Colons & Semi-colons. 09/28/2009
This post has been a long time coming for sure. As you have heard by now, our pilgrimage in Dublin, Ireland has taken a turn. This turn involves us journeying back to the U.S. to fulfill the burden and calling of God upon our lives. It's truly been a journey of faith, and continues to be. I came across a quote recently in reading a book by one of my favorite authors, A.W. Tozer, that I thought eloquently described the recent turn in our journey of faith and life. I found his comment a large source of encouragement. Tozer said, "We would all be better Christians and wiser students if we would remember this - God rarely uses periods. There is rarely a full stop in His dealings with us - it is more likely to be with the effect of a colon or a semi-colon. In most instances, what God does becomes a means toward something else that He is planning to do." How true that is. I think the hard part is being content with not immediately knowing what that 'something else' is that God is planning to do with us and for us. In eight days time our family of six will board a plane to once again 'start all over'. We return to no job, no house, but confidence in our God who is 'with us'. Our faith is being stretched like never before. We do find comfort though in knowing that this journey demanding faith is where God wants us, for 'without faith it is impossible to please God' the writer of Hebrews tells us. I'm anxious for that 'something else', or in our case 'somewhere else', to become known. These last two weeks have been very busy with informing friends of this major turn leading to planned times of being together before we depart. Today our Irish friend "V" and her daughter took our family out for pizza as she wanted to treat us, which was quite an amazing sacrifice for her as she has her own financial struggles. Tomorrow afternoon I'm heading to the cinema with an Irish friend, then tomorrow evening Andrea and I have been invited out by several of our neighbors for Chinese dinner at a local Clontarf restaurant. The week continues with more of the same making for some special memories with friends and teammates. In some ways its hard to understand how our time in Ireland was a 'means', a colon or semi-colon, rather than a 'full stop'. But in other ways it's easy to see how this is just another part of a journey that's already had its fill of semi-colons up to this point, and it will be interesting to see where and when the next semi-colon takes place. We relish your prayers as we take one step at a time continuing this pilgrimage of faith and life, colons and semi-colons, wherever God places us. Some 'Jesus' Thoughts from Acts. 09/08/2009
I've been reading through the book of Acts lately. Today I was in chapter 9. Before I began exploring Acts I read a bit on the historical background behind it, and some referred to this book as the The Acts of the Holy Spirit, which I think is probably most accurate. It's amazing to observe the change in the disciples once the Holy Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9, Galatians 4:6) enters them personally following Christ's physical return to His Father as recorded in Acts 1. Less than two months ago Peter was denying Jesus and hiding in the bushes, along with the other 11. Now, he's an unstoppable preaching machine fighting fire with fire (Acts 4:20, 5:29,40-42). Why? He's got the Holy Spirit of Christ inside. Oh yeah! In Acts 9, which I read today, what strikes me about this familiar account of Saul's conversion is Jesus. I know, big surprise. I love how the chapter opens up with "Meanwhile...". While Philip has been blazing the Gospel trail in Samaria and other places there's been this other guy, Saul, out destroying this new Jesus movement called the Way, which is Jesus' church (8:3). Saul was feared by many of these Jesus followers, and for good reason (9:13,14,26, 22:4,5,19,20). So, we continue on in chapter 9 and find Saul, the Church Destroyer, on his horse heading to Damascus to do some serious Jesus people persecution. Jesus' followers lived in fear of this guy. Now keep in mind, Saul thought he was doing God a favor by all of this. Can't you just see Saul? He's ready and rarin' to find some Jesus people, throw them in the slammer, maybe even have another stoning like Stephen. But something happens. What? JESUS SHOWS UP! O man, I love that! As I read this again this morning I got to thinking that many times this account becomes about Saul's conversion, which it obviously records, and we analyze the details of that, but honestly, I think this has to do more with Jesus. Saul enters this scene as the main man, but by verse 5 he's knocked off his horse, blind, and begging for mercy. Why? Jesus showed up! This is about Jesus. As he sits on his backside Saul lifts his head into the blinding light and says, "Who are you?" The response? "I am Jesus". Again, ya gotta love that. The rest of the chapter just confirms that this whole account is more about Jesus, not Saul. Jesus stops Saul. Jesus tells Saul who He is and what to do. Jesus speaks to Ananias to go see Saul. Jesus is the message of Saul's preaching. Later in the chapter Peter gives the credit to Jesus as the Healer, and so on. Let's not forget that the people of Jesus were afraid of Saul...until Jesus showed up. I love how verse 31 reads about the church "living in the fear of the Lord". No more fear of Saul, but now a healthy awe - of Jesus. Jesus loves His Bride, His Church, so much so that He died for it (Acts 20:28). He stepped in and showed up in Saul's life to protect His Bride, remind His Church that He's in charge, and proved it by turning Saul from Church Destroyer into Paul, Jesus Proclaimer. Only Jesus can do that. That's the power of Jesus. That's King Jesus. That's the same Jesus who has put His Spirit in me giving me that same boldness to carry His name wherever I am (Acts 9:15). I believe Luke records here in Acts 9 a living example for Jesus' Church of how the 'fear of man will prove to be a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be kept safe' (Proverbs 29:25). Just something to think about. What am I doing right now? 09/02/2009
It's 10:36 p.m. The family is asleep. I am at the kitchen table eating a bowl of Blueberry Wheats cereal. It's been an exhausting day. Switchfoot is playing in the background. It's raining outside. I am thinking. Pilgrims think. They think alot. I am looking at the computer screen on my most wonderful Mac. Tomorrow brings a coffee meeting at the local Insomnia. Tomorrow evening brings a dinner date with my amazing wife, which is long overdue. The Blueberry Wheats in my ceramic bowl is gone now. It's time to go to bed. Just thought you might want to know what I am doing right now. Oh yeah, I'm also blogging. :) It was a Ballycullen Morning... 08/25/2009
