7 Years

Seth Godin writes that:

A friend worried out loud to me the other day, "I spent the last seven months doing this [job] and I have nothing to show for it. If I had known I would have spent seven months and gotten nothing, you can bet I would have done something a lot more fun."

Seth goes on to write about thinking ahead 7 years. Where do you want to be? I always hated that question (it was 5 years) on employee evaluation reports I had to fill out. Maybe it was because if I were honest, it would be to say, 'Well, I certainly don't want to be here!'

It got me thinking to 7 years ago. Well, that just happened to be exactly when I made a decision to quit my job and look for a missions job. I think it's safe to say I feel like it was a good decision. I would never have been able to say, 'I want to be in Glasgow Scotland working for a church plant team in 7 years.'

Maybe if I had stayed in my engineering job or switched jobs I would be happy today. But I also think it's possible that I would have looked back and said, 'what if?'.

Even now, if I try to visualize where I might be in 7 years, I get stuck. How I can I answer that question. Ok, what about what I want to accomplish? Or what skill would I like to have?

Bottom line is that it matters less what I want than what God wants. If I allow myself to be guided, conformed, converted, convicted, persuaded to His will, I think He'll make sure I'm where I need to be in 7 years.

Panty Bomber

You carefully pack to avoid any liquids more than three ounces. You stand in a security line. You take off your shoes. You get your fingernail clippers confiscated. You run your carry-on bags through an X-ray machine and walk through a metal detector, with an extra wanding if your spare pocket change sets off the alarm. And after all that, it’s still your responsibility to subdue the terrorist in the next row trying to set off the pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) secreted on his body. Rich Lowry

I think all Department of Homeland Security employees should now be required to get to work 1 hour earlier, to remain in their desk chair for 1 hour before quitting time, and no reading materials at their desk. Oh, and full body searches each day. At least until they figure out how not to grant visas to terrorists on watch lists.

Quiet

Church was pretty quiet today, we had 30-40 people. I was down with the kids and had to really scramble to find someone to do Powerpoint for me (thanks Stephanie). Wade gave his final sermon on Jesus being 'ADVENTageous', which, sadly, was not recorded. Next Sunday Brian will be back, which I'm sure Wade is happy about.

Over the last week I joined some of the international students for some gatherings. There is some sort of camaraderie among people who aren't in their homeland and aren't able to go home. Maybe some of them didn't want to leave. I did meet people from all over, though.

I've got the training materials for The City, a new online network which our church is joining. It is similar to Facebook, but only for our specific church. I'm definitely excited about the potential to consolidate a lot of our communication and assimilation.

Christmas, Re:Hope - Style

Sunday was our annual, no-holds-barred Christmas service. How does a young congregation want to celebrate it? By having a choir singing carols, backed by an organ, of course! Kirsty did a wonderful job of honing the choir over weeks of practise, and they sang Go Tell it on the Mountain, O Holy Night, and God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, O Litle Town of Bethlehem, and O Come, All Ye Faithful. Click the link to listen. Even the organ was played by our multi-talented Ryan. Amazing, Christ is born!

Simply Holy Spirit

This past weekend, Re:Hope continued our new tradition of having teaching sessions every few months. They are entiled "Simply...", and this one was "Simply Holy Spirit." As a church we've not spent concentrated time teaching on the Holy Spirit, His fruit, and His gifts. Included in the sessions was a spiritual gifts assessement that people took. It's a goal of ours to help our people use their spiritual gifts better. That's one thing we've been lacking.

One of the talks was about the 'baptism' of the Holy Spirit. This is, historically, a controversial subject, so we were careful to look closely at what the Bible actually says. The conclusion was that the baptism in Acts 1 was meant to be an empowering for Christ-exalting ministry, given to the disciples, who were already believers, for boldness and power. All believers today have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, but God does send His Holy Spirit in power at certain times to fill His children for specific ministry. The point is that this filling is to exalt Christ and not ourselves.

I was disappointed that there weren't more people attending this time. This was one that more people needed to be at. The last Simply (Everything) may have scared them off, since it was so comprehensive. This one was a little more manageable, as far as the weekend went.

Boston

I spent my Thanksgiving in Massachusetts because that's where it all started. No, not really. I was there because my sister was getting married! I'd never heard of a Thanksgiving wedding until now. Whenever extended family gets together, it's usually fun times. When I haven't seen people in a while, there's always the questions about what I do. I even had on extended conversation with a distant relative who really believed that God is an anthropomorphic construct of the mind. That was a challenging conversation. Highlights of the weekend were reading the Gospel passage at the wedding and walking the Freedom Trail through Boston.

Promise

Suffering in Eritrea

Most western Christians have no idea what persecution really looks like. Other than reading about it in the Bible, or books from over fifty years ago, there aren't many well-documented first-person examples in current times. In Re:Hope on Thursday nights, we're doing series on The Seven Churches of the Apocolypse. The second church to whom Jesus Christ writes a letter, is the church at Smyrna. That church suffered greatly, yet persevered. Even so, Jesus warns them about more suffering to come.

As a supporter of Release International, a organisation that is an advocate for the persecuted church, we receive materials which bring to light the suffering of the church from around the world. Last week, when I picked up the mail, I opened up this book, Song of the Nightengale by Helen Berhane. A native Eritrean (northeast Africa), she tells of how she was detained and tortured for about 3 years simply because she would not give up her faith. It's an incredible story that left me evaluating if I had what it took to, not only endure that treatment, but to thrive with God's help to be a living testimony.

She says that over 50% of the population in Eritrea has been imprisoned at some point in their life! A mad, paranoid ruling party throws people in prison camps, sometimes for no reason other than to strike fear. It is also against the law (just in the last 10 years) to meet as a church unless you are part of a registered church (mainline). Helen preached and did not back down and ended up in a shipping container with up to 18 others in the hot desert. The indignities she suffered were at least as bad as those in the Nazi death camps.

Now safely in Denmark, Helen is recovering from that ordeal and speaking out on behalf of those she left behind in Eritrea. It's a great book that helps a western Christian gain a better perspective and suffer along with our brothers and sisters in those situations.

Soda Pop Stop

I love Coke, but this makes me want to confirm my preference. I love what this guy says about drink ingredients, small business ownership, and the government.

Visa

I received my visa today! It's for three years and allows me to work some if needed. That's a relief and great answer to prayer. One month ago I was ready to pack my bags to travel home with no visa. I also saved a great deal of money applying for the three year extension rather than a one year now and residency a year from now. My passport is getting quite full with all these visas from the last five years. The next challenge will be renewing my passport by 2013 and getting a new visa in 2012.