Missions Incredible

It's the Summer of 2005. I'm alone with 6 teenagers in South Korea. We are on a 12 day cultural and economic exchange. Prior to leaving America I had heard some astronomical statistics.
South Korea was:

• The fastest growing Christian population in the world
• A nation that had become over 50% Christian in the last 5 years
• The Largest Church in the world

As a Christian, it thrilled me to my very toes to think about being in that atmosphere. I was as excited to go as I was nervous to be so far from home.

This month, Christianity Today had a new statistic on it's cover... South Korea - Missions Incredible. They have now grown to be the largest sender on missionaries to the world - 13,000 with one missionary sent for every 4 churches. A New York Times article stated that with a 'low voice and wisdom', Koreans have had the greatest impact on converting the Muslim world to Christianity.

I was blessed. I didn't cheer, however, when I read either article. You want to know 'Why'? Because in my experience there was no 'low voice'. There was not even a whisper. If Christianity were defined soley as 'service until it hurts', then every person I met would have fully qualified. There was one heart that would have welcomed that whisper; it was starved and ravenous when it arrived back home. Maybe my expectations were too high.

Things have been different for me in two ways since my return. 1) I'm more anxious to serve people, to give until it hurts. 2) I whisper. To everyone who looks hungry... and even some who don't.

Opening Up...

"Mama was always cooking up nourishing broths and porridges for forgotten old men, pale young mothers, or those who wandered through her kitchen door."

"Mama's love had always been acted out with soup pot, & sewing basket. She loved the people she saw in the street, and beyond. Her love took her to the world as she prayed for and fed the ones who entered. And so I learned that Love is bigger than the walls that shut it in."
~Corrie TenBoom~ The Hiding Place

I was maybe eight years old when I read those words the first time. I had just given my life to God at church camp. They began a lifelong dream. I wanted to become a woman who loved people beyond the normal boundaries of family or friends. I wanted my door (both to my heart and to my kitchen) to always be open to anyone and everyone.

Every now and then something happens in life to remind me of that childhood dream and that God has not left it unattended, even though I wonder where it has gotten off too sometmes. This past weekend was one of those reminders. James called me Saturday from work to tell me one of his blogging buddies was going to be in town with his wife. Now, we live in the middle of nowhere, and if anyone is coming to our town it is usually on their way to somewhere. But not this time.
We had never met Justin and Nicole. Never seen them other than in pictures. Never heard their voices, or had any connection other than the periodic comment on eachothers' blogs ... and God. That was enough! We invited the two of them to stay overnight in our humble abode. To our thrill and surprise, they accepted!

I immediately tried to discount what we had to offer, but James hushed me. Then, in the hush, God began to draw out that eight-year-old heart ~ just give and let that be enough.

They were a blessing. Our oldest daughter stayed up and chatted with us for awhile after they arrived, the youngest was supposed to go to sleep. Instead she was the 'color commentator' from the back bedroom, interjecting her silly little nuggets of information. Nicole told us about growing up in our area, and about how she and Justin met. Justin told of his journey as a youth pastor, and moving west in his adorable, barely detectable Arkansas drawl. They still have such a journey ahead of them. And now that God has brought them into our lives, we get to watch their story unfold and maybe even continue to be a part of it in a small way. Thank you, Lord.

Justin & Nicole,
Our door is always open. I hope we see you walking through it again soon.

Sentiments

I feel like saying something. Not sure what. So, I'll just say:

Sun is rising. Light is dispelling the darkness in sherbet hughs.

Quiet reigns. Made cozy by Cricket's soft, rumbly snores.

Vanilla Coffee. Bittersweet morning comfort cradled in a cup.

So begins the day...

A Return

I'm going back. Never would I have thought even one year ago that I would be a chaperone of 6 American teens, trapsing across the globe, braving airports, and loving Korean food. (Mom would tell you that as a child I had a steady diet of grilled cheese sandwiches!!) I had never been out of the USA, and had only been out of the Pacific Northwest once.

Now our county has elected me to go again! There will be 2 chaperones this time! Up to 8 kids will get to go. We leave in July for 2 weeks with our friends in GunPo City, S. Korea. It's a time of fostering friendships, learning to appreciate other cultures and building community.

I'm SO excited! and Mom, I didn't order one single grilled cheese the entire time, and I ate all my vegetables!

Yoo Hoo! yoo hoo!

Come out, come out wherever you are!

