June: A Busy Month

Looking at the June schedule almost makes me tired!

Seldom does it happen that two international mission trips are scheduled virtually back to back. This month includes an 8-day mission trip to Honduras with the McAlester congregation (bridging the first and second weeks of June), and after a Father’s Day weekend in the US with family, another week in Honduras at Baxter Institute to work on various board projects (the third week of June). The last week of June is scheduled with family, concluding with a family reunion in Arkansas.

Along the way will come various preaching and teaching opportunities, continuing work on the series of evangelism materials, and various other writing projects.

I ask you to join us in prayer for these works and for those who can be touched with the gospel through these mission efforts and the continuing work of the students and graduates of Baxter Institute. Pray for my health, strength, and stamina to do the work God provides. Pray for the churches, especially in Latin America, that are committed to a healthy process of congregational development, including developing leaders and teachers and evangelistic efforts. Finally, we ask you to pray for the work at Park Plaza in Tulsa, especially for the Iglesia de Cristo at Park Plaza, that much fruit might come and that God will be glorified as we are transformed into his image and reflect his glory into an inglorious world.

A Busy Week to Start a Busy Month

The calendar says that the month of June has arrived. Hard to believe with this morning’s temperatures in the 50s! The weekend is approaching; a new month filled and overflowing is beginning.

I began this week in Catacamas, Honduras where on Sunday morning I preached at the El Colegio congregation. The opportunity to renew friendships was a special treat; the sermon which focused on God’s vision and purpose for the church seemed to touch the needs and hearts of God’s family there. I thought back to other visits at El Colegio, going back almost 20 years.
A quick stop at the bus station to buy my ticket for the return to Tegucigalpa left barely 30 minutes to grab a quick lunch (empanada de pollo) with the Tomkins at the SuperMercado snack bar. The bus ride was normal–again I was the only North American on the bus. Once in Tegucigalpa, I grabbed a taxi ride with Leo (good to have previous contacts and be friends with taxi drivers) who graciously helped me take care of final details–a stop at Baxter to drop luggage, to the mall for final purchases, and back to Baxter. Sunday evening I spent writing and reflecting, and also managed to Skype with Jan in the US.
Monday was Memorial Day, travel day to the US. After sharing a brief greeting with the students at Baxter at morning devotional, a greeting extended on behalf of the board of directors, it was off to the airport for what has become a well-known routine…check-in, pay the exit tax, go upstairs and work through four document checks, the security scanners, and one more security check–sometimes required of all and sometimes random. The three-hour layover in Houston became four hours with a maintenance delay, late arrival in Oklahoma City, and to the house early Tuesday morning about 12:30 AM.
I knew what Tuesday would hold–even before I arrived back in the US. The schedule included catching up in general, yard work (mowing, trimming, pruning, clean-up), missions accounting, and checking details for the next mission trip, only a week away.
Wednesday morning, after a night of storms and strong winds, we awoke to be greeted with the task of cutting up and temporarily piling the limbs in the backyard, and repositioning and resecuring the hot tub cover. The winds overnight were near 70 mph, but fortunately we had no damage other than the broken limbs. I had scheduled Wednesday for office work–the June mission report, write and post a new home page for the website, write and send a chairman’s report to the Baxter board, along with other mini-projects and details too numerous to mention.
Wednesday night at Park Plaza was the last night of the spring class series and we enjoyed a final study from the Psalms by Charles Rix, Old Testament professor at Oklahoma Christian. I enjoyed time after class to visit with Charles and renew our acquaintance in Christ, and also to meet his son. At Park Plaza, we are enjoying interacting with those we have known for many years. We are also enjoying meeting many new friends in Christ at the “Park.”
Yesterday (Thursday) we made a quick trip to Arkansas to visit my stepmother and help celebrate her 80th birthday.
Today and tomorrow are already filled with projects–website work, missions contacts, Baxter and Amicus Association activities, writing more leadership development and teacher training materials, and getting ready for what will be a very busy month.

(More on June’s activities tomorrow.)

Blessed! Bendecido!

Today I am blessed. On this day as I awaken again in Honduras, I am thinking of friends, churches, and brothers and sisters in Christ in many parts of Latin America. God is good!
Many times in Latin America, the response to the question, “Como esta?” is “Bendecido.” We are blessed by God. He cares and guides and protects. The challenge is to maintain this awareness of his blessings, even in busy times or times of stress or distress.
Today as I fly back to the US, I plan to make a list of God’s blessings with special emphasis on the past two weeks I have spent in Honduras. Perhaps you can also find time today to make a list of God’s blessings in your life. My list of blessings will include many people, and will also provide me an opportunity to mention those people in prayer.
We are blessed! Bendecidos!

