March 12

March 12^th is coming around again.

For most of my life there wasn’t anything significant about March 12^th – in 1976, it became the day before my marriage to my best friend but, the 13^th was the special day. All this changed five years ago when our firstborn son was in a terrible accident and lost his life.

Ryan was 19 – almost 20.

He was just coming into his own. He was making a beautiful transition from the tough teen years into becoming a fine man.

I ache every day with missing Ryan. Nobody – nobody that hasn’t lost a child can know that hole in your heart emptiness of missing your baby.

I thank my God for his promise of an eternity together and for my faith that the next time I see Ryan, it will be forever. God is good…all the time and I know that my life was blessed because of the time that I was given with my son.

Thank you God for sons.

Because of your son, I can spend forever with my son. Because of your son I can see through the darkness and stand in the light. Because of your son, I have a hope and a promise that my tears will be wiped away and that happiness will never stop. Because of your son, I can rejoice in you always – I can get though any suffering and feel your comforting arms around me. Because of your son, life has meaning.

Thank you God for sons.

The Noise Never Stops

This week I was in NYC for a couple of days and my hotel was directly across the highway from La Guardia Airport. My first night in the hotel was pretty lousy. Between the non-stop traffic on the highway and the jet engines, there was just way too much noise to get a good night of sleep. No surprise here, no matter where you stay in NYC – it is noisy. My second night was better – not because there was less noise, I was just more accustomed to it. If I were to stay in the city for a week, I would hardly notice the noise.

A lot of things in life are this way – aren’t they?

We walk past the poor & homeless in our very own communities so often that we may have even forgotten that they are real. A couple of years ago I was able to build a house in Honduras with the American Airlines people that live and work in Tegucigalpa and was amazed to find out that they had never seen the poor communities where TORCH works. In retrospect, I had to ask myself when I had been to the poor parts of my own community to be the hands of Jesus. I am guilty of tuning out the noise of the needs that are right here in front of me. The noise never stops, we just don’t listen.

We are around many of the same people every day and we know that they are lost without Jesus in their lives. Yet, we’ve tuned out the noise and are completely comfortable letting day after day go by without sharing the very thing that they most need in their lives. It is a lot easier to sleep at night when you aren’t bothered by the noise….even if it is still there and just choose to tune it out………..The noise never stops.

Come With Me

I just read a mission update from a new team in Costa Rica. I think that there are 5 guys that just graduated from Baxter on the team - several of them have wives and at least one has children. What is amazing - shouldn't be, but it is - is that this team left for their planned mission with very little of their funding in place. As a matter of fact, only one team member has support. The rest of the team has complete faith that God wants them in Costa Rica and that He will provide for their needs.
There is another team in training that faces a similar trial. There are 5 guys and their families that will be moving to Mexico this summer and as far as I know, only one member of that team has support in place. Right now these 5 guys are training together - as a team in Los Pinos (Honduras) and they will be working with TORCH teams throughout the summer. We will be blessed by working with them.
These 10 men and their families remind me of the apostiles that Jesus called from their boats. Jesus said come with me and I will make you a brand new kind of fisherman. From now on you will fish for men! The only thing that my Bible indicates is that these guys dropped what they were doing and they went with Jesus. It doesn't look like they tried to hold off on their calling until they had financial support or even to go home to tell the family goodby. Jesus said come with me - and they went.
There is at least one other example of Jesus telling someone "come with me". This sad story is about a young man that had much. Jesus told him to sell his STUFF, give the money to the poor. and "come with me" . ...sadly the young man couldn't do it. Jesus called and the rich guy said "no thanks - I just can't do it".
COME WITH ME.............come with me..........come with me

Six Months To Wait

Anybody that knows me will know that I love TORCH Missions. I love putting a team together, seeing the excitement build, working to raise the funds, talking to people about the work, ...every thing about it. I love it! My life is completely changed because God introduced me to this work. The only problem with me being in love with service is that there is a 50 week wait between missions. That's way too long. Here we are in February and we still have 6 months to go before we take the team to Honduras to work for 2 weeks and then wait another 50 weeks to go again. I can't wait. It's application time and this years team is the most excited of any that I have ever been involved with. I am getting no less than 5 to 8 phone calls or emails every day from our team. They are all just as ready as I am.
I truly believe that our God has some very special plans for the work this summer.....otherwise, he wouldn't have called so many people to join the work........I can't wait!

Fishing

Went fishing with my son on Saturday. The very best day you can have with your son is when you are on the river together. It really doesn't matter if the fish are willing to be caught or not. It is just one of those times when there are no distractions, no phones, and nothing to get in the way of just being together. ...nothing better.
Saturday reminded me of how important it is to make the most of our short time here. It made me certain that I do a lot of things that really aren't very worthwhile and have them confused with things that are really important.

My New Place

Well, I guess that I'm moving into the 21st century with the introduction of my own blog. All my friends are blogging and I'm not sure if I am doing this because I don't want to be left behind or if I want to have a place to think out loud. I'm leaning toward the thinking out loud thing.
Today on the way to work, I had a conversation with my friend Gayle and we talked about prayer and giving. I like both but, whenever I really access where I am with both, I feel inadequate. The past few months I've been reading the Old Testiment and there is a theme surrounding our gifts and the desire of our God that they are first fruits.... the best we have to offer. All this makes me think about the blog that my friend Tim wrote on this very subject....have I ever really given the best that I have? I know in my heart that this means completely giving myself....100%....
It's no wonder that Jesus said that the path to heaven is narrow. It's not because our God has made it difficult, it's because we simply refuse to give all of ourselves and turn our lives over to him.....completely. Why? Jesus even promised that he woud never leave us alone. His great promise is that his Spirit will guide us.
Wow!