Words from a warrior

Greetings! I hope all has been well with you over this last week. This last Monday we had the opportunity to meet briefly some of my parents long time friends John & Pam Propst, a missionary couple from Africa. We had a great time talking about their efforts in Africa, their upcoming move to Chad, and sharing about our plans in Costa Rica. The thing that sticks with me most though is that after 42+ years of service in the missions field, they were both so passionate about work for the Kingdom. He was energized by the tremendous need for missionaries in both Africa, India and the Middle East. One stat that he used was in India there were 250,000 non believers to each believer - that is astounding. One of the last things he said to us as they were leaving was 'Keep the vision!' I hope that after 40 years of whatever God has me do in this life I can stay as engaged, excited and passionate.

One big piece of news is that we have nailed down when we are heading to Costa Rica! We purchased tickets last night and will be going to Miami from March 18th to March 25th to spend some time at Latin America Missions' Miami Service Office, and then we will fly out to Costa Rica on March 25th. We plan on spending about a month at La Palabra helping out with odds and ends, getting settled in (buy a car, get a license, find somewhere to live, etc) and also to get a taste of what our roles will look like when we officially join the La Palabra de Vida staff for the 2009 teaching year. After a month , we will head to the other side of San Jose, Costa Rica and begin the first of two semesters of language school. Christy and I are so excited to have this detail worked out so that we can plan towards that time. We will certainly need many prayers as we continue preparing to go.

When you get a chance, let us know how you are all doing!

Dear Reader...Please read this all the way through - the management

Tonight I thought I would share with you all something that recently caught my attention while working out in the condo unit facilities. On the third floor, the entrance to this room is right outside the elevator. You can see the picture to the left. Nothing too odd except for the little note above the door knob. What could it be? Take a look to the right...its the standard 'Please keep this closed as we have the AC running overtime in here' note. Seems fair enough to me, had I not seen this note I would have never guessed they had different thermostats between the hallway and the work out room. Okay...lets take a look inside...

When you view the inside of the workout room it is pretty standard stuff. A bike, StairMaster, Elliptical machine, universal gym and a treadmill you can not see behind me. Actually pretty nice given how small this condo building is - the stair master is in great shape and works well. Nothing unusual right? Take a closer look...on the door, above the light switch and by the thermostat. What could those things be? Lets take a look....above the light switch you see the 'no children under 18 sign' Again, this sign seems to make sense to me from a liability standpoint. You have to at least make an effort to stop children who could hurt themselves from working out in this place (although most likely this sign would not hold up in court after anyone, above 18 or not, dies while working out). Either way...the attempt is safe and I think it makes sense. However, this is where things get a little crazy....

You can see below the close up of the thermostat. The only thing I can guess here is that all these things happened in progression. First, I would think the 'DO NOT change the temperature' sign went up. People, unable to follow the instructions, necessitated the condo management to place the large plastic guard around the thermostat to let everyone know they were not kidding - they really didn't want the thermostat touched. Next, someone in an intense workout must have popped the guard open and turned the temp down - but managed to break the thermostat. That's when 'the man' started getting a little upset. You can see the tone of the note clearly get snappy in the middle picture. But wait...there is more.

This next sign to the left can be seen above the light switch. Although good intentioned, it seems flawed. If you are going to leave someone a reminder to do something before they leave the room, best to leave it next to the last thing they see before they leave said room. If someone was intentional about looking at the light switch before they left the room, don't you think they would naturally turn of the lights? Am I blowing your mind? Well, agree or not, management must have felt this was adequate, and that everyone would see it. Problem solved, right? And they were even able to do it with a friendly 'thank you' - no problems here. Uh oh...look to the right and you can see the most recent sign that was posted on the door leaving the room. So... clearly someone still forgot to turn off the lights even with the reminder above the light switch so 'the man' had to up the ante. That being said, this note kills me for so many reasons...which I will try to address here

1. This is a note with someone clearly upset while writing, but woefully unable to convey their thoughts in an adequate manner.

2. Given the lack of success in the past for leaving instructions to be followed (e.g., the thermostat) I'm surprised that 'the man' thought that THIS TIME a note with instructions will work.

3. The shear number of notes is funny in and of themselves, this is simply the icing on the cake

4. These are just lights, right? What is this really costing the condo association? 20 dollars a month I would guess for the extra time? Just bill everyone and extra dollar. Or, buy a motion sensor switch...I'd even install it for them.

5. Its awesome that the best leverage management has is not just posting this note, but declaring that it is PERMANENT

6. The ! on the end

I'm hoping to get time to type up/print out/hang up my response to the note in the next week. I'll fill you in when I do. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that as much as I have over the last week. Onto something more serious...Christy and I are both doing well. We had a chance to catch up with my aunt, uncle and cousins out in St Charles this evening, and to make things even better, my brother and his wife were able to come as well. Seeing family is one of the great perks about being in the Wheaton area a bit before we head down to Costa Rica.

