Operation Christmas Child 08

The following is from Michael Kelley’s blog. He gave me permission to post it in its entirety. I was wanting to do an OCC post since this is “collection week,” but his entry was so good, I thought, why duplicate? Thanks, Michael! -

Last night, our family went to Target to fill our Operation Christmas Child shoebox. This is a great organization with a great mission:

Operation Christmas Child brings joy and hope to children in desperate situations around the world through gift-filled shoe boxes and the Good News of God’s love. Since 1993, more than 61 million shoe boxes have been packed, shipped, and delivered across the globe. People of all ages can be involved in this simple, hands-on missions project while focusing on the true meaning of Christmas—Jesus Christ.

It’s simple – make Christmas better for a child by filling a shoebox full of gifts. But here are a few things you might not know about OCC:

- Did you know that there is a national leadership team in each country that receives boxes? Boxes only go to countries that have a National Leadership Team. This team is made up national volunteer Christians
that have a heart to see their country come to know Christ. They help raise funds to help pay for the transportations of shoe boxes into their country. They make the decisions about where distributions
happen and are responsible for creating opportunities for distributions to all kids by creating a strategic plan (meaning that kiddos get one box- not multiple boxes that they show up year to year
just to get the stuff- the goal is to provide the gospel)

- Every child is given the opportunity to participate in a 10 week discipleship program and plugged into a local church

- Shoe boxes have allowed Samaritans Purse to create roots in communities. OCC opens the doors to focus on relief and community development. Other SP programs include children’s heart project, instillations of water filtration systems/ feeding programs, HIV programs, and Medical Mission programs.

- A shoe box = gospel opportunity. For every box that is distributed a copy of “The Greatest Gift of All” is distributed in the language that the child speaks. So last year 7.6 million copies of the gospel was spread throughout the world. Think about how influential that is. One child gets a box- he/she goes home to his 4 siblings and his mom and dad.

- There are 11 sending countries. The US of A is not the only country giving- Other sending countries include Austria, Australia, Germany, The Netherlands, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Switzerland, UK and New Zealand.

This is national collection week. Click here to find out where to drop off your shoebox.

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Review: A God-Entranced Vision of All Things

A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards

 

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Biopsy results…

Carolyn got a call from the doctor’s office this afternoon to give us the results of the biopsy from Friday. He said, “I’ve got bad news…” Of course, no one wants to hear that after a biopsy.

Then he related that there had been a mistake made and the biopsy had been put in the “wrong pink solution” and so we will have to try again. He was very apologetic – appropriately so, and we are certainly accepting of his apology.

He said that we have two options… One is to do another needle biopsy. We’re not in favor of that simply because we are not confident in needle biopsy results (we’ve had negative positives before). The second option involves taking one of the lymph nodes for a whole biopsy when they do the lumpectomy of the spot that is in her breast. 

We are choosing the second option at this point since that will be conclusive. It will involve general anesthesia, so they’ll have to put her under. 

We’ll have to schedule that and then let you know from there. Just wanted to shoot everyone an update. The waiting game continues…

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths will shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40.28-31)

It has been a great wait so far, if I can say that. We have definitely experienced God’s peace and provision over the weekend. We’ve been able to spend time with great friends, including our church family, and our church renewal gatherings have fallen at a wonderful time.

We’d appreciate your continued prayers…

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Renewal Gathering at Journey

What I’ll be doing the next 2-3 evenings…

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You still worried about election results?

The Most Important Issues In the 2008 Election

Thanks to Kelly Rogers for posting this on her Facebook page.

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You’re invited

Thanks to AJ for the design!

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Health update and uncertainty

This Monday Carolyn went in for her checkup. About twice a year, she gets a CT scan because she’s a three-time cancer survivor. By God’s grace, she has been delivered from Hodgkin’s Disease three different times during our relationship – once while we were engaged and twice since we’ve been married.

Monday was a PET scan which is a better indicator of possible cancerous activity than a CT scan.

Tuesday she got the call. Three spots.

We are heading to Little Rock Friday (today for most of you) for a biopsy of two of those spots. I sent the following email out to our church family and friends yesterday:

Caro went in for her regular checkup this past Monday and got a PET scan. That’s a lot more accurate than a CT scan. She received a call from the oncologist yesterday at noon with results.

