Not Missing One Moment, Being Missed

So what does one do when preparing to fly transatlantic to Croatia driving on to Livno, Bosnia?  Pray.  Check and recheck packing.  Purchase requested items to take, bringing some comforts from home to some special people who have no access to them where they are.  Pray some more.  Try and finish a whole host of reading material so I can finish a paper for my next class before I leave, sending it to my 'professor' (my pastor).  And pray even more.

I have to pinch myself that I, this guy, this person, gets the opportunity to go on this trip to work with and spend time with some people whom I admire greatly.  My faith, my walk with my God, continues leading me into adventures of incredible proportions for His glory.  I suppose if I were the best of the best of teachers, I'd get all puffed up and become 'untouchable' or out of touch with reality, but the reality is that I am just doing what I feel called to; to love people, all people, wherever they are even if I don't speak their language.

Ah, but what I learned from my grandma as I grew up, is that even though we could not 'talk' (she only spoke Okinawan Japanese mixed with Hawaiian), we could communicate and what we communicated best, being present together was love.  We did it by just sitting together laughing.  She did it best by pinching my cheek and rattling off something that made me feel like she was proud and deeply loved me.  She also did it by shoving $20 bills in my pockets (just another of her generosities).  And I did it by hugging her and smiling with all the love a growing grandson could muster.  I would not miss one moment together for anything.  Even though she is long gone, I can still hear her laugh and feel her love...and, I miss her.

I go only for a week.  I go to invest.  I go because I feel called...and I wonder if I too will be missed when I depart.  The only way that will happen is if I don't go just to share some lessons and help guide them to integrated, hands-on learning.  When I leave, I want the spirit of Jesus residing in me to be that which they miss.  It is nice that a man, this guy, would care for them.  But it is more important they feel the God who cares for them.  If I get it right, they will miss me.  Not because of the greatness of Bob, but because of the greatness of God.  He has led me to be the teacher I am transforming this heart into one more like His.

My plane leaves Saturday at 6:40am and I arrive in Croatia at 11:40am Sunday (Sunday 2:40am our time).  We'll eat lunch and then travel a bit over an hour (as best I remember) across the border and into Livno.  They may have an introductory meeting with my interpreters and I, mushbrained as I will be, will muddle through it, or it may occur on Monday.  I will have a day to reset my clock back 9 hours and then press forward into the activities and festivities planned for us.  I will be teaching in classrooms with Jr. Highers and potentially in a high school.  I will also teach in conference with teachers of many grade levels. 

Are you with me?  Will you join me with your prayers?  Will you pray that my connections with the teachers and missional servants there be refreshing and sweet?  Would you pray that a people steeped in mistrust and strife would connect with the sincerity and honesty of my heart in response to God's call? Would you pray that the students would be responsive and respectful as I (one without relationship to them) contribute to their learning?  And, would you pray for my health as I try to recover from this 'cold' I currently have before I leave and function with a messed up body clock?  Maybe working at Lowe's with all the irregular scheduling has prepared me for what may happen there? 

Thanks for reading and especially, thanks for your prayers.  This is kingdom work as together we stand together in covenant with our King!  I want to be faithful not missing one moment.  Not missing the reason I am sent, and is so doing as I leave, being missed because of the good accomplished by God, while present together. 

Try It! You'll Like It!

It is only a few weeks before I find myself winging my way to the Balkans.  PowerPoints and lessons finished, are now being translated. Schedules and meetings being finalized.  Materials ($570 worth) to take and leave with teachers there purchased and laying on the guest bed in guest bedroom ready to pack.  The only remaining items to purchase?  Some coffee from here, and a few packages of pepperoni for the guy whose extra room in which I will sleep.

When people from here invest in the lives of those living in another culture, because they are called to love them, they sacrifice much.  Even the simple things, like American roasted coffee, and pepperoni can bring 'comfort' to them while they sacrifice...and, I am the one privileged to carry that cargo of comfort to them as I go.  While many here may see my sacrifice as a grand and generous gesture, and, while it is, my sacrifice significantly pales to those whom I join.  Understand, I am not saying this to elevate them or any of 'us' who may choose to go, but rather to state facts about sacrifice, giving and love.