Grant and I headed out this morning early to south Dublin to meet up with some of our teammates living in Ballycullen. It took us 90 minutes to go 20 miles. Welcome to the M50 motorway. Anyway, the plan was to head to Tim's connecting point for the most delicious breakfast rolls ever, according to Tim. This connecting point was a little place tucked away in a small plaza of shops called The Old Bread Shop just minutes from where Tim and his family live. Once we arrived, the entire place had seating for maybe twenty and our crew took up 1/4th of it. It was a guys only morning filled with breakfast rolls, doughnuts, muffins, coffee, and hot chocolate. While eating and feeling our cholesterol dance, the line was never empty. The people just kept coming in to the Old Bread Shop. This is truly a local favorite among the Irish. Tim has found a goldmine in food and an amazing place to build friendships. It was cool to experience what he's been telling me about for some time. It was in the Old Bread Shop where Tim got chatting with a guy and has since had spiritual conversations, and is planning to have this friend over for dinner with the family at some point. This has all been done with intentionality from the start, much like my frequenting Insomnia in Clontarf. Sometimes I think we've lost intentionality in much of our living out loud for Christ. Anyway, I thought you might find it interesting to see how God's moving in the south part of our town with some of our friends and teammates whom we love and appreciate so very much. Kate, Team, Coffee, Meet Up, & Meet. 08/19/2009
OK, well, I had just previously put in a pretty lengthy entry and for whatever reason I got redirected out of that page and lost it. Ugh. So, rather than take the time to try to recall verbatim what I just wrote. Here's the short of it (I'm sure you sense my perturbedness):
 Firhouse Community Centre (Home of Ballycullen Community Church in south Dublin where our teammates are serving) Kate Update... 08/14/2009
 Our Precious Katherine Lily. The public health doctor saw Kate yesterday morning and gave several tests. She passed the hearing and eye tests with flying colors. She has good muscle mass, is alert, and mentally aware. He sees nothing that shows of autism. He asked thorough questions. She seems to be on the low end of the range of development but at least she's still in the range based on her birth weight. He seems to believe that its best to wait and see if there's any move toward improvement with trying to walk, roll over, etc. over the next 2-3 months when they will schedule to see her again. If she has not progressed any when they see her in 2-3 months then they will take next steps. We still have sent in the paperwork to have her seen by a private centre. They will be contacting us soon. Continue to pray for wisdom as we determine whether or not to go ahead and have her assessed by the private centre in the next 3-5 weeks for another opinion, or wait until she is seen again by the public health doctor in 2-3 months time. Thanks so much for your prayers, Mark Kate's Appointment. 08/12/2009
 Tomorrow morning our one year old daughter Kate has her first appointment with an occupational therapist through the social healthcare here. While we were in the States we had her seen by a pediatrician we know and he assessed her to be 6-7 months behind in normal development for her age. He recommended that she begin pediatric occupational therapy. You see, she isn't walking yet, rolling over, nor does she seem to even want to. She is very alert, but is even having a hard time forming words. So, based on his assessment occupational therapy is what he recommended. So, immediately on our return to Dublin we looked into our options. Before our return we googled and found a private treatment centre 20 minutes north of where we live in Clontarf. We enquired with them and since have completed the paperwork. Upon our return one of our neighbors from across the street, who is a public health nurse, came over to welcome us home, and in discussion we shared about Kate. She 'pulled some strings' and is the one that has been able to allow Kate to be seen so quickly, for which we are grateful. We're really praying that with a little physical therapy Kate will quickly move forward in her development. God has given us great peace with all of this. We do ask that you would keep Kate in your prayers and that the therapists would give us good wisdom regarding next steps with Kate. Back & Jet Lagged. 08/05/2009
It's 10:30 pm and both Aislinn and Kate are up ready for the 'day' (yes, I realize it's night time). This morning we returned to our Clontarf home around 11 am thanks to the help of our friends Tim Laughlin & Pat Mullen who collected us and six duffle bags from the airport. Needless to say we're all pretty exhausted, but excited to be back in our beds for sure. Aislinn and Kate we're hoping will soon understand that it's time for bed not breakfast. :) Our holiday to the States was truly a fantastic time being with friends and family. It was wonderful to reconnect, share life, hearts, burdens, and laugh with people we haven't seen or been with in some time. Thank you to all of you who housed us, provided meals, prayers, encouragement during our four weeks of vacation travel. Now that we're back I do hope to keep the blog journal entries more regular, once we regain consciousness from our overnight sleep deprived plane journey. Thanks for sticking with us and checking in. Chat again soon! Home, well kind of, for the Holiday. 07/03/2009
There's a bit of excitement around our house these days. The reason is that on Monday we begin our holiday (vacation). What's amazing is this holiday involves flying back to the States to be with family and friends for four weeks. Our kids, along with their mum and dad, are thrilled to see parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends that they have not seen, some for over two years. Many of these have yet to meet our own latest addition, little Kate. Reunions like these bring such fun, anticipation, and joy. I'm not sure how often we'll be journeling our stateside part of the pilgrimage over the next four weeks, but we will give it our best to at least provide a couple entries. 2 years. 06/28/2009
Today marks the two year anniversary of our arrival to Ireland. In some ways it seems like we just got here, and in other ways it seems like we've lived here much longer. As we reflect over the past couple years its important to give thanks to God for all He has provided and done. I'm reminded of the passage in Isaiah 26:12 which reads, "All that we have accomplished You (God) have done for us." I love that as it points to the real reason for all that has taken place. Here's just several milestones of thanks that come to mind as we reflect a bit: |