Basically, they’ve found three small spots – two appear to cancerous lymph nodes. There is also a suspicious spot in one of her breasts.

We go Friday for needle biopsies of the two lymph nodes. We won’t know until after those results what exactly we’re facing. It’s good news that we found them at this point, since all three areas are very small, but according to the test, they are most likely cancerous.

It’s been four years since her last go-round with Hodgkin’s Disease-lymphoma, and wildly enough, if this turns out to be cancer again, it will be her fourth go-round with cancer.

Obviously, we would appreciate your prayers. The Lord has already been faithful to supply grace and strength in the past 24 hours, and we are both deeply grateful. What with a crazy election night and this news, it’s radical to consider how much life can change in such a short time.

I began sharing “our story” last year in August. As I recall, I stopped before I shared about our second experience with cancer. Now that we may be on the brink of a fourth experience, all I can really say is that God has been faithful. He has demonstrated astonishing kindness and over-abundant grace in our lives. We have no reason to doubt that He will do so the same now and in the days to come. He does not change.

As we take timid steps forward into an uncertain future, we ask for your prayers. We want to be found faithful. Yet, I wrote in my journal the other day that we will most likely have:

 

1. #1 – Bad days: Days in which our mood and focus is not what it should be. Most likely this will be because our circumstances loom larger in our vision than our embrace of God’s truth.
2. #2 – Good days: Days where we may appear irrationally hopeful or even joyous because our awareness of Christ is heightened and our faith soars freely.

 

I am earnestly hoping that #2 days exceed #1 days. 

The strange thing (or not so strange) is that the weeks and days leading up to this experience have been filled with renewed urgency for leading God’s people into greater intimacy with Christ. We have been seeing remarkable life transformations in people in our church, and our passion for presenting Christ to our community and becoming a people of global mission has exceeded our resources. In other words, we have sensed a calling to do what would only be possible for God, and we are determined to step forward into the unknown as a church on mission.

So we ask that you intercede on our behalf during this time – that our circumstances and occasional sorrow would not eclipse the magnificent hope that Christ has laid out before us as we seek to lead His people. Ask the Lord for resources for our church and encouragement for our members during this time as they seek to be obedient to the various calls God has placed upon them.

So many folks in our church are longing to say “Yes!” to God’s call but have been confronted with brutal realities of their emotional, financial or health inadequacies. Pray for us all. For as we press on and press through trying times, I’m confident that the comfort that we currently experience from Christ will be used in manifold ways in the future to comfort others in similar struggles…

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. (2 Corinthians 1.3-5)

We’ll be heading out at 4:45 a.m. tomorrow on a journey of medical uncertainty. Pack your bags and join us if you will in prayer and fellowship. Whatever we discover along the way will hopefully be used as a light for your own path. While we’re not sure of tomorrow, we are assured of our future. 

Why are you downcast, O my soul? 
       Why so disturbed within me? 
       Put your hope in God, 
       for I will yet praise him, 
       my Savior and my God. (Psalm 42.11)

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Change in America = Change in the Church

One thing that no one can deny any longer. It isn’t 1950 any longer. America is not like 95% of our churches. At the massive Obama celebration party in Chicago last night, it was a multi-ethnic, multi-socioeconomic, and multi-cultural blend of Americans.

For most of our churches, they find themselves on November 5 wondering how they grew to such irrelevance. They find themselves out-of-touch with the larger population, most wishing for a return to yesteryear. In pockets of America, there remains an ambivalence about true integration in worship.

The church of Jesus Christ can not be HIS church and not reach out to all ethnic groups, socioeconomic levels, and cultures. It has been content, for the most part, in preserving the comfort of its existing members. It has done this primarily by only reaching out to those that would help undergird its existing values and allow its current leaders to remain in control.

Just as the leadership of our nation was jerked radically away from one group on November 4, the church needs a radical jerk away from its love affair with complacency and selfishness. 

The heart of the Father is for all peoples, everywhere, to know and love His Son Jesus Christ. Our churches need to seek humility, forgiveness and begin the journey of joy by actively reaching out to all with the gospel of Christ. It’s not Jesus that people in our country have rejected. It’s the church’s narrow proprietorship of Him.

Other’s Voices: Mark DeYmaz

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Praying for our new President

Ed Stetzer wrote an entry yesterday that I thought shared the appropriate spirit and tone for all of us who call upon Christ as Messiah and Redeemer – whether Red State or Blue State – in this significant political redirection for the U.S.