One thing that not everyone is aware of yet is that I have been accepted to Covenant Seminary to pursue a Masters in Arts in Theological Studies through a distance program. The format of the program is great: You take one class at a time and it can take no less than 2 months but no more than 4 to complete it. There are lectures to download online and lots of reading with each class. You have a mentor and are paired with other people in the class to share thoughts/ideas and generally keep you accountable. After the class is done, you sign up for the next class whenever you are ready. It usually takes between 4 and 9 years to get a degree depending on how ambitious you are. I've already registered for my first class (Apologetics and Outreach) and have started reading some of the material to get a jump start on the work. I'll keep everyone informed on how it is going.

I mentioned earlier, I finished the John Piper book 'Let The the Nations be Glad' and I thought it was great. In summary the book is broken into two sections. The first is making the case that God is supreme in missions (makes sense) and that our primary goal should be worship. So, missions isn't a final goal, worship is. Missions is happening because worship is not. He then details out how prayer is a valuable tool in furthering God's power while working in missions. Lastly, he shows that suffering (in many different ways) is a very real and powerful model to help advance the final goal of missions. The second part of the chapter clearly lays out how Hell does indeed exist, it is eternal, Christ is the only way to salvation and people do need to hear about Jesus from believers or else they will be lost. This in total makes a strong case why all Christians should be interested and actively engaged in missions efforts. Each part of the book is accompanied by passage after passage of scripture backing up each point which is helpful - and it is done in a way where a lay person like me can understand it easily. In general, its a great book and I would recommend it.

Anyway, its pretty late so I'm going to get some sleep. Hope everyone is doing well. Until next time.

Six years later, and this feels odd

I saw this in the paper last week... My whole life I grew up saying 'pop'. To me, and every other Midwesterner, Pop is to us what Coke is to Atlanta. However, after six short years out on the east cost, I'm purely a soda man now. When I saw this coupon and it made me laugh....Pop...thats so Busch league.

Sonny Acres

You know its getting close to every kids favorite holiday in October when even the grocery stores start carrying pumpkins. To get into the spirit we met Christy's cousin's family and also Courtney and Luke over at Sonny Acres. For those of you back in Richmond - this is pretty much the equivalent of Ashland Berry Farm - with a little more flare (e.g. rides, shops, etc) and a little less land (so no free hayride to go pick out your pumpkin). I had not been there since about 3rd grade, and I must say, I'm impressed how nice they can do it up for Halloween. Elizabeth was excited to get a pumpkin there - but in all my shopping savvy I told her we would buy one somewhere cheaper. Little pie pumpkins were about $2.25 a piece there, I paid $3.00 at Jewel for mine - look at me go.

We had the great idea of taking the kids on a pony ride, so a ticket was purchased for three of the kiddies (JR, Luke and Lizzy - Sammy is a little young yet and likely would have just eaten pony hair) and tried to hoist them up on the pony. Elizabeth's first tactic was to be unsure which pony to ride - then she realized she didn't want to ride any of them. Luke (in the picture to the right with Courtney) was frightened of all of them imimmediately. JR was fine until he realized he was on a pony (maybe two minutes in - before the ride started) and then wanted off. So deflated - we decided to put them on a miniature train ride that Sammy was drooling over only a couple minutes before (see to the left). Needless to say, this was the most exciting thing we did the entire afternoon - the kids loved it. The only down side was the 8 year old boy in snow boots (75 degree weather) staring down JR (1.5 years old) while in the train for no particular reason. I didn't get a picture of it - but I wished that I had - it was funny but creepy. Needless to say, I was getting ready to jump the fence to help him out if he started getting pummelled by this boy.

Yesterday morning I was watching the Senate hearing committee on Blackwater, and I was simply amazed. Mind you, not about the incident they were investigating, but rather how foolish and unproductive the whole thing was. Senators (both Republican and Democrats) were blasting this CEO with figures that were incorrect and comparisons that did not make any sense. My favorite one went something like 'Mr Prince, you bill the United states government roughly $1300 per day for your defense contractors in Iraq. Our US service man only cost $25 dollars an hour at 10 hours a day making it $250 dollars a day - how do you justify the costs?' The CEO of Blackwater and I both sat stupefied...how do you compare the hourly rate of a soldier against the fully loaded costs of a contractor that includes training, travel, insurance for the people, insurance for all their equipment that they are using, overhead, etc etc. It blows my mind that these types of questions even make it out of their mouths. I figure one of two things is happening - they know its a foolish comparison but its political positioning OR they really are that unable to see its a terrible comparison. I think both is terrifying given that these are supposed to be the leaders of the US. Anyway...

Besides that things are going well. I finished reading Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper and am currently reading Becoming a Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels for the Wheaton Bible missionary preparation program. Both have some good thoughts and I'll give a brief comment on them next time.

We miss everyone and would love to hear how you are all doing. Until next time.

