David Murray ‘s post Why do you hate me so much? has some interesting points about the unfair opposition Christianity often experiences in American culture.
John Dickson has some interesting thoughts on violence in the Bible.
This clip from “Friends”, where Ross whitens his teeth, came to mind while I was preparing for Transfiguration tomorrow.
It is Finished by Tullian Tchividjian and New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp are two daily devotional books definitely worth checking out.
Here are a few interesting things I stumbled across this week, from a variety of sources. 
There’s certainly nothing wrong with kindness, but Christianity is more than just being a good person.
What should I read next is a website to check out when you are searching for a book to read. Enter a book you like and the site will analyse a huge database of real readers’ favorite books to provide book recommendations and suggestions for what to read next.
Last Monday was Groundhog Day. Punxsatawny Phil saw his shadow, so plenty more winter ahead (at least up north). Did you know that Half of Pennsylvanians would rather be represented by a groundhog in congress?
Short on cash? You can make $13,000 a year by selling your poop.
Finally, what do you think of one pastor’s thoughts on the benefits of membership? I’ve never been as hard-line as him, but he’s got some interesting points.
With Christmas put away and the season of Lent looming (a pocket of calm between two busy seasons), I knew I needed to get up to Springfield, VA to visit my dad whom I haven’t seen since since last spring, when I helped clean out his old house in Ridley Park. Poking around on Expedia, I discovered a round-trip flight out of Jacksonville for $100. That’s crazy. That can’t be right. It was. I booked it. Continue reading “A winter visit with Dad”
I am back in Ocean City, NJ for the annual pastor’s conference for our region of the English District. With a few exceptions, this is where we usually come. We have been in Lancaster, PA and Niagara Falls, NY, but this place is my favorite.
Which is an interesting phenomenon. I live at the beach. Well, not at the beach, but only ten minutes away. So why do I enjoy coming to another beach community? Continue reading “Ocean City, NJ”
The final day of this year’s mission trip came quickly. Up early, we packed up, ate breakfast, cleaned up the church, filled out evaluations, took a few group pictures, got our trip t-shirts and hit the road about 9:20. We pulled into the church parking lot about 7:45 pm. Torrential rains going through Jacksonville, FL, but an easy trip otherwise.
Overall, it was a great trip. It is so easy to plug into a YouthWorks site for a summer mission trip. The team of Sam, Nathan, Tonia and Helen were well-matched, enthusiastic, great examples and leaders, and great people to get to know. Continue reading “YW Mission Trip 2014 (day 6): The trip home”
Our last full day of the mission trip (Thursday, July 10) was a flip-flop of day three. My work crew spent our morning at Audubon Acres widening a trail, followed by an afternoon at the food bank, sorting donated food. We went through box after box of non-perishable food, everything from canned beans to fruit snacks. And pickles. Jar after jar after jar of pickles. (Note to self: just donate the basics — canned green beans and corn, pasta and sauce, tuna, peanut butter and cereal. Omit canned artichoke hearts, capers, cream of yuk soup, and pickles.)
Following our afternoon showers, we shopped for some Youth Enterprise shirts, went to Chester Frost park for the end-of-week community BBQ, and then came back to church for Club.
The last night of every YouthWorks trip ends up with footwashing for each group. We circle up in our respective church groups and the staff washes the feet of the leaders. Then, we leaders wash the feet and pray with each of our youth. It never fails to be an emotional and unforgettable part of the trip. It’s one thing to read about Jesus doing it. It’s another to experience it. I am thankful to have seen each one of our youth grow during the week. Afterwards, we our group talked about some of the lessons they learned. I think each point is profound:
(1) Don’t take today for granted. There’s no guarantee of a tomorrow.
(2) Jesus doesn’t pressure us to serve. He sets us free to serve.
(3) I wasn’t sure anyone liked me. I feel differently now.
(4) It’s nice to be with other believing youth. I don’t feel so alone.
Some profound lessons I believe a lot of us Christians need to be reminded of often. A number of our group said they would be interested in working as YouthWorks staff in the future. I think each of them would be great in that role!
On day four (Wednesday) our work crew took on some new projects, spending the morning at the Chattanooga Area Food Bank and then the afternoon at Audubon Acres.
The “Chatty Food Bank” is an amazing operation, a 40,000 square foot warehouse where one million pounds of food comes in and goes out every month. It supplies food to agencies in a twenty-two county area around them in Tennessee and Georgia. We were a little apprehensive after another group told us they spent their time throwing out rotten, maggot-infested potatoes. We were spared that duty. We spent the first hour packing up small bags of food that would be distributed to families. After we packed up about 135 of those, we moved on to filling bigger fifty-pound boxes. I think we loaded up five pallets of those. Continue reading “YW Mission Trip (day 4): Let go”
Day three in Chattanooga (Tuesday, July 8) took us to the beautiful 100-bed St. Barnabas Healthcare Center in the morning. We made some birthday door decorations for the residents and then attended the Tuesday healing and prayer service led by one of the chaplains. The service was attended by about two dozen residents who all enjoyed singing a variety of old gospel songs. After prayers, we chose our partners for “dancing with the starts,” holding their hands and swaying to some upbeat music. Evan got to talk to Ed, who goes by the nickname “Cadillac.” Ed is an avid sports fan with just about as much knowledge as Evan, and with just as strong opinions about the Heat, LeBron, draft picks and the like.
Days begin early on these mission trips. I snuck downstairs and found the coffee about 6 am, taking advantage of a little quiet time to read, write and pray. After waking the kids up at 7 to be ready for breakfast at 7:30, I attended the daily adult leaders meeting to get our assignments for the day.
Our group was divided between two work crews, nicknamed Wicked Awesome and Free Falling. My group, Wicked Awesome, included a leader and some youth from Marysville, MI, incredible new friends to work with. The rest of our church group joined some of the youth from Texas, Michigan and Indiana to form the Free Falling crew.
After we cleaned up breakfast, packed our lunches and had some devotional time, our (Wicked Awesome’s) first day involved planning for Kid’s Club and then implementing our plan at the Avondale Recreation Center in the afternoon. We divided up into teams that would read a story, make a craft and then play some games with age grouped children. We were told to expect as many as sixty children, but there were only thirty-some — ages five to eleven — to entertain that afternoon. The staff and children at the rec center were great, energetic and loud, but a lot of fun to work with. Games? Forget it — everyone just wanted to play basketball. Evan was glad to oblige them. Crafts? They were definitely into it? Reading? FInished the story (Feeding of the five thousand) in about ten minutes, then looked at other cool pictures in the story bibles we were using. 
After showering at the nearby YMCA, we had pizza for supper and headed out for Rock City. Our group size got us a huge admission discount, and we really enjoyed the passageways, gnomes and views.
At club that night (the group evening program time), we talked about how to “reach out” like Jesus. When two blind men asked Jesus for mercy (Matthew 20:29-34), he stopped, asked, loved and touched them (SALT). A great acronym to help us engage the people we encounter. It’s hard to do all that in our loud, busy and impersonal world.
At the end of the day, our church group met to talk about our experiences and prepare for the next day. I was a bit concerned about some of the “I’m bored” and “I’m so tired” comments, but I knew I just needed to give them some time. We collected all the cell phones and music devices when we arrived, 
so some of them were still detoxing.
This year’s program and material was excellent, from the Club talks to the devotional guides to the church group discussion questions. Nice job, YouthWorks!
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