Monday, August 31, 2009
"The Flaming Word"
This is the 3rd in our series of posts on our trip to Pat Pugh's church in Cincinnati. As I said earlier, my part of the VBS was portraying the Apostle (hence my new nick-name at Central with our Teens - "AP") Paul in prison. Each night the kids came up the stairs into our un-airconditioned dungeon, they found me, "Paul," chained by the wrist to my personal Roman Guard, "Flavius Maximus." The other guard who is now down at PBA did not have a name in the skit so I hung the moniker, "Gluteus Maximus" upon him.
Each night the kids came up to my dungeon, the lights were turned out, the windows covered by black construction paper, and our only light were some tea-lights on an old rickety table that Maximus and I used to hide our scripts. Also on this table was a rolled up piece of parchment paper that I would unrolled each night to show the kids a new part of "Romans" that I had written the previous day. As the kids would walk in with their "Family Leader," I would stand up still chained to Maximus, and welcome them to my dungeon.
One night I was a bit too gregarious in my greeting because as I stood, I unknowingly bumped our rickety table which caused the rolled up parchment paper to roll into one of the tea candles. As the "Bible" began to go up in flames, yours truly was oblivious to this "holy fire" as I continued with my welcoming the kids to my dungeon. It wasn't until one of our teens who was one of the family leaders yelled, "The Bible is on fire," that I took noticed of the situation.
Now if I had been on my game I might have said in my best Shakespearean / Paul voice, "The Word is like living flame" but the only thing that could come to my brain was, "Crap, just a minute my friends." As luck would have it there was a sink within "throwing distance" (not to mention within reached of my chained up hand) so I grabbed the burning word and threw it into the sink. Before I could turn the water faucet on the smoke alarm went off but was quickly turned off by one of the teens who grabbed a chair and stood on it.
Oh, the kids while we were in panic mode just sat there, quiet, and unmoving. I guess when you live in the "hood" a little fire just doesn't register on the radar screen. I will never forget that week of being chained to David, hanging out with "Gluteus Maximus," and almost literally bringing the house down as the Apostle Paul.
Each night the kids came up to my dungeon, the lights were turned out, the windows covered by black construction paper, and our only light were some tea-lights on an old rickety table that Maximus and I used to hide our scripts. Also on this table was a rolled up piece of parchment paper that I would unrolled each night to show the kids a new part of "Romans" that I had written the previous day. As the kids would walk in with their "Family Leader," I would stand up still chained to Maximus, and welcome them to my dungeon.
One night I was a bit too gregarious in my greeting because as I stood, I unknowingly bumped our rickety table which caused the rolled up parchment paper to roll into one of the tea candles. As the "Bible" began to go up in flames, yours truly was oblivious to this "holy fire" as I continued with my welcoming the kids to my dungeon. It wasn't until one of our teens who was one of the family leaders yelled, "The Bible is on fire," that I took noticed of the situation.
Now if I had been on my game I might have said in my best Shakespearean / Paul voice, "The Word is like living flame" but the only thing that could come to my brain was, "Crap, just a minute my friends." As luck would have it there was a sink within "throwing distance" (not to mention within reached of my chained up hand) so I grabbed the burning word and threw it into the sink. Before I could turn the water faucet on the smoke alarm went off but was quickly turned off by one of the teens who grabbed a chair and stood on it.
Oh, the kids while we were in panic mode just sat there, quiet, and unmoving. I guess when you live in the "hood" a little fire just doesn't register on the radar screen. I will never forget that week of being chained to David, hanging out with "Gluteus Maximus," and almost literally bringing the house down as the Apostle Paul.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Hanging Out With CUMO and the Community Center
Pat Pugh's church is called "C.U.M.O." which stands for "Cincinnati Urban Ministry Organization." CUMO sits in the middle of "the hood" as locals refer to it. As with many "hoods," drugs, alcohol, gambling, and crime are your next door neighbors, even the church. Every day that we drove up in our church bus, in the morning, after lunch, or in the early evening hours, there was always a group of guys smoking weed and gambling literally on the steps of the church. Can you think of a better place that needs Jesus or where He might hang out.
