I can't believe Pax is almost 5 months old now.  It is incredible to watch him interact with people and see his whole body squirm when he smiles.  It won't be long until he is walking.  He hasn't really got the crawling thing yet - he scoots around a lot with his head on the ground, but he can pull himself up and stand.  It seems like he was born yesterday and time has flown by.  I am sitting here watching the Democratic National Convention (note: I am not a democrat or republican) and listening to Joe Biden's acceptance speech.  I don't know much about Biden, but his son introduced him and testified of his father's selfless love for his family - how he turned down the senate because his sons were in the hospital, how he made the 4 hour round trip to Washington and back to Delaware every day so he could be a father to his children.  

I want to be the type of father that doesn't pursue the position of influence to do good, but rather pursues to be present and use the influence inherent in fatherhood to show my love for Morgan and Pax.  So far the pursuit of that has had many detours, but every mile makes the destination clearer and more urgent.

Posted In: life baby

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I am a big fan of the Harry Potter series.  It may not have much depth, but man what a story.  Maybe it is that part of me that always wanted to be conspiring for freedom and something good against the powers that be... and to fly at the same time.  And if you have read the series there is a point towards the end that the maliciousness and deceit of the magical authorities is obvious, but there power is so pervasive and absolute that there is not much anyone can do about it.  Blatant lies are being told, violence is silencing anyone who dares to speak out... There is violence that makes you wander if there is any humanity left in the ones perpetrating it.  All the while in this book you are asking yourself why doesn't anyone do anything about it.  And then comes Harry Potter and his ragamuffin magical troop who rise from the dust and win the day.  But it is just a novel.  It would be nearly impossible for three kids to overturn the violent oppression of their 'government'.  You are glad there really isn't a group of people who will blatantly lie, burn women and children, beat and torture countless masses, and crush anyone who opposes them...

Over 80 people have been killed by the ruling party since the March 29th elections.  Family members of the opposing party have been kidnapped, mutilated, and burned alive.  Thousands of people have fled from their homes in fear of their lives.  Hundreds of thousands have been subject to the 're-education' camps that consist of political brainwashing, beating, rape, and sometimes death.  In the meantime the ruling president blames it on his opposition.  Everyone knows its a lie, and everyone is desperate for help and change.  Meanwhile a regime is losing its humanity with every stick that breaks across a woman's back and every child who loses its father to their violence.

But where is the hero?  This isn't a book, there isn't a magical teenager that will save the day.  How long will the UN and the SADC turn a blind eye?  How long will people sleep in their  meaningless when innocent people are dying?  How long will headlines like, "Sports bra saves hiker," "High Court to Hear Whale Case," and "Couple May Be Illegally Married" be more popular than "Genocide is possible in Zimbabwe?"  We must be praying and raising awareness. 

The youngest son of the couple we stayed with in Harare always had hope for his country, but his hope rested in God.  "When Zimbabwe rises back up to be something in Africa people will be able to look and say, 'Look at what God did,' because only he will be able to pull Zimbabwe up from where it is." 

We had a prayer meeting last night for Zimbabwe and this verse was offered by someone whose fiance lives in Zimbabwe:

Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. - Romans 12:12 

Let that be our prayer for the church in Zimbabwe. 

Posted In: zimbabwe social-issues

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I wish I could give you a play by play of our Annual Conference this year, but I missed most of it.  One of the best things about conference is seeing people you haven't seen in a year or more and hear what God is doing in their lives.  The parts I was actually able to attend were great though.  Bishop Looney spoke at the Commissioning service.  One of the more memorable moments of his sermon was when he told about his early days in ministry.  He thought he was working at least 70 hours a week, but when he actually recorded his activities for a week he found out that he was only working 50.  The moral was that an unorganized life can make us think we are working harder than we actually are.  A few people I haven't seen in a while were being commissioned and so that was exciting.  I know they will all be faithful in their ministries.  

The theme for the week was taken from a book entitled 'Three Simple Rules'.  Which are:  Do no harm, Do good, and Stay in love with God.  At the final service Bishop Swanson spoke on 'Staying in love with God.'  He made the point over and over that we cannot just flip a switch and be in love with God instantaneously, but that staying in love with God requires us to be diligent in the practices that put us in God's presence:  prayer, fasting, study, etc.  And when we do those things doing no harm and doing good come more naturally.  

