packing

When we were kids and our family was going on a trip my mom would set out a table somewhere in the house so we could lay out everything we needed to bring. While I am much less organized than my mom, I've got my own little table (first time ever) and am getting stuff ready for my tripe to Uganda. I'm leaving a week from yesterday (1/18) and will get back on Feb 6th. There is definitely a mix of excitement and nervousness. I'm nervous because I don't know what to expect and I'm excited for many, many reasons. As I was talking to people at church, they were encouraging me that you never know what to expect when you go to serve God. When you serve in less developed countries plans regularly change and you need to trust God that he will orchestrate things. I'm looking forward to how God will work in me throug trip and how he will use me in Uganda. Since I'm traveling next Monday (the day I normally blog), I won't be posting for the next three weeks, but when I get back I'll put as much as I can on the blog.

Christmas Extravaganza

Wesley loves tearing wrapping paper, as you can probably see. We've included a few shots of our vacation and a recent photo of him eating blueberries, which he loves. Coming home for Christmas is full of expectations. In some ways it was a great time at home, but it got off to a rough start. Wesley took about two days to adjust and his schedule threw off our plans for various fun outings, but eventually things got sorted out. Wesley had a great time with Nana and Pop (grandparents) and various other relatives. While we were away his teeth finally broke through, he became more vocal (lots of grunting), and more mobile (walking while you hold his hands). It was great to be away from work, but challenging to find a sense of balance and regularity over the holidays. I didn't check my email for a week which was so fun, but I missed doing the parts of my job that I love, and being at our church for our Christmas Eve service. We enjoyed being with folks at home and appreciated the help with Wesley but were glad to return to "normal" life. We've been back in CT almost a week and are getting into a rhythm, but that is going to be thrown off when I head to Uganda in less than two weeks - Wow. There is a lot happening between now and then and hopefully I don't forget anything major.

snow and looking back on 2009

Yesterday was thrown off a little because of the snow storm, but I had a much easier time due to a new addition to our family. No, we don't have Wesley out shoveling yet, but we do have a pretty sweet snow blower - it feels like a family member. I was able to do our driveway, sidewalks, a neighbor's drive way, and a long stretch of side walk in less time than it would have taken me to shovel just our snow. It's also much more fun. I'm still learning the fine points of snow blowing, but I am very glad to have one. Thanks mom!
Due to the snow church was cancelled yesterday, which was a bummer, but we still had our community groups and prayer meeting last night. At our prayer meeting we spent time looking back over 2009 and remembering all that God has done. Here are a few of the things that we have seen God do through prayer:
-provide a new worship location and office space (this has been huge!)
-continue bringing new people to church and working in their lives
-raise up leaders in the church
-heal one of our missionaries of a potential tumour
-provide a location and workers for our work in the inner city of Hartford
-grow and deepen our presence at the University of Hartford
-lead us in shifting the format for our youth meetings
-lead us to serving an Iraqi family in the area
It is exciting to look back at the past year and see all that has happened. It is good to celebrate what God has done, yet we continue to long for more.

finishing off a monster...

...book, that is. I've been reading through this book on the resurrection since the spring and I only have 20 pages left! One of my goals for 2009 was to develop a reading list so that I work through a variety of books focusing on different aspects of Christianity. Within this plan, I decided that I should read one academically oriented book that will challenge me intellectually and make me think in new ways. Well, 730 pages later I can definitely say that I've learned a lot, enjoyed the journey, but that it took a lot longer than I expected. Here's a sentence that I thought captures the purpose and main thrust of the book: "Historical argument alone cannot force anyone to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead; but historical argument is remarkably good at clearing away the undergrowth behind which scepticisms of various sorts have been hiding. The proposal that Jesus was bodily raised from the dead possesses unrivalled power to explain the historical data at the heart of early Christianity." Reading through this book has strengthened my faith in the reality of the resurrection and helped me better understand it's meaning and implications.
Something else that I've been seeing in different ways is that many people don't believe in Christianity because they don't want to. While this sounds obvious here's what I mean. When someone says, I don't buy Christianity because _______, there is usually an equally valid, or sometimes better, explanation of their difficulty which the person does not want to accept. For example, someone may say that he or she does not believe in a good God because of all the pain and suffering within this world. This person's interpretation of the pain and suffering in this world is leading him to a certain conclusion, while in fact there are many other conclusions that could be drawn from the pain and suffering in this world. We all want to hold onto our interpretations of reality and the obstacles to faith are more complex than the needing evidence or the right argument. I think dialogue, and persuasive reasoning have their part but there's more going on under the surface that needs to be dealt with as well.
As I think about my job and all the neat stuff I get to do - like reading great books, thinking about God, and helping people connect to him - I am deeply grateful for the place God has me in life.