The guys were always respectful of our space and would usually walked down the steps and a couple of houses down from the building. One day I was driving the community kids back to their community Center in our church bus. As I tried to get away from the church, several law enforcement vehicles flew in from all directions causing me to try and get a very large bus out of the way as they converged on the same house that our "guys" were using as a hang-out.
Officers with guns drawn and drug sniffing dogs swarmed the area in what appeared to be a major drug bust. I was amazed at how much respect Pat and his wife have in that community. It was apparent as he walked among the gathering crowd with the way he was greeted, "Pastor Pat."
Our days started at the Millvale (http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/crc/pages/-36131-/) Community Center. There was a Summer Recreation Program taking place that we were allowed to participate in and literally play with the kids. These kids were starving for attention. Some of the younger ones physically clung to our teens, getting piggyback rides, and playing games with them.
Now I know some of you will have a hard time believing this but yours truly was somewhat of a "Rock Start" at the Center. My part of the VBS was to play the Apostle (check out my picture on Facebook) Paul in prison each day. Each day I showed up at the Center I was greeted with a chorus of, "Hey Paul." There were also questions such as how could I be hanging out at the Center if I was in Prison? Most of the kids seem to be O.K. with my temporary pardon to hang out with them and invitation to come back to "Pastor Pat's church" to see me back in chains and in prison.
I tell you, the men and women who work at "the Center" are providing a service that you can't put a price on - safety, stability, love, and fun. Sounds like a good call to ministry, yes?
The guys were always respectful of our space and would usually walked down the steps and a couple of houses down from the building. One day I was driving the community kids back to their community Center in our church bus. As I tried to get away from the church, several law enforcement vehicles flew in from all directions causing me to try and get a very large bus out of the way as they converged on the same house that our "guys" were using as a hang-out.
Officers with guns drawn and drug sniffing dogs swarmed the area in what appeared to be a major drug bust. I was amazed at how much respect Pat and his wife have in that community. It was apparent as he walked among the gathering crowd with the way he was greeted, "Pastor Pat."
Our days started at the Millvale (http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/crc/pages/-36131-/) Community Center. There was a Summer Recreation Program taking place that we were allowed to participate in and literally play with the kids. These kids were starving for attention. Some of the younger ones physically clung to our teens, getting piggyback rides, and playing games with them.
Now I know some of you will have a hard time believing this but yours truly was somewhat of a "Rock Start" at the Center. My part of the VBS was to play the Apostle (check out my picture on Facebook) Paul in prison each day. Each day I showed up at the Center I was greeted with a chorus of, "Hey Paul." There were also questions such as how could I be hanging out at the Center if I was in Prison? Most of the kids seem to be O.K. with my temporary pardon to hang out with them and invitation to come back to "Pastor Pat's church" to see me back in chains and in prison.
I tell you, the men and women who work at "the Center" are providing a service that you can't put a price on - safety, stability, love, and fun. Sounds like a good call to ministry, yes?
Monday, August 24, 2009
"Shed"-ing Tears Over Cabins
This is the next post about our trip to Cincinnati to do a VBS for Pat Pugh's church. After driving 800 miles we rolled in to what appeared to be a very nice campground. The "Camp" was complete with beautiful one and two story brick homes. As Chad and I approached one of the "Cabins," Chad remarked, "This could be really nice."
Something deep in my youth trip soul said, "I wish he hadn't said that." We were met by one of the "Cottage Parents" as we quickly found out that the nice brick "cabins" were actually part of a "Christian Home." The kind lady pointed across a field and told us that "our cabins" were "over there." As we walked back to our bus I told Chad, "I don't see any cabins, just a row of "sheds."