He quotes a letter from a Methodist pastor posted at Ben Witherington’s site:

There is always – always! – a “contrarian” bent to the Christian political angle. After all, in the Roman empire the complaint filed against Christians was “they are turning the world upside down” (Acts 17). In a world that does not love the Lord Jesus, we will expect to find ourselves at odds with business as usual; we shun a judgmental spirit, but we do not refrain from making judgments. “The Church is not simply a ‘voluntary association’ that may be of some use to the wider public, but rather is the community constituted by practices by which all other politics are to be judged” (Stanley Hauerwas).Abraham Lincoln told the truth about “sides” who boast of God: “Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; each invokes His aid against the other. The prayers of both could not be answered… The Almighty has His own purposes.” Knowing this, we treat each other charitably, and look to God for something better: “With malice toward none; with charity for all… to bind up the nation’s wounds – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

 

Stetzer goes on to say:

We’re about to choose a new leader for ourselves, and, regardless of who wins, some American Christians will be frustrated and disheartened. This is a difficult election for many Christians, but it should not– it cannot– eclipse our mission. And while politics and presidents can connect to the outworking of our faith, God uses the preaching of the gospel in word and deed to bring redemption to the broken, forgiveness to the sinful, hope to the lost and the real “change we need.” It is not an elected official who will transform the country, but the grace of God at work in his church– that is what changes lives, transforms cultures and turns cities upside down.

November 4th will come and go, but our mission remains the same, and our hope remains secure. That’s change we can believe in.

I wholeheartedly agree. After all, it’s not just wise and gracious, but as believers in Christ, we are citizens of another kingdom, with a higher loyalty. We must be able to minister to all peoples, and political polemic after an election cycle must be shelved in order to pray, encourage, and seek the good of the land we live in. This election may be about America getting what we truly deserve rather than what we want – whichever way we all voted.

“I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2.1-4)

Also, the people of Israel were told to pray for a culture that was not their own when they were living in captivity in Babylon. This is rather strange, all things considered. Rather than urging them to pray for “deliverance,” they were instructed to pray for the prosperity and success of the culture in which they lived in captivity. This may be a more appropriate perspective for all those who bemoan the results of any election, present or past…

“Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” (Jeremiah 29.7)

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I am saying no to Obama on Tuesday

I think Shane Vanderhart has an excellent post describing his reasons for voting for McCain. I encourage you to read it. Most of his reasons mirror my own.

You can also review my Tumblog for some recent links and items of interest.

I don’t see this as just another election. While I initially supported George W. Bush vehemently in the previous two elections, these past two years have seemed to indicate a wandering administration. I’ve been particularly frustrated with the confusion and insanity of the No Child Left Behind Act. While it initially was a positive effort, it seems like it has left many schools, states, and districts in a state of fear of reprisal rather than instilling a positive momentum for educational reform. Struggling kids are still left behind, but now smart kids are being overlooked in an effort to pull along the struggling ones. We’ve effectively dumbed-down our educational system.

I’m not thrilled about fighting in Iraq either. However, I’d rather be fighting there than here. Make no mistake. Radical Muslims HATE America. They will not lay down their arms against us. Bush was right to take the fight to their region. Yet, I remain ambivalent over the Iraq issue. I don’t blame him for it. I don’t think it should be a political football.

The economy… well, yes it stinks. But I hardly feel like that’s Bush’s fault either. The best minds on both sides of each political spectrum have punted on true fiscal accountability for so long that neither wants to claim responsibility. The burden has been passed off on the tax payer through a bailout that still no one can tell you whether it has worked or not. Both McCain and Obama have proposed budgets that will increase our national deficit. Neither wants to face the hard, cold facts that the next administration must necessarily tighten the government’s belt and work to reduce spending, cut programs, and bring our nation to a fiscal viability.

It crystalizes for me in the morality and faith commitment of each candidate. Obama is unashamedly one of the most liberal interpreters of when life begins. He’s downright frightening in this regard. If you have children or love them, it should concern you that this candidate has a complete disregard for the life of a baby and has refused to consider the implications of his stand. 

While I could run down a list of more reasons, the most disconcerting reasons to NOT vote for Obama involve the ambiguity on exactly who the man is. He is one of the most vague, slippery un-characters that I’ve seen in many years. Who is he really? For all the media attention and hype, we have yet to really understand what he stands for and what he really thinks apart from the liberal machinery of the Democratic Party.

