Martin and Lukes first ski trip

I finally took Martin and Luke Skiing last Sunday, something I've been meaning to do for several years now. It was so cool to see them fall in love with skiing/boarding within minutes!

I can't believe how fast they learn. Luke's first run on the lift, I thought I'd ski ahead and pull out my pocket video camera to get some footage of him coming down the hill. The problem is that when I turned around he was right behind me!

Martin, by the end of the day was gliding smoothly down the slopes on his board! I can't wait till next year...I'm thinking we'll probably have season passes.

Blogging on www.thirtythrupoverty.blogspot.com for a while.

A Weaned Child

Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me. Psalm 131:2

Not too long ago, I was sitting eating lunch and my two year old daughter came up to me with a big smile. I put her up on my lap and discovered that she was mostly interested in the potato chips that were on my plate. They were Kettle chips so, that's understandable! After I gave her a chip she went about her business...until she finished her chip, at which point she would return to me to ask for another.

This pattern continued for quite some time until I realized something. When my daughter would approach me for another chip, I was more than happy to give her another. At the same time I found myself longing for her to just want to be in my lap, to enjoy her little chip with me ...to be happy to just be with me. Then it hit me, that's exactly what I do with my Dad, with God. I seek Him for advise, direction, provision, vision etc. and as soon as He gives me that "chip" I go about my business until I want another one.

This last weekend I had the privilege of attending a retreat in which the purpose was to tend to the soul, to spend time in our Father's lap, at rest, at peace. During the weekend I experienced spending time in God's presence without needing something from him but simply being with Him in silence. Listening for Him to speak but, just as content if He chose not to.

As I connected with God in this way I realized that if I got everything wrong in my life, always one step behind, wrong choices, poorly timed decisions etc. But, in my relationship/walk with God, I remain steadfast and growing, Then really, I've gotten it ALL right! The reverse is also true. If I was somehow able to get all the decisions right in my life, always making the right moves at the right time but, end up missing God, Taking my "chip" and going about my business...then in the end I've really gotten it all wrong, haven't I?

I'm the kind of person who has trouble focusing on too many things at once. It's nice to know that there's really only One on whom I need to set my focus. His name is Jesus Christ.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith..." Hebrews 12:2

Alesha - Adoption Slideshow

So after a year I finally put together a slideshow from our adoption of Alesha (May 2010)

The first song is U2's "40". (Can you ever really go wrong with U2?) I chose that song because it communicates not only the long wait to get Alesha (2.5 years) but also the new work that God had done in our lives that gave us the heart for adoption. As we waited for two and a half years, we sang, "How long to sing this song?" Yet at the same time we rejoiced in singing a new song..."He brought me up out of the pit, out of the miry clay...He set my feet upon a rock and made my footsteps firm" God set me free from the bondage of drugs and alcohol, He put a new song in my heart!

I chose Beck's "Broken Drum" because it seems to capture some of the haunting aspects of India that April and I experienced. We're haunted by both the oppressive poverty and injustice we saw when we were there in 2008 and when we picked Alesha up last year. We're also haunted by the sheer beauty of Mother India! Her beauty really is indescribable.

Finally, I chose Cold Play's "The Scientist" because it captures some of the grieving that we went through as a family in those early days with Alesha. Honestly, I would say those early days with her were more about grief than anything else.

I hope you enjoy this video, I pray God speaks to your heart through it. I hope you'll see it for the miracle that it truly is.

Running down from Saddle Mountain

I shot this video with my cell phone camera last month just below the top of Saddle Mountain. The quality is absolutely terrible but it sort of captures some of the intensity of the weather. The sustained winds were about 40+ mph with gusts well over that. Snow sleet was slapping me in the face as I left the summit.

I really can't think of a more intense run that I've done in the 10+ years of my running career! I thought I was just going to encounter a lot of mud, rain and some wind. I wasn't expecting to hit such ferocious weather conditions. I was only wearing a base layer and a cell phone. In reality I was pretty much running for my life! What I mean is that with only a (very wet) base layer in those conditions, the only thing keeping me warm was physical exertion. Had I become immobilized I would have become hypothermic in minutes!

For the record I do NOT recommend anybody run/hike in this manner. It was not wise. It was unnecessarily risky. It was really quite unsafe...At the same time, it was the coolest run I've ever done!!!

There's something about risk that brings life out to the surface. Not sure how to put it into words. It's beyond adrenaline. There's a certain quality of life that can only be obtained when risk is accepted as part of the package.

I think God has been speaking to me about how this run is true in the spiritual realm. Sometimes we just need to get over our phobia of risk and move straight out into the howling, screaming winds of fear to experience life abundantly!

Restoration

Look at the life of Jesus. Notice what he did. When Jesus touched the blind, they could see; all the beauty of the world opened before them. When he touched the deaf, they were able to hear; for the first time in their lives they heard laughter and music and their children's voices. He touched the lame, and they jumped to their feet and began to dance. And he called the dead back to life and gave them to their families.

Do you see? Wherever humanity was broken, Jesus restored it. He is giving us an illustration here, and there, and there again. The coming of the kingdom of God restores the world he made.

