Kingdom Come!

Yep, we’re actually really physically moving.  Moving from lovely Lillian, Alabama across Perdido Bay to West Pensacola, Florida.  Like 5 minutes from the office and in a great house and neighborhood.  Some wonderful people are helping make this possible and we are very, very THANKFUL!

Now, here’s the big thing… I want to have an open-door policy!  A place where neighbors and students and missionaries (!) can gather and enjoy!

We’ll be completely “in the house” after our trip to Michigan (17-27 FEB) and before my trip to Scotland (14-20 MAR).  Exciting!  We have a family joke (based on a multiple-time true experience) that every time we moved in Kenya, dad went to Uganda.  I told Phyllis, I had that yearning for Uganda feeling… I’m recovering nicely from the frying pan!

And oh yeah,  we’re moving closer to the No-Brand Retreat.  We’ve set it for 3-6 April.  If you’d like to attend, let me know…

Well, I want to confess my recent sin…

For the last while I’ve made a conscious effort to commit myself to BELLS, a missional concept I stole from Michael Frost of The Shaping of Things to Come fame.  The acroctic of BELLS is as follows:

BLESSING: Who have you blessed this week through words or actions and what learning, encouragement or concerns were raised by it?
EATING: With whom have you eaten this week and what learning, encouragement or concerns were raised by it?
LISTENING: Have you heard or sensed any promptings from God this week?
LEARNING: What passages of Scripture have encouraged you or what other resources have enriched your growth as a Christian this week?
SENTNESS: In what ways have you sensed yourself carrying on the work of God in your daily life this week?

So, the other morning I had rushed to Farmer’s Barber Shop just over the bay from Lillian, AL.  I was in a great hurry because I was going to get a haircut (almost always a traumatic experience since moving back to the US, but that’s another story…), rush back home, shower and head to the Globe office.  Upon arrival, there was an older guy in the single chair of Rick Farmer’s barber shop, so I sat down and began to read the paper.  When I heard the older guy stir out of the chair and his wife rise to go, I arose myself headed for the barber chair.  As I did, another old guy (Lillian is filled with old guys!) came in the front door shuffling with a cane looking at the exiting guy and the empty chair.  It was obvious (upon reflection) that walking, even with a cane was a great effort.

I paid him no real attention, but made my way to the chair to get my haircut.  And that’s when it dawned on me: you could have really blessed that guy, if you’d have let him go ahead of you.  If you’d have let him take your place, it could have been one of your blessings of the day!

On my way home, I cried out to God: “Forgive me!  This is what I’m all about - hearing your voice and blessing other!  And here I am, I’ve blown it!  Again!  Too busy, too much in a hurry, too fast and furious to see a need right in front of me.!” 

I’ll chat more about BELLS at another time…  I want this to become the paradigm of living for me and mine in 2008… Maybe we can do d better job…

Well, it’s All Saints Day… which means so very little to a recovering fundamentalist, like me.  Not something that gets me going.  But I’m trying.

And the time Phyllis and I spent in an icon-rich (even the gas stations and bank tellers had icons on the wall, or in their windows!) saint-revering country hasn’t helped.  The saints were not venerated in such a way to inspire faith and confidence that God’s People could actually be like them, live like them, know God like them, but the saints were set apart to shame and belittle everyday believers to control them.  But, like I said, I’m trying.
Brother Maynard just keeps rolling on and on about the Missional Order.  Just detailing every facet and making it work way down inside.  And Rickard and Lori seem to get things in a real “earthy-kinda-way.”  And it all resonates deeply inside me.

Tomorrow, I leave early for Honduras for a visit with Juan Cruz and Nick Venditti for a few days.  Again crossing lots of cultural barriers to sit down, chat and love Jesus together.

Phyllis will drive to Valdosta, Georgia and help celebrate our friend Terry May’s 50^th birthday!  Terry is an almost life-long friend married to Jeff May, nurse, former-YWAMer and Anglican priest (through the Anglican Mission to America).

I’m back Tuesday and Phyllis and I rendezvous in Lillian, Alabama - that great American town.

We have a wild and wooly few days coming up!  Yikes!

Zach is here in Lillian, Alabama visiting until Wednesday (for the very first time since we moved here!) to celebrate his 27th birthday!  So last night we went to a wonderful (wonderful = expensive + tasty + expensive!) resturant in downtown Pensacola.  It was great!  Ate too much, but the Thai ribs are to die for!

Wednesday Phyllis and I help host a booth at a local church’s festival.  I’m sure it’s an alternative-to-Haloween-type gig, but Globe will have a booth giving candy, etc. to kids who can find a location on a map.  Fun!  Hey! Globe’s all about education, huh?

Thursday (All Saints Day) we have a lunch gathering of the Globe Leadership Team.  Truly a gathering of the Saints!  (smile)  It’s always fun and challenging as we look at Globe and it’s future.  Doug and Beth Gehman will host, of course, but Sandy Carter, Scott and Dawn Brown and Phyllis and I will round out the grand gathering.

Friday morning Doug and I fly to Tegucigalpa, Honduras for the weekend.  Back on Tuesday.  We’ll be there with Juan Cruz, a great Globe missionary whose making a big difference training leaders in Latin America.  It’s the INSTE graduation.  We get back on Tuesday.  Not sure what all we’ll do there.  First time in Honduras.  I understand the landing at the airport is the most exciting part of the trip…

On Wednesday, Phyllis and I are figuring a way to get to New Braunfels, TX.  There is a memorial service for our good friend Bob Keith who died last weekend.  He was the retired rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church there in New Braunfels, but he was living out his retirement in Georgia.  We met when he was serving the Church of Uganda (Anglican) and we were living in Nairobi, Kenya.  I was speaking at an Anglican Renewal Kenya conference out in western Kenya.  He was there sitting on the front row with Henry Orombi, then a bishop in the COU, but now the archbishop.  Bob was a great guy!  We laughed a lot together!  And cried together, too.  The earth is poorer without his laugh.

Phyllis and I want to be at this service, but boy it’s hard to figure both time and money to get there.  So right now, we’re thinking to drive (11 hrs) on Wednesday and spend the night with Chuck and MaryNell Hall in New Braunfels.  (Don’t tell them we’re coming, yet.  I haven’t called them.  But I will!  I will!  Don’t panic!)  We’ll go to the service and then drive back Thursday afternoon.

Saturday we have the big Walking on Water premier movie in Pensacola.  We’re showcaseing our Globe training initiaves and doing concessions there.

Wild!