Alan Hirsch makes my head hurt!

I know I haven't posted anything since Easter. I have traveled several places and have a lot on my plate...(including my family being in Georgia for a month without me!!!) But I could not help but post what I read on Alan Hirsch's blog today. If you don't know who he is, you can click on his name above and read his blog...he is an incredible thinker and leader in the church as it moves into the future. He wrote the following and I thought I would share it here with you...

The Church and the Kingdom

A brief little interlude with the chaos and church posts. In my writing I came across this quote today by theologian Richard Neuhaus (who died earlier this year). It is worth considering because of the implied association of the Church with the Kingdom of God.

Alfred Loisy the 19th century historian was right in saying that Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom of God but what appeared was the Church. The disappointment was and continues to be severe. But the great irony is that today we alleviate our disappointment with the contemporary Church by pointing back to the New Testament Church --which was the great disappointment to begin with! Our restless discontent should not be over the distance between ourselves and the first century Church but over the distance between ourselves and the Kingdom of God to which the Church then and now is the witness. - -- R.J. Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry, 33.

Great Easter

We had a great Easter today. Not sure how many we had in the service, but I was excited about how service went. I was nervous about this service all week. I know that all opportunities to share God's word with people are important, but we all know that there are people who come to church on Easter that normally don't go to church. Their moms or grandmas might drag them there, but they are there none the less. So I was excited about the opportunity of sharing the awesome reality of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

After church we went to our friend Carla's family gathering. Maggie was able to hang out with some friends and hunt Easter eggs. She even found one with some money in it!

We had a great day. I hope you all did as well!

Chuck Norris is cool!

I saw this today on another blog and I wanted to give you a chance to read it. I love Chuck Norris!

New Wire Click here and read the article!

Happy April!

We Made It Home

So we have made it home. I will compile a few more blogs about the trip and post them here. But for tonight, I am going to go to sleep!

Cebu Lecheon

Today is our last full day in the Philippines. I will be going to Deparo later today to visit with some of the people there. But for now, we are waiting on lunch. We are having Cebu Lecheon. It is a roasted pig flown in from the island where Cebu is located. I have not seen it yet, but here is a picture of Paul holding the knife we will use to cut it!!!

I will get some pictures later for you to see!

Great Day of Ministry

Well, it is late and I need to get a shower and get to bed, but I spent the night away from "base camp" last night and really got to see more of the "real Philippines." I was able to visit some of the homes of the people that the churches here minister to. It is a totally different world here when it comes to poverty. I have included a couple of pictures of the homes we visited. The twins you see here were just born to a mother in the home you see here. The house was nothing more that plywood and bamboo.

This is the small house the twins lived in...

Here are the twins...swinging in their little hammock!

After we visited them, we visited with some people who were helping with a girl who just gave birth to another baby. She doesn't have any family, but needed a lot of help. She tested positive for Hepatitis A. The baby was being treated so she would not come down with it as well. Our church was able to pay for the blood the mother needed. It is amazing how far American dollars go here. She needed one pint of blood. If no one was willing to donate (which seems to be taboo here among some of the people), she had to buy it. One bag of blood - $500 Pisos. That is equal to $10.00 American. How crazy is that!

Something else I learned about the Philippines. You cannot give blood here if you have a tattoo. I am actually the mother's blood type, so I was considering donation, but once the pastor's remembered that I had tattoos, that came to a quick end. It is not permitted for a tattooed person to donate blood here. I can't say that I blame them. I guess you can't be too sure where they got the tattoo and if the needle was dirty or not!!!

This is baby Lilian Grace...

This is Lilian's mother. Notice the car in the back ground. There is actually no glass in that window...and the hospital had no Air Conditioning...Just open air and a fan!


So I am going to bed now. I hope you enjoy the pictures of the babies. I know that every time I see one, I want to bundle them up and take them home!

Hot day of Preaching!

Today was a great day. Paul and I went to Bocaue today and I preached at that service. I videoed part of a song while their worship team was playing. It was like being in youth ministry again. It was loud and fast! During this first service, Paul ordained the churches first deaconess. It was a cool experience!

After church we went to the mall to eat. (The mall is a topic for a blog later!) We had Wendy's for lunch. It was nice to eat some American food. We walked around for a while and then headed back to the church.

At the church, Paul and I split up. He went to Pulilan. It is a church they are starting across the street from a college. It was full of young people. Paul said it was great. 15 people gave their life to Christ.

I went to Daparo and preached at Pastor Efran's church. It was a building the size of most people's living rooms. They had 40+ people seated in there and 10 or so outside. Even though it was a small room, there was a small sound system...and it was loud! I preached again and Pastor Gary translated for me. It was the 3rd time he translated for me and we had fun with it.

It is very different preaching to people who have nothing. If I talked about something they didn't have (ie. a car) Gary would translate it into bicycle. I am learning that is for sure.

We are starting a VBS here at Grandma Grace's house tomorrow. We will spend the day with the Pastor's of the churches and then back here for VBS.

The bonus points go to my mom, sister, and Noah. They all knew that aso was dog. Yes, some people eat dog here! I will spend some time writing a longer post offline and post it later with some pictures!