September 21, 2019

The weekend is upon us once again, and it seems like each time that I turn around it’s here again. Point of fact, as I’ve frequently stated,"if time flies when you’re having fun, we must be having a blast!" perhaps we could get this ol’ time traveling machine to slow down a bit. I’m pretty sure most of our parents told us that "the older we get, the faster the days go." Soo so true. That being as it is, I am thoroughly enjoying the latest chapter in our lives, (mine and Paula’s that is.)

As for the preceding chapter, for nearly a year I worked at Alaska Airlines in the ramp service area. I loved the nine man team that I was part of. I quickly found that lifting luggage/cargo on the average weighing up to fifty pounds for a few hours each day, these
sixty plus year old muscles were re-introduced to physical labour. I recall the first week of work coming home I would be so sore from finding muscles that I had forgotten even existed. Not long after that I found that when I would be off for a few days that those same bodily areas would ache from inactivity.
More on that later . . .

Syntax/Perspective

It's funny how the use of words or misuse of them affect different listeners and/or readers to varying degrees. Like putting your "PIN number" in the "ATM machine" Really? It's putting your pin in the atm for cryin' out loud! Ok that's my morning rant.
That aside, we're inching closer to the weekend, yay! Hallelujah! And all that? I trust your week has been good up to this point. I'm just kind of getting back into the routine of "putting it down," in textual sense that is. Have a good morning/afternoon/or evening peeps, whichever applies only to you.

As for perspective, it's also interesting to look at people's contrasting viewpoints on winter all throughout the land. I hear friends in the southeastern United States talking of the blizzards and whiteouts that they're experiencing. So here's the picture, here fifty-six kilometres above the arctic circle the temp has dropped a few times to negative thirty, that's over sixty degrees below freezing. And we've received maybe three or four feet of snow this season. With all that said, these three winters that we've been up here have been very mild. That's right, the temps have NOT made it to minus seventy, with 100mph winds, and up to six or seven feet of snow.

And when I throw out the term whiteout, that's having to put on a face shield, several layers of snow gear from head to toe just to get to the jeep, that is if I can see to get to it. So does this mean that my peers in the south don't know what they're talking about when they mention blizzards and white outs and all. NOPE! Though our perspectives differ greatly, how we feel doesn't. I hope all my friends spread throughout the southeast stay warm, toasty, and safe. Peace out ☃

Living in a totally different world . . .

 

The above image was taken this past week at just a few minutes after eleven a.m. Where in northern Alaska we are getting just over six hours of light each day. We also lose right around seven minutes of light daily until the twenty-second of December, where we will then begin regaining that which we have lost. The year kind of goes like this, winter darkness, spring normal light, summer lotsa' light, and fall once again normal light. So one of the questions most asked are, "how can you handle the darkness of winter? It seems like it would be so depressing." For me, or actually both of us, the winter isn't bad at all, because we can turn on lots of light, and at bed time we turn it off. The fall and spring are kind of like yours, normal light, so that's easy. It's the summer that kind of throws us off balance, because when we're out and about having a good time, pretty soon it's four a.m. and the sun is still up, what to do?

 



Well then there's my Pretty Paula, she's been my best friend, my pal, my confidante for thirty-eight years, and for nearly thirty-six of those years she's been my wife. There it is, in a winter season with lots of darkness, she brings loads and loads of light. I am blessed and highly favored that she calls me, "hers." and the converse as well. We have seen many places in this world, inclusive are North, Central, and South America, Asia, Europe most of the Caribbean, and we still have a lot of years ahead.
It is funny how that we have come full circle to the place of my birth, and now minister here to our own people. So many times I wish I could sit and have a chat with my mom and dad who adopted me and took me with them on their world adventures, and let them know that I'm back where it all started. Somehow I think they just might know . . .

Walking in the Dark . . .

We lived in our Tennessee home for thirteen years. Long enough to get to know every inch of the house. We could show you little nicks in the wall where our son and his friend were speeding through the house in his friend's wheelchair. I could walk in the dark from one end of the house to the next, even navigating the steps in complete darkness wasn't a problem.













