A Youth Outing On The Yukon Delta

One of the things we were able to do while we were in Emmonak, was take some of the youth associated with the church youth group out of town for an afternoon, go up river and have a picnic outing. When you plan such things, you pretty much have to make a commitment to go rain or shine, or else, you would never go. So, we planned that on the Thursday afternoon we were there, we would go. Phil Kovloski helped us out by rounding up his boat and another to get everyone who wanted to go up river. He also scouted out a suitable place that was high enough to get out of the water, yet not so brushy that you would have to clear a spot out of the alders. He also got a fire started before we arrived which helped quite a bit.
We loaded up about 8 kids - not one wearing any sort of rain gear and about the same number of us - all wearing head to toe rain gear. We left town in the driving rain. The clouds lowered over town, dark and heavy with rain and let loose upon us. Nevertheless, we plowed forward to our destination. Frankly I thought it would just be pretty miserable of an outing, but I was very keen to see more of the territory up close.
We powered up river for about 20 minutes and arrived at our spot. The fire was smoldering and we went to work to put up a shelter of sorts - kind of hard when the tallest bush is only about seven feet high and very spindly. Others went to work on the fire and getting more fire wood split. The rest of us hauled up our coolers full of food and the $60 in soda I have already mentioned.
Interestingly enough, as soon as we had everything ready for getting the food out, the sun came out from somewhere between the clouds and flooded our picnic spot with light and warmth. Suddenly everyone was peeling off layers of rain gear and coats. This brightened up the mood considerably. Soon we were roasting "brats" over the smoldering fire and scooping up a meatloaf casserole with our hands as we forgot to bring plates and other civilized utensils to eat with. Since we were hungry it didn't seem to matter a lot to anyone.
We then sang, shared testimonies and prayed. Then in a spontaneous moment, we had a spear throwing contest. The "target" was an empty pickle jar that had just been emptied. Everyone who joined the contest was very intent on being the one to knock the pickle jar off the stump. There was also a search for some of the edible plants in the area and the usual dodging smoke in the eyes around the fire.
After a couple of hours, the sun let us know it wasn't going to stay around any longer so we loaded up the boats and headed off up river to see what could be seen.
The Yukon River at this point is huge. Once we arrived at the main channel of the river, it might as well have been a huge lake as there was nothing but water on the horizon to see. It was amazing to try to comprehend how big a river could be. There are many, many channels that crisscross back and forth through the river. Someone like me was unfamiliar with the area could take a wrong turn and be lost forever. It is certainly a place where people could disappear easily.
We saw a couple of fish wheels, a family of foxes and some really flat land. Just because the river is wide does not mean it is deep everywhere. Way out in the river we hit some very shallow water which you couldn't tell from the surface as it is very muddy and the wind was blowing which put riffles on the water everywhere.
All in all, it was a fun and worthwhile outing. As we neared town, the rain came back as strong as before and we all hustled to get things back to the church and ready to pack up for home the next day.

Missions Trip Food

A quote that has been attributed to Napoleon, the French general is, "an army marches on its stomach" (or at least something to that affect). Well, the thought that food is important to anyone who wants to do much at all is applicable. A missions team needs a fair amount of food to do work in bush Alaska. Consider the difficulty of trying to feed a team of 14 people by having to make all the food, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Consider that a lot of kitchen facilities in bush Alaska aren't really equipped to handle this task, and, in both trips we have taken, the kitchen had to be dismantled so work could be done. Consider that there are nearly no restaurants in a bush village, at least any that could handle 14 people all at once. Consider that the cost of procuring that much food in bush Alaska would cost almost as much as the trip itself over a week of being there. That is a lot of considering I know, but you get the idea, food is expensive, in short supply and it is impractical to prepare on site. Enter the great team of cooks and people from New Life Assembly of God to the rescue!
A couple of weeks before departure, numbers of volunteers came forward to prepare and donate an incredible variety of breakfast, lunch and dinner entrees that were ready and frozen in aluminum foil pans to take with us as well as a variety of desserts. Each and every day we had hot meals that were delicious and in generous supply, even with 14 hungry people to consume them. The ladies that came primarily as cooks simply had to heat these meals up in the oven in order to prepare them for the team. We took two large coolers full of these frozen meals with us which covered all our needs.

