making progress

I'm happy to anounce that we are no longer at 0% of our support. We have jumped to 11%! We still have a long way to go but we are very excited about this first step towards getting back to New Zealand. We've been back in the States for almost five months but we've only been officially raising support for this ministry for about a month and a half. I'm no expert but I think that 11% in that short amount of time is a pretty good sign. This is another small confirmation to us that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing.

Thanks to all of you who have been praying with and for us as we strive to follow God's leading. Please continue.

commodifying tragedy

I felt sick today when I found out about the shooting at Virginia Tech. I can't imagine what the students who witnessed this tragedy are going throgh and I can't imagine the suffering and grief being experienced by the family members who have lost their sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters.

I was also sickened by the response of our media. This tragedy, like many before, has become a media circus. Victims and fellow students have been paraded out and interviewed before any of them have had a chance to overcome the shock and trauma of the situation. The various news agencies have their marketers developing the most shocking titles they can. Here's a sample:
"Drumbeat of Shots, Broken by Pauses to Reload" - The New York Times
"Students Slaughtered" - CNN
"Deadly Day" - NBC Nightly News
"Campus Massacre: 33 Dead in Va. Tech Shooting Rampage" - CBS Evening News

The reporters have spent all day jockeying for their exclusives and many of the college students who have been raised on (un)reality television are willing fodder for their manipulation. Why do we put up with this? It's bad enough that we live in a world where a person is driven for whatever reasons to kill 33 people before turning the gun on himself. Why do we give a TV camera to people who take advantage of such things?

My prayer all day has been that Jesus would come quickly and end the violence, suffering, as well as the exploitation of these things.

resurrection sunday

"And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." - 1 Corinthians 15:17-19

I'm not sure of all the historical developments that have made Easter a day to celebrate bunnies and painted eggs. Don't get me wrong, bunnies are cute and all, and painted eggs are pretty. I also like jelly beans and chocolate candies of all sorts but these things belong to the commercialization of the sacred not to the sacred itself. Resurrection Sunday is in my mind the most important day of the liturgical calendar. The biblical writers saw the resurrection as the event that proved the validity of the rest of the gospel story. Thus, if Jesus didn't rise we have no hope because it's all a sham. Christians don't believe that the spirit of Jesus rose and therefore our spirits are raised. We believe in a tangible, physical, flesh and blood, historical resurrection. We believe that Jesus' spirit was renunited with his physical body. We believe that through the power of God the Father, God the Son shrugged off the decay and disgrace of death. In Jesus physical resurrection we see the Father beginning to fulfill his promise to bring new physical life to all of creation. Death is an enemy that has been conquered and the beginning of this victory is displayed in the resurrection of the Christ. The sins that Jesus bore for his people on Friday were buried and left behind when he rose on Sunday. His resurrection is not simply a happy ending to an otherwise tragic story, it is the proof that our salvation is both real and complete.

I apologize if this post and the last have come across as "preachy." That was not my intent. If I am preaching to anyone it is to myself since my heart is overly forgetfull of even these most vital truths. Jesus once said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" As crazy as I know it sounds, yes I do.

good friday

"He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried away our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." - Isaiah 53:3-6

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." - Colossians 1:15-20

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." - 1 John 1:8-9, 4:14-16

Good Friday is a day of mourning how much my rescue has cost a loving God. It's also a day of rejoicing. A day of rejoicing that the Father takes seriously the sickness, sin, death, brokeness and suffering that abounds in this world. He takes it seriously and has dealt with it in a way that is costly to himself. Death dies in the death of Jesus. The Father upholds justice while showering the world with love and mercy.

So yeah, today for me is one of mourning and rejoicing.

tidying up

Just a quick note to say that I've removed and added a few links from this page. I removed some links that weren't very interesting as well as links to blogs that never get updated (no offense to anyone removed). I've also added a few links of interest, particularly under the NZ section. In addition I've added links to two blogs. These blogs are for the daughters of two couples we know. Aria and Amelia are both under a year old and are both very sick. If you check out their blogs you can find information on how to pray for them and other ways to help the families if you're interested and able.

I've also added a new sidebar note to track where we're at with our support-raising. Since we're just getting started the current percentage looks a little bleak but we're hoping that will change in the near future.