Our Month in Pictures! - May 2012

Understanding Hormah

My life was changed by this book.  I clearly remember the first time that I flipped through the pages on a chicken bus in who knows where Guatemala.  I remember how after glancing over the first few pages I felt like I had finally found a way to organize or classify my emotions, thoughts, doubts and the over all way in which I wanted to follow Christ.  If you haven't read this book, well you should.  I'll say no more.







I've started to read this book which is more like a devotional which is strange for me, since I've never been a big fan of devotionals.  They've always seemed...forced or fake, I don't know they've just never "caído bien" to me.  Oh by the way, the same author, Shane Claiborne, wrote this book and so I gave it a shot.  It's been a nice change of pace, it's got a balance of history, real world application, catholic style liturgy and worship which I've found hard to find in other books, let's even say people, and churches.  Again, I believe you should check it out.



Well the other day I was reading the scriptures selection for the day, which were suppose to be Numbers 22:1-21, but for some odd reason I read chapter 21 by mistake...  It's a great way to start the morning or any part of your day :).

"1 When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked the Israelites and captured some of them. 2 Then Israel made this vow to the LORD: "If you will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy their cities." 3 The LORD listened to Israel's plea and gave the Canaanites over to them. They completely destroyed them and their towns; so the place was named Hormah. "

...we will totally destroy their cities...they completely destroyed them and their towns.  So a few more verses in I realized my mistaken selection of 21 instead of 22, went back to the Common Prayer and looked back to see if I had missed these verses a previous day.

I hadn't missed anything.  Claiborne for some reason decided to start the previous day with Numbers 21:4 instead of verse 1.  But why?  Common Prayer has more or less followed a linear progression through the old and new testament with the daily verses, skipping over some parts here and there.  I'm not mad at him and definitely still highly recommend the two reads, which may have lost some of their luster after my past few lines, but honestly they're incredible books.  This incident just brought up question for me.

In the past two weeks I found my self in two other conversations, confronting this same problematic issue, explaining or rationalizing some other the "stranger" parts of the Bible/God.

Christine and Ericka (our recent guest) met this guy on the subway who started a conversation because he heard them speaking English.  Long story short, he's come to church with us the past two weeks, has lots of questions and makes it clear that he wants to learn more about this churchy Christ thing before diving in.    He's very scientific about decisions.  So we gave him a Bible and this past Sunday he comes up to me and asks what I think about Genesis 6:4.

Oh boy, and he hasn't even gotten to the part of the daughter being chopped up into 12 parts sent out UPS style.  How do I answer questions like that?  And who gives a guy a bible and lets 'em start in the Old Testament?  That's asking for disaster.

Another night we were invited to a neighbors' cook out and I found myself in the funnest/most ironic situation.  I've just been asked what I believe about God, Christ, the Church, etc. and I've got a big fat cuban cigar in one hand and glass of rum on the rocks in the other.  What an image.

Quick tangent - I could write a whole blog/book about that moment and probably will.  I figured if you're this deep in the entry/blog then I'm not going to "clean it up" for you.  You get the authentic un-rated version.  But just know that, no, I don't smoke, I love my lungs, cycling and my future too much and no, I'm not an alcoholic, moderation is the key :)  Honestly I think when managing moderation correctly you open up a lot more ears and opportunities to share Christ with other... enough of this tangent for now.

By now my neighbor has found out that I teach Sunday school and starts asking some more of those really tough questions about the Bible, real world experiences.  This guys got some images and experiences that I'd even hate to even see in a movie.  He's an ambulance driver and has witnessed first hand the carnage and savage ugliness of this world.  I'm not talking about bad car wrecks, I'm talking about fathers mutilating their kids and so forth...  I can't give a Romans Road answer or some clean cut image of the Bible and this kingdom of God.

I think God gave me Numbers 21 for a reason.  Maybe to prepare myself to respond with, "Now that doesn't make any sense to me either/I don't know," to these anticipating conversations that I would have.  Maybe it was to help me in my own walk.  I don't know how to end this blog so I'll end it with a quote from another of my favorite authors, Francis Chan.