Memorial Day

I remember a time when Memorial Day was Memorial Day. On Memorial Day, even though school was already out for the summer, the high school marching band marched one more time in a procession that ended at the cemetery. Memorial Day was a day for remembering. Today Memorial Day seems more about the first long weekend of summer than a day for remembering. We are rapidly losing an important part of our culture. Not only do our actions betray us, our speech betrays us. Many people do not know what Memorial Day is.

Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day because it was a time set aside to honor the nation’s Civil War dead by decorating their graves. It was first widely observed on May 30, 1868, to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers, by proclamation of General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former sailors and soldiers. On May 5, 1868, Logan declared in General Order No. 11 that:
The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

Today Memorial Day is a day of observances to honor those who have died in all of the nation’s wars. In 1971, Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday to be celebrated the last Monday in May. Previously, the date of Memorial Day celebrations varied from state to state. Memorial Day has also come to be a time for remembering and decorating the graves of family members.

Memorial Day is not Veteran’s Day. Veteran’s Day is set aside to honor all veterans, living and dead, who served with the U.S. armed forces in wartime. It is celebrated each year on November 11.

Memorial Day is not “Armed Forces Day.” The purpose of Armed Forces day is to honor Americans serving in any of the five branches of the armed forces–the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard. Armed Forces Day is celebrated on the third Saturday in May. Armed Forces Week begins on the second Saturday of May and ends on the third Sunday of May. Because of their unique training schedules, National Guard and Reserve units may celebrate Armed Forces Day and Armed Forces Week over any period in May.

I hope you have a pleasant and enjoyable Memorial Day. Time with family and friends is precious, and provides opportunities to remember and celebrate our shared lives. A part of our shared lives is the freedom we enjoy in our nation. I hope that your Memorial Day includes a time for remembering those who have given their lives in order that we might enjoy that freedom.

It’s Sunday Again: Sharing the Word Among God’s People

Another Sunday, reflecting, thinking, remembering. Another Sunday in a long series of Sundays, so long I cannot remember the beginning, now over 3000 Sundays. A lifetime of Sundays, it seems like so many, it seems like so few. Only 3000.
This is not the first Sunday I have spent in Honduras, but I do not know how many. This is not the first Sunday I have spent in Catacamas, but again I do not know the number. It doesn’t matter.
Today I will assemble with the family of God for worship and to surround the Table of the Lord. Here the Supper is called holy. I have been asked to preach. Some Sundays I wish I could listen and drink deeply and relish the renewal and recommitment of the God relationship. The task of preaching is often a distraction in my personal worship, but it is the calling and work of God. I awoke early, thinking about this day, thinking about God and his will and ways in this world.
God’s people seek God. They seek God through His Word. That is my task. Not to tell them a lot of things they do not know. My task is to make God clear, to make the Word of God clear. What is God’s unique message for his people in this place on this day. I have spent much of the last two days asking questions of those I was with, trying to understand the unique needs and challenges. I have thought about how to connect God’s word to those needs. Today, my prayer is that the word spoken might be the word needed, so that God’s people are refreshed and restored and renewed. May it be so!

Three Busy Days

The next three days will be filled and overflowing–today and tomorrow with the seminar at EBH, Sunday with preaching and return travel to Tegucigalpa before my Monday return to the US. The EBH seminar has been shortened with only a half day on Saturday so that those attending can catch the buses to return to their homes and Sunday obligations in the churches.

I look forward to being with those who little by little are making a difference in the life of the churches in this area. God works through us, and often in spite of us. May his people become more and more like him, and glorify and bring honor to his Name!

It’s Always about the People

Yesterday was a good day–a day filled with opportunities to catch up on various projects, but more important, a day to renew friendships in Christ. It has been four years since I was last in Catacamas. Catacamas is growing; there are many new construction projects. I am having to reorient myself after a four-year absence. The city is hardly recognizable compared to the smaller, sleepy community I remember from my first visit 18 years ago.
Yesterday afternoon, after I arrived at San Isidro for mid-week Bible study, I was invited to share the Word of God. I described my memories of preaching the first meeting in that place, under a temporary tent which only partially protected from the rains that came, with two brothers sleeping onsite to protect the chairs and other things that were there for the tent meeting. Now there is a small but energetic congregation seeking to bring Christ to that area. I shared God’s vision for his people from Ephesians 4.
I met with brother Matamoras and I remembered early days in Catacamas and at the School of the Good Samaritan. I will preach at El Colegio on Sunday. Last night I spent time with David and Suyapa Chacon–what a hospitable couple! David is interested in the possibility of more leadership training for a network of relatively new congregations. Yesterday I visited briefly with Jorge Vargas and his family. Today I will visit at the Honduran Bible School in preparation for the leadership seminar which begins tomorrow.
There are many brothers and sisters here that I will not get to see on this trip. Pray that God’s people faithfully hold forth a vision of what it means to be a follower of Christ Jesus. Many times, we are impressed byi those places in this world that overwhelm us with natural beauty–places where we can contemplate God’s power and presence. But the presence of God is for me even better seen in the people whose lives are changed by his presence. Sometimes I need to be reminded–it’s always about the people!
Today, let us live with this concept in mind. It is not about the stuff. It is not about our feelings, our preferences, our “druthers” or our desires. It is not about things; it is not about tasks. It is not about what we have; it is not about what we do. It is not about me; it is not about us. It is about Jesus. And because Jesus loves the world so much that he gave himself, it is about the people Jesus loves, the people we can love in Jesus’ name. It’s always about the people.

