I’ve been up for a while this morning.  Our son Todd is really interested in astronomy and when he heard there was going to be a lunar eclipse today, he wanted to see it.  The alarm clock rang at 4.30 (and then 4.35…4.40…) and we all went out to watch the moon get covered by the earth’s shadow.  The weather was already heavy with humidity, promising yet another hot day.  We took a blanket and lawn chairs out to the front yard and watched the eclipse between the tree branches.  We had to keep moving back becuase the moon kept hiding behind the woods.  We watched until both the moon and the shadow were covered by clouds.  We were disappointed, but perhaps the clouds mean rain today…

I’ve been studying about the Quechua people (the descendants of the Inca and other indigenous people of Peru).  The more I learn about their culture, the more I love the people.  In addition to the history and such of the culture, I’ve been trying to understand the pantheon of gods they worship.  One of them was Kilya (spelled a variety of ways), the goddess of the moon.  The ancients believed (I don’t know how many modern Quechua believe this) that during a lunar eclipse, a puma was trying to eat the moon.  This was not a good thing, so the people would go out to the hills and mountains making as much noise as they could to scare the cat away.  It must have worked, because eventually the moon came back like it was before the attack. 

My foot is feeling better.  I’ve been walking on it probably more than I should, but I still have my crutches by my side.  It feels better when it’s wraped. 

Audra is doing well with the pregnancy.  She went back to Ball Ground yesterday to check our mail and to pick up a few things.  While there she ran into a few friends.  She was planning on being back before lunch.  Unless lunch is after 3.30, it didn’t happen…

On Sunday, we visited New Hope UMC in Carrollton, Georgia.  Their pastor was my district superintendent (the pastor of the pastors in my area) when I first became a pastor.  He appointed me to my first church (Farmville United Methodist Church in Calhoun).  We were very well received and are looking forward to partnering with the church through the coming years.

The picture above is from our trip to Brazil.  We were walking down the street in one of the favellas and the boys, coming home from school, joined us on the walk.

Got back this afternoon from a memorial service for the dear wife of our district superintendent (the pastor for us United Methodist pastors and our families).  She had been fighting cancer for the past 17 years, but other than the scarf she often wore around her head, you couldn’t tell.  She always had a smile on her face and sense of humor.  In the eulogy and sermon it was noted that early on in her diagnosis, her prayer was to live long enough to see her children grow up.  Their youngest is 21 and for the past few years she has considered renogotiating her deal with God!  Her memorial service made us laugh and cry.  She was not afraid of dying.  In fact, it seems just the opposite:  she was afraid of not living.  Jesus said he came to give us an abundant life; and her life was an example for us of what Jesus meant.  I praise God for the little I got to know that remarkably corageous woman. 

I hate cancer.  As a pastor I saw too many lives disrupted.  Sometimes the patient won the battle; sometimes they didn’t.  Cancer is just unfair.  I pray a cure for all forms of cancer is found soon.  I know a young woman who works in the cancer ward of a local hospital.  She doesn’t claim to be anyone special, but she is.  I admire her courage and strength to go and give those children hope for today because they are not promised tomorrow.  Let’s pray for the doctors and nurses who work with the patients.  And lets pray for the scientists who are finding the cure. 

I wasn’t planning on writing all that about cancer.  I was going to write about being in some nebulous middle ground:  no longer a pastor serving a church, but not yet a missionary on the international scene.  Just a missionary on deputation.  A missionary looking for partners to get us there.  It’s happening.  We’ve had a lot of confirmation this week.  There is still a ways to go.

Tomorrow we are headed to Carrolton, Georgia, to talk to the good people at New Hope United Methodist Church.  Please pray we are well received. 

Y’all are wonderful and we thank you for your prayers, support and encouragement.  I’ll write more later when I’m not feeling so meloncholy.  Have a blessed day.

