Category: Faith

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Unexpected Gifts

 Nothing is better than an unexpected gift. It can be anything, an actual item, a service, or just a listening ear at an appropriate moment.

This has been a week that was full of them.

Like most guys, there is usually a local “dive” restaurant that serves good food…at even better prices that men love to frequent for lunch or for a snack during the day. We stopped at such a place. He says that “one day” I come to love the place because they serve great food…but as I looked around at the open-air cooking stall, the thousands of flies that seemed to love the place as well and the…well you get the idea… Anyway, we stopped for a quick bite (I just had a coke…in the bottle) and we were off.

We went to a warehouse where several local ministries receive all sorts of goods from the States and sometimes they share their excess (whatever that may be) among themselves. So today, we were given several huge bags of dried red beans and dried black beans. We loaded them in the back of the truck and off we went on our errands for the day.

We stopped back by the restaurant that we had just left and Oscar filled about a dozen plastic buckets full of beans and gave them to the women that ran the restaurant. It was the most “natural” thing that I have ever seen. The look on their faces was so joyful…and once the buckets were full, we simply climbed back into the truck and went on our way. Not another word was spoken about it…it was a “natural” thing to do.

Yesterday, Amy brought about 11 women from the village over to their house and she was going to teach them how to make quiche! Not something you might expect…but evidently it’s a big deal…40Q for a small slice in restaurants = $5.21. So around lunchtime, here come the women and I got to sit back and observe Amy work with these women and teach them new cooking skills that they could have never imagined. I watched their faces and they were so joyful… Then…just like Amy…while the quiches were in the oven, Amy and her Sister-in-law taught the women how to make baby blankets. It was amazing! When it was all over one of the pregnant women when home with the blanket and the women all took quiche home to their families.

In the middle of all this, Oscar and I jumped in the truck and went to visit Jose Angel (the man with one leg) that we built a stove for in April as well as installed several solar lights. It was an impromptu visit that allowed us to see how he was “really” doing. I was disappointed to see that his living condition was not good. The place was dirty and unkempt. There were empty bins of food all over the place. He had not used the stove and his roof had leaked in several places around the lights we had installed. No Bueno.

We learned that Jose Angel was having problems figuring out how to keep a fire going in the stove and ultimately gave up. He was also out of wood. The leaks were not in the lights themselves, but in the surrounding tin roofing where they had been installed. The rains had also come in where he was sleeping and he had to move his bed to another area of his small home.

I guess what hit me was how difficult it must be for an elderly man, living alone in a wheelchair, dirt floor, and no job or income to get by on a day-to-day basis. When we were last in his home, it was clean and we had all left feeling pretty good about the work we had done by building him a stove and new lighting and how it would change his life…but that is not reality….this was reality. It was a good lesson for me and one that I need to remember. This work is not a “one and done” effort…it is an ongoing effort…

We left Jose Angel with several bags of beans, rice, and flour and Oscar said he would send some workers to his home today to repair the roof. We are also going to stock him with firewood and work with him to teach him how to use the stove. Oscar said he would also have one of his workers regularly visit Jose Angel to clean and to just provide him some help as he needs it.

Unexpected gifts…that is what today was all about. Nobody made a big deal about anything…it was just “natural”…it was just being human and taking care of people…just because we could. It was the Gospel lived out and I am so grateful that I got to experience it.

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Choose Love…

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Sometimes this world seems just a little too difficult.

The things we see and witness, the pressures of family, finances and friendships, the differences in world views that are literally trying to rip us apart as a society are all constantly playing in out in our lives like a looped video. As a result, we often feel powerless, hopeless, frustrated and sad when we think of the days that are ahead of us. That feeling of “I can’t do anything about it” is the worst feeling we can have and it is the one thing we can’t allow ourselves to believe! We CAN do something! We ALL can do something! What can we do? We can choose to love!

We can choose to love those we don’t understand. We can choose to love those we don’t agree with. We can choose to love those that have wronged us or we fear will wrong us. We can choose to love those that have different beliefs. We can choose to love those that have different life experiences and expectations out of life. We can choose to love those that are struggling and those that boast. We can also choose to love those that may never know we love them. All of this is within our power…

There are many people here in Antigua that are struggling for one reason or the other and as a result, they sit on the sidewalks and beg for handouts. These people have become “invisible” to most of the tourists and even mission teams that visit the city. They are routinely walked around, looked over and avoided at all cost. But the funny thing is…they have become “my peeps.”

