Month: August 2008

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tapestry nicaragua '08

the receipt for water at kilumbo
we are back from nicaragua and my stomach is slowly but surely surviving my swap from nicaraguan to american food (major food changes always throw me off – much like my dogs). as always there is way too many amazing things for me to post them all. therefore, i will only post a few.

  1. the baltadanos are incredible – they are my friends and they are the ones doing all the cool ministry down there. we anglos get to work along side them and it is a privilege to do so.
  2. tapestry is incredible – i loved working and hanging with our group. they did amazing stuff and came up with some great new ideas. it is so cool planting a church with these guys and girls.
  3. we got to hook kilumbo up with water – the families that used to live in the dump have been moved 45 minutes away to an area called kilumbo. this is a mixed blessing. the positive side is that the kids no longer live int he dump. the negative side is their parents still have to survive off scavenging from the dump and that is a 45 minute walk away. along with this they didn’t have any running water and were getting sick constantly. you can see a photo of their water cistern here. pam found out about this and then as a group we were able to get them connected to clean water. that’s what the above photo is about. it’s the receipt from having them connected. that receipt will be framed and become a part of tapestry worship. there is something just plain cool about bringing fresh water to people while you are talking about the living water of JESUS.
  4. things are improving but we still have miles to go – this was my sixth year down there and significant improvements have happened in some areas. yet, there is still so much that can be done. tapestry is committed to kilumbo (which is a part of diriamaba). we are going to see life there improve. i am more and more convinced that with the baltadanos we can be a part of GOD doing something amazing.
  5. we suck at soccer (a.k.a football) – we always get our butts kicked. i will same that the diriagen game (the local professional team) we saw down there was incredible.

i’ll post more later but i need to leave emy j’s now and head home.

SIDE NOTE – i just finished talking with a local radio station’s ad guy and i think it is going to be possible for tapestry to buy some ad time on that station before we launch. of course, this is not a CHRISTian station because it would not be in our character to advertise to church people. we’ll be the only church advertising on their station (at least for the short time we advertise). we’re talking about doing an ad that is a cross between a monster truck rally and a church opening ad. just imagine “SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!” it should be fun. 🙂

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my d.min experience

the beginning of my d.min experience at new orleans seminary was ok. the reason i say ok is because my first workshop was basically just an orientation to the school and what is expected from my research. obviously that not very exciting. of course, it wasn’t meant to be exiting.

the good part is that i got to see a little of what i’ll be a part of. the way the program works is that i’ll have to 9 semester hours of workshops (these are related to prepping my research – 9 semester hours equals 3 workshops), 9 hours of divisional seminars (these are courses within 5 different general divisions – again 9 semesters hours equals 3 courses), 9 hours of specialization seminars (these are courses within my specialization – by now you should know what this equals). these course will probably take me about 2 1/2 years to finish. then i’ll do my project. judging from what the professors and other d.min students told me my project will probably take between 1 to 2 years.

to be honest in the past i’ve been a little down on the d.min degree. yet with that said i am pretty excited about working on the project. i think there are some pretty cool things i can explore concerning using some of the collaborative software on the web. tapestry has used some for a few things (mainly google docs but we’ve also used mind meister) and it has been pretty useful. i don’t know how i would turn that into a hundred page research paper but i’ll figure that out later. of course, i’ll probably change my ideas ten times by the time i finish my seminars.

i also met a few fellow students that i really enjoyed connecting with and a couple of whom are possibility interested in doing something with tapestry.

SIDE NOTE – i took the eee pc 901 with me to nola and i love it. it took me a day to get used to very tiny keyboard of the 901 but after that day everything was fine. it is perfect. it’s just the right size for carrying around (about the size of a hardback book) and has just the right amount of power to handle surfing, word processing, and other basic tasks that i need from a laptop. in fact, at the moment i am in the air between nola and chicago typing this on the 901 while watching a movie at the same time. it’s all good.

SIDE SIDE NOTE – the fletcher family and clint barron were nice enough to come down to new orleans for supper while i was there. it was great seeing them and the food was excellent.

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i'm okay

for those who read my plane post and are worried that i’m depressed or completely freaking out i just want to let everyone know that i am fine. all i was doing was posting my thoughts at that moment. those feelings are my real feelings sometimes but VERY RARELY. in other words, I’M OKAY MOM.

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the report question

i’m presently in the air between chicago and new orleans and since i am very bored of reading turabian (writer’s guide of style) for my class tomorrow, i though i would post something on the blog.

each month i have to complete a report to send to the mwbc to receive my funding. it’s really no big deal because the questions i have to answer aren’t that difficult. truhtfully, i think the whole thing is done just to make sure that i actually am working on planting the church rather than just using church planting as an excuse for a paid year long fishing excursion. the first pastor i ever worked for said that ministry could be the easiest or the hardest job a person is ever involved in and that each person decides which it will be. i would say that this is even more true of planting a church. i could sit around and do nothing all day long until my funding runs out, or i can try to use every opportunity all day long, seven days a week to try and accomplish what i believe GOD has called our family to. hopefully, i done more than just sat around. i think i have. anyway i figure that the report that i complete each month serves two purposes: 1) it hold me accountable to actually be doing stuff, and 2) it shows a history of the birth of the church.

