A Story From Last Night

Last night Leigh-Ann and I finished up our final adoption certification class. This has been a long process and we have learned A LOT! However, nothing prepared us for the experience we had last night….

The class facilitators invited several additional people for a panel discussion. The adoption attorney was great, the social workers were helpful, but the most impacting person of the evening was a 13 year old girl waiting for an adoptive family.

Through a series of bad choices, her parents and the entire extended family has abandoned her!

Can you imagine how that would feel if EVERY PERSON related to you left you?

We were sitting in a semi-circle with the guests at a table at the front of the room. The social worker had prepared several questions for the adoptive girl.

“What kind of a forever family would you like—mom only, dad only or both mom and dad?”
“Both a mom and a dad.”

“What else would you like for your forever parents?”
“I want them to be young, like in their 20’s.”

“What are some things you would like your forever parents to do for you?”
“Love me.”

“Would you like any brothers and sisters?”
“Yeah, a younger brother and a sister.”

“What are some things you would like your forever family to do?”
“I guess….just spend time together every day.”

It was about this time that the guy next to me said, “we would spend time with you” and a woman across the room said, “we would love you.” The conversation that ensued was a cocktail of emotions that will be very difficult to describe.

A child was literally begging for a family to love her, two families were moved emotionally and began to jockey for her approval and the rest of us were left to our own observations.

In reality, it felt like an auction for a person…..was this really happening in the 21st century? On the other hand I was faced with the fact that there are MANY, MANY people in our society who are kind and generous enough to accept the responsibility of raising a child in need.

What if that was you at the table with no family to love you?
What if you could make a difference in a child’s life by making a decision to sacrifice?
What if you could be a better person for those closest to you?

You can!!!!

This Sunday, I will be sharing a sermon from 1 Peter 3:1-7. The topic will be about building family relationships for an eternal kingdom. Through a relationship with the Lord, you can build and re-build strong family relationships.

Two quick things:

--Count your blessings
--Love your family

In Memory of Pepper

Yesterday our house was very sad….lots of tears and lots of pain. We had to put Pepper to sleep. He has been a part of our family for nearly 10 years. Because of his arthritic condition he could barely make it up steps, he was constantly in pain and recently had begun throwing up. The inevitable had arrived, the end was near and we were faced with a very difficult decision.

Over the past several years we have accumulated lots of memories with our dog…..well, I guess most of them have to do with him begging for food, or snoring, or licking his paw, or trolling the neighborhood, or sleeping, or just laying down waiting to be pet.

If I were to write an obituary for him, I may struggle finding accomplishments….he never saved our lives (that we know of), he never had any puppies (I guess we had something to do with that), he never really learned any cool tricks (besides begging for food), he was not the fastest dog (possibly closer to the fattest dog), he never made any life changing discoveries (unless finding and dragging in a dead bird counts), he was just an ordinary dog that EVERYONE LOVED!

He had a great personality, was gentle with children and was so puffy that you just had to pet him. Pepper was willing to be anyone’s friend. He did not care if you looked good, smelled good or had lots of money. He humbly sniffed every dog’s behind in the neighborhood. Pepper left a legacy of acceptance, love and friendship.....NOT TOO SHABBY!!!!
So why is death so difficult?

Maybe for the same reason change is difficult. There is a part of us that doesn’t want another dog, because we don’t want to go through loss. Down deep we know that the years we had with Pepper were totally worth the pain of the loss, however while going through loss we seem to just want it to go away.

Death and loss and change are a part of life…..not a part of life we enjoy, but nonetheless a part of life. This means that we have the option to grow through our difficult times or simply attempt to shield ourselves from difficult times. Often the cost of shielding is far greater than the cost of actual loss.

The sermon this week is from 1 Peter 2:18-25 and it is about suffering. Much of the service will celebrate the suffering of Jesus. The objective for each of us will be to learn how to thrive during difficult times from the example of Jesus who conquered suffering through death. If you miss the service you can hear it here.

Frozen Brain Syndrome

I am experiencing BRAIN FREEZE!!! I am drinking one of the AWESOME smoothies from The Blend (2010 Main Street, KCMO-in case you were wondering :) ). Speaking from experience, brain freeze is frustrating and actually very painful….

According to Wikipedia, brain freeze, primarily known as ice cream headache, but also cold headache, shakeache, frigid face, freezie, frozen brain syndrome, cold-stimulus headache, or its given scientific name sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia (meaning "nerve pain of the sphenopalatine ganglion"), is a form of brief cranial pain or headache commonly associated with consumption (particularly quick consumption) of cold beverages or foods such as ice cream.

Wow, frozen brain syndrome sounds serious…..and it is serious for less than a minute. During this time, thoughts of desperation begin to surface, what if it doesn’t go away? After 15-20 seconds (unless you get a doozy) the frigid face starts to fade. There is a certain feeling of relief and gratefulness that it did not last any longer.

My little secret for coping with the freezie is to keep going without letting it get to you. For instance if you are in a conversation, continue in conversation, if you are typing an e-mail keep typing the e-mail, if you are working, don’t let it take you away from your stated purpose. I don’t think the cold-stimulus headache will go away any faster, however it will seem much faster and you will not lose out on work in the meantime.

There are times when we experience a life size sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia and for the moment we feel like we need to stop everything we are doing and concentrate on the pain. Resist the urge!!!

Our Scripture for this Sunday is found in 1 Peter 2:11-17 and in this passage the Apostle Peter appeals to the scattered Christians to “be the Gospel.” He tells them not to allow the present trials to throw them off track. The call is for them to react honorably, submit to authority and live as free people in Christ.

