Lightning in a Bottle

On June 10, 1752, Benjamin Franklin conducted his famous experiment of flying a kite in a thunderstorm and capturing an electrical charge in a Leyden jar. I suspect that this historical event in some way gave rise to the expression of “catching lightning in a bottle.” The phrase itself communicates the idea of the difficulty of accomplishing some elusive or hard-to-reach goal. Franklin’s life is a great illustration of one who achieved some remarkable goals, overcoming significant obstacles in the process.

Benjamin’s father, Josiah, a soap and candle maker by trade, had 17 children by two wives. Benjamin was the 15th of these and the 10th and last son. His father could only afford to send him to school for two years, so by the age of 10, Benjamin was a dropout. A voracious reader, Franklin devoured books and epitomized the self-educated man. He was apprenticed to an older brother at the age of 12 where he learned the printing business. Franklin would go on to distinguish himself in multiple arenas as a publisher, philanthropist, civic leader, and a statesman. Perhaps he is best remembered for the witty sayings published in Poor Richard’s Almanac and as a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

When we face adverse circumstances and challenges in life, far more encouraging to us than the example of a self-made man like Benjamin Franklin is the strength we find to persevere through God’s Word and the support and prayers of fellow believers. The writer of Hebrews challenges us to run the race set before us with endurance, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2). Hope fixed in Him will not leave us disappointed.

Staff Retreat

The next couple of days our ministerial staff will be participating in a retreat in Concordia, MO.  Our men's ministry has held a retreat there the last couple of years and it's a nice setting to get away and do some reflecting.  Last year's retreat, held just a few short months after our new pastor had arrived, was an extremely productive time together and I'm trusting that this one will be as well.  Easter services this morning were a real blessing with great attendance, wonderful music, and a clear biblical message from our pastor.

Homebound Lord's Supper

One of the things that I most enjoy doing in the area of senior adult ministry is helping organize and participate with teams of deacons that go out to serve the Lord's Supper to our homebound members.  The majority of these are living in institutions that provide extended care for the elderly, but several are still able to live at home.  They just aren't sufficiently mobile or strong enough to attend church services regularly as they once did.

This morning I joined an 88-year old deacon (I think the oldest of the total of 14 who participated) and we went to two different homes.  In the first one lives a couple who has been married for 70 years.  The wife told us that they'd never had a fight in their entire marriage and seemed a bit surprised at our own expressions of incredulity and surprise at that statement.  She asked us rather matter-of-factly if we had experienced fights or disagreements with our spouses, to which we both responded affirmatively.  I hope we didn't burst her bubble.  Her husband is 93 and she is soon to turn 89.  We had a wonderful visit off almost an hour, sharing conversation and prayer concerns (including a 25-year old granddaughter who is battling cancer), before we concluded by observing the Lord's Supper together.

In the second home, we visited a lady who is 96 and lives with an almost 70-year old nephew who is rarely at home.  We've been the team that has taken the Lord's Supper to her for the past few years now so she has gotten to know us fairly well.  She expressed as she often has how lonely she feels at times.  I assured her that we were in the process of reorganizing our deacons' ministry to provide a more frequent and ongoing point of contact with her for fellowship and prayer support and to attend to any needs around that house that she might have.  James' words about pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father consisting in visiting the orphans and widows in their distress (Jas. 1:27) came to mind as we conversed.

I'm grateful for a deacon body that is committed to addressing the needs of our senior adults--especially those widows living on their own.

Tabitha Ministry Video

As promised in the previous post, here's a link to the longer YouTube video that features interviews with women who've been helped by the Tabitha Ministry in the area of the Guatemala City dump.

Weekend Wrap-up

Well, it's a bit beyond the weekend it's true, but I'm just now getting around to sharing a report on Carol Bercian's visit to Missouri.  She arrived safely last Thursday evening and we headed off to Windermere for ChurchNet's Share Hope Summit on Friday and Saturday.  Carol did an outstanding as our missions banquet speaker, describing our ongoing partnership efforts in Guatemala.  She presented a wonderful challenge and those present responded with a very generous offering as well as some additional pledges.

We had a good day Sunday, visiting with the fine folks up at Wyatt Park Baptist in St. Joseph in the morning.  Afterwards we enjoyed a delicious meal at the pastor's home with several other friends and family members.  The evening service at our church was down a bit in attendance (perhaps due to being an hour earlier than normal to accommodate the benefit concert that followed).  I was a little disappointed that more of our members didn't hear Carol's presentation which focused predominantly on the Tabitha Ministry.  She is such a passionate speaker when it comes to her ministry among the children living in and near the city dump in Guatemala City, as well as with their mothers.