one of the question that i have to answer each month is “in what areas are you struggling right now as a church planter?” the question always intriques me. the main reason i find the question interesting because my struggles are almost always the same … fear.

most of the time i know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my family and i are doing what GOD wants us to do. in fact, i love doing what i get to do everyday. there are moments where i will call pam at the university just so i can tell someone about the small but great things that happen during my day that i am positive are leading to the planting of tapestry. i can see it happening. i’m convinced that GOD is going to do things thorugh the planting of tapestry that bring people to him. i’m convinced thi whole thing is going to come to pass and it will be amazingly cool. i see tangible things happening and real relationships growing that convince me more and more that we were right concerning what GOD wanted.

all of the above is true most of the time. of course, there are other times.

i don’t talk about the other times much. i don’t usually tell them to anybody except for pam because truthfully they scare me. these times always to bring to mind the old parable of human nature being two fighting dogs and the dog that wins is the one that has been fed the most. i don’t want to dog of fear to win, so i don’t focus on it much when it’s one of those times.

you see every now and then i start to freak out concerning what we are doing. the closer we get to september 14th (tapestry’s launch date) the more often i have brief moments of “what if i was wrong?” you see i don’t have a plan b. this is it. we moved up here to plant a church that honors GOD and that’s that. it would be a lot easier if i knew there was something i could fall back on, but i don’t. that’s what causes me to have moments of fear.

i don’t like those moments.

thankfully they don’t last very long.

usually doing these moments i pretty quickly see something that reminds me that GOD is in control and that he honors the work (no matter how pathetic) of those who agree to follow him. i’m real thankful for those things that remind me and i’m even more thankful that the moments of fear are few and far between.

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stupidity & the 901

this will be short but just wanted to let you all know that i am stupid. my first class for my d.min begins thursday. i’ve been reading the wrong syllabus for the past month and therefore thinking that my papers would be due weeks after the class is over. baaaaaaah! wrong answer. i looked at the correct syllabus today (after i realized i was reading the one for the next semester) and discovered that two papers were due in the professors’ offices last friday. great way to start off my new degree.

i’ve been writing feverishly to get things done and also emailing and calling new orleans seminary to try and see if it is possible to make arrangements to correct my stupidity. it’s made for an interesting day. the killer is that even when i didn’t take school that seriously (high school and college) i NEVER turned in a paper late. i went through high school, college, and graduate school (which i took very seriously) without ever turning in an assignment late. it just wasn’t an option for me. here i go starting my doctoral work by being a complete (though accidental) slacker. it’s killing me.

SIDE NOTE – the asus eee pc 901 came in today. i would love to tell you how cool it is but i’ve been too busy reading and writing to play with it. i’ll get to play with it wednesday.

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test #2 – canoe + other basset

since we live 5 minutes away from three different river/creeks we decided we would take the canoe out after supper and see how roux would respond to being on the water. roux liked the canoe a good bit less than montana but apparently felt much more comfortable with the idea of walking around in the canoe. i’m not sure that we ever got real close to tipping the canoe over but we moved enough that it scared me a little. the video above is one of those jerks.

the good news is that both of the basset rides were good enough that we are going to keep on trying it. who knows after a month or two of basset training i may be able to go out and fly fish for smallies with a basset companion.

my run for the day
distance – 6.0 miles
time – didn’t take a watch
weather – 68Âş/night run

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test #1 of basset + canoe

 

pam and i decided that me fulfilling my basset version of “a river runs through it” was a worthy enough goal for us to work on. therefore, i went to the pet companion today and purchased a basset size live vest. then pam and i grabbed montana and the canoe and headed out to mcdill pond for a little trial float. we decided to try montana first because she is a little more calm than roux (very little). we put her life vest on and put her in the canoe. it was at this point that i kind of expected things to run out of control. i pictured montana bouncing from side to side checking things out and maybe even deciding that she was michael phelps and going for a purposeful swim. i was wrong. instead, was frozen in fear. she stood as straight as possible. she barely moved for the first 30 minutes we were out there. she wasn’t shaking but i tend to think that was because she was afraid it might be enough motion to tip the boat over. after 30 minutes she was a little more used to the situation and began to move around a little bit. not much mind you, but enough to tell pam and i that she was feeling a little more comfortable. thus, it was time to see what would happen when i started fishing. for my first 5 casts montana jerked every time the lure went flying. canoes were not meant for sudden 50lb low center of gravity jerks. thankfully these canoequakes weren’t to bad, so other than a slight heart palpitation on my part there was no real harm. i didn’t plan on catching any fish during this float and that part of the plan went exactly as i had thought it would. not a bite. so i still don’t know how she would respond to a fish. we’ll have to try that later.

i’ve got a 20 second video that i’m uploading to flickr at the moment. until it finishes you’ll just have to be satisfied with this photo.

basset canoeing

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canoe + bassets = ???????

blurry bassets

does anyone have any experience with basset hounds and canoes? for that matter, does anyone have any experience with medium to large size dogs and canoes? i have a compelling desire to take at least one of my dogs out on the canoe with me when i am fishing. the probably is that i’m worried this could bring about certain disaster. if no one has any experience i’ll probably just test the situation out in a very shallow area. i actually think the canoe part will probably be okay after the chosen basset gets used to it. i’m more concerned what will happen the first time i bring a fish into the boat.