While we do not necessarily fear for our lives…..we do live in a very unstable world. The stock market has been experiencing some supersized gravitational forces, the politicians continue to speak out of both sides of their mouths promising many things that are impossible to deliver on and the job market, and housing market and even the supermarket have been less than inviting.

So…………..maybe we all need a fresh dose of Peter’s epistle!

A Reminder for Difficult Times

This morning shortly after stumbling out of bed and successfully navigating downstairs in the dark I made a bottle and started feeding Paiton. My mind wandered from the day ahead, to the stock market, to trying to imagine what Paiton could understand. For a moment I was envious of her…..think about it…..all she has to do is eat, sleep and endure a diaper change. Her main responsibilities are to whimper when she needs something….if that doesn’t work she just needs to cry louder….and I’m not certain, but I think she can get as loud as she needs to be, to get what she needs to get.

So this morning as my mind was wandering from topic to topic I had a thought that stopped me in my tracks and I thought, “This would be a great e-mail topic for today.” It was something that if the words were taken literally would actually be pretty funny……the funny thing now, is that for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was….

Am I the only one who has a grand thought and tucks it away for the near future and then when the near future comes can’t resuscitate it? This is so FRUSTRATING!!! The word is on the tip of my tongue and even with the help of Google and Wikipedia combined, I can’t get it. 
I have another problem....in addition to memory loss…..I am stubborn! When these two problems get paired together chances are there will be a nuclear etymological reaction in the near future. 

See, how can I think of something so intellectual sounding as “nuclear etymological reaction” and not recall a simple thought I had this morning?

This is just the way it is sometimes…..we can dive to catch a line drive and then miss the pop fly. We can awe clients and perform incredibly in our careers and then forget something simple. We can spend hundreds of hours planning for the future and in one catastrophic event lose it all. 

I guess if there is a point to be made it is this: don’t hold anything too tightly! Learn to travel with the circumstances God is putting into your life…..

One last metaphor and I’m done……Judo is a martial art that is successful because it uses the force of an opponent against the opponent. When faced with difficult times, we must learn that our trials could be the motivation necessary for us to make change. Stop fighting the circumstances that God allows to come into your life and in turn allow Him to use them to improve your status in His eyes.

This Sunday we continue our study of 1 Peter….the Christians are persecuted, scattered and getting overwhelmed with life. We will look at chapter 2:4-10 and hopefully find encouragement and fresh energy to live out our faith in spite of our circumstances. I hope to see you there….and if I think of my word….I’ll share the story then……chances are, it’s gone!

Relocation Update

This week's post will be mostly informational.....though I can't resist sharing one fun story. Just over a week ago, after signing my life away for the next two years, and agreeing to a fairly hefty monthly plan, my cell phone provider offered a new phone for free. This phone came with a "Bluetooth" earpiece.....now one thing I can't stand is what I call the earpiece irritants:

  * The people who are in the same aisle as you in the grocery store and look right at you and say "Hello" and then just as you smile and return the greeting you realize they are on that annoying earpiece 
  * The people who wear their earpiece as an accessory....we all know you are trying to tell the world you are (insert ego boosting adjective here) because you have an earpiece
  * The people who should be wearing the earpiece in the car where it was intended to be worn so they don't swerve lanes and put the rest of the vehhicular population at risk

So here's my little story before the VIP informational part of the e-mail....within two days, I lost my earpiece. It was really getting me frustrated because I was starting to like the "hands free" in the car. And then the magic moment....I was moving some laundry from the washing machine to the dryer when I found my earpiece....it had gone thorugh an entire wash cycle. Assuming the situation was hopeless, I plugged it in just to be sure and in the morning, turned it on and amazingly enough it has worked ever since. So the moral of the story: when you feel like you have been washed up and endured the spin cycle of life, remember if my earpiece has a second life you probably do too....(p.s. If you want a Bible answer to your problems in life come on Sunday as we will discuss 1 Peter 2:1-3).

VIP - INFORMATION
 
Many of you have expressed and already shown interest in the work that God is doing at New Life Ministries. If you have not heard the latest, we have several short videos on our website that you may enjoy at http://newlifekc.org/resources/deploy/.
 
With our attendance growing to 200, this spring we secured a lease on the entire 4th floor (10,000 square feet of unfinished space) at 1828 Walnut in the Crossroads District in downtown Kansas City. This is an ideal location for our church, in the heart of the rapidly growing arts and loft district and will allow our church to grow to as large as 900 regular attendees.
 
This summer we have been in the process of planning, design and plan review by KCMO. We just received approval for our construction permits and we are now ready to begin build out and finish of the space.
 
Our church has made the commitment to tackle this construction project on a cash only basis. We are thankful that after 18 months of existence we have been able to pay every bill and still save $100,000 for the remodeling of our future home.
 
Generally remodeling a space like this costs $40 to $50 per square foot ($400,000 to $500,000 for our 10,000 square feet). However, through the commitments to volunteer from several tradesmen in our church and careful planning we will to be able to complete the basic construction for approximately $200,000. With our $100,000 that we have raised, we are approximately $100,000 short of reaching this point as you can see here.
 
In order to BEGIN construction we have to start the framing, electrical, plumbing, and heating/cooling portions of the job at the same time. We are approximately $11,600 short for this initial start up.
 
The purpose of this informational part of the e-mail is to let you know of these needs, and if the Lord leads you to give we will commit to use the funds as efficiently as possible.