On Tuesday evening, Carol spoke with our church's missions committee to outline some possible future projects for teams going to western Guatemala from our church.  Earlier in the day, she spoke to a WMU group at John Knox Village.  We managed to keep her pretty busy while she was here, though she did find some time to do some shopping and sightseeing on Monday and Tuesday.

I'm providing a link for some brief video footage that I shot during our most recent visit there in February.  Brian Kaylor who handles the communication stuff for ChurchNet did some editing of it and it's been uploaded to YouTube.  You can find it here.

Carol brought a more extensive video that includes testimonies by some of the women who actually live in the dump and have been assisted by the Tabitha Ministry.  That too has been uploaded to YouTube but is still awaiting being made public.  I'll share it as well as soon as it's available.

Carol left this afternoon to return to Guatemala.

Busy Weekend Ahead

This is stacking up to be a busy (and prayerfully a blessed) weekend.  Carol Bercian, our missions partnership liaison in Guatemala and director of the Tabitha Ministry in Guatemala City, will be arriving in Kansas City tomorrow evening.  She will be the featured speaker at ChurchNet's missions banquet, a part of the larger Share Hope Summit, taking place at Windermere Baptist Conference Center on Friday evening and Saturday morning.

Following the conclusion of the Summit, we'll be driving back to Lee's Summit (about 3 hours) and will have a get-together that evening for all of those who have participated from our church on missions trips to Guatemala.  On Sunday morning, I'll be driving Carol up to St. Joseph where she will speak at Wyatt Park Baptist Church.  Wyatt Park has partnered with us on our last two trips as a church to Guatemala and their pastor, Josh Stowe, was one of the conference leaders at the training seminar in January of this year.

On Sunday evening, Carol will be speaking at our evening service (an hour earlier than usual) and afterwards there will be a benefit concert for the Tabitha Ministry that will also serve as a wrap-up to church's youth group's Disciple Now Weekend.  Three different bands will be playing and there will be an art auction as well to benefit the Tabitha Ministry.  The concert, advertised here on Facebook, has also been featured on K-Love's concert announcement listing.

It should be an exciting weekend that will hopefully be a strong promotion for ChurchNet's Guatemalan missions partnership and the Tabitha Ministry specifically.

Lee Trevino's Influence and Ours

At the height of his popularity on the PGA tour, Lee Trevino once remarked that there were two things that weren’t long for this world—dogs that chase cars, and professional golfers who miss the green with their second shots. Trevino had a knack for off-the-cuff quips that left the spectators positioned close enough to hear them chuckling in amusement. Growing up as I did in South Texas where I golfed occasionally with my dad, I noticed that Trevino’s notoriety as one of the first Mexican-Americans to achieve success on the PGA tour inspired a lot of other Hispanics to take up the sport. Golf has often been viewed as something of a rich man’s game—given the high costs of clubs and equipment, cart rentals, and green fees—not to mention the exorbitant membership dues of private clubhouses. The economics of golf also dictated that it was predominantly a white man’s sport.

Trevino played a major role in overcoming the racial barrier in golf. He had dropped out of school at 14 to work as a caddy at golf courses in Dallas in addition to shining shoes. After a four-year stint with the Marines, Trevino became a golf pro in El Paso, TX. He won the U.S. Open his second year on the tour and would eventually win 29 PGA events. “Supermex,” or “The Merry Mex” as he was known, was likeable and good-natured, inspiring many young Hispanics to take up golf.

Trevino’s life story prompts me to ask the question, “Whom are we influencing and inspiring by the way we live?” “Are our lives serving as an example to challenge others to achieve greatness?” That greatness hopefully isn’t measured by tournaments won, trophies amassed, or bank accounts enriched, but by faithful service to others in Christ’s name.

An Excellent Blog Post

One of my favorite bloggers, Alan Cross, has written an excellent post that asks the question, "Are Southern Baptists Capable of Being Missional?"  His historical analysis of what has brought the SBC to where they are today is especially insightful. 

Associated Baptist Press article

Vicki Brown of Word & Way interviewed me last week for an upcoming article in the paper.  She emailed me yesterday to say that Associated Baptist Press had picked up the article.  Here's a link to it.

