listen ;-)

Four new good listens:

1. Red Mountain Music
~olde texts, new tunes

2. Alexi Murdoch
~listen to "All My Days"

3. Valley of Vision
~some of the prayers set to music

4. Abigail Washburn
~listen to "Red Blazing"

Kuya Called Home...

Pastor Bob Sanchez of Sampaloc Bible Church in Manila died of a heart attack at about 10 pm Monday night. He was 57 years old.

Kuya Bob (Kuya means older brother in Tagalog) was a great friend to the Chalmers Center and Community Development program. In January 1999, the month the Chalmers Center began, Sampaloc Bible Church hosted the first two student interns sent out by the program, Jason Trimiew and Joel Knutson. In 2001 Dr. Fikkert and Mask gave a 2 hour presentation on savings groups to the church leaders and very soon afterwards the married couples fellowship of the church started a savings and credit association that still exists today. In 2005 community development student Tyson Turner spent 12 weeks living at an outreach church of SBC in the railroad squatter community of Balic-Balic in Manila.

Bob Sanchez began his work at SBC in 1973, working with a missionary to form a student center. The missionary soon recognized Kuya’s gifts and turned the ministry over to him. SBC became a church in 1974 and Kuya pastored the church until his death on Monday. Many of the college students of the 1970s are now church leaders in their 40s and 50s and their children are now in the college-age group.

SBC has 4 outreach/daughter churches, 3 of them in squatters areas in Metro Manila and 1 in La Union in the northern Philippines. It has over 150 children in a Compassion Intn’l child sponsorship program in the various outreach churches.

In 1992 OMF’s missionary magazine featured SBC as “the Church of the Entrepreneurs.” The church is still housed in a building that also has a women’s dorm, managed by the church. In addition to providing income for the church, many of the dormers are in church Bible studies. Since about 1990 the church has also had a street kids (boys) shelter and also had a street kids drop-in program. Kuya Bob was the father to many of these street boys, some of whom were paid to work in a small restaurant housed in the building. SBC puts all the boys in school. As they got older and progressed through school the income from a small store run by church members provided the tuition for one of them to attend a Bible college to become a pastor. That store burned down several years ago and God spared the larger building.

Kuya Bob leaves behind many grieving people that he has discipled, now living all around the world. His widow Norma is 57 and three children remain: Nate (30-something), Nikos and Rhiza – both in their early 20s. Kuya's mother is also still alive. He was an only child.
...
Please pray for the many people grieving and for the church leaders as God takes SBC forward into a new era.

~Dr. Russell Mask

Will the ACLU get upset if we don't use Crescents? Or, why hasn't this been done for all of the children our country has murdered recently?

Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition
www.nwopc.org


THOUSANDS OF TOMBSTONES ON COURTHOUSE LAWN MARK WAR'S BEGINNING

On Sunday, March 18, beginning at 10:00 a.m. and continuing until 3:00pm, members of the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition (NWOPC) will place thousands of small wooden tombstones in precise rows on the Lucas County Courthouse lawn in downtown Toledo. The exhibit, called "Arlington Midwest," will remain up through March 23.

On Monday, March 19, the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, a bugler will play "Taps" at 8:15 a.m. on the courthouse lawn, and NWOPC members will read the names of Ohio G.I.s killed in the war so far.

Each tombstone in Arlington Midwest will bear the name, rank, and home state of a U.S. service member killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. The exhibit is arranged alphabetically by state, and within each state, alphabetically by the name of the deceased.

The Arlington Midwest exhibit is one of many hundreds of local actions around the nation planned for this coming week to mark the beginning of the fifth year of the war against Iraq.

Thanks Evan!

Oh, Evan...thank you! Now my clothes will always match.

Download the magic here...

Destination: Washington DC

Welcome to the Metro...my favourite space in DC. Our secret service transport left Toledo Thursday morning at "7:00am". Thankfully we overcame obstacles like debitcard eating machines and dares from the ladies' luggage to be lifted off the ground.

Thursday night: land the motel and off to Ben's Chili Dog place to sup with Blair and Lisa. Cosby's favourite place in DC, you know? Then, wander around DC looking for a jazz club that doesn't require a cover or minimum number of drinks...no such place exists! Bed.