The other consideration is that with each meal, there are guests. Children, young people and adults all find out there is hot food available and for just showing up, you get a nice plate full, served with a simile. It's one of the best ways of interacting with the community, because even if some people never come, they hear about these visitors that feed anyone who comes by. It's hard not to like someone who readily invites you to share in a hot meal just as soon as they meet you, which is one of the strategies the team uses when we go to these locations. Word spreads and so does the good will. You can't often see a direct result, but because so many are helpful to us when we run into problems you can't help but wonder if this kindness greases the skids when it comes to needing help.
When kids or adults are there, it often leads to ministry opportunities.
That was one aspect of our team I was really proud of. Whatever the need was, they would sense the opportunity to pray, counsel or just befriend someone without so much as a single prompt from me. It was so wonderful to see each person approached with some form of ministry. Not everyone wants prayer or for you to do something, but it was always offered. Food was a catalyst to make these opportunities happen. I don't know how each individual person found out they could come and get a meal, but as I already said, word gets around in a place like Emmonak. So, if you have an opportunity to fix a meal for someone or even for a missions team like ours, it may not seem like a very spiritual activity, but be assured, it is. In a culture where the significance of food and meals goes beyond just quieting hunger, food provides bridges to relationship which in turn provides us with opportunities to minister to other needs in Jesus' name.

Livin' The Dream

The kids in bush Alaska are wonderful. On the two trips to the Alaska bush that I have made, the children are a significant part of the experience.
Until about the hour of noon, there are no children to be seen in the whole village. About one o'clock, they begin to emerge from their homes to see the curious new people in town. At first, they are a bit shy and cautious. That doesn't last very long. As soon as they determine that you are friendly, it's game on. They tease, they play, they hang on to you. They not only want to be with you, they want to stand in the very place you are standing, even though you are already occupying the spot. Of course they want to "help" with painting or digging or carpentry, dangerous or not, they want to be doing what you are dong.
We developed a strategy in which one of the team members was designated to interact with the children while the others were working. This was the only safe thing to do. One day the ladies held a Sunday School with crafts, lesson, singing and of course food. Another day, Jared, was assigned to build "boats" with the kids which they also painted (in retrospect, not such a good idea to mix kids and paint). Walking around the village, is an interesting study. There is no way in or out of the village except by air or boat. So the kids roam freely without much of a care as strangers are pretty conspicuous. There are limited things to do in the village so they make their own fun. One of the sites they introduced us to was "Mud Hill" which was exactly that. It was a hill about 25 feet high with a sharp drop off. They would run up the ramped side with all the speed they could muster and fling themselves into the air to land in the accumulated softer mud on the backside. Pretty amusing to watch.
Rain or shine these kids dress and play the same. We witnessed them wrestling and rolling on the ground as the rain came down so hard that we had gone inside for a bit. No rain coats, no boots, just hoodies and tennis shoes. There really is not one reason for a person to own a pair of tennis shoes in Emmonak. You could even play a game of basketball on the boardwalk basketball court in your "Extra Tuffs" (boots), that is if there was a basketball. It is wet and mud everywhere. But, that is pretty much all they wear there. A new pair of tennis shoes is new probably about 30 seconds before they are not new anymore. Less time if it is currently raining.The kids are cute and generally pretty starved for your attention. Most of them grow up without ever getting out of the village until they are teens or later. "Big" cities might be Aniak or Bethel. Anchorage is a huge place to them. Of course they know all about popular culture through the internet and video games and dish television. As they become teens, village life becomes understandably dull and many problems are evidenced in the grim statistics that are complied each year. Teens typically dress in the popular "gang" fashions, baggy pants, sideways hats, hoodies, and puffy tennis shoes. The school system tries to address the problem with self-esteem programs, one recent one which was "Livin' the Dream." Several kids were wearing the hoodies they received for completing the course. It seemed ironic at times. Our missionaries have such a challenge to not only meet the spiritual needs of adults in a place like Emmonak, but the teens and children as well. What do we offer them? Where do we take them? Is the key to their survival in Emmonak or would they do better somewhere else? Does the village want to see all their children leave for a more populated area? Hard questions and all of it takes a lot of money and a lot of time. Pray for our ministries in bush Alaska. Without God, I am not sure what if anything might be done.