So when we moved to Europe, after a few weeks of living in our new home, I didn't think twice about doing the same thing here. The trouble was we had only lived here around thirteen weeks as opposed to thirteen years. So I did not know every inch of the way. So off I headed from our living quarters into the entry way of the center. Six year old Tre was right behind me as we walked through the blackness and, suddenly out of nowhere the hook from a coat rack, and my eye met up in the darkness, and brought me to an immediate stop. I thought for sure I had punctured my eye, it was like a flash went off in my face. The pain was intense. We turned around, and made our way slowly back out of the darkness and up the steps to the livingroom, and I to the bathroom. After finally taking my hand away and looking in the mirror, it was plain to see that my eye had not been mortally wounded, the eyelid fortunately had kept the eyeball itself from serious injury. The trouble was now I was seeing double. Now I am thinking, "great," I have to go to the hospital and see what sort of long term damage I have inflicted on my eye. I walked into the office where the others were, and Paula took one look at me and asked me what was wrong, I told her what happened, and Tre who really didn't know that I'd hurt myself in the dark came to my side and said, pastor, can I pray for you? Of course my immediate response was yes, and the good news is that after a few more minutes, the vision returned to normal. Will "eye" be walking in the dark anytime soon, not likely. I think there's a message in here somewhere.

Classical Conditioning . . .

This by the way is our friend Stacy's dog ZEUS!

You recall studying about Pavlov's dogs! Classical conditioning, conditioned reflex! You will then remember that when a bell was rung, or a certain other device was used to announce the arrival of food, that the dogs began to salivate even before the food was brought out. the dogs understood the signal and began to reflexively anticipate feeding time.

I am continually amazed how the Lord answers our prayers. Time after time He has come through at the very last second, I am not surprised, but yet I am. There was the time early on in our marriage that we needed a bathroom faucet to accomodate company coming that evening. We didn't have any money, yet that afternoon while we were driving the back roads of Washington State, there in the middle of the road way out in the middle of nowhere was a little box. I stopped, curious being that I am and got out of our car picked up the box and got back in the car, opened it and you guessed it. It was the needed faucet for our bathroom. There was another instance during that same time period that we needed a wheel bearing changed, again no money to put the car in the garage. That evening a friend showed up at our door and just said he was dropping in to say hi. I casually mentioned the dilemma with our car and he said he'd be glad to change it. I asked him how much he would charge and he responded, "ah just a good home-cooked meal." Three hours later we were sitting at the dinner table and our wheel was good as new. I could literally bore you to tears with stories like this all through out our lives.

But here's one that rates up near the top. Back in the summer of 95 Paula and I and the kids had just moved to Cleveland, TN to finish up our education at Lee University. We purged our moving van of all the boxes. Cooked up some dinner, hooked up the TV and settled down for the evening. The next day would be registration for our fall classes. As we laid down that night to go to sleep. The neighbor's dog parked right under our bedroom window and barked loudly all night. We did not get a wink of sleep. Anyhow that next morning we went to the school and got all registered. Later on that night after a very tiring day, we settled in for our second nights sleep in our new home. Five minutes after laying down, we began dozing off, and the dog started in again.

Now I'm at the point of desperation. We didn't sleep at all the previous night, and I couldn't face the possibility of another sleepless night, especially with classes beginning the next morning. I didn't just get out of bed, I JUMPED out of bed, marched over to the window where the dog was closest. I layed my hand on the wall and invoked the name of Jesus, reminding Him that He had once shut the mouth of the lion for Daniel, and if He did so for him, He shouldn't be any respector of persons and do the same for me. My words were quite literally, "Father shut this dog's mouth in the name of your son Jesus!" I then got back in bed, and Paula and I slept all night long, the dog didn't make a sound the rest of the night. The next morning I got up and Paula said I'm glad that dog let us sleep, I was curious so I went outside the house and went to where the dog was, and when I rounded the corner there he was. He began to bark at me, BUT absolutely no sound came from him, not even a raspy sound. It's like someone turned his volume down to zero. Those people lived next door for a couple of months and the dog never got his voice back.

So one would think with a history like this that I would not be surprised each time the Lord answers a prayer. But as I said, "I am continually amazed" at how the Lord hears and answers His children. Maybe I should be like Pavlov's dog so that when I pray I would hear a bell go off in my head and I would understand that God had heard me and an answer was quickly on the way.

For more than a week now the printer in my office has not worked, I even wrote my message last week in longhand. Once again this morning I tried in vain to print something on it and it just kept giving me messages that the printer was not installed so I reinstalled, and then it would say printer spooler is not running. And finally in desperation I typed the following words into the computer and hit print, "Please Jesus, heal this cpu/printer connexion." I like the spanish spelling of connection. No surprises here, it printed perfectly. My cpu and printer are once again on speaking terms. You see we can have what we ask for, all we have to do is ASK!

Ding ding ding, by now I should be conditioned to expect an answer. Oh what a mighty God we serve.

