Evendays

I wept with the weepers when Randy told of his cancelled flights and difficulties in travel. No fun, that.

But there was this guy who went on a trip to California with his family. He was booked on an airline I won’t mention by name, but it rhymes with "American Hairlines". For some reason, the two kids he was traveling with were on a different booking and got their boarding passes and such without diffuculty. This guy and his wife could only get the Geneva-London part because they were dual booked to the same city but on two different itineraries. No problem, of course. London Heathrow would take care of it.

Yet London couldn’t take care of it. In fact this guy’s luggage, with that of his wife’s, was heading to Dallas. Actually, it was NOT heading to Dallas because luggage doesn’t go on a plane when the owner of said luggage isn’t on the luggage’s plane. But that was okay, Los Angeles would take care of it.

12 hours later, upon arrival in Los Angeles, there was a passport line (easy), a waiting for your luggage line (very long, because this guy’s bags didn’t come… They were still in London) and a waiting to get out of the terminal line. The officer in the customs’ line was giving advice to every family about which sites to see in Southern Cal, which made the process 7 times as long as any other line. (But everyone did learn to avoid Disneyland on weekends…)

Then this guy got into the "American Hairline’s" queue for "delayed" luggage. It was (logically) in a different terminal and wo-manned by two motivated employees who had been trained at FAT (Fresno Air Terminal). The queue had at least 35 people in it, and each suit-case took at least 15 mintues to solve. Had people not decided the wait was not worth their luggage, or had they not passed out from exhaustion, this guy’s family would still be in line. He received a receipt, a promise of 50 bucks, and another promise of delivery some time in the future.

The good news is that the shuttle to the car rental came in 3 minutes. A highlight of the day.

(To be continued…)

Things are going well. Thanks for your prayers. Pray for the Burundi people. There are many orphans, most taken in by family members or neighbors. Although there has been no major violence for over 2 years, people live with a mixture of fear and optimism.

I had a third Bible study with my "monk" friend. He is a priest, and has been for 20 years, but not celebrate the mass. It has been interesting as he shares his experiences with me and then asks me about Bible teaching on many different subjects.

We were invited to preach in a village church on Friday. My Swahili being rusty, I was translated from the French… And I even taught them a song. They have much fun with the "blancs".

Another young man asked us to teach in a village church for part of their outreach. They had a praise band that consisted of an empty oil can, a bass guitar with three strings, and another electric guitar. Everyone listened attentively as we spoke of God’s presence with us in Jesus and of the power of his word.

Our time is winding down. Monday we head to Ethiopia, where we’ll spend a day, since there is no plane back. I’m writing on the run.

More later…

I’m sitting in a cybernet internet center. Imagine your old dial up connection and then sharing it with 15 other computers and users. I’ve been here for 40 minutes and have read 3 emails, written one, and read 13 pages out of my novel. But it’s cheap. The captial is a busy place in the daytime. There is a lot of noise at night. They say security is not good in the evening, but we still see many people out. Almost half the people are under 18 years old. Most are out of a job.

I went to two different worship times on Sunday. The singing was awesome and there were 90 people packed into a small brick classroom for the second worship time. You would have enjoyed it.

I’m staying in a convent. They have a series of rooms for visitors and the rent helps them keep things going. We spend our days in appointments, some teaching, much listening, and sharing what we know about Jesus with this deeply religious people.

In an our I have a study with a priest that my friend Barry met last year. We have talked for a couple of hours already, but he asked me to open the Bible with him today and teach him.

Thanks for your prayers. 

I was out of town for a week, but was able to get back for the second race in the Tour du Pays de Vaud series.

I finished the just-short-of 10k race in just-barely-over 45 minutes. Son 2 and Wife were waaaaay fast.

Here’s a picture of us trio, after a shower, in the race shirts… (click to enlarge).

Just got back from a fishing trip. Good food, company, beautiful stars and lots of fish. Thanks Mike! 

I’ll be off-line for a while. The family is heading back to Lausanne. It’ll just take us a couple of days to get there. Fresno, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., London (Heathrow), Geneva, Lausanne. Hope they have nice airports.

Be back soon.

Last night, dad took 14 of us out to the Fresno Grizzlies’ game. At the end of 10 innings the score was tied at 14. Somehow Fresno won in the 11th, 17 to 16, after picking up 25 hits.

This morning, I took the family’s biggest/smallest baseball fan out to get donuts. Braedon was singing, "Take me out to the ballgame." I asked him what he dreamed about last night. He said BASEBALL. I asked him what he wanted to do today. He said PLAY BASEBALL. I asked him what he liked best about his visit so far. I didn’t get it all, but I did hear the word BASEBALL.

I love baseball too. But I’m not that passionate about anything (unfortunately).

Uncle Paul is trying to widen Braedon’s horizons. The little guy was out wackin’ golf balls in the back yard just a minute ago. In fact, I’ve got to go now. He just asked me to play…

Thanks for stopping by.

Wife and I were in Wes’ old shepherding group on Sunday and about 40 people were present. I started my part of the class talking about the difference between mourning and celebrating… That it would be appropriate for us to mourn Wes’ death because we will miss him. His wife and grown children, and their children, will miss him. That shepherding group will miss him. The sick and saddened will miss his visits. The staff at College church will miss him.

But there was some opposition. "No, we should celebrate his life, not mourn his death." I told these older, wiser Christians that I thought I understood what they were trying to say, but that Wes left a hole in our lives that brought sadness. That many would miss his comfort. That others would sorely miss his wisdom. That all would miss his love.

No, said a saintly lady. He’s better off where he is…

I thought I’d failed to make my point when Wes’ wife spoke out. "I’m sad. And I’m going to miss him."

The Christian’s hope is glory… An eternal glory that outweighs all… But in the meantime our enemy, death, is still the enemy. And so I mourn and, even though I’m a firm believer in the Gospel. I’m comfortable with that. For I mourn as one who has hope.

Talked to Son 1 yesterday morning. It was evening there. He was exhausted from the two-week Bible camp. He had a good room of boys 7 to 9 years old. He’s going to crash for a couple of days before heading north to work with the church in Geneva and Lille.

A few minutes later, we learned of Wes’ death, my first camp counselor when I was a 7 to 9 years old. I wrote about him a few days ago. He died in his sleep.

Later in the PM we received the tragic news that Serge, Son 1’s first camp counselor, had died in a motorcycle accident. He was working with the youth at the same camp as Son 1 and died going home after the camp was over. He was in his early 30’s.

I know you will keep these two families in your prayers.

Son 2 and daughter made it back safely from Ensenada. So today I’m thankful to God for:

• Randy and his direction of the team;
• The leaders of the church there in Ensenada… Their dedication and hospitality;
• The churches that funded the project, from Arlington to Oregon to Long Beach;
• Stoogelover and Wifefor keeping the kids until we could pick them up.
• Mom for giving up car, phone and limb…
  

We have been on the road for 3 weeks now. We are very thankful for all the hospitality, food, lodging, transport, conversations, communion, prayers and just plain fun we’ve experienced since the beginning of our furlough. It has made for a wonderful trip.

Thanks for dropping by.