Tried out Roosters today. The coffee shop came recommended to me by a very reliable coffee shop-lover friend. I wasn't disappointed! The staff were friendly, good location by the river and it had cozy vintage decor with modern accents. oH! The coffee and baked goods were yummy too. It's always a good sign when the place is packed- something Jill and I had to remind ourselves of when we couldn't find a seat. :)

Question. After being told you have acute appendicitis and require your appendix to be removed would you:

a. Say ok to surgery
b. Say heck no and leave the hospital

...oh and they also told you that you could die if it wasn't removed.

At work the other day I watched a 20-something year old guy walk out of the ER after a visit from the surgeon who told him the above statement. He reasoned that he felt no more pain therefore he was fine. He said he was more scared of surgery than death.

After watching that play out I was just struck at how this guy's actions represents us as humans. You'd probably say you'd never be that stupid, that you'd never suppress crucial knowledge like that hoping that if you just ignored it, it would just disappear. I think we're actually very good at doing this, to our own detriment.
I've always hated math. I remember in grade 3 there was this one assignment I was dreading. I had the paper with all the questions on it, and since I didn't want to do it I shoved it as far back in my desk as I could. I figured I'd forget about it and the teacher would too. Quite the opposite. I couldn't stop thinking about it and the teacher definitely didn't forget. Eventually I learned long division.

Suppressing our emotions, duties, guilt is something we excell at as humans! We can be so skilled at lying to ourselves that we believe it. In every day life and in the academic world suppressing truth can have eternal consequences...depending on the truth you're suppressing.

Romans 1:18-20
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Like I was saying...suppressing certain truths can have huge, eternal consequences. Let's be honest with ourselves.

It's almost Christmas everyone...and I'm not ready. Mentally I'm ready, but I still have a ton of shopping to do and our apartment isn't even decorated save for a couple festive penguin figurines sitting in random places. It's time to pull up my socks in a big way 'cause its next saturday. CHRISTMAS IS NEXT SATURDAY!!
I'm goin home for Christmas too and boy its gonna be exciting. Details to follow.

Matthew 10:39 He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it
When thinking about missions and living a life entirely for Christ, I sometimes wonder if I'd risk my life for Him. Here's someone who not only risked but lost his life for the sake of the gospel. May we all be willing to joyfully live out our calling as James Garwood did.

Brown Trout | 1978 - 2010 from David Schulz on Vimeo.

mhmmm...

some thoughts on STM

I've been thinking a lot about the positive and negative sides of Short-term mission (STM) trips lately. Short-term mission opportunities abound. You can spend a week to a year feeding the poor and preaching to people knowing that there’s an end coming and you’ll be sipping latte’s at Starbucks soon. I have done several (7 in fact) short term stints overseas since the age of 16. Whether it was running soccer camps for AIDS orphans in Africa or building a home for a family in the Dominican Republic, I've always come back with my eyes opened to the harsh reality of need in this world and felt so grateful for what I've been blessed with. These trips have shaped my character and I know that they’ve greatly affected the people I've gone with.

However, the feeling like I've gained more from the experience than the nationals did is sometimes overwhelming. Short term missions should be approached with caution. It requires a step back to examine the reason why we do missions at all in the first place. According to John Piper in his book Let the nations be glad!: “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever” (p.17).

Do groups of 20 or so people going to a place with no church and no sustainable economy for a week or two brings forth worship? Perhaps at first. The long-term repercussions may not though. When a community is now so dependent on the groups of westerners that come, it shows that the goal of missions has not been achieved. We go to make people rely on Christ not on us.
Building homes, healing the sick etc. are things we are called to do as Christians. We get joy by loving people through these acts of kindness. However, if we truly love the people we are ministering to we need to find ways to promote independence. Not an independence in the worldly sense but an independence where the nationals are able to teach their own about Christ. There needs to be a consistency at least in the missions or perhaps someone who can minister long-term. So that relationships don’t end when the plane leaves. So mentoring can happen. So great things will go down in the buildings we’ve built for them...for His glory.


There are several mission organizations who have found a way to do STM well- I'll post some later. For now here's some reading:
http://www.christiannewswire.com/index.php?module=releases&task=view&releaseID=14756

Thanksgiving .. b-latedly posted

Great time eating, spending time with family and tromping through the woods. Thanksgiving 2010.