What is So Amazing About Grace

I received an email this week that asked me for some thoughts about grace and "Why" its even available. I so love sharing grace with people, mainly because I love having received it and continuing to receive it from a loving God that understands my shortcomings. However, like most people I really struggle with the why sometimes. When I see what a mess we have made of God's love for us I sometimes wonder how long He can put up with it. Without sounding too cliche-ish I guess that is why they call it AMAZING. None of us in our human selfishness and pride would ever come up with the concept and definitely couldn't pull it off. Yet, the creator of the universe says I don't care where you have been or what you have done or who you have done it with I still love you enough to give you my son. After wrestling with the concerns of a parent for a struggling child for the last four years I am even more amazed by a God that would give up a son for people who seemingly don't care on most days. The thought of losing my son is almost paralyzing and I surely can't imagine giving him away without a fight. How did Abraham have the faith and courage to trust God on Mt. Moriah. I haven't been able to completely lay my Isaac down yet, but God is teaching me about faith, and grace and HOPE! Romans 5:8 has become my favorite verse of scripture as God has taken me through the journey of the last few years. "And this is how God showed his love for us, in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us." That part "while we were still sinners" is what comforts me and perplexes me. We don't have to become perfect and can't become perfect on our own. That's what makes grace so amazing, in fact that's what makes it grace.

Screened In Porches and Cool Summer Nights

It's nearly midnight and I find myself in my personal sanctuary reflecting on the day. It was just a routine Monday, which happens to be my day off. Nothing really special about today, but I have spent quite a bit of time here in my personal sanctuary, working on my sermon for Sunday, writing some articles and beginning the early stages of a couple books and potential business ventures. Now at the end of the day I find myself looking over my schedule and to do list and realizing how peaceful it is in my personal sanctuary.

My personal sanctuary is just a simple screened in porch in back of the house. The couple we bought the house from had it built and even wired it with cable (Thank You Ed). I've made a couple of revisions and added some lighting, but it is nothing that impressive. It will never make it onto HGTV or Cribs or anything like that, but it is my place, my personal sanctuary. It is amazing how calm and quiet it is, even in the middle of the day, but especially at midnight.

So as I sit here in the quiet I found myself thinking about how lucky I am to have it. Life is hectic. Some days seem almost unbearable at times, but then I can go to my sanctuary and most nights it's just me ... oh and God.

I find myself writing or at least developing most of my sermons here during warm weather months. Some of the most intense times of prayer in my life take place in my personal sanctuary. Other times I just sit and think in my personal sanctuary. I sure am glad I have this place.

What about you? Do you have a personal place where you can meet God at the beginning or end of the day? I'd love to hear about it.

John Wooden and Other Legends

As a child I remember watching John Wooden lead UCLA to records in college basketball that will live forever. All I knew was that he was the best basketball coach ever. Later in life I found out about the person John Wooden. He was a great coach, but it is the person John Wooden that will be remembered as the legend.

I had a great trip to California a few years ago to spend some time with Coach Wooden's pastor and some other ministers. Unfortunately there was a personal emergency of someone close that took Coach Wooden out of town at the last minute and prevented him from attending the dinner he was supposed to come to with eight preachers to talk about life. Instead he sent autographed books, that just became more of a treasure. I read one of them on the flight home. When we went to church at Shepherd of the Hills on Sunday, there he was, where he was every week he was in town. I was fascinated listening to Dudley tell stories of the legend. One story I remember was about Dudley walking into a Sunday night youth service full of hundreds of teens and modern worship music and seeing Coach Wooden on the back row. Dudley ask him why he was there and Coach said that he was out of town that morning and he just needed to be in worship. Oh by the way, he was 91 at the time! WOW! I sure wish that I had gotten to meet him.

So this morning I am thinking about life and the end of life and what attributes make someone considered a legend. I would love to hear about some other people that you have met (or almost met) who you would consider to be legends and why you feel that way about them.

Would You Be Interested?

Kim and I are considering a new ministry opportunity to parents. We are now transitioning to the empty nest stage of life and feel we have learned many lessons about parenting over the last ten years. If we started a daily blog just for parents and dealt with lessons learned both good and bad and advice from the school of hard knocks, would you be interested enough to follow a blog like that.

Secondly, what are some questions / issues you would be interested in interacting about?