John Eldredge - Epic

This fact is simply not okay

Where you live should not decide
Whether you live or whether you die - U2

A Call to Community

This is such a moving piece! I'm moved deeply when I watch this because it speaks to a deep cry within my own heart. This is a poem about people coming together with their brokenness and desperation and choosing to live together in community in order to survive. This is exactly what the church is, isn't it?

The following lines especially stand out to me:

"We're ALL made out of shipwrecks every single board" - If we just acknowledge this it puts us all on equal ground. Of course, this involves taking off our masks and being vulnerable with one another...risk. In some cases this could turn our whole understanding of the gospel upside down or at least the way we live it out. (or not)

"Let's wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief" Lets share LIFE together. Bear one another's burdens as scripture exhorts us to do. Let's choose to navigate this mess together.

"Come on sow us together" - Coming together to make one piece. One body, Unity.

"But we're making it, taped together on borrowed crutches and new starts, we all have the same holes in our hearts" - We're all marred and broken because of sin. There are two kinds of sinners, those who know they're sinners and those who don't. I want to hang out with those who know they're sinners...wasn't that who Jesus usually hung out with? "Borrowed crutches and news starts" - The church like a hospital... Isn't that the beautiful picture Christ painted for us when He said, "It's not the healthy who need a Doctor but, the sick"?

"and my hopes are weapons that I'm still learning how to use right but, they're heavy and I'm awkward...always running out of fight" - This is me, learning how to "maneuver in Faith" Learning how to live life from my heart. Learning how to stay alive to God and others. Learning how to BE who He's called me to be over what He's called me to do. I often run out of fight.

"I am made out of shipwrecks, every twisted beam lost and found like you and me scattered out on the sea so, come on let's wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief..." I, like you and everybody else have been assaulted by life in one way or another. Been broken, found myself alone on the empty sea. Let's come together on this crazy journey! What hope do we have if we don't stick together? Only the vast unforgiving cold sea...

"If we hold on tight we'll hold each other together and not just be some fools rushing to die in our sleep" - We MUST stick together as we move out into mission together, As we extend God's Kingdom, offer a life line to this world we do so in community. God has and will come through.

I pray this piece of art awakens you to the reality we find ourselves in. Do you see it?

The Missional Church... simple

In contrast to the "How to plant a church" video

How to plant a church

I love this video! Although, I have to admit it's really a bit of a tragic comedy.

Thankfully, there's other ways to plant a church. For example see www.jacobswellspokane.org or check out www.christianassociates.org/index.php

Switchfoot - Dare You To Move

"Welcome to the fallout, Welcome to resistance, The tension is here, The tension is here, Between who you are and who you could be, Between how it is and how it should be"

Anybody else feeling this tension? Sometimes I feel it so strong I think it's going to rip me to pieces!

Isn't this "tension" God awakening our hearts? That sense within us all that says, "This world is not what it's meant to be...I'm not what I'm meant to be" That's Jesus knocking on the door of our heart. Christ came preaching, teaching and showing us a NEW way. He spoke of restoration and of what His coming Kingdom is like. I pray this tension "Dares us to move" toward Jesus and His coming Kingdom. It's in Him and His Kingdom that we all find the answers that drive us in our quest for genuine life.

Good News?

"What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad... Do you know what I'm talking about?"

The Matrix

I think the gospel is good news to those that explore the ideas that there's "something wrong with the world" and "this can't be the way it was meant to be."

I believe the most frightening thing of all is when we DON'T feel that gnawing sense that things are not what they are supposed to be or when we see it, but say to ourselves, "Maybe this is just the way it is" and we slowly go numb in our addictions and succumb to resignation.

I think salvation begins when we start to understand what Jesus meant when He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". When we recognize our own poverty of spirit, our own nothingness, it can be "like a splinter in our mind driving us mad" , but when that drives us to seek out answers it can be the dawning of a new day. The gospel has nothing to say to those who are content with themselves and the way things are. But to those that mourn (Blessed are they that mourn for they will be comforted) because of the state they find themselves in, the gospel becomes the "pearl of great price" the "treasure in the field" the thing that they will give up all to have. No price is too high to obtain this good news. So, first the gospel seems to cut down before it builds up. Otherwise, we wouldn't see it for the priceless treasure that it really is.

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like...

I've been exploring and meditating on the "Kingdom of Heaven is like" statements that Jesus mentioned in the gospels. The one I feel like I'm somehow discovering for the first time is, "The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." Matthew 13:31-32

What I think I'm discovering is that Kingdom works usually begin so seemingly small and insignificant yet, are capable of growing into something beyond what we would ever think possible.

I think over the years I've planted a few "mustard seeds" and failing to recognize their potential, I never watered, never cultivated, never recognized the awesome potential. Then wondered why I never saw a harvest.