Anniversaire . . .

When I took Paula to her physical therapists appointment today, she told Ingrid that today was our anniversary. And Ingrid responded in her best French accented English, how many years? When Paula told her twenty-nine, she gave back this sort of puzzled look. Like I know you and you are more than twenty nine years. But the French word for birthday is also anniversaire. Well anyhow Ingrid wished Paula a happy birthday, and Paula laughed and understood that she thought that she was telling her that she was twenty-nine years old.
The therapist finally caught on, and they both had a good laugh.

When I met Paula just over thirty-one years ago. I had no idea what adventurous roads our lives would lead us down. Paula and I have been to all but two states, Wisconsin and Hawaii. To all the Central American countries and some South American, many of the Caribbean islands (and oh what places those are . . .) Taipei, Taiwan, and several of the cities in the Philipine Islands. To say that we love to travel would be a massive understatement. In the very short time that we have been in Belgium, we have picked up a lot of the French language, which is not quite as hard as it is made out to be. I cannot imagine a life without my closest friend that I've ever had, Paula. It is her that has made my life soo enjoyable. When I first arrived in Europe in late October, I began to see and experience many things, but I always ached for the time that she would get here. Because the Belgian Waffles, Chocolat, and many other European delicacies just did not taste quite as good without her tasting them with me. Now that she is here, we are definitely in for the ride of a life-time.

Continental Drift . . .

Saturday Paula and I caught an excursion out of SHAPE, and spent the entire day in Paris. And I HAVE to say, that everything I've ever read, or seen on TV or the big-screen fell far short of what it was really like to be in the City of Lights.
No matter which way you turned, your senses were assaulted by amazing beauty, whether it was the Parisiennes, the art, (and it was pervasive) or the smell wafting off the street vendors. There we gave into our first temptation of the day consuming some sort of Libyan delicacy, which was a fried, spinach stuffed empanada, and hoo boy was it good!
Our day began after the coach dropped us off nearly at the base of the Eiffel Tower, where we took photo-ops, then walked a few blocks to the Arc de Triomphe. There at the head of the world famous Avenue des Champs Elysees we started off toward the museum. We spent a couple of hours on the avenue just taking in much of what the city had to offer.
We literally oohed and aahed our way through what seemed to be several miles of attractions, (okay! okay! several kilometres, alrighty then) and then finally arrived at the Musee du Louvre. Then the sensory overload really kicked in. To actually see the MONA LISA up close and personal, the works of PICASSO and other masters was just incredible, it was almost too much. It would require a life-time to take in all that this world-class city has to offer, and we WILL return again, and again.

If/Then Propositions

If I go to bed early, then I will feel more rested tomorrow.
If I eat too much fast food, then my belt will feel more tight.
If I smile at someone, then they will usually smile back at me.
If I drive too fast, then I will catch the attention of the police.
If I shake the cat-food bag, then my cat will come running.

If I use the right bait, then I will certainly catch more fish.
If I want to ride the trains in Paris, then I have to be quick.
If I keep on playing & playing, then my Wii scores will go up.
If I go to IKEA with Paula, then we will likely buy something.
If I feel like fast food, then I'll go to McDonald's every time.

Matthew 9:18
While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came
and worshipped Him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but
come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.

If the ruler in the scripture understood anything at all he
understood this:

If I worship Him, then I can get Him to come to my house . . .
A very simple proposition . . .

The Latest Installment . . .

Not only does the title of this latest entry refer to the entry itself, but it has double entendre, which you may well know is a double meaning in French usage. And that is quite fitting, since we live in the French speaking sector of Belgium. The other latest installment refers to our service this past Sunday in which Paula and I were officially installed as Center Directors by presiding Bishop Christian Swift. Sometimes when I think that we are living in Europe, it doesn't seem quite possible. This all came about quite rapidly. My mother died in March of 2008 and three months later we found out that we had been recommended for this position and accepted. Then four months after finding out we had been accepted, I actually made the move. First it was me, then Paula followed six weeks later.

My parents had been center directors back in the 60s and 70s, and that was a role that I had always aspired to, but our ministry took us down many different routes. We served as young adult pastors, benevolence pastors, evangelists, short-term missionaries, teachers, just to name a few. Yet in the back of our minds we always wanted to reach our military. Even while living in Tacoma, Washington we saw the need for a military ministry center in that area due to the many military installations in the surrounding communities. It was still a dream to be realized. After leaving Tacoma, we moved to Kennewick in eastern Washington, on to Portland, Oregon, and then we decided to finish our college education, and we moved to Cleveland, Tennessee. We would graduate and call the southeastern United States home for thirteen years.

