Back to the grindstone

The old time-clock. I started back to the work-a-day world last week. Beginning an entry level position at Denso Manufacturing. They make the circuit boards that run your car's air bags, sensors, etc. At the moment I am a professional rubber stamper (I rubber stamp the production codes on the circuit boards after they are come out of the oven. This is my first time in this business and I can honestly say I really enjoy it. I am working through a temp agency right now but I am also applying to be hired by Denso directly. The funny thing is that, after six years in college (and getting myself in lifelong debt to the loan companies) I can walk into a place like Denso and get an entry level job making more per year than any professional position I have held in ministry OR social work! And the big educational requirement??? a high school diploma or GED. If I would have started there at 21 I would be clearing more than if I'd gotten a master's degree in counseling by now. And so, here I am trying to learn a new job at 36 years of age while I am surrounded by twenty-somethings. The real kicker was hearing a 24 and 26 year-old complaining about "getting old".

The struggle is in wondering what God has us out here for. It may be to share the gospel with our neighbors if we thought we could get past the rottweilers and pit bulls wandering the yards and streets. I suppose we will find out when God decides it's time and when he provides the opportunities. I must say, that if we are put on a temporary 'shelf', then I can't think of a better place. I can't helped but be overwhelmed by God's presence every time I go to Walmart, work or to the grocery story and then turn for home only to be mesmerized by the panoramic view of the Smokies towering in the sky. I don't think I will ever get over them, it always takes my breath away. I can't wait to get my kayak in the river and get my family on the trails. We walk every day on a great bike trail in Townsend and have only seen about six bicyclists total. And the kids seem to really be enjoying themselves.

Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage and he will strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord! (Psalm 27:14)

This is my verse given to me as a brand new Christian. This is the only one that was given to me in such a unique way. Maybe because God knows I need to be taught and retaught the importance of waiting on God all the days of my life. Well, I guess if I have to wait, I might as well do it in the Smoky Mountains!

Our recent family pics

Tera at our last service at the Jerseyville church, Easter Sunday
Daniel looking all GQ
Our road trip down the Foothills Pkway. Notice Daniel is ready for a bear encounter!
Our kids standing in the back of the moving truck.
Ahhh, Tera is ready to shmooze anyone! And Daniel is a superhero in training. (that's his caravan scarf by the way).

I am not in any of these because I have been the one taking the pictures. Quite convenient.

You Can Do It!

I am writing this a whole lot earlier than I am used to being up, but I was awoken by a child who couldn't find his blankie and was scared of the dark. This in turn woke up the dog. Yes, the dog. We are in the trial period of adopting a rescue dog. He is the sweetest dog in the world and reminds me of a dog my friend Kathy had, Daisy, except Buddy is real skinny. Well, Buddy (his name was Bullet but being non-NRA members and predominantly passivist, we decided Buddy would be more appropriate), is the most shy and timid dog at this point I have ever met. If he were human, we would say he has low self-esteem. He has always lived in a kennel so does not know what all the sounds of a house or people living in a house are like. He doesn't like to walk through doorways or up steps. Our bedroom is right off of the kitchen at the end of the house and since that is where he sleeps he has to walk through our smaller doorway to get out. This has been a problem. He doesn't want to and ends up being carried out physically by JP. (JP is out walking him right now.) We have been working on getting him to walk through on his own. So I stand on the other side in the kitchen and praise the dickens out of his baby steps. He takes two then paces backwards, then tries again getting a little closer each time to the threshold. He'll stick his nose over and sniff then decide "I'm not so sure about this", then turn around for another pace in our bedroom. All the while, I am at the door saying "come on Buddy, You can do it! Good boy" and petting him everytime he makes a step. This morning I almost gave up, but I didn't and Buddy walked (well ran rather frightful) through the threshold over to the other side.

This got me to thinking about our relationship to God. Yes, we are the dog in this analogy. How many times does God put us in a new situation that we know nothing about. We are nervous and apprehensive. But God is saying to us, "Come on my child, You can do it! See I told you, it would be okay." Our heavenly Father loves us so much and just like we can see the potential in Buddy, He sees our potential as we are obedient to Him. Philippians 4:13 " I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Things that go bump in the night!

Last night or should I say very very early this morning, we heard scratches and bumps from what sounded like something coming in through the floor or the wall behind the refrigerator and then from our closets. Insane thoughts of what it might be flooded my mind- a big hungry bear (well, maybe the scratches aren't that loud), a big ole snake ( I don't hear any rattlers and then I was informed by my wild animal savvy husband that snakes do not make scratching noises), a big ugly hairy diseased rat (I imagined how loud I would scream if I saw something scurry across the floor), a rabid raccoon (somehow I have never found raccoons the least bit the friendly bandit when I heard about how they could scratch the face off of someone), a demonic squirrel (squirrels remind me of rodents which some of you know I am deathly afraid of), and last but not least a stinky ole possum (my mother in law had one get in her house once in Florida.) Now do not get me wrong, I like wildlife but from a distance- a very long distance or in controlled, supervised attraction centers designed for people just like me. These were all possibilities that invaded my mind while I lie awake listening to see if it will continue or just go away. My brave husband got up and went around looking (he even went outside on the porch to check it out) and found nothing visibly there. But like with all things that go bump in the night we just may never know (and probably do not ever want to).