ChurchNet Board Meeting

One of the really positive things to come out of yesterday's ChurchNet board meeting was a very good discussion by two of our teams (Missions Mobilization, Resources and Relationships) with Roger Hatfield, executive director of Future Leadership Foundation.  FLF was founded in 2002 and has concentrated its efforts predominantly in Eastern Europe to this point.  They respond to requests from national entities in several of those countries to provide leadership training events.  Their philosophy and approach to doing so matches quite closely the approach that we have taken as an organization, so there is lots of potential for shared ministry.  I foresee that an eventual partnership between our groups will be a boost for each of us--providing synergy and helping both organizations to maximize resources. 

Fresh Appreciation for Bible Translators

I’ve done something unique the last couple of weeks in the Wednesday night Bible study time.  I typically prepare an outline for the study each week with a summary of the major truths and insights found in the passage.  The past two weeks I’ve tried my hand at offering a paraphrase of a number of the key verses in the chapters we’ve examined.  That’s a far different exercise than engaging in translation from the original biblical languages, but it has caused me to grow in my appreciation for the work of Bible translators. 

Translators are faced with the daunting task of faithfully expressing the meaning of the ancient biblical text in a manner that communicates in our contemporary language and culture.  While many still read the King James Version of the Bible (originally translated in 1611), it’s safe to say that none of us speak 17^th-century English.  Many of the words and expressions from that era would need to be translated into modern lingo for us to grasp their meaning today.

In a sense, that’s the challenge we all face as Christians.  We’re to take the unchanging truths of Scripture and contextualize them in a world that is becoming increasingly biblically illiterate.  To a world that deems the message as archaic and mythical, we have the privilege and responsibility of communicating the Bible’s relevance in a clear and penetrating fashion.  A transformed life goes a long way toward underscoring the legitimacy of the message and the messenger.  Let’s live the truth daily.

ChurchNet Meeting tomorrow

Looking forward tomorrow to our quarterly board meeting of ChurchNet (formerly known as the Baptist General Convention of Missouri).  I'll have the opportunity of giving an update on the recent trips to Guatemala.  In addition, Roger Hatfield of the Future Leadership Foundation will be meeting with us to consider and explore some ministry partnership opportunities in Latin America.  FLF has a long history of providing leadership training events in Eastern Europe, but they're looking to expand and/or re-focus on our southern neighbors.  It should be a great meeting as we prayerfully seek direction about possible collaboration between our two organizations.

Guatemala Wrap-up

We made it safely to Antigua late yesterday afternoon after stopping to visit Lake Atitlan and taking a boat ride there. We got settled in to our hotel and then went exploring a bit in the evening, enjoying a typical Guatemalan restaurant just off of the central plaza.

Today we'll explore some more of the city before returning to Guatemala City after lunch to visit the Tabitha ministry. After that, it's winding down a bit this evening and getting ready for an early departure tomorrow.

It's been a wonderfully blessed week. I don't think I ever commented on the final day's activity after the trip up to the mountains to distribute food on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we split up into 4 or 5 teams (can't remember which right now) and were joined by Mary Wood [former children's minister at our church now serving as a volunteer in Guatemala with her husband Joe] as we delivered bags of food to needy folks in the neighborhood of the church. Several decisions for Christ were made among those who received the food. That afternoon, we went to an institute with young people between the ages of 12-18. We again split up into multiple teams to share the gospel with the students. I translated for Jeff who did an outstanding job of presenting his testimony and the gospel. Again, many indicated by their responses that they had accepted Christ.

That evening, we met at the church for a farewell gathering and were blessed by their words of appreciation and some souvenirs that they gave us to remember them by.  The youth did a skit in which they recounted the areas in which our team had ministered there during the week.  Lots of hugs and tears as we said farewells to some folks we had learned to love in the space of a few days.

Tuesday in Guatemala

Tuesday was an exciting day for the team.  After spending some additional time on Monday weighing more rice and beans in 5 lb. bags and packing those up along with sugar, flour, and powdered milk, we headed out Tuesday morning for a village named Tierra Colorada on the side of a mountain southwest of Quetzaltenango.  We had been forewarned that we might have to hike a good bit of the way as the road was steep and winding.  Fortunately, the van was able to make it all the way to the top.  We were grateful as we probably climbed between 800 and 1000 feet higher than the 7500 feet altitude or so that Quetzaltenango is situated at.  Our first activity there was speaking to the kids in a community school.  There were very well-behaved and paid close attention to the Bible stories and the presentation of the gospel. 