And then in a very short whirl-wind period did our world change, and our dreams that had been on the back burner for many many years finally came to fruition. The really amazing thing about all this is that it was a thing that we really didn't have to pursue. Our Father had known all along the desires of our hearts, and was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to honor us with the chance to minister to the young men and women of our armed forces. We are now teaching, mentoring young soldiers from all over America. Knowing that we may have a few years or a few months, and in many cases a few weeks, the Lord has ordained us to pour into these vessels all that we can, to teach, equip and send out soldiers not only in the physical realm, but in a spiritual one as well. How cool is that!

Airmail Kitty Cat . . .

While in Tennessee getting ready to make our transatlantic move, several of our friends asked what we would be doing with our kitty Silly Millie. Actually we have had our cat for nine years. But we didn't think that moving her so far, and being in planes and airports for twenty-four hours would be very good for her. First my late mother's caregiver Agnes wanted her, and we began to make plans for her to move in with them. Then one of her daughters got another pet and they decided that Millie may not get along so well. It wasn't long after that that another friend who already had a cat asked if she could have Millie, we said sure. And then she backed out after a trial run with her cat, and they didn't get along at all. A few other friends said they would be glad to take our kitty. But as our departure grew closer, we decided that she would be better off with us, because she has never really had that social-butterfly type personna. She would hiss at strangers when they would come to visit. And she hated children. The funny thing is, now she actually likes people, children included. I think the commotion of packing and getting rid of stuff the months prior to our move bothered her so that shes just happy to be stable again. So we got her shots, bought a kennel and moved her some five thousand miles to Belgium. I hadn't seen Millie in over a month, but when Paula got off the plane and we picked up our kitty at baggage claim. Millie took one look at me and was happy again. We took her into our home, she sniffed around a couple of places looked at the both of us and jumped up on our bed and went straight to sleep. Back in the US she never wanted to sleep on our bed, but since coming to Europe she hasn't wanted to sleep anywhere else. She's just happy that the three of us are reunited. And so am I . . .

Reflexão / Reflexión / Reflection

Take a look backward, go ahead. You may be amazed at how clear the picture is. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to see so clearly into the future? I am sure there are things that I COULD have done differently, or maybe WOULD have done with a different attitude, or most certainly many times there were things that I just SHOULD have done, period. When we reflect on our lives, I think that most of us would do things differently with those we hold close to our heart. Both of my parents have passed on, but there are oh so many times that I would like to see them just one more time, to touch their hand, to tell them I love and appreciate them. Even though I did that quite often when they were still alive. I also recall the times that my young son would ask me to go fishing, and I might respond with something like: "maybe later, or some other time." Of course there were plenty of times when I would say "go get your pole," and he'd be off in a flash, but If I could recall those times, most certainly we would have went fishin' every time he asked, and believe me he asked quite often. So it would be pointless to live a life of regret, wishing that we had done things differently.

Back in the eighties the pop-rock group MIKE AND THE MECHANICS put a song on the charts for a few weeks entitled "In the Living Years." Part of the lyrics said ♫Say it loud, say it clear, you can listen as well as you hear. It's too late when we die to admit we don't see eye to eye.♫ The writer of the song was looking back over his life and wishing that he would have had a closer relationship with his recently deceased father. He even went on to write later in the verse: ♫ I wasnt there that morning when my father passed away, I didnt get to tell him all the things I had to say, I think I caught his spirit later that same year, I'm sure I heard his echo in my babys new born tears, I just wish I could have told him in the living years.♫ So when you begin to reflect, don't let your past blur your vision, but let it improve your visual acuity of the future. My wife and I recently put our house on the market, placed all of our belongings in storage, left our friends and family and not only left town, or the state of Tennesse or even the country for that matter, we switched continents for cryin' out loud. We are now pastor/directors at the *SHAPE International Christian Center for our armed forces in St. Denis, Belgium, and lovin' every minute of it. This is really a decision that I will not look on in the future and wish I had done things differently.

*SHAPE is an acronym for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, This is the NATO headquarters in Europe and SHAPE is an international base that has over twenty military commands represented.

Pretty Paula

I have now been in Europe for a little over a month. When I left Tennessee in late October, Paula my wife of twenty-eight years had to stay behind in order to finish up some p/t. She had undergone a procedure to reattach a ligament in her shoulder, it was a complete tear in the rotator cuff. She is now with me in Belgium where we live in the small village of St. Denis, a small community right next to Mons, which is a pretty good sized city. I really enjoyed getting to know the parishioners here at the center where we are pastors/directors to men and women serving in the armed forces at SHAPE, Belgium. That is the NATO headquarters, and it is a multi-national base, where some twenty+ militarys of the world are represented.