Ukraine Day 10

We have finished the 15 hour train ride and I am writing this from an Internet cafe at the airport in Kiev, Ukraine. We board our first of three flights at 5:55 a.m. EST, land in Paris for an hour to switch planes, then on to ATL arriving at 8:10 and leaving at 9:35 and finally arriving at Louisville at 11p.m.

This has been an incredible experience. I have seen many things that I wish I had never had to see but I am so glad that I did. We are so blessed! Even in the midst of difficult times and even heartbreak we are blessed beyond our wildest imaginations.

I can't wait to hug my wife and kids and of course my little MaLeigha. Popi is on his way! See you guys in KY in a few hours.

Ukraine Day 8 & 9

It is 8:45 a.m. Ukraine time as I sit to eat my last breakfast before the long journey home. Yesterday we made two more visits. We went back to the center Project Pilgrim. We played basketball, ping pong, billards and rode a bicycle with the children. The billards are very difficult as the ball is 25% larger than ours and the pockets are 25% smaller. The children that come there after school are so incredible and have such difficult lives and yet they smile so much!!!

Earlir in the day we went to the final foster home. The home of Galina. She is a single mother who raised her own two children who are now grown. She now has six foster children that she is wonderful with. They are so talented. Many of them sang for us yesterday and you can see evidence of that on Phil Roberts sight at www.ukrainetrip2010.com Two of them are very very talented.

We will begin our travel home at 4:30 local time as we board the train. That will be 9:30 am at home in Kentucky. We will start our three flights home beginning in Kiev at 12:55 tomorrow afternoon Kiev time and finally arrive in Louisville and 11pm Wednesday night. I look forward to seeing my family tomorrow and my extended SCC family as soon as possible.

Please be praying for our travel today as well as Rhonda Souder and Mary Gonda Chandler as they return from Kenya today. Also our team leaves on the Romainian Medical Mission trip this morning with Linda Cain, Dave, Linda & Hannah Jones. They will be conneting with the Sweitzers for a total of 17 people to help people in the remote Romainian villages.

I am ready to hit the road, see you soon. i love you guys!!

Ukraine Day 7

Today was a relatively slow day, but a wonderful day! We went to church this morning at Simferopol Christian Church. There were 50 people there but an absolutely wonderful spirit. I preached with an interpreter. Inga did a great job of keeping up with me. The praise team had four singers and a guitar and keyboard. They were really good and even sang two songs that I knew, How Great Thou Art and Shout to the Lord.

After church we went to lunch with the Ukrainian director of Mulberry Kostia. We had a wonderful home cooked meal with Kostia, his wife Valya and their son Zhenye. It was a wonderful meal of chicken and pototoes and salads and an incredible cake for dessert.

The rest of the day was just to catch up on sleep and rest for two more days visiting before we get back on the train Tuesday afternoon for another all night ride back to Kiev and our return flights home.

Ukraine Day 5& 6

Sorry no post yesterday. We haven't had internet at the hotel for two days. We are sitting in an internet cafe.

Yesterday we went on street patrol and it may have been one of the hardest experiences in my life. We saw one boy sleeping on top of pipes in a hole under the railroad tracks. He was so strung out that he didnt even flinch when the train went over. There are children as young as nine and ten sleeping on the streets alone. Dennis and Faya are the young adults who work with the street kids. They are angels. They both came from the streets and they care so much for these kids. We met two little children with a can spray paint which almost always means they are doing graffiti or sniffing or both. They were cute and laughing but ran away into an abandon apartment. Finally we went in a five story building that was never finished, but looks like it had beenbombed in a war. All that was standing was the concrete. No windows, no doors, no floors, no wiring, no plumbing. People were sleeping everywhere on everything from mattresses to tires. It was the worst human filth you can imagine.

Today we were able to drive to Sevestopol to visit a children's hospital. In Ukraine there are few nurses so when you enter the hospital in is expected that a family member will come sleep in the bed next to you to help care for you. The children that Mulberry works with are orphans and so there is no one to stay with them. Mulberry employs a wonderful lady Olya who cares for the oprhan children there. She gave us a tour of the children's unit. Unbelievable conditions! She told us that they were very concerned about not having air conditioning in the room where they store medicines for the children and as the summer approached she was afraid medicine would spoil and ruin. I asked her how much it would cost to get AC. She said far too much for them. Over $1200 grivna. We asked in US dollars and she said $150. It was such a wonderful feeling to know that I had that much in my pocket and to be able to pay for and AC unit to save this medicine. I write this not because I gave that money, but because it was so little to save so many and we don't realize how blessed we are.