Working In Bush Alaska

I know it is difficult to imagine accurately, but try to think of going somewhere to work and having to think of everything you might need to bring with you and anticipate what unexpected things you might encounter that would prohibit you from accomplishing your task. Then try to do all with a very small weight limit. Those are the constraints you must deal with in working in bush Alaska. The team members are limited to 25 pounds of personal gear - that includes your sleeping pad/bag, changes of clothes, personal hygiene and any specialized gear like rain gear. This leaves no room for your own tool kit. Tools on a trip like this are community, which means there is not always enough to go around. So you take turns using certain tools and making the best of it all.
You bring things like different kinds of nails and screws of different lengths, tape, string, extra saw blades and drill bits. It is sometimes the craziest little thing that can bring progress to a halt. Then, there is no guarantee you will be able to find what you need at the village store, and as I have already mentioned in a prior blog, if you do find it, it will cost you dearly. So, you pack and pray for the best. On both trips our teams ran into trouble with plumbing parts. Out of the infinite number of possible plumbing parts which ones might you possibly need?
While pulling out the old kitchen cabinets a hot water line was broken. What we discovered was that ALL of the valves in the building that controlled water were so old and corroded that they did not work. EXTREMELY hot water was pouring out of the wall with no way to stop it. To shorten a long story, there was a lot of drama while a way to shut off the water was found. Then a search to find a copper fitting 3/4" necked down to 1/2" was the need. Impossible to find but a project stopper. The kind men of the village water department gave us one out of their inventory. A working shut off valve was sourced by going into an abandoned building and hacksawing off one off the wall.
Then, there is the obvious, you have to deal with the weather. It is usually raining and most of the time blowing, both hard. If you are working outside, you are working in water. If you are on a ladder 50% of the time you are standing under the edge of the roof where the water drips off besides just being in the rain. If you are on the ground, you are standing, kneeling or sitting in water. This all has implications for safety and things electrical. The picture I included of the decking between the buildings may not seem interesting of itself, but the person who decked this area made it so much more livable. Without the extensive decking, it would all be standing water you would have to slog through. Actually, there is standing water but it is under the decking.
One thing I could not get an effective picture of was of the brave men who actually leveled the building. If you look at the picture, you can see the building is built on a LOT of individual posts. This is the foundation. Not like the foundation under your house. These posts rest on some wood timbers that are literally laying on top of the ground. There is no reason to dig into the ground as there is nothing solid for a very long ways. So the building actually "floats" on these timbers. With the freeze/thaw cycles, they get out of level pretty quick. This creates cracks in sheetrock, doors that won't close, floors that slope and windows that crack. So, every so often you have to jack up the building and level it again. It is a hard, dirty job. I was assigned to this detail with two other men. I felt pretty useless as I don't kneel well for long periods of time and I am pretty much built to change light bulbs not get under buildings. I did try to be a good go-fer and lug the heavy timber to the needed spots while the 20 ton jacks did their work. Speaking of jacks, it is weird to jack something "up" but be actually jacking the jack into ground because it is so soft. As you can imagine a two story building is pretty heavy so it is easier to push the jack into the mud than jack the building up. Yes, it is a hard job.
You will notice, we got new paint on the building. The moment we arrived, it was nice weather and we got right to work scraping and prepping the building. It was a good thing as we barely got paint on and the rain began. Had we not gotten right on it, it would not have gotten done.
Maybe this gives you an idea of what such work entails, not everything is so difficult and most things go quite well, but you can't take it all for granted. Creativity, resourcefulness and prayer all play a part in getting things done in the Alaska bush.

More Alaska

I have to admit, one of the motivations I have in going to villages in Alaska is to see, more Alaska. Alaska is such a large state and I have seen relatively little of it. Most of what I have seen is "on the road system" which as a system, is pretty basic. I have lived in Alaska about 37 years or so of my 52 and have yet to see so many places of what this state is all about.
Last year, in flying out to St. Michael, I had the great delight to be able to land in a small handful of new places on the way. I was able to see Napakiak, Akiachiak, Bethel, Hooper Bay and then St. Michael. Now, "seeing" them is a bit of a embellishment as we flew over them and then landed at their landing strip. Once you are on the ground in southwest Alaska, you can't actually see much. The topography is pretty flat and if the bushes are taller than you can see over, which is pretty much the case, you can't see anything beyond where you are standing. And with air schedules, it prohibits one from moseying into "town" which is usually a mile or more from the airstrip. Town is in quotes as there really is no town or town center to speak of. Most villages are an odd collection of houses setting in every direction in all kinds of places. Like someone might have a handful of dice, shake them up and spill them out on the table. No real rhyme or reason as to how most of the villages are laid out. And, in a lot of ways, one looks pretty much like the other. But it is a great adventure to be able to see a new portion of our state and to experience the people and the challenges they face in living where they do.
Unfortunately, I can't always take pictures of what I want and when I want. So, I don't have a lot to share. The picture at the beginning of this post is in Aniak. Aniak is a "hub" community in the Kuskoquim region. In other words, all the smaller villages use Aniak as a way to access the larger communities by having to fly there first before they can go somewhere else. So, Aniak is an important location for that reason. We are standing under the wing of the Casa because it is raining pretty hard and you cannot stay inside the aircraft while it is being refueled. The mosquitoes were pretty aggressive too.
Another community we were able to see was Unalakleet on our return trip home.