At the end of the service there was a special presentation of the Hope of Africa Children's choir.  These kids were between the ages of 5 and 12 and live in Southern Sudan.  Some of their stories were heartbreaking.  Most did not have a living father and their mothers were very poor.  They sang some awesome songs and you could see the joy radiating off of their faces.  

Also, Boo and Phyllis Hankins were presented as those chosen to go to the Sudan for 2 years to over see the construction of another school and be a mentor to the pastors there.  This was probably my favorite moment in conference.  Boo was my pastor at Elizabethton while I was a youth pastor there.  It was great to see these two people give up so  much to go help the people of Sudan rebuild their church, community, and lives.   

Posted In: church leadership

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I love the creativity of Erwin McManis and the folks at Mosaic. I also love the music from Glen Hansard. Thus the greatness of this video

Posted In: culture spirituality

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Rob Bell commented about the Dali Llama and Bishop Desmond Tutu's ability to transition from the gravity of human suffering to the lightheartedness of our human experience seamlessly.  He said that to endure the suffering of humanity one must have a deep seated sense of humor that bubbles through the pain.  He told of the Dali Llama tickling the Bishop during a hug at a forum.  Rob happened to be seated next to these two iconic figures and when the tickling commenced he snapped a picture of it with his cell phone!  I guess this picture could represent that humor bubbling through the soul of the people of Zimbabwe.  For some reason Jimmy, Andrew, and I were recruited to be in the choir one night in Harare.  Did I mention we can't speak any Shona?  And if you look very closely you can see that my choir robe is on inside out (Jimmy gets credit for that one because he wanted to switch robes with me while we were waiting outside in the dark).  

Well the experience was quite exhilarating - I can now say I crashed an African Choir (and an African Wedding - more on that later).  We got to process in with the choir swaying back and forth singing words to which Jimmy, Andrew, and I simply sang 'I have no idea what I am singing' and tried to hit the right notes, which didn't work out very often.  Then they had us come up front to help do a song with a group of about 7 men, and I got to play the drum on this one.  Now I had been playing the drum all week and received numerous comments about my mad skills (which I am friggin pumped about - a bunch of African people said I had good rhythm).  However on this song the singer turned back and told me that my drum was out of tune and that I should stop playing.  Ouch - ego buster.  So all the while we are doing this song I am up there having one of those internal fights in my head.  You know the kind I am talking about - where you are arguing with yourself over whether he was really saying I was way off beat or that the drum needed to be tightened.  It was kind of a stale mate, so I had to just smile and clap during the song because I had no idea what they were singing.  

Posted In: zimbabwe funny-haha

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As I read the news of Zimbabwe today - political leaders' wives and children being burned alive - there is a growing fear that June 27 will be very bloody.  I can't help but feel a sense of guilt and sorrow for my new friends that we left behind in the midst of all that violence.  In my posts about Zimbabwe I will refrain from using any names and the photos will not contain any adults due to the possibility that Mugabe's people might be scanning the web for targets of the tyrannical rule.   

Chris Kirby and I stayed with a great family.  We received the most precious hospitality from people who literally have nothing.  Nothing but hope.  in conversations with the youngest son he kept on saying that his people have hope.  I can testify to the truth of that statement for wherever we went we saw people who were trusting that God would deliver their nation from the rule of Mugabe.  People would show up early to church services and just begin singing, sometimes in the dark.  It is very humbling to think that your presence is the answer to someone's prayer.  But that is exactly what our ministry in Zimbabwe had been for two weeks.  More than us praying that God would shape us there was an elderly woman praying that God would send her some relief from the pain caused by years of hard labor and hard living, there were children praying for their stomachs to feel better, there were children crying out for someone to love them.  It is very humbling knowing that God uses us to answer other peoples' prayers even when we are not a very good answer to the prayer.  For me this has made me want to ready myself to be a better answer next time.  

Once you meet the people of another country and experience their generosity and kindness it is almost impossible to imagine the evil and violence that their neighbors are bringing to them.  My prayer is not so much that one party would win over the other, though that is definitely a concern, but it is rather that the church would stand as a light in the darkness and be a refuge for the bleeding, a beacon screaming out into the abyss that their is another way.  It breaks my heart to think of any of my brothers or sisters in Christ having to wrestle with the decision to kill or be killed, to take up arms in a civil war.  It has made me wrestle with my own pacifism.  Will I be one who will stand with them?  How?  

