Evendays

I can remember coming home from school at 2 pm at the age of 17 and finding my mom laying on the couch crying. She was 5 months pregnant and had had a doctor’s appointment that morning. I thought the worst, but then she started laughing, which was very weird.

She explained that the doctor had been concerned after listening through the stethoscope and wanted to do x-rays, which were quickly done. Mom heard quite a bit of commotion in the adjoining room when the doctor finally came in with the film and said something like: Mrs. Smith, there are three heads and three spines. You are going to have triplets.

Mom cried some more there on that couch. I remember thinking what all this would mean to our family. Sister was 15, a high-school sophomore. I was heading off to University the following year. Mom and Dad were in their late 30’s…

And they were starting a second family.

My parents’ trust that children (especially triplets) are a blessing from God, and the expectant joy that entered our home that day changed our lives forever. And early on a Wednesday morning, December 1, 1976, our family nearly doubled in size. And tripled our joy.

Happy birthday B, B, and B.

On Friday and Saturday, I spent a little more than 24 hours near Macon, France with about 30 servants from the different assemblies of churches of Christ from France, Belgium and Switzerland. The Bible studies were encouraging and the 3 panels on different challenges facing churches in our part of the world were helpful. The one on the “sexual morals and evangelism” was very, very good. I’ll have to write up a resume of it for you some time.

Sunday morning was spent in prayer. Thanks to each one of you who prayed for the Lausanne church. (If you forgot and still wanted to pray, it’s never too late…) It was a good moment for me as we prayed as a church for sins, the future and about church ministry.

Later, I caught up on the Harry Potter books and I eagerly await his death in the 7th tome. In December I will try to finish every book I started in 2006 but haven’t quite finished. I count at least 5 of them.

Thanks for dropping by.

You’ve heard the story of the preacher’s family with a load of folks over for Sunday lunch. When they finally sat down to eat, the preacher asked his little daughter to pray. She was embarrassed and said she didn’t know what to pray. “Well, just pray like mommy!”, he replied. So everyone bowed their heads as the little girl started her prayer with: Dear Lord! Why did I invite all these people over for lunch today?

We ended up being 29 for a wonderful Thanksgiving evening. Wife made 4 pies, prepared the 17.5 pound turkey, fixed enough dressing, green beans, home-made rolls, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes for everyone. Our guests brought desserts, salads, appetizers, drinks, bottles of wine, flowers and chocolates.

After all that work, and it’s a lot of work as most of you know, the Children and Wife and Laura (guest) and I were finishing up the bit that was left to do when Wife exclaimed: Look at all this stuff people brought us. We made out like bandits!

Now there’s a thankful heart. Hope your thanksgiving was thankful too. Even during clean-up…

(And don’t forget to pray with us on Saturday-Sunday.)

—Brad has a new post up at Biblos on Yancey’s book. Please check it out!— 
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Historically, people have “done missions” in many different ways. There are those who “go native”, completely leaving their home culture behind, dressing, eating and speaking like the locals. (Some don’t even speak to their kids in their mother tongue.) Others adapt, keeping some of their own culture and mixing it with the local culture.

Then there’s going Colonial. Not advised, but exactly what we’re doing this week. Thanksgiving is not a Swiss holiday, but we import it every year and invite as many of our friends and contacts as possible. On Thursday evening, we will be 27 sitting down for a good ‘ole traditional Thanksgiving meal. We’re talking about a 17.5 pound turkey and enough salads and desserts to warp the serving table.

The goal is not to eat, but to give opportunities for lives to change… That through communion and hospitality, windows to God are opened and people see, just a bit more clearly, who God is.

Happy Thanksgiving, my dear friends!

On Sunday, November 26, we will be spending time in prayer rather than working through the habitual sermon. We will be praying for the church here, our future, and for each one of the members. It’s been a rough year and several are feeling “beat up”, if you know what I mean, so a time of prayer and confession, adoration and thanksgiving is in order.

Why don’t you participate in this with us? If you are in the USA, late Saturday night is early morning here. Those of you and Europe could put us on your prayer list. We would appreciate your support and, of course, we desire God’s wisdom as we look for his will for the Body of Christ here in Lausanne.

Thanks for stopping by.

I found his cold, dead body in the grass under the cherry tree. Our hedgehog, Harrison Jr., was in pretty bad shape. I guess the foxes got to him. Or maybe the neighborhood cats. I thought about roping off the area and asking Son 1 to use his three weeks of forensic science studies to determine who was responsible, but the body was in really bad shape. Plus I was out of yellow tape and there were no batteries in the flashlight.