The other exciting part of today was that Olya knew exactly where to the orphanage was that a family from our church had adopted a littlegirl. They had sent pictures and a note to let the orphange know how well their little girl was doing. Olya cried when she saw the pictures and is going to deliver them herself on Monday.

I am amazed and the grandness and size of our world and yet the close lines that connect so many of us through Jesus Christ.

Ukraine Day 4

Kolski and Marcia picked us up at hotel at 8:30 for one hour drive to Yevpatoria on the coast of Black Sea. Mulberry has group home there. It is a former government kindergarten building that is being converted into four family units for families housing foster children. Three units are completed and one is under construction. We went to the incomplete one first. The guys who had been there a year ago couldn't believe how much improvement there was. As a new comer I couldnt believe how far they had to go. But then we visited the families in the other three units and they were amazing! These apartments have 5-7 bedrooms and they are imaculate. One family has 8 children, one has 9 and one has 11. They are fantastic. All three families have different approaches to parenting and different issues involved but they are all great.

We took a break at lunch and went to the coast to walk around a local vacation spot on the Black Sea. It was the Ukrainian version of Hilton Head or Mrytle Beach. Then we ate at unigue Russian restraunt with a Dinosaur head on the roof. It was cafe style with Russian memorabilla on the walls that more or less told Russian history.

We went back to visit some more with the families and then Kolski had to leave and so we caught a bus at the bus station for the ride home. I have now experienced it all planes, trains, automobiles and buses in the Ukraine.

Tomorrow we make a trip to central market area, back to Project Sasha and then out on street patrol tomorrow night!

Ukraine Adventure Days 1-3

Day 1 - First Flight Louisville to Cincy - Easy flight except really warm. During layover we ate at max and Ermas and talked about families and Ukrainian/Russian history.
Second Flight Cincy to Paris - 3640 miles in 7 1/2 hours, almost got an entire row to mysef, but an attorney from London England sat down. fascinating chap! :-)

Day 2 - Third FLight Paris to Kiev - I got a window seat and then slept the whole way. We had a five hour layover before train ride and so we went sight seeing in Kiev, including eating at McDonalds (Big Mac Combo $19.50), mother Russia park and Painters Street market. Did I mention there was a train ride? 500 miles in 16 hours due south to Crimenan Peninsula. Arrived a little after 9 am local time.

Day 3 - Check into hotel. First visit to Project Sasha. Ministry Center that works with kids after school in youth group, athletics, tutoring, etc. The visited Shabelski family. They have been taking care of orphed children for 20 years since before there were Ukrainian orphanges. Incredible family that proves Matthew 25 kind of care for people is possible. Then we ate at a Ukrainian Cafe. I had my first "borshk" with some chicken (thats what they said it was) and mashed potatoes and desert. All of that was good. Had some Russian smoked fruit drink, not so much.
It was a good day with Constatine and Marcia. Marcia is a twenty one year old native who is our interpreter. She reminds me greatly of my daughter Evann.

I'll send more tomorrow!

Where are You God?

Over the past few years there have been many occasions of contemplation about where God could possibly be in the midst of all that is going on. Yea, pastors have those thoughts too. There are plenty of times when we just want to shout out, "Hey we are on your team, we are one of the good guys." Everyone has those moments. So what do you do? I have recently found a place of escape. It is a very tiny place with a window to the world. I am sitting there now and reflecting on a good weekend and realizing God was in the details of the weekend. A great day of worship, great news last week for our daughter, a great day with our son, a great lunch with new friends and the list goes on and on.
As I sat down to write for a while I asked almost out loud, "God what are you doing right now?" As I looked out my little window on the world 24 geese flew over, heading south. God giving them guidance and direction. What a great reminder that God is in all of the details. From what is going on in our lives to the birds flying south for the winter he covers it all and he covers you too.
Where are you seeing God in the details of your life?

Wow where does time go?

The last three months have been a whirlwind. I couldn't believe that it had been three months since I posted. With that in mind let me reflect a moment. James, the half-brother of Jesus, asks us what we are doing with our moments in James 4:14 "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." And Paul reminds us that we waste many of our few moments worrying about minor problems on the eternal scale. "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." 2 Corinthians 4:17

And so I wonder, what if I had been in Haiti 15 days ago and that had been my final moment ... What if that moment is much sooner than I realize ...

I'm gonna try my best to just enjoy this moment ... and then the next ... and then