Supporters

No, not that kind of supporter…

I had a job interview yesterday.  In anticipation of it, I emailed a number of friends and family members to ask for their prayers and ‘good thoughts.’

The responses to this simple request were overwhelming, one more crystal-clear reminder that God has filled my life with people whose generosity toward me and others is beyond my ability to measure.  A few samples:

I was just thinking about you and this position earlier this evening. May God confirm this position for you, Tom.

I can feel the stars aligning now, Tom.

Right on, Tom.  What a catch that’d be–I’ll be praying.

Let us know how far you knock it out of the park.

See what I mean?  Two results were immediately apparent:  1) the hour-plus conversation was relaxed, informative, and enjoyable.  Seemed to me that it went well;  and 2) I came to the interview all wrapped up in the love of God as expressed in the support and encouragement of friends and family.  This is an awesome offset to the potential stress of an interview, and I highly recommend it for other job seekers!

I would be delighted to make it to the next round of interviews and hope to hear something soon.  Meanwhile, the search goes on and I’m newly mindful of God’s gifts of provision in times of need.

Water: What’s the big deal?

• Sitting on all the drinking fountains at our church are plastic water bottles filled with cloudy, dirty brown water.
• 5-gallon jugs full of water are placed in various locations around the church building to give us a sense of how difficult it is to carry water.
• Yesterday our family checked out an empty 5-gallon jug, took it over to Green Lake, filled it up at a beach, and took turns lugging it less than a half mile on the path around the lake.  It was hard.

These are some of the ways that we’re learning to pay more attention to the fact that far too many people do not have access to clean drinking water.  In the 50 days following Easter, we’re looking at small steps we can take to better appreciate this precious resource.  Each household in the church is being asked to consider how to use water more carefully and to give up a few things so we can put that money into a project drilling and repairing wells in Uganda.

A couple of facts:

• More people die each year from drinking dirty water than from the world’s hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes combined.
• Households in Uganda spend an average of 660 hours a year collecting water.  This represents two full months of labor, with attendant opportunity costs for child care, education, and income generation.
• It’s estimated that $10 billion a year would solve the world water crisis.  It sounds like a lot, but Americans spend $18 billion a year on makeup, and last year spent more than $400 billion on Christmas gifts.

I need help to think about big problems in small ways.  Here’s a good story:

“Would you give a million dollars to the poor?” a Sunday school teacher asked her students.

“Yes!” the children shouted in unison.

“Would you give a thousand dollars to the poor?”

“Yes!”

“Would you give one dollar to the poor?”

The room fell silent.  “What’s the difference?” the teacher asked.

One honest student got it:  “The difference is that I have one dollar!”

ka-BOOM!

At that moment they heard from behind them a loud noise – a great cracking, deafening noise as if a giant had broken a giant’s plate.  “What’s that?” said Lucy, clutching Susan’s arm…

The Stone Table was broken into two pieces by a great crack that ran down it from end to end; and there was no Aslan…

They looked round.  There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.  “Oh, Aslan!” cried both the children, staring up at him, almost as much frightened as they were glad.  “Aren’t you dead then, dear Aslan?” said Lucy.

“Not now,” said Aslan.

from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
by C.S. Lewis

Guatemala or Bust, chapter 6: Lessons Learned

I’ll probably spend the rest of my life in Guatemala. It’s all so good – the work, the friends, the community, the growth, the adventure, the beauty, the way it all came together so unexpectedly and easily. Surely this is God’s doing. Surely God brought me here. Surely he must want me to stay here indefinitely.

That’s what I was thinking.  Hey, I was 24.

Guatemala or Bust, chapter 4: The Work

Roads into some villages were so rutted and full of chuckholes – more like craters – that we could barely coax our trucks into the sites. But even in remote little hamlets, a Coca Cola truck often arrived before we did. It was astounding to see Coca Cola’s commitment and determination to bring their products to people with so few of the necessities. On those days when I didn’t feel like building houses, realizing that the Coca Cola truck would be there helped to get me going.

Guatemala or Bust, chapter 3: Arrival

Someone handed me a pillow and showed me where to sleep shortly after we arrived at a home in Guatemala City. It was late in the evening, but the house was still a beehive of activity. Look forward to meeting … must sleep … lots of questions … eyelids so heavy … in the morning … zzzzz.

Guatemala or Bust, chapter 2: Mexico

Our route cut across just a corner of the Land of Enchantment. New Mexico is one of the states I look forward to exploring, but not in an old ambulance. We were on a mission. Next stop: Dallas.

The main thing I recall about being on the road in Texas was how many “Drive friendly” signs were posted along the flat highways. Oh – and the heat. A lot of the extra equipment you’d normally find in an ambulance had been removed. So there we were, driving a Cadillac in Texas in July, with the windows down because we didn’t have air conditioning.

Guatemala or Bust, chapter 1: An Unlikely Beginning

On February 4 1976 a devastating 7.5Mw earthquake struck Guatemala in the wee hours of the morning. Nearly 23,000 died in their sleep as adobe walls collapsed under the weight of heavy tile roofs. One million people – about one sixth of Guatemala’s population – were left homeless.

A few months later, my friend The Very Reverend Markus Labbertonius invited me to volunteer with him at World Concern, a relief and development agency based here in Seattle. Our job for that day: clean up the interior and exterior of a 1967 Cadillac ambulance that had been donated for ongoing relief work in Guatemala.

Away in a manger…

Congress on Christmas

For Congress to have passed Iowa Congressman Steve King’s bill (HR 847) recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith strikes me as completely absurd. I can almost appreciate that the heart of the bill is in the right place, but its head is – well, let’s just say it’s misplaced.