Lately, life is taking on new meaning as I walk the neighborhood, meeting new folks, learning new names, inviting people in, giving away tomatoes and chestnuts and praying silently as I walk along and ask God to open my eyes. When I see these God lead activities as planting and cultivating a crop that eventually grows into something massive, it becomes easier and easier to envision a different future. Actually, it almost becomes difficult NOT to! If one goes out into a field and plants a whole row of pine trees, he expects them to grow and he dreams of what that will one day look like. I suppose in a sense, he is seeing into the future.

I see a future neighborhood that is forever changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ and marked by genuine love for one another. I see a future neighborhood where there is genuine community and where Christ is exulted and lived out in everyday life. A neighborhood where relationships are prized over possessions and where hospitality is valued over independence.

Lord, I pray your Kingdom come to this neighborhood, help us see where your Spirit is currently moving. I humbly pray that I and my family could be apart of your work here.

Summer Highlights

Our Summer started in mid-May, by going to India to pick up Alesha from the orphanage.

One of the things God showed us while in India was what hospitality looks like. The family we stayed with took us in and treated us as though we were part of their family. I struggled a bit because I was so worried about being a burden to them. I learned that people who practice true hospitality, tend to not see it as a burden but, as a privilege. I think April and I are learning to move in this direction, I have a long ways to go. Thank you Uma and Yaman for SHOWING our family what hospitality looks like.

Once we got home from India we entered an exciting, yet very difficult summer. Alesha had some stubborn health problems that haunted us for most of the summer. April has been much more faithful in blogging than I have so, you can read about some of the health problems Alesha was having over the summer here

We also had a few great times over the summer that I hope are captured in the photos below.

Beautiful flower in Kolkata

April and Alesha meeting for the first time in the orphanage.

Mother and daughter bonding.

April with Uma and Yaman, our wonderful host family while in India.

Children from the slums of Muneer a small Muslim village outside of Delhi.

4th of July at the McMillans. Todd riding "little blue".

Camping at Camp Dakota. Had fun until Alesha's head starting oozing smelling strep and staph infection and we had to cut the trip short and come home early.

Luke and I had a great time heading up to the north-east side of Mt. Hood to camp out at Tie In Rock at about the 8,000 ft. level. Never seen so many shooting stars in such a short period of time in all my life.

Martin is playing his first year of football. After seeing how cookie cutter the "professional" photographers mass produced the years photos, I had a moment of inspiration and this is what followed.

Camping with the Hawley and Pfeiffer men at Stub Stewart State Park. Like my friend, Ian, I enjoyed the cigars at least until the last part when I was questioning whether or not I was going to hurl. I am thinking a smaller cigar for the next camping trip.

Yes, these look like marsh mellows, but are actually powdered donut holes. The idea was to warm them up before eating them. The problem was they took on a smokey flavor, which does not necessarily go well with the powdered donut flavor.

We finished out summer by going kayaking with our friends the Hellers at Hagg Lake.

As you can see Alesha had fun in the water and wasn't afraid of the dirt.

Going to India today!

We're heading to India today, our flight is schedualed to leave in about six hours. It feels pretty sureal at the moment as we finish up some of the last details.

I've been praying for quite some time now that God would give us eyes to see on this trip, that we will see what God sees as He looks upon the heartbreaking poverty of Delhi and Kolkata.

I pray Lord that you will give us understanding, help us to see truth, to see where you are working in India. Let our hearts not be hard or dull, rather let them break over the things that break your heart.

Thank You God, for this humbling opportunity to embrace your daughter and offer your love to her. May she sense your presence in us somehow, please give her peace in this time of massive transition.

Please pray for us as a family, pray that we learn to walk in His Spirit, in His strength.

Pure Gospel...

"Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it." Luke 17:33

"Lots of people more or less believe in God. But most of us do our best to customize God to suit our convenience by adapting and modifying, making him "relevant to our situation." Prophets insist that God is the living center or nothing. Our task is to become relevant to his situation. They insist that we deal with God as God reveals himself, not as we imagine him to be." - Eugene Peterson

Neighborhood Garden

For several years now, April and I have talked about doing a garden in our yard. We figured since we have a half-acre of weeds, perhaps we should grow some vegetables. This discussion has taken place year after year with weeds remaining and no vegetables to be found, at least not in our yard...

Towards the end of last year we've started to get to know some of our neighbors a little bit better. We learned that a number of them are versed in the art of home gardening. So, with the help of our generous neighbors we recently broke ground on the "Ivy Glen Neighborhood Garden" I say, "with the help of" but really, I'm simply following their directions and trying not to get in the way!

Breaking ground March 27, 2010

On the job injury.

Tearing it up, April 17, 2010

Pema, making the job look way too easy!

SOME VERY USEFUL INFORMATION...

YOUNG@HEART - OFFICIAL TRAILER

My family and I watched this film last night. It was absolutely beautiful! I loved the juxtaposition of the lyrics penned by a younger generation sung by people nearing the end of the road. It was so cool to expirience these songs from a totally different perspective. The lyrics mean something completely different from the original, yet they could have been written by these people in their old age.
That's the mysterious power of art. You can be familiar with something, you think you know it through and through, then you see it through an artists eyes and it's as if you're discovering it for the first time!