Those sheds turned out to be our cabins. Now, they were relatively new as the plywood above my head in my bottom bunk read, "2007." The sheds, I mean cabins were small with 4 bunks / 8 beds and an air-conditioning "unit" which turned out to be a box fan in one of the windows held into place by a bungee cord. But despite all of that it turned out to be one of the best campground experiences I've ever had so please, don't "shed" any tears for me after you read this post. :)
Something deep in my youth trip soul said, "I wish he hadn't said that." We were met by one of the "Cottage Parents" as we quickly found out that the nice brick "cabins" were actually part of a "Christian Home." The kind lady pointed across a field and told us that "our cabins" were "over there." As we walked back to our bus I told Chad, "I don't see any cabins, just a row of "sheds."
Those sheds turned out to be our cabins. Now, they were relatively new as the plywood above my head in my bottom bunk read, "2007." The sheds, I mean cabins were small with 4 bunks / 8 beds and an air-conditioning "unit" which turned out to be a box fan in one of the windows held into place by a bungee cord. But despite all of that it turned out to be one of the best campground experiences I've ever had so please, don't "shed" any tears for me after you read this post. :)
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Can't Make It Because????
Hello there - my followup posts will have to follow up after this one. A group of us are planning to take our college kids out to their favorite restaurant before they all head off to college. When the plans were announced all of the "kids" and their parents gave an affirmative save for one family.
They said there was a strong probability they would be unable to attend due to:
1. Death in the family? No.
2. Catastrophic illness? No.
3. Family coming in from out of town? No.
O.K, are you ready? The reason they might miss this fun event - poor gator hunting! Yes, you know you're a redneck when you can't make a dinner engagement because the gator hunting hasn't been as productive as you had anticipated.
How many places in the world could poor gator hunting be used as a, "I'm sorry, but ....."
They said there was a strong probability they would be unable to attend due to:
1. Death in the family? No.
2. Catastrophic illness? No.
3. Family coming in from out of town? No.
O.K, are you ready? The reason they might miss this fun event - poor gator hunting! Yes, you know you're a redneck when you can't make a dinner engagement because the gator hunting hasn't been as productive as you had anticipated.
How many places in the world could poor gator hunting be used as a, "I'm sorry, but ....."
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Cincinnati
After getting back from Greg's and SoCal, we had a couple of weeks for a "break" before we (as the Beverly Hillbillies Theme song kind of said) "loaded up the bus and headed for Cincinnati." That is, we headed out for Cincinnati with our Youth Group to give back to Pat Pugh and his church. I say "give back" because Pat has given so much to our church, kids, and week of Bible Camp for the last 3 years.
On a personal note, I feel that some of our "kids" desires to enter ministry is partly a result of seeing Pat in action, keeping it real for Jesus as he might say.
Our task was to put on a VBS for his church in inner-city Cincinnati. Now, since we're heading into the weekend and I like to end on a light note, I'll save some details of our trip for later but I'll end on a story that will give you some insight into my sometimes "O.C.D." mind.
We stayed at a Bible Camp in the rolling Ohio farm land outside the City. My bunk mates in my "Cabin" were Chad, our Youth Minister, and two of our college kids. On the second or third night at the Camp, I had the occasion to be the last man into our Cabin. Chad and our college guys were still awake but already in bed.
As I began to go through my "preparations" for bed, the college guys would periodically burst out into laughter. Now, without giving you an unwanted mental picture, I wasn't even close to being "undressed" for bed which understandably could have generated laughter from a couple of punks, I mean young brothers in Christ. After the third outburst of shaking beds and uncontrollable laughter, I had to ask, "What?"
The college guys first said to Chad, "Chad, you're a prophet." This brought the same question from me, "What!?" Then Chad proceeded to explain that having "slept" (in a Christian way) with me in Colorado, West Virginia, Louisiana, and now Ohio he was privy to my "getting ready for bed madness."