After concluding the presentations in each class, we were invited for a typical lunch (chicken and rice) with some tamales as well at the home of the president of the parents' association.  It was a few hundred yards down the mountainside to the home and the hike back up after lunch was breathtaking--literally.  We were all pretty winded from the thin air by the time we got back up to the school. 

There, we waited as the mothers of the children gathered to receive the bags of food that had been taken up the mountain in a truck (which gratefully also successfully climbed all the way to the village).  Jeff Arnold, our youth minister shared a testimony followed by a testimony from Martha Wakely.  Martha is bilingual so I didn't have to translate for her.  Then Josh Stowe, pastor of Wyatt Park Baptist, shared the gospel utilizing the story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well.  Afterwards, the pastor of the Judah Baptist Church (our host church for the week) shared an invitation and several of the women responded.

We learned afterwards when we visited a neighboring church a few miles from this village that earlier evangelical groups that had attempted to share the gospel in Tierra Colorada had been run out of the village with stones.  The principal of the school is a believer and is trying to share the love of Christ with the families who attend there.  She was present on Sunday morning for the worship service at the Judah Baptist Church and returned on Wednesday night for the farewell service to express thanks for the inroads that the gifts of the food bags had made in the community.

We wrapped up Tuesday evening with the final night of leadership training at the Judah Church with representatives from three different churches present. I don't think anyone stayed up too late that evening after we got back to the hotel and had dinner.  It was an exhausting but fulfilling day.

Guatemala Reports

I failed to do any further posting about out recent Guatemala trip while there, though I did manage to send a few brief email updates to the church during the course of the week.  I thought that I'd post those in the next couple of days to give some insight into some of the things we did.

Here's a report I sent on Monday the 14th:

We've had another good day with a few changes of plans. We were going to distribute bags of food in the area of the church this morning but did a quick change of plans when we learned that the school we were planning on visiting on Wednesday was going to have teacher training sessions that day rather than classes. We went and had a great time with about 400 kids (I think) in all. Afterwards, it was lunch time at church, followed by VBS, packing more bags of food for the families tomorrow, and then training tonight.

It turns out that we're delivering almost 200 bags of food at one time rather than individually tomorrow. I had been wondering how we were going to manage time-wise to deliver that many bags. It's a village in the mountains where we're going. Carol has warned us we'll probably have to hike the last part of the way up there. The other warning she gave us was that there are no bathroom facilities there and we're going to be there for a good part of the day. We'll be speaking in a smaller school there in the morning with about 250 kids, and then after a lunch of sandwiches that the church is preparing, we'll be sharing testimonies and a message with about 200 Mayan families who live there. Then we'll deliver the food. Because there are so many families, the food (beans and rice at least) were purchased in bulk (100 lb. bags), so we've spent a good deal of time with the help of church members weighing and packaging the food for delivery.

Also got to see Pastor Santiago from San Marcos today. He's the fellow who has taken in so many homeless kids and is teaching them carpentry skills and helping them with an education. He has a new young man with him named Sergio who's 18 whose parents were killed. He has never attended school in his life until now.

Had a good visit this morning with the leaders of the local pastors' association to assure them that Carol's departure from the convention and Roger's return to Nicaragua wouldn't curtail the BGCM's partnership with this area but that we would be working directly with the association rather than the convention.

A Busy Day

We had a good first day of ministry on the missions trip to Guatemala.  One of the most interesting things about the worship service this morning was having the music and praise time led by a group from the Guatemalan National Police.  They had a drummer, guitarist, keyboard player, and several singers.  When one hears so much about the corruption in the police departments across Latin America, it was very refreshing to see this group lead an impassioned time of worship.  I had the chance to preach to the adults afterwards while other team members taught Sunday School classes for the children.

After lunch which the church provided for us, we weighed and packaged black beans and rice which had been purchased in bulk (100 lb. bags), as well as cooking oil, sugar, and powdered milk.  After doing this with lots of help from the church members, we played a little stick-ball with some of the kids before beginning VBS with about 40 kids in all.  When we finished VBS, we packed 60 backpacks with school supplies that our church members had donated for the children of the church.  We had some extra supplies which we'll be taking to a public school later in the week.

We made a quick trip back to the hotel to refresh for a half hour or so before returning to the church for leadership training.  Our children's minister led a session for children's workers while our youth minister did likewise for youth workers.  Josh Stowe, pastor from Wyatt Park in St. Joseph, led a session for the adults which I translated.  After that it was back to the hotel for a rather late spaghetti dinner.  I think everyone is pretty exhausted after a busy day on the heels of a long travel day yesterday.  Hopefully we'll catch up on some sleep tonight.