Wednesday Morning: Catacamas

Wednesday morning in Catacamas has dawned brisk and cool after a night of rain. My recollections of Catacamas are correct as roosters crowed for much of the night. Except for the occasional unmuffled passing vehicle or a few noisy pedestrians, it is tranquil and quiet as the city awakens…until the construction project across the street resumes at 6:30 with hammers pounding to stabilize the wood frame construction.
Today will pass according to what I call Latin Standard Time, filled with the things that God provides on a timetable unexplicable in human terms. The day will fill with good things and multiplied opportunities, but not according to the best of plans.
Life is in one sense no different in the U.S., only we are at times so occupied with the “to do” list that we miss the opportunities God puts in our path. Regardless of where we find ourselves in God’s eternal plans for advancing his kingdom, may we be awake to his will and way.

Reaping What We Sow

This morning at Baxter, I had the opportunity to visit at breakfast with brother Jorge Quijano, a Baxter graduate from the early days in Honduras, now working in Belize and Mexico. Our conversation turned to the nature of the Christian life and the many blessings that are part of our lives as Christians. Jorge said, “In many ways the Christian life is easier than the life many live in the world.” When I asked him why, he quickly answered, “Because we reap what we sow.”
As I read Galatians 6, I see that we not only reap what we sow, we reap more than we sow. When we are people of suspicion wondering what others are thinking, others are more prone to think likewise about us. We reap what we sow. When we sow peace, we reap peace. When we sow conflict, we reap conflict. When we sow joy, we reap joy. When we sow faith and evangelism and love, we reap the same. When we sow a deep love for the Word of God and the example of hours spent with that Word, we reap the same.
Little by little a church becomes like its leaders as they share (sow) their own lives among the brothers and sisters. Preachers and elders do well to ask themselves what they are sowing. When one wonders why a church is like it is, the answer is usually “because the leaders are that way.”
When a church is evangelistic, it is because the leaders set the example. When a church is studious and loves the word of God, it is because of the example of the pulpit and Bible teachers. At Park Plaza, we are blessed with Mitch’s preaching and example. Mitch is a student of God’s word, and he shares a heart of service and discipleship. A church influenced by people of faith, encouraged in good works, evangelism and missions, will see the same spirit among the members. The church works because of the teaching received and the examples observed.
As we go forth this day, may we be careful about what we sow. Remember, we will reap the same.

It’s Sunday Again: Another “High”

Rejoice, and again I say rejoice! (Phil. 4:4) It’s Sunday again. God on my mind this morning–another fresh, brisk morning following a night of rain. Time to meditate, study, read, think, pray. God time. I love Sundays.
I am amazed that so often in our lives God takes us from one highlight experience to the next. I think about my most recent Sundays with God and the family of God: preaching an evangelistic campaign in Santiago (Chile) where God gave wonderful results and responses, preaching at a congregational retreat the next weekend, worship with the family of God in Montevideo (Uruguay), teaching and preaching at Northwest in Houston, the warm reception of the Park Plaza family in our move to Tulsa, today the opportunity to renew friendships and fellowship with hundreds of Christians at the Culto Unido (area-wide worship) that occurs each year on the Sunday after Seminario Baxter.
On these consecutive Sundays I have been blessed to connect with many different parts of God’s great worldwide family and to share worship with several thousand Christians in different parts of the world. God works in our lives in many different places and times and ways. Sometimes God’s presence is seen through the kind reception and warmth of dozens of greetings and emails that celebrate new relationships and new hope in the shared spiritual journey. Sometimes the glory and presence of God is in the context of a vibrant, growing spiritual family in a local church where we share spiritual life week after week. Sometimes his presence is in the delight of experiencing God’s international family. Sometimes his presence is seen in the marvel of how he continually works and guides and strengthens and blesses.
Regardless of your situation, I hope that this Lord’s Day is for you another high point in your spiritual life. I trust that your spirit will be buoyed for the week ahead, that you will know afresh God’s presence and power in your life, and that the thrill and excitement of God’s work in your life will not fade but will be polished to shine ever brighter.
It’s Sunday again. On this day, God will strengthen the spirits of his people in fellowship; as the call of his Word is heard in fresh and powerful ways we will answer with recommitment and resolve; we will remember his love and sacrifice as we surround the Table; and we will go forth again in hope as changed people living different lives and different commitments in a world of darkness and hopelessness.