We had to pick up some fuel there as well. Unalakleet was a great surprise to me. It is a very beautiful place. Not that the other places are not beautiful, but they are so flat that you can't see very far. Easily Unalakleet would qualify as million dollar real estate if it was in a more accessible and warmer place. Beautiful rolling hills that end right at the Bering Sea. Very scenic and pleasing to the eye. You may not see it from my pictures, but taking pictures while the rain is beating down on you and the wind is howling isn't the greatest way to see the potential in a place. Unalakleet the town is a little different as it looks like it was laid out on a grid, the buildings are for the most part in good repair and it has a nice feel about it. It must be spectacular on a sunny day. The Bering Sea was raging while we were refueling and it was impressive.
One of the things I saw here and in Emmonak was wind turbine generators. What a stroke of genius for these villages. One renewable resource that is abundant in these southwest Alaska villages is wind. It blows all the time, usually with great force. If they can use wind power for electricity instead of diesel fuel at $8 per gallon, they could save a substantial amount of money. I hope it is an idea that works.
So, I am really enjoying the opportunity to see more of this great state through these mission trips. I hope we'll be able to keep coming and making a difference for our missionaries who live out in these remote places so they can do their work better, longer and with less difficulty.

Emmonak 2011

On that theme of "it's been a busy summer", we just returned from our missions trip to Emmonak, Alaska. "We" and "our" refer to our church's missions team of course. If you have followed this blog for about a year, you will recall that I did a series of blogs on our missions trip to St. Michael, Alaska last summer. I will hopefully be able to do some of the same for this trip.
I want to thank all the great people of New Life Assembly of God who have supported these ventures. Without so many who don't actually go on the trip, but support in prayer and finances and making meals, it just couldn't happen.
One of the ministry partners we are fortunate enough to be able to work with is MARC - Mission Aviation Repair Center in Soldotna. They in turn are partners with Samaritan's Purse, the organization led by Franklin Graham. Samaritan's Purse loans their aircraft to MARC when they are not using them. Ministry teams such as ours can then charter the aircraft and MARC pilots fly us to our destinations. It's not inexpensive, our round trip to Emmonak and back will cost us in the neighborhood of $10,000 and that is just for fuel. In a way, it is a bargain as to fly commercially to the same destination per person would be right at $1,000 each and we would be limited to the 50 pounds per person. We took 14 people and about 4500 pounds of food and tools, so if you did the math, we are way ahead of the game cost-wise.
The aircraft is a wonderful thing. A Spanish made "Casa" which essentially is a miniature C-130, military, drop tail style aircraft. It sports twin turbofan engines and has a tremendous lifting capacity and short take off and landing features. All of these are essential in bush Alaska. We used this same aircraft last summer in our trip to St. Michael. Other than being a bit noisy and the passenger seats made for midgets, it is a great airplane. We flew 2 hours each way to Emmonak and back. We wouldn't have wanted to do it in a lesser aircraft. To get the entire 14 member team and all our things in one trip to Emmonak was a real blessing. We appreciate MARC and Samaritan's Purse for their partnership in Alaska missions.


We went for 5 days and accomplished a lot of work on the church/parsonage facility. The challenges to getting things done are great. First, you deal with the weather every day. Emmonak is literal built on water. The elevation of the entire village is 4 ft. above sea level. You don't have to go or dig very far to find water. Most of the time, water is standing on what little earth there is. It rains there hard, almost every day. Second, getting all of your tools, materials and "stuff" on site never happens. 20 boxes of materials were shipped 5 weeks before this trip and 6 boxes are still unaccounted for. Of course you find out which 6 boxes didn't arrive when you need something that was in one of them and you can't find it. Third, the cost of things you either forget to bring or that don't show up or that you didn't know you needed until you got there and must purchase locally is substantial. I purchased three small toothpaste sized tubes of silicone caulk, you know the kind you use to caulk your tub. Normally, I think they would cost about $2-3 dollars each in Kenai. In Emmonak, they are $10 each. We purchased 4, 12-paks of Coke for a special youth outing we sponsored. I saw them today advertised "2 for $7.88" at a local store. In Emmonak, I paid $60 for the 4 12-paks. We also needed 4, 12' 2x4's for some bracing. Again, in Kenai, probably about $6-7 dollars each. In Emmonak, $40 each.


So you get the idea. There are a lot of challenges to doing work in bush Alaska. However, we had a great team. Despite the challenges of 14+ people getting by on 2 toilets,1 shower and little internet/cell phone connections, less than ideal working conditions, I heard not one complaint. There was humor, prayer, worship, sharing, support and ministry taking place all the time either to other team members or children or adults that would come to see what we all were doing. I am really proud to have been part of this team. It was amazing.

I hopefully will be able to post more stories and adventures in the days to come. Stay tuned!

It's Been a Busy Summer...

I made a promise to myself that I was not going to go more than a week without posting to my blog. So, you can see I didn't fare well in that promise to myself. I feel like life since my last blog posting has been a long blur of events and stuff. The problem with it all is, that it hasn't been very notable, not the kind of stuff you want to blog about. So, with a schedule that has been driven by a constant flow of things that are not especially blog-able, I haven't posted for some time. Not that you were waiting on the edge of your seat for me to do so, but it's the principle of the thing.

