Archive for the Uncategorized
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
Praise him with the piano
As I mentioned earlier, there were a lot of Bethlehem people serving in many ways at Lausanne 2010 in Cape Town. One of them was Jason French, Pastoral Resident for Worship at our North Campus.
He was on the keyboard with the multicultural worship team. We could hear the powerful piano carrying the music along, although Jason himself usually was hidden behind the frontline singers. So I was glad that I could see more of him during one song. It was a reminder to thank God for the gifts he’s given the church through Jason and others who serve us for Christ’s sake.
Sunday, October 24th, 2010
Bethlehem presence at Lausanne 2010
In Cape Town, all around the convention center where Lausanne 2010 is meeting and in the nearby hotels are volunteers in African-style shirts that are identical except for color.
About 14 or 15 Bethlehem Baptist people are among that number, doing all sorts of support tasks–in the administration offices, in the media center, in the bookshop, in sessions taking notes to summarize the messages, greeting, ushering, directing crowd traffic. In other words, on call with dozens of other volunteers from around the world for whatever needs to be done.
Besides those crucial servants, at least 6 BBC people were official participants, and another 4 of us were guests.
I didn’t manage to get photos of everyone, but here are a few photos taken over several days.
I’m thanking God for brothers and sisters who are blessed by blessing others, at Lausanne 2010 and wherever God leads them.
Sunday, October 17th, 2010
Mukhanyo and onward
Update: Pictures are posted now. And: the correct name of the AIDS clinic is Nakekela.
Update 2: Here is a video of the Mukhanyo Christian Academy children singing.
This past Wednesday morning, after a long drive through the countryside, we arrived at the chapel gathering of the Mukhanyo Theological College just in time to hear songs from the Chapel Choir and then from the children of the new Christian Primary School on the Mukhanyo campus.
Johnny gave the devotional: True love toward other people is the overflow onto them of our joy in God.
Afterward, we visited two other ministries that are part of the same organization as the Bible College.
First was the Clinic that cares for 12 AIDS patients at a time. For some it is a caring hospice setting. For many it becomes a place for regaining strength and enough recovery to be able to return home. There is always a waiting list.
We met Busi, a woman who had been admitted recently. She lay curled on her side, her thin body hardly making a rise in the bed covers. (It’s easy to see why people in some parts of Africa call AIDS by the nickname, “Slim.”)
When she nodded with her eyes that I could pray for her, I took her hand and asked God to give her strength and hope and faith in him. I told her I would pray for her even after we left. Writing about her here is another reminder to me. And perhaps you might add your prayer for Busi–with whatever desires God gives you for her.
From there we went to one of 5 day care centers the ministry sponsors for children who are orphans. Our car hadn’t even stopped before boys and girls were swarming out the gate to hold our hands and asking to be held. Most or all of them have distant relatives to stay with. But all, by eagerness or shyness or sassiness, stretched out toward someone who might show them love.
South Africa is one of the countries most affected by AIDS, so there are a growing number of children without relatives to turn to. For these children, the ministry is trying to recruit and train suitable Christian families to provide foster care.
Now to today. In a few moments we leave for the Sunday morning session of the first ever Rezolution in South Africa. Johnny will be preaching this morning. I hope to post some videos and photos. The music has been phenomenal–an infectious blend of cultures.
This afternoon we fly to Cape Town to be there in time for the opening ceremonies of Lausanne 2010. Please pray for us and thousands of Christians gathering from around the globe.
Friday, October 15th, 2010
Apartheid
Yesterday, Talitha and I entered a heavy, sober, prison-like stone building. But not together. One of us passed under a sign that read “whites,” the other under “non-whites.” I haven’t seen signs like that in 50 years.
Nor are they elsewhere today here in Johannesburg. We were at the Apartheid Museum, trying to understand more about official policy established in the 1940s that labeled every South African as black, white, coloured or Asian. These groups lived fairly separate lives before Apartheid, but now it was required by law. The whites had the privileges; the non-whites had little.
I would be foolish and presumptuous to speak authoritatively on people and history which I know so little about. So I will just record some of my impressions and thoughts as we walked through the Apartheid Museum–impressions that weave together with my own history.
1. Old images of battles between the incoming Europeans and the native peoples of South Africa could just have well been images of battles between Native Americans and incoming Europeans.
2. The only mention of slavery that I heard or saw was of Europeans bringing slavery with them. In whatever ways that may have changed slavery, there was no acknowledgment that slavery already existed with Africans enslaving other Africans.
3. In the town I grew up in, the blacks and whites lived in separate parts of town, as they did here during Apartheid. In South Africa, it was dictated by law. In Georgia it was de facto.
4. Apartheid made it illegal to marry across color lines. That was true too in parts of the US.
5. I watched a video in which a politician argued for the establishment of Apartheid. He justifies it because of the need to protect “our future generations.” That stopped me in my tracks–the idea of one group of people deserving protection at the expense of all others. And yet, it was not a new idea and there are still people in my own country who feel the same way.
6. I had to ask myself, Which is worse? Europeans invading South Africa and subjugating the native peoples for more than a century? Or Europeans invading America, subjugating the native peoples and also importing another group of people as slaves and later treating them too as inferiors? I find it difficult to balance one set of evils against another.