"It is true. Because it has been ordained by someone with the graphical capabilities to make a button, you are now required by your conscience to delurk." - Kim

Stand Up and Testify!! :) I lurk. I admit it. "Hi, my name is Deeapaulitan, and I'm a blog lurker." (hi Deeapaulitan)... whoo, boy, did that feel good. Your turn!! C'mon, don't be shy... I promise not to put you on a mailing list, or sell your vital stats to the greasy guys at the local computer chop shop! It's just nice to know you're out there. That you stopped in for a laugh or to be challenged... that I'm not all alone in the vast blogosphere of life.

Jerry Maguire: If anybody else wants to come with me, this moment will be the ground floor of something real and fun and inspiring and true in this godforsaken business and we will do it together! Who's with me besides... "Flipper" here?

Finding Relevance in Relationship

For my 35th birthday my in-laws bought me a subscription to Sunset magazine. This months edition has an article on "The Wests' Best Places To Live". Based on what criteria did they choose these places?
*Sense of Community (interaction with and feeling responsible for...)
*Pedestrian Friendly (wide sidewalks, courtyards, and low traffic)
*Functionality Packed into a small area
*Ability to Form their own identity while respecting heritage
*Remaking/refurbishing space

I found this interesting, with the growing emphasis on being 'culturally relevant' within our family's hearts and the church in-general, that this periodical would list much of what we feel God speaking to us about relevancy as a way of building a neighborhood into a community! It still all boils down to 2 things ~ RELATIONSHIP and being intentional!

25 ways to make your neighborhood a community

by Amelia Ashton (abridged)

3. Organize regular wine-tasting parties. You’ll be surprised at all the local sommeliers.
4. Hold small music concerts on a common green. Encourage karaoke (responsibly).
5. Sponsor a holiday celebration such as an Easter egg hunt, a summer solstice party, a Fourth of July bike parade and party, Oktoberfest with grilled bratwurst, or a Halloween block party.
6. Start a regular “Mom’s night out.” Wine and dine, or catch a late-night mani/pedi.
Help each other

7. Create a new kind of Neighborhood Watch: Build a “care force” that helps out with dinners and errands when neighbors need a hand, and/or host an emergency preparedness night in which you get organized and learn about your neighbors’ special skills (CPR training, etc.).
8. Schedule an annual “barn raising,” at which a volunteer work crew helps neighbors with household projects, from fixing the pipes to mending a fence.
12. Host movie nights, using a garage door as the movie screen. Alternate which home gets to pick the rental, and don’t forget the popcorn.
13. Consider building a gate in fences between backyards to foster camaraderie and use for emergencies.
Develop community spaces
Communicate
18. Put up a community website and a Yahoo group site for public notices, referrals, ads, and event notices.
19. Got a swimming pool? Use a flag system to let neighbors know when their kids can join your kids for an adult-supervised swim. Green flag, come on in. No flag, don’t ask.
Create a community-friendly front yard

20. Plant a colorful perennial border between your sidewalk and the street, put a chair or bench in your front yard, then prepare to say hi to your neighbors when it becomes part of everyone’s stroller route.
21. Instead of tall, narrow walls or fences that close neighbors out, build half-walls wide enough to function as a seat.
22. Plant in front of as well as behind perimeter walls. “It’s like a gift to the neighborhood,” one homeowner said. It also inspires adjoining houses.
23. Build a firepit in front of your house. On cooler nights, throw down some beach blankets, share a glass of wine with the neighbors, and watch the kids play. Or just settle down out front in some folding chairs on a Friday or weekend afternoon, and invite the neighbors to join you.
24. Hang a swing from your porch to get you out front and socializing.

It's all about loving people and wanting to be a part of making their lives better. How cool is that? It would mean that, in my little microcausim of the universe, Jesus' vision for His world would find life!

Even TIME Concedes to Uncle Sam

I'm excited. I really love this man's adherence to the Constitution and his ability to relate that adherence in a positive light.
My favorite moments in the hearing were watching Senator Kennedy "UH" and "UM" his way through 'trap questions'. I find it ironic that the man, who in the 70's was thought to "be scandalous and deceitful" was now trying to derail 'Uncle Sam' .
Alito Confirmation Appears Likely
In spite of attacks from the left, an unfazed Alito seems destined to be confirmed
Thursday, Jan. 12, 2006
MASSIMO CALABRESI

The end wasn't pretty for Democrats. After three days of testimony, Judge Samuel Alito appears headed for confirmation to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, and already political operatives on the Hill have turned to damage control and exploitation.