Friday: up early. "Delux continental breakfast" from the motel is enjoyed...a cold box from Krispy Kreme. Guess they didn't look up "delux" in the dictionary before making their ads! Thankfully Blair and Lisa were cooking up a delicious breakfast at their place for us...complete with good conversation and Wilco/Woody Guthrie tunes. After wandering around the capitol area--complete with a stop by Congress to see that only two congressmen were actually present, yet speeching away boldly, and a visit to see the Gutenberg Bible at the National Library of Congress (it was gone for repairs to the case), and being forced to hide my pocket knife different times from the guards (why did the let Ryan pull his back out of the trash can!!!)--we bought some shoes and bread. Then off to Adam's Morgan for dinner. Delicious Indian food for some and pizza bigger than your head for others. All was capped off with a special dessert and then Caribou coffee and conversation. Can you guess who uses their towel only once before putting it in the laundry?

Saturday: sleep in, well most of us. Some more galavanting, and then arrive at the Eastern Market. Delicious chicken and sundry other foods bought and shared picnic style. (Heidi, I bought your birthday present here!) Then back to the motel and off to worship with some Episcopal dissenters...only, we couldn't find them. Back to the Metro. "Can we park outside the Metro?" I park there illegally every day, responded the ticket man. "But it says only attended cars." Do you see anyone in any of the other cars? he replied. So, we kissed and rode--obeying the sign "Kiss and Ride". We arrived at the National Museum of Natural History in time to walk around a bit before viewing A Night at the Museum on the IMAX. Sweet orchid exhibit! Praise God! After the movie, wander around some more insearch of dinner. Cuban style! Bed.

Sunday: worship with Blair and travel home. Smiles.

Enjoy the rest of the photos here.

hope is going out of vogue

(11.12.04/12:06pm )

yes! someday i'll have no more hope. i'll join countless millions to shed my current trendy hope. sure, not everyone considers hope to be in fashion today. nor does everyone wear the same color of hope as i and my siblings wear! still, someday i'll doff my robes of hope. others at that time will long for my robes. but, like other fashions, hope will only be stylish for a season. then it will fade...disapear. will it come back into style, like the 80s? no. hope, once out of fashion will never enter vogue again.

even though these clothes of hope are really hip, they are not always easy to keep on. nor are they always the most comfortable raiment. however, they do salve wounds pretty well. and somehow, my set of hope fits me everyday and even though it seems to wear thin or even bare at times, it always fits and promises another day. i just couldn't live without hope in my wardrobe. no, i'll give up lots more "important" stuff before i'll discard my hope!

nevertheless, threadbare or shining, i smile to ponder the doffing of my hope at the appropriate day. then i shall be clothed with an alien cloth, my own "right." yeah, hope will disappear when our bridegroom appears to embrace his bride with himself.

i peter 1:3-9

The Best Song of the Year

Before our story...

Jeremiah 10:1-10 (ESV)

Hear the word that the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the LORD:

"Learn not the way of the nations,
nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens
because the nations are dismayed at them,
for the customs of the peoples are vanity.
A tree from the forest is cut down
and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.
They decorate it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so that it cannot move.
Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
and they cannot speak;
they have to be carried,
for they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them,
for they cannot do evil,
neither is it in them to do good."

There is none like you, O LORD;
you are great, and your name is great in might.
Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?
For this is your due;
for among all the wise ones of the nations
and in all their kingdoms
there is none like you.
They are both stupid and foolish;
the instruction of idols is but wood!
Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish,
and gold from Uphaz.
They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith;
their clothing is violet and purple;
they are all the work of skilled men.
But the LORD is the true God;
he is the living God and the everlasting King.
At his wrath the earth quakes,
and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

It strikes me while reading this tonight, before relating the crazy adventures from Washington DC, that following anyone or anything other than our Creator is crazy. This is obvious to the person who sees through the eyes of the Bible, God's revelation of "the way things really are" to us. What kind of pull is a man-made idol to have on my life? Is the popularity and pressure of a television show (lost), mass movement (the one campaign), book (on the road), boss, model, etc. to have any more pull on my affections or actions?

In what way can a clay pot claim any superiority over the artist who forms it and gives it its beauty? How much less can it claim the allegiance of other clay pots!

"They are both stupid and foolish...But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation."

I will follow God. I will answer the demands of people, things, and emotions on my life with the confidence that God is much more powerful and demanding than they are on my life. God also is much more loving and providing...but that's for another discussion.

We're off!

(almost)

The van is leaving for DC in the morning. Hope you will enjoy the
stories and photos to follow ;-)

"Blessed be the name of the LORD!"

I don't feel like doing what's right...

I want God to give me feelings before I change and start obeying Him--otherwise, it's just me acting, eh?

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:  Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.  (Jeremiah 7)

No mention of "feel before you act" there.  So, turn and serve God without question.  "...Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Philippians 2)