The event that is the symbolic landmark of the end of official apartheid was the election of Nelson Mandela as president in 1994. As Talitha and I left the museum, I put my arm around her shoulder, thinking: If we had lived in South Africa when Talitha was born or in the US only a few years earlier, she would not have been our daughter.
I am thankful that much has changed in South Africa and in America. And there is much to keep praying toward.
Friday, May 28th, 2010
Haiti: faces
Our days in Haiti were too few and packed with sights and impressions and reactions and responses and much to keep thinking about and praying about.
The first impression for me is faces. Even though we talked with only a few of these people, each picture of each face is a reminder to me: Every single one of these faces belongs to a person who has a name and a story that is like no one else’s.
Four-year-old Maynasia is one of the faces=name=person=heartbreaking story. Since the earthquake, she lives in a tiny 2-room house with her Aunt Maria who is not really her aunt, but is related distantly somehow, and with Maria’s children.
As we approached, Maynasia ran out the door toward us and leaped into the arms of the closest man of our group and threw her arms around his neck. Though she had never seen any of us before, she smiled eagerly into his face as if she recognized him and announced, “My papa died in the earthquake.”
My heart wept. What will keep this beautiful tiny girl, longing for her father’s strong arms, from growing into a gorgeous young woman who still throws herself into any masculine arms that present themselves?
There is one hope for her–and for all of us. Please let the photos be a reminder to pray that Maynasia and Giveland and Jean Baptiste and Louinise and Withlove and Roselene and Lorine and so many others in Haiti would know the strong arms of the Father who will never leave them or forsake them.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
I hope to see your generosity in Haiti
Many of you sewed for Real Hope for Haiti and sent items from their wish list and made financial donations to get those 2 containers there.
They have arrived and are being unpacked. So maybe I’ll see some of those cute pillowcase dresses or your Bumbo seat or treadle sewing machine.
Here are some photos from here in Minneapolis during the weeks of collecting donations and filling the container.
Thank you!
Debbie Woodward, the hero in charge of collecting and sorting all the donations
Zach Zachary in Minneapolis to oversee the container loading
Treadle sewing machine & (on floor) knitting machine
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
A day off at RHFH?
At Real Hope for Haiti Rescue Center, where we’ll be visiting in a couple of days, even a day off is not a break with such needs all around.
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
I need Haiti
I’ve been to Africa several times to several different countries. I’ve never been to Haiti — yet. This week will be the first time.
I know how Africa keeps affecting me, and I expect Haiti to have a similar effect. So as you watch this short video, just replace Africa with Haiti. Some of the details are different, but many are the same.
Then please pray for God’s work in us while we are there.
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
Book winners
You are so creative and thoughtful and strategic in your ideas about where to give away a copy of Just the Way I Am by Krista Horning.
Congratulations to the 20 readers who have received an email announcing that they are winners of 2 copies of Krista’s book–one to keep and one to give away.
I’m sorry if you haven’t received an email, but I hope that will spur you to order copies yourself. People you care about need this book.
If you haven’t done it already, please read each other’s comments and be inspired to spread the word about God’s goodness and sovereignty in every person’s life, including every single one with disabilities.
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
Finding free ebooks for Kindle
Thanks to Justin Taylor for pointing me to this blog with instructions for finding free current Christian books for my Kindle.
Monday, April 19th, 2010
More photos
Our talented tenant, Jenny, has posted a few of the photos she shot of Johnny and Talitha before the Father Daughter Tea on Saturday.
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
I am David
I’m pretty picky about movie reviews–very picky, actually. The reviews I want are from friends who think like I do, who can tell me whether there is (even minor or suggestive) sexual content and what’s up with bad language.
I’ll probably look at “regular” reviews too, but I’m not surprised if I disagree in the end. That usually means I don’t watch even though the reviews are great.
Here’s a prime example in the other direction. My very good friend Karin recommended the DVD I Am David. Before we watched, I discovered the mediocre-to-bad reviews the movie received when it was first released.
But Karin said, “It’s a very good film. You ought to watch it.” I trusted her and she was right. How is it that I’d never even heard of this story before?
It is the story of 12-year-old David who escapes a Soviet Communist gulag (work camp) in Bulgaria in the early 1950s. He has just a compass, a stale loaf of bread, a sealed letter, and instructions to carry the letter to Denmark. David tastes freedom for the first time as he treks through Europe trying to follow those instructions. Along the way, he gradually learns to smile and even begins to trust one person, the woman who connects him with his life-changing climax in Copenhagen.
Artistically, the details unfold gradually through the story until the AHA moment that makes me want to watch again to realize the full implication of scenes that were intentionally sparse first time through.
Okay. Now I’m imagining the next question from my children, “Did you read the book first?”
Well, no. But I plan to. How can I resist it after enjoying the movie so much and then reading a review like this:
It is quite simply the best children’s novel I have ever read.
The story follows David from his life in a eastern European concentration camp to freedom in Denmark. Along the way David learns self reliance, finds faith in the God of “the still waters and green pastures,” discovers love, compasion and friendship. Through the book, David transforms from a victim to a human. I can’t remember the last time I cried reading a book, but I did several times with this.
If you want a book to teach a kid about self respect, love, forgiveness,and faith this is the book for you. If you don’t want a book that teaches these things it is one heck of a story.