Even though we live in town, the yard is home to a couple of HERISSONS, that is, hedgehogs. (Thus the name Harrison.) We’ve actually seen 4 foxes in the yard at once, making these horrible crying baby sounds that make the hair on your neck stand up.

One fox that has a shoe fetish. Actually, he only picks on one shoe, the tan Nike belonging to Wife. He’s stolen it, and only it, twice from the balcony, taking it to the neighbor’s, always to the same spot, and does some reverse engineering on the shoe.

I hope Harrison Jr. went quickly. I console myself by repeating that it happened before a cold, hard winter. And at least he wasn’t hit by a car, which is the usual way for herissons to meet their Maker.

For the last two days, two hard workers have been banging on the window frames of our house, removing the old windows. It’s harder than normal to get much work done.

The house was built in 1937 and still had the original, wood, double pane glass windows. I’m no fan of all that’s modern, but we had repainted them a couple of times, yet the south-side wood was rotting and all of them had eternal fog between the panes, so we decided to get new ones.

The above door-windows in our bedroom lead onto the balcony overlooking the yard. They are difficult to get used to because they close real easily. I had the habit of kicking the old ones closed. They weren’t mean kicks, mind you, you just had to keep on whacking the base of the window until it would finally clunk into position. Then you could admire the paint flecks floating to the ground.

I can tell this will be a tough tradition to break, and my grandchildren may be asking my children one day, “When you close those big, glass doors, why do you kick the bottom of them over and over.” And my kids will answer, “Well, that’s just the way your pappy did it, and that’s the way it’s always been done.”

Sunday we were a small group. Some were traveling, some were sick, some were tired. Some sick AND tired.

Ex-neighbor came with one of her sons. She’s been taking care of her dying mom the last couple of months. She asked us to pray for her mom and the family. She felt grateful for some of the progress they had made this past week in their relationship.

Ex-neighbor called Monday at about 5 pm to inform us that her mom had died. They’d decided against a funeral, but the casket is now in their living room and some close friends and family will gather together on Wednesday to eat cake and drink tea. Wife and I dropped by for a visit this morning. We were warmly welcomed and we viewed the body (you couldn’t miss it) and we drank a tea together. Ex-neighbor’s husband asked questions about God’s will on cremation (I think it should only be for dead people) and then wanted to debate. But Wife and I just sat and listened. We asked if they wanted to pray. They did and we all did. Ex-neighbor then told us that early on Sunday she had awakened to find her mom unable to sleep. She gently washed her mother with a cloth and rubbed rose oil all over her body. Her mother kept saying, “I am so, so spoiled. This is so nice.”

Ex-neighbor told us today she did not know she was preparing her mom’s body for death, but now she knows. She said you never really understand that when doing something, you’re doing something that may have long-term significance.

Sometimes it just comes to you later.

There’s a new post for Yancey’s book, Prayer, over at the site Biblos. Do check it out.

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We just finished a discussion-study on 1 John, something we’ve been doing in our home for the last couple of months. I’ve been reading through Dr. Tom Olbricht’s little book on 1 John that he wrote for the 2005 Pepperdine Lecturship program.

I found this paragraph on "legalism" helpful. Maybe it will help you too.

(Comments on 1 John 5.3): John does not agree with those who believe that the keeping of commandments is legalistic. The word legalism is often not employed in a New Testament manner. There legalism means making a rule a law of God when it is, in fact, a tradition of men (Mark 7), or asserting that keeping the law apart from faith is the way to salvation (Romans 9.32), or focusing on the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law (Mark 2.23-28). John fully believed that Christians should obey the commandments, as did Paul (1 Corinthians 7.19).

God bless you as you walk in grace and love throughout this week.

(Do see Wednesday’s post if you don’t get it.)

Son 2 has decided, thanks to Steve’s comment, to abandon training for the ministry to become a doctor and provoke pregnant women, even if he won’t make a lot of money.

And YES, Evendays has a new nephew. Ethan Miles was born on November 8 (an even day) at 9:31 pm and weighed 9 lbs 13 oz! Last time I heard, all was well, except that Sister 3 had a tough time and the doctors finally provoked her into having a C section. Or maybe it was Ethan that was provoking back.

Anyway, thus ends a prolific year for the Evendays’ clan. A new nephew in June, a new niece in September and a new nephew in November. Christmas at Pa and Grandma’s should be great fun this year.

As for those of you threatening to take me up on the offer for free lodging, quit talking and go to www.kayak.com to check on ticket prices to GVA. If you don’t, I might just have to provoke you into coming.