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Over the past few months here in Antigua, I have developed what is now becoming a little “street ministry.” Each day I’m in Spanish class from about 9am to 3pm. Then I hit the streets to get my workout in. (10,000 steps/day…thanks to the ever present reporting of fit-bit.) During my walk, I’ll go by and see “my peeps.” They are usually located at certain places in and around the city. Some are in the park, some sit on a sidewalk on a certain street. Some are on a street corner and some are just wandering around.

Once I find them I’ll just sit down with them and talk. Sometimes we’ll pray together, sometimes we’ll just talk about their day or their family or life, and sometimes… we’ll just sit. But the important thing is…they are no longer “invisible.” They are seen and we are friends. I truly love these people! Nothing makes me smile more than the time we get to spend together each day. They are a gift to me.

So I guess my point is this…there are people in our daily lives right now that deserve our attention…they deserve our time and they deserve our love. But they are not the easiest to love. Choosing love empowers us and puts life back into proper perspective. Sometimes it is not easy. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable and it can sometimes be inconvenient…but it’s one of our only…and I believe our best option. It also provides a healing that this world most desperately needs…

We all can do something. We can all do this… Choose to love.

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Being lost vs. Feeling lost…

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I spent last weekend with Oscar, Amy and Diego at their home in the mountains of Las Anonas, Guatemala. Their home is located within a beautiful compound and just behind their home are beautiful mountains, trees, and fields.

Late in the afternoon on Saturday, Diego and I decided to hike in the mountains behind their home. He had done it many times and called it a “small walk.” So we took off on a “small walk.” We climbed over and under several barbed wire fences and eventually found ourselves in the most beautiful pasture land and rolling hills that I have seen.

As we took a moment to take in the beautiful scenery, he pointed out to me where he had previously hiked. He pointed up to a mountain where there happened to be smoke about two-thirds of the way up the mountain and he said that once he had almost climbed that high. So we headed off in that direction.

Now the terrain was a mix of trees, open pasture and then a large section of brush. We hiked up navigating over dry stream beds, climbed over rocks, and danced around all types of thorned bushes. But through it all…it was straight up…like steep up!

Both of us realized just how bad we were out of shape as our hearts raced and we were gasping for our next breath. All the while continuing up and continuing to push our way through brush, thorns, and no visible path.

We finally reached a point to where Diego said, “Wow, I’ve never been up this far before!” So we took a moment to take in the view and then tried to decide our next move.

  1. Do we go down the same way we came up? That answer was no. We were not going to forge our way through all of that brush again.
  2. Do we make our way to the treeline and hope we can go down with less effort? We tried that and were soon faced with a large deep washout that was surrounded by brush.
  3. Do we continue to go up and then try to find a road or another way down? That sounded like a plan and so we continued up.

We finally reached and open field on the side of the mountain where people were working the soil planting corn. This is where the smoke was coming from that we had seen from the bottom of the mountain. We continued up to the top of the mountain. The view was spectacular, but it also proved to us that we were very far from where we had begun our hike.

We took a moment to consult Google Maps to get a look at where we were and the easiest way to get “home.” The sun was beginning to set behind the mountain, and soon it would be getting dark. I began to feel the tightening in my chest of the oncoming of some anxiety as I realized that our options to get home before dark were going to be limited to:

  1. Going back the way we came. Yuk.
  2. Hiking towards another mountain, thinking we would hit a road that would then take us back to Las Anonas.

I stood on top of this mountain and just looked at my options…none of them felt right. Then I did something random and completely by mistake…I walked about 10 feet to another area on the mountain…

What I saw in this new location was a clearing that led down the mountain to a treeline that would take us in the right direction…towards home. So that’s what we did. We took that path.

The clearing was an easy downhill walk to the treeline. I picked up a beautiful trail under the trees that led us down the mountain and dumped us back into the pasture where we had started our uphill climb.