"Unless we are prepared to risk injury and death in nonviolent opposition to the injustice oursocieties foster, we don't dare even whisper another word about pacifism to our sisters and brothers in those desperate lands.  Unless we are ready to die developing new nonviolent attempts to reduce international conflict, we should confess that we never really meant the cross was an alternative to the sword.  Unless the majority of our people in nuclear nations are ready as congregations to risk social disapproval and government  harassment in a clear call to live without nuclear weapons, we should sadly acknowledge that we have betrayed our peacemaking heritage.  Making peace is as costly as waging war.  Unless we are prepared to pay the cost of peacemaking, we have no right to claim the label or preach the message."  (Ron Sider, speaking at the Mennonite World Conference of 1984)

Lord let us not stand by while your children suffer. 

Posted In: missions zimbabwe

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What a crazy three weeks!  My apologies for the blank post 'Hello From Zimbabwe'.  I found an internet cafe in the airport in Harare, but it was so slow the only information that posted was the title.  I am sitting in the Best Western in Maggie Valley NC feeding Pax.  It feels like he has grown up so much while I was in Zimbabwe - he is smiling all the time and kicking his little lion that hangs from his play dome.  It is good to just hold him.  

We have been to our Annual Conference this week.  It has been good to see folks I haven't seen in a while, hear Bishop Swanson preach, and catch up on some reading during the really boring sessions.  

I will be posting some pictures and stories from Zimbabwe and Conference soon.   Stay tuned. 

Posted In: church missions

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Posted In: zimbabwe missions

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it is 2am and I have just wrapped up my packing for the trip.  We meet at Tyson-Mcghee at 11am - 9 hours to go.  I have to be honest, I am kinda nervous.  Brazil was kinda like America, except everyone spoke Portuguese.  Zimbabwe on the other hand will be completely different culturally, politically, economically...  We packed alot of vitamins and antibiotics to take with us.  I have never seen so many children's vitamins!  One of the ladies from Fairview dropped by a few thousand antibiotics yesterday.  These pills could literally save hundreds of lives.

We have an 18 hour plane ride to Harare (not including layovers).  I am hoping to get a lot of reading done.  I just found an awesome writer named Margaret Feinberg.  She is an 'expert' in Twentysomethings and has a book by that name.  Great writer.  I am finishing up one of her books entitled, The Organic God.  She talks about how our relationship with God doesn't need anything added to it or taken out of it to make it any sweeter, or look any better than it already is.  We just need a pure, unadulterated, relationship with our Creator.  I am also determined to beat one of the Sudoku puzzles in the airline magazine.  I finished one on our Brazil trip, but it took me a good 2 hours.  I am bent on beating these things... pray for my sanity.  Also, I have always heard that sitting for long periods of time on flights can increase your risk of a blood clot.  Besides getting a kidney stone, this is one of my biggest fears.  

I found out yesterday that I may be able to go with one of team mates to meet her sponsor child that lives about 180 miles out of Harare.  I am totally pumped about this.  She sponsors her child through World Vision so we will get to ride out there with the World Vision crew and see what they do.  Since we sponsor a child in Rwanda, I am really looking forward to seeing the impact this has on a family.  

I am not looking forward to being away from my own family for two weeks though.  Please pray that God stunts Pax's growth for the next two weeks and he doesn't do anything really cool until I get home and then he just lets it all out.  Seriously though, knowing how much I missed Sarah and Morgan when we went to Brazil keeps my heart here.   

There continues to be political violence in the more rural areas.  That is why we have changed our plans so that we will be in the city more.  Please pray for our safety, and more importantly our effectiveness and boldness in sharing the love of Christ in word and deed.  

Posted In: missions zimbabwe

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We are getting ready to do some exciting things this Fall through Fairview.  Most likely we will be renting out the old Capitol Theater in downtown Maryville and having a rockin' college and young adult service on Sunday nights.  We are planning on pulling out all the stops and doing the best possible thing we can do for this service. I am pumped and have been losing sleep over it.  We have a long way to go in a short amount of time so please be praying for us.  We are applying for some grants to help us get it off the ground and we still need to come up with a name.  If you have any suggestions leave them in a comment.  Remember - catchy yet refined... I am thinking, "New City".  

Posted In: church life

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