June 2008 – Page 2 – No Small Talk

Learning Polish

Alexis and I are trying to teach ourselves Polish, and we can tell you it isn’t always easy. There are times where we play an audio track over and over trying to figure something out, and other times where we can’t even figure out the directions in our text books.

There are so many things that are different in Polish from English, such as 7 cases… who can tell me what the heck a case is? I only know because of learning Polish… So good luck.

Thankfully I have found some software for our Windows mobile phones, one is a talking dictionary/translator, another one is a flash card program. These are good for the beginning steps, but as time goes, we’ll need lots of Patience.

Can’t wait for our trip in October where we’ll take intensive lessons for two weeks while in Krak

Radiance

I can only imagine it.
Walking up the hill.
Talking as friends do.

And then a great radiance began.
At first the warmth.
Then being in awe.

It becomes glorious.
To be one of the three.
To stand in the awesome splendor.

To see the radiance of our Lord Almighty.
In my heart it is there, the glory, the light.
In my spirit I am one of the three.

The Pastor Factor

James 3:1-2
Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.

How many of us have been wounded by a pastor? How many of us have witnessed a pastor fail? There is a lot to say about the calling of pastorship. Yet because of our human tendency for shaming and measuring people by their behavior (which is simply being religious instead of relational) rather than their character we become easily jaded and cynical towards leaders in the church. It is true that pastors/teachers in the Church “should” live above reproach, yet, no where do we see that there are two levels of Christians, the ministers verses the followers… we are all on the same playing field and we need to be aware of people’s internal character, firstly with our own.

Then the world will know us for our love, loving a person in spite of their behavior is what our Christ did for us.

Not centered.

Ever have those days where you feel like you feel as if your different parts are scattered around town? Today is that day for me. I’m everywhere except here. I think it’s a Monday thing.

In other thoughts, being jaded and cynical, the death of fellowship?

Lack of funds can feel like lack of call…

Alexis and I have been on a fundraising break for a bit, it can be exhausting to always be in fundraising mode. Starting this summer I plan on putting away a bit each month into our missions funds from our own income, but so far we have simply been unable to do that and have depended on donations for 100% of our fundraising.

Then there are times where I feel we need to have faith that God will provide, because he always has. Many times the opposite is also true, Where I think the lack of donations means we’re just not suppose to go. But that does not sit well in our hearts at all. So, I contend as James instructs us to have faith in God without wavering.

Currently, for our October trip, we have $640 of the $4550 (includes language school) that Alexis and I need. Our teammates need $1500 each. If we received just $40 from 100 people, Alexis and I would be done!

The reality beyond…

While this blog has primarily been a personal one and focused on my call to Poland, there is a reality beyond that. I have friends who are missionaries in Turkey, and they live in the capitol city where Christian churches are having more difficulties, even though Turkey aspires to join the European Union.

bing, ding, buzz, ring…

Caller tunes, ring tones, jingles, earworms…

And oh yeah, beeps.

Sometimes I think my auditory circuits could explode. So I finally dived into the twitter thing, still trying to figure out what the heck the point is, but I think I might get into it… maybe. Right now I guess something is broken so my Facebook status and twitter aren’t talking, which was one of the reasons I even tried out another social app… But I did find a nifty app for my windows mobile phone so I can “tweet” from my today screen easily. ~~Hmmm maybe there is a windows vista tweet gadget… off to look~~. I found one, neato. And goodnight.

Just checking…

So my wife sent me this picture. I guess the Gresham fire department needed to see if their ladder would reach our roof and how. One would think that during the permit and planning phase of our townhouse neighborhood this would have been addressed. 😉

I miss Europe!

Gosh I miss Europe so much. There are times where I browse old photos of our trips to Europe… yes I know, some people don’t ever get the opportunity to see Europe. Sometimes I seem to live life from trip to trip, with the in between times simply being the means to the end. Then there are times like today, where I avoid looking at the pictures (particularly hard on Facebook, as a number of my European friends post pictures or have profile pictures in Europe) because I get a heartache.

And so I digress, submit myself to what I’m called to do here and now, lean in on what the Lord has for me in the moment and pray for those in Europe. I’m beginning to feel like a foreigner here… and yet, I feel very American there…

Loathing work…

On most weekday mornings I loath the thought of going to work. It isn’t that I hate my job, in fact, my job is pretty cool, my co-workers are great, and most of the work itself is pretty good as well. However, for some reason I just hate the thought of going to work. A lot of it is the fact that I do not find any kind of fulfilment in my work, servers are not the most social entities. There are relational perks, but I must work hard at seeking out those opportunities. As a follower of Christ I find it very difficult to find Christ’s purpose in my line of work. Nonetheless though, He has shown me favor amongst the powers that be, in pay, and in fringe benefits.

However, the loathing continues, but I do praise Him anyway that I have a job, that it provides for my family, and that there is light at the end of the tunnel coming my way. Maybe this is why I’ve been so interested in the theory of Star trek economy (a society without money)… yeah can’t wait for the new Jerusalem!