Home!

I’ve been working out of town for a few weeks and I just walked in the door. H O M E! I never thought it would be so refreshing to be home. Hugging my wife and kids has never been better. If I play my cards right I might even get a home cooked meal. I forgot how comfortable MY spot on the couch is…Yeah. My own bed, my friends, my clicker, my big screen; I know I’m really going to enjoy being home for a change. All 49 hours. Yeah baby!

Benja is Home!

Yesterday my brother in-law returned home from Uganda with his newly adopted son Benja. My wife’s sister and her husband have been trying to adopt this orphan boy from Uganda for quite sometime. We are all so excited to have him home.

My brother in-law traveled to Uganda several times and sent back emails during his trip. Americans are not popular in Uganda and while he was there he hired a driver to help him get around. At night there was bombing and gunfire. He had been told to stay in his hotel and every time he went out, everyone stares and calls out "light man". He was told that he was in harms way. There has been risk of kidnappings and he risked his safety in attempt to help this boy. Below is an excerpt from one of the emails he sent.

Sent: Mon 10/22/07

Today, I went to the end of the earth, starting with bad roads to dirt roads to
no road at all, just a walking path, ending up at a mud house with mud floor.
It was raining and my driver thank God had a 4 x 4.  It took nearly four hours,
but the destination was important.  It was benja’s six brothers and sisters, and
his 78 year old grandmother.  we were invited in to sit on three small chairs
like ones made for kindergarten.  they were so happy to see their baby brother,
who they had not seen for 3.5 years.  They greeted him warmly, and his
grandmother gave me a chicken and an african sleeping mat.  I was told I could
not refuse, which devastated me because there were no other chickens.  When they
gave me gifts, i wept.  i just couldn’t handle that.  we brought food but they
have so little.  they  were turned away from school in a nearby village for lack
of money.

i never knew people could have so little.  they wanted for even a candle, and
the house was so dark where we met, i could not see them all unless they were by
the doorway.

On the way there, my guide knew the spot where Benja was born—on the side of
the road, where his mother gave birth and died.  she was in labor and on her way
to the hospital on a boda boda, which is a motorcycle taxi.  she fell off and died,
giving birth to benja as her last act of life.

please pray for these people and all like them.  Uganda is a place of real
wonder.  beauty, riches, poverty, and death.  I’ll never be the same.

Thank you for all your prayers.  i am being summoned by my driver that I need to go.

To Be Baptized or Not To Be Baptized

I grew up Catholic and was baptized when I was a baby. Its been on my heart to be baptized again. Over the last five or six months almost every time I open my bible someone is being baptized. I feel like God was telling me to take the plunge.

At first I was a little uncomfortable about the whole thing. I’ve been active in my church and I volunteer at a faith based place that helps people in poverty. I coach a group that prays with people about their problems and helps them through their situations in a tangible way. I know most of the staff at church and lots of the congregation. I would say to myself “Everyone knows whose side I’m on; I live an obedient life. But am I being obedient?” So pride was a big hurtle.

At the church I belong to they baptize people once a quarter and last November I couldn’t attend a class my church requires before taking the big plunge. I had mixed feelings about not being able to attend. The class is always on the Wednesday before the Sunday pool party. I work out of town so I thought I wouldn’t be able to attend the class until I could find a job in town.

I had a job interview and needed to do some things in town so I took last week off. After being home for a few days I realized that it was baptism week so I decided to be baptized. I asked my pastor if he had any problems with dunking over weight people in the pool and he felt like my buoyancy would help him get my head back out of the water before I required additional air. So I was set.

I set my pride aside, well mostly, and went for it. The Senior Pastor had just returned from a mission trip in Nigeria. He witnessed the drilling of the first well our church dug in an area that had no access to clean water. He brought back a bottle of the water from the well and poured it into the baptismal and the celebration began.

I was third in line and was letting Jesus know that I was surrendering through prayer. The church contemporary Christian band was rocking out worship music. My pastor led me into the pool, said a quick prayer and dunked me into the water. I haven’t felt the same since.

I came out feeling lighter and I have a sensation around me that I can’t describe. The feeling is a cleaner sense but much more than what I can explain. When I read the bible or hear a song about Christ it means so much more. I didn’t expect any of this. It was just a plunge in water… right? It has meant so much more.

Isn’t God Great!

A friend of mine has a son that has heart problems. The young man, about 9, was born with problems and has had a couple of surgeries and now has issues with two valves on one side of his heart. This has caused the boys heart to enlarge on one side.

The young man had a 3 ½ hour MRI last week. All the staff was so impressed with his ability to refrain from fidgeting and all the other stuff you would expect with a youngster his age. The MRI staff was able to review the results with my friend before he left.

He was concerned as they explained what they were seeing in the 3D pictures of the heart. The staff was caring but concerned as they described the heart and the enlargement of one side. As you can imagine all this has weighed heavily on this fathers heart.

My friend has been praying so heard and we have been praying for his entire family. A few days before the MRI our small group was praying for the family and one person said he could see the finger of God healing his heart. Everyone was encouraged.

It was expected that the boy would need surgery very soon as the family left to meet the doctor. The doctor compared the results with previous analysis and he was very surprised. As the Lord would have it, there has been little progression and many years will pass before the boy will need to even discuss surgery.