Grace and peace to all of you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

It has been neat to see the way God is working.  Over the past week we have been speaking at churches, meeting people who have been to Peru (and to Huancayo), and discovering new partners in our ministry.  We have spent many hours on the phone and pouring through the phone books and looking at webpages on line in hopes of finding new churches where we can speak.  The responses have been varied (as to be expected, I suppose):

Some are not interested, but are “too polite” and so they don’t say, “no we don’t want to support any missionaries” so we are led on a bit. 

Others only want to support “Methodist Missionaries” (their words).  My question is, “What am I?  I am a Methodist pastor…”

Others are very intrigued by the Mission Society and our philosophy of mission and so on. 

Some are new at their churches and, while they are interested in us speaking, they want to ask their church leaders about how things are done in that church.  We’ll call them again in about a month…

By now, nearly every Sunday between now and the end of October is full of one (and in some cases, two) places we will be speaking.  This coming Sunday we worship at LaFayette First UMC (three times in the morning) and then at Newnan Springs in Rossville GA.  Next Sunday we are in Carrollton, GA.  Hopefully we can arrange an evening service, but if not, we’ll make something work out.  We will be covering many miles across the southeast in the coming months.

What we really need are midweek groups to allow us to come and speak to them about Missions.  Any ideas?  Invitations?

This Saturday night we look forward to celebrating with Beersheba Presbyterian Church (the ones allowing us to use their manse).  They are having their occasional “Y’all Come”.  The plan is simple:  bring a dish to share and just come.  If you have a talent to share, bring it.  If not, just come.   (They saw my guitar in the corner by the TV and so they are expecting at least one song.  I’m thinking about Casting Crowns’ “Who am I”…)

It has been a wow! and Prasie God! week.  Thanks for your thoughts and prayers…

Oh, yeah…there is an ouch in the title, isn’t there?  I was playing soccer in the yard with Aylis’ and Todd last night… Barefoot (okay, not the best choice)… chasing after the ball I heard (felt?) a pop in my foot.  The tendon (ligament?) in my foot has been tight from running and I just thought it would loosen up… It’s loose now.  I think I have a plantar fasciitis rupture.  The treatment:  RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation). 

New title for our ministry for the next few days:  Have crutches will travel…? 

Have a blessed day…

This past Thursday, we moved into a temporary home (hopefully for just a few months as we continue to gain support before heading off to Costa Rica and langauge school!).   This home came as a wonderful surprise of God’s blessings.  It is a Presbyterian Manse (in the Methodist Church we call them parsonages, some Baptists call them Pastoriums, for others of us its simply “the house where the preacher lives) located in Chatooga County in northwest Georgia near Cloudland Canyon.  It has been empty for about a year or so and the church was thrilled to have someone living here.  We were thrilled to move in.  I told Audra that I think the church misunderstands something, though:  they are blessing us by letting us live here.  They keep telling us, though what a blessing we are to them. 

All this reminds me of the Messianic Seder Services we have around Eastertime.  During the service, we re-enact Moses leading the Hebrew people to freedom from slavery in Egypt.  It’s a powerful time of worship.  Toward the end of the evening, there is a call and response retelling of God’s goodness in which the leader says something God has done and the congregation responds with dayenu (which means something like “it would have been sufficient”).  This past week has been something like that for us.  I mean, it goes a bit like this…

“It would have been enough for the church to let us live here” (dayenu!)

It would have been enough to live here, but they cleaned the house (dayenu!)

It would have been enough for them to clean the house, but they brought us dinner (dayenu!)

It would have been eought for them to bring us dinner, but they gave us a gift card in case we needed anything else (dayenu!)

It would have been enough to get the gift card, but they left an umbrella in case it rained (dayenu!)

It would have been enough to have an umbrella, but they left kleenex boxes in case we needed them (dayenu!)

It wold have been enough to bring kleenex, but they also brought an extra bed with linens (dayenu!)

…and on and on and on.  These people were complete strangers.  We were strangers to them.  And yet they have done so much for us…  It might seem like a little thing to some, but we are feeling blessed by God through the actions of others.  We are feeling confirmed in the work we are doing. 

Thanks for who you are and all you do for the Kingdom of God.