I have a DREAM
Truly inspiring picture and message on this girls face. Take the time to read her message and remember, that despite the budget busting US$ 2.5 billion NASA spent to put Curiousity on Mars, that's nothing compared to global military spending.
via travel.nationalgeographic.com
What do you think – would this be a cool Youth Group exercise?
Tess’ Yellowknife home now on Mars?
A neat thing happened this week when Nasa's latest project, the rover "Curiousity" landed on Mars. Nasa named the area where the craft landed after Tess' hometown: Yellowknife. Allegedly, this was because the area where "Curiousity" landed is known for having very old rocks and Yellowknife has the oldest rocks on Earth — 2.7 billion years old to be exact. Yellowknife in Canada is known for being the "jumping off point" for scientists (or anyone else) wishing to explore the planets' rocky elders. Most of the people I met in Asia the past 16 years had no idea where Yellowknife was located, and thus no idea where Tess grew-up. Typically I say to people, "head up to Alaska but veer right into Canada." Now they will know for sure where Yellowknife is located, or be even more confused than ever. Of course the jokes are never ending now. Yellowknifers (as are Canadians such as yours truly) are very proud of the new fame and making jokes such as, "on our mailing addresses we'll now have to put Yellowknife, Canada, Earth" or the postal service might get confused. I have amended Nasa's map of Mars (second image above) for clarification.
Thank you, Kristin and Grant…
“Show me your five friends, and I’ll show you where you’re going to be in five years.” Pastor Carl Lentz, Jesus Culture Conference, August 2012
This week Hong Kong said good-bye to two phenomenal leaders: Kristin and Grant Franke. For the past five years Kristin has been the Youth Director at Union Church. During those five years the Youth Group grew at a tremendous pace and expanded in extraordinary quality. By Kristin’s side was her husband, Grant. They were newlyweds when first arriving in Hong Kong. Grant taught at an international Christian school and then moved on to be one of the youth leaders at another Hong Kong Church. Together they touched hundreds, if not thousands of lives. Their world wasn’t just hanging out at church: Grant and Kristin were out in the community in multiple ways. For example, they were into Ultimate Frisbee in a big way, traveling all over Asia to participate in tournaments with other Hong Kong teammates. (Grant and Kristin with Mike and Sheri Witthoft.)
Despite their very humble, unassuming style and how they operated in the world, Grant and Kristin were noticed by many: they were leaders even to people they didn’t lead, such as our kids. While Sebastian and the triplets knew and interacted with Kristin and Grant, it was more sporadic: going on the occasional junks together (thank you Mike and Sheri), seeing each other at a distance at church, occasional horsing around. But even these experiences made a significant impression on the kids. When Sebastian, Jasper, Sela and Carys saw Kristin and Grant, they saw a positive force to be reckoned with. Two examples come to mind. (At left: about to have some fun on a banana boat.)
First and I am sure you’ll all think Tess and I are crazy, but we’ve made it a family ritual to watch Little House on the Prairie once a week with the kids. In one of the recent episodes we viewed a mother died, and “Pa” helped to find a new home for the three orphaned kids. A few days later while walking to school, Tess talked to the kids about the episode, guardians, and so on. The kids asked about whom they would live with if something happened to Tess and me. (At left: Sebastian, completely delighted, hangs on for his life as Olin and Grant decide it's time to shake things up and tip over.)
Tess asked, "Who do you think would do a good job raising you so that you believed in Father God, yet so that you would also laugh a lot and have fun?"
That’s when Carys said, "Kristin and Grant! (Actually she said, “Kwistin and Gwant!”) and the other three exclaimed, "Yeah! They have fun with God!" Tess and I thought this was a huge compliment to Kristin and Grant. The conversation was also a testament that it is not just the teens Kristin and Grant impacted during their time in Hong Kong.
Second, in a few weeks Sebastian will start Youth Group at Union Church. Seb has been waiting for this occasion for one to two years as he watched the Youth Group do really cool stuff with envy. Late June he officially graduated from Sunday School, receiving a brand new youth Bible. Around about the same time, Kristin arranged for an introductory night to the Youth Group, for all those entering Youth Group in September. Sebastian attended along with two friends who don’t go to Union Church. Everyone had a blast – imagine church at night with no adults. (Well, when I say no adults I mean maybe only ten adults compared to 500 hundred on Sundays!) The evening consisted of games, a short sermon by Kristin, music and snacks. I looked after one of the discussion groups that, coincidentally, largely consisted of the rugby team I used to coach a year earlier. The boys were pretty happy to be back together again. Afterwards I described the evening to another parent as “organised chaos with the Bible sprinkled on top.” Sebastian and his friends loved it. (Kristin, wakeboarder extrordinaire, prepares to go for a ride.)