We 'need' experiences like these to ground our expectations and grow our appreciation. I fully desire to understand where I fit in the world's economy of love, in my local economy of love, and my personal economy of love so that I have a reference point for life and living.  They, by giving up the privileges of living in the land they were born, believe they fit, for now, investing in those in a foreign culture. 

We each are called to sacrifice and give and I am thankful for each who has done, according to their call, to participate with me.  You participate as you read, and, for those who join by praying for me, sacrifice your time before our Lord, entreat His protection, blessing and empowering of my time there.  Others have so generously given that I will not spend a single of my dollars to go, share, and love those in Croatia and Bosnia.  My wife will sacrifice my presence here for ten days, and I will sacrifice ten days of pay.  But those there?  They have sacrificed most things American.  Yes many are the things we hold to with fain appreciation because they are part of our everyday blessings of living here, in America.

While I plan on taking much with me, I also plan on bringing back 'stuff' from Bosnia and Croatia.  While my friend Josh in Bosnia desires coffee from 'home', I will bring home coffee from there, and, as I sip each sip upon my return, reminisce of my time there, praying for those who sacrifice much to love those people.  While Josh is now also dreaming of the pepperoni I will bring (and plenty I will bring) I find myself dreaming of the prosciutto and Livno cheese I will consume.  For another, wonderful couple in Croatia, I will be bringing a suitcase that they had to leave behind because they had too much 'stuff' to take back.  And, while I will replace it with Croatian olive oil, I will take them stuff that is much cheaper to buy here.  These simple things I take will bring great comfort to them there.  It is all a different perspective forged by sacrifice, theirs, yours and mine.

Yours you ask?  Indeed.  Possibly because I have loved you, you find yourself reading this of the millions of blogs.  Most of you are reading this because you love me, and by loving me have a growing love for those I go to serve and love in the Balkans.  Maybe a few of you are those who have contributed to my trip there.  And mostly, I hope that you, my readers will sacrifice a little bit of your time to pray to the Lord asking for His help, power, eyes to see and heart to respond generously with His love and wisdom into their hearts.

If there is any single thing I have discovered that people everywhere 'need', it is love.  Not romantic, not deeply intimate, but rather deeply rooted in sincerity and care.  We all require and are looking for those who will come alongside us in the joys, deep tragedies and the everything in betweens of life and living, and for many of us, the number of these truly selfless friends are either non-existent or scant.  However, for me, there are many with you being one, especially because you are reading this.  You may be one who will join me on this trip because we have walked together deeply rooted in sincerity and care.  And because we walked together, you continue walking with me as I share my heart.

The longer I live, the more I see personal sacrifice and caring for others as my means to joy.  If we would all start doing the small acts of care, our world would dramatically change.  If I can make someone's life richer because I do something they may not even see, like returning some carts either to the stall or store, or even just putting my cart into the stall, I find that a way to love another.  I did that before I worked in retail, and now that I do, appreciate it even more.  If we would care enough to pick up a strewn article of clothing in the aisles even though we didn't knock it off the hanger, or straighten a pile of pants because others ripped their size out disheveling the stack and left it that way, it would make a difference.  Even simpler, if we all would just put things back exactly like we found them (how hard is that?), it would make so many other's lives, much easier.  Jesus said,

'Greater love has no man than he lay down his life for a friend'.

Everyone reads that as, to die for a friend is the greatest sacrifice.  But that is the extreme.  I believe what he was saying is,

Greater love has no man than he put aside his preference, laziness, and selfishness to care enough to do something beneficial or sacrificial for a friend...known or unknown!

It is that simple.  That is laying down my life for a friend. Don't believe me?  Watch your marriage turn around when you, gentlemen start taking out the trash BEFORE your wife asks, or do the dishes or even learn how to do the laundry.  That is where I started a few years ago (yes, it took me nearly 30 years to understand the secret of bringing greater joy to my marriage).  Another thing to to do?  Speak encouragement or care into a cashier's life (as you check out) when he/she tells you (because you ask regularly) that today or the past week has been a struggle.   Start the simple sacrifice and it will grow into the major ones.  Why?  Because you become energized by sharing genuine love.