As you can see, I finally did something blog worthy this week. Dipnetting season is upon us once again. Over the weekend we had a record count of sockeye salmon enter the Kenai River - 230,000 fish in one day! Highest count ever by Fish and Game. Unfortunately, it brought that many fishermen, campers, boats and gawkers to Keani as well. Might as well live in Seattle for all the traffic and congestion problems we have had around town. It was crazier than ever.

We did finally join the hordes on Monday after half of them went back to Anchorage in the worlds longest funeral procession ever (think 150 miles of bumper to bumper traffic). We caught our goal of 70 fish and this nice little king salmon to boot. I did a "first" for myself in bringing up a net with three fish in it two times in a row. That's about as much salmon as you want to hoist at one time by yourself. In a couple of minutes you have 6 thrashing, flailing large fish on the deck of your boat. It just doesn't get more fun than that in the bright Kenai sun. JoLynn and I stayed up late getting it all trimmed, skinned and vacuum sealed. Not bad, a year's worth of fish in one day and for the actual protein itself, free. There is an investment of time, gasoline, launch fees, vacuum bags, but hey, let's not quibble. By the way, out of the 70 fish, 30 was my take. That gives us 60 fillets to eat, smoke, and give away. Lots of fun.

So, I hope your summer is full of more actual fun than I have been having up to this point. However, it is hard to beat a day of dipnettng on the Kenai River with hordes of other boats, salmon slime, blood, goo all flying around and covering every surface in the boat, including oneself. Note: notice the cooler down by my feet, it's covered in the stuff I just mentioned.

Catching Up

I am sure people feel it everywhere, but maybe everyone thinks their little corner of the world feels it more keenly than other places. In Alaska, spring feels like a rocket taking off. After months of relative inactivity, all of the pent up energy and desire to get outside is like a fuse that gets lit by dramatically increasing daylight hours and rapidly melting snow drifts. This spring was no different. My last two weeks of April were full of a week of presbytery meetings and then a week of Network Conference. Over that weekend, we had some favorite friends as guests, Mike and Deenie Rose, Mike spoke at the church that weekend.
Two days after they left, JoLynn and I were on a jet to Seattle to be in attendance while Scott walked across the Northwest University graduation platform, got hooded and received his MBA. We applauded him wildly of course. He was the third person of a graduating class of nearly 350 so it was over for us pretty quick.

We then spent the rest of the weekend with Scott, Brittany and Brad doing something fun around the NU campus, like "disc golf" or sightseeing around Seattle. This is something JoLynn and I never tire of. It is great memories for us and there is lots to do there.

We eventually found our way to Chehalis to visit my parents and brother and his wife. It felt like the briefest time there as we were only there about 24 hours, but we did manage to pack a lot into it. One of the nicest things that happened was the sun came out and it got really warm. So, we ran out to Mossyrock where they grow fields of tulips. They were just coming on to bloom and the sights were awesome. We then went to a Chinese restaurant out there and ate way too much food. No kidding, I know everyone has stories about how big the portions are where they go to eat, but here it is really ridiculous. A heaping platter of food all for about $8. Amazing.

We spent our last day with my sister and her husband and two sons in University Place on the south side of Tacoma. Chris and I manage to check out most of the pawn shops or what few there are left of them. We hardly ever buy anything, but it is always fun to look. Chris took me to a friend of his who has some crazy cool cars in his garage - probably the subject of another post. We also stopped at Griot's Garage (http://www.griotsgarage.com check them out)which is a car detailer's mecca. We were allowed to go back to the car showroom and see many of the cars that have graced the cover of the Griot's catalog. The actual garage is immaculate, white tile floors, white walls and spotless every inch. It was cool.
After the same 24 hours we sped to SEATAC airport. I got on a plane back to Alaska and JoLynn went to Billings, MT to see her family for another week. Needless to say, getting home has been a rush of getting caught up and getting the house ready for the brief Alaskan summer, Brad and his friend who will be staying the summer, and Scott who will be coming up on a short visit just to see the old stomping grounds while Brittani finishes up the school year.

Joy vs. Happiness?

Are they the same thing? Is there a real difference? Does it make a difference? I think there is a difference and whether it makes a difference to you or not is your own decision. I think there is a real difference between what joy and happiness is and it is useful to understand the difference.

Let me use another analogy to explain what I believe the difference to be. If you are a parent you no doubt love your child(ren). That is something as a parent I felt from the moment we knew my wife was pregnant. That will never change. I will always love my children. Nothing can take that away. However, occasionally they have not made me happy. I still love them even though I may not be happy with them. See the paradox here? I love them even if at times I don't like them. Love and like are a lot like Joy and happiness. Love is like joy. Like is like happiness. Love and joy stay for a lifetime. Like and happiness come and go, sometimes several times a day.