And now I am very happy and complete again now that Paula is with me. And she brought our cat of 9yrs Silly Millie. She too makes it feel just like home. And oh by the way, this is my most viewed photo on Flickr.com, with 3111 views, 67 people call it a favorite, and she has garnered 120 comments.

Intrepid Ministry

This is my missionary father many years back . . .
He had friends on every continent. He was a man of integrity
and I miss him dearly. He is the reason I always wanted to be involved with Ministry to the Military.

My "intrepid" journey began at birth. I am the only son of my adoptive missionary parents. My father was a missionary pilot to the wilds of Alaska. There he and mom who couldn't concieve children met up with an eskimo lady who had conceived out of wedlock, and back in the mid-twentieth century, that was still sort of frowned upon. My birth mother then gave me up for adoption to the missionaries, and that was the beginning of a really adventurous life. In the middle 1960s when I was ten years old we took a summer vacation from the cool environs of Alaska 7500 miles to the warm, humid clime of Central America. We drove all the way from AK to Guatemala to visit some missionary friends who had lived in Guatemala City. On our arrival the regional presbyter for Panama was talking to the presbyter of Guatemala, who informed him of our visit. So he invited us to come to Panama since we were not very far away by then. We got to Panama, and the presbyter decided he wanted to return to the states. My father was then contacted by the church bosses back in the US and asked if he would like to stay in Panama as replacement presbyter or overseer? He conferred with me and mom, and we were all about it. So dad flew back to AK from Panama, bought an old army flat-bed truck and loaded all our belongings on it, built a plywood covering for it and drove it all the way back to Panama. We stayed there for seven years. Quite a vacation by anyone's standards.


This is my missionary mother just a little before her death on Easter Sunday 2008

After my mom's death this year, we flew her back to Seattle for her burial beside my father. I had just been in touch with my birth family only a few months prior to mom's death. And one of my newly found sisters called and asked how we all were. I told her that mom had died, and she asked about the funeral arrangements. She then told me she would meet us in Seattle with a couple other sisters. And they are pictured below. In order from left to right. Paula my sister, Paula my wife, Georgie my sister, and Georgie's husband Randy. They all live in Alaska, with the exception of Paula my wife who now lives with me in Europe.


What a ride we have had up until now . . .

Polar Opposites

Fall is by far my favorite time of the year, when the old things are dying off, making way for the new. I like winter as well, by now things are pretty much dead or dormant, and getting ready for the new life of spring which is my Paula's favorite season. Back in the US, when winter begins to fade Paula and myself begin making our annual treks to the Lowes garden dept. buying all sorts of greenery, bags of potting soil, fertilizer and plenty of flowers, potted and those meant for the landscaping



Paula and I are actually like autumn and spring, one doesn't do so well when the other suffers.
She is the more outgoing one, much like our son who never meets a stranger. I on the other hand would be typically content curled up with a good book and with a ray of sunshine. Which is much like our daughter. Although unlike polar opposites forces that repel, we are quite attracted to each other. One compliments the other, and not just verbally . . .

PUT IT DOWN!

"Put it down" is usually spoken with a little authority. These three words just sort of transport me back to a time when my children were young and still at home. I remember one time telling my two year old son to "put it down" when he picked up a cassette tape of mine. He did, but there was still a spark of curiousity going on in his head. Because the next morning when we got him up, fed him and his sister, and we were then getting ready for the day, he remembered those interesting cassettes. So after showering, getting ready for church. I walked out into the livingroom to get something, and there was Timmy amid not just one, but all of my cassettes. (alas, Cds had not made their arrival.) He had taken each cassette out of the case and pulled out all the tape rendering them useless. This is a habit that he has retained until this day.



He still dismantles things. Fortunately for him he also has learned to put things back together. And the things that he disassembles and reassembles are B1 Bomber engines. He is a SSgt in the USAF stationed at Dyess AFB in Abilene TX.So these days when I hear the words "put it down" it is generally in the context of a little voice inside my head that is telling me to take thoughts, ramblings and put them on paper, or a little file stored away on my computer. This will then be my initial post of the "Put It Down" writings.And I would encourage you to do the same. I find that when I go to some of my earlier writings from years or even months earlier, that I have forgotten those things, and they then become a breathe of fresh aire.