recuperating, shots, and a long awesome day

Sometimes I don't feel up to writing. Normally I push through, but last week was one of those times when I didn't. Needless to say, we got back from Thanksgiving and had a generally fine holiday. Hillary was sick a good portion of the time and at points I missed being with my family, but it was good to be up in NY.

So here are a few different things going on with us:

Hillary is about 90% healthy while Wesley and I are feeling good. Getting extra sleep and having less demands on our schedule has been helpful. Our December calendar is pretty low key, since we don't have many church traditions or holiday parties, so we've been able to keep life at a moderate pace.

Last week I received four out of my five shots for going to Africa. My arms were a little sore, but it is much better than the alternative.

Last week I also had a long but wonderful day. It started with a prayer meeting earlier in the morning and ended with youth group in the night. I meet with other area youth leaders to plan for our annual mission called the Hartford Project, brainstormed in our staff meeting about the vision and direction of our church, counseled a college student about some decisions before him and helped a teen connect the bible to circumstances in this family. It was great.

Finally, Hillary and I are reading through the book you see pictured to the left. It is a series of reflections on Advent from Christian writers across the centuries. There are guys like St. Augustine, Martin Luther, and Johnathan Edwards mixed up with contemporary authors. It has been good to go through this different readings and talk about them together. Here's an amazing quote from John Donne, "The whole of Christ's life was a continual passion; others die martyrs, but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha, where he was crucified even in Bethlehem, where he was born; for his tenderness then the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after, and the manger as uneasy at first as the cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas Day and his Good Friday are but the evening and the morning of the same day. From the creche to the cross is an inseparable line. Christmas only points forward to Good Friday and Easter. It can have no meaning apart from that, where the Son of God displayed his glory by his death."

the door keeps hitting us on the way out

Our offices are generally put together - yeah! I don't think I would have made it through the past month working at home. Well, I would have made it, but it would not have been pretty.

We are headed up to New York tommorow morning to be with Hillary's family over Thanksgiving and it is quite a challenge. With all sorts of baby stuff, lingering colds, and a "few" things to complete for work it seems kinda surreal that we'll be on the road tommorow. We are all a little out of it and looking for some rest. If you pray, ask God for health, peace, and a time of restoration as we look to recharge our bateries in the next few days. Also, Wesley continues to be really cute despite being sick!!

Don't take Wesley's doped out expression too seriously. We have not laced his teething biscuts with controlling substances.

Conference Thoughts

We enjoyed our time in Philadelphia last week, despite some sickness and Wesley's first time being afraid of new surroundings. We think that up until now he hasn't been aware of the spaces around him and, now that he is, he was a little freaked out to be in a totally unknown location. In addition his teeth were bothering him, so it was difficult for him to sleep well.

I wasn't sure what the conference (2009 Christian Counseling and Education Foundation) would be like, but ended up getting a lot out of it. For a conference on Sex the plenary sessions talked about sex less than I expected, but were thought provoking. The main thing that I got out of the conference is that whatever is happening with you sexually is often a picture of what is happening in your relational world and your relaionship with God. As a general theme, this is harder to get but when you talk about the particulars it really comes out. Say, you are having all these lustful thoughts and it is this constant flow of images in the back of your mind. As you go about your day, it will be easier to objectify people - responding to them solely on whether they please or displease you. Lust is about using someone as an object for your please and that sort of thinking is hard to segment into one area of life. Similarly if we see all the people around us as means to our own ends, it is easy to relate to God in the same way. Another example from the opposite of the spectrum is someone grossed out by sex and completely disinterested. This person is ignoring a part of who he or she is and will tend to do the same in others. It will be easy for this person to distance himself or herself from his or her own body and to do the same with others. Ultimately this person will also disregard what God has to say about the body. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this larger concept but it was helpful and challenges me to think about my life.