God doesn't do windows.....

and I am not exactly what you would call a Merry Maid. You read in the previous blog about all the cleaning we had to do. Well, while we were doing it this thought occurred to me. God brought us here and to this particular place but He is not going to do the things that physically we can do ourselves. He will give us the strength to do it but He will not do it for us. I can clean windows and I have to admit I wasn't very joyful while I did it. I wish I could say that I was because as a Christian we should give thanks in all things, but it did take me a while to get there. You see I do not think I have ever cleaned windows to have my towel come back gray on the inside of the house. But the view sure improved. Isn't that like our lives? We look through the dirty gray windows of our lives that only we can make a decision to let God help us clean. I am not talking cleaning ourselves up for God to accept us, but I do believe holiness comes when we do what we can do and leave the rest to God. When we have done all we know to do, we fall back into the arms of grace. You'll be amazed how your view will be improved.

Here We Are...

Well, I am writing this on our second night in our new home. I know that everything sounded wonderful from our last descriptions but we realized that we might have romanticized our “find” a little. Now don’t get me wrong, it has everything we need and more, but we still are going through some “culture shock”. I remember reading about it in missionary books, a missionary family would go to a new place and feel so out of place, dealing with inconveniences and lower standards of living, that they would be depressed and out of sorts for some time. Well, that is how we feel now. Our landlord didn’t clean up the mess like we hoped. The two rooms with carpet (our children’s bedrooms by the way) were filthy some still bearing the “evidence” of animals. The porch screens were still hanging off along with the strong smell of cigarette smoke and dust that have kept our allergies burning since we arrived. So here we sit, surrounded by boxes and mess that has to be cleaned up before we can unload boxes. And if you have been keeping up with us, you know we already depleted our belongings by about 40% and now I am determined to do another 40% (starting with some of my tools that I have no place to store).

We were however blessed in many ways on this trip. I think that if God had not intervened we might have found it unbearable. First, we went to pick up the truck on Monday morning. I looked in front of the Uhaul place...no 17-foot truck. I went in and the elderly gentleman sort of winked and said, “no, I don’t have a 17’ truck but there is a 24’ for you out front. I thought you might need the extra space and the supplier said you could have it for the same price.” I couldn’t believe my ears! So now we could take all the things that we placed on the “stand-by” list (though we later wished we hadn’t). And so at about 3:30 PM that day (three hours later than anticipated) we rumbled down the road in our massive 24’ foot truck with everything easily fitted inside. The later start time changed our agenda a little as we planned on being past Nashville by bedtime. As it grew dark we began to see over a dozen baby deer scattered along the roadsides and began to get really nervous. So we decided to stop at Cadiz, KY Super 8. And let me tell you they had a pet room for $5 extra that was just as nice as could be. It had pretty honey pine furniture and smelled as clean as you could want right down to the sheets. We even left a big cleaning person tip because we were so impressed! And then when we finally arrived in Walland, TN I was scared to death to try to get that truck in our little driveway up that high (and narrow mountain road). I took the turn as wide as possible knowing that the length would probably cut the back tires into a ditch. I then said a prayer leaving the outcome in God’s hands and punched the gas. Somchow I made it in the drive and by another miracle turned that truck around and backed up to the porch. I was never so glad to get rid of something in my life as when I turned that thing in! A little while later a very nice couple from a local church ready to help us unload which was another blessing because we were so tired I don‘t think we could have done it alone. Then another individual came by with a casserole for supper. Once again, God has shown himself to be in the midst of this crazy adventure. What’s going to happen next? Tune in next time for the continuing saga...

He Is Risen!

He is risen! The glorious truth of the Christian faith. We serve a risen Christ, not a dead legend but a risen Lord. I read in "The Earliest Christian Confessions" that this was more than likely the earliest of the creedal statements of the church. It was with these simple truths that those who began the first house churches stood. Paul stated that he was satisfied to preach the sole message of "Jesus Christ and Him crucified". Then I think about how I came into ministry with a westernized church system already in place. Creedal statements didn't have much to do with it, I simply stepped in the pulpit and followed the established ministerial patterns. I relied on past practices and testimonies from others who "knew how it should be done" and got along pretty well. Problems and issues are dealt with simply by methods that any organization uses, faith-based or otherwise.

But now things will be different. We can only go where the Holy Spirit leads us. I am not the "pastor" anymore who calls the shots, orchestrates the "worship" and serves as the "go-to person". This will be a community of faith that develops according to the diversity of gifts of individuals who make it up. We begin only with the core truths of our faith and with little else. We start with only prayer and a dependence on the presence of Christ who promises to be in our midst. The fact that our (physical) journey begins with Easter Sunday emphasizes this. We celebrate the simple truth that the Body of Christ gathers around, "He is risen!"

We should not dismiss the Biblical witness to the origins of the Church. We cannot skip along to the Western version and say, "we finally got it right!" I think there is something to be said for allowing the Holy Spirit to direct, evolve, and have full authority in a local expression of the Church. Sounds pretty risky but I do believe it is worth the risk!

Celebrate Our Risen Savior!