 "Like the nervous kid who tries to keep his friends from seeing his drunken father, I have tried to hide God at times.  Who do I think I am?  The truth is, God is perfect and right in all that He does...  We need to stop trying to domesticate God or confine Him to tidy categories and compartments that reflect our human sentiments rather than his inexplicable ways."  

Who would've guessed... dogs shouldn't eat trees!

So I came back from classes early afternoon and got to meet Ericka who'll be staying with us for the next week and a half.  She's come down to serve and share some of her musical skills with the schools and community as well as just check out a bit of what IAM has going on.

No we're not dog owner loones that post about their dog twice a week.
It was an emergency guys :)

Sadly after that, Christine let me know that Osita (aka lil' bear) wasn't herself.  Typically she's running all over the place having a blast destroying her toys, eating our mail and chomping down on her favorite two big ol' logs. It was so sad to look at her sad little face and hear her moan every time we touched her; even her slightest movement was painful.

I carried her off to the vet.  By the way, Ms. Lil' Bear isn't so little, she's already 23 some odd pounds and carrying her big butt a half mile to the vet...well I had to.  She was just so pitiful and helpless.  Even our vet was sad to see Osita in such a sad state.

No worries all ye fans and lovers of Osita, she'll be ok.  We were informed that she shouldn't eat paper and especially not wood.  For some reason her survival of the fittest skills are slacking, because that girls been chomping down on these two logs like it's no bodies business.  They've been relocated to the back porch.

Just thought I'd fill in any other pet owners about this new information I learned today.

Oh and hear this.  Osita's diet until Friday is chicken and rice.

She had no problem with dinner tonight, a little with the syrupy medicine, but not a hesitation with the pollo.

Pictures - 2 years of marriage and a little bear :)

Little Bear (Osita) is getting huge! 

Being a guard dog...

is hard work!

How am I supposed to wash dishes when I could play with this face?!

And it's a good thing she's so cute... 

 because this is what she does to our mail :(

Thanks anyway, Brandon, Laci, and Baby Wong for the anniversary card!  If you want to see how and where we celebrated it, check out our album in our PHOTO GALLERY to the right entitled "2 Years of Marriage!  Woo!"

¿Did I fall away from the truth somehow?

Really, half of me wants me to ask: "Did I lose my self?"  The other half of me thinks "Hot dang it, I'm right!"  I know I can be a bit stubborn/cocky/rebellious at times, so hear me out and please tell me, "Did I fall away from the truth somehow?"

The other day a good friend down here who is sublimely intelligent and not in the annoying manner, shared with us a verse that's been running through his machine of a mind the past few years.

^{Matthew 23:15} "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are." 

As I read over the verse again I think about how pleasantly selective Jesus was with his words to those inside of the Church.  "You make them twice as much as a son of hell as you are."   ¡Fuerte!

So, I am obviously a missionary, which causes me to read these verses with that much more weight.  I think about the missionary that I want to be and the message that I want to pass to those who I come across; authentic, loving, serving and honest are probably the easiest ways for me to define my ideal.

I also remember two experiences that touched me profoundly in how I've come to define who I am as a missionary and what I do.

We were in the country side of Guatemala on a mission trip; medically serving the people and verbally sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.  All hunky dory, right?

As we winded down one of our leaders caught herself in a bit of a heated conversation with a young Guatemalan woman.   The basic gist was that the woman didn't want to give an answer to the question of, "Would you like to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior?"  The woman wanted to talk with her husband about this first, but our leader physically wouldn't allow her to leave until the woman could give a better answer for why she wouldn't receive Christ.  The following day the Guatemalan leader cleared up all of this and explained that he wasn't in agreement with how the incident unfolded.

When I was in high school, I had an atheist friend who was a pretty snazzy cool bloke, but he made it clear he wanted nothing to do with Christ.  I was the FCA (Felllowship of Christian Athletes) president, and yet somehow we developed a pretty close relationship.  I remember asking him one day what he thought about Christ and Christianity.  His response wrecked me.

"While I was in grade school I was being carpooled by a Christian women.  She trapped me in the car one afternoon until I could give a better reason for not responding yes to her salvation question..."

Obviously these are just two instances.  I hope they're more outliers than average, but I feel like there's a vibe that runs not only through the two occurrences, but through other things I've experienced and observed in life and within the church.  This idea that we can't wait on the Holy Spirit to work in someone's life and it's better to pressure them a bit than have "the blood on your hands" as Ezekiel says.  That verse use to terrify me, until I read it for what it truly says.

