New Orleans

I have been spending quite a bit of time working in New Orleans lately. Last week Meg came down and we stayed for the weekend we visited a church plant in the city. It seems very neat what God is doing there. They have an awesome CD. It has a real New Orleans flavor to great worship songs.

I can't wait to be done with this job so I can stop traveling. It is miserable to be away from my esposita so much. However, I am beginning to feel the Lord is giving us a heart for the people of New Orleans. I could actually see us moving down there in a couple of years and getting involved with rebuilding in ministry. We will pray and see what the Lord does with us.

This past week a crazy thing happened to me and the crew I am working with. We were held captive at the church where we were working. It is a catholic church in the ghetto of New Orleans. Across the street a couple of squatters started yelling and cursing at each other when one brought out a shotgun and then a knife. Before we got out of there, someone called the police and they came with the whole New Orleans squad and SWAT team with rolling armor and snipers all surrounding the whole block. The police wouldn't let us leave the church because they feared we would be in the line of fire. The crazy thing is that the drunk squatter they were looking for had already slipped away before the SWAT team arrived. Can you believe I still feel drawn to this crazy city?

New Place

After all the trauma of coming back from mexico to find a wet apartment we are much enjoying getting settled into our new apartment. woohoo!

Chitzen Itza

What an amazing structure. It actually is a giant calendar. They even made it so that a snake will come down the steps on each solstice. The people thought their god came to visit them twice a year.
I have recently been pondering at what a great thing it is that Yahweh not only comes down more than twice a year but he is personal and has given us his Spirit to dwell in our hearts eternally.

water!

We thought we had enought water on our trip to the beach. I thought our vacation would end when we got back from mexico but it has only begun. It turns out a hot water pipe busted in the empty apartment above ours while we were gone. We came home to sloshing carpet. It might seem like a neat idea to help cool things off, but it does not smell like one. what a mess. Praise the Lord the maintenance crew got in while we were gone and picked up our irreplacable musical instruments and a computer so they would not be sitting in water. Instead of going straight back to work I got to stay at home with my wife for the day. It looks like we might be moving a little early. Hopefully the new apartment will be ready this saturday.

Long time away

Sorry to be so long in posting. It is strange that since I am no longer in seminary and have ¨free time¨again, i have less time for the computer. Or maybe the real reason is that I am working away from the computer and can´t take e-mail breaks.

today I woke up in beautiful Playa del Carmen. It is very relaxing. So now i finally feel like writting something. Mi esposita and her sister and yo are on a little vacation to use the flight vouchers we received last time we went to japan and got bumped off the flight.

You know getting bumped is not as bad as it sounds, it is very rewarding. they will give you a free hotel room, upgrade your seating to business class on a ticket for the next day and to top it all off they give you a voucher for a nother ticket within one year. Hence, the writting from Mexico today. It was good that we left from such a small airport as Jackson so as not to have trouble from the bomb scare on the airports.

Tis only the first day so maybe there will be more to say later.

Dios te bendiga

A Fool among Fools

The gospel is foolishness to the world. But when trying to fight the gospel the world shows its foolishness. At the opening of the American Society for Microbiology conference, the first talk was about a battle for evolution in today's schools. My lovely esposita eagerly attended to find out what they would say hoping for a chance for open discussion. Disappointingly it had nothing to do with science. The talk was only hate speach toward creation and intelligent design. It was a rally cry for war to do everything possible to plug evolution and prevent the other side from making their plugs. Who is the real fool? Where is the open democracy with those fighting hardest for it trying to prevent it from happening?

The gospel is foolishness to the world. Is this the foolishness that Christians are called to live out, when they begin to fight each other over tertiary details instead of fighting the world with love through the gospel? Or is the foolishness we are called to live out the standing up for God's word and proclaiming it to a dying world.

I pray for a voice crying in the wilderness to point the world to Christ. I pray that fool will be a fool because of Christ instead of a fool because of foolishness.

Orlando, Florida

I am graduated from seminary and now chilling in Orlando at this beautiful hotel while my wife attends a nerd fest. More to come later.

Cool Tree

On one of our recent excursions, Meg and I came across this tree. How do you think it got twisted like this? Could it have been a mini, concentrated tornado? There was no damage surrounding it.

Decisions

It is funny how things always seem so clear when I look backwards, but not so clear before I go through them.

brings back memories

Oh Wow... I had almost forgotten about that phrase. I had almost forgotten about that time in my life, when I was in college at MSU. Sitting outside on the porch with Jo and Marc and Andy, chillin' out at the house in the country, pickin-n-grinnin, walking down the train tracks, going to frat parties, but never pledging, the crawfish boil where we burned everybodies lips (when Chip and Scott came up from cajunland), grilling meat, eating pop-tarts for breakfast and mac-n-chesse for dinner, pipes busting in that cold march freeze, being cold with pitiful heaters that only warm about 1 foot radius, burning pennies in the fireplace. That was a fun time.
Thanks for the reminder Jo.

Interesting Biography on E. Stanley Jones

I have been reading this guy and really enjoying it. Here is a taste of his thoughts on sharing Christ with India;

Then the dawning came - and what a dawning! I saw that everything they brought up was the Word become word, and what the gospel presented was the Word become flesh. 'Be like the sandalwood tree' - that is an exhortation, the word of forgiveness become word. But Jesus hanging on a cross and praying 'Father forgive them' was not the word of forgiveness become word: it was the word of forgiveness become flesh. Prajapati, the Lord of Creatures, giving himself in sacrifice for them is a stray verse in the Rig-Veda, with no historical basis that Prajapati ever gave himself in sacrifice. It is the word of sacrifice become word. But Jesus dying on the cross for us is not the word of sacrifice become word: it is the Word of Sacrifice become flesh. As for Shiva drinking the poison, Shiva himself is legendary and his drinking the poison is also legendary. But Jesus dying on a cross between two thieves as one of them and crying the cry of dereliction, 'My God, why hast thou forsaken me?' - the cry we cry when we sin - is not the Word of identification with our sins become word: it is the Word become flesh
This Word become word and this Word become flesh - here is the profound and decisive difference between the Christian faith and all others. It separates them not in degree but in kind. All other faiths are philosophies or moralisms - man's search upward. The gospel is God's search downward. Religions are man's search for God; the gospel is God's search for man. There are many religions, but one gospel.
Therefore, the method of comparative religions, studying which idea is in which religion, is beside the point. It is comparing incomparable things - the Word become word and the Word become flesh. Therefore it is all beside the point and hence pointless.
E. Stanley Jones, "A Song of Ascents"

Travels

My friend John pointed this site out for the States. I realize, I need to do some more travelling in the States, though I have pretty much covered the Southeast. I like the world map. I used to think I had travelled much in the world, but there are many places yet to go.



create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands




create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Smiths in Peru

Smiths in Peru
it is good to see they are doing well. It brings back memories of Cusco to see their pictures and read about their experiences.

Looking at Japan

From most recent visit to Japan

Christmas with el esposita y amigos

domo arigato gozaimashta Shuma

1st Original S&M Pipe

from on high in Peru

This picture was taken crossing a mountain pass on the way back to Cusco