You see, when the college guys laid down in their beds and said, "Man, I'm tired and ready to sleep," Chad told them it was too early since I wasn't in the Cabin yet and they would have another 10 minutes of my apparently very discernible, repeated, and comical routine of talking to myself as I methodically undressed, emptied my pockets, put everything in a certain place, laid my next day's clothes out, and made preparations for having to get up in a moment's notice in the middle of the night. All of this according to Chad, while I talked my way through it. I could have been mad or perhaps embarrassed but the sad truth is, it's true!! Now I know why Barb asks almost every night, "Are you coming to bed?" I use to think that was a redundant question but with Chad's help I now know it's been a 28 year old plea for, "Would you hurry up so I can sleep!"
I'll end this post here because by my calculations now that I know I'm weird, I have to start getting ready for bed.
Upcoming Posts
"These Aren't Your Cabins"
"Hanging Out With CUMO and the Community Center"
"The Flaming Word"
"Beltless Non-Denomination"
On a personal note, I feel that some of our "kids" desires to enter ministry is partly a result of seeing Pat in action, keeping it real for Jesus as he might say.
Our task was to put on a VBS for his church in inner-city Cincinnati. Now, since we're heading into the weekend and I like to end on a light note, I'll save some details of our trip for later but I'll end on a story that will give you some insight into my sometimes "O.C.D." mind.
We stayed at a Bible Camp in the rolling Ohio farm land outside the City. My bunk mates in my "Cabin" were Chad, our Youth Minister, and two of our college kids. On the second or third night at the Camp, I had the occasion to be the last man into our Cabin. Chad and our college guys were still awake but already in bed.
As I began to go through my "preparations" for bed, the college guys would periodically burst out into laughter. Now, without giving you an unwanted mental picture, I wasn't even close to being "undressed" for bed which understandably could have generated laughter from a couple of punks, I mean young brothers in Christ. After the third outburst of shaking beds and uncontrollable laughter, I had to ask, "What?"
The college guys first said to Chad, "Chad, you're a prophet." This brought the same question from me, "What!?" Then Chad proceeded to explain that having "slept" (in a Christian way) with me in Colorado, West Virginia, Louisiana, and now Ohio he was privy to my "getting ready for bed madness."
You see, when the college guys laid down in their beds and said, "Man, I'm tired and ready to sleep," Chad told them it was too early since I wasn't in the Cabin yet and they would have another 10 minutes of my apparently very discernible, repeated, and comical routine of talking to myself as I methodically undressed, emptied my pockets, put everything in a certain place, laid my next day's clothes out, and made preparations for having to get up in a moment's notice in the middle of the night. All of this according to Chad, while I talked my way through it. I could have been mad or perhaps embarrassed but the sad truth is, it's true!! Now I know why Barb asks almost every night, "Are you coming to bed?" I use to think that was a redundant question but with Chad's help I now know it's been a 28 year old plea for, "Would you hurry up so I can sleep!"
I'll end this post here because by my calculations now that I know I'm weird, I have to start getting ready for bed.
Upcoming Posts
"These Aren't Your Cabins"
"Hanging Out With CUMO and the Community Center"
"The Flaming Word"
"Beltless Non-Denomination"
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Summer Catch-up
With the start of school I asked my kids to share what they did on their summer vacation. Since I took a summer blog break - I'll share with those of you still reading and I'll pick up from my last blog before I went on "B.S." That would be "blog sabbatical" by the way.
As you saw in the last photo I posted, just a couple of days after "sleep deprivation week" better known as Bible Camp, we headed out to SoCal and Greg's. That was such a sweet week as we renewed our friendship with (http://gregengland.theobloggers.com/) Greg and Janice. Our son spent a lot of time with Greg's son, his wife, and their very young family. Our son who heads off to a Christian College soon, became enamoured with the young ones. In fact, he has a photo of the 2 year old on the dash of his car. He also put the twins picture on our desktop computer. My joy was increased seeing how he enjoyed the little ones.
We had a lot of fun with Greg and Jan while also developing an interesting phenomenon. It seemed that everything centered around the Mortuary. One day my son said, "Hey Dad, I need to meet Josh at the mortuary." In a milli-second he stopped his conversation, looked at me with a surprised look and said, "I never thought I'd use that word (mortuary) so casually."