10 feet…I just moved 10 feet…and everything changed.

I thought about the “life lesson” I experienced on this hike. Sometimes we find ourselves in a “proverbial pickle.” A situation that seems hopeless or filled with anxiety and risk. Our options at this point may seem limited. But what I learned to do was to change my perspective. Do something. Not big or drastic. Just do something I haven’t done yet…like walk 10 feet to get a new perspective.

How this might look in real life could be doing things like taking a drive, going a new way to work, getting up an hour earlier, journaling, working out, calling an old friend, taking a class…something…anything new and different.

We all get lost from time to time…but we don’t have to feel lost. We have a way home, and we may simply need to move a mere 10 feet to see it.

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I have a feeling…tonight’s the night

Today has been a day that I have not been particularly productive. I got up and went to check out a nearby farmers market. I bought carrots, tomatoes and eggs. I used the carrots, onion, chicken breast in a soup that I made in my new crockpot.

After the farmers market, I walked down the street to check out a new breakfast restaurant called Santa Clara’s. It was a wonderful bakery and good cheap eats. It took a while to get my food, but it was good. I then walked into town to pick up Amy’s house numbers and then returned home.

I worked on my new iPhone because it wasn’t syncing anymore and finally got that working. Hugo and his wife are here and they will be having people over for lunch on the roof today.

I got dressed and then walked to the gym. I did my 7 minute workout plus some weights and then came on home again. I rested and goofed around until about 6:00 debating whether to go out or not. I decided not. I need to remember why I’m here and what I’m supposed to be doing. Bars and restaurants are way too tempting and can quickly get me distracted, spending money and diluted. I don’t want any of those. I took a shower and from that point on…I began to feel the heaviness descend upon me.

I am trying to embrace the reality of my Dad’s situation and I realize that he will soon pass. I have been preparing for it and I thought I had everything under emotional control. But this dark heaviness is telling me that tonight is the night. That may or may not be the case…but the reality of that message really makes me sad. I don’t want to do anything. I am not hungry (partially because the soup sucked) and I don’t really want to watch a movie. I just want to hold onto… and be held by God. That is what I want. I want to be held in the arms of my Savior.

I’m not running from this reality, but I am trying to package it differently. The word death is not a great word and it carries with it a termination…not a continuation. I realize that this will be the termination of Dad’s time on earth…but the word death doesn’t point to his return to the presence of Christ.

I also don’t like the word passing, or passed away. That seems so fleeting and inconsequential. Dads life was anything but inconsequential. He made a ton of miscues…but he is a wonderful loving father. I am lucky to have him.

What I would prefer to call this transition is an event. It is an event where God comes to return my Dad into His presence. Think of that…God coming for you….

I remember playing football in High School and during some of my practices, right before wind sprints and the final hitting drills, I would look up to see my Dad entering the practice field. He was on his way home from work and he stopped off to watch me practice and then take me home. I remember that feeling and I think that is what is happening now. I like to think that God has come to take Dad “home.”

Dad was created into the presence of God and in 1924, he was “loaned” to Allen and Louise Cloyd to learn, teach, and experience all the joys and disappointments that living has to offer. Dad’s life was rich with experiences and he left his fingerprints on the lives of many others along the way. He was blessed with a long life and he used it to try to make others feel good around him.

I am sure that I contributed much worry and heartache to Dad’s life, but I think I also gave him some wonderful moments that made him proud. I am lucky to have been told many times how much I was loved by him and many times he expressed how proud he was of me. Dad was full of grace.

That is how I will remember him…full of forgiving grace.

So tonight as I fully immerse myself in the coming reality…and the pain it will bring…I delight in the fact that my Heavenly Father is coming to take my Dad home with him so there will be no more earthly pain and Dad will begin his new life, in a new body, surrounded by all those that have been called home before him.

I worship a wonderful and loving God and I thank him for the Grace that He has given my family and my Dad to be able to enjoy life together with him as we have done for so many years.

One thing my Dad always, said when we talked on the phone….right before we hung up…he would always say, “I check with ya later!”

Dad, I’m holding you to that promise!

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How do we deal with the tragedies of life?

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When I was a kid growing up, I never questioned my parent’s decisions.

