Archive for September, 2008

Playing Telephone?

{ September 30, 2008 @ 11:12 pm } · { Holland, Personal Relfection }
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Imagine being in a room with a bunch of friends.  Now imagine you hear one of your friends sharing a grievance they have with you not to your face but to someone who then tells the person directly behind them the story.  This process goes through several people before getting to you.  What would you think?  I know one word would be sticking out in my mind: “gossip”.  However my thinking would not be common to man, it would be my cultural upbringing coming out.  The scenario I have just described is common to man.  That is, to specific men (and of course women) in Cote d’Ivoire, Africa.  

conversations_silhouettes_id228513_size450This case study on conflict was given to us today during one of our sessions and it got me thinking about the way I handle conflict.  In Cote d’Ivoire they live in small communities where everything is done out in the open, and their style of conflict resolution is reflective of that.  Their method isn’t divisive as I had originally thought.  In fact in being so open, so public, it gives the offender time to think about how they want to respond.  

This method of conflict resolution probably would sound crazy to most Americans, it did to me, until realizing how unhealthy my view of conflict is.  I flee conflict!  I would rather crawl under a rock that have an argument with someone.  Now it’s clear to see which method has the better potential to resolve smoothly.  

While I don’t have a full picture of how the Dutch handle conflict I realize I can count on it being different from my own practice.  Regardless of my uncertainty I know that conflict will arise sooner or later on the field and I will have to fight against my predisposition to avoid it.  This is an area in my life I know I need to grow in and the session today brought it back into the front of my mind for processing.

Kate

Homing

{ September 28, 2008 @ 8:58 pm } · { Personal Relfection, family }
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There are some things in life I just am not good at, and one of them is Homing.  Not twenty minutes in to our home for the week here in Littleton Colorado for training, and Kate says, “I think I’m going to unpack.”  While there may not be anything revolutionary or groundbreaking about this simple statement, as a guy who is about to uproot his life and move it around the world, I find this an incredible blessing.  

Its funny how people can be paired together–whether you believe it to be that “one person God has for you” or not.  Though we never set out to match up our giftings to see where the other person is lacking, I find, time and again, that our giftings do match.  I’m not really a person who homes (taken as a verb of course), but if you given me enough time, I’ll figure out that something is missing.  

Thank God that his plans are bigger than ours and that he sees things we so often miss.  

Keep praying for us this week as God continues to prepare us for those unforeseen things that lie just over the future’s horizon.  

PS – The flight went great.  Jude slept most of the time and never really even cried!  

PPS – Kate and I are both feeling a little under the weather.  I don’t know if it is the altitude or what, but pray we’ll get over it quickly.  We’ll be updating through the week!

Garage Sale: Finals

{ September 26, 2008 @ 12:47 pm } · { senders }
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Just wanted to update you on how things went this last weekend as our Senders hosted a second garage sale to help raise additional funds and liquidate our belongings here at home.

Before I give you the numbers I first want to send out a huge thank you to all the people who were involved in these two sales: the Schlecters, the Koenigs, the Chans, the Osgoods, the Horsteds, the Humes, the Toppers, the Winters, the Backmans, the Johnsons, the Achesons, the LaPores, more Achesons, the Sheets, the Quinns, the Ellises, the Thulins, Gramma Acheson, the parental Wulf, Matt Wulf, Abby Wulf, the Stantons, the Adamsons, the Radkes, the Abshires, our neighbor Michael, the Hendricksons, Tucker Lynch, Eric Macias, Tanner Bell, Kelsey Kline, and Micah Koenig–in all somewhere around 40 people helped to make this possible.  A huge “Thank you!” to all the people who donated, drove, baked, sorted, priced, cleaned, assisted, sold, moved, facilitated, administrated, and planned these sales!  You have done a great job and taken a great weight off of our shoulders by both raising funds and helping us transition out of the US!

So, all said and done (with just a couple things for sale still on Craigslist) the two garage sales combined to bring in over $4500!  The proceeds from these sales will be more than enough to buy our plane tickets and a new computer as we head to the field!   Thank you to John and Karen Wulf and David and Kimberly Topper especially for putting so much work in to these sales!  And thank you again to everyone who sacrificed to help make this happen!

Communion

{ September 24, 2008 @ 10:44 am } · { Personal Devotions }
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As I lay in bed this morning listening to my son around 3:45 am (playing the ever-popular listening game called “Pacifier or No Pacifier”), I began thinking over my most recent time of devotions.  Over the past two weeks I’ve been reading and meditating on the book of Mark (read some of my studies on the book at studywithme.wordpress.com) .  Last night my thoughts took me especially to the Passover scene in Mark 14:22-26 where Jesus redefines the event toward the new Covenant in his flesh.

communionMost of the time Communion exists as a time for me to think about what Jesus has done for me and to reflect on his work on the cross.  Essentially the time is said to be for me, as an individual, to think about my personal relationship with Jesus, and unless I have missed something over the years, it mostly has to do with the past, maybe working its way up to the present (as in, how am I continuing to live in the present in light of Jesus past work).

Going back over Mark’s telling, I couldn’t help but think, “The Lord’s Supper wasn’t about remembrance!  It was about things yet to come!”  In Mark 14:22-26 when Jesus breaks the bread and passes the wine (or grape juice…) he is not thinking back to his death, but looking forward to his victory–a practice we took should adopt.  Yes, remembering Jesus death is important (just read Deuteronomy if you want to hear about the importance of remembering!), but more than that, the Lord’s Supper is to be an audacious looking forward to the things that have yet to be realized.  Jesus administered communion in defiance of the present reign of sin and death, and in anticipation for the victory that was to be won.

As people living after the cross we eat the bread and drink the cup not only in remembrance, but in hopeful celebration of the coming return of our King! So Paul is able to say that by partaking of Communion we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (I Cor 11:26) when the ultimate realization of the victory that was initiated on the cross is finally made reality!

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