Arrived Safely in Quetzaltenango

After a long day of travel (awakened at 4:00 a.m.), we arrived this evening about 9:00 in Quetzaltenango.  Tomorrow morning we will worship with the Judah Baptist Church in the morning, have VBS for their kids in the afternoon, and host a leadership training event in the evening for the area churches here.  I'd give a longer update, but my body is saying it's time to go to sleep.

Guatemala Beckons Again

It seems like I just returned from Guatemala (which I did last month) and now I'm off again this Saturday.  This will be our church's fourth missions trip to the western part of the country.  Our previous trips took us to Cantel, San Marcos and Tejutla, and Totonicapan.  This time we'll be working with the Judah Baptist Church (no h on it in Spanish however) in Quetzaltenango.  That's the same city where we host the leadership training conferences each six months so we'll be staying in the same hotel we do for those trips--the Bella Luna (beautiful moon). 

We had seven from our church slated to go, but one of our ladies wound up in the hospital today with a collapsed lung and won't be able to travel with us.  Two of our number are traveling down early tomorrow (Wednesday) to spend a couple of days training the workers at the Tabitha Ministry near the city dump in Guatemala City.  They will join us at the airport when we fly in on Saturday to make the trip out west to Quetzaltenango.  We're slated to speak in a few public schools, to lead a VBS at the Judah Baptist Church, to spend a day doing outreach and providing fund for hungry families at a mission of the church in the mountains, and to offer leadership training classes for the local Baptist churches in Quetzaltenango in the evenings. 

We'll be joined by Josh Stowe, pastor of Wyatt Park Baptist in St. Joseph, MO and his wife as well as a third member of their church who is bilingual and will help with the translation duties.  It's always a wonderful blessing to be able to spend a week in Guatemala serving alongside some wonderul folks.

Reflections concerning Groundhog Day

As a youngster, I used to receive a good deal of razzing from my fellow classmates about being born on Groundhog Day, February 2nd. That, of course, was long before Bill Murray starred in the movie about a TV weatherman covering the annual forecast of the famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania. The weather forecaster becomes mysteriously mired in a cycle in which his life activities are repeated identically each day. Murray’s character ingeniously devises some elaborate schemes to exploit the situation, since he knows exactly what to expect at every minute of the day from the time his alarm clock first sounds in the morning.

Perhaps for some people, such an absolute sense of utter predictability would symbolize comfort. Knowing exactly what was going to transpire every day might seem to offer reassurance and stability. I strongly suspect though that for most of us the invariable sameness of each new day would rapidly become maddeningly frustrating. It would also undercut any sense of excitement and anticipation about the new adventures that each day holds, given that none of us has a crystal ball that accurately predicts the future.

I’m grateful that God allows us the privilege of awakening each day to a clean slate of opportunities and possibilities to love Him and to love others. Rather than living in some kind of a rigidly controlled environment, He affords us the chance to fully experience life with all of its complexities and risks. That being the case, we really do have to learn to walk by faith and not by sight, trusting God for the strength and wisdom to live each day to its fullest.

Guatemala update

We arrived back in Guatemala City this evening after a couple of really good days of leadership training conferences in Quetzaltenango.  We had 72 pastors and leaders in attendance, including some for the first time.  Josh Stowe and Ann Pittman did a great job leading in the workshops and I was able to take a break from my normal translation duties as a result of Steve Mines accompanying us and handling those responsibilities.  Steve's folks were our big brothers who welcomed us to Argentina in 1988 as we arrived there as new missionaries.  It's been good to catch up with him in these days.

It's been cool here with temperatures in the middle 30s in Quetzaltenango at night, but that's a lot better than the weather I left in Missouri with several inches of snow on the ground and chill factors of -20.  We'll visit the Tabitha Ministry tomorrow morning before doing some sightseeing in Antigua later in the day.  After that, it's an early morning departure on Friday as we head back to the States.

As always, the conference participants were extremely gracious and affirming of our presence and contributions in making the training event a reality.  We were also able to visit the Judah Baptist Church there in Quetzaltenango where our church will be sending a missions team next month.

I was also able to visit with Mary and Joe Wood who are volunteering in Guatemala for a year.  Mary was our church's children's minister a few years ago before becoming the minister of education at another church in the Kansas City area.  It was wonderful to spend some time with them today.