For instance, when I was six years old, I would have never thought to walk into my parent’s room and demand for them to tell me how they filled out their tax forms for the year and question the deductions they did or didn’t take. I would have never challenged my Dad on his choice of routes that he was going to drive on our annual vacation. I would have never demanded an explanation for decisions that he made at work. Because, as a six-year-old, I had my hands full with my own stuff.

My job was to play nice with my friends. To take a nap each day and to eat everything on my plate. My job was to pick up my toys when I was through playing with them. My job was to say “please and thank you” and to hold my parent’s hand when we crossed the street. Life was simple as long as I focused on my stuff…

So in the wake of the recent mudslides in Guatemala, the shootings in Oregon, the floods in the Carolinas, the craziness of Syria and Isis…I often hear people questioning the goodness of God. They wonder…why God would “allow” such events to take place…and in some cases, they demand an explanation!

The problem I have with such thinking is that by demanding an explanation…they are willfully distancing themselves from God…the very thing they NEED when struggling with such a question. By them failing to get an answer…they walk away…from Him and from the very thing they need the most during this time…unconditional love despite the ever-present storms of life.

The act of questioning and challenging God is not a new thing. It is a pattern of human behavior going back to the dawn of man. I read in the Bible about Job having it out with God and demanding answers for his tragedy. I think he is the only person that ever got an explanation from God and in reading God’s response…I learned not to question God…just go with it!

So what do we as humans do when the storms of tragedy fall down upon us and disrupt our lives, tear at our hearts and consume those we deem as innocent victims…what do we do?

We should do what may seem “unnatural” for many of us…we should run towards God. That is the best place to be. As the saying goes, the safest place in a hurricane is the center of the storm. Once there, feel free to share what is in YOUR heart. Share your fears, your pains, and your uncertainties… He shares all you feel. Then when you’re out of words…just reach up and grab his hand… and don’t let go. Trust me…you’ll be fine.

I know it may sound simple…but it worked when I was six.

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Seen and Unseen…

There are many things in this life that we can see…yet there are also things in this life that are unseen. However, that does not mean that they do not exist! For instance, we cannot see the wind, yet we can clearly see the affects of the wind during a storm.

The reason I bring this up is to remind me that for all the good that I am seeking in my work…I must be also reminded that there is just as much darkness that must be acknowledged. I need not be afraid…but I cannot ignore it either.

This became evident to me on recent trips to San Jose Pinula. On several occasions I have now seen what has become a “staple” in the town…and a very sad one at that. Oscar calls him “naked man” and rightly so. This man walks through the streets and among businesses totally naked. He is filthy dirty and constantly beats himself in the head. I am reminded of the story of Legion in Mark 5. A similar demon possessed man that Jesus casts his demons into a group of nearby pigs and they immediately drowned themselves in the lake. This man is much like that man…definitely demon possessed. Yet, he continues to roam the streets and people just get out of his way.

I have no idea why nobody does anything with him, but knowing my luck…one day I will come face to face with the man. I’m not looking forward to it…but I have a feeling it will happen. When it does, I am going to pray for him and demand the demon to come out of him. The Bible says we have the power to do so…and I believe what Jesus said…so stay tuned…

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Frozen Dinner Christianity

In the Bible, Jesus spoke in parables to highlight a message that we could understand and apply to our lives. I believe He still is doing that today. 

 Being a new Christian, I am hungry for knowledge of how He wants me to live and act and think. When I read the Bible, it is almost like food. It fills me in ways unlike anything else I have ever experienced. It’s so simple…all one has to do is read the directions…just like a TV dinner. 

Look at the package of a TV Dinner. 

  1.  It’s an image of perfection. Everything is in its compartment – in perfect order. 
  2. It tells you how good it is for you. 
  3. It gives you rules or directions to make it as the maker intended. 
  4. It has been inspected – so you know you can trust that it is safe. 
  5. It gives you details of everything that went into making it. 
  6. It tells you how long it is good for. 
  7. It tells you what to do if you have questions.

 Pretty exciting huh! Now let’s open the box and see how perfect we look! 

The first thing we notice is the transparency layer that separates the food from the box. 

You must wonder why the maker wanted us to see how ugly the food was! 