You can fall out of like with someone. You can't fall out of love. That's why it is important to understand the difference between the two. Some confuse the two as the same when there is a world of difference. They are confused that because they may not like someone today, they have fallen out of love with them. In fact, you can experience deep love for someone even when you don't like what they are doing.

Getting back the the Joy vs. happiness conversation, I think the founding fathers of our country got it right when they described what we have come to refer to as "the American Dream" as "the pursuit of happiness." That is why the American Dream is a hopeless end. Happiness is fleeting, that is why it must be pursued. Know this, it will always outrun you. You may think you have captured happiness when you get that new house, until the roof leaks or the paint peels, then you have to run after happiness again.

Joy on the other hand is a destination. It is a place of being, it doesn't just run off. Even when i am grieving at the loss of a beloved niece, there is a joy in my heart that she is in the presence of the Lord. A real paradox for sure. I don't have to chase after joy, it is a place I choose to live.

Happiness I know will come and go. I enjoy it when it manages to run past me, but when it eventually runs on, I know it will be back. In the meantime I am sustained by joy.

There Was An Earthquake, Does That Mean Jesus Is Coming?

I hadn't planned to write this blog installment, but thought I might just in case someone fails to get my previous comments in context and I become the newest person to be branded a heretic.

As a pastor, I get questions often after a world-class disaster, Japan being the most recent, if this signals the end of the world. Many people somehow think that because there is an earthquake, a war, a tsunami, something bad, etc., that this somehow signals that Jesus is coming. Well, a little bit yes, but mostly no. Yes, Jesus is coming, no doubt about that. But listen to what Jesus has to say about this:

Matthew 24:6 (NKJV)
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

Did you get the last line of that verse? Seems many overlook it. The truth is, there has always been earthquakes and tsunamis and wars and famine and Hitlers and on and on. I am sure in the darkest days of WWII it felt like the end of the world and Hitler was surely the Antichrist. Nope. It wasn't it. My hunch is, Japan is a bad situation, but doesn't necessarily mean it launches the Great Tribulation.

Quite to the contrary, Jesus described the world just before his coming and it looks quite different:

Matthew 24:37-39 (NKJV)
But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. [38] For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, [39] and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

It sounds to me like just before the coming of Jesus things are going to be pretty good. Reread all of the parables Jesus told describing his return, they all agree that his servants get lax and lazy because times are easy and it seems "he delays his coming."

Why do we think Jesus is coming when things are bad? Let me assure you, things will get bad AFTER Jesus comes for his church.

Matthew 24:44 (NKJV)
Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

When do we expect Jesus to come? Generally right after the latest tsunami, when the national debt finally implodes and the price of gas is $10 a gallon. I suspect it won't be so.

I am not making light of the situation in Japan. That situation is serious and the Japanese people deserve our prayers and our help. Case in point to have created enough margin in your life to help them out.

I am anticipating Jesus' sudden return, any day, any time. But I do suspect that it won't be an earthquake that makes him come. He'll come when the Father says, "it's time."

Creating Margin

I spoke something in my message last Sunday that like so many things spoken in any given message I did not plan to say. It wasn't in my notes and I didn't think of it ahead of time but it just really fit the need at the time and I spoke it. BTW, if you want to hear the whole message look it up on our church website: www.kenainewlife.org

I spoke briefly about the need to create margin in our lives. This week I have heard from several people who each remarked on that one word I never planned to say. I said it because I am amazed at how so many people live on the razor edge of disaster and that in relatively good times. We used to say "living paycheck to paycheck", but that is long obsolete. So many people live "credit card to credit card" anymore. One hiccup in their world and their whole house of(credit)cards comes crashing down, which it was destined to do anyway.

I was speaking about our response to world disaster like recent events in Haiti, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, New Orleans, Samoa and most recently, Japan. What these events tell us is not that specifically Jesus is coming (don't read me wrong here) just because there was an earthquake but that hiccups or worse, tsunami's happen to us.

Just for the record, download the sermon so you get all of my comments in context.

What we should do in our daily lives is create margin for when the tsunami's of life happen to us, we have some capacity to absorb them and to help others.

Margin applies to every area of our lives. If you live "stressed out" all the time you need to create some emotional margin. If you live credit card to credit card, you need to create financial margin. If you are lonely and isolated, you need to create some relational margin.

Margin is what we prepare in advance of our tsunami's that allows us to survive when a wall of disaster threatens to overwhelm us and the people around us. Thankfully we do not get tsunamis every day of our lives. So if we prepare NOW, ahead of time, when it eventually does come, it doesn't have to devastate us.

Margin is created by living well within your means, by developing deep relationships with other Christians, by keeping your family together in loving relationships, by spending time alone in prayer and scripture with Jesus. I think you get the idea.