Hasn't Christ and his way always been more of a grass roots movement that reaches and captivates people by flipping the worlds tactics on their head; last is first, the greatest serves the least, love your enemy, etc.

Christ didn't seem to want to change the laws of his time, but instead change the hearts through his awkward manner of bringing his kingdom.  So why are we, Christ followers, so adamant on using the tactics of this world to bring along his kingdom.

I see the matter of homosexual marriage in North Carolina interesting... so many Christians blasting social networking and other forms of communication.  Why do we think we can change the world from the top down.  Does that just mean we're sucking wind in the Christ like "awkward" tactics to change the world?  Vote how you want, we obviously have a right to our opinion... but I don't really think the Church wins this battle with laws, petitions and forcing our beliefs on others.

Obviously, I have a bias, and I believe we all tend to critique and question our "roots" more than anything else.  I actually think Christ calls us to question and critique each other in the church body more than point figures at those on the outside.   I call for petitions, sermons, and marches for the ban of pornography, greed, slander, gossip, the idolatry of sports, verbal abuse...but of course, I'm talking about church wide actions not a law for every Joe Blow.

So I ask again, "Did I fall away from the truth somehow?"

On a closing note, if the Jewish or Muslims ever hold the majority card, I pray they won't  take bacon and breakfast sausage off the isles of our supermarkets.

Waffles, Pizza, Conversations & Classic books

I can't tell you how many times I've read in the Bible that we should care for the poor, the orphan, the widowed.  The poor and the orphaned I've served, but for some reason it's never occurred to me to seek out, serve and love the widowed.  Has it ever occurred to you?

I know it sounds really ignorant and a bit silly but I kind of figured that the "widowed" were only around during the major wars of the past century; WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Korea, etc.  Obviously we have women who still lose their loved ones in war, cancers of all sorts seem to be cutting short way too many lives and then there's always accidents.  I imagine our churches have numerous opportunities to serve this group that Christ and Paul found important enough to list specifically.

The following I share with you not to brag and say, "Look at me! I'm doing a great job in this area," but share a bit of the strong filling in my chest after the evening as well as a realization of missing the mark completely on this for so long.

We have a "tía" who lost her husband recently to cancer (about 7 months ago).  We never had the opportunity to meet him, but we've heard amazing things and our host family, the Benavides, just so happened to be close friends with her and her late husband.  We met her one night late last fall at the Benavides' house, had a blast chatting it up and then scheduled and enjoyed a dinner together maybe two or three weeks later at her house.

4 months later we're finally getting together for another dinner.  I say that with a little bit of shame seeing as how I imagine anyone who lost a loved one would love company to help with the coping processes a bit more often than 4 months...and yet we dropped the ball.  Obviously we don't carry all the responsibility but this story isn't about throwing the blame or spreading it paper thin so it doesn't sting as much.

We had a blast.  Cristina, our "tía" brought over a batch of homemade waffles, which are a rarity in Chile.  Two of her children live in the US and are married to Gringos, which has clearly brushed off on her cooking/eating preferences.  They were delicious.  After the waffle appetizers Christine and I served up some homemade pizza (with the pizza stone!  Thanks again John and Cheryl) and we just sat around and did what Chileans do best after a meal, converse.

It was so good to just talk about everything and it's even crazier because Christina knows a lot about the South East Coast of the US, which is where her son and daughter's families live.  The conversation flew so naturally from how much we love Chick-fil-a, planning a biking outing around the neighborhood, how happy we are in our house, church, ministries, the calling we all feel from God, etc.

As I walked Christina home we continued talking effortlessly.  Right before I'm about to leave her house I notice a book case stacked with books that tell decades upon decades of stories, histories, knowledge, literature.  She had told me that her husband was a history professor and from his book collection it looks like a pretty darn impressive one.  She passes me a few and I can't help but select a few others that draw me in.  Maybe through these books I'll get to know him a bit more or better yet prep for the awesome conversation that we'll have one day up there in paradise.

Keitt Update - April 2012

                  Para verlo en español, ponga el "CC".