Teen Retreat Encore

Thursday, day 1: Kids home. Load bags. Jump in van. Geneva kid 1. Geneva kid 2. Pay toll. Lyons traffic. WC. St. Etienne traffic. Windy road. Fog. Embraces. See son 1! Eat. Songs. More songs. Hugs. Rooms. Shhhh! More shhhh. Threats. Bed.

Friday, day 2: Prayers. Fresh bread. Praise. More praise. Teach. Share. New songs. Eat. Play. More play. Learn. Share. Eat. Play. Rooms. Shhhh! More shhhh. Threats. Bed.

Saturday, day 3: Repeat day 2. Add extra hour. Add bigger threats.

Sunday, day 4: Fresh bread. Praise. Learn. Praise. Break bread. Prayers. Pack. Eat. Clean. Hugs. Fog. Windy road. Sun. WC. Pay toll. Drop Geneva kid 2. Drop Geneva kid 1. Arrive. Eat. No shhhh! No threats. Praise. Prayers. Bed.

Teen Retreat

Hi:

We're off for the All Saints retreat. Leaving in FIVE minutes. Will post more on TABLE on Sunday evening. Love to all. Thanks for your prayers.

Table Talk

I’ve thought a lot about CWINWC’s blog of several weeks ago (http://cwinwc.blogspot.com/), the one about moving the communion table to the back of the sanctuary-church-worship hall-auditorium.

CWINWC received several sympathetic replies concerning abuse received from those who responded in unkind ways to this “major” change.

At the time, I happened to be reading Hick’s Come to the Table. I think you'll find this quote interesting, as on page 125 of my copy he writes:

Modern culture, with the backing of a long heritage, has undermined the intent of the table by replacing the table with an altar. As Paul corrects the Corinthian practice of the table, he still affirms the value of eating and drinking. The table remains. In the modern church, there is no table. Some churches have an altar instead of a table, others have placed the table at the rear of the building, and still others have no visible table (or altar) in their buildings. Not only has the supper been reduced to bread and wine, it has lost almost all connection to the “table” environment. (Italics added.)

More on our table in Lausanne coming very soon. Thanks for stopping by.

The Loo Awards

This post is about the SAME public toilet in the Tower of London. See yesterday's post if you are in the dark.

So there are these awards on the restroom wall. The first one is this:


Loo, for all of us foreigners, means RESTROOM. This LOO actually won an award and it hangs proudly on the LOO wall. (There was no sign saying no picture photography, fortunately.)

Underneath that award was the following lovely framed AWARD (this is absolutely true!):



Now the question comes to mind, and it really is THE question, WHO DROPPED THE BALL IN 2004? They had a chance for a 3-peat yet I wonder what happened IN 2004. Any ideas?

London

Haven’t blogged for a while. Thanks for the notes of encouragement. I have started a new blog called whenever-I-feel-like-it. Do check it out.

Actually, Son 2 and Daughter and I spent 5 days and 4 nights (Oct 18-22) in London (Wife is still in the USA). Every October we try to visit a different European area/region with the kids. We’ve seen Paris, Normandy, Barcelona, Florence and Rome. It is always great fun and a way to spend that money we’ve saved up. We book ahead with EasyJet and fly for almost nothing. Normally we stay at TERRIBLE hotels. Some of them have been soooo bad (just ask the kids), then we hit museums and parks and churches. I know, life is ruff.

This time we visited: Tower of London, Westminster, St. Paul’s, British Museum, Piccadilly and Trafalgar Squares, British Library, Buckingham Palace (outside), Science Museum, Imperial War Museum, Millennium Bridge, and more.

My favorite sign during the trip:


Which just goes to show you that some people have to travel on a really tight budget… Thanks for stopping by.

Signing the truth

Last week’s Time International European Edition ran articles on 30 European heroes. One story told how Natalya Dmitruk interpreted the results of the Ukrainian presidential election on November 25, 2004. Interpreted, as in signed for the 100,000 deaf who were watching for news of the recent election. As the government-paid Newsperson read the government-controlled result that government-sponsored candidate Victor Yanukovych had won the election, Dmitruk signed in a corner of the TV screen in silence: “Yushchenko is our President. Do not believe the Central Electoral Commission. They are lying.”

I was impressed by the courage of this woman who couldn’t stand for lies to pass as truth. She risked it all, and it added momentum to last-year’s “Orange” revolution in Ukraine.

We need godly people who stand up and tell the truth. There are so many voices out there, in church and out, and some of us may see ourselves as that silent interpreter who can’t stand the lies and simply tells it as it is.

Yet there are many times that I’m just reading the script… And I look down at the silent person signing beside me and I see that she’s interpreting something different, something that rings so true that I catch my breath and mumble: “That’s what I really wanted to say. That’s the truth that will lead to real change. Why didn’t I say that?”

