Ryan + Amanda + Sophia + Samuel = Bush
Amanda and I have been teachers in a 2 year old Sunday School class for the last year at Geyer Springs. Those kids are awesome.
My favorite part of each week was song time. This past Sunday being our last with them, Amanda took a few photographs so we don’t forget.
[Sophia likes her fingernails painted. I like to paint them. It works out well.]
[That's Shawn Branscum, the Apologist. He stopped by for a bit on his way back to New Orleans.]
One of the girls just made me this sweet hat. It’s awesome. And hot. And colorful. She knit it with her bare hands. And this big needle looking thing.
I’ll show you the finished product soon. By the way, does anyone have any old milk crates you’d like to get rid of? Seriously. Send them this way!
[ht:coxen]
This journey required him to confront three temptations faced by any Christian leader, the temptation to be relevant, popular, and spectacular.
Um. Ouch.
We celebrated Sophia’s second year yesterday. It was a blast. Here are some shots of the night.
[What's a birthday party without a balloon toss?!]
[Presents!]
[Ever played that game where you tie a balloon around your ankle and try to stomp everyone else's balloon?]
[One of our girls drew this donkey. Pretty impressive.]
[Way too many candles for a two year old.]
[Get candy. Get candy. Get candy. Get candy.]
I just received this email from IJM:
Dateline NBC this evening will feature a special update on IJM undercover work in Svay Pak, Cambodia that resulted in the rescue of 37 girls. The Dateline NBC story, entitled “Children for Sale,” originally aired in January 2004 and has received significant airtime as well as two Emmy awards.
Tonight’s update will include a new interview with Gary Haugen as well as interviews with several of the young girls rescued by IJM in the original raids.
9pm EDT/PDT
Dateline NBCPlease watch and spread the word to friends who may be new to IJM!
Gratefully–
International Justice MissionP.S. Feel free to visit www.ijm.org/presscenter for previous Dateline NBC footage along with recent IJM media coverage. For more information surrounding the Svay Pak operation, please read Terrify No More by Gary Haugen.
Penguin and I are partied out. We had the shindig to end all shindigs last night. Burgers, hot-dogs, cheese dip, treasure hunt, fishing, washers, singing, balloon toss, face painting, pin the tail on the donkey, ice cream, cake, presents . . .
Sophia slept with us last night. Which, was ok, except that she insisted that Penguin sleep with us too. Dang penguin is a cover hog.
I need some coffee.
[Today is Sophia's birthday! Be looking for lots of photos of tonight's shindig in the next few days. The following is my contribution to the 40 Day Fast from inspiredtoaction.com]
My wife is compassionate. It’s one of the things I find most beautiful about her. She sees people, when someone suffers, she suffers with them, even people she has never even met.
She was crying the other night and said this: “I just don’t understand. I know I’m supposed to be taking care of my family. That’s how God set it up. But, it just doesn’t seem fair when there is so much injustice and suffering. It seems selfish.”
She feels a tension between giving herself to bring hope to a broken world and spending her days changing dirty diapers. Maybe you’ve had the same struggle.
No doubt God has called Amanda to be a wife and mother, two roles that she is thriving in. However, that doesn’t mean she can’t labor alongside Christ in bringing justice and hope to the oppressed and lost.
Here’s one way we do it: Give money.
Consider this:
1) You and I have a lot of money. (If you don’t believe me, try this.)
2) There are lots of organizations doing amazing work for the Kingdom of God, but they need financial support.
3) Extravagantly giving money for God’s sake pleases Jesus. (Don’t believe me? Read this.)
4) Loving God and taking care of those around you are inseparable. (Love God. Love people. Remember?)
Kiva is a great place to start. Instead of donating money to some huge fund, you make an interest free loan to a unique person in the developing world to help them start or build their small business. Over a period of several months, they pay you back. You can then withdraw the money or make another loan. You can also keep track of your portfolio on the Kiva website. Read more about our experience with Kiva here and here.