My friend is walking on cloud nine. He says he feels like he is three inches taller. How are things going to go in the future? One only needs to ask the young man. My friend did before the results were in. The caring father asked his son if he was worried about things and his son said that God has healed me in the past, He’ll do it again. What Great Faith! My friend said that he wants to be like his son when he grows up. What a Champion this young man is.

The Lord Reigns and His Grace has rained on His humble servants once again.

Isn’t God Great!

Bible Management

As most managers, I’ve read many management/leadership books throughout my professional career but I’ve never looked at the Bible as a management tool. There are many books about this practice but I looked at things a little differently.

The main focus has been on the competitiveness of the Apostle's. You know where they start to argue about who’s the greatest. Jesus tells them that the greatest among them will be the biggest servers. Also Paul has some things to say about leading from a point relationship, the use of harsh joking and tons of other stuff. I used the New Testament and didn’t go back to Nehemiah or any of the other Old Testament books.

The facility was well below standard for labor, yields, and just about everything else. So we started with the basics.

We fostered a servant attitude in every area. Requiring as many people as possible to train or help someone complete a task. The leadership on the plant floor was encouraged to train someone to replace them so they would have an opportunity to be promoted. While doing this we were able to promote people into low level leadership roles through the addition of new production lines.

A spirit of achievement was fostered by setting goals throughout the operation and celebrating the successes as often as possible. We made sure everyone knew what a good job was and we looked for the good things while correcting the bad things. This was done with the requirement that correction had to be done from a point of relationship. People began to crave the praise.

The result has been that attitude and profits are way up. If we don’t get better than we are today we will add well over 900K to the bottom line over the next twelve months. It looks like the Bible is a good management tool.

Sign of the Cross

Did you see Around the Horn today? Tony Reali had a big Cross on his forehead. I think it was cool for him to go all out in his statement of faith.

It’s Ash Wednesday and he celebrates the occasion by having a Priest apply burnt palm leaves to his forehead. I’ve never seen anyone with such a big cross on Ash Wednesday. I hope he has a bigger heart for Jesus.

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Really Gross

Fighting with Doubt or Idol laughter

I was checking out churches in the Cleveland area. So far, well …I’m not excited. Have you heard of Dennis Kucinich? I think he’s kind of out there but as I look into the churches I can see he is representing his constituency well.

Most are traditional small churches. There is one larger church in the bunch that I’ve looked into. It surprised me the most. I hope God is moving in all of them and I’m sure the problem is more mine than anything else.

But I was looking at this larger churches web site. They have one video posted that I assume they feel is the best representation of the church. Makes sense right.

The video is of the pastor in a boxing match with doubt. The audience wraps around three sides of the stage and the stage has been made into a boxing ring with ropes around the edge. Doubt is a guy in the black corner with Don King by his side. You can see the how things are going to work with the Bible right. Not Don King but the King, Jesus. The pastor wins right? Well they don’t show the pastor winning on the video but they do show him hit the mat several times. This is a real looking boxing match. Not much commentary; lots of bouncing around the ring.

This whole thing must have sounded better on paper than it looked on the clip. I would’ve thought maybe the guy tried something and it just didn’t go the way he wanted it to on stage. I’d give the pastor some grace but this is the only video on the web site. I can only assume that this went exactly the way he wanted it to and he must be proud of the way it went.

It felt like I was watching American Idol. You know the early shows where you feel embarrassed for the contestants because they make such fools of themselves. Yeah that’s the feeling; laughing but not feeling comfortable about it; looking around to see if everyone else is laughing.

Yeah …. that’s the most popular church in the area.

Faith in the Storm

Today I met a guy that recently moved into a new apartment. (Let’s call him Sam.) Sam had to leave everything his family had behind because there were bed bugs in the old apartment. Once you have bed bugs in your stuff you can’t kill them or get them out. Anything soft you own goes in the garbage.

He felt blessed because his relatives pitched in and bought them new furniture. Also he was able to get some bedding and clothes from a local church. It was interesting talking to the guy about his life.

He seemed to have been crying out to the Lord for help and he was finding it. Even in his situation he was praising God. It seems he found God and HIV in prison, probably not in that order. Sam was released in 2006 after committing a felony eight years earlier. He has been having trouble finding a job because of the conviction on his record. If his family wanted nothing to do with him Sam would most likely be living on the streets. There are limited government programs for healthy able body guys that can work but no one will hire.

I asked him if there was anything he would like to pray about and we brought these things to the Lord. On Monday he would be headed to an organization that helps people meet the requirements for expunging their records. If that works out he’ll be able to get a job. He will most likely start at a place that pays at or near minimum wage and “Sam” will praise God for the opportunity.

Tithe

I met a guy today that is a rugged individual that hit his knees.

He found himself out of a job and decided go to truck driving school. In his late forties he drew a line in the sand and started over. I don’t know what he was doing before he made this change but you can imagine the self talk. I’m going to give up what I’ve done my whole life and make a change for the better and he did it. He is actually working as a truck driver now. He’s in a tough spot though. Because he went to school he wasn’t working and now the landlord wants the rent.

This new trucker feels he is in this situation because he didn’t pay his tithes. What do you think? He lost his job and worked to get out of a bad situation but now before he gets on his feet his family may be homeless.