Thanks for stopping by.

Catching up

Wife is doing well in the USA. She got to hook up with some of our old friends from ACU, class of 1980, some of the best people in the world. I wish we could be around them more, but free bed and breakfast along with fresh Swiss air hasn’t lured them all over here yet. But we’re patient…

Many of you prayed for S. yesterday, one of our neighbors who tried to take her life by overdose. She used to come to church here until her husband stopped her. She’s always talking to people about her faith. She’s got three children under 12, one is B. who is beautiful and fun, but was born with Down Syndrome (if that’s the right way to say it, and if it’s not, I apologize in advance). She started coming to pray with Wife and another member again at the Thursday prayer times about two weeks ago, I guess.

But the stress of life was/is getting to her. And fortunately, God has spared her life. Thank you so much, GOD, for over-riding her decision. I know you don’t want those kids to grow up without their mom. But I also know you don't always intervene.

And then there were THREE…

The Geneva airport is about a 40 minute drive up Lake Leman from our apartment. It’s not a huge airport so you can usually get there an hour b-4 a flight and still get checked in with time to spare. I’m chicken and don’t attempt it. There’s a train station underneath, making the airport accessible to all at all times, except for that 6 AM flight, which we never take. Most people who fly back to the USA head out at about 7 AM to Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfort, Zurich or Milan then on to home.

Wife left us today for 2 weeks in the USA. One week in Abilene and environs for the class of 1980 reunion; one week in Paducah with her brother’s family. The Sister is coming down too for a visit too.

While standing in the British Airways’ queue for London (motto: We’re the guys with the Mister Bean Accent AND Vocabulary) we noticed the sign that informed us we needed to tell the checker-in-er if we had guns in our luggage. Fortunately we had left ours at home, along with those dangerous finger-nail clippers.

I enjoy my time with the 2 remaining kids, though lunch and dinners take a huge hit (wife’s a great cook and great fun). But we’ll still have fun.

Leaving home

Son 1 got on a train this morning heading to Marseille for a year-long spiritual internship. I’ve written about his decision before. It’s just that now it’s “real” and he’s really doing what he’s been dreaming of doing for over 7 years, ever since the internship program began.

The whole departure thing reminded me of the first time I left California for ACU. I was a mess. But it was only 2 years ago that I learned that my mom cried for days after my departure (at least, that’s what she says now). She had always told me before that as soon as I drove away they took all the furniture out of my old room, burned it in the back yard, fumigated, then moved 9 month old brother into that purified space, happy to have the extra room, and praying that Sister 1 would graduate from high school early so they could have her room too.

But no. My parents were not the exception to the loving-parent rule. They were happy to see me chase after my dreams, and saddened that I was absent, knowing that the rest of their lives they’d always be saying good-bye and waiting for all-too-infrequent reunions. The same way that Wife and I feel about Son 1 today.

Thanks for stopping by. Do pray for the boy.

Harry is here

October 1 was a big day for bookstores in Lausanne. The French version of Harry Potter VI showed up on their shelves, a little bit later than 2 months after the English and American editions. I still haven’t read it, nor volumes IV or V. Ever since Wife stopped reading them out-loud to the kids, I haven’t cracked a Rowling’s book.

Used to be that all things came out later here than in the USA. Seabiscuit was out on DVD in the USA when it came out in theatres here. It was already 2005 when MS WORD 2004 finally reached our computers. USA TODAY is really USA YESTERDAY. B-4 internet I used to have to wait till Tuesday to get the week-end American Football scores.

But now, most big releases come out at the same time all over the universe. War of the Worlds actually opened EARLY here, as did the last Star Wars, which really didn’t make either of them better movies.

Narnia posters are up everywhere, making their appearance about 6 weeks ago. I really don’t consider that a good “sign”. We are great Narnia fans, reading through them every few years, in French or English, just to keep perspective on life.

Telephone talk

J. moved 10 days ago from Lausanne to the Italian speaking part of Switzerland called Tichino. She’s had a lot of problems and she thought, at age 36, without a job, on long-term medical leave, that it was the right time for a change. It took her 2 months to get her 2 rooms into cardboard boxes. She put her cat Doolittle in the pet carrier and left.

She told me she really wanted to keep up the Bible studies, so we did our first telephone one today. We read a passage, she reads answers she’s prepared to the reading guide I give her, and then we normally find some question or life problem that goes with the section before continuing, usually working through a chapter a week.

She was on the speaker phone. She read the text, answered the questions, and we ended our hour together with a prayer. She said she missed the church, though she’d only come about once a month. 15 months ago she was baptised in the lake. 6 months ago she wouldn’t pray with me, but today she prayed on the phone.

She knows it will take some time before things start feeling like home. She knows it’s possible. Cat’s already adjusted.

Thanks for your prayers and for stopping by.