Rainey Days

The past few weeks have been very discouraging for me. I've seen my offerings and promises of support dry up, as gas and grocery prices continue to raise. It's a natural response: our wallets get a little tighter. People start trying to make their money stretch as far as possible in this descending economy. I know that feeling myself, so I can certainly understand the pastors who keep telling me that they want to support me, but they are limited by declining offerings and empty bank accounts. It's taken it's toll, though, emotionally. I've felt like a failure because I'm not able to raise this money like "super missionaries" do and get back to the field on time. I've been listless and totally unmotivated to keep making phone calls and appointments. At the worst point, I started to wonder if I could go back on the field at all. Last weekend, while staying with my best friend Beth, I broke down and talked to her about a lot of frustration th...

One of the big things that missionaries complain about is the weight they gain on furlough. Gain and complain; that seems to be our cycle. As soon as we hit the US, after three or four years overseas (some in remote areas), we become like children with eyes bigger than our stomachs: every Dunkin Donuts or Brewster's Ice Cream stand seems to be calling out our names. You keep telling yourself, "I haven't had ( insert junkfood name here ) in years!" Unfortunately, if you tell yourself this often enough, you won't be able to fit in your clothes again for years, either! The weight gain is compounded with other factors, too; hours spent sitting in a car traveling to the next speaking engagement, hours spent sitting in front of your computer or phone add up to less movement. Being treated to meals by pastors or even hitting the drive-thru on your way out of town after services usually means a heavy calorie meal, instead of the lighter fare you would normally be e...

Recently I was reading my weekly Time magazine and I found an article that intrigued me. Apparently a guy with a personal blog created a personal goal of simplifying his life, called the 100 Thing Challenge. (Time magazine snarked that in addition to paring down his possessions, he apparently also lost the "s" in 100 things). David Michael Bruno created this challenge to fight the rampant consumerism in our culture. He is donating, selling, and in some cases, merely packing away all of his belongings in an effort to keep only 100 things. He's created rules and explains them on his blog, which you can read here . I applaud his efforts and admire his stand against the materialism that seems to obsess our society. Part of the reason that I was so drawn to this article is that a missionary's life is almost always a similar example of triage: what you want to keep forever, what you need just for the next term, what you can't take with you because of luggage/ship...

Today I was looking through some old folders in my desk, searching for a spiral notebook that had blank pages. I came across a notebook from School of Missions when I was a brand-new missionary. I must have taken about 45 pages of notes from all the sessions I attended. It was all new information and I was like a sponge, soaking it all in. Or at least trying to! What I realized in flipping through the pages was how much of this stuff I had forgotten. There are all sorts of ideas and encouragement in these pages that made an impression the first time (enough that I wrote it down anyway) and then got pushed out of my mind by new information in the time following. It was great to find that goldmine of information this morning, at a time where I needed a boost of motivation. I'd like to keep referring to it over the next few days to get some more ideas. This is why we take notes!

I've been home nearly a year on this furlough so far, and one of my "must-do" things on my mental list has been to visit my former college roommate and best friend, Beth Steele. On my last furlough, that wasn't too difficult. I think I managed to overnight at her house four times on various trips to churches nearby her home in West Virginia. This furlough, however, I've only managed one trip that far west, and she was away in Florida that weekend. So I finally had a chance to make up for all that lost time this weekend. I went out late on Friday night, which gave me the whole day on Saturday to spend with her family. She has four handsome boys who get smarter and cuter every time I visit. I got a chance to play with their new basset hound puppy, look at their pool, admire GameCube skills, lose at lawn croquet, catch some local football games, see a movie, and more! I enjoyed the time with the whole gang. Sunday morning I spoke to their combined adult Sunda...

Please pray for my good friends, Carol and Roger. Their oldest daughter Tracy died last night, apparently in her sleep; she was currently living at home with them. Tracy and I had a lot in common, and I have many memories of craft nights at the church working on our scrapbooks and other craft projects. Tracy often came to the women's ministries events and I always enjoyed talking to her. I can't imagine what loss Carol and Roger feel. They have both been hearty prayer warriors for me, and during this terrible time, I will be the same for them.

Last night I was invited to the District Office for a dinner party involving missionaries and the presbyters. We had an enjoyable meal and it was a nice social occasion to answer questions and feel a bit more connected to one another. One of the pastors encouraged the others to view the missionary as an infantry soldier--the boots on the ground--on foreign soil. He made the statement that supporting specific projects financially was not a bad idea, but "tools" would never replace the infantry in any war. Someone has to be on at the forefront, taking ground. I thought to myself that if missionaries are the infantry, then projects are like tanks. A specific project, like building the frame of a church or Bible school or supplying literature for an evangelism blitz, is useful and necessary. But without a continual missionary presence to use that tool, it would be worthless on its own. Projects are merely a weapon in that warfare of advancing the Kingdom. I unraveled th...

This weekend at the Stars retreat, the speaker--a wonderful children's pastor--asked the 3rd-5th grade girls if they had a memory aid to remember the order of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. I think he was going to tell them one, and in my mind, I thought of the one I learned years ago: G eneral E lectric P ower C ompany. However, before he could even finish his question, a girl in the front row yelled, "Gentiles Eat Pork Chops!" and brought down the house.

My service tomorrow is in Oakland , MD. Since I had to do a 10 minute “window” on missions at the Stars retreat at the district campground, I figured I might as well stay at the camp, rather than coming back home. Gas is too expensive to waste on backtracking; I’ll just head out tomorrow morning early to go the rest of the way to Oakland . All in all, a good plan, but the one thing I failed to take into consideration is the energy and noise of little girls! My assigned room is in the Long Motel, where I have the very last room on the corner. The Long Motel has central air conditioning and from my room, I can hear what sounds like a thousand girls giggling through the vents. I have no idea what rooms these girls are in; perhaps the giggling sound compounds from one room to the next. When I went to bed last night, I heard giggling from 10:30 until 11:30 pm, when I rummaged through my bag in the dark room until I found my Ipod earphones and plugged them into my laptop...

Recently I was ordering something from Amazon.com and I was very close to getting the free shipping. I only needed to spend a few dollars more in order to save the high shipping fee. I thought maybe I would find a cheap DVD for $5 in the bargain section. Among the lame movies that were marked down to $5, there was The Princess Bride . I clicked on it instantly, buying it without hesitation. This year is the 20th anniversary of the film and my DVD is the "special anniversary edition." Even though I've had it for two weeks now, I haven't had a chance to sit down and watch it. I have that movie memorized, but it's been a long time since I've seen it. I was thinking about The Princess Bride and I was reminded of a conversation that my brother and I once had. One of his grad school professors was talking about culture and said that each generation has a film (or maybe 2) that "defines" them. Every child of that generation can quote the entire fi...

I'm so thankful for the mild spring we've had so far this year. It has hardly been hot and what warm days we've had have not been humid at all. It's a blessing with rising prices in every aspect of life to be able to put off air conditioning a few more days. I can remember first weeks of June that were far hotter than this one! Please continue to pray for my dad. We still don't seem to have many answers about his medical condition. He's getting dialysis but we're not able to see much improvement yet. That's pretty frustrating, but we're very grateful as a family to have your encouraging phone calls and expressions of concern.