Democrats are licking their self-inflicted wounds, trying to figure out if they can somehow turn the timing of that vote to their advantage. Democrats publicly concede their side failed to mount an effective attack on the judge. Democratic attempts to target Alito's positions on abortion and civil rights got no more traction than before, and even Alito's concession that justices need "the ability to revisit" controversial cases failed to provide usable ammunition for his opponents.
By the time three witnesses from the American Bar Association took the floor to explain why they had given Alito the ABA's highest possible rating, Democrats could already see the writing on the wall. The final blow came when a panel of seven current and former judges from the Philadelphia-based Third Circuit Court of Appeals lined up to praise their colleague on the bench. Vermont's Senator Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the committee, effectively conceding defeat, declined even to ask them a question.

Hooray for 'Uncle Sam'!

In My Mind's Eyes

A new blog I've begun reading recently inspired this post. It may mean nothing to most of you out there, but to those of us who are hopeless children at the tender age of 35, well ~ deep sighing, and sniffles are allowed.

I love that art stirs emotion in me. I'm one of those kind of people who, placed in an art gallery, would stand and stare at a painting unaware of time's turnings or other's fancies. I get drawn in and lost. Some of the most brilliant artwork available today is that of the illustrators of children's books. Their ability to capture mood and emotion is almost unsurpassed.
Here are a few who touch my soul:

In order of appearance:

Aleshina
Eva Erikson
Anne Yvonne Gilbert
Barbara Cooney (3)
Christopher Denise (3)
Audrey & Don Wood (2)
Charles Fuge
Elsa Beskow
Eloise Wilkins
Lilian Hoban
Frances Evans
Garth Williams (2)
Howard Knotts
Jeffrey Brian Fisher
Jerry Pinkney
Jon Berkeley
Jill Barklem (2)
Patricia Ann MacDougall (2)

Maggie Kneen
Tasha Tudor (2)
Sean Rubin
Simona Bucan
Holly Hobbie (2)
Yoshiko Jaeggi
Nick Price

Yoshiko Jaeggi

What a gift to be able to illustrate my mind's eyes .

Spanish Coffee? What's That?

James has this quirky habit of embarrasing minimum wage employees and his kids, whenever we are in drive thrus (oh, ok - forget drive thrus - just out in public is good enough). He drives into McD's and asks the unsuspecting victim at the other end of the mic, "How much are your $1 fries?" When they answer with "$1.08 with tax", he promptly says, "Ok, but what about before tax?" By this time the poor soul is wondering if this is some kind of psycho and in a shaky voice replies, "Um, that would be $1, sir." James then goes for the jugular and says, "Oh good, and what if I got 2 of them?" A wary chuckle usually comes through the squak box as they total that up for him. He relieves them before pulling forward by letting them know he was just kidding... But it doesn't stop at McD's. At Starbucks he asks if they serve coffee products, and then after they affirm that fact he places his order and adds a $1 fry... At Krispy Kremes he asked if they had any donuts. The lady behind the counter must have had one just like him at home because she told him, "No. We only serve pizza here!" Totally took him off guard!!
SO... when our good friends, Frank and Dawn, took us to McMenamin's on New Years, why would I expect anything different?
We are sitting at the bar, waiting for our table and also for another friend to join up with us, when the bartender asked if we'd like something while we wait. Dawn pursed her lips and then perked up and asked, "Do you do Spanish Coffee's here?" Sara, the bartender, got a knowing twinkle in her eye and said, "Oh Yeah... we do Spanish Coffee". Now - I am below a featherweight when it comes to alcohol (is there a gossimere weight? - that would be me). A hefty merlot will knock me on my butt. And so I, in my gossimere ignorance, ask Dawn, "What's a Spanish Coffee?" Before she barely has time to breathe, a really bad impersonation of a Santa Poco Mexican comes from behind me saying, "Ohhhh, ...it's like beer."
Oy Vay! That's mi "Amigo" husband!
I had one... they're nothing like beer.

Lessons from the Amigos

As a mom, home day in and day out, with the kids, doing dishes and laundry, making meals and sending James off to work, life sometimes feels like the scene in "The Three Amigos" where Lucky Day (Steve Martin) is chained to a wall in the dungeon of El Guapo. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, repent , then go rent it.
Disclaimer: There are a couple choice words and a bit of inuendo...
As a Christian, I am thankful for gringos like Fredrick Buechner that fall from the sky and knock out the cruel... evil... villainous... murdering... infamous El Guapos so that my heart can once again be a peaceful village. :)
I quote:
"There is no event so commonplace that God is not there within it, always, hiddenly, always leaving room to recognize Him or not to recognize Him, but all the more fascinatingly because of that, all the more compellingly and hauntingly... Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness. Touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis, all moments are key moments, and life itself... is grace." Buechner ~ "listen to you life"
After Buechner, El Guapo and his plethora of scum sucking pigs die like the dogs they are! Hasta Luego.