The reality is… 

  1. It’s cold and hard. 
  2. It looks nothing like the perfect package did! 
  3. Things aren’t in order like the photo 
  4. It’s not appealing at all 
  5. It almost looks sinful – it’s hardly what the photo looks like. 

Our first response is… “I want the package! I want to be like that!”  

If I saw this frozen lump in the market, would I have bought it? Probably not… I needed the box to show me what it COULD look like if I follow the directions. 

I needed the box, I needed the directions. 

If I just leave it alone to thaw out will it taste good? Probably not… I need the HEAT! 

The directions tell us to first vent the transparency layer. In some cases, it requires us to remove the transparency layer completely! Won’t it burn? 

The makers know that when the heat is applied to the cold, pressure builds because the steam that previously kept the food frozen must escape. As more heat is applied to the dinner, it slowly becomes more and more like the photo. 

The promises that were made on the package have been kept. However… is it as perfect looking as the photo? 

No – but it still gives us the nutrition that it promised and it fills us like we needed. 

And even after it has served to fill our stomachs – it provides a sweet dessert for us to enjoy! 

How sweet THAT is!

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A cure for the Christmas flu…

 ‘Tis the season for some of us to come down with a touch of the “Christmas flu”. That sickly feeling of expectations exceeding current plans, desires, and checking accounts. Don’t let it get you down. It’s not about “doing”…it’s about “being”.

Saturday, I volunteered at the Christmas Store. It is an event that is sponsored by the church that I’ve been attending similar to many events held during this season. This event allowed people to come to the church and pick out 2 gifts for each child at a cost of $5.00 per toy regardless of the toy. Then we took all the toys selected by the parents and wrapped them and put the kid’s names on the gifts and then packaged them together in large trash bags while the parents got to sit and eat cookies and listen to Christmas music played by a live band. The reason behind allowing them to pay for the toys was one of trying to preserve a parent’s sense of dignity by allowing them to pay something… and from what I witnessed…it did all that and more.

It snowed all day on Saturday… and my job was to carry all the packages out to their cars or in some cases…walk them down to the bus stop. What a wonderful blessing the day was! Each time I walked back to the church…I looked up as the snow fell on my face and I thanked God for blessing me so much.

As the day was drawing to an end, I saw a black woman probably in her mid 60’s leaving the Christmas event. She was carrying a small gift in a bag as she walked down the sidewalk by herself. I ran to catch up with her and offered to carry her bag to wherever she was going. She said she was going to the bus stop…to catch the #15 bus! So me, being a “public transportation veteran now” knew exactly what to do and where to take her. So as we were walking, she shared that she was going home to an empty house with no sign of Christmas in the house and she was depressed. I asked why and she shared that several years ago at this time, her only son was taken out of school by a man that pretended to be a family relative. The boy was then raped and killed. She has never gotten over the tragedy. We continued to talk and she said she should probably just go home and end her life so she could be with her son again… I told her not to do that. I told her that she was “supposed” to live and that the reason she was living was that God had something left that she was supposed to do. I didn’t know what it was…and maybe she didn’t either…but God did… and He would see to it that she completed her responsibility. She said that the only thing she liked to do was listen to the Christmas music that we played. I asked her if she ever heard the Christmas song called, O come, O come Emmanuel…she said “O yes, I love that one”. I told her it was one of my favorites as well…but until recently I never knew that Emmanuel actually meant “God with us”. I said that singing that song in church reminds me that Christmas is the celebration that on that night…God came down from Heaven to be with us and he will never leave us again.

We finally reached her bus stop and I told her that I loved her and gave her a hug. As I walked away, I heard her shout my name, as I turned around she yelled, “What time does church start tomorrow”? I shouted back and said, “10:00” and smiled…and she said… “I’ll see you there!”

Christmas “can” be a very wonderful and special time for all of us. We just have to remember what it’s all about and why it is celebrated. If you do…you’ll receive a gift no store can stock on its shelves… one that has been completely and permanently paid for…all we have to do is accept it. Try “being” in the Holiday spirit. Let your heartfelt love for people be your gift…on the bus, at work, and everywhere in between. That might be the greatest gift someone might get this year!