Dan and Sarah wanted us to come to Baltimore for a couple of days of the Ravens Training Camp. Actually, the training camp is at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD about a 30 minute drive from where Dan and Sarah live. So, we did. Unfortunately, the day before we arrived Dan sprained his foot and is now going to be out for about 3 to 4 weeks of the preseason. Please keep them in your prayers. The pictures in the side bar on the left are from the training camp. Enjoy!
Life is full of surprises. We are with Sarah and Dan for a couple of days [I'll tell you more about that later] and during our visit Dan shared some news with us. Many of you know that Sarah had a procedure done a couple of months ago because of some abnormal cells in her uterus. Everything is fine now and she is doing great. Well, the news is that she and Dan are expecting their first child in April of 09 and it will be our third grandchild. A little over a year ago we didn't have any grandchildren and now we are going to have 3!
Scott and Kali are expecting their second child this September, which will be our second grandchild. Things are getting interesting (an
d fun).
I had the privilege this week to help lead a staff retreat for St. Stephen UMC in Amarillo. My friend, Stan Cosby, is the senior pastor and this is the first staff retreat they have held since Stan has become their pastor. The first day we did an assessment of each staff member's personality type. Paul says in I Cor 12 that the body of Christ is made up of many different parts each functioning in a unique way. They were surprised at the diversity and balance of the staff personalities.
The second day did a staff assessment using Patrick Lencioni's book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team focusing on the areas where the staff needed to strengthen their functioning as a Team. It was a profitable time for the St. Stephen staff and it was good being with Stan and Susan Cosby.
There were 14 staff members present and we used St. Eugene's Episcopal Church for the retreat.I tried to find that NPR news segment that I mentioned in my sermon on Sunday, but I could not locate it. For those of you who don't know, I have been preaching a sermon series from the book of 1 Peter and chapter 5 has references to the devil being like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. I did find an article in the United Methodist Report that was interesting. Click the link to read it. Does Satan really exist?
An unknown author has made a list which they called, "Our Thinking vs. God's Promises." Several people have asked me for this list. Here it is.
A little over a week ago I had an experience that I call a "God moment." When Bev and I got on the plane in Beijing to come home, I had an aisle seat and Bev had a window seat. A Chinese man came and sat between us and his wife was in the row in front of us. I traded seats with the man and now he was sitting in the aisle seat. He traded with a young Chinese lady in the row in front of us, and now she sat in our row in the aisle set. He was now setting with his wife. Wow. There was a lot of trading seats going on that day. We started settling in for the long flight home through Chicago.
Several years ago the Chinese government mandated that all Chinese students beginning in the fourth grade learn English. China is now the largest English speaking country in the world. This lady sitting with us in the aisle seat could speak marginal English and we started getting acquainted. She told us that she was flying to Miami, Florida to start work on a cruise ship called the Majesty of the Seas as a waitress. It was a six month contract and they had purchased her plane ticket for the trip. She in turn would pay the cruise line back from her earnings as a waitress for the ticket. Her hope was to earn enough money to buy her parents a home in her hometown. She had never been out of the country and had only been to Beijing once before. She knew no one in the US. The US would only give her a three day visa to make the trip through the US to Miami and onto the ship. Once on the ship she was pretty much confined to that ship without a travel visa.
Needless to say, Bev and I were greatly concerned for this young ladies wellbeing. We both have heard horror stories about cruise ships. We know some people who have worked on cruise ships that have had awful experiences. The thought that came to my mind was one of "indentured servitude." We traded email addresses and phone numbers. We told Ling that she could call or write us any time if she needed help. She asked Bev why we would care so much about her. We told her that we have two daughters. Both of our daughters have lived outside of the US and we know what it feels like to have a loved one so far away.
I guess that my contact with Ling and knowing her story was very unsettling for me. About a week ago, and I don't know if this happened in a dream or what, but I vaguely remember praying for Ling in the middle of the night. I remember asking God to protect her and keep her safe. For several days after we got home, I struggled with that horrible thing called "jet lag." That is a condition were you feel like sleeping during the day and you can't sleep at night. You lay in bed tossing and turning until you get up. Someone recently told me that it takes a day to recover for every time zone that you cross. We crossed 13 time zones!
It was a Sunday night or I guess early Monday morning. I had several meetings the next day and during a Monday luncheon meeting I get a call on my cell phone. It was Ling. She called to tell me that she was OK. She said that the work was hard and long but she was OK. In that moment and I can't fully explain it, I felt the Holy Spirit. I told the story to the person I was having lunch with and he sat there with a stunned look on his face. We both knew that what I had just experienced was a "God moment." There is a line from an old William Cowper hymn that says, "God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform." Praise God He does!
A year ago this time we were scrambling. One year ago tomorrow is Asher's birthday. That is the day I became "Pops" and Bev became "Bebe." Now you know when Asher begins to talk those names may change. But for now it is Pops and Bebe. Kali and Scott are expecting again and we are going to be grandparents of another baby boy in September! PTL! Wow. Maybe one of these days they will move from Charleston back to Oklahoma and we can really spoil them. Whether they move or not, he is a blessing.
Here are the participants of the Women's Walk to Emmaus.
We started the Hong Kong Women's Walk to Emmaus #40 last night. Things are going well. When I got up this morning Jana had emailed me that Randy Hart was not doing well and that this might be the final hours of his life here on earth. Randy is a man of God and we will be with him again. Be in prayer for the womens walk and for Randy. Prayer for Randy's family and for God's mercy. Thank you New Covenant for your commitment to prayer. In Christ, AC