I am NOT saying to hoard food, gold, bullets or the like against the end of the world. That all is useless anyway. But have some depth in your life in as many areas as you can identify so that when the time comes, you have the extra capacity to absorb the situation and be a beacon of hope and help to others.

Off To The Races

I have been contemplating the strange situation that exists for me in finding inspiration in writing/speaking for most of my ministry. Some call it writer's block, lack of inspiration and just a plain lack of ideas. Since I make my living largely from speaking/writing, this is a weekly challenge. Especially when you have been speaking weekly in the same place and to some of the same people for 23 years, seeking out new things to say can become a daunting task.

Take for instance holidays. Something as wonderful as the gospel Christmas story or next on the calendar, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, can become challenging to communicate in a fresh way. The challenge to be fresh is for my own sake, not to become monotonous or uninspired as well as for my listeners. The Sunday to Sunday sermons, er, I mean talks, are less so, but have their moments as well.

In my experience it mostly lies with the decision about what to talk about, whether writing or speaking. Once I determine what I am going to talk about, it is off to the races. I can spend days contemplating and praying about what to communicate with great intensity and then in a moment, I decide and my typing fingers can hardly keep pace with my thoughts. It is amazing to discover what is in inside that you don't know is inside you.

Of course, there is the years of content from reading my Bible through each year, reading widely from books to newspapers and one of the more overlooked sources, listening to what people are talking about. Once the determination is made about what to talk about, the stored up content of scripture, current events and current topics come flooding the the forefront from who-knows-where recesses of the mind.

It is an amazing dynamic. You can stammer around for days thinking you have nothing to say until you find out you do. Once the right thought, topic or event has the attention, a seemingly empty brain becomes flooded to overflowing. For preachers it is determining what we believe God wants said. For others, it is tapping into a personal passion or fascination.

Writing for a blog is an exercise I think would be good for everyone, whether or not anyone else reads it. It is good to allow some of what is on the inside out. You would be surprised that once you pierce the dam of ideas that has had no outlet, it quickly becomes a torrent of words and thoughts.

You, Wealth and God

“And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?” (Luke 16:11, NLT)

It has been said that to keep friendships, a good rule of thumb is never to talk about politics. I think that money is a more sensitive subject myself. Why? I suppose it is different for each person, but I suspect that the most common reasons are, we are afraid that someone is out to get our money, that if people knew how we spent our money they would disapprove, we might feel inferior if people knew they made more money than we do or, if we make more money than someone else they might think differently of us.

It is my personal opinion that God wants to bless His people in every way, one of them being with wealth. However, before He does that, as the above verse implies, we must demonstrate our ability to be trustworthy with what He has given us. I think the following verse gives us a lot of insight to this:

1 Cor. 10:13 (NKJV)
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

I know we don't often think of this verse in regards to God trusting us with more money, but I think it is easily illustrated that some people in regards to their money do not handle it well. Why would God want to give us more of something we do not handle well? So, He keeps us at a level we are able to bear.

On the positive side, when we demonstrate trustworthiness with money, God is able to bring more of it our way. The Parable of the Talents speaks to this point (Matthew 25:14-28). Make no mistake here, Jesus is talking about money, not a "talent" like playing the flute.

Frustrated with your financial situation? Run a checklist on your financial habits. Do you avoid debt? Do you tithe? Do you support missions? Do you save a portion of your income? These questions and others are a way to measure whether or not you are trustworthy enough for God to allow additional wealth to be entrusted to you. Answering NO to any of these questions will spell limitations on how God can upgrade your financial status. Remember, when we are faithful with a little, God gives us the green light to be trusted with something greater.

John's greeting in his third epistle, "3 John 1:2 (NKJV)
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." Gives us the key. Want to upgrade your prospering? Upgrade your soul. How do we do that? Obedience. Avoid debt. Tithe on your income to the Lord. Give generously to missions. Save a portion of your income. As your soul prospers through obedience in your finances you will see a corresponding prosperity in that area of obedience.

My To Sent Rant

Maybe it is just me, but there is an increasing irony in this day and age of compounding ways we communicate. Actually, it may not be increasing but with the vastly increasing ways we communicate it may be that an already embarrassing situation is being exposed. What I am I about to rant about? I don't know if there is a technical term for it but it does seem there is a deplorable case of poor written grammar of crisis magnitude.

This may have always been the case with the great unwashed. But with all of the Twitter, FaceBook, blogging, etc., etc. going on, people who fancy themselves communicators (they used to be pastors, speakers or professionals in some sense) expose their awful grasp of grammar. An example? OK.

Just yesterday I spotted a sporty, good looking communicator posting on FB. He's got the style, he's got the dash, he is important and in demand. However, he should not be doing his own status updates. He was informing all that, "I am on my way across country sitting next to my daughter on the plain." Really?