The point of this second story I didn’t know anything about until last week when I was able to spend some farewell time with Kristin and Grant. Grant relayed to me that not long after the introductory Youth Group, Sebastian and Kristin found each other sitting next to each other in Union Church’s U-Cafe – an even cooler, more contemporary and laid back version of the 11 AM service. The leader of the service instructed, “Turn to the person next to you, and tell them something you appreciate about them.” Kristin turned to Sebastian and shared, “I am really glad you came to Youth Group the other night, brought two friends and had such a good time.” Sebastian, hmmm not following the leader’s instructions, replied with, “I’m just sorry you won’t be here to lead the Youth Group when I start in September.” (Up, up and away!)
When Grant posted to Facebook “good-bye and thank you Hong Kong” about an hour before their flight departed, his friends list responded with 40+ well wishing comments and over 200 “likes.” Seriously: 15% of Grant’s almost 2000 Facebook friends responded. That’s epic, that’s a couple that made a difference, that’s leadership. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for them.
Meanwhile it was hard to say good-bye. When I last saw Grant the day before he left we skirted the whole emotional thing by resting on C.S. Lewis. Sheldon Vanauken, wrote about saying good-bye to C.S. Lewis in his book "A Severe Mercy":
"When we emerged onto the busy High with the traffic streaming past, we shook hands, and he said: “I shan’t say good-bye. We’ll meet again.” Then he plunged into the traffic. I stood there watching him. When he reached the pavement on the other side, he turned around as though he knew somehow that I would still be standing there in front of the Eastgate. Then he raised his voice in a great roar that easily overcame the noise of the cars and buses. Heads turned and at least one car swerved, “Besides,” he [C.S. Lewis] bellowed with a great grin, “Christians NEVER say goodbye!” (At left: Sela and Jasper symbolically watch, while Kyle, Olin, Kristin and Grant enjoy the setting sun aboard the Witthoft's junk.)
Thank you Kristin and Grant, for making a huge difference in the lives of many, many people – scores of whom you probably didn’t even know were watching. Good-bye for now.
What if Jesus Meant All That Stuff?
Very interesting article below and I too often feel the need to apologise as Shane Claiborne does in this piece. On the plane to Canada last week I watched a long documentary about The Crusades. The story had an eerie familiarity not dissimilar to what we regularly read in today's news. Both sides confronted their humanity, arrogance, pride and the question "what is God's will" surfaced throughout. Sometimes we have fun like the kids in the above pictures. And other times, we're at each others throats, as are the kids. Nobody is perfect, I guess. What do you think?
Letter to Non-Believers by Shane Claiborne – Esquire: To all my nonbelieving, sort-of-believing, and used-to-be-believing friends: I feel like I should begin with a confession. I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians. Christians who have had so much to say with our mouths and so little to show with our lives. I am sorry that so often we have forgotten the Christ of our Christianity. Forgive us. Forgive us for the embarrassing things we have done in the name of God.
The other night I headed into downtown Philly for a stroll with some friends from out of town… Read more here.
Greetings from Tulameen
From our guest blogger, Maureen…
Not Lost At Sea
Tess reports that the forest fire is a non-event. This is a good thing because no one would want this beautiful house consumed by flames. But what is an event is the terrific holiday that everyone is having at Tulameen. I have chatted a few times with them on the phone and this is what I learned.
Jasper described to me how he and Sebastian went floating out to sea in the floaty thingy, pictured a few blogs below. Jasper reported that they went a bit too far and there was some sort of challenge with getting back to shore. He mumbled a bit at this point so I never really got the end of the story. Jasper is also quite proud of some handwriting that he did during his homework session. (Tess has all the kids doing a little bit of homework each day.) Jasper can’t wait to show me his very neat handwriting. Neatness is Jasper’s goal. Jasper tells me that his favourite part about Tulameen is going to the lake (as opposed to being lost at sea.)
Sebastian then spoke with me. After being re-assured by me that nothing bad was happening in Hong Kong, Seb proceeded to explain how there were some necessary corrections to Jasper’s version of the floaty thingy drifting out to sea. According to Seb, he had to jump in the water and help to pull it back to shore. How very brave of him. Upon returning to the cabin, they each had a shower, drank some hot chocolate, ate dinner and watched a bit of TV. Sela then told me how she had read some very long books on my Kindle. For more from Sela have a look at the picture below. (Click on all the pictures to enlarge.)
Finally I spoke with Carys, who was in quite a chatty mood. Carys described how they went into the city to go shopping. They bought new toys, some baseball things and hula hoops. Then they went to a water park where it appears everyone got very wet. Since I am updating Carys’ Gratefully Book, she explained to me how she is grateful to God for police, because they protect people. Carys is also grateful for firemen, like Uncle Ed. And speaking of Uncle Ed, Carys and Sela made a “Cinderella” out of beads that they plan to give to their cousin Alex. (Auntie Pam, if you’re reading please don’t tell Alex.) Alas, Carys described how it had rained very hard a few hours earlier, during which everyone hoped (or should I say prayed) it would snow. Somewhere during all of this activity Sela and Carys made a sand castle on the beach. Charmaine and her two kids went to visit relatives this past weekend and Carys, along with the others, was very happy they had finally returned. Carys likes her new friends.
