Krakow Day 1

After a 9 hour flight from Atlanta to Prague, Czech Republic and another hour from there, we arrived in Krakow, Poland at 12:30 p.m. local time. It’s 7 hours ahead of CST in the States. We’ve been orientated tonight, and it’s amazing to see the network of sharp folks that God has led to Poland to minister.

Poland is 90% Catholic, but conservative estimates say that less than 5% of the population are devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Of the SBC leader-visionaries here, there is a strategy leader of Central and Eastern Europe, a Regional Leader that travels between Prague and Krakow, a journeyman (recent college graduate who is on a two-year mission here) and several families who are either career missionaires or ISC (International Service Corps). 

They are actively engaged in several ministries seeking to impact the local culture and minister to Poles. Those ministries include childrens ministry, coffee houses, work with orphanages (the interim regional leader has adopted two Polish children), sports ministry (the IRL also helps coach the professional football team – the Krakow Tigers), and church planting.

There are two members of an International Mission Board media team here with our team this week to film, interview and follow us around to hopefully produce a resource that is going to help connect other church planters and innovative churches to the ongoing work here. That is also our team’s mission – to find ways to connect our churches and our people to the work that Christ is doing in Poland.

One stunning fact I learned in researching the country: Poland lost 6 million of its citizens – the most of any country – during World War II. It also had the fourth largest fighting force against Nazi Germany – behind Russia, the U.S., and Britain.

Poland bound

I fly out tomorrow for an 8-day Discovery Trip with other church planters from around the U.S. to Krakow, Poland. I really deliberated on this trip because our church has been supporting and encouraging a pastor in India, and I would like to make a trip there as soon as funds are available. When the Arkansas Baptist State Convention offered to scholarship this trip through their missions team, I realized that it was a unique and special opportunity. So off I go – giddy and grateful for the joy of being part of an expansive vision for missions.

I’m excited that the trip has been coordinated by Ed Stetzer, and I’m looking forward to getting to know him and hearing his thoughts on global/glocal church planting. That’s the purpose of this trip, really – to connect church planters in the U.S. with missionaries and church planters in Eastern Europe. We hope that these connections will produce some longterm partnerships and opportunities to continue sending folks from our area to Poland to minister, assist and help the work going on there.

I’ll be blogging daily from Poland, so stay tuned!

Creative church commercial

My buddy Craig Jenkins at Beech Street First Baptist Church in Texarkana recently made a commercial for their upcoming “Friend Day” that’s a spoof of the Mac-PC commercials. He was the pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Warren for several years.

I just had to share it with you because I’m still cleaning up the mess in my chair after watching it.

Biased “fact”-checkers

I mentioned last week that many of the “fact”-checking sites are proving more and more to be exceptionally biased in which facts they report (or don’t report). Senior Research Fellow at the University of Maryland John Lott has written an excellent article on this all-out effort by the MSM (main stream media) and supposedly objective “fact” check sites to skew their selection and interpretation of election year data to favor the Democratic ticket.

In addition to that is the stunning and willful refusal of the MSM to report the impact and message of McCain’s huge speech on the economy yesterday in New Mexico. Constantly criticized (even by me) for not outlining more vigorously his ticket’s economic plans, McCain is ignored and slighted when he does do so. This article shows that even what was reported intentionally omitted the most significant part of his speech which focused on the economy.

Going back to Lott, he said in his article:

Where is the outrage over Biden not understanding what vice presidents do? For Biden, his inability to correctly say what vice presidents do was surely his “gotcha” moment.

Yet, this mistake during the debate was hardly unique. Biden got a lot of things wrong in the debate that are going unnoticed by the fact-check media. Take just a few:

Lott goes on the name several instances. This coincides with another piece (“Biden mangles the Constitution”) written last week about Biden’s inept interpretation (and apparent ignorance) of the Constitution’s description of the role of the vice president. While chiding Palin about Cheney being the “worst VP in history,” aspiring VP Biden obviously doesn’t even know what his own job description will be. 

To be fair, he admitted during the debate that should he ever assume the highest office in the land, it would be “a national tragedy of historic proportions…” (Yes, I know that’s out of context, but it’s still funny).

Review: Breaking the Missional Code

Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community

Bailout passes

Update (4:52p): I like what Dean said in response to today’s vote:

Look for this to be just the beginning of a long line of requests/demands for not only corporate handouts/bailouts, but the governmental variety as well (California started screaming for a federal loan to keep their government open before the House vote even took place).  Look for more of the same now that the floodgates have been opened.

Integrity matters

If you haven’t called your legislators yet to voice opposition to the bailout, do it NOW! Don’t give up just because you’re tired and think they won’t listen.

…

 

However, if you have time time, you simply must sit down and read Part 1. It’s a well-researched piece about Palin and her career. If integrity is a significant issue – and I believe it’s one of the only one that matters, you may find your vote changing.

Without integrity, how can anyone be assured that all the rhetoric, promises and roadmaps will lead to anywhere? Without integrity and moral tenacity, how can the American public know that a President and Vice President won’t spin and dodge their way into a White House that flips so much it ought to be known as a Huddle House?

For what it’s worth, I thought Palin did exceedingly well last night. I wish she’d jumped on Biden’s 14 misrepresentations/lies. However, Palin misstated herself several times as well, though not as patently misleading as Biden did. If you go to FactCheck.org, you’ll see them basically saying that both candidates were equally deceptive. However, even FactCheck.org has been questioned in recent weeks and unfortunately may be guilty of bias itself. Arrgh. Who’s going to Fact-Check the Fact-Checkers? It all comes down to interpretation and the worldview you bring to the table.