Give until hurts. Let your abundance be an instrument of hope and justice. Worship through sacrifice.
[check out official 40 day fast site]
[Note: This post might not make sense if you don't use a Mac and/or aren't very interested in computer-y stuff.]
Jiggler came in very handy for me and it might be useful to you. This application basically ‘jiggles’ your mouse for you so your Mac doesn’t drift off to sleep interrupting a download or something else. Jiggler will keep your Mac awake. Think of it as Red Bull for your Mac.
I was trying to download a large file. But, the download kept getting interrupted because my Macbook would go into sleep mode. Jiggler to the rescue. Simply set Jiggler to jiggle at regular intervals and leave it. Of course, you could change the prefs every time you need your mac to stay awake for long periods of time, but that’s a drag.
Jiggler is freeware. Yup, free. Download it here.
Only ten days until we move out of the Promise House. We are on duty until next Wednesday. We’ll probably spend all of Thursday packing and cleaning. Then, on Friday we’ll make the big move to Elvis Town.
We’re excited. This has been by far the toughest assignment God has given us, and we are more than a little relieved to be moving to another assignment. Not that our next chapter will be easy (is life ever easy?), but it will be different. We’ve had some major struggles here (more on those when I’ve had some time to reflect and process) and we’ve experienced some amazing blessings. God is good. Even when life seems really hard, God is good.
Rest is good. Today, I’m doing a little resting by playing virtual mini-golf. What are you doing? How about a little friendly competition?
As before, I challenge you. Last time it was a monkey kicking a ball. This go around, mini-golf! Go ahead. Try to beat my score.
I was playing with the tripod (borrowed from my in-laws) and auto-timer yesterday.
[From Boston.com site:]
Members of an unknown Amazon Basin tribe and their dwellings are seen during a flight over the Brazilian state of Acre along the border with Peru in these May, 2008 photos distributed by Survival International. Survival International estimates that there are over 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide, and says that uncontacted tribes in the region are under increasing threat from illegal logging over the border in Peru.
There is more information here.
These photos are amazing. Look at the one above.
The man at the bottom peeking over the roof, bow ready.
The two women (one with a kid on her back) running for their lives on the left.
They man running down the trail on the right. Looking to down the huge bird.
Sophia likes to be lazy sometimes. Not very often, but sometimes. Yesterday she was.
Jason Truby (former guitarist of Living Sacrifice and P.O.D.) came over to hang out with the girls for a while. Also, his wife sent some amazing chocolate cupcakes.
Swimming this week got intense. Water basketball + pregnant girls = lots of scratch marks. Here’s a shot of me dominating.
My wife gives me a hard time about taking pictures of street lights. I guess I just like them. Check out the flare.
Sarah: How do you define a ‘call’ to ministry’?
Me: That’s a tough one. And, really, it’s something to which I’ve given a lot of thought. I’m still learning and growing, but I do have some ideas. So, here goes nothing.
It really all begins with your definition of ministry. Personally, I think ministry is simply “service to God and people”. “Ministry” is from the Greek word diakoneo, meaning “to serve” or douleuo, meaning “to serve as a slave.” In the New Testament, ministry is seen as service to God and to other people in His name.
When we look at ministry in that light, it becomes a lot less intimidating, a lot less exclusionary. Who is called to serve God and other people in Jesus’ name? Clearly, every follower of Jesus is called to do ministry, that is to serve God and other people in his name.
That’s the bottom line. That’s the given. If you are a follower of Christ, then you are called to minister. The real questions is this: Where? How? Answering that question is where the idea of a specific call comes in. I think Jesus is actively guiding and directing his disciples into specific assignments.
Some folks are ministering as school teachers, police officers, missionaries, lawyers, electricians, accountants, pastors, businessmen, social workers, garbage men, etc.