A 'field' trip

Today was an exciting day as Elizabeth decided (well, actually I did) to cash in her coupon that I gave her for her birthday. The coupon was for one trip on the train to downtown Chicago for a day of adventure and fun. For those of you that I have not talked to (or don't have trains constantly running in your area) - there is a unique phenomena that happens. Little kids love trains, and want to see as many as possible. Adults who drive become incredibly upset - or maybe thats just me - when they have to wait for the trains to pass by. My kids have taking to cheering 'Yeahhhh train!!!' when the gate goes down in front of me and I sit stewing in the car. All that said, Elizabeth loves trains so I wanted to make sure she got a nice long train ride with a fun day spent downtown where we could see large buildings and also go to a museum. We took the 8:06 to downtown and Elizabeth loved the ride. Everyone was quietly reading their books, paper or blackberry, and the only thing you could hear every 10 seconds was 'LOOK DAD, LOOK AT THAT PARK! LOOK AT THAT! THERE IS ANOTHER TRAIN...OH MY GOODNESS...' and I had to constantly remind her to use her library voice inside the train. We made it downtown without much hassle, and I quickly realized that we were not in Union Station like I thought we were going to - which means I was lost. As I was loading Elizabeth up a business man came over to me and said 'Excuse me, you look lost. Can I help point you in the right direction?' With all the confidence I could muster, I let him know I was helping my daughter into our stroller and was about ready to go exactly where I knew I was going. After 28 years of life, nothing changes....

ALOT of walking, map usage, retracing of steps and a taxi ride later, we made it to safely to the museum. Elizabeth was quite impressed with the size of the museum, I was more impressed with how ugly Soldier Field is now after the renovations (you can see it in the background of this picture...just click the picture to make it bigger). Soldier Field is right across the from the field museum (get the joke in the title now?) in case you think I would drag my daughter all the way to the stadium just to see it. I've been there before - and lets be honest, the bears are terrible.

In case you are not aware, the Field museum is Chicago's natural history museum - and it really is great. I snapped a picture with Lizzy next to the T-Rex in the main lobby. When I asked her if she knew what it was, she had no idea. I'm not sure if we've not told her what a dinosaur is, or if she has only ever seen pictures of them with skin on. Either way we've got some work to do. We also goofed around and took a whole bunch of pictures of ourselves - one of which turned out half way decent (see above).

After three exhibits and lunch, she was pretty sure she wanted to go back on the train and go home....but I made her come to the Egypt exhibit because it is my favorite. Even though she was tired, she did muster the strength to try and pull the stone shown in the picture. Little did she know it weighs 6000 lbs - and I also believe it to be bolted and caulked to the ground. Even so, she was a little disappointed, but we pushed on home after that. We caught a bus over to state street and I decided to walk back to the train. Elizabeth fell asleep almost immediately, and doubled over (sleeping) in this little umbrella stroller we had. I realized that if I jogged, I could catch the 2:40 train back home. It must have been quite the site to see some bald headed man jogging through the streets in sandals and jeans with what appeared to be a child doubled over in distress in the tiny stroller. Fear not, no children were injured in the making of this story. We made it to the station and caught the train. While trying to transfer Elizabeth to the seat, she woke up. The first thing she said was, 'Why are we on the train - I want to be in the museum!' Oh well, you can never make them all the way happy. At the end of the day, I feel good because as Lizzy was leading prayer at dinner tonight she said, 'Dear Jesus, thanks for a wonderful day on the choo-choo and at the museum...'

Besides this exciting day to Chicago, we also had a very nice weekend with my immediate family. Both my brothers, their wives, and Christy and I were able to make it up to Michigan to hang out with them and my folks. Even though it was a little chilly I let Sam and Lizzy play in the sand on the beach. Also, my middle brother and I did a couple mile walk from downtown Grand Haven out to the light house. Here is a picture of the Lizzy and I facing out towards Lake Michigan. The waves were probably 8 to 10 feet near the pier, which makes me happy I was not surfing with the three other crazy people we saw out there.

With Elizabeth up in Michigan with my parents part of last week, I was able to get alot of reading done. I read Death by Suburb for our small group at church. It was a really easy read and had several good ideas. The thing that got me was less his stressing that the suburb life could seriously impact your Christian walk - that I get and agree; but rather, your reaction to dealing with the threat. He mentions that some people in response to this will do a stint in missions or enroll in a seminary....those are both things that I'm doing! Even back in January while at our LAM orientation, I did raise the question, 'Christy, should we be staying in the states instead of going to Costa Rica? There is alot of need here too, if we stayed here and focused on missions...' Luckily (well, actually not by luck), I don't second guess our decision. I feel very comfortable with God's call in our lives to go to Costa Rica and serve at La Palabra after much prayer - but - the book was thoughtful enough to jog my memory of that struggle. I also liked how he stressed quietness, and to a degree, simplicity in life. One of the books that Christy and I will be reading is the Freedom of Simplicity by Richard J. Foster which I think will be a great one on that topic with alot more meat.

Anyway, its getting late, and I've smelled really bad since dripping in sweat after running in Chicago. This was simply made worse by the 1.5 hours of racquetball I played right when I got home. I'm going to clean up and hit the sheets.

Until next time...