometimes think it is...or is it really that simple?

God help us...God help me...

4 more years

well, I haven't really made any political statements on my blog until now...but it's my blog and I'll politic if I want to.

I'm not sure I'm too thrilled that G. W. will have another 4 years. I have been torn about it for some time now. I don't think Kerry was much of an alternative for that matter, so really I didn't want to vote for either of them, truth be told.

The evangelical church(in general) has founded its political stance on two issues:
abortion
gay marriage

Since when are those the only two moral issues worth discussing?

How can we be both pro-life and pro death penalty...or even pro war...strike first lest ye be struck...is that a biblical concept or have I missed something?
How does a preemptive strike fit into living the gospel message in a volatile and violent world.
I think I'm going to start punching people if I think they "might" be thinking up plans of punching me first. Maybe, if I hear that my neighbor is thinking of breaking into my house I should just break into his first...is there any logic in that? Can the love of Christ be in such a philosophy? How can we openly and vehemently support such a contradiction? The worst part is that we think that radical Islam is attacking the west because we are "blessed by God" and they don't like it. Maybe they see in us what we aren't willing to see in ourselves...a bunch of spoiled, rich, egotistical, ethnocentric, my way or the highway, type people not willing to admit that we could ever be wrong.
It makes me sick...God help us...
enough on that I guess...

I was reading some excellent articles today on Next-Wave, so here they are:
an article about our spiritual formation
sacred space

Also, praise God I sold the Honda tonight. One motorcycle down and one to go...I hope someone buys it before winter sets in...