Oh, I know, don't get my panties in a bunch. I could let something like that go, but especially for those whom people must trust and put confidence in and esteem as competent, this sort of thing is embarrassing like an open fly with a shirt tail hanging out in front of a crowd.

There are too many examples to list, but some of the more common and pervasive grammar errors are as follows. In number one place is the use of "your" in place of "you're". Did everyone fall asleep in class the day they covered contractions? In number two place is the use of "there" instead of "their." Possessive pronouns must be suffering an identity crisis. In number three place is the use of "here" for "hear" or vice versa. Please. This was humorous back in the day, now it's just the norm. You might as well have a blacked out tooth and a cowlick to enhance your perception of competence.

The saving grace in all this? Most people don't even notice. Since the problem is so widespread it isn't even noticed as a problem. If you ever mention the awkward correction to an offender, most of the time I have found, they don't even care. They are so pragmatic that to them if it sounds the same, it is the same.

I enjoy bits of history and sometimes read a handwritten letter that thanks to the internet and PDF files, you can see the actual document on screen. In most of the documents from the early days of our country, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, the handwriting would pass for calligraphy today. Not only are the words beautiful in form, but the content is articulate and eloquent as well. I would think most people today would think our forefathers were a bunch of hayseeds but that label certainly applies to us. Just read the preamble of the Constitution of the United States. Tell me, who can keep pace with such language as high art?

I suppose I shouldn't be so hard on everyone. My downfall is punctuation. At least most bad grammar offenders spell the wrong word correctly most of the time. That may be more attributable to spell check than competence, but we'll score one on the positive side so you don't think I am just a grouch.

So, I can't wait to ride on a plain at knight, feeling the piece of God while hereing worship music on my iPod waiting to get their. Thanks for reading my rant, I think your awesome.

Solitude

First of all, to anyone who might have even noticed, I have been off this blog for quite awhile. Like everything that gets disrupted it has been a combination of busyness, forgetfulness and at times a lack of inspiration. However, sometimes a break is good for all involved and I will try to at least be a little more regular in my posts.

I find when I seemingly can't find any inspiration for something to talk about, it really isn't true. All I really need is to identify something for which I have something to say. The problem is, I didn't know I had something to say about it. But once it comes to my attention I can hardly type fast enough to keep up with my thoughts. Something of such has been nagging at my mind trying to get enough attention to become a topic of conversation with me. It is the frequency with which I encounter those who claim to be bored.

I see quite often on FaceBook or some such public offering of inconsequential and meaningless details of life, a single entry on someone's status: BORED.

Honestly, I can't imagine it. I am rarely truly bored, and when I think I am, I can get over it pretty quick. There is always something to do, somewhere to go or a blog post waiting to be written. What I think is more often the case is the "bored" confuse anxiousness and restlessness with boredom. Being bored to me says you have abdicated your ability to think for yourself. I also think especially in this present age that we are confused with moments of not being entertained with boredom. Who can be truly bored when we have so much at our disposal? Things to listen to, watch, the rapidly expanding options with which to communicate are all before us. On my phone of all things, I can communicate with texts, email, FaceBook, Twitter, blogs, a number of ways I haven't even had the inclination to explore and, oh yes, I can actually talk to someone. And that is just my phone.

I think the difference in being bored or not bored is the ability to be by yourself successfully. Not everyone I am discovering can do this. To one, being by yourself is to be alone. To another it is solitude. They are not the same. Being alone is terrifying. The single most hellish part of Hell will be the profound aloneness those who choose go there will realize. Not even prayer will penetrate the blackness of Hell. No ability to reach out to anyone or anything, for help, hope or company. Grim indeed. True boredom is a preview of such.

Solitude on the other hand is far different. It is not a state of being bored or even alone even though you might be by yourself. In solitude, I can pray, I can think, I can wonder, question, read, rest, recharge and renew. I am not afraid to be in solitude. I actually like myself for company. And too, I am never truly alone. I am in contact with God. He did promise never to leave or forsake. Who can be bored in the presence of the Creator of everything? To be bored is to deny the existence of God in the present. You might believe in God, but to be bored is to deny He is anywhere near. You cannot be bored in the presence of God.

The next time you are thinking of letting the world know of your updated status with the single word: BORED, reconsider. It is true or is it telling you something else? Have you lost your purpose? Are you in spiritual desertion, denying the reality of God in your present? There are plenty of options be being bored. Boredom is giving up, being dependent upon something external to keep us entertained. A recent study of those who have suffered a traumatic brain injury depriving them of use of limbs and the ability to speak revealed something interesting. Living with "Locked In Syndrome" and only being able to communicate through eye blinks, they have found a way to thrive. A majority of those who were surveyed were able to communicate that they were happy with their lives. Imagine that! And so many who have everything available to them, the full use of their bodies allow themselves the luxury of boredom.

We can do better.