• I have not forgotten Jeremiah Wright.
• I have not forgotten Bill Ayers.
• I have not forgotten the grotesque support for partial birth abortion.
• I have not forgotten his difficulty in expressing his Christian commitment, particularly in confessing the name of Jesus Christ.
• I have not forgotten his outrageous refusal to seek campaign finance reform after initially hinging his campaign on it.

This one candidate has outspent every other single candidate in history. McCain has kept his promise to not raise more than what was allowed, but Obama bypassed his early commitment to campaign finance reform. 

Obama, the first major candidate since 1972 to use only private money in the general election, termed his decision “difficult” and blamed it on a public financing system that he says is “broken.”

Critics say his record $639 million fundraising total so far — compared with McCain’s $360 million — could very well be the end of a public financing system that has prevailed for the past 34 years.

“It’s a mess,” said John Samples, a campaign finance scholar for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C, speaking of the public financing system. “It’s certainly not serving any of the purposes it was supposedly set up to do.” [Source.]

$639 million. Of course, I’m not thrilled about $360 million either. Does Obama honestly think he represents the little people of America? If he has spent so freely with other people’s money to get elected, what makes us think he will curb that when he is elected?

In addition, I am ardently opposed to the massive government growth – in welfare, insurance and other intrusive programs  - that the Democratic Party has demonstrated. I am not in favor of government being my Savior. It seems that a bigger centralized government is the only strategy the left wing of that Party (who is now entrenched in leadership) know. Hello socialism.

I’ve already heard a few stories of ardent Democrats across the nation who have vocally supported him for fear of retaliation – either political or social – who simply have not been able to actually vote for him.

No one sees who you vote for in the booth. I would urge all voters who have sincere doubts not to take a gamble on this election of great significance. Let’s not roll the dice on issues like partial-birth abortion, redistributive wealth, shady alliances and friendships with America-haters, and vague personal histories.

In addition, though he claims to be a Christian, there are literally dozens of YouTube videos of Islamic leaders voicing their support for Obama and claiming that he is Muslim – either faithful or an apostate. His redistributive philosophies are certainly socialistic. (Yet we already become socialistic in many of our government handout programs). 

As far as Obama’s primary competition – John McCain, I really haven’t been inspired by him. However, at least I know what I’m getting from him. I know he loves America and its people. I know that he has served us faithfully for many, many years. I know that he has suffered for freedom. I know that he has put his administration in touch with average Americans by selecting Sarah Palin as his VP candidate. I like his stand on the issues.

I also like what Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said recently as he introduced John McCain in Ohio:

John McCain served longer in a POW camp than his opponent has in the United States Senate. Ladies and gentlemen, I only play an action hero in my movies, but John McCain is a real action hero.

Some other rambling thoughts: I really resent Obamaniacs insinuating that the reason “red states” are red is because of racism. If you have done any reading whatsoever of conservative and liberal blogs and sites, you’ll notice a definite tone difference. Obama supporters often are quite vicious to anyone who does not support him. I will concede that there are idiots out there that support McCain. However, on the average, red states are being painted “white” with remarks like “looks like it’s the Civil War that is determining this election more than anything else.”

I appreciated this well-written conclusion to a recent article:

Barack Obama’s mixed race background may be the only [italics mine] thing he ever had in his favor. Americans want nothing more than to see minorities succeed, but such a desire can never outweigh their need to elect a responsible commander-in-chief — a leader sympathetic to our cause who will defend our country from its enemies without qualm or apology. Such a man is not Barack Obama and no amount of media distortion can ever change this fact.

Other recommendations:

• There is also an excellent article here about the issue of race and racism in this election.
• Hot Air offers The Comprehensive Argument against Barack Obama; it’s an in-depth, well-considered piece that doesn’t smack of fear-mongering.

As you prepare to vote Tuesday, I urge you… if you’re undecided or in doubt… vote for John McCain. Vote for certainty, experience, character, and life. Barack Obama, if he is the real deal, will not go away. And maybe after a few more years of public service and promise fulfillment, he will be more prepared to lead – maybe. He has a lot he needs to clear up. 

I’d be curious to know who you’re voting for and why. In this election, it may be who you’re voting against.

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