For example, I have been called to be a student at Ouachita Baptist University, Associate Youth Minister at Geyer Springs First Baptist, Missionary in Peru, houseparent at Promise House, and now a student at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. Not only those, but I have been called to a husband and father.
That’s probably more than you were asking for.
Sarah: Yeah.
Class was good last week. It was, at times, difficult due to the fact that I hadn’t been in a classroom setting in years. So seven hours a day for five days was a little like running a 10K after two years of couch potato-ing.
I was supposed to read “The Training of the Twelve” by A.B. Bruce before the week of class. I didn’t due to my late entry, so I’m playing catch-up. Dr. Floyd agreed to give me until Friday to get it read. So, I’m reading. A lot. This is a substantial book. 544 pages.
Thankfully, it’s good. It is feeding me.
Unfortunately, it’s a bit dated. Bruce wrote this book in 1894. Back when they used words like spake and mirabilia, and the sentences were really really long. It’s like there was a shortage of periods or something.
[It's located on Barrow Rd. if you'd like to see for yourself. It's much more impressive in person. The entire yard is decorated in the same manner. That is the front porch by the way.]
I got this in the mail from International Justice Mission.
That girl in the picture is called Lisa (not her real name, but the name she’s called by IJM for her protection). Lisa lived in Phnom Penh along a river with a bunch of other children. Homeless. Orphaned.
A man abducted Lisa and sold the 14-year-old girl to a foreign tourist who took her to the beach city of Sihanoukville where he raped her repeatedly.
Lisa was then given over to a local woman and became one of several girls kept in a local guesthouse owned by a Russian businessman. Four times he sent for Lisa to be brought to his home where he sexually assaulted her.
She could bear no more.
She managed to escape the guesthouse and went to the police for help. Lisa testified against Alexander Trofimov, her abuser. Trofimov was sentenced to 14 years in prison and is awaiting trial for the same crimes against 19 other victims who, because of Lisa’s bravery, have come forward.
Now, Lisa is attending school for the first time in her life and has completed two grades in an accelerated program.
When the verdict of ‘guilty’ was announced, Lisa leaned over and whispered, “I used to think I wanted to be a hair-dresser. Now, I want to be a lawyer, so that I can help others just like me.”
For more stories of how IJM brings hope and justice to people like Lisa everyday, check out http://ijm.org. You can help.
Inspired by this frighteningly funny video (ht:Matt), I decided to go on a google maps “This is Your Life” tour.
From 1999 to 2004 I lived in Arkadelphia, Arkansas on the campus of Ouachita Baptist University. I met my wife there. I met my best friends in the whole world there. I lived with an African there. I saw the Gurdon Light there. I got a B.A. there.
Then, we moved to the Rock while I worked at Geyer Springs. We lived in what is commonly referred to as ‘The Hood’. It was awesome.
Next, we moved to Peru. Yeah, Google has it’s all seeing eye on Peru as well. That big tree area is the park that our apartment overlooked.
Here is a shot of the Promise House (from street view) where we’ve been the last year and a half, and where we’ll be for just 3 more weeks.
And, now, where we are going. Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary is located just outside of Memphis in Cordova, TN.
I need one. Just one.
Thus far I’ve applied (or at least went and talked to about applying) at Home Depot, Workers Interfaith Network (I actually interviewed here!), Methodist Hospital, St. Francis Hospital, Baptist Hospital, First Southern Credit Union, University of Phoenix, Prime Medical Clinic, Shady Oaks Lutheran School, St. Francis Catholic School, Wingate Wyndham, Quality Inn, Lifeway, Starbucks.
Not much luck.
Today I’m going to Barnes & Noble, Hastings, Costco, Youth Villages, and Bass Pro Shop.
Truthfully, I’m not stressed. I know (really, I do) that Jesus will take care of us. He always has in the past. Seriously. He really has. And, that empty wallet up there . . . That’s really not an accurate representation of our financial situation. I just thought it would be a funny picture.
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