When these “fact-checking” sites aren’t botching the facts, they can sometimes be found dressing up opinion as fact. (Source)

Biden came across as being more factual because he threw out numbers, stats, years, etc. However, most of those have been “Fact-Checked” today and come up as misleading. Palin stuck to her guns and presented a positive, hopeful face for change with broad, government-reducing idealogy. 

However, I think the McCain ticket needs to re-articulate itself as to what its plans are for reducing government, waste, corruption, etc. I know it is published and promoted, but apparently not to the extent that it is getting to the American people. Surveys still show that folks have no idea what the McCain strategy is. That’s probably because the MSM is a multi-billion $ ad campaign for Obama. McCain has had to resort to YouTube and the blogosphere to communicate his message effectively.

As for the integrity issue, even Clinton supporter and former Special Counsel to the White House for President Clinton Lanny Davis said this in August 2008:

 “You know, I would consider voting for McCain on character and on the kind of human being he is because I have great – I know him – I have great admiration for him. I would sleep well at night if John McCain is President. But on the issues, Barack Obama is for the issues that I care about.” (ABC Radio’s “The Sean Hannity Show,” 8/25/08)

Does it have to come down to character vs. issues? I don’t think so. After hearing Biden extoll some of the issues of his ticket last night in the debate – global warming (which he said is 100% caused by mans’ activity – can we say naive?), same-sex couple rights, punishing successful people (he calls them “the rich”) with higher taxes (since when is it wrong to be successful?! And don’t the rich create MORE jobs, businesses, and pour more money into our economy?), I just don’t know that there are any issues that they support that could possibly lure me to their ticket.

And by the way, if you’re receiving all your political information from the TV or newspaper… don’t. You’ll be sure to get Obamified. At least get on some political blogs – both conservative and liberal – and read well. Tell me what you notice in tone, spirit, and insight and information in those sites.

Here are three I read almost daily. The first two are conservative, and the third is more liberal:

• The Townhall – I usually read Hugh Hewitt’s material
• Powerline – Latest entry: Biden Mangles the Constitution in Debate
• Daily Kos

What blogs or sites do you read for news and informed insight?

You’re going to eat this… and LIKE it

If you ever had a helping of asparagus or brocolli or beets on your plate as a kid, you have heard that phrase before. “You’re going to eat this… and LIKE it…” It was always followed or preceded by explanations of how good these things were for you. Of course, in the dietary world, things that taste bad actually do wind up being good for you sometimes.

In the financial world, that analogy doesn’t carry over. I like how Michelle Malkin put it in her entry this a.m.: Crap sandwhich 2.0 with sugar on top. It doesn’t matter how the deluded D.C. dipwads coat this bailout. It’s still a crap sandwich. I’m incensed that they are voting for this in spite of the clear wishes of the American public. The MSM refuses to report on the deluge of response, in phone calls and emails that brought down Congressional websites and servers this week. I’m incensed that this sandwich is being forced down our throats by our Congress with the aid of the MSM. Shawn Barnard in a Facebook update yesterday said the revolutionary words, “Taxation without represenation.”

There have been several cogent and considered alternatives proposed. They apparently have been ignored in favor of spending taxpayer money. Mandy pointed out the sheer immensity of $700 billion by showing how, if that amount were given to individual tax payers, it would amount to “a nice sum of around $450,000″ for each tax payer from 2007. Now that would be an economy-injection right there.

The burn-down of Western society’s way of life that was predicted to happen Monday never occurred. The markets bounced back due to bargain hunters. A lot of people lost a lot of money on Monday. A lot of people made a lot of money on Tuesday. It’s a free market. Those who are swayed by panic and fear will lose. And perhaps our very D.C. leaders are using the panic and fear against us? I’d be curious to know how many Washington-ites bought and sold stock on Monday and Tuesday. Are they allowed to do things like that, being privy to such significant information?

Conclusion

Please, get back on the phones one more time and urge your Congressman to vote against this bailout package once more. Every single Arkansas Congressman and Senator have voted FOR the bailout each time it’s been voted on. As soon as I have a legitimate option, I will be voting against them. They have made it plain that their attitude is a “Big Brother knows best.” I’m sorry, but this isn’t 1984.

In my area, Arkansas Congressman Mike Ross’ phone is 1-800-223-2220. You can find your Congressman’s contact information by going to Congress.org and typing in your zip code.

Thanks to Malkin for providing this image of the Senate’s vote:

SEC adopts (partially) mark-to-market fix

The SEC stepped in today and eased or clarified the mark-to-market lending rules. This has the immediate effect of freeing up credit for businesses and individuals. Doing so cost the taxpayers nothing. While they didn’t suspend it entirely, they have, by clarifying the rule, given the industry some breathing room.

Even with this action today, the Senate still seems intent on spending $700 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money! Outrageous. This MTM solution was partially proposed by Dave Ramsey (and many others have suggested the same thing) yesterday in his Common Sense Plan, item II:

MARK TO MARKET 

a. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate.  

b. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing.  

Powerline says, “If revision of the mark to market rule has as much impact on credit markets as many have predicted, it may strengthen the resolve of those who think there are better solutions to the problems in our financial markets than a $700 billion bailout.” See the article here.

Please call your U.S. Senator on Wednesday and encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Arkansas Senators:

• Mark Pryor (877) 259-9602 (Toll Free from Arkansas)
  D.C. Office (202) 224-2353

• Blance Lincoln 800-352-9364
  D.C. Office (202) 224-4843