So, if you ever make the trip out to SoCal to hang out with Greg and Jan, be prepared to spend lots of time at the "Mortuary" which by the way, has some great people working there performing ministry in a powerful way. O.K., there you have it. More to come.
As you saw in the last photo I posted, just a couple of days after "sleep deprivation week" better known as Bible Camp, we headed out to SoCal and Greg's. That was such a sweet week as we renewed our friendship with (http://gregengland.theobloggers.com/) Greg and Janice. Our son spent a lot of time with Greg's son, his wife, and their very young family. Our son who heads off to a Christian College soon, became enamoured with the young ones. In fact, he has a photo of the 2 year old on the dash of his car. He also put the twins picture on our desktop computer. My joy was increased seeing how he enjoyed the little ones.
We had a lot of fun with Greg and Jan while also developing an interesting phenomenon. It seemed that everything centered around the Mortuary. One day my son said, "Hey Dad, I need to meet Josh at the mortuary." In a milli-second he stopped his conversation, looked at me with a surprised look and said, "I never thought I'd use that word (mortuary) so casually."
So, if you ever make the trip out to SoCal to hang out with Greg and Jan, be prepared to spend lots of time at the "Mortuary" which by the way, has some great people working there performing ministry in a powerful way. O.K., there you have it. More to come.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Cry Out to Jesus
So I'm back. I took an unannounced blog break this summer. My summer was full of fun, blessings, friends, mission, and pain. The first four were comprised of Bible Camp, hanging out with Greg in California, seeing my friends Bob and Shelby in South Carolina, and going on one of the best youth trips I've ever been on- doing a VBS for Pat Pugh's church in Cincinnati.
There was pain as well. On the personal side, I had my first visit to the Dermatologist. Most of it was good news with a return visit scheduled for late August to finish up a little "scraping and burning" as the nurse describe to me today.
Pain also involved a number of deaths with the last one being very tragic. The Third Day song, "Cry Out to Jesus" as been on my computer and in my mind. I'll leave with the lyrics and the hope that someone will be blessed in a time of pain. God bless.
To everyone who's lost someone they love
Long before it was their time
You feel like the days you had were not enough when you said goodbye
And to all of the people with burdens and pains
Keeping you back from your life
You believe that there's nothing and there is no one
Who can make it right
Chorus
There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
Love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus
For the marriage that's struggling just to hang on
They lost all of their faith and love
They've done all they can to make it right again
Still it's not enough
For the ones who can't break the addictions and chains
You try to give up but you come back again
Just remember that you're not alone in your shame
And your suffering
Chorus
When your lonely (when you're lonely)
And it feels like the whole world is falling on you
You just reach out, you just cry out to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
To the widow who suffers from being alone
Wiping the tears from her eyes
For the children around the world without a home
Say a prayer tonight
Chorus
There was pain as well. On the personal side, I had my first visit to the Dermatologist. Most of it was good news with a return visit scheduled for late August to finish up a little "scraping and burning" as the nurse describe to me today.
Pain also involved a number of deaths with the last one being very tragic. The Third Day song, "Cry Out to Jesus" as been on my computer and in my mind. I'll leave with the lyrics and the hope that someone will be blessed in a time of pain. God bless.
To everyone who's lost someone they love
Long before it was their time
You feel like the days you had were not enough when you said goodbye
And to all of the people with burdens and pains
Keeping you back from your life
You believe that there's nothing and there is no one
Who can make it right
Chorus
There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
Love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus
For the marriage that's struggling just to hang on
They lost all of their faith and love
They've done all they can to make it right again
Still it's not enough
For the ones who can't break the addictions and chains
You try to give up but you come back again
Just remember that you're not alone in your shame
And your suffering
Chorus
When your lonely (when you're lonely)
And it feels like the whole world is falling on you
You just reach out, you just cry out to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
To the widow who suffers from being alone
Wiping the tears from her eyes
For the children around the world without a home
Say a prayer tonight
Chorus