The thing, the only major thing I desire to be said of me upon my exit from this planet is that people liked to be around me because of my genuine love for them, and, that my genuine love for them rose out of my deeply rooted love for my Lord, Jesus.  For if I do any great thing, it isn't because I just 'have' a good heart, it is because Jesus has led me to have a good heart.  Why?  Because I know that I would not be who I am today without His leading, without His sacrifice, without Him calling me to do just as he, genuinely loving those He encountered.  And, because I desire to be a real and honest reflection of my leader, with His help, I will get there.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  Now, go ahead and make other's day beautiful through sacrifice.  Try it!  You'll like it!

Life, for me...

Life, for me, has become an adventure of faith, my footprints thankfully joined by many along it's journey.  This heart rises with sincere and deep gratitude for the manifold moments of joys and struggles, and the manifold memories etched in my mind.  Indeed, I have tremendous appreciation for those who stood and walked a bit with me as I ventured through this event called life.  A few stand out as heroes, but each friend represents monumental and historical value as I examine my heart and life to where I find myself standing, now.

I have lost, temporarily, another friend here on this planet.  Curt Noland and I used to be roommates and was my backpacking buddy to the Sierras in our younger days.  He taught me how to snow ski and we also took many trips together to share in that sport.  When I think of Curt, and all he was, I can say he was the real deal, and a man of great integrity.  Okay, no one is 'perfect', but my real-life heroes stand a cut above most and Curt rises as one whose integrity was lived out his entire life, and is yet another of my heroes.  As a believer in Jesus, he never called friends or co-workers to account, or to square up their lives with Christ.  Instead, he demonstrated what a humble life of faith looked like.  He worked tirelessly, spending his life developing communities with his engineering expertise, care and inspired negotiating skills.   People took notice.

It was all divulged at his memorial service, most of those in attendance connected to Curt through work.  What was revealed to them was the reason for his discipline, character and nature; his Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.  The real deal, not some add on.  So many non-believers were attracted to something about this man, so much so that they wanted to attend his memorial service hoping to understand why their heart ached in his absence.  They got it in spades.

I don't know about you, but when I examine the lives and testimony of incredibly brilliant people, who demonstrate phenomenally real humility, I take notice.  When I see them doing and working with all their heart wherever they are called, my heart longs to be like my heroes, especially when their lives are a reflection, a true reflection of Jesus Christ.  It is earth shaking.

As I stood, looking at the moon, my heart raced back to Genesis...

^{Genesis 1:16} God made two great lights—the greater light  to govern  the day and the lesser light to govern  the night.  He also made stars.  God placed them in the expanse of the sky to illuminate the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.   And there was evening, and there was morning  —the fourth day.

It is earth enlightening.  When I think of Curt, I think of the full moon.  The moon has no radiance of its own.  When 'hidden' in the darkness of the shadow of the earth, its unlit surface is invisible in the night sky.  However, when moved into the light, its surface brilliantly glows with increasing brightness; the lesser light shines with radiant illumination, into the darkness of the planet.  What is also interesting is that the quality of that light is influenced by the quality of the moon's surface.  It is the smoother, more reflective side of the moon is always facing toward the earth.

You see, the sun is the true light, where it all begins for our planet.  It's brilliance and energy powers our planet; gives life to it and is vital to all that is alive.  The moon is an accurate reflector of the light of the sun, influencing the reflection by its composition, and surface or more simpler, it's face, all created by the God of the universe.  The two 'lights' hover for us to behold and understand the reason for their existence.  

When I think of my heroes, I see them as true representatives, true reflections of the light, and, I long to be like them.   I am grateful to have been touched by their lives.   I am deeply appreciative of those who continue, both large and small to invest and call me to greater acts and deeds as a servant of the living God.  I sincerely miss the opportunity to be with my brothers here on earth, but know, with exceeding confidence, that once my time here is finished, I'll get to rejoin my brothers in heavenly eternity.  Thanks, friends for showing me the way to live humbly and diligently as one reflecting the true nature and glory of our almighty God.